Hacking USB Loader GX and Emu NAND

[portugeek]

I need some help and clarification on things.

I have my "Nand Saves Emulation" and "Nand Chan. Emulation" set to FULL. I thought that these options ONLY effected USB Loader GX once the loader mode was set to "EmuNand Channels". I'm now finding out that these settings seem to effect EVERY loader mode within USB Loader GX. And because of this, my Wii games are accessing the emuNAND to create their game saves. I'm not a big fan of this.

With my GameCube games this isn't a problem because I have them saving directly to the memory card. And with my Wii games, I'd like to have them save to the real Nand. My VC and WiiWare games are the only games that I want having full access to the emuNAND.

Is there a way to make it so that certain settings only apply to the specific loader modes of USB Loader GX?


Also (this is kinda changing topics but still related to issue above) when I boot directly into the emuNAND, via Neek2o, my Wii freezes when I try to go to the Wii menu to look at my emu saves. Is there any other methods of viewing your emu saves without loading directly into emuNAND? Also, why would trying to view my emu saves through the Wii menu cause my Wii to freeze?

 

[portugeek]

What I just ended up doing was setting the global setting for "Nand Saves Emulation" to OFF. Then switching the loader mode to "EmuNand Channels" and changed the "Nand Saves Emulation" setting for each individual game/channel to OFF.

I still don't know how to access my emuNAND saves though. Anyone?

 

[Maxternal]

The NAND saves emulation is he one for Wii games. The NAND Channel emulation is the one for channels on your emuNAND. The normal setting would be to set the channel one to full and the Wii game one off. As far as being able to get the saves you accidentally made on emuNAND back onto real NAND, I kinda think Save game manager GX can help you there.

 

[portugeek]

The NAND saves emulation is he one for Wii games. The NAND Channel emulation is the one for channels on your emuNAND. The normal setting would be to set the channel one to full and the Wii game one off. As far as being able to get the saves you accidentally made on emuNAND back onto real NAND, I kinda think Save game manager GX can help you there.

Ok so now I understand how "Nand Saves Emulation" effects the Wii games, but what about the WiiWare games installed on EmuNand? The only reason I'm unsure is because it says "Nand Channel Emulation" so it leads me to believe that it's only effecting the channels that are installed on my Real Nand.

The WiiWare/VC games are channels that are installed on my EmuNand. Will USB Loader GX always create a save file for those games in the EmuNand no matter what?

EDIT: I tried out SaveGame Manager GX... AWESOME app.. thanks for recommending it!

 

[Cyan]

USBLoaderGX always create the Folder on EmuNAND where the save will be stored. Even if the game doesn't save anything, the folder will be created anyway, but will stay empty. this is not a problem.
The save file is created by the game itself, not the loader. USBLoaderGX can't know which filename and content the game will expect.

NAND Channel Emulation, isn't EmuNAND Channel instead?
In both case it would designate the Channels installed on your Emulated NAND.

NAND Channel or Wii or NAND = Real NAND
EmuNAND Channel = Emulated NAND

Playing a channel on EmuNAND will always save on EmuNAND.
Playing a channel on Real NAND, you can choose where to save (Real NAND (EmuNAND Save : off), or EmuNAND (EmuNAND Save : partial)


Difference with partial and full:

Wii game and channels on real NAND :
OFF = Read data from Real NAND, Save on Real NAND.
Partial = Read data from Real NAND, but save the savegame on "EmuNAND Save" path.
Full = Read and save everything from/to EmuNAND.

Channel on EmuNAND :
Full = Read and save everything from/to "EmuNAND channel" path.
It can't be OFF, as the game IS on EmuNAND, so you need to read it from there.
Partial shouldn't be used (because you need the Channel installed on Real NAND at the same time as EmuNAND, it will read the data from Real NAND and save on EmuNAND. You can achieve the same effect by using "EmuNAND Save : Partial" and launching from Real NAND).


Data = Wii settings, Mii, Channel's installed data.

 

[portugeek]

NAND Channel Emulation, isn't EmuNAND Channel instead?
In both case it would designate the Channels installed on your Emulated NAND.

You can see why this is confusing though. With it being called "NAND Channel Emulation" and referring to channels installed on the Emulated NAND. But the option right above it, "NAND Saves Emulation", is talking about the saves that are normally stored on Real NAND. I assumed that both of these options were referring to items that would normally function in the Real NAND.

Playing a channel on EmuNAND will always save on EmuNAND.
Playing a channel on Real NAND, you can choose where to save (Real NAND (EmuNAND Save : off), or EmuNAND (EmuNAND Save : partial)


Difference with partial and full:

Wii game and channels on real NAND :
OFF = Read data from Real NAND, Save on Real NAND.
Partial = Read data from Real NAND, but save the savegame on "EmuNAND Save" path.
Full = Read and save everything from/to EmuNAND.

Channel on EmuNAND :
Full = Read and save everything from/to "EmuNAND channel" path.
It can't be OFF, as the game IS on EmuNAND, so you need to read it from there.
Partial shouldn't be used.


Data = Wii settings, Mii, Channel's installed data.

Thanks Cyan! This info was perfect, it's exactly what I had questions about and now I completely understand.

 

[Cyan]

maybe you are confused by the two settings in the loader's setting menu?

There are two emulation setting, one for "EmuNAND save" and one for "EmuNAND Channel".
The first one is for Wii games and channels launch from real NAND, it's the emulation for the "saves" only. It's using the path set in the user's path menu "EmuNAND save folder"

The second one is only for channels installed and launched on EmuNAND. as it's only for the channels, it's called "EmuNAND Channel". It's using the path set in the user's path menu "EmuNAND Channel Folder".

You can of course use the same folder for both EmuNAND save and Channels (it's the default behavior). But for convenience, users can dissociate both folders. One for wii games and RealNAND, one for Channels on EmuNAND.

 

[sonictopfan]

I'll post it here because I didn't find my issue anywhere, I have USBloader GX and I use EmuNAND with every Wiiware/VC game that is compatible in my list.

Yesterday I wanted to play Warioware D.I.Y. which used to work just fine with EmuNAND but now I always get a blue screen while I hear in the background the game is running fine, I tried changing the settings, I tried uninstalling the game and reinstalling it again, nothing worked, what could be the problem? Can anybody help?

Got it working again, turned out the problem was the EmuNAND itself, not sure how it broke down but creating a new one got the game working again, after several tries and trial and errors I got it working but it broke other games, luckily I had a back up for my EmuNAND from the time I created a fully working one with all the games I got at the time so copying it over mine and re-adding the newer games solved the issue!

 

[clevelandguy588]

First, I want to thank you Cyan for all of the incredibly helpful posts that have guided me to success. I'm a relatively late bloomer to Wii, but am really enjoying it right now. I 'successfully' created an emuNAND by making a BootMii dump, extracting w/ ShowMiiWads, then adding/deleting the wads I wanted. I put the emuNAND folder on my USB drive, updated the path in USB Loader GX, and have been happily playing the VC and WiiWare games with no issues. My issue is with saving Wii games, which I also have stored on my USB drive. I have 'NAND Save Emulation' set to 'Full', as I want to store the game saves for my Wii wbfs games on my USB drive and NOT my Wii's NAND. The first few games seemed to save fine, but when trying to play Super Smash Bros. Brawl, I get an error message telling me there is not enough space for me to create a game save file. I confirmed via Save Game Manager GX that the games are getting saved to the emuNAND, and that there is plenty of free space on the USB drive (400+ GB). I have been searching everywhere but can't seem to find anyone else that has hit this issue. Hoping you might be able to help when you get a chance. Thanks!

 

[Cyan]

hello,

Some games doesn't work great with EmuNAND enabled.
I know Zelda Skyward Sword doesn't work when you set emuNAND Save to partial or full.
I don't know about Smash bros., I didn't test it and didn't see other users reporting an issue with this game.

Do you have enough free blocs on your Real NAND?
Maybe the game is correctly trying to write the save to EmuNAND but checks free space on the Real NAND.
Some games still access realNAND even if set to use Emulated one.

What you could do :
- Launch USBGX, set EmuNAND Save to OFF.
- play the game and create the save on your RealNAND.
- launch USBGX, go to the game settings, there's an option to extract save to emuNAND path.
- Set the game to save to EmuNAND
- Play the game, now that the save exists, it shouldn't check if you have enough space.
(delete the save from RealNAND to be sure it's accessing the one on EmuNAND)

 

[elconejotres]

Hey Cyan regarding this just a little question in the emunand created with USBLGXwhat is the folder path/name in which the saves are stored? I play with "full" so I want to back up my saves (save game manager GX never detect my HD beats me why) thanks in advance

PS
Is there some kind of list of games that wont work with emunand save?

 

[Cyan]

the savegames are stored in different places:

/titles/00010000/<gameID>/ : savegames for normal Wii Disc based games are stored here.
/titles/00010004/<gameID>/ : savegames for mixed Disc+Channel based games are stored here (for example, mario kart, wiifit, raving rabbids have an installable channel feature)
/titles/00010005/<gameID>/ : DLC location (Guitar hero, megaman, etc.)

other folders are used for:
/titles/00010001/<gameID>/ : downloaded Channels data (VC/Wiiware) in /content/ subfolder, and their savegames in /data/ subfolder
/titles/00010002/<gameID>/ : System channels (weather, Mii, news, photo, etc.)
/titles/00010008/<gameID>/ : Hidden channels (EULA)


nobody created or maintained a list of non working games.
I only know Skyward Sword is not working with emuNAND (randomly freeze when loading new map).

In SavegameManagerGX, there's a setting to use IOS58, it will fix your HDD detection issue.
But you can use an SD card instead!

 

[elconejotres]

Thank you so much for the answers and time Cyan!! as always you're the best

 

[Codemastershock]

I posted on the wrong topic, remove it please....

 

[self_slaughter]

Sorry for bumping an old thread, but it's the first hit on Google so why not.

Did this change in more recent versions of usb loader gx?

My Wii has nothing installed on the nand, everything is on the usb (Except hbc apps on SD).

I've found most WiiWare will show a corrupt system files screen or black screen on "full" mode, but "partial" works brilliantly despite the nand only having priiloader, usbgx forwarder and hbc on it.

UNeek r96 seems just as incompatible and so far has only really been useful for Castlevania. Full or partial mode works for everything else I've tried.

Note: seriously impressed with how far the Wii has come since I last used it (~rev 720 of usbgx. lol)

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