Hacking Nintendont Themes and Custom Mods

[AbdallahTerro]

Update:
* Huge custom game loader code cleanup (dol and patch significantly smaller now)
* The "download custom game loader with and without bars" and the "delete custom theme" all use the same function now the "Custom Game Theme Manager"

I've tested and all still works as it should
Please update and report any bugs

 

[TotalInsanity4]

Reporting back, updated internally about 10 minutes ago

I'm guessing that the issues that I was running into were either unoptimized code, or me trying to run an image through with an invalid aspect ratio, which may have partially crashed it. Either way, it works like a charm now!

One very small request, though: When you use custom images (be it backgrounds, loader themes, game themes, what have you), the image isn't QUITE stretched to fill the screen, it leaves slight but noticeable bars on either side, which I know isn't a TV issue because the games themselves display correctly. I'm just wondering, is there any way to fix this? Or is this as good as it will get for the time being? (Don't take this the wrong way, I think that the recent optimizations from both the Nintendont side and the MOD side have been PHENOMENAL!)

 

[Troopage]

Reporting back, updated internally about 10 minutes ago

I'm guessing that the issues that I was running into were either unoptimized code, or me trying to run an image through with an invalid aspect ratio, which may have partially crashed it. Either way, it works like a charm now!

One very small request, though: When you use custom images (be it backgrounds, loader themes, game themes, what have you), the image isn't QUITE stretched to fill the screen, it leaves slight but noticeable bars on either side, which I know isn't a TV issue because the games themselves display correctly. I'm just wondering, is there any way to fix this? Or is this as good as it will get for the time being? (Don't take this the wrong way, I think that the recent optimizations from both the Nintendont side and the MOD side have been PHENOMENAL!)

Those bars are supposed to be there. My guess is that you never noticed because you used the widescreen patch, right?

 

[VinsCool]

Reporting back, updated internally about 10 minutes ago

I'm guessing that the issues that I was running into were either unoptimized code, or me trying to run an image through with an invalid aspect ratio, which may have partially crashed it. Either way, it works like a charm now!

One very small request, though: When you use custom images (be it backgrounds, loader themes, game themes, what have you), the image isn't QUITE stretched to fill the screen, it leaves slight but noticeable bars on either side, which I know isn't a TV issue because the games themselves display correctly. I'm just wondering, is there any way to fix this? Or is this as good as it will get for the time being? (Don't take this the wrong way, I think that the recent optimizations from both the Nintendont side and the MOD side have been PHENOMENAL!)

it's tv overscan. Normal behaviour on most wii/gamecube stuff.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

Those bars are supposed to be there. My guess is that you never noticed because you used the widescreen patch, right?

No, I know they're supposed to be there. I'm not talking about the 4:3 during a game, I'm talking about a 1" or so bar on either side of the Nintendont menu images

it's tv overscan. Normal behaviour on most wii/gamecube stuff.

Like I said, menu, not in-game

 

[VinsCool]

No, I know they're supposed to be there. I'm not talking about the 4:3 during a game, I'm talking about a 1" or so bar on either side of the Nintendont menu images


Like I said, menu, not in-game

Even in homebrews, it appears if there isn't custom video stretching applied.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

Even in homebrews, it appears if there isn't custom video stretching applied.

Hm :T ok, didn't know that

 

[Troopage]

Hm :T ok, didn't know that

Yeah man, it all harks back to the resolution being either 448p or it's widescreen counterpart. Those 1" bars have always been there.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

Yeah man, it all harks back to the resolution being either 448p or it's widescreen counterpart. Those 1" bars have always been there.

Heh, I see. I always noticed them, it's just I didn't really care until now because I've always been using images with a black background. Now that I'm starting to make custom game themes with colors other than black on the border, it gets really obvious

 

[AbdallahTerro]

Good to know it's still running smoothly
I'm happy with the mod as is and can't think of any new features to add
so what do you guys want next?

 

[Adeka]

I'm surprised you haven't made Nintendont have a coverflow loader

 

[AbdallahTerro]

I'm surprised you haven't made Nintendont have a coverflow loader

I was busy trying to add Halo support, still wip

 

[Troopage]

Good to know it's still running smoothly
I'm happy with the mod as is and can't think of any new features to add
so what do you guys want next?

I'm happy with the mod too. These are totally not necessary but if you feel like taking a look at them, my suggestions in order of most wanted to least wanted are:
1. Widescreen patching that works on sprites and text as well as 3D environment. Swiss seems to have this. Its source can be found here.
2. If the first one doesn't pan out, a "true" 4:3/16:9 toggle setting like Wii U widescreen would be nice.
3. Custom game themes with loader bar for Geist and Star Fox: Assault. I honesty don't know how you missed these. XD

 

[SuperrSonic]

When you use custom images (be it backgrounds, loader themes, game themes, what have you), the image isn't QUITE stretched to fill the screen, it leaves slight but noticeable bars on either side, which I know isn't a TV issue because the games themselves display correctly. I'm just wondering, is there any way to fix this?

In the video code of the loader part of Nintendont you can specify viWidth, to enable horizontal hardware stretching and can be up to 720 pixels wide, every TV is different but since you can see black bars; 686 would be a good value to hide a bit of the image in the overscan area. Loader aside, Devolution confirms this can also be forced on GC games but Nintendont does not and probably will not support this.

Seeing a squished image is normal since Wii pixels are thin and regular software can only use 640 pixels as framebuffer width and the background images you are using were no doubt intended to be seen in square pixels.

 

[AbdallahTerro]

I'm happy with the mod too. These are totally not necessary but if you feel like taking a look at them, my suggestions in order of most wanted to least wanted are:
1. Widescreen patching that works on sprites and text as well as 3D environment. Swiss seems to have this. Its source can be found here.
2. If the first one doesn't pan out, a "true" 4:3/16:9 toggle setting like Wii U widescreen would be nice.
3. Custom game themes with loader bar for Geist and Star Fox: Assault. I honesty don't know how you missed these. XD

Assault was there but badly renamed (fixed now)
Geist added

as for video modes I believe they will be fixed in the official app later.

In the video code of the loader part of Nintendont you can specify viWidth, to enable horizontal hardware stretching and can be up to 720 pixels wide, every TV is different but since you can see black bars; 686 would be a good value to hide a bit of the image in the overscan area. Loader aside, Devolution confirms this can also be forced on GC games but Nintendont does not and probably will not support this.

Seeing a squished image is normal since Wii pixels are thin and regular software can only use 640 pixels as framebuffer width and the background images you are using were no doubt intended to be seen in square pixels.

I was planning to increase the horizontal width a bit in the mod, but I decided to change the wiiflow setting instead.
I believe it's better to have it a little more than 640 (maybe 690) for practical purposes, I'll see if I can change this too
where can I find this width value?

 

[SuperrSonic]

where can I find this width value?

With grrlib it would be: rmode->viWidth = 690; Sticking it in the video init code should be all IIRC, or just putting it with the video modes is enough.

 

[AbdallahTerro]

With grrlib it would be: rmode->viWidth = 690; Sticking it in the video init code should be all IIRC, or just putting it with the video modes is enough.

tried sticking "rmode->viWidth = 680;" in different areas of grrlib.c video init code and result was either black screen or no change to width,
so I don't know if we need more stuff to fix it, but it looks like we do

 

[Troopage]

Assault was there but badly renamed (fixed now)
Geist added

Yay! Thank you!

as for video modes I believe they will be fixed in the official app later.

I'd hope so, but since there was no word from the devs and pedro and some others were being dicks about it, I wasn't sure so I just wanted to see what you would do.

 

[AbdallahTerro]

Cool stuff!
thought why not share

 

[SuperrSonic]

so I don't know if we need more stuff to fix it, but it looks like we do

No need, I meant adding it right below a video mode would work and it does. But because of the multiple video modes you have to do something different to be more effective instead of just adding it multiple times and as you said randomly adding it doesn't work.
Something like:

if (progressive)
{
rmode->viWidth = 704;
}
else
{
rmode->viWidth = 704;
}

Then just put it below line 149
And it works because I've tested it, it's not really the best solution but you get the idea. Most homebrews and official programs tend to use the current aspect ratio to determine if more stretching should be used, I personally don't like that, however I used progressive to give an example.