Hacking Backup Launcher by Wiigator

[Whtrvn]

hrmm wiigator .2 beta is much faster and compatability is the same (id say equal to cios_fix.wad), waninkoko what exactly is new in this cios? can we have the source? oh and ppc gba, thanks for compiling the patched loader, but i dont think waninkoko is fond of the "wanky" nickname. its kinda disrespectful. i dont think you meant it that way, just a heads up.

 

[gisel213]

Thanks for the news pyscon i'll wait on .2 beta when you guys finish testing and ironing out the bugs have fun guys!
Take your time wiigator......

 

[thetonman]

Hi Guys

This is my first post here but I have been a lurker for quite a while now. I had to post on this thread with thanks to Wiigator and waninkoko for all there efforts in these loaders. Also i would like to thank everyone here as I have read this whole thread all 87 pages and I successfully installed wiigators loader on 2 seperate wii's with no issues at all. I am desperately looking forward to the updates on these loaders as this is the first time I installed a hack. I must say even with the laggy videos these loaders are great.

Anyway just thought I would post my thanks and hopefully I can contribute more to this community in the future.

Thanks to all involved.

Thetonman

 

[WiiPower]

How about improving reading speeds with the use of the Wii's internal flash memory as a cache? The Wii has only 88 MB of memory to work with, so i thought it might be a good idea to use let's say 256 MB of the flash to store the sectors of the games which are used most. A lot of games are working already and compatibility is increasing, but the reading speeds are still very bad. In Mario Kart for example the readings speeds are too slow for online gaming because there ist a timeout when loading a stage. But if the menu and the last stage played will be in the flash, the Wii would be able to load very fast, perhaps faster than the original does *dreaming*.

What do you think Waninkoko, Wiigator and ppc gba? Would would it be possible and would it be worth a try ?

Great work so far you guys.

 

[OSW]

you talking about the nand flash right... :facepalm:

 

[WiiPower]

I am talking about the 512 MB internal flash memory where the VC titles and savegames are stored. If this is the nand flash, then yes. Why facepalm? I don't understand

 

[OSW]

too many reasons
writes to the nand dangerous/unadvisable (in this quantity)
difficult/impossible to code mixed reads from nand/dvd
essentially wouldn't have any advantages that you might think.
etc etc

thats how i see it. (i'm no expert but i'm pretty confident with this).
not trying to be mean or anything, i hope it didnt come across that way.

A question:
Do homebrew DVDs (homebrew dol's made into an iso) boot with the backup launcher?

 

[WiiPower]

It's okay, i have read the Wikipedia article about nand flash. It would really be a bad idea to use it as a cache. I thought the internal flash was comparable to the flash of a usbstick. Usbsticks aren't possible too because of the lag of USB 2.0 drivers. If there were USB 2.0 drivers, they would be used for an iso-loader. How about sd cards. Is the Wii able read/write on them with full speed? Are sd cards even accessible from a [c]ios?

Edit: I hate autocorrection

 

[harryk]

Ummm...

The speed of RAM is several GB per second (2 - 15 GB/s, dunno about the Wii memory), where SD cards have several MB per second (max. 30 MB/s).

There is absolutely no way of using SD cards for increased speed while reading DVDs

 

[WiiPower]

I agree with that, but it's not the point. Everything the wii loads and uses have to be in the RAM, but caching with a sd card could reduce the time needed to get there. Sd cards should be faster than reading from DVD, even more when reading speed is limited to 3X. The idea is: When the Wii needs some data from the game the first time, it will load from the DVD and copies the data to the RAM(for playing) and to the cache. When someting is needed the 2nd time, the Wii can load it from the cache and does not have to wait for the DVD.

 

[fishears]

... thanks for compiling the patched loader, but i dont think waninkoko is fond of the "wanky" nickname. its kinda disrespectful. i dont think you meant it that way, just a heads up.

I agree with this. I thank you for the good work you're doing here ppc gba but please don't undermine that by appearing to be disrespectful to another coder. Waninkoko has done some groundbreaking work - give the guy a little of what he deserves. Do you think we'd have two backup loaders in development so quickly without his work, without his release of the custom DIP module? Let's keep this friendly.

 

[OSW]

ah it's just a nickname. doubt it was meant to incite trouble. lol.

of course if it offends him then it'd be worth to change.

 

[djtaz]

ah it's just a nickname. doubt it was meant to incite trouble. lol.

of course if it offends him then it'd be worth to change.

OSW is right - ppc_gba is a decent poster and helpful to all and not the type to offend someone else who is helping out.

Im sure you have all had the nickname and worse pop into your head when you read his name at some stage , but ppc_gba went ahead and made a funny WHILE supplying everyone with the missing link they required.

Say thanks and move on.

 

[DarkeoX]

hy everyone, s.o. has certainly asked this before but is the usb 2.0 too slow to use a flash disk as cache memory for the backup launcher, or will the process of sending datas in a flash for the WII to re-use it takes too much time ?

 

[djtaz]

hy everyone, s.o. has certainly asked this before but is the usb 2.0 too slow to use a flash disk as cache memory for the backup launcher, or will the process of sending datas in a flash for the WII to re-use it takes too much time ?

The devices on the wii are physically USB2.0 but are limited to USB1 by the firmware so unless that can be fixed first running things from the USB port wont happen.

 

[DarkeoX]

Damned, so sorry to re-ask, but is it a way to shunt both IOS and DVD drive protections for them to not recognise a DVD WII from a simple DVD ? Also, does anyone tested yet the online mode in Chocobo dungeon, 'cause it doesn't crash, but as my wii firmware is 3.3e, and as the game hasn't been released yet, maybe is there some conflicts in the network, i tought it could work since it's a card game, and that there may not be too informations to send & to receive from the server, so the fact that the speed is limited to 3x wouldn't be so unpleasant...

 

[WiiShizzza]

Just tried the patched loader for waninkokos cIOS. But actually it doesn't improve anything for me... It's even badder then the cios_fix and the old loaders.
With the old combination I'm able to play most of my backups with the leaked loader or the gator loader.
I went back to the old combination and wait patiently for the new wiigator loader including a wiigator cIOS.

Credits still go out to all the coders especially waninkoko for showing what can be done for and with the wii.

Thanks

 

[Cooler89]

I would say just wait for wiigator to release his version what psycon said just wait it will probably be few days when he releases it

 

[ether2802]

someone has to make a new launcher with the last piece of code that Waninkoko left, at the the only one I can think, capable of add that code to the existing source of Wiigator's Launcher, is PPC_GBA, so please if you can do it........ DO IT and send me a copy, lol please, if you don't do it, I really think there isn't going to be a release, wiigator nor waninkoko

 

[Screemer]

oh man, he already did:

wiigator loader waninkoko fix is not here.
in any case, it seems to have the same compatibility as cios_fix. at least for me, anyway, the load times seemed the same.
the mario kart 2nd race thing is still fixed but red steel still doesn't work. i suspect the same games will remain fixed/broken, but i'm sure ppl will let us know.

edit: crap, now i can't play wario since it won't launch from wiigator's loader. i might go back to cios_fix...

if anyone has decompiled waninkoko's launcher at all, let us know if you figured out what it does differently. it would be cool if he released the source of that and the current ios.