Hacking WiiFlow Lite

Tetsuo Shima

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Oct 29, 2008
Messages
1,874
Trophies
2
Age
45
XP
4,865
Country
Italy
@Xemma Hi, some time ago I released a WFL theme with different backgrounds, but they are for gaming platforms only (Wii, Gc, Nes, arcade etc...). To use them you have to put your backgrounds in wiiflow/backgrounds/your theme name/ folder. The images names should match the platform names defined in platform.ini under the [PLUGINS] section.

In the theme ini you can define other backgrounds for various things, but I don't believe it is possible to set different backgrounds for every settings page.
I can suggest you download my theme and have a look at the ini file in the themes_lite directory, to see how things work. There you will see that I used one general background for everything (named 'vapor.png')

The category icon is defined in the [MAIN/CATEGORIES_BTN] and [GAME/CATEGORIES_BTN] sections.
The category button image has to be placed in wiiflow/themes_lite/your theme name/

You can find the download link for my theme in my sign.
I hope I was helpful
 
  • Like
Reactions: RunningSnakes

fledge68

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2012
Messages
2,427
Trophies
2
XP
4,903
Country
United States
There is something else that is breaking my head and I can't find it! Which Configuration Option of INI File belongs to "Manager Cover and Banner" and "NAND Emulation" ??? I need to find them to edit and I can't do it at all! Can you tell me, friend ???
start wiiflow
change to default theme. wiiflow restarts
now go to home menu and press the '1' on wiimote. this will create a default theme ini name default.ini in wiiflow/settings/themes_lite folder.

if you open it in a text editor (notepad++) you will see all the buttons, backgrounds, and stuff currently used for themes.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RunningSnakes

Xemma

Well-Known Member
Newcomer
Joined
Jan 30, 2015
Messages
55
Trophies
0
Age
38
XP
149
Country
Brazil
start wiiflow
change to default theme. wiiflow restarts
now go to home menu and press the '1' on wiimote. this will create a default theme ini name default.ini in wiiflow/settings/themes_lite folder.

if you open it in a text editor (notepad++) you will see all the buttons, backgrounds, and stuff currently used for themes.
@Xemma Hi, some time ago I released a WFL theme with different backgrounds, but they are for gaming platforms only (Wii, Gc, Nes, arcade etc...). To use them you have to put your backgrounds in wiiflow/backgrounds/your theme name/ folder. The images names should match the platform names defined in platform.ini under the [PLUGINS] section.

In the theme ini you can define other backgrounds for various things, but I don't believe it is possible to set different backgrounds for every settings page.
I can suggest you download my theme and have a look at the ini file in the themes_lite directory, to see how things work. There you will see that I used one general background for everything (named 'vapor.png')

The category icon is defined in the [MAIN/CATEGORIES_BTN] and [GAME/CATEGORIES_BTN] sections.
The category button image has to be placed in wiiflow/themes_lite/your theme name/

You can find the download link for my theme in my sign.
I hope I was helpful

I was able to adjust everything yesterday, but unfortunately I could not set a different background for each of the 6 new settings [CONFIG7/BG]! Got 6 repeated backgrounds! Well apparently there is no solution!??

Well, changing the subject, I wonder if it is possible to add Shadow around the Wiiflow Font Text??? I always wanted to know! If it is possible to put Shadow what should I write in the INI file ??? I tried to write something a long time ago and nothing worked!

Thank you for yours attentions once again!
 
Last edited by Xemma,

fledge68

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2012
Messages
2,427
Trophies
2
XP
4,903
Country
United States
I was able to adjust everything yesterday, but unfortunately I could not set a different background for each of the 6 new settings [CONFIG7/BG]! Got 6 repeated backgrounds! Well apparently there is no solution!??

Well, changing the subject, I wonder if it is possible to add Shadow around the Wiiflow Font Text??? I always wanted to know! If it is possible to put Shadow what should I write in the INI file ??? I tried to write something a long time ago and nothing worked!

Thank you for yours attentions once again!
No you cannot have different backgrounds for every settings page and no shadow for text either.
 

Jcuralli

Member
Newcomer
Joined
Aug 19, 2019
Messages
12
Trophies
0
Age
43
XP
142
Country
United States
It may buried in the thread, but does anyone have a list of the magic numbers that are associated with each flow? I’ve got some jewel cases and other short boxes that show up as large boxes right now and like to be able to force an alternative box shape.
 

Jcuralli

Member
Newcomer
Joined
Aug 19, 2019
Messages
12
Trophies
0
Age
43
XP
142
Country
United States
Much appreciated! A good example of my main issue is that I’ve got Famicom Disk Covers that are jewel cases, but when I use the magic number listed for FDS from my platform.ini, they display as standard covers. How do I manipulate the magic number to force the covers to display in jewel case dimensions? I’d have the same question for Super Famicom (displays as a standard cover, but should display like an SNES cover). I saw earlier that there are two wild card based magic numbers for short flow and side flow (51304Dxx and 513053xx respectively), are there wild cards for jewel cases and standard size as well that I can manipulate?
 

RunningSnakes

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2018
Messages
1,326
Trophies
1
Age
50
XP
4,610
Country
United States
Ok, I am not entirely sure this is what you are looking for. My hunch says it is. Take the newly uploaded Theme_Name.ini file and "ReName" it to what ever theme you are currently using.Then drop it into this folder...
USB>wiiflow>themes_lite>coverflows

If you are using SD, then of course you will change USB path.

Make sure you backup your original .ini file before replacing. There are 16 different flows included, SNES & Jewel Cases are both there. This is originally Rhapsodii coverflows .ini. Hope this is what you were looking for. Good Day
 

Attachments

  • Theme_Name.zip
    11.2 KB · Views: 193
Last edited by RunningSnakes,
  • Like
Reactions: Jcuralli

fledge68

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2012
Messages
2,427
Trophies
2
XP
4,903
Country
United States
@Wiimpathy
for your plugins data. in the crc ini's i know the first 6 character number after the '=' is the game ID. and I know where you got them from. but for a game that is missing how do i make up a game ID for it? or do i just make a random one and hope that it isn't already used?

and by the way i was shocked to find that arcade.ini is missing pacman of all roms.

also i have been messing with wiiflow 5 list generator and have implemented reading ID's and Titles from your plugins data folder files. it slows down reload cache somewhat. 175 mame roms took 16 seconds to generate the reloaded list. but I no longer have to use custom titles ini for titles and it speeds up the game info menu.

the only problem is clones of a game end up with the same title as the parent. i think thats because in the name and crc ini only the parent rom names are listed. and for clones the crc is used and happen to be listed as the parent rom name and ID which is used by the xml to get rom info.
 
Last edited by fledge68,
  • Like
Reactions: Tetsuo Shima

Haloman800

a real gril
Member
Joined
Dec 18, 2009
Messages
1,874
Trophies
1
XP
1,749
Country
United States
I have been away for a couple years, it's awesome to see this still being developed.

question, where do I get the most recent plugins (specifically emulators, NES, SNES, MAME) ?
 

fledge68

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2012
Messages
2,427
Trophies
2
XP
4,903
Country
United States
I have been away for a couple years, it's awesome to see this still being developed.

question, where do I get the most recent plugins (specifically emulators, NES, SNES, MAME) ?
The latest releases of gx emus work great as plugins. Retroarch 1.7.7 nightly works good. Wiimpathy posted a few pages back the latest of all his plugin emu builds.
 

comokepa

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2013
Messages
135
Trophies
1
Age
47
XP
825
Country
@Wiimpathy
I have been messing with wiiflow 5 list generator and have implemented reading ID's and Titles from your plugins data folder files. it slows down reload cache somewhat. 175 mame roms took 16 seconds to generate the reloaded list. but I no longer have to use custom titles ini for titles
Rereading old posts by @fledge68 in this thread, I now realize you had told me custom_titles.ini supported roms but I missed that tidbit back then.

The Wiiflow 4 Wiki’s chapter for custom_titles.ini only provides examples for disc based games. Conversely, when it comes to custom names for roms, it has an altogether different chapter describing a completely unrelated means—which, besides, breaks other things like the database info and cover art if based on the rom’s filename. It’d be nice if the Wiki was updated accordingly.

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

Wiiflow seemingly generates a standard Wii save data item. What goes in it?

For the purpose of hard drives or SD Cards with Wiiflow be seemlessly portable between different Wii consoles, I’d recommend against Wiiflow storing anything as standard Wii save data and instead rely exclusively on its own settings files.
 
Last edited by comokepa,

fledge68

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2012
Messages
2,427
Trophies
2
XP
4,903
Country
United States
Rereading old posts by @fledge68 in this thread, I now realize you had told me custom_titles.ini supported roms but I missed that tidbit back then.

The Wiiflow 4 Wiki’s chapter for custom_titles.ini only provides examples for disc based games. Conversely, when it comes to custom names for roms, it has an altogether different chapter describing a completely unrelated means—which, besides, breaks other things like the database info and cover art if based on the rom’s filename. It’d be nice if the Wiki was updated accordingly.

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

Wiiflow seemingly generates a standard Wii save data item. What goes in it?

For the purpose of hard drives or SD Cards with Wiiflow be seemlessly portable between different Wii consoles, I’d recommend against Wiiflow storing anything as standard Wii save data and instead rely exclusively on its own settings files.
custom titles:
thank you for reminding me of that extremely old wiiflowiki 4 link on changing arcade rom titles. I will remove it soon.
as for custom titles for plugin roms. custom_titles.ini does work you just have to put the plugin magic# inside [magic#] and then the filename of your rom = new name for each one pertaining to that title. yes that does need to be updated on the wiki as well. sorry the wiki has fallen behind with the times.
Note: i have come up with a new idea for custom titles.ini and rom titles. i'd like to use platform name in [ and ] and then list the rom file name = new title for each. this way we wouldn't have to do that for every mame plugin or every snes plugin. just one time for that platform.

Wiiflow save:
contains 3 things pertaining to wiiflow startup/bootup.
the usb port # used for the HDD.
force cios on or off. if off wiiflow uses IOS58
the cios selected for force cios on. if set to auto wiiflow will use its default one (249) unless compiled differently or the meta.xml specifies a different one.

these settings are found in main settings>startup settings.
true these settings are not store on SD for easy transfer to another wii, but it's only 3 simple settings that aren't hard to set on another wii when you start wiiflow.

EDIT: I updated the changes on wiiflowiki 4.
 
Last edited by fledge68,
  • Like
Reactions: Tetsuo Shima

Wiimpathy

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2010
Messages
1,013
Trophies
2
XP
3,100
Country
France
@Wiimpathy does retroarch load the core or game rom into a specific memory address?

wiiflow loads the core at 0x92000000. i was wondering if this could cause issues with loading some large roms? for example some of the konami games.
Yes, retroarch starts at specific address for core or game loading. And all addresses are slightly different from Wiiflow. This one for ex. : https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/blob/master/frontend/drivers/platform_wii.c#L39

@Wiimpathy
for your plugins data. in the crc ini's i know the first 6 character number after the '=' is the game ID. and I know where you got them from. but for a game that is missing how do i make up a game ID for it? or do i just make a random one and hope that it isn't already used?

and by the way i was shocked to find that arcade.ini is missing pacman of all roms.

also i have been messing with wiiflow 5 list generator and have implemented reading ID's and Titles from your plugins data folder files. it slows down reload cache somewhat. 175 mame roms took 16 seconds to generate the reloaded list. but I no longer have to use custom titles ini for titles and it speeds up the game info menu.

the only problem is clones of a game end up with the same title as the parent. i think thats because in the name and crc ini only the parent rom names are listed. and for clones the crc is used and happen to be listed as the parent rom name and ID which is used by the xml to get rom info.
You can take any ID not used for the specific platform. To be sure it doesn't exist, just use a 6 length number ending with B letter.

You plugin data for the list generator is a cool idea.
There are many many games for arcade though. It wasn't simple to merge all data for it(and there are still 2 seperate ini, ARCADE and MAME). So yeah some games may be missing. Keeping parent only was simpler too and reduce data size too.
I agree that it could be improved.
 

fledge68

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2012
Messages
2,427
Trophies
2
XP
4,903
Country
United States

Tetsuo Shima

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Oct 29, 2008
Messages
1,874
Trophies
2
Age
45
XP
4,865
Country
Italy
@fledge68 there's a small issue when Wiiflow reboots after playing a game: it always displays coverflow #1 even if it was set to display another one. I have to press B to return to the base tier, then select with A the same tier to return to the desired coverflow.
e.g. For PC games I want coverflow [PC_BOX_2] to be the default. After closing a game, Wiiflow reboots back with coverflow [PC_BOX_1], until I go back to main menu and navigate again to PC games.
 

fledge68

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2012
Messages
2,427
Trophies
2
XP
4,903
Country
United States
@fledge68 there's a small issue when Wiiflow reboots after playing a game: it always displays coverflow #1 even if it was set to display another one. I have to press B to return to the base tier, then select with A the same tier to return to the desired coverflow.
e.g. For PC games I want coverflow [PC_BOX_2] to be the default. After closing a game, Wiiflow reboots back with coverflow [PC_BOX_1], until I go back to main menu and navigate again to PC games.
by any chance would it be happening only if you select a source that has multiple magic numbers ... like mame? i checked the code i see where that would be an issue and it would do exactly as you said. I'll edit the code to fix it soon. thanks for the heads up.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tetsuo Shima

Tetsuo Shima

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Oct 29, 2008
Messages
1,874
Trophies
2
Age
45
XP
4,865
Country
Italy
by any chance would it be happening only if you select a source that has multiple magic numbers ... like mame? i checked the code i see where that would be an issue and it would do exactly as you said. I'll edit the code to fix it soon. thanks for the heads up.
No, it happens in the Pc Engine coverflows as well, where I have only 1 magic number.
I'm using [SMALLCART_BOX_1] for GB/GBA games and [SMALLCART_BOX_2] for Jewel cases
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
    K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2: Sorry for accidentally bending over