Hacking Wii U, Homebrew Channel, and The WiiU Controller

[gpooj]

First, I must say this site is awesome, and I've been lurking for years.

Second, I have read the stickies, and forgive my slowness, I must have missed a few things:

1. If I have a Wii with HBC, does Wii System Transfer also transfer my HBC? Is this not recommended, because of the differences between vWii and plain old Wii?

If I want to do a Wii System Transfer to move my saves and whatnot over to my Wii U, is that still even possible since I have HBC on my Wii?

2. I know that the WiiU controller can be used as a screen while in Wii Mode, but that the controls do not work. Is this always true? Is there any homebrew that supports controls directly from the WiiU controller?

I understand that the Wii U essentially runs as a Wii while in Wii mode, but since it still supports the dual-screen, it must have some U-ness running in the background, you'd think it would at least function as a pro or classic controller. I understand that it's WiFi and not bluetooth, but I'm just wondering what might be out there.

Thanks in advance. Again, if I missed something in the stickies I apologize.

 

[gudenau]

1.) Does not transfer
2.) No way to play games with the gamepad, I think that could be "fixed" after IOSU get hacked.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

First, I must say this site is awesome, and I've been lurking for years.

Second, I have read the stickies, and forgive my slowness, I must have missed a few things:

1. If I have a Wii with HBC, does Wii System Transfer also transfer my HBC? Is this not recommended, because of the differences between vWii and plain old Wii?

If I want to do a Wii System Transfer to move my saves and whatnot over to my Wii U, is that still even possible since I have HBC on my Wii?

2. I know that the WiiU controller can be used as a screen while in Wii Mode, but that the controls do not work. Is this always true? Is there any homebrew that supports controls directly from the WiiU controller?

I understand that the Wii U essentially runs as a Wii while in Wii mode, but since it still supports the dual-screen, it must have some U-ness running in the background, you'd think it would at least function as a pro or classic controller. I understand that it's WiFi and not bluetooth, but I'm just wondering what might be out there.

Thanks in advance. Again, if I missed something in the stickies I apologize.

I think it's both wifi and bluetooth, actually. Wifi for the video link, bluetooth for everything else.
Anyway, your questions were already answered by the guy above me. But you might not know that there's a sensor bar built in to the gamepad. It actually makes playing Wii games on it work pretty well with the gamepad in the stand, although the screen is small. I even played 2 player on it that way Any more wouldn't work though with everyone crowding around the gamepad to see.

 

[gpooj]

1.) Does not transfer

As in: HBC won't transfer, and it's safe to do the System Transfer to my Wii U?

I think it's both wifi and bluetooth, actually. Wifi for the video link, bluetooth for everything else.
Anyway, your questions were already answered by the guy above me. But you might not know that there's a sensor bar built in to the gamepad. It actually makes playing Wii games on it work pretty well with the gamepad in the stand, although the screen is small. I even played 2 player on it that way Any more wouldn't work though with everyone crowding around the gamepad to see.

That's pretty interesting, they went through the trouble of making the screen have a built-in "sensor bar" but didn't forward the controls over as a classic or pro controller.

 

[tbb043]

The gamepad is wifi, for controls and video, while other controllers like the Wii U Pro controller and Wii remotes use bluetooth. That's what makes it unlikely the gamepad will work in Wii mode, but Wii U Pro controllers (and even Sony controllers) are able to be used in some homebrew. It's more likely you'd get gamepad control in Wii games if someone hacked WiiU mode to play Wii games directly (not saying it will for sure happen, mind you).

 

[Marionumber1]

vWii Gamepad output is not accessible to PPC or ARM code. They have an 8-bit microcontroller, the DCMU, emulating the Wii's video interface and sending video to the DRH (the hardware on the Wii U that talks to the Gamepad). That being said, it may be possible for vWii code to use the network to implement something like libdrc, but that's a lot of work and it seems unlikely that vWii could handle the video processing.

 

[duffmmann]

I've heard a few people over the past few years that seem to know what they are talking about claim that in theory the vWii home brew and emulators could one day be played with the gamepad, but that it would take a lot of work to figure out and as far as I can tell no one seems to be actively working on such a thing at this time. I Would love it for emulators and whatnot, but I have a strong suspicion that the Wii U mode will be hacked long before that rendering the purpose of the Gamepad as a usable controller in the vWii pointless, as the home brew there could be instead developed and improved upon for the Wii U mode allowing gamepad usability much more easily.

 

[gudenau]

As in: HBC won't transfer, and it's safe to do the System Transfer to my Wii U?



That's pretty interesting, they went through the trouble of making the screen have a built-in "sensor bar" but didn't forward the controls over as a classic or pro controller.

System transfer is fine, I did it with custom ios and a few homebrew channels.

 

[gpooj]

System transfer is fine, I did it with custom ios and a few homebrew channels.

Sorry to be a broken record here, but since I'm inexperienced I just want it in black and white, because I'm prone to messing up.

If I understand correctly, if I do system transfer from my Wii to my WiiU, it will not transfer HBC or any other Homebrew, just the actual Nintendo stuff.
Thus, I don't void my Wii U warranty.

Did I get it right?

 

[gudenau]

Sorry to be a broken record here, but since I'm inexperienced I just want it in black and white, because I'm prone to messing up.

If I understand correctly, if I do system transfer from my Wii to my WiiU, it will not transfer HBC or any other Homebrew, just the actual Nintendo stuff.
Thus, I don't void my Wii U warranty.

Did I get it right?

Correct, but if I recal correctly the HBC save got transfered. :-P

 

[nastys]

vWii Gamepad output is not accessible to PPC or ARM code. They have an 8-bit microcontroller, the DCMU, emulating the Wii's video interface and sending video to the DRH (the hardware on the Wii U that talks to the Gamepad). That being said, it may be possible for vWii code to use the network to implement something like libdrc, but that's a lot of work and it seems unlikely that vWii could handle the video processing.

Wii games downloaded from the eShop that support the Classic Controller can also be controlled with the Gamepad. I think it may be possible to convert Wii disc games to Wii downloadable games and support the Gamepad for all games, once the exploit is complete.