Hacking Homebrew Any way for a pretty, unified menu for all emulators & games?

[zebragreen]

Well, all of my statements were actually tested and 100% accurate.

It's true that if you download the ABZ pack on a USB, you can play those games without touching or changing a thing.

It's true that if you rename the GX. dol files from the plugins pack identically to the ones in the ABZ pack and override those .dol files, those emulators stop working. Hence I have no way to upgrade.

It's true that anyone can download my Wiiflow Lite theme, which works as is, without first downloading yours, which doing so breaks the appearance of my theme.

I have also made and maintained 10 plus current Wiiflow Lite themes over the years, I would like a way to release them without constantly hearing that your theme is the one sole Wiiflow theme and anyone that goes with anything alternate is making a mistake.

 

[Tetsuo Shima]

You don't even know what you're talking about and keep spreading BS.
If your theme conflicts with mine, that's only because you made some mistake. Themes can coexists because they go in separate folders named like the theme, as well as renamed .ini files. The only common file is platform.ini, but that's an integral part of Wiiflow, that's why I told you it's important to not spread multiple versions and everyone use the latest one. Again, there are a few other themes around but only your theme had this problem. I had zero reports like this from the others. You don't even tell what breaks in your theme, but I notice you missed to rename the .ini file in the coverflows folder, so it may be that.
The funny thing is that your theme requires to switch to other themes to configure things, it's badly designed and you're yelling at me.

It's true that if you rename the GX. dol files from the plugins pack identically to the ones in the ABZ pack and override those .dol files, those emulators stop working. Hence I have no way to upgrade.

That's NOT how you update plugins, especially if you use a base setup from 10 years ago. Not all plugins work the same way, the folder structures may have changed over time and may be hard coded, and an outdated platform.ini or plugin.ini can break everything.
Again, do better research before throwing shit to other people's work.

 

[zebragreen]

You don't even know what you're talking about and keep spreading BS.
If your theme conflicts with mine, that's only because you made some mistake. Themes can coexists because they go in separate folders named like the theme, as well as renamed .ini files. The only common file is platform.ini, but that's an integral part of Wiiflow, that's why I told you it's important to not spread multiple versions and everyone use the latest one. Again, there are a few other themes around but only your theme had this problem. I had zero reports like this from the others. You don't even tell what breaks in your theme, but I notice you missed to rename the .ini file in the coverflows folder, so it may be that.
The funny thing is that your theme requires to switch to other themes to configure things, it's badly designed and you're yelling at me.


That's NOT how you update plugins, especially if you use a base setup from 10 years ago. Not all plugins work the same way, the folder structures may have changed over time and may be hard coded, and an outdated platform.ini or plugin.ini can break everything.
Again, do better research before throwing shit to other people's work.

 

[Tetsuo Shima]

@zebragreen source menu is conflicting. It must be placed inside a folder called like your theme, like so:
wiiflow/source_menu/<your theme name>/source_menu.ini
you can include spaces in the folder name, like in my case:
wiiflow/source_menu/Rhapsodii Shima/source_menu.ini
All other folders and files must be placed there, so in your case it will be:

wiiflow/source_menu/Clean and Classy/source_menu.ini
wiiflow/source_menu/Clean and Classy/full_covers/

 

[zebragreen]

@zebragreen source menu is conflicting. It must be placed inside a folder called like your theme, like so:
wiiflow/source_menu/<your theme name>/source_menu.ini
you can include spaces in the folder name, like in my case:
wiiflow/source_menu/Rhapsodii Shima/source_menu.ini
All other folders and files must be placed there, so in your case it will be:

wiiflow/source_menu/Clean and Classy/source_menu.ini
wiiflow/source_menu/Clean and Classy/full_covers/

But what about the categories? In the above buttons, everything from Wheel Wheel onwards to Internet are each Source Buttons linked to specific categories.

 

[Exidous]

I agree with you, a stickied guide on top of the Wii Forums could be useful for people new to Wiiflow. Or even a complete .ini file with every possible button, but with everything in a single file.
I seem to recall that @fledge68 was on the way to restore WiiFlow Wiki 4 and that in the Wiiflow Lite's thread someone posted some backups.
However, which were the difficulties you encountered in setting up your source menu?
Which arguments were less clear to you? Which info you're still lacking?

I don't know where magic numbers come from. I suspect they're assigned arbitrarily, but I don't know what specifically does the assigning (my guess is platform.ini). I would just use whatever was already in the plugin inis. The arbitrariness is another reason why I'm hesitant to recommend editing the source menu on the Wii - you're relying on the names displayed without knowing what's actually being pointed at. It's all very mystical.

Magic numbers are aptly named, at least.

 

[matto21]

@zebragreen The Plugins Pack is not my project, but a community effort which involved several experienced Gbatemp users. So you're disrespecting the hard work of a whole group of people, which worked hard and for FREE. Since it's around (I lost the early versions but rev5 is 3 years old) it constantly improved and grew in size and it's now the point of reference for Wiiflow plugins. And you're the only one complaining, trolling and spreading false information.
You clearly show all your ignorance and arrogance on every argument, so bye bye.

@Exidous I agree with you, a stickied guide on top of the Wii Forums could be useful for people new to Wiiflow. Or even a complete .ini file with every possible button, but with everything in a single file.
I seem to recall that @fledge68 was on the way to restore WiiFlow Wiki 4 and that in the Wiiflow Lite's thread someone posted some backups.
However, which were the difficulties you encountered in setting up your source menu?
Which arguments were less clear to you? Which info you're still lacking?

https://gbatemp.net/threads/wiiflow-lite.422685/page-217

• #4,337

 

[Tetsuo Shima]

I don't know where magic numbers come from. I suspect they're assigned arbitrarily, but I don't know what specifically does the assigning (my guess is platform.ini). I would just use whatever was already in the plugin inis. The arbitrariness is another reason why I'm hesitant to recommend editing the source menu on the Wii - you're relying on the names displayed without knowing what's actually being pointed at. It's all very mystical.

Magic numbers are aptly named, at least.

Yes platform.ini is where every magic number is assigned to a specific platform. Whenever a new emulator was introduced (e.g. sega 32x) and was added as a WF plugin, we created a new magic number.
They can be arbitrary, but when I was maintaining platform.ini I created them using an ASCII to Hex converter, so for example CPS1 is converted to 43505331.
If you use the Plugins Pack, you get the latest platform.ini plus all the Plugins ini files, so using the Source Menu Setup it's easier to assign a different emu to a button, because they're all listed with their description and you don't have to deal with magic numbers anymore.

Post automatically merged: Jul 30, 2023

But what about the categories? In the above buttons, everything from Wheel Wheel onwards to Internet are each Source Buttons linked to specific categories.

Unfortunately, having per theme categories is not possibile at the moment. You can try to request this feature to Fledge68, but I cannot guarantee whether it can be done or not.

 

[zebragreen]

Unfortunately, having per theme categories is not possibile at the moment. You can try to request this feature to Fledge68, but I cannot guarantee whether it can be done or not.

Or, if someone wants to use my theme, they can download it, without first downloading your theme.

 

[impeeza]

Essentially, I would like to have a nice, pretty menu that displays all my games across all my systems (Wii, Gamecube, SNES and back) rather than lots of individual apps. I currently have USBLoaderGX set up with my Wii and Gamecube games and their box art, which I love. But in order to play other emulated games I either have to launch individual emulators (most/all of which have ugly menus, and are also all disconnected) or use Retroarch (which also has an ugly menu since the XMB gui isn't supported).

I've looked into VC injections, but they seem somewhat unreliable, but I think theres a way to at least have them display in USBLoaderGX. Is there something that I'm missing/haven't found, or is this just the way it is?

wiiflow'plugins are what you are searching for

https://gbatemp.net/threads/the-great-quest-for-wiiflow-plugins-tm-a-call-for-adventurers.563575/

 

[zebragreen]

@Tetsuo Shima As per your knowledge and suggestions, I have altered my theme to instead be compatible and not conflict with your themes and files.

It now uses subfolders for source menu and full covers