Configurator for Configurable USB Loader

Intro

So, due to my love for Configurable USB Loader and having a little spare time, I decided to create an often requested application that allows you to configure all of Configurable USB Loaders many options in a GUI. Here's how it looks:




And here's all the major screens, click them to see them full size:


If you were previously scared off by the official README_CFG.txt, then this application is for you.

Features

• Load/Save any valid option values to/from config.txt and theme.txt
• Load/Save any valid option values to/from settings.cfg
• Load/Save your gameplay statistics to/from playstats.txt (read/write settings.cfg to do so)
• GUI Menu Wizard
• Cover downloading wizard for those without online Wiis
• Manage profiles for different lists of favorites
• All options have descriptive tool tips to help you understand what they are for
• Collate all necessary files into the one directory for easy setup on the SD card
• Create your own background files from any image
• Create your own background overlay including transparent boxes to display the games
• Create a gui font file from any font already installed on your PC
• Visualise the console screen and set text colours as well as console and cover coordinates and size
• Language options allow translators to translate the options and tool tips

Download

One of the latest versions, for v68 of Configurable USB Loader, is available here. Just unzip the executable and run it. However, check the end of the thread for even more recent versions. It is best to place the executable into your Cfg Loader base directory (typically, SD:/usb-loader).

If you are using windows, you require .Net Framework 2.0 from Microsoft to use the application. You probably already have it, but if you get errors at startup, then install .Net Framework from here.

If you aren't using Windows, you can use Mono to run this application. This should work fine for Mac OSX and Linux people. EeZeEpEe provides the following notes for perople using Mac OSX:


And Xiino provides the following notes for Ubuntu Linux as discovered by Lupo96 on another forum:



If you don't currently use Configurable USB Loader, instructions to install it are available through this tutorial, which also details all the necessary applications needed to get homebrew running on your Wii in the first place.

Instructions

Find out about config.txt and theme.txt by reading my tutorial page or looking at README-CFG.txt (included with every full release of Configurable). Configurator is pretty straight forward with the instructions at the top left. Basically, just load your input files, change whatever options you want and then save them back. Each option has a check box, name and a choice of possible values in that order. If the check box is checked, the option will be saved with the specified value to the appropriate files when you use the buttons down below. If you uncheck a box, it will return to its default value and will not be written out. If you don't know what an option does, hover the mouse over it for 2 seconds and a tooltip will show up to tell you its meaning. Most of the possible values for the options also have tooltips that indicate what it means to select that value.

The overlay wizards allow you to create your own overlay images and resizes background images to the appropriate size. With this, you can take any desktop background an turn it into a Configurable USB Loader theme in just a minute or two.

The console wizards allow you to see a mock-up of the menu view to see what your screen will look like. It also allows you to change the colour, size and coordinate options and copy those values back to the main window when you are done. You can get additional instructions for it via the "Instructions" button.

The installation wizard gathers all the necessary files from around your drive and stores them in the correct directory structure, ready to be copied to your SD or USB card directly (or write them directly to the card/drive with the app if you like).

The installation wizard also can be used to create font images from any font installed on your PC.

Translation
Configurator supports alterations of almost all of the text for all tool tips and button text and so on. Text file databases for performing the translations are available here. Just put them in the same directory as the executable and they will be loaded in on startup. Instructions can be found within the configurator.cdb file within the zip.

An example of how the loader looks after translation can be seen in PabloACZ's Spanish translation (available in the resources section below):



Resources

These resources might come in handy when using the Configurator:

console font:
FixedSys Excelsior 3.01 - Install this font if the console wizard text looks funny.

milcoi's button images:
buttons layer with white text
Buttons layer with black text
buttons-layer-black-no-shadow
buttons-layer-black-no-shadow-small
buttons-layer-white-no-shadow
buttons-layer-white-no-shadow-small
Original Wii buttons (.png) + smaller version 30px + Wii font

language databases:
Sample English language version
Spanish translation by PabloACZ
French translation by orwel
Dutch translation by wiiuser2
Italian translation by wiixale
Japanese translation by hosigumayuugi

Feedback

Please point out any trouble you have or bugs you find in this thread. There's bound to be a few still left in there with Configurable's over 100 options.

Planned Features
The following is on the To-do list:

• Tool tips to describe what each option value means
• Menu screen mock-up to demonstrate console size
• Mouse drag and drop for console and cover edges in cover wizard (rubber banding)
• Ability to resize the console mock-up to emulate widescreen stretch (overlay wizard does this job for now)
• Fixing up issues with Tab Stops and Tabbing
• File Collation Wizard to gather files and put them in the correct directory structure
  

Archived Versions

List of all released versions of the Configurator:

Edited by Dr. Clipper, 05 May 2011 - 06:53 AM.

It cannot read the line :

buttons = options_B

in the config.txt file.

Boy, you're fast at finding these random bugs. It's been fixed and I checked the other options for similar bugs (there weren't any). I'll wait a while before uploading the new version.

Also, cannot create and read the following line :

simple = 1

in the config.txt file.

Edited by TeenTin, 16 August 2009 - 10:08 AM.

I'm pretty sure that's a feature, not a bug.

Simple is a weird case. There are two of them, one in theme options and one in global options. They control different features. When you write to config.txt, it only writes the one in the global options.

I see. Thank you very much ! ^^

Bug report:
When closing a file select box with QUIT/CANCEL, the program ignores that cancel-Hint and tries to open the file.

While an old config file I get an 'empty path' message.
While loading a cover with "coords wizard" the message is "unhandled exeption".

Edited by Wiimm, 16 August 2009 - 02:22 PM.

WoOoOoOoooooooooo!

Yes, I love the wizard!!

Within the console wizard I noticed that when I load a background 640 x 480, the max coordinate X s 635 and max Y s 475.

is this correct or should be corrected?

My favorite new option would be to make you be able to draw a rectacle on the image that can be dragged or adjusted in size.
you will than see how big it will be and if it will fit.

something like:
example

Another option/wizzard.
example game list text where you can change the text color so you will have an idea how it will look like.

Edited by milcoi, 16 August 2009 - 02:48 PM.

Good work Doc! Many thanks ...

Thanks a lot, this is awesome!

Wow...that did it. Thanks for the advice usptactical!

I tried another card, and voila! Then I cleaned off the original, and started it off from scratch with fresh files, and it runs fine now too.

Thanks. I did forget to check whether the user hit Cancel on all the file dialogs. That will be fixed in the next release later today.


That should be corrected. It probably has to do with the border, which actually means the chosen pixels might be off a little. It should be an easy fix.


Those two features are exactly what I mean by menu mock-up in the first post. I need to learn more about using graphics objects before I can create that. I'll add them when I've learnt how.

Wow, there is a nice mookup tool inside now!! Thanks for that.

I noticed that when you change the layout on the main screen the layout position coordinates changing. (perfect) but this option would also be nice in the wizzard it self. Now you choose a layout and then you have to go to the wizzard how it looks. you need to close the wizzard first befor you can choose another layout.

What version of VB did you use to make the tool?

Edited by milcoi, 17 August 2009 - 07:23 AM.

v40-2 is now released fixing all the bugs mentioned here and including menu mockup (see the first post).

Specifically:

• options=options_B bug fixed
• File Loading/Saving Cancel buttons handled
• sd and disc options added to "alt_dol" option (nobody would ever use these, but I added them anyway)
• Coords Wizard is now a Console Wizard showing console, text and covers

VB.Net 2003