Moonlight Wii U

Moonlight Wii U is a port of Moonlight Embedded, which is an open source client for Sunshine and NVIDIA GameStream. Moonlight allows you to stream your full collection of games and applications from your PC to other devices to play them remotely.

It's using the hardware-accelerated h264 library of the Wii U which results in pretty fast decoding.
Using my LAN Adapter 720p@60fps runs almost flawlessly.

Here's a little demo (and april fools) video:


Quick Start

ℹ️ A Wii U LAN Adapter is recommended!
  • Grab the latest version from the releases page and extract it to the root of your SD Card.
  • Enter the IP of your Sunshine/GFE server in the moonlight.conf file located at sd:/wiiu/apps/moonlight.
  • Ensure your Sunshine/GFE server and Wii U are on the same network.
  • If using GFE, turn on Shield Streaming in the GFE settings.
  • Pair Moonlight Wii U with the server.
  • Accept the pairing confirmation on your PC.
  • Connect to the server with Moonlight Wii U.
  • Play games!
Configuration
You can configure all of the documented settings in the moonlight.conf file located at sd:/wiiu/apps/moonlight.
Note that a lot of option are commented out by default, to edit them you need to remove the # in front of them.

Supported controllers
  • Gamepad (can be disabled with the disable_gamepad option).
  • Up to 4 Wii U Pro Controllers and Wii Classic Controllers (Pro).
    The Gamepad needs to be disabled to use the 4th controller.

Troubleshooting

Input doesn't work when using Sunshine

Verify that you've installed Nefarius Virtual Gamepad and restarted your PC after the installation.

The stream disconnects frequently/immediately

Depending on your network connection you need to adjust the configuration to find a stable bitrate and resolution.Try something like this to get started:
Code:
width = 854
height = 480
fps = 30
Code:
bitrate = 1500
Then slowly increase the bitrate until the stream is no longer stable.

Can't find app Steam

Moonlight Wii U tries to start the app "Steam" by default, but sunshine does not have a default Application called "Steam".
You can either rename the app in the moonlight.conf to
Code:
app = Steam Big Picture
which is a default option in sunshine or add a new application called "Steam" in the sunshine configuration.

Releases: https://github.com/GaryOderNichts/moonlight-wiiu/releases
Source code: https://github.com/GaryOderNichts/moonlight-wiiu


Special thanks to agilly1989, rw and QuarkTheAwesome.
 
Last edited by GaryOderNichts,

emanubit

Member
Newcomer
Joined
Dec 22, 2020
Messages
17
Trophies
0
Age
30
XP
411
Country
Brazil
Is it just me or Nvidia sent an mandatory update to Geforce Experience that broke this?
Updated to version 3.22.0.32 and now all I have is a black screen when streaming. Input doesn't work either.
 

GaryOderNichts

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2018
Messages
791
Trophies
1
XP
5,449
Country
Germany
Is it just me or Nvidia sent an mandatory update to Geforce Experience that broke this?
Updated to version 3.22.0.32 and now all I have is a black screen when streaming. Input doesn't work either.
Latest GFE beta isn't supported yet. I'll fix that with a new update soon.
 

GaryOderNichts

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2018
Messages
791
Trophies
1
XP
5,449
Country
Germany
Alright here is the first update:

Moonlight Wii U Version 1.1
Changelog:
  • Updated moonlight-common-c, now supports GFE 3.22
  • Added a swap_buttons option to the config to swap the A, B and X, Y buttons, to match the XBOX Controller layout
I'll look into all the other issues and features everyone mentioned soon. Thanks for all the feedback so far!
 

Soukai

Well-Known Member
Newcomer
Joined
Jan 19, 2016
Messages
65
Trophies
0
Age
32
XP
1,180
Country
Germany
Ive got some screen tearing on my plays. bitrate= 5000 , res 720p . I guess thats a common issue, is it? but not a big deal. Keep up the great work :)
 

wagonhelm

Member
Newcomer
Joined
Mar 2, 2021
Messages
12
Trophies
0
Age
37
XP
74
Country
Canada
Alright here is the first update:

Moonlight Wii U Version 1.1
Changelog:
  • Updated moonlight-common-c, now supports GFE 3.22
  • Added a swap_buttons option to the config to swap the A, B and X, Y buttons, to match the XBOX Controller layout
I'll look into all the other issues and features everyone mentioned soon. Thanks for all the feedback so far!

Amazing Work!

So far I'm having an issue where it only streams my screen for a second then it freezes, the audio keeps streaming though.
 
Last edited by wagonhelm,

GameInCanada

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2017
Messages
160
Trophies
0
Website
www.nintend.news
XP
154
Country
Canada
any idea why i cant get the controllers to work, in steam big box it says xbox 360 controller connected. but no inputs work apart from the odd Forced joystick to the right.

this is epic cheers and thank you
 

AlMightyBob

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Jan 31, 2008
Messages
3
Trophies
0
XP
52
Country
Getting a 'Can't find app Steam' error as soon as I try to stream. Same thing on both sunshine and openstream. Steam is installed at the default location on C:/ so not sure why it's not detected.
 

lexarvn

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2010
Messages
157
Trophies
1
XP
1,804
Country
United States
Just wanted to say first that this is pretty awesome. I've run into a similar issue as @GameInCanada mentioned though.

For me, using nvidia's GFE 3.22 and Moonlight Wii U 1.1, the video is buttery smooth/no tearing but the controller input isn't being recognized consistently. If I hold left a for a couple of seconds it eventually starts moving left and for the duration that I held it, but short presses just don't seem to be working. Strangely enough, I don't remember this being an issue before GFE updated and I was using Moonlight Wii U 1.0 but I didn't get a chance to really test it since before I could tinker with resolution, fps, and bit rate to see what worked well on my wifi, GFE picked up its latest update...

Using sunshine, the controller work pretty much just fine, and the video stream is mostly good, but I had to turn the resolution down. I might just need to mess with sunshine's settings though.


Getting a 'Can't find app Steam' error as soon as I try to stream. Same thing on both sunshine and openstream. Steam is installed at the default location on C:/ so not sure why it's not detected.
If you downloaded the app from sunshine's release page, you need to change the name of the app in sunshine's assets/apps_windows.json. It has "Steam BigPicture" in it as the name instead of just "Steam".
 
Last edited by lexarvn,
  • Like
Reactions: GaryOderNichts

lexarvn

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2010
Messages
157
Trophies
1
XP
1,804
Country
United States
So, just an update to my previous post, I downgraded GFE back to 3.21.0.36 and I'm still using Moonlight Wii U 1.1 and the controls are working perfectly! So I guess the latest version of GFE must have some other issue with Moonlight...
 

AlphaMayo

Member
Newcomer
Joined
Oct 24, 2016
Messages
8
Trophies
0
Age
36
XP
94
Country
United States
Amazing. Ive been wanting moonlight on WiiU for ages but figured it would be too hard to port. I dont think its even been ported to UWP/Xbox one/series Dev mode yet.
Cant wait to try it out later.
 
  • Like
Reactions: GaryOderNichts

AlMightyBob

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Jan 31, 2008
Messages
3
Trophies
0
XP
52
Country
If you downloaded the app from sunshine's release page, you need to change the name of the app in sunshine's assets/apps_windows.json. It has "Steam BigPicture" in it as the name instead of just "Steam".

Ah, of course, thanks! Up and running now. Fantastic app, such a great fit for the console. Thanks to all involved!
 

emanubit

Member
Newcomer
Joined
Dec 22, 2020
Messages
17
Trophies
0
Age
30
XP
411
Country
Brazil
Meanwhile, if anyone wants to know how to block GFE updates, here's step by step that has worked for me:
• Uninstall the current version that is broken for moonlight
• Download a previous version from this link: http://us.download.nvidia.com/GFE/GFEClient/3.20.3.63/GeForce_Experience_v3.20.3.63.exe (you can replace the version numbers from the link to get any other version). Also, do not delete the installer.
• Install it, open GFE and then close it. By now, the Nvidia service has downloaded the most recent version and will try to install it in the next launch
• To avoid that, go to "C:\ProgramData\NVIDIA Corporation\Downloader", open the file called "gfeupdate.json" and change the "url" entry to the path for the installer you just downloaded, eg:
{"url":"C:\\Users\\<yourusername>\\Downloads\\GeForce_Experience_v3.20.3.63.exe"}​
(note the double slashes), save the file and close it
• Immediately after, right click on it, select Properties and revoke all write permissions to the file, this way the Nvidia service won't be able to write the path for the latest version installer
• Next time you launch GFE, it will install the old version again, and after that, no more updates :D

Hope it helps. Since I only use GFE for moonlight, I don't see much reason to keep it updated :P
 
Last edited by emanubit,

lexarvn

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2010
Messages
157
Trophies
1
XP
1,804
Country
United States
Rather than revoke write permissions, you could just temporarily block the domain names of nvidia's update servers like Beckershoff suggested in the moonlight-nx thread
PS best way for now is blocking the update by adding these 2 lines to your DNS settings:

127.0.0.1 international-gfe.download.nvidia.com
127.0.0.1 gfwsl.geforce.com

I am not certain btw Nvidia is having more domain names..
 
  • Like
Reactions: emanubit

emanubit

Member
Newcomer
Joined
Dec 22, 2020
Messages
17
Trophies
0
Age
30
XP
411
Country
Brazil
Rather than revoke write permissions, you could just temporarily block the domain names of nvidia's update servers like Beckershoff suggested in the moonlight-nx thread
I tried that, but it didn't work for me, unfortunately. But I think it is a good idea to use both methods, just to be sure
 
  • Like
Reactions: lexarvn

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
    K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2: Sorry for accidentally bending over