Hacking USB Loader GX

[Cyan]

thank you very much for all the extended tests and nice report

I think I fixed the download issue where waiting block any further download. I'll release 1255 today.

 

[suloku]

Do you have overscan values in your GUI settings? or you edited the projection value in banner menu?
The stars are correctly positioned if I use GUI overscan Y -10
I moved them a littler higher for default overscan value (0, 0 in GUI, and default value in banner menu too)

No, my values are 0, but my tv system is PAL (component cable, wii configured to 16:9), I didn't take that into account, I added the values directly to the banner file copyin what was in GameWindows.cpp.
I've tried changing my overscan value and whilst the banner stars move around with the overscan, stars in the spinning disk mode stay where they should, did I miss some kind of correction that is applied to images depending on overscan settings?

 

[Cyan]

I don't know why the favorites buttons are not affected by the banner's offset/overscan settings.
The banners are using their own overscan values, The GUI settings doesn't affect them.
But the other elements on the banner are affected by the banner placement...

I did all my tests on PAL too (France), with component 480p.
The default position and scale for banners are based on user's resolution on first boot. the settings are then memorized for next boot even if the video mode is different.

BannerProjectionOffsetX = (!widescreen || PAL50) ? 0.0f : 2.0f;
BannerProjectionOffsetY = PAL50 ? -1.0f : (NTSC ? 0.0f : -4.0f);
BannerProjectionWidth = (Settings.widescreen ? (Settings.PAL50 ? 616 : 620.0f) : 608.0f);
BannerProjectionHeight = (Settings.PAL50 ? 448.0f : (NTSC ? 470.0f : 464.0f));

I had this values for PAL 480p:
GUI overscan 0,0
banner offset : 2, -1 (I guess I changed it manually, it should be -4 if not PAL50)
banner proj : 620, 464

I don't know if it will look good for everyone
But the banner menu will now have a use ! position it correctly to have stars at the correct place.

I added two more pattern (single line above the bottom part of the banner, and below the buttons)
I really like the line above the settings ! I set it as default


edit:
It seems the big buttons (settings and Start) are linked to the banner window.
The "play count" is not linked, like the favIcons.
I might require new functions to add them as part of the banner itself. (might be too much work for now, I'll just leave them detached)

 

[wailer247]

Has anyone gotten USBLoaderGX working with Neek2o? I've got neek2o running perfectly, but I want to be able to use USBLoaderGX from real Nand and play titles from the neek2o emunand. Even if i could run usbloadergx from neek2o that would be ok.

 

[suloku]

I added two more pattern (single line above the bottom part of the banner, and below the buttons)
I really like the line above the settings ! I set it as default

That's great! I'm exited about 1255, and it's a good solution to add settings for positioning, and I think many people would actually customize it.

 

[Cyan]

USBLoaderGX r1255

- Fixed download issue (please test and report) @Shiranui-san can you tell me if it still freeze after few minutes? on my tests it didn't freeze anymore.
- Thanks to Suloku for the favicon patch
- I added a GUI setting to change the position.
And sorry if it's not correctly aligned on your screen, you will have to play with the GUI overscan settings, and with the Banner settings menu overscan too.

 

[jamallego]

thanks a lot for these new release

 

[GreyWolf]

Hi, I've been bothered since last summer because the banner mode doesn't feature the Favourites stars, and I think it is a really useful feature, but it is somewhat tedious to enter the config menu to set the favorite level. I don't really use the level itself for order, but mark the games so the ones I'm playing show in the favorites page.

I had the time, so I made a patch to show the stars at banner mode:

Big: http://s3.postimg.org/7y4o7gkzn/IMG_20150813_153958_1.jpg

In the patch attached there's also (commented) the code to display it like this (I think the previous one is better):

Big: http://s3.postimg.org/7y4o7gkzn/IMG_20150813_153958_1.jpg

I know not everyone would like it, but I'm sure it would be really easy to add a configuration option to toogle it, or even toogle the different styles for the favorites star position. I haven't look into how usbloadergx configuration works, so I didn't do it because it may take me hours, whilst the developer might only need ten minutes to add a new configuration option.

I really hope this can be added.

I think I've fixed that. I'll try to send Cyan a patch for it after I make sure it's working right. I moved it to the game info dialog accessed from the 2 button instead of the disc view one.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

You could still always remove the "Theme Downloader" part of the settings to save space. How much space would it save anyway?

Not much. There's something else causing the memory issues as the binary shouldn't be near the memory limits yet. I wish I had a Gekko... (Silly editor... this in reference to removing the theme downloader)

 

[Cyan]

What did you fix? You have something else?
The idea was to have the favorite icons accessible quickly, without going into a menu.

I already added the favorite icons to the place he displayed. I added a setting to choose the layout.
The text is probably not very good to explain.
I may change them again later.

 

[GreyWolf]

What did you fix? You have something else?
The idea was to have the favorite icons accessible quickly, without going into a menu.

I already added the favorite icons to the place he displayed. I added a setting to choose the layout.
The text is probably not very good to explain.
I may change them again later.

I just moved the star rating bar to the game info window. (The one with the synopsis and 3D cover view) It was only in the disc view and made it difficult to set favorites if you used banner view. IMO it would be better to just add a "favorite" button and drop the ratings but I didn't want to make a big change all at once.

EDIT: I haven't downloaded the builds you've released since you came back yet so I haven't seen your changes. I will do that this evening.

 

[Cyan]

or I could make a single star in the bottom-left corner, when clicking on it it would open an hidden overlay menu to select the favorite level. It might be nicer and more professional.
I think I'll do it later (or add it as an option to keep the layout I just added?)

 

[Shiranui-san]

USBLoaderGX r1255

- Fixed download issue (please test and report) @Shiranui-san can you tell me if it still freeze after few minutes? on my tests it didn't freeze anymore.
- Thanks to Suloku for the favicon patch
- I added a GUI setting to change the position.
And sorry if it's not correctly aligned on your screen, you will have to play with the GUI overscan settings, and with the Banner settings menu overscan too.

Still same problem with v1255.
If I download 3-4 covers, they download ok, but then GX cannot download anything else. I have to exit and enter GX again to continue the downloads.
If I download lots of stuff, like +100 custom banners, GX only downloads around 10-12 of them, then it says no more banners were found and it cannot download anything else (more banner, covers, language files, wiitdb.xml), I have to exit and enter again to continue the downloads.

 

[Cyan]

Thank you for the report.
I don't know what's wrong

since I added SSL I rewrote almost all the code, so I probably forgot something. I thought closing the connexion was the issue.
I wish someone could take a look at it, but I really need that to be done before tomorrow evening as I'm leaving for 10 days and will be back 25 august. it will be too late to update on googlecode.
I want to submit the last commit tomorrow and push that version to the internal update menu. I hoped the download function was fixed before releasing it to all users.

I know it's a lot to ask someone else to debug/fix my code in this short time.


the issue seems that the network is not allowing any more connection after a while. even a single download is enough to trigger that bug, no need to download 10-20 covers. a single nintendont update and it will freeze the network if you wait long enough.
being used for download or even local file receiving function from Wiiload (in the homebrew browser).
the "check if network is init" seems to reply that the network is not init anymore.


The previous sources didn't have time out function using LWP threads, I could try to remove that.
it might crash or end in a endless loop while downloading, but I'll see if it fix the timeout issue.

 

[Cyan]

@Shiranui-san :
would you have time to test his build?
I removed the timeout check.

all the tests I did with this version and 1255 are fine, so you seem to be able to trigger the bug which I can't.
I'll let you test it. I hope you can tell me if it works or not.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/kb3pagz8ze6559u/USBLoaderGX_r1255Mod01.7z

(it also contains links to sourceforge for language/icon/png/meta update, but it shouldn't be a problem for the test)

edit:
@Troopage too, you seems to be able to trigger the bug, could you test if multiple download is fine? thank you

 

[Shiranui-san]

@Shiranui-san :
would you have time to test his build?
I removed the timeout check.

all the tests I did with this version and 1255 are fine, so you seem to be able to trigger the bug which I can't.
I'll let you test it. I hope you can tell me if it works or not.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/kb3pagz8ze6559u/USBLoaderGX_r1255Mod01.7z

(it also contains links to sourceforge for language/icon/png/meta update, but it shouldn't be a problem for the test)

I'm having the same issue with v1255 Mod 01.
But notice that it let me do a second a download without exiting the loader: I could download several covers, then started to download banners, then it suddenly stopped (after 2-3 minutes downloading banners) and then I can't download anything else.

EDIT:
Test 2 with 1255 Mod 01:
Three downloads in a row without exiting to HBC: language files downloaded fine, then wiitdb.xml and then lots of covers, but again it suddenly stopped while downloading covers.
Maybe GX stops downloading if it continuosly downloads stuff for a "long" period of time (5-6 minutes)?

 

[Cyan]

thanks for taking the time to test.
I really don't know why there's this delay.

I will have to compare the previous http.c file, but there's a lot of changes.
maybe I forgot to delete an allocated memory? and based on the download size, it fill the available ram and cause issues.

 

[Shiranui-san]

thanks for taking the time to test.
I really don't know why there's this delay.

I will have to compare the previous http.c file, but there's a lot of changes.
maybe I forgot to delete an allocated memory? and based on the download size, it fill the available ram and cause issues.

You're welcome.
Well, this bug is not so important since it does not break game compatibility. Besides, covers, banners, updates, can be downloaded manually.
Have nice vacations.

 

[Cyan]

yes, I can fix it later, but it's annoying me that there's an issue I introduced and I don't know how or where.
I just checked all the sources to find functions using the download function, everything is properly freed, it's not a buffer overflow.
I might try to disable things one by one, but it would help if I could trigger that issue faster to see if I fixed it or not.

If tomorrow I still don't find how to fix it, I will release like that.
For a week I won't work on it, I hope there won't be a lot of reports from new users.

 

[Troopage]

Troopage too, you seems to be able to trigger the bug, could you test if multiple download is fine? thank you

I can confirm that it still occurs. Like Shiranui-san said, it seems that it downloads a bit then stops for no reason after a while. However, when I try again, it doesn't even try downloading, it just says that their are missing files, though I know they are there.

 

[ngs428]

For the download testing...
I just downloaded 144 images for my GC games and the download only took a few minutes and finished saying 44 files not found on server. I checked to download all images for the games I have. I am using r1255. Not the mod.

Upon starting USB loader Gx my hdd is not seen. I then go into settings and it eventually 30 seconds or so will show up. Any settings that can help this?

To install the forwarder I see there is a built in wad manager. Where do I have to place the wad for the forwarder on the sd card? Never installed a wad before.

Thanks all for getting me this far!!