Hacking USB Loader GX

[blackb0x]

It's enabled from the es/SMenu.c (hidden menu on system menu)
Is the config file /sneekcache/hackscfg.bin ?

it reads cheat from sneek/cheat/ or root.

That's less than ideal, since manually editing the config is one thing, but then the cheats need to be in different locations depending on if you're trying to play a wbfs file or not. And if you don't keep track of which games are using neek2o then you'd end up with random .gct files scattered across your HDD.

Rather than the loader having to juggle all of that nonsense I think it'd be easier to modify neek2o so that the settings can be set in memory But even if I make the changes I can't test them since neek2o doesn't work for me.

I have Nintendont version 4.431 installed. (It says Nintendont Loader 6.490 if I start it).
I reverted to the previous ULGX version 6.7 and GC games correctly return to ULGX, so the issue has been introduced in 7.7.

You're probably using 6.490 and just have an old XML file that says 4.431. But the latest version is 6.496.

Can anyone else with the a USB Loader GX forwarder installed boot a GameCube game and then press R + Z + B + Dpad down. Does it return you to the loader or the HBC?

 

[ukigh4ie]

But even if I make the changed I can't test them since neek2o doesn't work for me.

I am happy to test. I have NEEK2O with emuNAND running on both SD and USB.

Can anyone else with the a USB Loader GX forwarder installed boot a GameCube game and then press R + Z + B + Dpad down. Does it return you to the loader or the HBC?

I can confirm that it returns from Nintendont to USB Loader GX via the UNEO forwarder channel.

 

[fst312]

I am happy to test. I have NEEK2O with emuNAND running on both SD and USB.

Quick question I never really installed neek2O or emunand if I do that will that take double the memory, if anything I’ll probably try it out for wiiware games, don’t really want to waste extra memory on Wii games, I have those backed up on a different hard drive if something goes wrong with my current hard drive.

 

[Cyan]

I think it'd be easier to modify neek2o so that the settings can be set in memory

that would be nice to work with overJoy to add that feature directly in his final release too (no idea when it's planed, could be months, or more), but having path to the gct passed by argument like nintendont would be nice.

 

[Nejsplitter_]

@MaeseJesus when patching the vifilter for metroid prime trilogy the dol's must be edited manually individually right? so then what about the standalone version of metroid prime 3 ? will @blackb0x deflicker settings work on that version without manual editing ? cheers

 

[Maeson]

Most probably it work fine. The reason as of why Trilogy requires editing the game is because each game has its own "starting" file. The main menu has one, and each game does too, and each one has its own data for video formats.

Basically you're loading a game while you're already in a game (the main menu), and while USBLGX might work on the Start.dol of a game (the boot file that pretty much every game uses exclusively) Trilogy then loads the main menu and once you choose a game it resets as it is reading other file for that specific game.

It's because of that as of why we need to edit it manually, like with other multi-game discs like House of the dead 2 & 3.

 

[Harol030]

I investigated some error coses:
23904 wimmfi patch
20100 (disconnected during transmission)
20101 sesion error/failed
60xxx DNS or wifi issues
Some errors with http and auto disconnected is by wifi issues or Bad connection...
The possible method for fix this is playing in dolphin... (Nand import required). This method works fine for me...

 

[Cyan]

Most probably it work fine. The reason as of why Trilogy requires editing the game is because each game has its own "starting" file. The main menu has one, and each game does too, and each one has its own data for video formats.

Basically you're loading a game while you're already in a game (the main menu), and while USBLGX might work on the Start.dol of a game (the boot file that pretty much every game uses exclusively) Trilogy then loads the main menu and once you choose a game it resets as it is reading other file for that specific game.

It's because of that as of why we need to edit it manually, like with other multi-game discs like House of the dead 2 & 3.

@MaeseJesus when patching the vifilter for metroid prime trilogy the dol's must be edited manually individually right? so then what about the standalone version of metroid prime 3 ? will @blackb0x deflicker settings work on that version without manual editing ? cheers

USBLoaderGX used to have an option to load directly each game's dol, no need to edit them manually.
I don't know if Blackb0x removed any of the features the loader gave to the users.

USBGX could display an overlay menu for multi-dol games (especially M.trilogy) to let you choose which dol to boot at game launch.
either it's an automated menu, either you choose the dol yourself manually before launching the game.


It's called "alt dol" (alternative dol loading) in the individual game settings.
if it's set to "On Launch" it's checking whether the user has d2x v7+ (multi dol is compatible only since v7), before that it displayed a menu at game boot. I don't know if you can force display that overlay on d2xv7+
if it's set to choose, it lists the dol on the disc/iso/wbfs and let you choose the one you'll boot.
if it's set to external, it loads the <titleID>.dol from /usbloader_gx/dol/ folder.

Like I said, I don't remember if it has been disabled because we thought it wouldn't be useful anymore, or if you need d2x v6- (less than 7).
At least, you should still have access to "alt dol" manual choice, so it'll patch that dol instead of the boot menu.


There were a lot of games with alternative dol loading, or menu loading :

Spoiler: Alt dol List from old USBGX 1271

Automatically loaded alt dol from disc
Boogie [RBOx69]
Fifa 08 [RF8x69]
Madden NFL07 [RMDx69]
Madden NFL08 [RNFx69]
Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 [RM2x69]
Mortal Kombat [RKMx5D]
NBA 08 [RNBx69]
Pangya! Golf with Style [RPYP9B]
Redsteel [REDxxx]
SSX Blur [RSXx69]
Super Swing Golf [RPYE9B]

Alt dol selection with a menu displayed at game launch
Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings (Fate of Atlantis)[RJ8x64]
Metal Slug Anthology (Metal Slug 6), [RMLEH4][RMLP7U]
Metroid Prime trilogy
Rampage: Total Destruction [RPGP5D] (M1.dol=Rampage, jarvos.dol=Rampage World Tour)
The House Of The Dead 2 & 3 Return (only to play 2) [RHDx8P]

Special game (not a menu from GX)
Sam & Max (that one is special, it's reloading the same dol with a different argument each time you change chapter)


All the Wiimote+ games (the boot.dol is a video tuto, if you already watched it, or at the end of the video, it reloads the game's dol)
Grand Slam Tennis [R5TP69][R5TE69]
Medal of Honor Heroes [RMZx69]
Tiger Woods 10 [R9Ox69]
The Legend of Zelda - Skyward Sword [SOUx01]
Virtual Tennis 2009 [RVUx8P]
Wii Sports Resort [RZTx01]
Red Steel 2 [RD2x41]
etc.

And probably other I forgot.
but d2x v7 was released at that point and we stopped adding game's dols one by one in the sources.

Edit:
Yes, he removed that feature where you can choose the chapter you want to launch, or the option to autoboot the correct dol directly (the first group in the game list I provided), But there is still the choice to manually pick a dol from the disc/iso/wbfs, so check your "alt dol" option in individual game menu, and pick the one you want to boot.

Though, you might miss features available only on the main menu (game difficulty, etc.) if you launch the game's dol directly.

 

[Nejsplitter_]

thanks cyan, i think the guys mentioned somewhere that the ability to save (or load ? not sure) was not possible when loading specific dols for metroid trilogy, so basically if you wanted vifiltering removed youd have to apply the deflicker filter on the loader and start a specific dol but you would always be at the start of the game i think ?

I think the method i use is the most optimal for playing the three metroid games on gamecube/wii, which is i use nintendont for prime 1 and prime 2, and i use blackb0x's usb loader gx for prime 3, this way its possible to patch each games vifilter in their own loader plus you play each game as the game developer intended

 

[Ericsonanzois]

Somebody could explain to me what is my mystake:
I did download the new usbgx version and installed it in USB. Everything is working fine. Now i get updates running. I updated the TDB and others. I want to use some codes, so i open usbloader and in a title i press settings, enabled ocarina the usbloader (i chose which cheat i want enabled) download the .txt file and i chose "create", usbloader warn that GCT file was created but when i start the game the cheat not work. When i open the gct seems that file is with no text there.
PS: I also enable the option "Ocarina" to yes.

 

[Maeson]

I prefer the motion controls for all three myself, IR aiming is super fun.

And editing the iso is easy and simple, I find it less convoluted that making a loader read a especific dol whenever I want to play certain game and this way you also keep full functionality of the game, as you want to go to the main menu for a few things.

But hey, different options for different people.

 

[blackb0x]

The possible method for fix this is playing in dolphin... (Nand import required). This method works fine for me...

Yea, 23904 means that patching your backup failed. And that could be caused by a bad rip or if it's previously been modified by an older Wiimmfi patcher.

If you've got a good backup and the private server option is set to "Wiimmfi" and not "Custom" then it should work, providing you're using my version of the loader.

I don't know if Blackb0x removed any of the features the loader gave to the users.

I've only added and fixed stuff, so alternate dol loading is still there.

When i open the gct seems that file is with no text there.

Which game and region (NTSC or PAL) are the cheats for and which cheats are you trying to enable?

A GCT file might be as small as 24 bytes, depending on how many cheats you've got enabled and you can't read the contents of the files. So it might just be a bad cheat.

 

[Ericsonanzois]

Yea, 23904 means that patching your backup failed. And that could be caused by a bad rip or if it's previously been modified by an older Wiimmfi patcher.

If you've got a good backup and the private server option is set to "Wiimmfi" and not "Custom" then it should work, providing you're using my version of the loader.


I've only added and fixed stuff, so alternate dol loading is still there.


Which game and region (NTSC or PAL) are the cheats for and which cheats are you trying to enable?

A GCT file might be as small as 24 bytes, depending on how many cheats you've got enabled and you can't read the contents of the files. So it might just be a bad cheat.

Ok. I tried (for test) Metroid Prime Trilogy. I tried enable only 1 cheat (test): unlock all extras. I understood that a new version put all cheats in "codes" folder into usbloader folder, correct? But i would like inform to you that i have a usbloader (oldest) installed in a sd card too. There is a problem for have it both (SD/USB)?

 

[blackb0x]

@Ericsonanzois If you look at the R3ME01.txt file it says "Use GXFlush Hook". So select the game, go to it's settings, select "Game Load" and then change the hooktype to GXFlush and save.

Having 2 versions of the same loader might just confuse a channel forwarder, but if you don't have one installed then it won't matter.

 

[kokenhalliwell]

OMG I LOVE THIS, THANKS! Graphics are AMAZING without the fucking deflicker, actually way better than I thought. BTW what's the difference between safe and extended deflicker? Tried extended and had no issues at all :/

 

[Maeson]

Some games require a more thourough modification, because editing video modes (which is what the safe mode does, I imagine) is useful for most games, but some have the filter applied by other means and editing the video modes makes no difference, so editing another part of the main.dol file is needed.

Games like Donkey Kong Country Returns or Battalion Wars 2 for example.

I tested many games with the "extended" way (by hex editing) and I don't remember any game that did not work, but because it's a deeper modification it's good to differentiate.

 

[Ericsonanzois]

@Ericsonanzois If you look at the R3ME01.txt file it says "Use GXFlush Hook". So select the game, go to it's settings, select "Game Load" and then change the hooktype to GXFlush and save.

Having 2 versions of the same loader might just confuse a channel forwarder, but if you don't have one installed then it won't matter.

No, no have channel (Wii menu) for usbloader. Only installed in HBC. I will verify your advice and will post the results here.

 

[blackb0x]

BTW what's the difference between safe and extended deflicker? Tried extended and had no issues at all :/

This should answer your question...

If you want to make your games look better by disabling the deflicker filter then I'd suggest using the "OFF (Safe)" option, since that should work for most games without introducing any visual issues.

If the safe option doesn't work then you can try using the extended option, but the extended option will break fade in/out effects and brightness effects in some games.

You might not always notice what's broken when using the extended setting, but if a game offers a brightness setting and the setting doesn't adjust then there's a chance that fade to black screen transitions might be broken in that game.

Stick to using "OFF (Safe)" and nothing will be broken.

 

[Ericsonanzois]

@blackb0x I did what you recommended and everything worked fine. Congratulations for one the best Wii´s homebrew/app

 

[fandango]

This should answer your question...

You might not always notice what's broken when using the extended setting, but if a game offers a brightness setting and the setting doesn't adjust then there's a chance that fade to black screen transitions might be broken in that game.

Stick to using "OFF (Safe)" and nothing will be broken.

So what does the auto deflicker setting do? Does it apply 'Off (safe)' just when needed?