Hacking WiiFlow - an open source GUI USB-Loader

[FIX94]

Just wait till I have a wii again, checked both codes and its not hard to do

 

[marduk666]

I recently dl'd ABZ masterpiece edition, which is awsome, And moved my wiiflow from USB to SD. Now my covers don't show up. I would just move the covers to SD but it is maxed with Riivolution Patches and GC backups. Do the covers have to be on the SD if Wiiflow is booting from SD? Would it make sense to make my cover folder the same as my rom folder so that they are side by side for easy sorting/error correcting? If the moon was made out of green cheese would you eat it? Does Toadkings MAME accept arguments, so as we can get a plugin? What is the capital of Assyria?

Wiiflow makes me shoot jizm B====D -- -

 

[ToddofWar420]

Ok so to answer my own question about how to get plugins to load faster is to simply have it all on the hard drive. It damn near loads instantly compared to having to wait to load on the SD card.
Also with my new 3TB Hdd, I was able to fix my Devolution problem with it not wanting to mount to my hdd in case some ppl heard the Devo has problems with 3TB hdd. I just reformatted to a single FAT32 with 62kb cluster. So again, Thanks to all who has tried to help me figure this sh!t out.
Wii Party Time!!

 

[Maxternal]

I recently dl'd ABZ masterpiece edition, which is awsome, And moved my wiiflow from USB to SD. Now my covers don't show up. I would just move the covers to SD but it is maxed with Riivolution Patches and GC backups. Do the covers have to be on the SD if Wiiflow is booting from SD? Would it make sense to make my cover folder the same as my rom folder so that they are side by side for easy sorting/error correcting? If the moon was made out of green cheese would you eat it? Does Toadkings MAME accept arguments, so as we can get a plugin? What is the capital of Assyria?

Wiiflow makes me shoot jizm B====D -- -

- You can tell WiiFlow where to look for covers in the WiiFlow.ini file ( in the /apps/wiiflow folder in the [GENERAL] section )
- Putting the ROM's in the same folder as their covers in theory SHOULD work. I don't see it breaking anything.
- I've never tried green cheese. I'm not sure if it's worth flying all the way to the moon to eat.
- I looked at MAME and it looks like it's code is similar to Frodo (C64) and it confuses the heck out of me (SDL) so I'd have to leave that one to someone else.
- It actually had several capitols throughout it's history. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyria

 

[spacepimp]

Hey Maxternal, your input is always always both nutritious and mellifluous, but i'm loving your recent work in particular.
I have a request regarding your recent experiments and investigations with dummy files, arguments, C++ coding and the like:
Could you use your dummy file angle to launch coverflow views? Change the view filter by clicking on a 3D cover? - That is, could you use dummy files to somehow implement a 3D coverflow of sources? Even, at a push, could you use dummy files to reboot wiiflow to the selected coverflow/source?
Just as an option, if anyone'd like that.
I would

 

[spacepimp]

Er... Full disclosure, like, I did ask a wiiflow developer about something very like this. Although he said it was possible, he positively balked at the idea, and frankly didn't want to take it any further. I'm sure at least taking a look at the possibilities won't annoy anyone, but just so you're aware.

 

[kineticUk]

Another idea would be to have a coverflow that displays banners or the mini-banner of games, though if I remember right Fix said it would be very limited due to the amount of available memory.

I think this would suit the nand cover flow as these channels don't have cases/boxes.
Displaying the original channel banners would help give nand flow its own individual identity..
Is it possible to display mini-banners (like channels appear in system menu)?

Otherwise with views etc I'm happy, I like the game boxes in Wii and gc flows, and the hb icon.png's.
I don't want to mix everything up in a single flow, that's not for me.

I would love an "autoload last played wii game" where on startup the user can either hold "B" or wiiflow will boot the last game played automatically, random is cool but I would use an "auto load last game" function for sure.

 

[Maxternal]

Er... Full disclosure, like, I did ask a wiiflow developer about something very like this. Although he said it was possible, he positively balked at the idea, and frankly didn't want to take it any further. I'm sure at least taking a look at the possibilities won't annoy anyone, but just so you're aware.

I'm not really annoyed, no worries ... but I wouldn't even know where to begin for something like that. It would be (at best) very, very, very tricky to pull off.

 

[kineticUk]

Even, at a push, could you use dummy files to reboot wiiflow to the selected coverflow/source?

Booting into and returning to selected source would be a class improvement if ever possible.

 

[Maxternal]

Booting into and returning to selected source would be a class improvement if ever possible.

Well, booting into the LAST PLUGIN flow is possible if you put the DOL from the hidden channel in a normal forwarder channel ... but that's about the best it gets at the moment.

 

[spacepimp]

Booting into and returning to selected source would be a class improvement if ever possible.

In addition to your addition, I would like to add , booting straight to source menu would be a lovely option.

 

[spacepimp]

Well, booting into the LAST PLUGIN flow is possible if you put the DOL from the hidden channel in a normal forwarder channel ... but that's about the best it gets at the moment.

Where is written what the last plugin view was, and is it possible to edit this?
Do you go on #wiiflow on abjects?

 

[Maxternal]

Where is written what the last plugin view was, and is it possible to edit this?
Do you go on #wiiflow on abjects?

It's somewhere in the wiiflow.ini file.
and no, not much.

 

[spacepimp]

Double post

 

[spacepimp]

It's somewhere in the wiiflow.ini file.
and no, not much.

RE: #wiiflow i'm on there now, that's all!
Just riffing like, and btw i'm certainly no coder and assume no knowledge except From a brief discussion about the process with resident guru Fix94:
In order to use a coverflow, wiiflow needs to run the selected 'game' via a loader whenever a cover is clicked.
If it is possible to edit this entry when a cover is clicked in the 'source flow', the 'game' that the channel loader launches could be this channel that you describe. Based on the wiiflow hidden channel dol?
Could your dummy file edit the wiiflow.ini (to the chosen source) and then launch that dol/channel?
admittedly, it's still a bit slow having to reboot, but still...

 

[Maxternal]

RE: #wiiflow i'm on there now, that's all!
Just riffing like, and btw i'm certainly no coder and assume no knowledge except From a brief discussion about the process with resident guru Fix94:
In order to use a coverflow, wiiflow needs to run the selected 'game' via a loader whenever a cover is clicked.
If it is possible to edit this entry when a cover is clicked in the 'source flow', the 'game' that the channel loader launches could be this channel that you describe. Based on the wiiflow hidden channel dol?
Could your dummy file edit the wiiflow.ini (to the chosen source) and then launch that dol/channel?
admittedly, it's still a bit slow having to reboot, but still...

Okay, basic idea would be doable if you used a modified version of the forwarder DOL file (like what's in the hidden channel) AS the plugin. The modification would be that it would have to find and edit that part of the WiiFlow.ini file before running WiiFlow again based on the argument. At that part, I'm not that good at having writing code to edit files in C/C++ and even than I'm used to having an OS like Windows around that would do that for me so I'm not sure about on a Wii.

The REAL tricky part here is I assume you would like this to REPLACE your source menu. That, on the other hand, is not something I'd be able to do with the kind of witchcraft I've been using to pull these things off.

 

[kineticUk]

booting straight to source menu would be a lovely option.

I'm pretty sure there is an option in the .ini to "show source menu on startup"...check it out

 

[spacepimp]

@kinetic - i am such a tit. thanks! I think I may have even been amongst those who requested it!
*pulls belm face

Okay, basic idea would be doable if you used a modified version of the forwarder DOL file (like what's in the hidden channel) AS the plugin. The modification would be that it would have to find and edit that part of the WiiFlow.ini file before running WiiFlow again based on the argument. At that part, I'm not that good at having writing code to edit files in C/C++ and even than I'm used to having an OS like Windows around that would do that for me so I'm not sure about on a Wii.

The REAL tricky part here is I assume you would like this to REPLACE your source menu. That, on the other hand, is not something I'd be able to do with the kind of witchcraft I've been using to pull these things off.

Well thanks for chewing it over.
I'm assuming it's relatively easy to add another flow in this sense - emuflows appear with such regularity, seem to need a magic number and an art folder and a source menu entry and (i assume) a relatively simple bit of code shennanigans/witchcraft. We'd also have to ask devs for for the option to allow 'b' to launch the source coverflow. I think the problem is that something needs to be launched by something in order for there to be a coverflow. Rather than editing the actual ini, could a source (i.e. a cover) be associated with an argument? possibly via an associated data/text file? Could this 'argument' be interpreted by with either a mod of the hidden channel dol(which in turn launches wiiflow to the chosen source); a real nand channel; or some other wiiflow cover/item - launcher - argument interpreted by hidden boot dol - type combo?

quick and dirty - install mods of the launcher customised to each preferred source on your real nand. Launch straight from there or via wiiflow's real nand browsing!

p.s. I have NO idea how to do ANY of this!

 

[Maxternal]

You kinda lost me there near the end
BUT
basically it works like this:
- you see one cover for every file that's the right kind to be used with that particular "source"/plugin
- When you "run" that cover there's a DOL file (the plugin) that WiiFlow runs to take care of it.
- The information that Wiiflow sends to the plugin telling it which file/cover you chose is the "argument"
- the forwarder/hidden channels basically have a DOL file in them to make them do what they do
- theoretically, you could make a mod of the DOL that's used right now in the hidden channel so it ALSO kinda does what you're looking for it to do.
- instead of putting the modded DOL file back in the hidden channel you would put it in the folder with the other plugins.
- WiiFlow is made to choose a file per cover instead of a coverflow per cover so you'd have to make a "dummy" file to represent each one.
- part of the mod made to the DOL would have to be making it recognize the different file names of the dummy files and choose which coverflow to set when it edits the WiiFlow.ini file.

 

[marduk666]

marduk666 said: ↑

I recently dl'd ABZ masterpiece edition, which is awsome, And moved my wiiflow from USB to SD. Now my covers don't show up. I would just move the covers to SD but it is maxed with Riivolution Patches and GC backups. Do the covers have to be on the SD if Wiiflow is booting from SD? Would it make sense to make my cover folder the same as my rom folder so that they are side by side for easy sorting/error correcting? If the moon was made out of green cheese would you eat it? Does Toadkings MAME accept arguments, so as we can get a plugin? What is the capital of Assyria?

Wiiflow makes me shoot jizm B====D -- -​

- You can tell WiiFlow where to look for covers in the WiiFlow.ini file ( in the /apps/wiiflow folder in the [GENERAL] section )
- Putting the ROM's in the same folder as their covers in theory SHOULD work. I don't see it breaking anything.
- I've never tried green cheese. I'm not sure if it's worth flying all the way to the moon to eat.
- I looked at MAME and it looks like it's code is similar to Frodo (C64) and it confuses the heck out of me (SDL) so I'd have to leave that one to someone else.
- It actually had several capitols throughout it's history. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyria

Thanks Maxternal
Also Does Wiiflow look through subfolders for covers.