Homebrew Official Retroarch WiiU (wip.)

[the_randomizer]

Completely restructuring my 32 GB card, something way overdue, and will make testing so much easier for me to do

 

[Radius4]

That's not happening for a while, the PPC dyarec core will take at least a month to port.

At least a month? there is no PPC dynarec for PSX that I know of and I don't think anyone is writing one from scratch

 

[VinsCool]

At least a month? there is no PPC dynarec for PSX that I know of and I don't think anyone is writing one from scratch

I though WiiSX had dynarec? If not, they are really good at pulling fullspeed PSX emulation for some games on Wii

 

[the_randomizer]

At least a month? there is no PPC dynarec for PSX that I know of and I don't think anyone is writing one from scratch

Does that mean it will have to be ported over? What does this mean for the future of those cores?

 

[Radius4]

I though WiiSX had dynarec? If not, they are really good at pulling fullspeed PSX emulation for some games on Wii

I didn't know about that one but that doesn't mean it's compatible with beetle, seems based on PCSX so it could be possible

Does that mean it will have to be ported over? What does this mean for the future of those cores?

It doesn't mean anything I'm not the voice of the project but giving numbers like one month is just gonna cause people to be disappointed if it doesn't happen.
The official stance is: NO ETAs

 

[sj33]

Can the zips themselves be renamed to be better? Something like SF2AUS or something is too confusing to understood what the name actually is.

The emulators rely on the naming to determine what files should be inside the zip, so no renaming!

 

[the_randomizer]

The emulators rely on the naming to determine what files should be inside the zip, so no renaming!

Already saw other posts, so it's fine I just wish there was an easier way to read the names XD

 

[aliaspider]

Ok I did some modifications on the homebrew launcher to allow some more freedom to the applications. The old format is also still supported and you can choose between big size of ELF and loose of code on exit of Mii Maker or small size of app (< 6.5mb) and not loose code anywhere in the system (except reboot/full relaunch).

I made a package for you to check it out and see how it works for you.
http://www25.zippyshare.com/v/Ix58i0de/file.html

It includes the new HBL ELF, the new mp4 file which is necessary because of SD loader changes and an example linker file.With that linker file your ".text" section will be loaded to 0x0F000000 and your rodata, data and bss will be on 0x12000000. That means you can use shaders, buffers etc. for GX2 directly from the bss or rodata/data.

I tested it only with ftpiiu and hbl itself as I don't have a big enough elf file but it should work with big files as well. I added a HBL.elf version with the sections at the addresses as above to the package just as a reference.

The known limitations (which can still be increased by a lot if necessary):
.text section = 16 MB (can be increased to > 100MB)
.rodata, .bss, .data = > 256MB

Issues:
The thing is that coreinit and every system library also uses the range at 0x10000000 for their stuff. So the loader.elf moves the data section of the "game" above that.
I tried using 0x10000000 it wasnt working as I am overwriting some important coreinit stuff. So i checked 0x11000000 and that got into the application actually but crashed inside as i probably started overwriting my own data section with some heap data. Moving it further to 0x12000000 solved the issue for HBL. Though this is not a very clean environment as I might still be overwritting some important stuff.
You will very likely find an address that will work properly as there is a lot of free space. There is actually something about 800MB or more of RAM for heap and your data/bss/rodata sections but its spread throughout that section. You could investigate Mii Maker and see where it starts for Mii Maker and put your start bss/rodata/data to that. HBL actually now allows you to freely choose code and data section addresses by changing them in your linker file. Not all addresses have access to run code by the system as you know but HBL can copy the stuff to any location in PPC memory. (By changing the BATs I can actually make the code launch anywhere but again you would need to search some space where you don't overwrite other stuff).
The proper solution to that issue would be to switch to the RPX format and let the loader.elf move your code and data sections to correct positions. I will integrate a wiiload and sendelf support for the RPX format and load those the same way that loadiine loads games but for homebrews, to save the time for developers of installing some channel to launch and test their homebrews.

Due to how the current copy procedure works the maximum total size of the ELF is somewhere around 68MB at the moment. This limit comes from loadiine as I use the memory maps of it but it is not at its maximum limit and it can still be increased by a lot. It was faster for me to implement it that way as it was already available. Though i don't think you will hit that limit so fast .

Let me know what you get out of this. Depending on the result i will check this into the HBL ELF branch or not.

thanks a lot @dimok , you're a real lifesaver I'll start testing this right away!

ah, and btw, I can already compile and run retroarch as rpx, it runs fine from loadiine, although I didn't test the big section sizes yet, just the 0x10000000 mapping which wut uses.

the only downside is that it doesn't exit properly, since I didn't implement all the procUI stuff yet, and, as you already mentioned, the extra time it takes to test things.

being able to load rpx directly from HBL would certainly be an great time-saver!

 

[fatsquirrel]

I have an odd questionlads..

where exactly are my savegames located? I definately have a save game in Chrono Trigger (tested it) but I cant find it anywhere on the sd card.
Im trying to inject a save from a different system thats why Im asking.

Edit: found them inside retroarch subfolders subfolder

 

[Osakasan]

So if i'm guessing correctly, that version of HBL allows for executing bigger files and, with that, it would allow for an unified Retroarch, isn it?

If so, that's awesome

 

[wakabayashy]

Mednafen Wswan: Exception Type DSI Error, CODE DUMP. <== with the new nightly 11/11/2016, it works

 

[Osakasan]

Sweet! I wonder if the Saint Seiya games have a translation

 

[wakabayashy]

unfortanely no or I don't found :'(

 

[yoshinatsu]

How come all the cores I've tried run at full speed, but have no sound?
Very impressive and disappointing at the same time, heh!

Also, is there currently a way to play the games unstretched?

 

[Osakasan]

How come all the cores I've tried run at full speed, but have no sound?
Very impressive and disappointing at the same time, heh!

Go to settings -> Sound driver and change it to AX

 

[yoshinatsu]

Go to settings -> Sound driver and change it to AX

WOAH! Thank you!
Any way to play the games unscaled (other than manually doing it from the TV)?
The aspect ratio is set to 4:3 on the video options, but it still stretches to 16:9.
Also, the image is kind of blurry even after disabling bilinear filtering.

 

[Osakasan]

WOAH! Thank you!
Any way to play the games unscaled (other than manually doing it from the TV)?
The aspect ratio is set to 4:3 on the emulator's options, but it still stretches to 16:9.
Also, the image is kind of blurry even after disabling bilinear filtering.

Not yet, think that this is a pre-alpha

Nonetheless, CPS3 games are widescreen by default and you can upres them to 1080p. It's just beautiful.

First they need to get all the cores working,

 

[yoshinatsu]

Not yet, think that this is a pre-alpha

Nonetheless, CPS3 games are widescreen by default and you can upres them to 1080p. It's just beautiful.

First they need to get all the cores working,

Yeah, definitely. I realize these are very early builds, I was just asking in case I was missing anything (like with the audio driver).
These are already better than Nintendo's own silly VC emulators with the dark tint, and at the very least, equal to the Wii counterpart of RetroArch.

 

[AmandaRose]

Mednafen Wswan: Exception Type DSI Error, CODE DUMP. <== with the new nightly 11/11/2016, it works

What's really strange is that it worked for me from the first nightly for a few hours then from then it stopped working giving me the dsi error no matter what nightly I try.

 

[Hielkenator]

Guys I am in tears right now...
Awesome to play most of the larger NEOGEO games!
and the hand full of CPS3 games are a work of art!
Hopefully compatibilty will be on par with the other RA releases.
I also noticed the much lower input lag awesome just awesome.
Load times from SD can u be improved upon, ( Wii version works fine ).
SAVING , SCANLINES ETC I CANNOT WAIT!