Hacking USB Loader GX

JacobM · Mar 29, 2023

blackb0x said:
I'm in the process of getting a Wii U, so I'll be sure to look into it within the next few weeks. But it'd be good to know if something like r1272 (mod v7) has the same problem.

I assume you're using Nintendont 6.500 and that everything works correctly when you don't use the forwarder to have gamepad support?

I am pretty sure that is a long standing bug that even had some input by Fix94 back when cyan first introduced WiiVC Inject compatibility with the WiiU gamepad. I had to disable args boot to avoid a black screen. If I recall correctly this occurred when usb hubs or HID devices were connected. @Kirby567fan do you have any non-direct usb devices connected?

edit: blackb0x let me know if you would find value in me pulling together some old threads/comments of testing and discussions related to this. I haven't gotten a chance to try your new release (congrats btw) because my WiiU is still configured with a RedNAND partition on the SD.

Glomgold · Mar 29, 2023

I upgraded to v3.0-r1281 and cIOS d2x-v11-beta1. Everything was working fine before and everything is working after the upgrade, phew!

I've read about disabling the deflicker filter, I set it to off (safe). To the question, is there anything else I should adjust?

Thank you so much for the programs.

JorgeV · Mar 29, 2023

Hi @blackb0x , excellent work, I have tried the video width option and it works great, I have only had failures so far in Just dance 4 and 2015, (in the same way I will continue testing more games and reporting compatibility through this forum), I have several questions, among them, this video width option also affects gamecube games?

And if there is the possibility of adding layers or filters such as those that emulate the lines of the CRT tv, or those that place a cel shaded style, as does Retroarch on wii, or PPSSPP on android?

thank you and I would appreciate your response!

ChibiMofo · Mar 29, 2023

JorgeV said:
And if there is the possibility of adding layers or filters such as those that emulate the lines of the CRT tv, or those that place a cel shaded style, as does Retroarch on wii, or PPSSPP on android?

thank you and I would appreciate your response!

That is truly impossible. Those emulators can do that because their code is running the game. That cannot happen on real hardware. Even if it could, it would require so much processing that frame rates would be unacceptable.

blackb0x · Mar 29, 2023

JacobM said:
I am pretty sure that is a long standing bug that even had some input by Fix94 back when cyan first introduced WiiVC Inject compatibility with the WiiU gamepad. I had to disable args boot to avoid a black screen. If I recall correctly this occurred when usb hubs or HID devices were connected. @Kirby567fan do you have any non-direct usb devices connected?

WiiVC injects seem like a good idea, but they actually introduce all kinds of issues for the loader. For example, even if you were to use an older version of the loader and made the 5.1 forwarder an inject then whenever you press the home button and select to return to the HBC there's a good chance you'll get stuck at a black screen.

The d2x cIOS doesn't seem to function correctly with WiiVC injects either, so you wouldn't be able to play Wii games even with SD card mode enabled.

JacobM said:
edit: blackb0x let me know if you would find value in me pulling together some old threads/comments of testing and discussions related to this. I haven't gotten a chance to try your new release (congrats btw) because my WiiU is still configured with a RedNAND partition on the SD.

Sure, if you know where to look I'd be interested in seeing what was said. You can send me everything via a private message if you'd like.

Since you've got another partition on your SD card there's a good chance that r1281 wouldn't like it. But I did improve FAT partition seeking for my next release, so that might help

Glomgold said:
I've read about disabling the deflicker filter, I set it to off (safe). To the question, is there anything else I should adjust?

Using the OFF (Extended) setting might look better in some games, but it could also cause some issues. So if you switch over to the extended setting and a game doesn't boot then you could set it to OFF (Safe) instead.

You shouldn't really need to change much, since I've tried to make the loader work with every game possible without you needing to adjust settings.

JorgeV said:
I have only had failures so far in Just dance 4 and 2015, (in the same way I will continue testing more games and reporting compatibility through this forum)

If you mean the games won't work with the framebuffer width setting applied, it's likely that the patch just needs to be shrunk down to fit into a smaller memory area. It's on my todo list

JorgeV said:
I have several questions, among them, this video width option also affects gamecube games?

It doesn't, since GameCube games get handled by Nintendont. But there are width settings for Nintendont in the loader.

Glomgold · Mar 29, 2023

blackb0x said:
Using the OFF (Extended) setting might look better in some games, but it could also cause some issues. So if you switch over to the extended setting and a game doesn't boot then you could set it to OFF (Safe) instead.

You shouldn't really need to change much, since I've tried to make the loader work with every game possible without you needing to adjust settings.

Great, thank you again.

blackb0x · Mar 30, 2023

JacobM said:
I am pretty sure that is a long standing bug that even had some input by Fix94 back when cyan first introduced WiiVC Inject compatibility with the WiiU gamepad. I had to disable args boot to avoid a black screen. If I recall correctly this occurred when usb hubs or HID devices were connected. @Kirby567fan do you have any non-direct usb devices connected?

Actually, I've just fixed it

danny19901 · Mar 30, 2023

blackb0x said:
Actually, I've just fixed it

I have a unrelated question is it possible we could make a new thread or Takeover If thats possible Since you are now the Official Dev behind the updates and improvements.

blackb0x · Mar 30, 2023

danny19901 said:
I have a unrelated question is it possible we could make a new thread or Takeover If thats possible Since you are now the Official Dev behind the updates and improvements.

It's probably not worth creating a new thread over, since it's still the same software. It's just that the projects active dev changed from Cyan to myself, but it's not like Cyan is gone. He can still edit posts and if he wanted to he could add new code to the project.

I'd agree that the first post should be edited, since it contains a lot of information that's no longer accurate. Like how to compile the loader, the loaders features and the changelog. But I guess it's not critical, since this thread is mainly used as a support area anyway.

JuanMena · Mar 31, 2023

r1vver said:
usb8...
Did you recreated/changed the location of the partition when was reformatting your SD?
Maybe loader does not like how the flash drive is formatted. More precisely, how the partition is created/located.
Something similar happened here:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/usb-loader-gx.149922/page-1419#post-10044968
and here:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/usb-loader-gx.149922/page-1419#post-10045356
Although the cases were similar, the solutions to the problems were oppositely different.

Sorry for late response.
But you were right.

To anyone having this problem of USB Loader GX showing "usb8" when using SD, I solved the problem by first using Window's formatting tool to format my 64GB SD to exFAT.
Then I used SD Formatter, which strangely formatted it with two partitions.
Then, with AOMEI I deleted those partitions, then assigned 1 and automatically did it with FAT32.

This fixed my issue of USB Loader GX showing "usb8" when using SD.

XFlak · Mar 31, 2023

blackb0x said:
It's probably not worth creating a new thread over, since it's still the same software. It's just that the projects active dev changed from Cyan to myself, but it's not like Cyan is gone. He can still edit posts and if he wanted to he could add new code to the project.

I'd agree that the first post should be edited, since it contains a lot of information that's no longer accurate. Like how to compile the loader, the loaders features and the changelog. But I guess it's not critical, since this thread is mainly used as a support area anyway.

@Flame perhaps you can consider giving blackb0x editing rights to the first post like u gave me for joostin's syscheck thread?

I'm sure @Cyan wouldn't mind

Flame · Mar 31, 2023

XFlak said:
@Flame perhaps you can consider giving blackb0x editing rights to the first post like u gave me for joostin's syscheck thread?

I'm sure @Cyan wouldn't mind

done, thank you

Kirby567fan · Mar 31, 2023

JacobM said:
I am pretty sure that is a long standing bug that even had some input by Fix94 back when cyan first introduced WiiVC Inject compatibility with the WiiU gamepad. I had to disable args boot to avoid a black screen. If I recall correctly this occurred when usb hubs or HID devices were connected. @Kirby567fan do you have any non-direct usb devices connected?

edit: blackb0x let me know if you would find value in me pulling together some old threads/comments of testing and discussions related to this. I haven't gotten a chance to try your new release (congrats btw) because my WiiU is still configured with a RedNAND partition on the SD.

Yeah I had a USB connected, its only used for Wii U games.
Ill test later without it to see if that fixes things.

_47iscool · Apr 1, 2023

Since Wii games can now be played from SD, are there any plans to add nand emulation for SD? Or does this requre cIOS modification? Maybe if added/implemented, Skyward Sword might be able to use it.

Another neat thing would be external USB DVD Drive support for Wii with GX, and maybe GC if Nintendont could be updated to support it.

Cyan · Apr 1, 2023

Yes, the first post is a little outdated and would benefit with your new changelog, and giving your version more visibility.
No need to make a new thread, it's the continuation of the project, I think we should keep using this one, everyone knows where to post

I'm not present as much as before on the forum, or on the project.
For now, Blackb0x is the active dev so it's okay to get first post access.

You can put the current post in a spoiler, (like the spoilers already present at the bottom), something like changelog for USBloaderGX 3.0 r1180 to r1272, or post content from 1080 to 1272. just to keep track of the first post's changes.
you can also include the "new features since 3.0 r1227" in it if you want the first post to focus only on changes you made.

and of course, update all the download links, no need to keep v3.0 1180 at the top of the post.

If you have time, you can also add the requirement (cIOS v11) and quick install or setup guide. we started one long time ago on googlecode, but never completed it.

ChibiMofo · Apr 1, 2023

_47iscool said:
Since Wii games can now be played from SD, are there any plans to add nand emulation for SD? Or does this requre cIOS modification? Maybe if added/implemented, Skyward Sword might be able to use it.

Another neat thing would be external USB DVD Drive support for Wii with GX, and maybe GC if Nintendont could be updated to support it.

What possible benefit would "USB DVD Drive support" add?

And you (hopefully) forgot "anti-fascist" in your signature.

JuanMena · Apr 1, 2023

ChibiMofo said:
What possible benefit would "USB DVD Drive support" add?

Not wearing out Wii's Disc Drive?

I mean, my Wii's Disc Drive it's been barely used because Piracy = good for preservation of physical media.

Sypherone · Apr 1, 2023

Next version of USB Loader GX will be able to stream the games over the Internet straight to your phone.

Oh wait, its april 1th.

blackb0x · Apr 2, 2023

_47iscool said:
are there any plans to add nand emulation for SD? Or does this requre cIOS modification? Maybe if added/implemented, Skyward Sword might be able to use it.

I assume you mean EmuNAND saves? That's a d2x limitation, since it doesn't allow writes to your SD card while it's playing a game from it. And of course I'd like to change that, but as I'm doing all of this without a USB Gecko some things can take a while or might never happen.

Cyan said:
If you have time, you can also add the requirement (cIOS v11) and quick install or setup guide. we started one long time ago on googlecode, but never completed it.

Yea, I'll probably do that as well as some of your other suggestions. Right now I'm just working on fixing some longstanding vWii issues, so as soon as I'm done with that I'll work on editing the post

JacobM · Apr 2, 2023

sorry, I didn't see the notification in time... and you work too fast

blackb0x said:
WiiVC injects seem like a good idea, but they actually introduce all kinds of issues for the loader. For example, even if you were to use an older version of the loader and made the 5.1 forwarder an inject then whenever you press the home button and select to return to the HBC there's a good chance you'll get stuck at a black screen. The d2x cIOS doesn't seem to function correctly with WiiVC injects either, so you wouldn't be able to play Wii games even with SD card mode enabled.

Figured the new d2x wouldn't make a difference for WiiVC Wii games. There was a lot of experimenting going on when WiiVC was first introduced and we tested SD loading of Wii games with WiiFlow and determined Wii games wouldn't be possible due to a limitation of IOS reload. In my case WiiVC USB Loader GX was used as a frontend for nintendont with gamepad support and allowed for per game options. At some revision, args boot of nintendont through USB Loader GX randomly stopped working when HID devices or USB hubs were connected.

blackb0x said:
Sure, if you know where to look I'd be interested in seeing what was said. You can send me everything via a private message if you'd like.

First discussion kinda scattered, kinda early: https://gbatemp.net/threads/usb-loader-gx.149922/page-1226#post-7669333 through the next page or 2.

Fix94 described the change to Nintendont that resulted in broken compatibility with USB Loader GX and CFG Loader https://gbatemp.net/threads/nintendont.349258/page-1924#post-7668114 through post #38,468

Fix94's recommendation to disable argsboot https://gbatemp.net/threads/usb-loader-gx.149922/page-1243#post-7759783 through post #24,862

Cyan making change to USB Loader GX to detect when in WiiVC and autodisable argsboot https://gbatemp.net/threads/usb-loader-gx.149922/page-1268#post-8224058 through post #25,369

WiiFlow argsboot works suggesting the problem is with the USB Loader GX / CFG Loader and not the change in Nintendont https://gbatemp.net/threads/usb-loader-gx.149922/page-1269#post-8229611 through post #25,379

blackb0x said:
Since you've got another partition on your SD card there's a good chance that r1281 wouldn't like it. But I did improve FAT partition seeking for my next release, so that might help

I'll give it a go on the next release! Keep up the stellar work!

blackb0x said:
Actually, I've just fixed it

Oh boy! I am curious to see what change you made. Thank you!

blackb0x said:
Absolutely. And if it isn't too far out there then of course I'll see what can be done, but that doesn't guarantee that I'll add your feature.

I have a....big....request that you may have heard from me before. GCN Adapter loader support (for vWii Gamecube) and/or the ability to patch Wii games for GCN Adapter support referencing one of the two publicly available patches by wilm0x42 and Chadderz121.

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