Hacking WiiFlow Lite

[fledge68]

Thank you, I'm gonna try this.
I'm on SD

Thank you very much, I will try what he said

do you not use USB at all? if so the go to main settings>startup settings and set sd only to yes or on. this will prevent wfl from spending several seconds trying to mount a usb drive.

 

[Muliro]

do you not use USB at all? if so the go to main settings>startup settings and set sd only to yes or on. this will prevent wfl from spending several seconds trying to mount a usb drive.

I only store GC and Wii games at USB, since they are larger. Nice to know it, I'm gonna try.
Thank you very much people!

ps: After so much time, I'm working a little on that theme I was working on.

 

[Muliro]

I moved my cache folder out of the SD and back again, also set WFL to SD only.
It's UNBELIEVABLE faster now, waaaay better.

Thanks a lot

 

[NormalMisha]

I moved my cache folder out of the SD and back again, also set WFL to SD only.
It's UNBELIEVABLE faster now, waaaay better.

Thanks a lot

I think the SD-only thing probably solved it. Random access on flash memory should be quick regardless, so 'defragging' the cache folder probably had no effect.

 

[Muliro]

I think the SD-only thing probably solved it. Random access on flash memory should be quick regardless, so 'defragging' the cache folder probably had no effect.

It had. I did it first and tested and it was already way faster. Then I changed it to SD only and it was faster again.
Definitely moving the folder helped a lot too

 

[JasonH]

Im trying to build my own personal version of the Carbonix Theme for wiiflow lite. Ive changed the png images for the sourceflow buttons but i cannot get it to stay on the settings that i like. In other words as i change the sourceflow pattern by pressing the (1) button on the bottom of the wii remote it changes it just fine but when i restart wiiflow it automatically changes back to the original. Is there a way to fix it by changing the main sourceflow pattern within a ini. setting or am i missing something within wiiflow itself?

 

[fledge68]

Im trying to build my own personal version of the Carbonix Theme for wiiflow lite. Ive changed the png images for the sourceflow buttons but i cannot get it to stay on the settings that i like. In other words as i change the sourceflow pattern by pressing the (1) button on the bottom of the wii remote it changes it just fine but when i restart wiiflow it automatically changes back to the original. Is there a way to fix it by changing the main sourceflow pattern within a ini. setting or am i missing something within wiiflow itself?

open source_menu.ini via a text editor. do you see these lines:

[GENERAL]
flow=#

if so you can just set the flow= to the one you want and save or you can just remove the flow= line and save. apparently a small coding mistake by me where upon startup wfl this flow= overrides the one saved in wiiflow_lite.ini. but when you change it via the '1' button it never changes this flow= only the one in wiiflow_lite.ini.

if these lines are not there. then make sure you are exiting wfl properly or launching a game in order for wiiflow_lite.ini to be saved with the new info to use on next startup.

 

[JasonH]

open source_menu.ini via a text editor. do you see these lines:

[GENERAL]
flow=#

if so you can just set the flow= to the one you want and save or you can just remove the flow= line and save. apparently a small coding mistake by me where upon startup wfl this flow= overrides the one saved in wiiflow_lite.ini. but when you change it via the '1' button it never changes this flow= only the one in wiiflow_lite.ini.

if these lines are not there. then make sure you are exiting wfl properly or launching a game in order for wiiflow_lite.ini to be saved with the new info to use on next startup.

Worked like a charm. Note that it was the source_menu.ini inside the carbonix theme folder. im guessing if i had to do the same with Rhapsodi it would be The source_menu.ini in the Rhapsodi theme folder and so on with any other theme.

 

[NormalMisha]

It had. I did it first and tested and it was already way faster. Then I changed it to SD only and it was faster again.
Definitely moving the folder helped a lot too

Interesting. Noted.

 

[XFlak]

Sorry for the noob question, but can WiiFlow update itself?

 

[fledge68]

Sorry for the noob question, but can WiiFlow update itself?

nope.

 

[NormalMisha]

I asked this about a year ago, we discussed it, I couldn't get it to work and then life happened:

Does the latest WiiFlow currently support loading a dedicated background image to match the BothNands channels type? The Shima theme has only NAND.png and EMUNAND.png in the backgrounds folder. I actually just now downloaded the WiiFlow source but I failed to find where in the code it decides which background image to use. My hunch is that WiiFlow doesn't currently support this.

 

[fledge68]

I asked this about a year ago, we discussed it, I couldn't get it to work and then life happened:

Does the latest WiiFlow currently support loading a dedicated background image to match the BothNands channels type? The Shima theme has only NAND.png and EMUNAND.png in the backgrounds folder. I actually just now downloaded the WiiFlow source but I failed to find where in the code it decides which background image to use. My hunch is that WiiFlow doesn't currently support this.

wiiflow gets the first magic number from the source button magic= line. then takes it to find the background filename in platform ini.

you will need to have 3 plugins. first 2 are inluded in the plugin pack. the 3rd you will have to make.

1. channels.ini
2. emuchannels.ini
3. bothchannels.ini

here is number 3:

[PLUGIN]
magic=424E414E
dolfile=boot.dol
arguments={device}:/{path}/|{name}
romdir=nands
rompartition=-1
filetypes=.wad
displayname=Nand Both
coverfolder=Channels
covercolor=ffffff
bannersound=
consolecoverid=

next, make a source button with all 3 magic numbers but make sure the first one is #3 (424E414E). now add to platform ini 424E414E=bothchannels.
name your background bothchannels. this should work unless i missed something. i'm short on time today. hopefully someone gets what im saying.

 

[matt!]

I was wondering, what is the cause of the (long) loading time for WFL?

If I'm not interested in seeing the logo, can I speed it up any?

Thanks!

 

[Muliro]

I was wondering, what is the cause of the (long) loading time for WFL?

If I'm not interested in seeing the logo, can I speed it up any?

Thanks!

Read my question in the last page and follow the advices they gave me

 

[matt!]

Thanks! I'll try those tips. It could be that I have set to look for usb by accident. I use SD 95% of the time.

 

[fledge68]

Thanks! I'll try those tips. It could be that I have set to look for usb by accident. I use SD 95% of the time.

keep in mind if you are using plugins (and have the runningsnakes/tetsuo plugin pack) wfl loads every plugin ini file and gather's its information on every boot. i could possibly do like the gamelist and cache the info but then that means if the user added/deleted/edited any plugins they would have to a 'reload plugins'.

 

[ukigh4ie]

Hi @fledge68

A few suggestions for improving WiiFlow.

If you delete a game (red cross), the cached images in the wiiflow/cache folder are not deleted, which takes up space unnecessarily in the long run.

Activating and deactivating the favourites (yellow star) should briefly display the resulting number of games, just like when you enter a plug-in.

 

[NormalMisha]

wiiflow gets the first magic number from the source button magic= line. then takes it to find the background filename in platform ini.

you will need to have 3 plugins. first 2 are inluded in the plugin pack. the 3rd you will have to make.

1. channels.ini
2. emuchannels.ini
3. bothchannels.ini

here is number 3:

[PLUGIN]
magic=424E414E
dolfile=boot.dol
arguments={device}:/{path}/|{name}
romdir=nands
rompartition=-1
filetypes=.wad
displayname=Nand Both
coverfolder=Channels
covercolor=ffffff
bannersound=
consolecoverid=

next, make a source button with all 3 magic numbers but make sure the first one is #3 (424E414E). now add to platform ini 424E414E=bothchannels.
name your background bothchannels. this should work unless i missed something. i'm short on time today. hopefully someone gets what im saying.

Thanks for that. It throws up a few questions:

1) Is there a difference between loading (for example) the Wii games coverflow via the built-in string "source=wii" and using a plugin? Presumably there is, and if we used plugins for all of the built-in types I guess we would hide all tier-changing buttons, as we would only have the plugins tier whose content would be altered via the sourcemenu system.

2) In the above bothnands plugin setup, is the purpose of the 3rd plugin solely so we can link a dedicated background image via the name string in platform.ini? How are duplicates avoided if we are asking for nand + emunand + bothnand channels? nand + emunand would give us the full list.

3) In the channels plugin ini files, do the romdir and filetypes settings actually do anything? There are no actual .WAD files in (emu)nands. If romDir actually does something, does it allow us to create two emunand plugins which point, via different romDir values, to two different emunands stored in differently-named parent directories, e.g. "...nands\default" and "...nandsTwo\default"? If not, it seems like that would be a relatively straight-forward possible future enhancement (says me, ignorantly). I guess at the moment when your code sees a channels plugin you are just calling a separate method instead of calling the general method that handles all normal plugins where romDir and filetypes is actually important

4) Does the name string which is linked to a magic string in the platform.ini do anything except allow linkage to a background image?

None of the above is important. Cheers.

When we tell WiiFlow to shutdown it seems like it sometimes does it whilst the HDD is still being read or written. I have come across corrupt files in the WiiFlow\Settings folder a couple of times. Just thought it was worth mentioning. It might have been my fault.

 

[fledge68]

Hi @fledge68

A few suggestions for improving WiiFlow.

If you delete a game (red cross), the cached images in the wiiflow/cache folder are not deleted, which takes up space unnecessarily in the long run.

Activating and deactivating the favourites (yellow star) should briefly display the resulting number of games, just like when you enter a plug-in.

Thanks for pointing these out. Will be fixed in a future release.

Thanks for that. It throws up a few questions:

1) Is there a difference between loading (for example) the Wii games coverflow via the built-in string "source=wii" and using a plugin?

not really. "source=wii" was the original way, i just kept it for backwards compatibilty. I added the 5 wiiflow internal plugins as a way for those who use the 'Plugin Select' menu via the 'Home' menu, to be able to use the 'Plugin Select' menu as a source menu alternative. before it only showed plugins and now it can show all sources. but then realized it also provides a way for people who use the source menu to create a source button that combines wii and gc or wii and emu nand channels for example since the magic= line can have multiple magic numbers separated by commas. wiiflow just detects the 5 internal plugins magic numbers and adds those games the way it would normally.

Presumably there is, and if we used plugins for all of the built-in types I guess we would hide all tier-changing buttons, as we would only have the plugins tier whose content would be altered via the sourcemenu system.

tiers are optional. tetsuo likes to use tiers to separate platforms into consoles, handhelds, arcade, computers, and Wii. there are other ways to use tiers. or you can just simply not use them at all and put all source menu buttons in one tier.

2) In the above bothnands plugin setup, is the purpose of the 3rd plugin solely so we can link a dedicated background image via the name string in platform.ini? How are duplicates avoided if we are asking for nand + emunand + bothnand channels? nand + emunand would give us the full list.

yes 3rd plugin is solely so we can link a dedicated background image via the name string in platform.ini. the bothnand romdir and filetypes don't really exist so wiiflow won't add any games for this fake plugin.

3) In the channels plugin ini files, do the romdir and filetypes settings actually do anything? There are no actual .WAD files in (emu)nands. If romDir actually does something, does it allow us to create two emunand plugins which point, via different romDir values, to two different emunands stored in differently-named parent directories, e.g. "...nands\default" and "...nandsTwo\default"? If not, it seems like that would be a relatively straight-forward possible future enhancement (says me, ignorantly). I guess at the moment when your code sees a channels plugin you are just calling a separate method instead of calling the general method that handles all normal plugins where romDir and filetypes is actually important

answered above. yes the romdir and rompartition might be a future option to create emu nand plugins that load from different emu nands. i'll look into it.

4) Does the name string which is linked to a magic string in the platform.ini do anything except allow linkage to a background image?

it also links to the plugin database files. but that's only if it's a true plugin. wii, gc, and nand channels get there database info from wiitdb.xml

None of the above is important. Cheers.

When we tell WiiFlow to shutdown it seems like it sometimes does it whilst the HDD is still being read or written. I have come across corrupt files in the WiiFlow\Settings folder a couple of times. Just thought it was worth mentioning. It might have been my fault.

its most likely just the unmount process. not sure about the corrupt files.