Hey all.
I'd like to introduce to you, Tesla: My answer to the growing need for proper ingame front ends for sysmodules.

What is this?

• Tesla consists of three individual parts. nx-ovlloader, the Tesla menu and libtesla.
  • nx-ovlloader is basically nx-hbloader ported to run as a sysmodule. It runs in the background and loads overlay NROs (.ovl files) given to it.
  • Tesla Menu is the equivalent to the hbmenu. It's the initial thing loaded by nx-ovlloader and acts as a hub for you to select all other overlays.
  • libtesla is where it becomes interesting for developers. It's an easy to use library that handles layer creation, UI drawing and all the overlay UX. It makes it very easy to create a new overlay for anything
• A frontend for sysmodules that before required either a homebrew or a config file to change settings or used sounds or the LED to give the user feedback.

What is this not?

• A tool that lets you create overlays that are always visible. Overlays can get unloaded way to easily for this.
• An excuse to port absolutely everything to a overlay. Nobody's going to need a title manager overlay. If you consider making a overlay, keep it simple. You don't have a whole lot of memory to work with.

How do I use this?

First of all, download the latest release of nx-ovlloader and the Tesla Menu from the GitHub Release page and extract it onto your SD card.
After a reboot, hold down L and DPad Down and push on the right joy stick to bring up Tesla at any time. Navigation works as you imagine it.
Similar to normal homebrews, you place your .ovl files in the /switch/.overlays folder on your SD card.


Screenshots

Spoiler: Screenshots

Notice

Make sure to use the latest Atmosphere release when trying this as older versions ( as the one SX OS uses too ) probably won't have enough memory available for this to run. Overlays do take a lot of space so nx-ovlloader reserves 6MB. 2MB for framebuffers and around 4MB for overlay developers to use in their overlays.


GitHub

nx-ovlloader: https://github.com/WerWolv/nx-ovlloader
Tesla Menu: https://github.com/WerWolv/Tesla-Menu


For Developers

libtesla: https://github.com/WerWolv/libtesla
Tesla build template: https://github.com/WerWolv/Tesla-Template


Download

nx-ovlloader: https://github.com/WerWolv/nx-ovlloader/releases/latest
Tesla-Menu: https://github.com/WerWolv/Tesla-Menu/releases/latest
EdiZon Overlay: https://download.werwolv.net/EdiZonOverlay.zip ( As a little preview for what this is capable of and what EdiZon 4.0.0 will have even more of soon )

Special thank especially to averne without him, this would not have been possible!


Obligatory Donation links

GitHub Sponsors https://github.com/sponsors/WerWolv
PayPal https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=KP7XRJAND9KWU&source=url
Patreon https://www.patreon.com/werwolv


Thanks a lot and have fun using and extending it

 

[TomSwitch]

Never ever use the auto updater to do things like update atmopshere or update your switch. its probably fine for patches and cheats and a few other utilities.. but dont let it do things that will cause things to crash and burn.

Saw a two packs of food, no expiry sticker, ate one yesterday and it was a wonderful meal, what should you do with the other one today?

 

[Jmdaemon]

Saw a pack of food and ate it, no expiry sticker, wonder what will happened afterwards?

Saw a hungry man, you have a pack of peanuts, feed it to the man? Will he die of allergic reaction to peanuts?

A friend send you a file with attachment, you click on attachment from this friend before and had no regrets, should you click on it again?

You can only click a bad file once.

 

[Javad258]

I'm having the same issues, opening the menu even once may cause a crash, all ovl files updated and etc.

 

[Chrisssj2]

I'm having the same issues, opening the menu even once may cause a crash, all ovl files updated and etc.

Does the dev check this thread?

 

[masagrator]

Does the dev check this thread?

WerWolv is not active in Switch scene anymore.

 

[Chrisssj2]

WerWolv is not active in Switch scene anymore.

Yikes. so now what...? Wonkey homebrew forever..?

 

[ELY_M]

I will miss @WerWolv I like your hex editor.

Post automatically merged: Mar 25, 2023

Might we should pay @WerWolv to help with this issue.

Post automatically merged: Mar 25, 2023

My theory on why tesla is crashing. the overlay ovl is always in applet mode. There need to be a way for ovl to have access to full ram.
I know it is recommended to hold R and open one of your games to enter hbmenu for full ram access.

 

[Bricked]

I will miss @WerWolv I like your hex editor.

Post automatically merged: Mar 25, 2023

Might we should pay @WerWolv to help with this issue.

I would join in a bounty, Tesla is an essential tool and it's sad to see it broken like this.

 

[masagrator]

My theory on why tesla is crashing. the overlay ovl is always in applet mode.

It's not. It's in "system mode" which is even worse and this is for a reason - there is no other way to run process in background than being in system or application mode.

There need to be a way for ovl to have access to full ram.

Overlays would lost all meaning by running them in Application mode, don't you think?

Just forget about this idea. It's a dead end.

 

[jevil_memer]

is it related to the tesla menu or the other overlay we install on it? because i have no issues in handheld but it will always crash when docked

 

[ELY_M]

Yikes. so now what...? Wonkey homebrew forever..?

Yes, till one of us figure out and fix it.

 

[Cooler3D]

As a workaround for 4IFIR, I'm testing the following changes for DOCK mode:

• In boost mode (loading levels, launching the game), the launch of the overlay is blocked.
• Added a 1 second cooldown when switching between overlays.
• Removed transparency for overlays that don't need it.
• In dock mode, the internal rendering resolution of overlays is reduced to 720p.

I will investigate the impact of these changes, and depending on the results, I will include these changes in the public build. It's not an elegant solution, but it's better than nothing. Perhaps I will get my hands on a full-fledged solution to the problem.

 

[FAKEdemicBioPYSCHONANOWAR]

As a workaround for 4IFIR, I'm testing the following changes for DOCK mode:

• In boost mode (loading levels, launching the game), the launch of the overlay is blocked.
• Added a 1 second cooldown when switching between overlays.
• Removed transparency for overlays that don't need it.
• In dock mode, the internal rendering resolution of overlays is reduced to 720p.

I will investigate the impact of these changes, and depending on the results, I will include these changes in the public build. It's not an elegant solution, but it's better than nothing. Perhaps I will get my hands on a full-fledged solution to the problem.

You sire are invaluable, hope it is of use.

 

[Cooler3D]

Spoiler: del

Overlays from 4IFIR recompiled with some dirty hacks (by masagrator, me and some others).
Extract, reboot, enjoy. For testing purposes (dock issue).

 

[masagrator]

recompiled with some dirty hacks

Can I ask what are those other "dirty hacks" except for mine that I PRed?
And Status Monitor was already released with this fix + two others specific to Status Monitor itself, not libtesla.

 

[impeeza]

Can I ask what are those other "dirty hacks" except for mine that I PRed?

Was writing the same

Somebody knows if Emuiibo overlay needs new versions?

 

[linuxares]

Isn't it just to rebuild the overlays with the latest libtesla and they'll will work?

EDIT: https://github.com/WerWolv/Tesla-Menu/issues/55

Seems so

 

[masagrator]

Isn't it just to rebuild the overlays with the latest libtesla and they'll will work?

My PR should workaround random issue with freeing framebuffer in docked mode that was common in all overlays. Edizon Overlay for some people seems still to cause random crash so I don't think it's the same issue as for other overlays.

 

[linuxares]

My PR should solve random issue with freeing framebuffer in docked mode that was common in all overlays. Edizon Overlay for some people seems still to cause random crash so I don't think it's the same issue as for other overlays.

Ah yes, might be.
I checked the Tesla Menu github and it's "softlocks" and the devs need to just compile with libtesla that been updated for 16.x

 

[Medel87]

Was writing the same

Somebody knows if Emuiibo overlay needs new versions?

I guess all overlays need to be updated to avoid dock errors