Hacking Coverflow7 USB Loader

[wiinublet]

Ok here is an update or additional theme to use with the loader. My internet is slow so I'm still uploading the NTSC-U 3d covers pack. I'll be posting a link for it once its up.

MAIN.PNG

CONFIG.PNG

the console frame cuts off a tad at the top of the main.png I'll fix that later.

Don:

Is there any way you could make the width of the console smaller? or by chance I could help you test out your alpha4 to ensure my theme is going to be compatible with it since you have centered the text?

 

[hunter291]

im going to internet by wii, so i am positive, that my internet works

 

[jhoff80]

Okay, this is neat and all, but if the covers are 3D and sideways like that, why would the reflections be straight down?

 

[wiinublet]

@jhoff80

You'll have to ask NeoRame. They are from his 3d box art covers, the same ones used in the libwgui loader the only thing I have done is added the white background to the image and adjusted the sizes.

 

[Chaos Punk]

I posted my main and config.png a few pages back. As for my settings.txt I didn't change a single thing from what was in the file.

Ok, sorry, I didn't see them till now. But, covers on background has to be deleted, right? Or covers are drawn over the boxes?

sorry LoPelut here is what I used for my main.png

just save it as main.png and also I am uploading a full pack of the NTSC-U 3d covers to work with it

Here is also a preview of my more detailed main.png

Hey, could you make a black version of the second one? I really like the look of it but I have a dark themed Wii (Softmii tweaked)

 

[lexlth]

Another thing that could be changed is that, when we start coverflow with no USB plugged, it only asks to restart Wii...
There should be a message saying something like : " No USB Found"...

 

[LoPelut]

Okay, this is neat and all, but if the covers are 3D and sideways like that, why would the reflections be straight down?

Thanks wiinublet, this was what I meant. No boxes on the bg.

@jhoff80: this bg is not only for 3D covers, it can be used with 2D also. But I agree with you, if 3D covers are used, reflection has to be removed. (Even MSPaint can save in PNG format...)

 

[wiinublet]

@Chaos Punk

here you go

@jhoff80

do you mean like this?

Its finally uploaded!! Here is the 3d cover ntscu cover pack for a white background

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SUOISK6G

 

[cdreams]

@Wiinublet

On your custom backgrounds, you should remove the reflections altogether possibly. Other than that what to do is do one of the images with just a plain white boxart and make the reflection from that so it looks the same.

In fact i will try with one of your covers, give me a minute or so to try it out and show you.

 

[hunter291]

so can anyone please make a pic of his structure for me ?? im so stupid, i cant get the newest version to work -.-

 

[cdreams]

Ok made it and tried to add some stuff but kept making mistakes lol, so this is how far I got with it.

I think without the reflections it looks better personally. And I think in the black it would be the same, but I like how you have made the images so it is the whole box and image in one, it makes it extremely easy to use this idea, so well done.

I'm suggesting to DK, after someone else had the idea, that maybe in the Settings page where the Wiimote image is, instead of the Wiimote it could have the actual game selected there, like the other loaders do and what your setting options wise would be for that game specifically, so you would have the normal main page then in Settings you would get to see the 3D image there for the selected game.

 

[MaGosT]

Yay thx alot guys for the help, works like a charm now =)

Btw do u have a forwarder for this loader yet ^^?

 

[cdreams]

@hunter

Your structure should be like this:

sd:/apps/usbloaderDK/boot.dol

sd:/usb-loaderAB/small/
(all the smaller images sized at 66x93 go in here including noimagesmall.png. The other small images must be named like so: smallRMCE01.png)

sd:/usb-loaderAB/covers/
(all the larger images sized at 160x225 go in here including noimage.png. The other large images must be named like so: RMCE01.png and make sure your large and small names match for each game and what you have on the hard drive)

sd:/usb-loaderAB/
In here you need 3 files at present. You need main.png which is your main background image, also config.png which is your settings page background, and finally config.txt.

config.txt is where you can change settings for the loader manually. Make sure that you have the correct information in there. So for the above to work you would need the following:

images_path=sdhc:/usb-loaderAB/
folder_big = covers/
folder_small = small/
background = main.png
#simple = 0
home = exit
download = 0
ocarina = 0
#wbfs_device = 0

If that doesn't work then make sure your on cIOS-Rev10. Other than that then your going to have to let us know more to narrow it down. I think this should fix your issue though.





Posts merged

@MaGosT

Not yet my friend. DK is still working away on code and I'm still tweaking images for you all. Give it another week possibly until things are ironed out and then there possibly may be forwarders ect. The main thing is just to keep checking the thread for the latest info and the progress on the loader.

Glad it's working for you now

Let us know what you like and dislike.

 

[hunter291]

it works ^^ thank you sooo much ^^

 

[cdreams]

@ Wiinublet

Hey there. I tried out some of your images as you can see above. Great work as I said, it means nothing needs to change code wise so good work on that. Can you update to make sure you have NTSC, PAL and JAP games in a folder each and make sure they are the right game id's. I know it's probably a bit of work but if you could then this would be great.

You could maybe even speak to Djtaz and get him to add these to his site for the game images.

The only other thing I could suggest, is that you make it so the outside of the box, currently you have a white background, if you could make that transparent. If you can do that then they could be used on any background without any modifying.

So to conclude, if you could make a package called 3D Boxart and in there have the three region folder with the images as you have them. If you have the large size and Djtaz uploads to his site then you wouldn't even need to resize them either, the loader does that automatically so it's nice and easy. Well easier.

Cheers.

Posts merged

@hunter

Glad to hear it my good man

We don't want anyone missing out on it. All you guys sticking by and enjoying it gives us motivation to carry on and improve it bit by bit. So keep checking back for updates and what not.

 

[bebs]

Hi, thx for your hard work!

btw, i've got a problem, i can't save my settings... i press 1 and nothing is happening. i even edited the config file, no results...

hope that you can help me

 

[wiinublet]

@cdreams

They already are on his site with transparency. This loader doesn't support transparency. It will give you a black background, so the already existent transparent package will work with a black background, but not with the white one. NeoRame has an entire pack which I have downloaded and edited so they would have white backgrounds and work in this loader. I have to batch add the white background in 227 j and 660 pal games. I already did it to all the ntsc-u (roughly 541). When I get some free time I can hammer back the others.

 

[cdreams]

Ahh ok. I remember trying out his original 3D image thing but it didn't include the actual game image, it was just the box at the angle which would be set in the background and then the downloaded image would lay over it making it look complete, but I never got it working properly or looking right.The way you have it now where it is the image and box together works so much better and easier so if that is what he has now then great.

It means it could be an option at some stage, 3D boxart or normal, for instance. Like I say, I prefer my images looking straight on, not sure why I just find it a little cleaner. But for the settings page idea, the 3D one there would be nice. This is all assuming DK even wants to contemplate that idea of course lol.


@bebs
The settings doesn't save on alpha3. I think DK has fixed it ready for his next release Alpha4, so keep checking back for the update hopefully tonight if he is going to release it.

For now though, when your in the loader and you go to the settings page, you can change the settings and press 1 and it will work for that game you choose but you will need to redo it each time you load the loader. Inconvenient I know but it's temporary so bear with it for now please.

Good stuff is just around the corner I feel

 

[MaGosT]

Aight, well i rly like the gui but it would be cool if u could squezze in afew more games on the screen
Maybe something like this:

--------
--------
---^---
--------
--------

key:
- minor pics
^ Highlighted pic

edit: A que like its already but just showing abit more covers, but dno.. maybe it wouldn't look that great with too many covers either

cheers ^^

 

[cdreams]

@MaGosT

The problem though is that 7 is probably about maximum due to the way the Wii loads the covers and renders them, I think it puts a bit of strain on the Wii and causes it to go slow. DK knows more about that than I do though so he can probably explain much better than I can.

I think basically as it is now it can be kept at a reasonable speed for scrolling a small library of games. If you have a lot of games though he has tweaked the loader so that if you push up or down it will change a whole set of images. They are also saved alphabetically, so it should make getting through games a bit quicker for people with lots of games.

This won't be available though until Alpha4, so again just need to sit tight and wait for it

Check post 7 on this thread and you will see what is coming and planned in the upcoming revision.

If you check back a few pages you will also see the idea I have regarding the scrollbar. This would also help improve browsing a larger library.

So although it might be possible to have more games on screen, it would severely impact the fluidity of the loader and make it run poorly.