I’m messing around with a modded Wii U setup and I’ve been thinking about whether the normal Wii U Menu could basically be turned into one big game library instead of having to jump between a bunch of different launchers.
The basic idea is that I’d like to have Wii U, Wii/vWii, GameCube, and retro games all accessible from the Wii U Menu. For Wii stuff I’d probably use VC injects/forwarders where appropriate, USB Loader GX for Wii/GameCube, and RetroArch or Wii U emulators for systems where that makes more sense. From the Wii U Menu’s perspective, most of these would just be titles with icons anyway.
The obvious problem is the Menu’s title limits. I’m not expecting the Wii U to suddenly handle 90,000 titles sitting there at once.
What I’m wondering is whether the library could instead be virtualized.
For example, I could have categories like Mario, Zelda, Pokémon, Sonic, etc. The Wii U Menu would normally only show those category folders. The actual games assigned to them would stay hidden.
Then I open Mario, and the plugin changes which titles are currently visible so the Mario games appear. When I back out, it switches back to the category view.
Basically, the Wii U Menu would still handle the actual interface, icons, selection, and launching. The plugin would just control which titles the Menu is currently presenting.
I’m not trying to make the Wii U simultaneously manage hundreds of thousands of titles. The idea is more like keeping the active set within whatever limits the Menu can comfortably handle and swapping that set depending on where I am in the virtual library.
I’ve been throwing around numbers like 300 folders with up to 300 games each, but those numbers aren't really important. There are obviously going to be limits I don't know about. I’m mostly interested in whether the underlying concept is technically possible.
From what I’ve seen, Aroma and WUPS already provide a lot of the infrastructure that would probably be useful here. Plugins can hook Wii U functionality, and there are already Aroma plugins that modify things about the Wii U Menu.
So I’m wondering if this could be done without writing an entirely separate frontend from scratch.
The part I don't know enough about is the actual Wii U Menu internals.
Is there a function responsible for enumerating the titles that the Menu displays, or something similar that a WUPS plugin could hook?
Ideally, I’d want the plugin to maintain its own library database on the SD card containing the categories and the title IDs assigned to them. The plugin would determine what category I’m currently viewing, change the set of titles being presented to the Menu, and then let the normal Wii U Menu handle displaying and launching them.
I’d much rather do that than constantly modify the actual installed-title database. If the Menu can be intercepted at the point where it decides which titles to display, that seems like a much cleaner approach.
I’m also wondering how much of the existing Wii U folder system could be reused.
Could a plugin somehow use the existing folder navigation and just change what titles are associated with the current folder, or would folder navigation itself have to be implemented separately? I’m guessing there’s a decent chance some of it would have to be recreated, but I haven't dug deeply enough into the Menu code to know.
The end goal is basically one Wii U Menu that feels more like a normal modern game launcher, except everything is organized around the game or series rather than the platform.
So instead of having separate sections for Wii U, Wii, GameCube, RetroArch, VC, and whatever else, I’d rather have something like Mario, Zelda, Pokémon, Sonic, RPGs, and so on.
Then all the games belonging to Mario could be together regardless of what they're actually running through. One could be a Wii U title, another could be a Wii title, another could be a GameCube game launched through a loader, and another could be a RetroArch game or VC inject.
The library would care about the game itself, while the appropriate backend would handle how that game actually launches.
I know this is getting into actual plugin development territory. I’m just trying to figure out how much of the groundwork is already possible with the current Aroma/WUPS infrastructure before I start reinventing half the Wii U Menu.
Has anyone already looked into hooking the Wii U Menu’s title enumeration or folder handling?
Is there an existing Aroma/WUPS plugin or project that would be a reasonable starting point for something like this?
I’d probably start with a really small proof of concept rather than immediately trying to build the entire thing. Something like two virtual folders with a few Wii U titles in each, just to see if the Menu can reliably switch between two different title sets.
If that works, then the harder part would be figuring out the library database and exactly how far the Wii U Menu can be pushed before it starts falling over.
I’m mainly trying to figure out whether the basic architecture is possible and, if it is, where in the Wii U Menu code I should start looking.
The basic idea is that I’d like to have Wii U, Wii/vWii, GameCube, and retro games all accessible from the Wii U Menu. For Wii stuff I’d probably use VC injects/forwarders where appropriate, USB Loader GX for Wii/GameCube, and RetroArch or Wii U emulators for systems where that makes more sense. From the Wii U Menu’s perspective, most of these would just be titles with icons anyway.
The obvious problem is the Menu’s title limits. I’m not expecting the Wii U to suddenly handle 90,000 titles sitting there at once.
What I’m wondering is whether the library could instead be virtualized.
For example, I could have categories like Mario, Zelda, Pokémon, Sonic, etc. The Wii U Menu would normally only show those category folders. The actual games assigned to them would stay hidden.
Then I open Mario, and the plugin changes which titles are currently visible so the Mario games appear. When I back out, it switches back to the category view.
Basically, the Wii U Menu would still handle the actual interface, icons, selection, and launching. The plugin would just control which titles the Menu is currently presenting.
I’m not trying to make the Wii U simultaneously manage hundreds of thousands of titles. The idea is more like keeping the active set within whatever limits the Menu can comfortably handle and swapping that set depending on where I am in the virtual library.
I’ve been throwing around numbers like 300 folders with up to 300 games each, but those numbers aren't really important. There are obviously going to be limits I don't know about. I’m mostly interested in whether the underlying concept is technically possible.
From what I’ve seen, Aroma and WUPS already provide a lot of the infrastructure that would probably be useful here. Plugins can hook Wii U functionality, and there are already Aroma plugins that modify things about the Wii U Menu.
So I’m wondering if this could be done without writing an entirely separate frontend from scratch.
The part I don't know enough about is the actual Wii U Menu internals.
Is there a function responsible for enumerating the titles that the Menu displays, or something similar that a WUPS plugin could hook?
Ideally, I’d want the plugin to maintain its own library database on the SD card containing the categories and the title IDs assigned to them. The plugin would determine what category I’m currently viewing, change the set of titles being presented to the Menu, and then let the normal Wii U Menu handle displaying and launching them.
I’d much rather do that than constantly modify the actual installed-title database. If the Menu can be intercepted at the point where it decides which titles to display, that seems like a much cleaner approach.
I’m also wondering how much of the existing Wii U folder system could be reused.
Could a plugin somehow use the existing folder navigation and just change what titles are associated with the current folder, or would folder navigation itself have to be implemented separately? I’m guessing there’s a decent chance some of it would have to be recreated, but I haven't dug deeply enough into the Menu code to know.
The end goal is basically one Wii U Menu that feels more like a normal modern game launcher, except everything is organized around the game or series rather than the platform.
So instead of having separate sections for Wii U, Wii, GameCube, RetroArch, VC, and whatever else, I’d rather have something like Mario, Zelda, Pokémon, Sonic, RPGs, and so on.
Then all the games belonging to Mario could be together regardless of what they're actually running through. One could be a Wii U title, another could be a Wii title, another could be a GameCube game launched through a loader, and another could be a RetroArch game or VC inject.
The library would care about the game itself, while the appropriate backend would handle how that game actually launches.
I know this is getting into actual plugin development territory. I’m just trying to figure out how much of the groundwork is already possible with the current Aroma/WUPS infrastructure before I start reinventing half the Wii U Menu.
Has anyone already looked into hooking the Wii U Menu’s title enumeration or folder handling?
Is there an existing Aroma/WUPS plugin or project that would be a reasonable starting point for something like this?
I’d probably start with a really small proof of concept rather than immediately trying to build the entire thing. Something like two virtual folders with a few Wii U titles in each, just to see if the Menu can reliably switch between two different title sets.
If that works, then the harder part would be figuring out the library database and exactly how far the Wii U Menu can be pushed before it starts falling over.
I’m mainly trying to figure out whether the basic architecture is possible and, if it is, where in the Wii U Menu code I should start looking.
