Homebrew Official Retroarch WiiU (wip.)

[Murlocking]

For NES I use FCEUMM, but Nestopia is a good option too.
SNES I always go for Snes9x, no doubt (main Snes9x, not the ones with 20XX at the end).
GBA is mGBA, NO DOUBT.
And for GB/GBC, I use mGBA too, but Gambattle is a good one as well, I just like to keep all GB/C/A stuff under one core, hence why I use mGBA for all of them.

Wow, thanks man!
Funny thing is, I was already using all those cores so I guess i picked the good ones since I knew them from PC emulation.
Didn't know mGBA supported all retro Gameboy systems, that's pretty cool.
For NES, I used Nestopia and it worked nicely, do you think FCEUMM is better or they are pretty much the same if you use the basic function?

 

[lordelan]

Yo @lordelan, HID is back to Retroarch WiiU!!!

Woohoo! Thanks for letting me know! =)

 

[the_randomizer]

Wow, thanks man!
Funny thing is, I was already using all those cores so I guess i picked the good ones since I knew them from PC emulation.
Didn't know mGBA supported all retro Gameboy systems, that's pretty cool.
For NES, I used Nestopia and it worked nicely, do you think FCEUMM is better or they are pretty much the same if you use the basic function?

Nestopia is more accurate but still very fast for NES.

 

[gblues]

Thanks for everyone’s input!

Status update:

- I think I’ve got the pad disconnect weirdness sorted. Now, when a pad gets disconnected, there’s an OSD and the player’s device index reverts to “none.”

- I got the GCA to work with only the data cord connected.

- With regards to USB hubs: my DS3 works when connected via a hub, but not the GCA. I have no idea why. It’s possible this is strictly an issue with my hub. Users with a powered hub might have better luck. I don’t have one to test with.

I’m still working on analog inputs.

Update #2: I have analog working for the GCA. DS3 analog is next on deck.

 

[Murlocking]

Can someone help me setup MAME2000 please, the documentation is not available on the new website.
I have a romset named "MAME0.37b5_MAME2000_Reference_Set_Update_2_ROMs_Samples" which includes the .dat file (i think that's important) and the roms + samples.

What do I need to do next ?

 

[lordelan]

Can someone help me setup MAME2000 please, the documentation is not available on the new website.
I have a romset named "MAME0.37b5_MAME2000_Reference_Set_Update_2_ROMs_Samples" which includes the .dat file (i think that's important) and the roms + samples.

What do I need to do next ?

You use playlist buddy with that .dat file to create a playlist. The roms go to your SD card. Put in the path to their folder into playlist buddy as well as described in the first post.
And (this is important for MAME and FBA stuff): NEVER rename the zip files. I know that "Street Fighter III 3rd Strike.zip" looks better than "sfiii3.zip" but it has to be that name in order to work.

 

[JacobM]

Update #2: I have analog working for the GCA. DS3 analog is next on deck.

Amazing work gblues! I am happy to test out some cores with these revisions. Unfortunately, I don't own any hubs so I can't test that issue.

 

[gblues]

DS3 analog is now working!

New builds coming soon.

 

[gblues]

I’ve got new builds—unfortunately since I am a “new member” I can’t post the Google Drive link.

Would it be okay to post a disguised link or is that a bannable offense? (Eg: https drive dot google ...)

Fixes:
- devices properly clean up when unplugged
- analogs work
- GCA now works even if only the data cable is attached
- Gamecube buttons should now all be detected by button assignment (clicking L/R triggers detected now)

If you used the previous build, you should reset your configs (at least remove the playerX_* lines).

 

[ShadowOne333]

I’ve got new builds—unfortunately since I am a “new member” I can’t post the Google Drive link.

Would it be okay to post a disguised link or is that a bannable offense? (Eg: https drive dot google ...)

Fixes:
- devices properly clean up when unplugged
- analogs work
- GCA now works even if only the data cable is attached
- Gamecube buttons should now all be detected by button assignment (clicking L/R triggers detected now)

If you used the previous build, you should reset your configs (at least remove the playerX_* lines).

Send me the link, I'll post it for you
And don't worry, it's okay to post Google Drive links as long as they don't hold copyrighted material (aka ROMs, console keys, SDKs, etc).

 

[gblues]

Here is the link. I’ll let someone reply and make it
clickable. Here’s hoping I can get around the damn link detector.

Drive dot google dot com

/open?id=17ePGEoMdoy_w4swM_3Jtz3g_QjKHglFX

 

[ShadowOne333]

Here is the link. I’ll let someone reply and make it
clickable. Here’s hoping I can get around the damn link detector.

Drive dot google dot com

/open?id=17ePGEoMdoy_w4swM_3Jtz3g_QjKHglFX

Here it is!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17ePGEoMdoy_w4swM_3Jtz3g_QjKHglFX/view?usp=drive_web

 

[the_randomizer]

Here is the link. I’ll let someone reply and make it
clickable. Here’s hoping I can get around the damn link detector.

Drive dot google dot com

/open?id=17ePGEoMdoy_w4swM_3Jtz3g_QjKHglFX

You need to reach a certain post quota before you can officially post links.

 

[gblues]

Thanks @ShadowOne333!

Things to do with these builds:

1. Repeatedly load content across different cores. By "Repeatedly" I mean like 20-30 times
2. Repeatedly load content in the same core
3. One user reported the wiimote connection getting lost after a few seconds. Does this still happen?
4. See if you can test the analog sticks with a game/core that actually uses analog input (not just emulate-dpad-with-analog mode).

 

[ShadowOne333]

Thanks @ShadowOne333!

Things to do with these builds:

1. Repeatedly load content across different cores. By "Repeatedly" I mean like 20-30 times
2. Repeatedly load content in the same core
3. One user reported the wiimote connection getting lost after a few seconds. Does this still happen?
4. See if you can test the analog sticks with a game/core that actually uses analog input (not just emulate-dpad-with-analog mode).

Welcome
Here's hoping it all goes well with the current driver!

 

[JacobM]

1. Repeatedly load content across different cores. By "Repeatedly" I mean like 20-30 times
2. Repeatedly load content in the same core
3. One user reported the wiimote connection getting lost after a few seconds. Does this still happen?
4. See if you can test the analog sticks with a game/core that actually uses analog input (not just emulate-dpad-with-analog mode).

Thanks! I'll be updating this post as I find things... Tested with Snes9x/Nestopia/mGBA cores...

Old gamecube + new smash controllers work fine. Wavebird controllers don't seem to be detected. The blinking light on the receiver responds accurately, but no input is detected or displayed.

1. Different content across different cores loaded without closing current content first & no save states, checked for emulated analog support. Tested 9 switches (snes->nes->gb->repeat) before crashing while loading a Gameboy Color game with mGBA. Should I be sticking to Gameboy Advance games through the mGBA core? I have the DSI error captured if needed. EDIT: I'm crashing with all my Gameboy Color games. Looks to be an mGBA issue.
2. Different content across same core (snes9x, nestopia, GBA via mGBA) loaded without closing current content first & no save states, checked for emulated analog support. 20 loads, no crash!
3. Wiimote still hangs up 2-5 seconds after disconnecting a classic controller (repeatable). It can also cause the classic controller to stop detecting entierly. I honestly believe this may be due to the graveyard of broken wiimote and classic controller inputs from plugging and unplugging the classic remotes. They stop responding well before I reach the maximum of 16 inputs.
4. Emulate-dpad-with-analog only works if you rebind dpad to -0 +0 -1 +1. The settings for device type: retropad w/ analog & analog to digital type: left analog don't actually do anything. Once you rebind, both analog and dpad work simultaneously. Sorry, I don't own, play, or know how to configure any cores outside of Nintendo classics. I tried setting up multiplayer mame games, but got confused with the parent/fragmented roms.


Sidenotes
1. (Unable to reliably replicate) It seems like like hot swapping or adding more gcn controllers while on the menu results in graphical glitches shortly followed by loss of A button response on all my GCN controllers. I've had this happen twice on accident, but I cannot get it to occur again. Not sure what I am doing differently. Anybody else getting this issue?

2. WiiU Gamepad stays in a fixed input position. Example shows change in order if a Wii Remote is connected & Retroarch is restarted:

Input 1: Gamecube #1 -> Wii Remote
Input 2: Gamecube #2 -> Gamecube #1
Input 3: WiiU Gamepad -> WiiU Gamepad
Input 4: Gamecube #3 -> Gamecube #2
Input 5: EMPTY -> Gamecube #3​

3. Seeing that Wiimotes and classic controllers appear as separate inputs, is it possible to treat both (connected to each-other) as two of the same or two different controllers? It would be cool if it was possible to treat both as player 1 or making both functional inputs rather than disabling the Wiimote entirely.

4. I could be wrong, but did the input #'s beyond those supported by the game (example input 3 in a 2 player game) previously work to open the Retroarch menu? I use to keep the gamepad as #5, but now it wont respond to the menu command after the game has loaded. It will work in the in-game XMB once its loaded from the primary controller.

5. Regarding gamepad input always being #1, is it possible to detect if the HDMI display is powered on similarly to how the Wii U menu can. If you recall, attempting to enter vWii from the Wii U menu while the screen is off results in the gamepad becoming the primary device. Perhaps a similar input priority could be designed in the future.

Edit: Added gambattle to Retroarch for GBC support. Will do additional testing tomorrow.

 

[gblues]

3. Wiimote still hangs up 2-5 seconds after disconnecting a classic controller (repeatable). It can also cause the classic controller to stop detecting entierly. I honestly believe this may be due to the graveyard of broken wiimote and classic controller inputs from plugging and unplugging the classic remotes. They stop responding well before I reach the maximum of 16 inputs.

More or less, you're right. Tech stuff below, for the curious.

I was able to identify three inter-related bugs:

- When the "remote disconnected" detection fired, it wasn't calling the unregister function (similar to the first test build of the new HID driver), which made it create duplicate devices. This is what caused it to die after 3-5 seconds (more on this later)
- When the "device changed" detection fired (e.g. plugging in a nunchuk or CC), it didn't unregister the original pad, which meant the new device was given slot n+1 (where n is the pad's original remote).
- The "remote disconnected" detection is buggy and fires when the device hasn't actually disconnected. This causes the rmeote to constantly disconnect/reconnect.

So, bug #3 caused the device to repeatedly disconnect/reconnect; bugs #1 and #2 meant that when that happened, the wiimote would consume a new slot instead of re-using the original one. This is why it seems to die very quickly.

I've fixed bugs 1 & 2. With those fixed, the consequence of bug #3 is OSD spam, but the actual wiimote input works perfectly. Once I get the "wiimote disconnect" detection stable, the "wiimote disappears after 3-5 seconds" bug will be fixed.

Note that the wiiu does NOT see the wiimote and CC as separate devices. that was an artifact of the aforementioned bugs. If the CC is connected, wiimote button inputs are not available.

Now, about pad reordering:

I'm not sure it's possible to preserve pad ordering across restarts. That is, for the time being, any wiimotes you sync after starting RA are going to move to pads 1-4 the next time you load something. That's something that can be improved in the future, but it's potentially big and should have its own PR.

 

[gblues]

Here's a new build that should fix the wiimote disconnect bug:

drive dot google dot com

/file/d/1bWQrETMV_emQbW3fpJqx0NUayHREZEPd/view?usp=drive_web

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Sidenotes
1. (Unable to reliably replicate) It seems like like hot swapping or adding more gcn controllers while on the menu results in graphical glitches shortly followed by loss of A button response on all my GCN controllers. I've had this happen twice on accident, but I cannot get it to occur again. Not sure what I am doing differently. Anybody else getting this issue?

Anyone else see this happening? @JacobM did clearing your config help you at all with reproducing it?

2. WiiU Gamepad stays in a fixed input position. Example shows change in order if a Wii Remote is connected & Retroarch is restarted:

Input 1: Gamecube #1 -> Wii Remote
Input 2: Gamecube #2 -> Gamecube #1
Input 3: WiiU Gamepad -> WiiU Gamepad
Input 4: Gamecube #3 -> Gamecube #2
Input 5: EMPTY -> Gamecube #3​

I'm not sure I follow. What do you expect to happen, vs. what actually happens?

Keep in mind--there are known issues with the wiimote jumping to the front of the list on content load. That is probably going to be "use as-is" for now. I need to rewrite the kpad driver anyways to correctly handle disconnections, which might help but it's probably going to need its own project to properly fix.

3. Seeing that Wiimotes and classic controllers appear as separate inputs, is it possible to treat both (connected to each-other) as two of the same or two different controllers? It would be cool if it was possible to treat both as player 1 or making both functional inputs rather than disabling the Wiimote entirely.

They don't, actually. It just looks like they do in that build due to a bug, which I explained above. Basically, it was registering the new wiimote configuration (say, CC) without unregistering the old wiimote configuration. So, no, it isn't possible.

4. I could be wrong, but did the input #'s beyond those supported by the game (example input 3 in a 2 player game) previously work to open the Retroarch menu? I use to keep the gamepad as #5, but now it wont respond to the menu command after the game has loaded. It will work in the in-game XMB once its loaded from the primary controller.

I have no idea. There is a "all pads can control the UI" setting that was added, which may have added that behavior. Can anyone else confirm if this is true?

5. Regarding gamepad input always being #1, is it possible to detect if the HDMI display is powered on similarly to how the Wii U menu can. If you recall, attempting to enter vWii from the Wii U menu while the screen is off results in the gamepad becoming the primary device. Perhaps a similar input priority could be designed in the future.

That's an interesting idea. I have no idea how the Wii U detects the TV isn't connected for that feature. It might not be exposed to applications.

 

[JacobM]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bWQrETMV_emQbW3fpJqx0NUayHREZEPd/view

Thank you for looking into the controller input issues I have been experiencing with these builds. I don't know if these glitches originated from the code you developed or if they existed in the pre-HID builds. Frankly, I haven't messed around with Retroarch much to know.

I have some time tomorrow to run a barrage of tests, is there anything in particular you would like me to focus on? I planned to reattempt the core switching test and hopefully get it up to 30 switches.

The sidenotes weren't exclusively targeted at you @gblues , but thank you for trying to answer them!

1.I'll try clearing the config. Good suggestion!
2. Sidenote #2 was just an observation that WiiU gamepad is the only static input #. It was more targeted towards end users who want to utilize the gamepad as an alternative controller.
3. I read your technical explanation and it makes sense now. I could have sworn I've seen either a Wii or WiiU game that can utilize both as separate controllers. Regardless, this isn't worth pursuing as it is a niche application even if possible.
4. I'll see if I can test a pre-HID build tomorrow to determine if the behavior is different. The "all pads can control the UI" setting only kicks in while in the menu or the in-game menu. Sidenote #4 was also targeted towards other, more knowledgeable, end users.
5. It's probably not exposed, it was just a random thought that popped into my mind. I personally haven't seen any homebrew that can utilize this feature.

Prior to your recent HID cores, I've kept my Retroarch fairly unadulterated. This is my first time tinkering with Retroarch with the focus on breaking things. Everybody here really appreciate the hard work you are putting into the HID support and I am happy to continue helping you sort out any glitches. I apologize if some of my points were irrelevant to the focus of your work. I don't really know how the HID support is integrated into the cores and if they have the potential of disrupting other supported controllers.

 

[ShadowOne333]

Here's a new build that should fix the wiimote disconnect bug:

drive dot google dot com

/file/d/1bWQrETMV_emQbW3fpJqx0NUayHREZEPd/view?usp=drive_web

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------



Anyone else see this happening? @JacobM did clearing your config help you at all with reproducing it?



I'm not sure I follow. What do you expect to happen, vs. what actually happens?

Keep in mind--there are known issues with the wiimote jumping to the front of the list on content load. That is probably going to be "use as-is" for now. I need to rewrite the kpad driver anyways to correctly handle disconnections, which might help but it's probably going to need its own project to properly fix.



They don't, actually. It just looks like they do in that build due to a bug, which I explained above. Basically, it was registering the new wiimote configuration (say, CC) without unregistering the old wiimote configuration. So, no, it isn't possible.



I have no idea. There is a "all pads can control the UI" setting that was added, which may have added that behavior. Can anyone else confirm if this is true?



That's an interesting idea. I have no idea how the Wii U detects the TV isn't connected for that feature. It might not be exposed to applications.

Complete link for those not seeing it:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bWQrETMV_emQbW3fpJqx0NUayHREZEPd/view?usp=drive_web