Hacking WiiFlow Lite

Jcuralli · Sep 30, 2019

Wiimpathy said:
You mean even NeoGeo VM 0.6 isn't launching games from WiiFlow? I'm pretty sure I've tested this one too. It's often a conflicting config. and what about 0.5?

Yes - I just used you hexedit trick to point to a different config file and still no dice.

Had some time to test: I made the edits, started the DOL in my WiiFlow plugins folder through homebrew using file explorer, got the welcome message, started a game and was able to play successfully. I shut it all down and was able to confirm that the new config file was created in the sd/retroarch folder.

I started up again and tried to open games through Wiiflow, and it hung on a blank screen - wiimote shut off and everything. Prior to the hexedit, it would at least spit me back out to WiiFlow, but now it just hangs and does nothing; NeoGeo core does the same- both 0.6 and 0.5.

I reconfirmed that the rest of the cores work through WiiFlow (FBA, CPS1, all of your MAME2003plus cores)... just having trouble with these two for some reason.

I've looked at my plugin ini files and they should be correct as the arguments line is identical to the cores that work and everything else seems to be right in line as well. The cores are in the same place on the SD card as well.

Tetsuo Shima · Sep 30, 2019

@fledge68 I've got a strange issue with your beta8 and Wii games. For some reason they are either booting with a different language, or not starting at all (black screen). No issues with GC games or plugins.
Reverting back to beta7 solved the problem

fledge68 · Sep 30, 2019

Tetsuo Shima said:
@fledge68 I've got a strange issue with your beta8 and Wii games. For some reason they are either booting with a different language, or not starting at all (black screen). No issues with GC games or plugins.
Reverting back to beta7 solved the problem

did you use the ext_booter.bin supplied with beta 8? beta 8 has the extreme's 480p pixel patch. i'll look into it.

Tetsuo Shima · Sep 30, 2019

@fledge68 yes, I copied boot.dol and ext_booter.bin to apps/wiiflow/
Some games are giving black screen, some are starting in english or japanese. I'm on a PAL wii

Wiimpathy · Sep 30, 2019

Jcuralli said:
Yes - I just used you hexedit trick to point to a different config file and still no dice.

Had some time to test: I made the edits, started the DOL in my WiiFlow plugins folder through homebrew using file explorer, got the welcome message, started a game and was able to play successfully. I shut it all down and was able to confirm that the new config file was created in the sd/retroarch folder.

I started up again and tried to open games through Wiiflow, and it hung on a blank screen - wiimote shut off and everything. Prior to the hexedit, it would at least spit me back out to WiiFlow, but now it just hangs and does nothing; NeoGeo core does the same- both 0.6 and 0.5.

I reconfirmed that the rest of the cores work through WiiFlow (FBA, CPS1, all of your MAME2003plus cores)... just having trouble with these two for some reason.

I've looked at my plugin ini files and they should be correct as the arguments line is identical to the cores that work and everything else seems to be right in line as well. The cores are in the same place on the SD card as well.

Ok, I've tried 0.5 and 0.6 once again and it's ok from WiiFlow.

Just one thing to check first, in case your plugin ini comes from the masterpack and if you never used a neogeo vm release.
The dol name is not the same, edit fba_neo.ini :

dolfile=retroarch-wii/fbalpha2012_neogeo_libretro_wii.dol

Off course, don't forget to copy the dol in /wiiflow/plugins/retroarch-wii
In fact, you could also launch the dol from the same path when launched from Homebrew Channel. in fba_neo.ini :
dolfile=sd:/apps/retroarch-wii/fbalpha2012_neogeo_libretro_wii.dol

You should also start an untouched dol before to be sure hex editting didn't go wrong.

Jcuralli · Oct 1, 2019

Wiimpathy said:
Ok, I've tried 0.5 and 0.6 once again and it's ok from WiiFlow.

Just one thing to check first, in case your plugin ini comes from the masterpack and if you never used a neogeo vm release.
The dol name is not the same, edit fba_neo.ini :

dolfile=retroarch-wii/fbalpha2012_neogeo_libretro_wii.dol

Off course, don't forget to copy the dol in /wiiflow/plugins/retroarch-wii
In fact, you could also launch the dol from the same path when launched from Homebrew Channel. in fba_neo.ini :
dolfile=sd:/apps/retroarch-wii/fbalpha2012_neogeo_libretro_wii.dol

You should also start an untouched dol before to be sure hex editting didn't go wrong.

Crisis averted - it was my own screw up of course. My argument was wrong - should have been "{device}:/{path}/|{name}" instead of "{device}:/{path}/{name}". Interestingly, the latter works with cps1, which is why I was so confused when I was matching it with no success. Both cores work now through WiiFlow. Much appreciated!

comokepa · Oct 5, 2019

Tetsuo Shima said:
I don't think they are comments. I think it's a new way to manage multi-system plugins like mednafen

Whatever it is, it's not standard to Windows' .ini files. If Wiiflow's ini parser works like Windows’, it is ignoring those lines simply because they do not assigne a value. I.e., in a standard parser, with this ini (lines preceded with line number):

1 ;wiimednafen
2 ;wiimednafen=yes
3 #wiimednafen
4 #wiimednafen=yes
5 wiimednafen
6 wiimednafen=yes

Lines 1, 2, 3, 5 would be ignored. From those, 1 & 2 are proper comments. 3 is not, but has no value assigned to the property "#wiimednafen", same as 5.

Line 4 would not be ignored, and would be assigning the value "yes" to the property "#wiimednafen" (which is a different one from "wiimednafen").

Line 6 would obviously not be ignored.

comokepa · Oct 5, 2019

Wiiflow finds roms recursively. I.e. if the plugin's corresponding ini file says:

romdir=/roms/MAME

it will find both roms directly in /roms/MAME as well those in any subdirectory of it.

Is there a to have it only find roms in the specified directory but not in its subfolder?

fledge68 · Oct 5, 2019

comokepa said:
Wiiflow finds roms recursively. I.e. if the plugin's corresponding ini file says:

romdir=/roms/MAME

it will find both roms directly in /roms/MAME as well those in any subdirectory of it.

Is there a to have it only find roms in the specified directory but not in its subfolder?

Nope.

comokepa · Oct 5, 2019

Wiiflow Lite bug:

When returning to Wiiflow from a game or a restart back to the game list, Wiiflow resets categories that were ON back to OFF. This breaks Source Menu items that force a category, since that category is cleared when returning, and games not in that category become listed too.

Steps to reproduce:

1. In source_menu.ini, set a source that forces a category, like:

[BUTTON_7]
autoboot=
cat_page=1
category=6
image=arcade.png
image_s=arcade.png
magic=6d616d41,6d616d42,6d616d43,6d616d44,6d616d45,6d616d46,6d616d47
source=plugin
title=Arcade 1995-1999 (MAME)

2. In Wiiflow Lite, go to Settings, Page 11 and set "Source menu on Start = No"
3. Go to Source menu and select your newly created Source.
4. Go to Categories and disable the forced category so that you can see all games for the associated plugins.
5. Assign category 6 to some.
6. Go back to Source menu and select the same Source. The games you assigned the category to should be listed.
7. Exit Wiiflow Lite and Relaunch it.

Expected results:
The same list that was displayed before existing Wiiflow should come up.

Actual results:
All games for the associated plugins are listed, instead of the subset that were assigned category 6.

fledge68 · Oct 5, 2019

comokepa said:
Wiiflow Lite bug:

When returning to Wiiflow from a game or a restart back to the game list, Wiiflow resets categories that were ON back to OFF. This breaks Source Menu items that force a category, since that category is cleared when returning, and games not in that category become listed too.

Steps to reproduce:

1. In source_menu.ini, set a source that forces a category, like:

[BUTTON_7]
autoboot=
cat_page=1
category=6
image=arcade.png
image_s=arcade.png
magic=6d616d41,6d616d42,6d616d43,6d616d44,6d616d45,6d616d46,6d616d47
source=plugin
title=Arcade 1995-1999 (MAME)

2. In Wiiflow Lite, go to Settings, Page 11 and set "Source menu on Start = No"
3. Go to Source menu and select your newly created Source.
4. Go to Categories and disable the forced category so that you can see all games for the associated plugins.
5. Assign category 6 to some.
6. Go back to Source menu and select the same Source. The games you assigned the category to should be listed.
7. Exit Wiiflow Lite and Relaunch it.

Expected results:
The same list that was displayed before existing Wiiflow should come up.

Actual results:
All games for the associated plugins are listed, instead of the subset that were assigned category 6.

Noted. But you couldve put it on github.

comokepa · Oct 5, 2019

fledge68 said:
Noted. But you couldve put it on github.

Certainly. Will do so.

comokepa · Oct 5, 2019

In what file is it declared what coverflow should Source Menu use?

hadi aulia · Oct 5, 2019

Hi I'm using wiiflow lite 5.2.0 on vwii which I set the resolustion to 720p using hdmi

Any recommended wiiflow lite setting for vwii to get best video quality?

Jcuralli · Oct 6, 2019

Another (probably easy) one for the group... though it may be more retroarch-related. I've changed my WiiFlow plugin for Atari 5200 to use the Retroarch Atari800 core. I was successful in launching games via wiixl, but now that I've made the change, I get nothing but crackling noises and a blank screen. I've got all the correct bios files in the right spots; I suspect that the emulator is defaulting to try to load the games as an Atari800 rather than an Atari 5200. Is there a way I can use the argument line in the plugin to force retroarch to use a specific bios, or do I need to set it up through retroarch? I wish I had the skills to just compile the 5200 part of the core separately...

demonfish · Oct 8, 2019

I would just like to Thank you Guy`s (Dev`s and support forum members) on such Fantastic! work ethic and support with this project....it truly is AMAZING!

I have dusted of the missus`s WiiU and plan to install this New version of wiiflow.
I have literally sieved through the 90 odd pages of information, which has taken me around 12+hours give or take :wacko:

to try and digest as much info as possible as I need to try and fully refresh my dying brain cells , as to gather and hopefully install new plugins to this wiiflow......Dam even after reading the 90 odd pages I still need to get my head around how to add some new plugins...I am sure I will eventually get there very slowly.....Hopefully. I am still unsure what are the best plugins to use for C64 & Amiga1200 roms ...

I also have the No-Intro-Collection_2016-01-03_Fixed and the FBA 0.2.97.42 rom sets and still unsure which emulator plugins are best to use. Q, are the No intro ROM set collection of any value with the plugins the wiiflow uses?
I am quite sure I will get stuck much more further along the way ,so I may or may not have many more Q&A ....So thank you all whom may offer assistance or help.
I really cant thank you Guy`s enough for all the effort and hard work that has gone in to this Fabulous project.
Thank you all,

Best Regards

fledge68 · Oct 8, 2019

demonfish said:
I would just like to Thank you Guy`s (Dev`s and support forum members) on such Fantastic! work ethic and support with this project....it truly is AMAZING!
I have dusted of the missus`s WiiU and plan to install this New version of wiiflow.
I have literally sieved through the 90 odd pages of information, which has taken me around 12+hours give or take to try and digest as much info as possible as I need to try and fully refresh my dying brain cells , as to gather and hopefully install new plugins to this wiiflow......Dam even after reading the 90 odd pages I still need to get my head around how to add some new plugins...I am sure I will eventually get there very slowly.....Hopefully. I am still unsure what are the best plugins to use for C64 & Amiga1200 roms ... I also have the No-Intro-Collection_2016-01-03_Fixed and the FBA 0.2.97.42 rom sets and still unsure which emulator plugins are best to use. Q, are the No intro ROM set collection of any value with the plugins the wiiflow uses?
I am quite sure I will get stuck much more further along the way ,so I may or may not have many more Q&A ....So thank you all whom may offer assistance or help.
I really cant thank you Guy`s enough for all the effort and hard work that has gone in to this Fabulous project.
Thank you all,

Best Regards

The hardest part of wiiflow and wiiflow lite is setting up the plugins and the source menu. Figuring out which plugins to use and where to put the roms and then linking them to the source menu. Even my setup is not complete. But once you get things working it is all worth it.

Tetsuo Shima · Oct 8, 2019

@demonfish For C64 and Amiga plugins there's only one choice that I know of. They're both included in the Abz's masterpiece pack. There's "C64-Network.org" (also called Frodo Wii), and UAE Wii for Amiga.
I don't know much about the latter, but the former is able to boot save files besides disk/tape images. This is particularly useful to skip loading times and to have custom controls for each game. Don't expect to compare it with VICE on PC, but it does a good job

demonfish · Oct 8, 2019

@Tetsuo Shima Thanks for the advice Mate on the emulators ...When I was younger....Much younger ...

I owned a C64 then the Amiga ...I literally owned nearly all the games for both them genres as I was pretty fanatical back then about collections........Over the many years that followed , I somehow lost a few disks here and there ...and some of my Favorite titles where now nowhere to be seen

....Maybe over the very early years that followed after my completists fetish subsided.....I used to lend out the systems to family and friends and I suspect this set about the dismantlement of many games lost. So I will be using these Emulators to stir memories of incredible moments lost as I have grown.......I used to have an inescapable appetite for adventure ,graphic, one click etc, So I will be looking forward to getting some of my favorite games running on these Emu`s.

Thank you again Sir for your time and support. I really appreciate it.

Best Regards,

Tetsuo Shima · Oct 8, 2019

A pleasure. So, if you like point 'n click don't forget about ScummVM. It also supports some C64 and Amiga games, I use it for the c64 versions of Zak McKracken and Maniac Mansion. I prefer ScummVm over frodo, for accurate wiimote pointer and no disk swapping.

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