Hacking The Great Quest for Wiiflow Plugins™ - A call for adventurers!

RunningSnakes · May 30, 2020

Tetsuo Shima said:
I was wondering, where do you placed the HEXAECO folder? I have it in wiiflow/plugins. Maybe some changes were made to only work from the apps folder?

I've tried emgba, but I really don't like the filter it's using by default, and I can't disable it. Is it possible to play with original, unfiltered graphics?
The best gba experience for me is mgba (1.7.6) libretro, unfiltered with grid scanline overlay (2x scale)

I put HEXAECO in apps folder and run it (forwarder) on Wii Menu also. It is stripped down version, no MAME or FBA since I've never been able to setup input cfg the way I want (should be able) to. Its possible the cores need to be ran 1st to create it's cfg before using as WFL plugin? For me I copied & renamed sega.dol to path...
usb1:/wiiflow/plugins/Sega
arguments={device}:/{path}/|{name}|{loader}

PCEngine has same path and arguments.

I'm positive you can set up emGBA exactly the way you want it!!! I actually went to this emulator instead of official mGBA because after version 0.6.1 it stopped working as a WFL plugin for me through USB & the RA cores have never worked for me as plugin. I would be using the RA or Official most likely otherwise. The latest emGBA release does not center for me correctly in WiiFlow so I'm using the release from late February I believe. I'll post my emGBA apps folder if you want to take a look at it. I made myself instructions so I could change my setup in the future if I chose to. In the meta.xml you'll see my arguments and change them to your liking.

Edit:
I included my emGBA forwarder channel also.

Tetsuo Shima · Jun 1, 2020

It's really strange... I copied RA-HEXAECO in the SD:/apps/RA-HEXAECO folder and I can't even launch it from the HBC. It simply reboots to HBC. Retroarch doesn't even start.
I removed all .cfg files from SD:/retroarch.
I also removed all the ret##arch folders related to previous RA-HEXAECO versions.
Do you have any clue? At least on Wiiflow it could run the CPS2 core

@Wiimpathy For RA 1.7.8's nightlies, I tried to use the wayback machine with http://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/nintendo/wii/
but it seems that for 2019 there are only 2 available snapshots: 10th and 15th of May. It won't let me download anything though.
But I don't wanna give up! There must be a way to recover your work.
Do you think it would be a waste of time for me to try the current nighlies? I could try to take what works best from the available nightlies and hex-edit them to use custom retroarch.cfg's and retroarch-core-options.cfg's. If they all come from the same version, conflicts should happen less likely, is it right?

xLAKITUx · Jun 1, 2020

At this point, is there at least a current list of the definitive best performing console emulators for the big ones? By the big ones, I mean:

NES
SNES
Genesis/Game Gear/CD
GB, GBC, GBA

Or is there still testing being done involving RA cores vs. standalones for the above listed?

Tetsuo Shima · Jun 1, 2020

The standalone emulators are your best choice for the main consoles.
For the Sega consoles I'm having troubles with the latest geplusgx found in Fledge's pack, so I'll keep using the old genplus-mod8.dol.
For GBA you can chose between mGBA-Wii and emGBA.
GB and GBC are running with WiiMednafen.

I'll keep on trying with Retroarch, just because of overlay scanlines that are missing in the standalones.

RunningSnakes · Jun 1, 2020

@Tetsuo Shima ...

Very strange indeed. I just ran the RA-HEXAECO through HomeBrew then through Wii Menu Forwarder again with no problems. Then ran Sega & PCE through WFL with success. I have not edited the RA-SS cores & running through USB exclusively. Maybe unplug USB if you have it plugged in? possibly older RA-SS files exist there causing problems? I really don't know why it would not at least boot through HBC.

Tetsuo Shima · Jun 1, 2020

I forgot to mention that I have WF and plugins on SD, and roms on USB1. Both FAT32.
I just redownloaded the pack and tried again, no success.
I will investigate more on the matter.

RunningSnakes · Jun 1, 2020

Im using the Gens Plus GX dol fix from ekeeke, Ill post for download. Its running all Sega with no code dump. You will have to delete the config.ini and history.ini in the root/gensplus folder.

Wiimpathy · Jun 1, 2020

Tetsuo Shima said:
@Wiimpathy For RA 1.7.8's nightlies, I tried to use the wayback machine with http://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/nintendo/wii/
but it seems that for 2019 there are only 2 available snapshots: 10th and 15th of May. It won't let me download anything though.
But I don't wanna give up! There must be a way to recover your work.
Do you think it would be a waste of time for me to try the current nighlies? I could try to take what works best from the available nightlies and hex-edit them to use custom retroarch.cfg's and retroarch-core-options.cfg's. If they all come from the same version, conflicts should happen less likely, is it right?

Maybe worth a try testing the current 1.8.8 nightly to see if the FBA cores are still broken. If yes, reporting this major issue would be useful.

My main concern was the neogeo core. But older and working versions can still be found in the original thread.
I haven't done that much in Retroarch itself anyway. Except hid fix & lightgun.

If it's really working as Wiiflow plugins now, it may be just simpler to use some cores from the Retroarch fork I won't name anymore...
He backported some code from here and there so main features should be there...
(without source code...sigh.)

RunningSnakes · Jun 1, 2020

Yeah bummer. Those fork FBA cores don't work as plugins, never have in my experience. I might have some nightlies stored somewhere, I'll have a look & hopefully dig something up.

xLAKITUx · Jun 1, 2020

RunningSnakes said:
Thanks @Tetsuo Shima , I am currently on ScummVM 2.1.0 so thank you for the link. I'm using same C64, Amiga, ZX (I think) from Abz pack. The MSX newer stand alone is top notch but as with all these (computer) emulators, I have them all working through WFL plugins, but my testing is minimal.

For SNES, I love @niuus RX, @Tanooki16 also has a great looking/working mod of GX also. Not to mention the Official GX is great too!
(1) SNES9xRX - 4.8.0
(1) SNES9xGX - Tanookie Mushroom 1.0.3
(1) SNES9xGX - Official 4.4.7

For NES-FDS there are so many to choose from. In the end of my testing, I just have to rule out anything RA has to offer because of instability or missing features that break the deal (FCEUmm is the best RA has to offer).

RX, GX 1-Up, GX Official are all outstanding & full of bells & whistles. As with the SNES, it is all preference since I really believe there is no Clear winner of the three. The emu I put on a back burner years ago, I have revisited & it holds up to any/all Wii Nintendo / Famicom Disc emus. It is what I am using as #1 plugin!!!

(1) WiiMednafen 0.2pre

(What is missing)
Color Palatte changing (Ouch!)
Fine tune turbo fire
FPS diagnostic screen
Mapper support for hacks/translations/saving
3rd party controller support

(What is has)
Clean & simple interface
Rewind & Cheat Support
Double Strike Video (240p)
Zapper/Crosshair works great
Save function is top notch
FDS Disc Swapping works great

I'm sure it is technically inferior to the newer GX/RX emus but it is simple but robust and it Just works. I really hope someone with the know-how coding capabilities would give WiiMednafen an update. It clearly stands above RA imo, but I am not sure if it is open source. Anyhow, wishes do become reality sometimes

Is there a painless way to install either SNES9xGX-Mushroom or SNES9x-RX as Wiiflow plugins?

Tetsuo Shima · Jun 1, 2020

Never tried the mushroom snes, but for rx you can simply copy the dol in your plugins folder and then edit your snes9x.ini and change the dolfile line to this:
dolfile=snes9xrx.dol

However if you're not playing Satellaview games, there's no real reason to prefer RX over the latest snes9xGX.

xLAKITUx · Jun 1, 2020

Tetsuo Shima said:
Never tried the mushroom snes, but for rx you can simply copy the dol in your plugins folder and then edit your snes9x.ini and change the dolfile line to this:
dolfile=snes9xrx.dol

However if you're not playing Satellaview games, there's no real reason to prefer RX over the latest snes9xGX.

I just did that, replacing the .dol files for w/ the Snes9xGX fork file (did the same for FCEUGX - 1UP and have yet to test)

I just did some googling on Satellaview, because I have seen the name thrown around and never knew it was a Japanese-only SNES add-on. Yeah, I'm probably good lol

I truly do appreciate how comprehensive you guys are though.

My next big endeavor is going to be buckling down and actual delving into the Arcade emulation on the Wii - When people start talking about CPS1, 2, 3, alpha, etc -- my eyes start to cross.

xLAKITUx · Jun 1, 2020

Tetsuo Shima said:
The standalone emulators are your best choice for the main consoles.
For the Sega consoles I'm having troubles with the latest geplusgx found in Fledge's pack, so I'll keep using the old genplus-mod8.dol.
For GBA you can chose between mGBA-Wii and emGBA.
GB and GBC are running with WiiMednafen.

I'll keep on trying with Retroarch, just because of overlay scanlines that are missing in the standalones.

Using the pack from @fledge68 - I was testing GB and GBC games using Wiimednafen (admittedly, my first time using this emulator)

1) I get an error when I try to launch a game stating "Error opening languages directory"
2) It doesn't just LAUNCH the rom like other systems. It launches wiimednafen. Then, I have to select load, navigate to the right directory and then load the rom file from there. Is there a tweak where the games can be launched right from Wiiflow without that extra step?

RunningSnakes · Jun 1, 2020

xLAKITUx said:
Using the pack from @fledge68 - I was testing GB and GBC games using Wiimednafen (admittedly, my first time using this emulator)

1) I get an error when I try to launch a game stating "Error opening languages directory"
2) It doesn't just LAUNCH the rom like other systems. It launches wiimednafen. Then, I have to select load, navigate to the right directory and then load the rom file from there. Is there a tweak where the games can be launched right from Wiiflow without that extra step?

Try this ini file for WiiMednafen. the path for arguments should fix the problem. The 1st dl is for GBC the second is for GB.

xLAKITUx · Jun 1, 2020

RunningSnakes said:
Try this ini file for WiiMednafen. the path for arguments should fix the problem. The 1st dl is for GBC the second is for GB.

That did the trick. Thank you!

Tetsuo Shima · Jun 1, 2020

@xLAKITUx the issue is that in fledge's pack the argument line for wiimednafen is wrong
You have to use:
arguments={device}:/{path}/|{name}|{loader}

fledge68 · Jun 1, 2020

Tetsuo Shima said:
@xLAKITUx the issue is that in fledge's pack the argument line for wiimednafen is wrong
You have to use:
arguments={device}:/{path}/|{name}|{loader}

and thats because fix94 modified wiimednafen to make it a plugin and it looks for 3 args. the 3rd arg is the loader. which was used because way back then postloader had the plugin system too. this way wiimednafen knew which loader to return to. if you ever use postloader you will need the wiiflow plugins pack that fix94 made a long time ago.

Tetsuo Shima · Jun 1, 2020

Thanks for the explaination fledge. I never used postloader, so I always wondered why many standalone emus needed the loader argument

xLAKITUx · Jun 2, 2020

fledge68 said:
and thats because fix94 modified wiimednafen to make it a plugin and it looks for 3 args. the 3rd arg is the loader. which was used because way back then postloader had the plugin system too. this way wiimednafen knew which loader to return to. if you ever use postloader you will need the wiiflow plugins pack that fix94 made a long time ago.

That makes sense. This also informed me that "fix94" is not the 94th hotfix in a homebrew-related development cycle, but a person's handle. *Insert "The More You Know" animation*

Anyway, it should be said that getting my Wii into tip-top shape has been a fun project to occupy my time. As of now, my Wiiflow has never looked or ran any better. I was able to make several tweaks yesterday, and I can say that NES, SNES (although I should test Yoshi's Island based on earlier discussions in this thread to see how it runs on SNESxGx-Mushroom), MD/SMS/GG, GB/GBC/GBA as well as my existing Wii, GC, and emuNand VC titles are working great!

Thank you everyone for the time and effort you've put in - especially @fledge68 @Tetsuo Shima @RunningSnakes

Edit - removed question, answered myself

Tetsuo Shima · Jun 2, 2020

"have you ever gone away, only to return to the same place" (Varnaline - Thorns and Such)

Sometimes I'm stupid. I've tested some of the available nightly builds, and I've found out that in 1.8.8 (2020-05-25-nightly) most of the cores are working good, but the FBA cores are always broken. (I've just tested a few builds, not all of them, as it's very time consuming). However, the most interesting fact about this version is that PC Engine CD games are running wonderfully, even with overlays activated there are no audio or video issues!!! This is the perfect pce_fast core for me!
However, the FBA cores were still my main concern. Then one thing came to my mind:

The RA version I was testing in the OP - 1.8.2 (2020/01/04-nightly) - had issues with several cores, but all the FBA cores are working, and they aren't conflicting in any way with the other cores, including Mame2003+ from 1.7.6 (hex edited to save separate cfg's).

At that time I wasn't aware of this problem with the Fba cores, so I were focusing on all the other cores anf forgot about FBA.

So, basically I can mix these two versions. I could also keep testing the remaining nightly builds for 1.8.8, but I doubt to find one where all the cores are working.

@Wiimpathy
@fledge68
@RunningSnakes

What do you think?

Hacking The Great Quest for Wiiflow Plugins™ - A call for adventurers!

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