Hacking DevolUtion?

[jagotu]

tueidj, the creator of devolution, posted a video on his channel that (supposedly) shows a Gamecube game running on a Wii U in Wii Mode. Unfortunately, he shows no proof of it being on the Wii U. Does he even have access to Homebrew Channel for Wii U?
Anyway, here's the vid:

 

[Supercool330]

Why would he need access to the Homebrew Channel, Devolution form my understanding does not require anything to be installed to the system and could be run directly from an exploit (like Smash Stack). I assumed this would work fine, but the Wii U has no GC hardware, and the drive cannot read GC disks (or even load them AFAIK), so he must have removed the disk check for this version.

@tueidj: If you happen to read this, please release the source for Devolution. It is entirely your prerogative (as it is your project), but that way you could ensure that it will never die, and the community could contribute and make it even better.

 

[JoostinOnline]

Why would he need access to the Homebrew Channel, Devolution form my understanding does not require anything to be installed to the system and could be run directly from an exploit (like Smash Stack). I assumed this would work fine, but the Wii U has no GC hardware, and the drive cannot read GC disks (or even load them AFAIK), so he must have removed the disk check for this version.

@tueidj: If you happen to read this, please release the source for Devolution. It is entirely your prerogative (as it is your project), but that way you could ensure that it will never die, and the community could contribute and make it even better.

You need to disable AHBPROT, which can't be done with any (public) exploit.

tueidj is never going to release the source.

 

[Supercool330]

You need to disable AHBPROT, which can't be done with any (public) exploit.

Cool, I didn't realize that AHBPROT was required for Devolution, in which case he must have access to the unreleased HBC or an IOS exploit of some flavor.

tueidj is never going to release the source.

Ya I know, but I can dream of a happy world where all software is open source can't I?

 

[SifJar]

Cool, I didn't realize that AHBPROT was required for Devolution, in which case he must have access to the unreleased HBC or an IOS exploit of some flavor.

In the video, it very clearly shows him loading it from HBC.

 

[Taleweaver]

@tueidj: If you happen to read this, please release the source for Devolution. It is entirely your prerogative (as it is your project), but that way you could ensure that it will never die, and the community could contribute and make it even better.

Good karma for the way you ask it, but the arguments aren't exactly grounded in reality. Devolution isn't going to die without it being open source: it works on a wii just fine (fuck...I even bought a game just so I could install and play it through devolution. Perhaps it doesn't count because that game is on my backlog, but still...).
And the community contributes...ahem...we both know what would happen: the disc checking part would be removed. And that'll be it. Perhaps one or two small bug fixes, but nothing major. And I seriously doubt anyone will be able to make it work on another input device than the gamecube controllers.

 

[Supercool330]

In the video, it very clearly shows him loading it from HBC.

You assume I took the time to actually watch the video lol My bad, and I apologize for my confusion.

the arguments aren't exactly grounded in reality

As to the project dyeing, all closed source projects eventually die, maybe in 3 years, maybe in 30, but eventually the original author abandons them. As to the second argument, just look at DML (a very similar project). Yes, when the source was opened up to the community it blocked any potential for piracy checks (actually, crediar gave up on that long before it was open sourced), but it enabled a number of people to commit (admittedly only a few have), a decent number of user contributed patches to be added, and those curious in its inner workings to read the source. I admit for a lot of industries, open source is likely not the answer (and in some probably isn't even practical), but in general I feel that open source is the right way to go, especially if you aren't planning on selling a product.

 

[Maxternal]

Tueidj being as good as he is (imagine, even good enough to make devolution) I don't think there's any problem with him figuring out how own little way to get the HBC installed on a Wii U since other's have already done it.

On the other hand, he's also well respected enough in the community that I'm sure those who had already figured it out might have willingly offered to GIVE him a copy of their installer. I don't think there's anyone you can be more sure that he WON'T leak something like this and that they can trust him with it.

 

[Bryon15]

Well this is very good news. This also explains why Tueidj has gone missing since gbatemp went back online. He's busying working on this. I think this is probably the main thing I want to be able to do on my Wii U. Play gamecube games on it.

 

[Kikirini]

If this is true - awesome! But I hope to see some real proof that it's running on the Wii U.

 

[Taleweaver]

Well...at least one part hold up fine: tueidj has found an exploit that allows to install the HBC on a vwii. In fact, it's used in the latest HBC installer (source).

Still: without a way to connect gamecube controllers, merely being able to run gamecube games doesn't do that much.

 

[Maxternal]

Still: without a way to connect gamecube controllers, merely being able to run gamecube games doesn't do that much.

True. That's probably why the video just shows him sitting on the title screen for so long ... he can't actually control the game yet.

At least he was able to get into the game. As mentioned before, the current release of Devolution says on the startup menu to press certain buttons on the GameCube controller tomountSD, USB, start the game, exit, etc. The video shows it asking to press (1) or (2) etc so that hints that it's actually communicating with the Wiimote now (of course on a Wii U he didn't really have anything else to work with.) and he's already implemented some controls through a USB mouse so using something OTHER than the GC controllers is already kinda there. He just has to get them connected up together.

 

[SifJar]

The Devolution menu communicating with a Wii remote isn't much of a big deal, it is a Wii app after all (it would probably take merely a few seconds to modify the current sample loader to use Wii remote instead of GC controller, it's just a bit pointless as you would then have to switch to GC anyway once the game loads). The challenge comes once the GC game is loaded, redirecting Wii remote input to the GC code.

 

[Maxternal]

The Devolution menu communicating with a Wii remote isn't much of a big deal, it is a Wii app after all (it would probably take merely a few seconds to modify the current sample loader to use Wii remote instead of GC controller, it's just a bit pointless as you would then have to switch to GC anyway once the game loads). The challenge comes once the GC game is loaded, redirecting Wii remote input to the GC code.

Oh yeah, I had forgotten that the sample loader part was separate (and open sourced). I guess he's not necessarily THAT much closer to wiimote support ... but he's tueidj, he can do it.

 

[Bryon15]

Couldn't he make it work with the Wii U pro controller?

 

[Cyan]

All "U" accessories and hardware are disabled in virtual Wii mode.
I suppose he could had support for accessories by writing a BT/WF module and add it directly in his code, but it requires the bluetooth pincode which is currently unknown (based on WiiUbrew info).
The WiiU is using the same BT chipset for both vWii and WiiU mode?

 

[toss01]

Mentioned this earlier in the other original thread but it is appropriate here with all the controller talk

If this is true and something like this can be added down the line, I would be so happy.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/GameCube-Controller-Adapter-PC-USB/dp/B0089NVTDM

 

[driverdis]

Now that the HBC is released with WiiMode and AHBPROT support, Devolution should run now as is requires no cIOS's to function and only requires AHBPROT. actually playing games is a different story as there is no wiimote support yet and games cannot even be started to see if they even play intros even since the AntiPiracy check prevents it from working since gamecube disks are spit out on a Wii U thus making verification impossible.

 

[Maxternal]

Now that the HBC is released with WiiMode and AHBPROT support, Devolution should run now as is requires no cIOS's to function and only requires AHBPROT. actually playing games is a different story as there is no wiimote support yet and games cannot even be started to see if they even play intros even since the AntiPiracy check prevents it from working since gamecube disks are spit out on a Wii U thus making verification impossible.

Well, there ARE mouse and keyboard controls through USB and there are also adapters for mini-DVD disks to possibily make the drive be able to accept GC games for verification.

Spoiler: Disk Adapter

They were originally meant for Mac drives but I think it's the same concept.

Spoiler: Mac drive

If you own Killer7 you can also try connecting both a keyboard and a mouse and press Control-Alt-Tab to activate the experimental mouse control option. You could try it with other games too but the buttons are set up specifically for Killer7 (left = A, right = R trigger, middle = B+L trigger).

r159 is up, nothing very exciting about this new version except it supports USB keyboards (including hotplugging) and will recognize the following key combinations:
- Control-Alt-Escape = power off
- Control-Shift-Escape = reset current game
- Control-Alt-Delete = exit to HBC
- Control-Alt-Enter = switch between disc 0 and disc 1 when a change disc prompt is displayed
- Control-Alt-Down = activate screen dimming
- Control-Alt-Up = deactivate screen dimming
- Control-Alt-Left = disable the slot LED indicator

 

[HomebrewEnthusiast109876]

2 things that need to be done:

A: Controllers, I think someone will eventually make a Gamecube controller to Classic Controller converter, they just need to get the Classic controller working with this

B: 4:3 Mode. Some games don't have native 16:9 support but the WiiU will stretch them anyhow, that needs to be fixed.