Hacking Drawing on your Wii U

[nintendonetwork]

I thought I'd try out the Javascript functions on the Wii U's browser. Here's a link to a drawing app I'm working on:

www.somegamesimade.com

If you don't see a color wheel on the top-right, refresh the page until you do. This only works on the Wii U right now.

CONTROLS:

STICKS:
Rstick = move canvas
Lstick = move canvas
Rstick button = hide grid
Lstick button = show grid

DPAD
Left = eraser - other menu options coming soon
Right = pen
Up = increase box sizes - this multiplies the editable area starting from 1 pixel up to 8
Down = decrease box size

BUTTONS:
+ = zoom in
- = zoom out
A = enable Ball - this is just for fun.
R shoulder - disable Ball

Draw with the stylus and choose a color using the Lstick or the stylus.

Enjoy! Let me know your thoughts. This is the first thing I've ever really programmed, so expect some wonky behavior as well as eventual updates.


UPDATE: If trying on your computer (which isn't recommended), the controls are currently different:

arrow keys - move canvas.....don't move the canvas up or left to begin with (bugs!)
comma - reduce grid size
period - increase grid size
1 - zoom in
2 - zoom out
q - enable eraser
w - enable marker
use the mouse to color in
select a color by clicking on the wheel

 

[Andy A]

It's a really cool idea and seems promising yet is (as you say) very buggy. I was considering doing this but with a stream to the pc making it a glorified tablet for the pc however I haven't got time for the project sadly. HTML5 and JS really isn't a nice place to develop but with a little poking it generally does what you want.

 

[007alex]

It's really Awesome.
And where did you find the js code for Wii U ?

 

[Andy A]

It's really Awesome.
And where did you find the js code for Wii U ?

You can use the wiki page and if you know bit manipulation then you should be able to get all the information you need.

 

[007alex]

Thanks

 

[nintendonetwork]

You can use the wiki page and if you know bit manipulation then you should be able to get all the information you need.

Pretty much. Lots of pixel manipulation. I looked a little at the wiki, but mainly relied on Nintendo's own page on the matter:

http://www.nintendo.com/wiiu/built-in-software/browser-specs/extended-functionality/

Make sure to check this out on your Wii U browser:
http://www.nintendo.com/wiiu/built-in-software/browser-specs/sample/


My page is basically a few canvas layers on top of each other. There is one hidden layer in the background storing all of the pixel info and a layer on the foreground displaying only the section of the image you're currently looking at. Then there're the control and grid layers on top of all that - but the first two are the two key layers.

There is huge room for speed improvements, so expect that over time. If anybody knows a good way to email the image to somebody, I'm all ears. It's pretty easy to create obstacles and have the canvas interact with the controller's gyroscopes and accelerometers, but I am focusing on the drawing tool first. Also, I don't agree that Javascript and HTML are bad for this type of thing. I think most people just approach the issue poorly and give it a bad rep, especially considering that the google maps and miiverse programs are basically just html and javascript.

 

[Andy A]

Pretty much. Lots of pixel manipulation. I looked a little at the wiki, but mainly relied on Nintendo's own page on the matter:

http://www.nintendo.com/wiiu/built-in-software/browser-specs/extended-functionality/

Make sure to check this out on your Wii U browser:
http://www.nintendo.com/wiiu/built-in-software/browser-specs/sample/


My page is basically a few canvas layers on top of each other. There is one hidden layer in the background storing all of the pixel info and a layer on the foreground displaying only the section of the image you're currently looking at. Then there're the control and grid layers on top of all that - but the first two are the two key layers.

There is huge room for speed improvements, so expect that over time. If anybody knows a good way to email the image to somebody, I'm all ears. It's pretty easy to create obstacles and have the canvas interact with the controller's gyroscopes and accelerometers, but I am focusing on the drawing tool first. Also, I don't agree that Javascript and HTML are bad for this type of thing. I think most people just approach the issue poorly and give it a bad rep, especially considering that the google maps and miiverse programs are basically just html and javascript.

I look forward to the updates to come and if you need any help let me know and I should be able to point you to something useful or type some up myself.
For sending email there are many ways to do you, depending on how your web system is set up you could save the images through php and then send the email with a python script, while not the fastest method in the world it would probably get the job done.
Finally html5 and js are pretty terrible however unless you have been programming for many years and have an understanding of base hardware you really dont see it unless pointed out however you are kinda put into a position where you must use it sometimes. As an explanation js doesn't have a proper understanding of variable types meaning that lots of clocks and bytes are wasted. As I am aware HTML5 does the same thing. Another problem is that they are both scripting languages meaning that you spend most of the computers time workout what you actually want to do rather than doing it. This does however allow you to have your application run on any computer that has a browser (in this case a Wii U) without having to make multiple websites. The final problem is Object Oriented Programming, yeah that isn't really a fact but more an opinion of each developer. If you want to know more about that then you can watch a great 30 mins lecture called The web will dies when OOP dies.
That is all I have to say really on the matter. yet again I hope this project goes well for ya.

 

[vashgs]

I look forward to the updates to come and if you need any help let me know and I should be able to point you to something useful or type some up myself.
For sending email there are many ways to do you, depending on how your web system is set up you could save the images through php and then send the email with a python script, while not the fastest method in the world it would probably get the job done.
Finally html5 and js are pretty terrible however unless you have been programming for many years and have an understanding of base hardware you really dont see it unless pointed out however you are kinda put into a position where you must use it sometimes. As an explanation js doesn't have a proper understanding of variable types meaning that lots of clocks and bytes are wasted. As I am aware HTML5 does the same thing. Another problem is that they are both scripting languages meaning that you spend most of the computers time workout what you actually want to do rather than doing it. This does however allow you to have your application run on any computer that has a browser (in this case a Wii U) without having to make multiple websites. The final problem is Object Oriented Programming, yeah that isn't really a fact but more an opinion of each developer. If you want to know more about that then you can watch a great 30 mins lecture called The web will dies when OOP dies.
That is all I have to say really on the matter. yet again I hope this project goes well for ya.

Seems more like your opinion rather than fact. JS and HTML5 are both excellent in their own rights. You make valid points about lack of proper types, but you still seem to miss the fact that most modern JS engines will use only the space required for a variable. In fact, JS is one of the most sophisticated automatic type-casting languages out there, thanks to modern engines. I find it hard to agree with your argument that they're "terrible" when you see the implementations of proper 3D engines in pure HTML5 and JS, or the flexibility and amount of hardware access granted to web developers through the browser, thanks to HTML5. For a scripting language, modern JS is as good as it comes. I fail to see any validity to your argument, but I do respect your right to have that opinion; just make sure you present it as such.

Also: Your argument that the browser spends most of its time interpreting is just silly. It's a web browser. By its very nature, that is what it is designed to do. You will never see anything beyond an interpreted language being sent to users in a browser environment.

 

[Andy A]

Seems more like your opinion rather than fact. JS and HTML5 are both excellent in their own rights. You make valid points about lack of proper types, but you still seem to miss the fact that most modern JS engines will use only the space required for a variable. In fact, JS is one of the most sophisticated automatic type-casting languages out there, thanks to modern engines. I find it hard to agree with your argument that they're "terrible" when you see the implementations of proper 3D engines in pure HTML5 and JS, or the flexibility and amount of hardware access granted to web developers through the browser, thanks to HTML5. For a scripting language, modern JS is as good as it comes. I fail to see any validity to your argument, but I do respect your right to have that opinion; just make sure you present it as such.

Also: Your argument that the browser spends most of its time interpreting is just silly. It's a web browser. By its very nature, that is what it is designed to do. You will never see anything beyond an interpreted language being sent to users in a browser environment.

This is moving away from the wii u and the application at hand, so lets tie this up neatly by how I personally don't like scripting languages on a whole, likewise for chameleon variables both for many reasons. I can understand the need scripting languages though. Likewise I respect your opinion so I'm going to go back to enjoying my dinner now.

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

It kind of works for the PC using Google Chrome... I was bored so I tried it out, the wheel works and you can click around to color some blocks, using the arrow keys on the keyboard moves things around but it's glitchy lol (Expected since you said Wii-U only.)

Very cool work!!! (Loading up my Wii-U now so I can give it a proper play.) also going to add it to my favorites

 

[nintendonetwork]

Bumping.

I updated the site a little bit and made the controls a little clearer. I also fixed a few bugs.

More features coming.....eventually.