Hacking USB Loader GX

[blackb0x]

I'm trying to force a PAL game to run at 60Hz which only runs at 50Hz but the screen seems to be choppy, not displaying the entire game UI correctly and making it impossible to play. I guess there's nothing you can do about it, right? The game in question is HM Tree of Tranquility.

Go into the games settings and try the game with Dol Video Patch set to ON. And if that doesn't work also try setting VIDTV Patch to ON.

I know that if you want to play that game at 480p then you'd just set the Video Mode to Force PAL480p and Dol Video Patch to ON.

 

[woooody]

For some games yes, but you'd know when there's a problem as they won't boot or accessories for that game might not work correctly.

I suspect the games that aren't working for you are trying to use cIOS 248, which for some reason doesn't get along with your SD card. So your options here are somewhat limited.

Assuming you're using Windows, you could try this...

1. Backup your data from the SD card.
2. Input the following into command prompt/terminal.
diskpart list disk select disk X (change X to the disk number for your SD card) clean convert mbr create partition primary format fs=ntfs quick assign exit3. Load up Wii Backup Manager, select Tools and format the SD card to FAT32 with the cluster size set to 32K.
4. Restore your data.

If that doesn't change anything, you could use WiiMod Lite's IOS Manager to delete 248. And that might resolve the issue, assuming the problem lies with the cIOS slot and not the IOS reload action.

As you suggested, I had already recreated the primary partition with MBR and reformatted it with FAT32 and a cluster size of 32k, but nothing changed. I used guiformat instead of Wii Backup Manager.
The results were the same even when the cluster size was set to 64k instead of 32k (although it is unclear which is optimal).

Having said that, all games that did not work were successfully launched by forcing gameIOS to 249.
The games started normally and there are no accessories used, so is the setting cIOS 249 OK?

Also, in my understanding, the cIOS for slot 248 is based on 38, which is intended to enable USB keyboard or Wii speak in Animal Crossing: City Folk. For other games, I believe cIOS based on 56 or 57 would be the best. However, why does the loader attempt to use cIOS 248 even for games like Wii Sports that do not utilize a USB keyboard or Wii speak?

 

[blackb0x]

The games started normally and there are no accessories used, so is the setting cIOS 249 OK?

No. Not for every game. But for the games that you own maybe it's fine? I wouldn't know.

For other games, I believe cIOS based on 56 or 57 would be the best. However, why does the loader attempt to use cIOS 248 even for games like Wii Sports that do not utilize a USB keyboard or Wii speak?

The loader selects the cIOS that has the most in common with the games requested IOS. So it's correct to use what it's selecting.

As I mentioned in a previous post, you're the only person who's reported this issue, where the SD card affects games running from the USB drive. The only similar issue I've seen involves USB drives that don't fully comply with the USB 2.0 standard, which can cause them to choke during reloads to any other IOS.

 

[woooody]

No. Not for every game. But for the games you own maybe it's fine? I wouldn't know.


The loader selects the cIOS that has the most in common with the games requested IOS. So it's correct to use what it's selecting.

As I mentioned in a previous post, you're the only person who's reported this issue, where the SD card affects games running from the USB drive. The only similar issue I've seen involves USB drives that don't fully comply with the USB 2.0 standard, which can cause them to choke during IOS reloads to any other IOS.

Everything is set up correctly according to the latest guides so there is nothing I can do.

I am truly grateful for the effort you took to come up with a solution to what was a very specific issue.

 

[blackb0x]

I really wish I could offer a better solution, but sometimes there are just quirks with the hardware, the IOS, or the homebrew that make it hard to achieve that. Especially when it seems like an edge case and I have no easy way to reproduce it.

I suppose it could be worse, since some people buy USB drives only to find out they're completely incompatible with cIOS. And the only given solution in that case is to buy a different one, since it's unrealistic to expect an unpaid developer to purchase every problematic device just to try and fix it

Ah, ok. I'm still using my old one.
But does that mean that I have to install all games anew? Also, can the emunand savegames of all my games be transferred easily?

I edited my original reply with a different procedure, since I forgot that if your original EmuNAND was created by ShowMiiWads or ModMii then it might be missing some key files. So when you create the new EmuNAND be sure to do it from the loaders Miscellaneous Settings menu.

 

[Deleted member 663203]

Go into the games settings and try the game with Dol Video Patch set to ON. And if that doesn't work also try setting VIDTV Patch to ON.

I know that if you want to play that game at 480p then you'd just set the Video Mode to Force PAL480p and Dol Video Patch to ON.

I've already enabled those options, and the screen is still choppy. Maybe it's one of those problematic games that tend to cause this type of problem when you try to force it although I think it's because it doesn't support 16:9 only 4:3. It also seems to use some letterboxing because the screen isn't quite 4:3 (the same thing happens with Paper Mario VC PAL when you force it to NTSC,but it works fine in PAL60 though.)

 

[blackb0x]

I've already enabled those options, and the screen is still choppy. Maybe it's one of those problematic games that tend to cause this type of problem when you try to force it although I think it's because it doesn't support 16:9 only 4:3. It also seems to use some letterboxing because the screen isn't quite 4:3 (the same thing happens with Paper Mario VC PAL when you force it to NTSC,but it works fine in PAL60 though.)

Have you tried forcing NTSC instead? It's also 60Hz, and your TV might handle it better. Although, in that case, I'm not sure why you wouldn't just use the NTSC version of the game, since you appear to be in the US?

 

[xunga]

Testing USB Loader GX Ver.4.0 - rev1283 and it seems to work fine with Wii games. It also loads Gamecube games fine but when you press the Home button the image freezes and does not return to Homebrew. The same happens when you disable auto-start to open Nintendont instead of USB Loader GX launching the game directly and then press Home to exit.

With Wii games you can return to the main Homebrew screen without problems.

Tested with a clean installation.

Back to version 3.0-r1281 and everything works as it should with Gamecube games. Using directly Nintendont I have no errors either.

 

[Deleted member 663203]

Have you tried forcing NTSC instead? It's also 60Hz, and your TV might handle it better. Although, in that case, I'm not sure why you wouldn't just use the NTSC version of the game, since you appear to be in the US?

So yes, forcing NTSC displays the screen correctly. Honestly, I don't understand why forcing it to PAL60 causes this screen clipping but not with NTSC which is strange.

And I'm playing the PAL version because it's multilingual (I'm a native French speaker).

 

[blackb0x]

With Wii games you can return to the main Homebrew screen without problems.

Tested with a clean installation.

I've sent you a private message

Honestly, I don't understand why forcing it to PAL60 causes this screen clipping but not with NTSC which is strange

It can depend on both the game and your TV. But for future reference, if something feels choppy, try changing the region, as this will use a different render mode and timings.

 

[legolas119]

Yeah, I've released an update for those who were experiencing crashes, and I've also improved a few things while I was at it.

https://github.com/wiidev/usbloadergx/releases/tag/v4.0-r1283

And while fixing the NTFS issue I also adjusted path handling, so if r1282 stopped listing some games for you then r1283 should resolve that.



I'm not sure if it's been like that for a while or if it broke during recent changes, but I'll take a look at it at some point.


As you've pointed out yourself, this is fixed now

1. In your case you're better off deleting everything but the images folder. That way you won't have any old settings carried over, which often isn't a good thing, since a lot of people have bad cIOS settings applied from using old versions of the loader.
2. Yes. That cIOS guide is good.
3. Yes. But as of USB Loader GX r1282 I started to include wiitdb.xml, since the loader uses that database to improve game compatibility.
4. Yes. And information about how to setup the forwarder can be found in the first post.

thanks. I will try. I have a question about bullet 4: as i already have now the USB loader GX forwarder installed, is it necessary to uninstall it before to install the new one? If so, how i can do it?
thanks!

 

[blackb0x]

thanks. I will try. I have a question about bullet 4: as i already have now the USB loader GX forwarder installed, is it necessary to uninstall it before to install the new one? If so, how i can do it?

If you've already got an older version of the USB loader GX (UNEO) forwarder installed then the update would replace it. So no, you don't need to uninstall it.

 

[MetroidTalon]

Is there any themes for 1283? Old ones don't line up anymore.

 

[blackb0x]

Most of the old themes should still work perfectly. However, any that don’t include all the required assets won’t look quite right, as the missing elements will fall back to the newer default ones.

As soon as I’ve finished some additional fixes and improvements, there will be an official dark version of the theme. And I'm sure nully will eventually release a few more themes too.

 

[KungBore]

Hey, I updated the loader and d2x cios to the latest versions, but now a couple of games (from the ones I've tested so far) do not work. Wii Sports returns to the Wii Menu and Mario Kart Wii crashes as soon as I launch it. I've tried reinstalling the usb loader gx and the latest cios, and also reverting to the last loader (release r1281). What else can I try?

Edit:

Nevermind, my SSD case seems to be failing. I switched back to my old HDD and it worked fine. I ordered a quality case for my SSD to see if it resolves the issue.

(I understand that there are no speed gains, but I had an SSD lying around with a bigger storage capacity.

Ok, update on this:

CrystalDiskInfo was showing some weird readings on my HDD. I decided to reformat it to see if that would get read of those readings (it did, it doesn't report any problems now).

The problem is that, now, neither my SSD nor my HDD works properly with usb loader gx. If there are any .wbfs games on them, the loader crashes as soon as I launch it. If I launch it with no HDD / SSD or only with gamecube games in it (no wbfs files) it works fine. What can I try? I even tried removing games individually to see if any is the culprit, but I couldn't single out which one was it (it seems to crash if I have a lot of wbfs games ONLY). Is there a limit of how many wbfs files I can have in an SSD / HDD? To me, that's the only logicla explanation.

Edit: I've just tried downgrading to usb loader gx r1281 and it worked with my HDD. I'm going to try with the SSD later!

 

[blackb0x]

The problem is that, now, neither my SSD nor my HDD works properly with usb loader gx. If there are any .wbfs games on them, the loader crashes as soon as I launch it. If I launch it with no HDD / SSD or only with gamecube games in it (no wbfs files) it works fine. What can I try? I even tried removing games individually to see if any is the culprit, but I couldn't single out which one was it (it seems to crash if I have a lot of wbfs games ONLY). Is there a limit of how many wbfs files I can have in an SSD / HDD? To me, that's the only logicla explanation.

Edit: I've just tried downgrading to usb loader gx r1281 and it worked with my HDD. I'm going to try with the SSD later!

Were you using USB Loader GX r1282 with your drive formatted to NTFS? Since that's an issue that I've already fixed (and confirmed by many) in USB Loader GX r1283. And I also fixed a few partition detection issues while I was at it.

 

[Mmmitch]

I haven't pushed the update out that way yet, since I was waiting to see if any issues were reported. So far things are looking good though, so I'll probably do that within the next 24 hours.

Is the update already pushed out so that I can upgrade from USB Loader GX itself ? (I tried yesterday and it still told me that there was no update). What URL are you using to check?

 

[ecto]

Yeah, since that's the only way to get an accurate content.map file and the missing shared app dependencies.

You could back up your existing EmuNAND, then create a new one and install the exact same games. After that, copy title/000100000/, title/00010001/, title/00010002/, and title/00010004/ from your orignal EmuNAND to your new EmuNAND.

Ok. I now have a new Emunand. I just dumped it into a new folder. The saves from my old emunand I copied over using Wii Savegame Manager GX. There, you can just set different paths for emunands and batch copy the saves.

But there are still games like Castlevania that need Neek mode to boot. I really don't have a problem with that but I'm curious which benefits I now have from this new emunand?

 

[blackb0x]

Is the update already pushed out so that I can upgrade from USB Loader GX itself ? (I tried yesterday and it still told me that there was no update). What URL are you using to check?

It'll work now. I'd just got busy working on a few things.

Ok. I now have a new Emunand. I just dumped it into a new folder.

You did see this part and created the new EmuNAND via the loader, right?

I edited my original reply with a different procedure, since I forgot that if your original EmuNAND was created by ShowMiiWads or ModMii then it might be missing some key files. So when you create the new EmuNAND be sure to do it from the loaders Miscellaneous Settings menu.

I created a new EmuNAND, installed the WAD file through the loader, and everything is working as expected with the loaders default settings.

Make sure these settings are correct...

• Video Mode: Disc Default
• Dol Video Patch: OFF
• Game Language: Console Default
• Game IOS: Auto
• EmuNAND Save Mode: OFF or Partial
• EmuNAND Channel Mode: Full

I really don't have a problem with that but I'm curious which benefits I now have from this new emunand?

When it's setup and working correctly, it's compatibility is so good that it can play some games that neek/sneek can't.

 

[KungBore]

Were you using USB Loader GX r1282 with your drive formatted to NTFS? Since that's an issue that I've already fixed (and confirmed by many) in USB Loader GX r1283. And I also fixed a few partition detection issues while I was at it.

No, both drives are FAT32. And I tried both r1282 and r1283.

Although r1281 is much more stable and usable, because it doesn't crash right away, I still get crashes on both my drives. It seems to be related to the caching of banners, as the loader tends to crash only if I scroll left or right on the loader's main menu. I don't know, I have a feeling that it crashes trying to load the banners. I get no crashes while in game, so if I can at least scroll slowly and start a game, I can live with it.

The weirdest part is that it didn't use to be a problem before I tried to update the loader or use an SSD drive, something seems to have started the issue, between those two things.