Hacking Wiiflow 4.5 Fantasy Requests

[spacepimp]

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thanks everyone for making it easy and fast to use
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I tested a lot yesterday, no bugs found, no crashes
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All that I can think of now is requesting new features

i would like to see a coverflow for mp3's. since wiiflow already supports these files. it shouldn't be that hard to make them show up..
(would like to see some of my old hippie music covers from the LP day's)
great work on 4.0 fix94. wiiflow has become one of the best loaders out here for wii.

I'm feeling very tired, lazy, and disorganized right now, but I'll do the best I can.

Wiiflow Ideas
separate plugin categories- If possible, could you make separate categories for the plugins? While most of the emus will use the same format, we do not have any 2 player, platformer, puzzle, strategy, etc. movies

Add homebrew info to tdb- just thought it would be convenient to be able to tell what each app does, and how to control it before launching it.

Make banner movable and constant (multiple zones in game view)- This will help themers by removing these limitations.

show disc channel- Thought it might be a nice touch when you click the disc button, if the box/ banner for the game currently inserted would pop up, letting the user know what it is and allowing them to decide if they want to launch the game or not.

How to use the required + function and why the homebrews have it?- @Fledge68 , I get why it's handy to hide something, but what is one supposed to do with the required function? And why do the homebrew apps have all boxes marked as required?

Comix channel plugin- I like the idea, MassiveRican likes the idea. How many others might enjoy being able to launch virtual mags from wiiflow?

Wode support- How hard would it be, and if implemented, would it still be possible to get to movies, and use other apps that use the hdd, through the wode?

Um, that is all.

And why do the homebrew apps have all boxes marked as required?

Ahem...
My vote for a coverflow of sources when you launch the source menu

i still think the boot screen should be moved to a theme. an get rid of it on the boot.dol..

 

[AbdallahTerro]

Here are mine too:
1. New plugins
2. Framed icon or framed tiny banner/iconflow
3. Remember last mode/last game used
4. Online banner download
5. custom png for absent covers especially for each plugin (using magic number) and optionally for Wii/GC/Wiiware/Homebrew
6. Option to disable/enable banners
7. Ability to hide a game (without using favorites/categories)
8. Hermes, Wanin 17 for Wiiware

 

[spacepimp]

Sourceflow:

A coverflow of covers that represent sources, rather than games.

The sourceflow is designed to be an alternative to the source menu.​

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The sourceflow is designed to be similar to the rest of wiiflow.​

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The sourceflow will have 3D 'game' covers to represent sources.​

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The sourceflow will have 3D coverflows inside wiiflow's big 3D space.​

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In the beginning, the sourceflow will look very like the homebrewflow, and have covers that look very like the sourcemenu buttons.​

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The sourceflow will function very like the other coverflows - users can delete and favourite covers - except:​

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The sourceflow will allow you to easily select and launch multiple sources, using an on-screen "multi-select" button.​

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The sourceflow may allow you to move your "source-covers" around to your liking, and order your consoles by category (handheld, 16 bit groups, age, manufacturer etc). Thanks fledge68 ​

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Big thanks to momin for the inspiration​

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spacepimp​

SOURCEFLOW - is COMING!!! - Thanks Fix94!
Have your say on the "100% Useless" thread linked here:

http://gbatemp.net/threads/last-chance-for-sourceflow-100-useless-wiiflow-dev.353440/


OLD VERSION of this post:-

Spoiler

There are good technical issues that make a sourceflow difficult to produce. So why bother?*

Wiflow uses the same game artwork as the other loaders, but it's a more pleasant experience simply because of the big, beautiful 3 dimensional space you're using browse your games. Unfortunately, this competition-beating illusion of space is destroyed whenever you 'go up one level' to pick another source.

Currently the source menu is a multi page 2D menu of icons. Most importantly it's functional, and real effort has been made to make it beautiful, but even the most well designed 2D icon menu in the universe will always look a bit pants put next to a coverflow.

*Why, in software that's WOW-factor is the beauty of the interface, have a 2D menu you have to use all the time ?

Initially, we could use the currently available artwork in simple 2D covers in the wiiflow 3D environment - similar to how the homebrew apps are currently displayed, but a 3D cover collection would be a fair expectation. Source covers could be standardised, and replicated on GameTDB, and wiiflow could then download the covers internally. Thus:

*The source menu would become an indistinguishable, seamless part of a wholly 3D wiiflow, and without all the extra config and palava required for the current 2D multipage icon display.
show them a sourceflow be an option appreciated by a good few, or persuade someone versed in the dark arts to have a go at finding an elegant solution.

Spoiler

unelegant solution:

1 - the 'b' button would instead launch a the sourceflow of 3D covers to launch Sources
2 - wiiflow would have to write and read a new argument.

What is the process?
From the sourceflow, a user presses 'A' on the example cover, NOT64.
As usual with booting a game from an emuflow, an argument is created. Although in this instance, the argument indicates a coverflow, not an emu game.
The dol launcher in mem2 stores the argument, closes wiiflow, and start the plugin.dol. Except, in this instance, the plugin dol is not an emulator, it is in /apps/wiiflow/boot.dol, or (a copy) wiiflow.dol in the plugins folder. i.e. It is wiiflow itself.
Wiiflow launches, and at the point before it retrieves the last booted game, in order to load the relevant coverflow, it first checks for the argument. If it sees something, such as the argument indicating the NOT64 coverflow, it loads that instead.
Thus users can change plugins from a 3D sourceflow as quickly as a wiiflow restart.
in full:
http://gbatemp.net/threads/last-chance-for-sourceflow-100-useless-wiiflow-dev.353440/#post-4753655
I did say unelegant.

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[Pippin666]

Here are mine too:
1. New plugins
2. Framed icon or framed tiny banner/iconflow
3. Remember last mode/last game used
4. Online banner download
5. custom png for absent covers especially for each plugin (using magic number) and optionally for Wii/GC/Wiiware/Homebrew
6. Option to disable/enable banners
7. Ability to hide a game (without using favorites/categories)
8. Hermes, Wanin 17 for Wiiware

Can you explain me how to do number 7 please ??

Pip'

 

[AbdallahTerro]

Here are mine too:
1. New plugins
2. Framed icon or framed tiny banner/iconflow
3. Remember last mode/last game used
4. Online banner download
5. custom png for absent covers especially for each plugin (using magic number) and optionally for Wii/GC/Wiiware/Homebrew
6. Option to disable/enable banners
7. Ability to hide a game (without using favorites/categories)
8. Hermes, Wanin 17 for Wiiware

Can you explain me how to do number 7 please ??

Pip'

Open Wiiflow, Press "B" on star
Categories will show
Click on the box before any category, say "category1" select the (X) sign
Back to games select the game then press "B" on star when the game is selected and add that game to "category1"
you can easily press + or - while still in categories window to select categories for the other games.
in a couple of minutes all the games are categorized and hidden if needed

Hope this helps

 

[shortz1994]

shortz1994, on 03 September 2012 - 05:41 AM, said:

i would like to see a coverflow for mp3's. since wiiflow already supports these files. it shouldn't be that hard to make them show up..
(would like to see some of my old hippie music covers from the LP day's)

great work on 4.0 fix94. wiiflow has become one of the best loaders out here for wii.

well i have this fixed, now just how to i provide it to the masses? the only downfall is it needs some work by a "coder".
if there are any willing to help. that would be sweet.
* this is still work in progress but i have wiimc booting/showing my mp3 music.in coverflow. the draw back is an i need help on. when you choose the mp3 to play.(selecting cover.). wiiflow loads wiimc to main menu.(choose sd/usb.). but runs 100%. not buggie at all.. if there are any coders who want to help ?

 

[AbdallahTerro]

Here are mine too:
1. New plugins
2. Framed icon or framed tiny banner/iconflow
3. Remember last mode/last game used
4. Online banner download
5. custom png for absent covers especially for each plugin (using magic number) and optionally for Wii/GC/Wiiware/Homebrew
6. Option to disable/enable banners
7. Ability to hide a game (without using favorites/categories)
8. Hermes, Wanin 17 for Wiiware

#2 is done too, 6 to go

 

[spacepimp]

EDIT: Messy
OP:

Spoiler

shortz1994, on 03 September 2012 - 05:41 AM, said:

i would like to see a coverflow for mp3's. since wiiflow already supports these files. it shouldn't be that hard to make them show up..
(would like to see some of my old hippie music covers from the LP day's)

great work on 4.0 fix94. wiiflow has become one of the best loaders out here for wii.

well i have this fixed, now just how to i provide it to the masses? the only downfall is it needs some work by a "coder".
if there are any willing to help. that would be sweet.
* this is still work in progress but i have wiimc booting/showing my mp3 music.in coverflow. the draw back is an i need help on. when you choose the mp3 to play.(selecting cover.). wiiflow loads wiimc to main menu.(choose sd/usb.). but runs 100%. not buggie at all.. if there are any coders who want to help ?

This has something to do with arguments. Pose it on #wiiflow? Top work so far, sir!

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[triptophan]

Wiiflow with plugins has certainly brought my Wii back into use. In terms of feature requests I'd personally like to see:

1. Having different plugins load from different sources (without having to flip back and forth)
2. Have multiples of the same plugin from different sources on my source menu. (like maybe games of different categories, or a link for my tv shows and one for my movies through mplayer)
3. folder support - by this i mean it would be nice to have one cover that can load multiple files stored in a sub directory (like for movies split into parts) or if possible with a menu popup on the cover itself, to check off the files to load (like if i have 15 video files for a season of a tv show i can have it show up as one cover and choose the file to load from that).

These are me just being picky. The work you guys have done is great.

 

[AbdallahTerro]

Here are mine too:
1. New More plugins
2. Framed icon or framed tiny banner/iconflow
3. Remember last mode/last game used
4. Online custom banner download
5. custom png for absent covers especially for each plugin (using magic number) and optionally for Wii/GC/Wiiware/Homebrew
6. Option to disable/enable banners
7. Ability to hide a game (without using favorites/categories)
8. Hermes, Wanin 17 for Wiiware

yeah way to go

 

[Xx-Street-xX]

Feature Request

1. Integration of wiichatter 0.2 with different chatrooms gbatemp, wiibrew, wiiflow etc. http://thatotherdev.com/category/my-games/wii-chatter/
2. mp3 player like wii explorer for mp3 playlist see here http://wiibrew.org/wiki/File:Preview_pl.png
3. add the function of mplayer ce ripping dvd movies see here http://wiibrew.org/wiki/MPlayer_CE
Advanced Usage
Requires a loader supporting arguments passing.

DVD Ripping

[mplayer] dvd:// -dumpstream -dumpfile usb:/path/to/file.vob

4. improve wiiflow theme like xmbc
5. integretion of wiiradio with mp3 ripping from online radio 8STREAM RIPPING9 and vizulation support see here http://wiibrew.org/wiki/WiiRadio
6: complete integretion of wiimc with future development
7. mayby wiiflow can use the *.nfo Files which the "Ember Media Manager" Kreate to give more Infos Like Year Genre etc for movies



XBMC is a Programm that use this files...


greetz

 

[spacepimp]

yeah way to go

Loving ABz's recent work.
Kudos
As Xx-Street-xX has opened the thinking way out door (and thanks for that! - top work!)...
I've been brewing an ideagasm, just riffing like.


"webpage" source in the source menu, with a coverflow of 3d boxcovers that open links to online wii content (see below).


EDIT: It transpire's This is really simple to code - no one fancied doing it.

Spoiler

So if i got the bootoperaUSB dol, put it in the wiiflow plugins folder
made relevent ini's and edits to the relevent ini's, to add launch sounds /sourceflow artwork and such
Created 3d artwork and put it in an /Opera folder in the /wiiflow /boxcovers folder
what would be needed to launch opera to a webaddress and associate sounds and covers and artwork?
I'm thinking a bootoperaUSB wiiflow "source"/plugin could open a 3d cover menu of links to orisinal, wiicade, m.facebook clusty? etc.
...which launch opera to the given page.

UNIVERSAL USB LOADER SCREENSAVER IDEA

Out of the box, mind, but i understand torrent clients can be light? How about we share the wiiflow artwork content via a mini torrent client when running wiiflow idle?
Seems to me everyone has the same artwork duplicated across the users of all the usb launchers, to a heavily standardised format.
You could also use this de facto legal torrent network to distribute software updates, and alternate themes, forum generated content and custom artwork and sounds. And then the wii's would begin thinking for themselves. Slowly, but surely, they they learned to talk among one another, and fractally coalesce into one giant brain of every wii running wiiflow in the world. Super intelligent, infinitely modular, the indestructible wiiflow brain began to invade other internet capable software on the wii, and soon any wii in the world, left online for the merest nanosecond, became a cell in a brain the size of the worlds most popular console. Before Nintendo had time to react, the wii hive mind learned how to infect other consoles, then every apple device, every windows pc. By the time the mobile phones began running code no human had written, Nintendo decided to break the news.
It was too late.
Fix94 had become the most powerful man on the planet...

 

[spacepimp]

This got me thinking about playlists, i'm describing a source you click on in the source menu that opens a coverflow of games across consoles and genres, according to a textfile you can easily write edit and share. Perhaps even add artwork to.

With the onset of a emuflows, wiiflow has effectively become a media player for games. We could learn tips how to sort and find and view titles like a media player, because it's often dealing with hundreds upon hundreds (if not thousands upon thousands!) of titles.

EDIT:Much of the gameTDB data has been integrated into CFG usb loader - Hopefully, in time, some of this code might appear in wiiflow.

Anyhoo, playlists, eg all the zeldas from every console on one wiiflow page, all of gbatemp's retro thing, Emuretro.com's (or whatever) top 20 adventure games of all time, etc. (there's a really good site whose name escapes me that lists the best of the genre and the console, and some nice rarities you may have missed), and it would be nice to be able to swap and use on gbatemp. "ZOMBIIIS", "Fix94's fave 3d puzzlers" (not real example)
Wiiflow users share a pretty standardised folder structure, and a playlist 3d cover in a coverflow could open a simple textfile containing paths to all the games in a playlist in order. This is how winamp playlists work(worked?), for example.

 

[spacepimp]

An external wait animation folder, with multiple jpgs and submission in the ini file for looping properties - this would mean wait animations could be added to themes and users would have more freedom to choose and edit a wait animation. There is a problem with this - in that wiiflow currently loads the default image before the imported image, and it is thus bang slow. This got me thinking about memory saving mini animations, or perhaps dropping the animation for a text tip and a simple blinking cursor. Anyhoo, I did a couple of mini 16x9 pixel 8or10? frame animations and shall post them forthwith.
You could have a larger, more detailed picture, and only animate the blinking overlay, similar memory or lower memory use?


"tips.text - short tips randomly selected and dispalyed when wait animation is displayed.
eg.
B + Up or DOWN, jumps to the game titled with the next letter
Many of the options in wiiflow are found in the wiiflow ini in your apps/wiiflow folder - back it up first!
Pressing B in the source menu will take you right back to where you were"

Holding A on a game quickstarts that game (that's not true, that's a feature request. )

 

[spacepimp]

Touchscreen Scrolling-
Moving the whole array of covers left and right with the wiimote grab cursor
- please 'like' or add "+1 for Touchscreen scrolling" to your sig

You know on any touch screen device you can scroll between pages by flicking your fingertip across the screen?
It's very intuitive and quick, and feels obvious and fundamental to moving around the interface; imagine having to use a button pad (or touch an on-screen arrow) to move between pages and pages of titles on your smartphone or ipod - Yet this is what we do in wiiflow!!!
Of course, your TV isn't a touchscreen, and we need the cursor on the screen for selecting items, not swipe-scrolling through pages. However, if we free up the A+B squeeze to "grab" the screen, users could move the whole flow, as one object, under the cursor, and scroll pages left and right in exactly the same way as a smartphone.

So what? Where's the advantage over other ways of getting around wiiflow - you're still going one page at a time?!

Not if we give the 'flow inertia and friction...
like a roulette wheel, the pages keep scrolling,
but here's the good bit...
Touchscreens have to decipher your intention when you sweep the screen with your finger - wiiflow doesn't have to do this, because your using a 'grab' tool, not a generic cursor. The user can simply 'hold' the interface in their hand, and have instant intuitive control over the speed and direction of scrolling just by grabbing it and throwing it around!!!


Just a little refinement*, and even wiiflow novices will be able to quickly scroll through many covers in an intuitive and controlled manner.
Most importantly, it'll be FUN!
(magenta is scientifically proven funnest colour)

This sounds like sophisticated programming, is this going to be really hard to implement?

Using a different cursor drops a lot of the difficulties faced by an actual touchscreen; so fundamentally, we're tracking the wiiflow "surface" to a point underneath the cursor, and decaying the speed as and when the cursor leaves the screen or A+B combo is released.

EDIT:
Alternatively/Additionally, you could hold A+B and swing the remote in the direction you want to browse in, and the force of the swing could proportionally increase the speed of the roulette wheel.
- quite evocative to whip the speed up! -
- This has the advantage of working without pointing the wiimote at the screen.

n.b. I have no idea how difficult this is, and I'm reliably told no-one can say until work actually begins, but it doesn't seem too difficult at first glance, I would guess. Probably.

Are you a wiiflow coder, past or present? Would someone new to coding like to have a go at it? Do you know a macdaddy (or a daddymac) who's a bit handy with the old C++ who might enjoy a tinker?
I'm open to any ideas on how to make this work?!?!? Can update an svn and compile. Happy to beta test, experiment and open to learning.
I think some folks would be ever so grateful, I certainly would.
*'refinements', ahem , under the spoiler below

Spoiler

With a view to a fluid and intuitive interaction, to any passing coder, I've given a little thought to the behavior of the coverflow under the grab icon, and I have a few considered guesses about what might work:
A grab icon is invoked when pressing a+b on the wiimote and pointing at the screen. As the icon moves across the screen, the coverflow surface tracks underneath the grab icon, shadowing the grabbed point on the horizontal plane.
It may be more accurate to say the position of the cover in center focus is tracked to the cursor's horizontal position.
When the the A+B button combo is released, or the pointer leaves the screen, the wiiflow interface, continues to move at the pace set by the last few scans. This surface then slows at (perhaps a user-definable) "friction" over "inertia".
When the wiiflow "grab" pointer is used over the screen, the coverflow quickly slows and anchors underneath the pointer.

Couple of Back burner ideas:

Slowing the pace of the moving coverflow down by half (and pitching the wiiflow click down an octave), whenever the pointer returns to the screen (ie pointy cursor, not grabby cursor): and returning to the spinning speed and pitch when the cursor is removed from the screen.
The idea is to give a cinematic slow motion feel, when hovering for the game you know is coming up. It'll aid the selection of rapidly moving titles without decreasing the coverflow's "inertia", easy to implement, functional, and very evocative for the user.

Had a further refinement about A+B click off screen instigating motorbike accelerator mode. This is broadly the same as the current wiimote gestures implementation.
Holding a+b off screen and holding the wiimote horizontally, turn the wiimote in the direction of the wiiflow, and the speed of the flow accelerates proportionally to the angle of the wiimote and decelerates when the wiimote is leaned against the flow.i.e. you can lean the wiimote with or against the direction of flow - maybe even drop some motorbike noises to the wiimote speaker?!?!?!
EDIT: or possibly, even a light rumble? Madam!!

 

[spacepimp]

EDIT: Too Whiney

Let's have some wiiflow fantasy requests people, let's go mentile.

 

[VashTS]

I just want a simple feature. I need multiple nands. I need one for saves only and one for wiiware like usb loader gx has.

 

[FIX94]

I just want a simple feature. I need multiple nands. I need one for saves only and one for wiiware like usb loader gx has.

That already exist, for wii games its called "savepartition" and "savepath", for channels its just "partition" and "path".

 

[VashTS]

last time i asked, which was quite a bit ago, it was not an option. awesome fix! you are the best.

thats what i am thankful for today wiiflow!


edit: or maybe im reading wrong...you mean i can have a nand for SAVES only, and one for CHANNELS only right? meaning the channels nand reads from the saves nand for saves?

 

[papermanzero]

I would like to set pathes for the plug-ins.
E.g. Savestate path, firmware path, config path...
At the moment it's a chaos to find out and to sort roms/saves/configs etc.