Homebrew Another GenPlus GX Forwarder

[wowitsjosh]

I'm a bit obsessive when it comes to consistency, so it always bothered me that GenPlusGX doesn't offer an official forwarder to match the other 'GX' emulators. I decided to try my hand at putting one together with a similar theme to the other GX channels and figured I'd share this as an option for anyone else annoyed by the inconsistent forwarders. Here's the result:

​

It looks a bit nicer in 4:3 on a CRT, but I think it still works pretty well in widescreen. I'm also not sure I picked the best characters to represent the system on the banner- I grew up with the NES and didn't get a Genesis until well after its heyday as a hand-me-down, so I'm really not sure who should be considered the mascots of the system aside from Sonic. Let me know what you think!

Notes:

• Booting via SD and USB are both supported from apps/genplus-gx/boot.dol (tested only on an original Wii)
• I borrowed the layout and animations from the official VBA-GX forwarder and modified them to match the Genesis theme and sprite animations.
• The primary inspiration for this channel's design and the source of the included song was another sonic-themed GenPlusGX forwarder I found on this Korean blog. I'm not affiliated with the blog and can't guarantee that it's completely safe, but I didn't have any problems with the few WADs I tested from that specific link.

 

[rexus_pl]

Awesome!

Just installed it into my Wii. Works great, looks great.

Have you considered creating any more forwarders (I'm still looking for ideal forwarder for WiiSXRX and Not64 )?

 

[wowitsjosh]

Thanks!

Haha yes, I was absolutely planning on doing more of these for other emulators when I have the time. I learned a lot about how the Wii banners are built and animated while working on this project and already have some ideas for other forwarders and maybe even ways to polish this one up a bit in the future.

 

[XFlak]

Looks great! I added it to the bottom of my post here where I've tried to organize a list of where to find other awesome channels. I haven't made any updates to my own channels in ages, but occasionally I find a gem like this and like to reference it. I'll often refer ppl to my top channels thread just to find links to other ppl's channels. I don't really care if ppl use my channels or someone else's, my ego isn't that inflated and I got nothing to prove... at least not anymore, I can't speak to 10-11 years ago when I was new to the wii scene, lol, one of these days one of my old posts is going to get dug up and bite me in the a$$ cuz I'm sure I probably said some dumb shit once or twice, lol

Edit: shoot, I just realized most of my links to other ppls channels are dead

 

[wowitsjosh]

Thanks @XFlak! I'm honored to have my work included on your list of gems I'm definitely bookmarking that thread for future reference!

 

[rexus_pl]

Just one more idea (and I don't know if it makes any sense).

Is it possible that this forwarder will search for non-standard, hidden from Homebrew Channel location? Eg. sd://genplus/boot.dol - when boot.dol can't be reached at standard loactions?

What is the point - I have many homebrew apps installed, and I don't need to see apps in Homebrew Channel if I have forwarder installed. Moving app to non-standard location and have forwarder that can find it would do the trick (of course, if app can be runned from non-standard location).

 

[niuus]

I'm a bit obsessive when it comes to consistency, so it always bothered me that GenPlusGX doesn't offer an official forwarder to match the other 'GX' emulators. I decided to try my hand at putting one together with a similar theme to the other GX channels and figured I'd share this as an option for anyone else annoyed by the inconsistent forwarders. Here's the result:

​

It looks a bit nicer in 4:3 on a CRT, but I think it still works pretty well in widescreen. I'm also not sure I picked the best characters to represent the system on the banner- I grew up with the NES and didn't get a Genesis until well after its heyday as a hand-me-down, so I'm really not sure who should be considered the mascots of the system aside from Sonic. Let me know what you think!

Notes:

• Booting via SD and USB are both supported from apps/genplus-gx/boot.dol (tested only on an original Wii)
• I borrowed the layout and animations from the official VBA-GX forwarder and modified them to match the Genesis theme and sprite animations.
• The primary inspiration for this channel's design and the source of the included song was another sonic-themed GenPlusGX forwarder I found on this Korean blog. I'm not affiliated with the blog and can't guarantee that it's completely safe, but I didn't have any problems with the few WADs I tested from that specific link.

Looks very nice! I will recommend your GenesisPlusGX channel to some friends. What tool did you use to create the multi path forwarder?

 

[wowitsjosh]

Looks very nice! I will recommend your GenesisPlusGX channel to some friends. What tool did you use to create the multi path forwarder?

Thank you! Sorry for the delay- things have been pretty hectic the past couple of months.

I actually snagged the dol from the same WAD I found on that Korean blog I linked to. I initially attempted to generate my own but ran into issues when I tried to get support working for loading from both SD and USB in the same forwarder.

+ @rexus_pl You can use ModMii to create a custom forwarder dol with any path you like and swap it with the one in my WAD if you want to customize this for your specific setup. ModMii supports multi path setups, but like I said I did have issues trying to set up SD and USB paths in the same forwarder. Looks like a new version released since I last posted though, so this might not be an issue anymore.

 

[niuus]

Thank you! Sorry for the delay- things have been pretty hectic the past couple of months.

I actually snagged the dol from the same WAD I found on that Korean blog I linked to. I initially attempted to generate my own but ran into issues when I tried to get support working for loading from both SD and USB in the same forwarder.

+ @rexus_pl You can use ModMii to create a custom forwarder dol with any path you like and swap it with the one in my WAD if you want to customize this for your specific setup. ModMii supports multi path setups, but like I said I did have issues trying to set up SD and USB paths in the same forwarder. Looks like a new version released since I last posted though, so this might not be an issue anymore.

Yeah, since this answer took a while, Modmii's new version got released and solved the dilemma, and the forwarder works completely fine.

 

[XFlak]

Did the v14 forwarder succeed where v12 failed? Interesting, I wasn't sure what benefits v14 really had over v12 TBH, lol

 

[tcmt]

Looks awesome!

I recently got interested in making channel banner animation myself. Could i ask you if you used any specialized software for making the animations?

The only way i know how to edit the animation file (.brlyt) is by decoding it with a program called benzin and then edit the decoded file in a text editor. Thing is, i find it really tedious to "code" an animation in a text editor. Just wanted to ask if by chance you know of some graphical editor/design tool for Wii Banner animations, since you're work looks very professional!

 

[wowitsjosh]

@tcmt Thanks!

I also started by searching for something to make the process a little less tedious, but unfortunately most of the tools I could find were abandoned before they ever really reached a functional state. I ended up manually configuring the animations using the process you described.

 

[rexus_pl]

You can use ModMii to create a custom forwarder dol with any path you like and swap it with the one in my WAD if you want to customize this for your specific setup. ModMii supports multi path setups, but like I said I did have issues trying to set up SD and USB paths in the same forwarder. Looks like a new version released since I last posted though, so this might not be an issue anymore.

I have to try it, but it is just a suggestion for future releases - if homebrew app supports starting from custom location (TBH I haven't try if for Genesis Plus GX - but it is possible thanks to YAWM ModMii), why don't include additional path to forwarder, hidden from HBC one?

 

[XFlak]

All homebrew apps support this, just move the app folder somewhere else, and launch it using a custom forwarder (you can specify whatever path you want when building a forwarder dol with modmii), or wiixplorer, or yawm modmii edition, or even priiloader

Edit: it's possible some apps may create config files somewhere specific like the apps folder, but even if it does without the boot.dol it won't show up in the HBC.

 

[Playerwii357]

Incredible forwader! Thanks for it. Just one question, do you know the name of the music used in the background? Thanks.

 

[roo1234]

looks fantastic, but can I install it on vWii (Wii U) safely?
Tks