Homebrew Homebrew app [DISCUSSION] Why I think, an updated version of Loadiine would be awesome (spoiler: circumvent 300 titles and 2 TB drive limit)

[lordelan]

An updated faster loading Loadiine would be a very welcome alternative, even if not necessary.

As SDIO stated, it will probably never be faster unless it could exist on the WFS partition since FAT32 is the bottleneck here.
I'd even be happy for now if it (at least) would run on Aroma.

However I agree with all your posts in this thread. It's personal preference but it is rather easy to reach the 300 titles limit.
And the 300 titles limit is definitely worse than the 2 TB limit but getting rid of both limits is kind of the last still open thing the Wii U hasn't achieved yet.

 

[mrmagicm]

I am a fervent in favor of a new version of loadiine, there is so much advantages to it that I have already discussed in the Forum, of course, there are cons, but it can only bring positives things having multiple differents ways to launch games from different medias!

 

[MrBlizzard]

Before anyone drops the usual "You want this and that (especially for free)? Then f*cking go around and do it yourself, nobody blocks you!" I gotta respond with the (also usual): "I can't. I'm not skilled enough which imho is not a reason not to try to inspire those who are to eventually do it or at least share my thoughts for what they are: A (hopeful) wish."

Ever since the "Brazilian exploit" became a thing (aka being able to install backups to an attached Wii U drive formatted by the Wii U itself with WUP Installer and now NUSspli) everyone soon lost interest in Loadiine except for a few that still use it for DS injects.

The reasons are obvious:

• Loadiine is slow as f*ck (booting games takes ages)
• space on hard drives is cheaper in a gigabyte per $ ratio than SD cards and offer more space
• compatibility is 100% while Loadiine has many compatibility issues and thus forces users to check the compatibility wiki list
• since games booted from Loadiine are booted inside a sandbox within the app Loadiine is injected into (e.g. Mii Maker) you can't play online (even not with Pretendo) and playtime won't be counted towards the activity app
• lacks proper Aroma support
• only works from SD cards in general except for that highly experimental and unstable Mocha FAT32 USB build that Dimok provided shortly before he left the scene (iirc)

However at the same time Loadiine still has many benefits in my opinion and if the downsides from above are being worked on, it has massive potential to become the greatest Wii U app of all time.
Benefits include:

• theoretically no limits for the amount of games (goodbye, 300 titles limit) and space used (goodbye, Wii U only formatting USB drives to a max 2 TB partition) for storing games
• uses the "Loadiine format" for games which is also being used for Cemu and comes with its own benefits:
  • people who use both (Cemu and a real Wii U) would only have to keep games in one format without the need to pack/unpack back and forth
  • easier modification of the files
    • when editing files or trying to swap the icon for example, there's no need to do it with ftpiiu, instead it can easily be done with a PC directly inside the games folders
  • more control over which game update is being used
    • example: if you accidentally update Mario Kart 8 to the recently released 4.2 update and thus break compatibility with mods like Mario Kart 8 Ultimate you have a hard time downgrading the game again whereas you won't run into that issue if you just use the Loadiine format of the 4.1 update along with the base game (and DLC) in Loadiine
• speaking of which: no annoying update nags when the Wii U "knows" there's a newer update for the game you're currently trying to launch
• and last but not least...

It's beautiful!

Spoiler

I mean, look at it. Yes, we have Wii U themes now but especially with the upper image, it's basically WiiFlow/USBLGX but for the Wii U. At least it could potentially be, if Aroma and stable FAT32 USB support could be achieved and loading times could be drastically decreased.
And if the other issues (compatibility, online play and activity tracking play time) could be addressed too, it definitely could become the Wii U's "USB Loader" go to solution.
To be fair though, compatibility was (and in rare cases still is) an issue for the Wii's USB loaders as well so there's no way around debugging and bug fixing to increase compatibility there I guess.

Also if this would work out, we could store our games very comfortably on that same external FAT32 drive we're already using for the vWii anyway. This is especially interesting since there are ways to have bigger than the (usually "allowed" by FAT32) 2 TB.
Personally I'm rockin' a big 5 TB WD drive here for the vWii which houses all my GameCube and Wii games plus all RetroArch roms.
I know we can already have everything on one drive thanks to the amazing @SDIO but having everything even on that one same FAT32 partition would be even more comfortable, especially since everything can easily be accessed from a PC at any time.

I think that wish wouldn't have grown in the first place if the 300 titles and 2 TB limit wasn't (still) there but unfortunately it is.
And that being said, please do not use this thread to start another debate on why someone would even be limited by the 300 titles / 2 TB to begin with. There's enough reasons and they were given at enough places all over gbatemp already so please stick to the topic.

So, what do you think? Do you agree that such an update to Loadiine would be pretty nice or am I the only one who wants this?
If there are enough people to support that opinion we could consider starting a bounty or something.

IIRC there was already a way to bypass 300 title limit without loadiine using ftpiiu and also theres launchiine (think it was abandoned) but a loadiine gx2 update would be nice (I like the layout)

 

[lordelan]

IIRC there was already a way to bypass 300 title limit without loadiine using ftpiiu

Really? I highly doubt that as the issue is with the Wii U home menu simply not displaying more than 300 titles while it's technically totally possible to install more than 300. You were always able to install as many as you want with WUP Installer but you won't see any past the 300th. Don't know how ftpiiu would be able to help with that. Do you have any further info on that?
The only way to launch any title (even if you have more than 300) was the System Config Tool, but that's an official Nintendo dev app and I'm not even sure whether it works with the most recent firmware. It's also not legal to share it since it contains copyrighted Nintendo code and it's also not very... appealing to begin with, as it just shows all installed titles in a text list basically.

launchiine (think it was abandoned)

Pretty sure launchiine can be considered "dead" at this point. Sadly.

 

[MrBlizzard]

Really? I highly doubt that as the issue is with the Wii U home menu simply not displaying more than 300 titles while it's technically totally possible to install more than 300. You were always able to install as many as you want with WUP Installer but you won't see any past the 300th. Don't know how ftpiiu would be able to help with that. Do you have any further info on that?

It was through a usersavedata file so like what apps would display would depend on which user you use

Post automatically merged: Jul 29, 2024

you can only see 300 at a time but you could have 300 icons per each user

 

[AmandaRose]

Really? I highly doubt that as the issue is with the Wii U home menu simply not displaying more than 300 titles while it's technically totally possible to install more than 300. You were always able to install as many as you want with WUP Installer but you won't see any past the 300th. Don't know how ftpiiu would be able to help with that. Do you have any further info on that?

This is the method @ColdBlitz is on about that uses ftpiiu to get round the 300 title limit

Basic steps of the tuned process (refer my older posts for context) from top of my head
1. have only one user on wiiu
2. set this up to have EXACTLY 300 titles. check this by deleting an entry one by one until nag disappears
3. make a second user
4. using ftpiiuanywhere, copy the barista from user 1 to user 2
5. check all is fine by rebooting and checking both user 1 and 2 are identical and work ok
6. now you’re free to add more titles to your wiiu hard drive, noting the title ids, and OVERWRITE entries from the user 2 barista to point to the new title ids. Use Yardapes barista layout post for this

Tip: to start, just install one more title and do this for one entry and check all is still good with the new title showing.
then repeat ad nauseam for up to 10 users and 3000 titles
Tip 2- don’t use folders until everything is installed - makes it a lot easier to edit the files. You can folder up once your cool with your setup at the end.

 

[ChibiMofo]

There's not even 300 titles for the Wii U worth having. Even if you include Gamecube and Wii games.

OMG! What planet are you from? I have nearly 300 MUCH MORE THAN worthwhile GC games, and over 600 worthwhile Wii games, and that does not include WiiWare or VC! My 2TB drive for my Wii U cannot contain anywhere near all the great games I have that it can play. You clearly have only scratched the surface of the Nintendo library of games or simply like only one genre. I mean what a comment!

 

[MrBlizzard]

There's not even 300 titles for the Wii U worth having. Even if you include Gamecube and Wii games.

everytime I see a wii menu video its ALMOST always a homebrewed wii with over 300 games also let people data hoard its a good thing in todays age of broken websites

 

[RedColoredStars]

OMG! What planet are you from? I have nearly 300 MUCH MORE THAN worthwhile GC games, and over 600 worthwhile Wii games, and that does not include WiiWare or VC! My 2TB drive for my Wii U cannot contain anywhere near all the great games I have that it can play. You clearly have only scratched the surface of the Nintendo library of games or simply like only one genre. I mean what a comment!

A planet where we don't put 300+ games on our hard drive just to look cool. I bet you have never even played a fraction of them. LOL! But you do you, kiddo.

 

[MrBlizzard]

A planet where we don't put 300+ games on our hard drive just to look cool. I bet you have never even played a fraction of them. LOL! But you do you, kiddo.

someone should do a speedrun of every wii u game

 

[KelSolaar]

Another benefit of Loadiine is that it’s much easier to inject games for it than the other methods.

 

[lordelan]

Another benefit of Loadiine is that it’s much easier to inject games for it than the other methods.

And you save yourself the tedious install time. Just drop 'em on the SD card and play.
Man I really wish someone could compile it for Aroma, even if it's "just" in its current (slow) state.

 

[KelSolaar]

And you save yourself the tedious install time. Just drop 'em on the SD card and play.
Man I really wish someone could compile it for Aroma, even if it's "just" in its current (slow) state.

I actually began with Loadiine when I modded my Wii U. Installed loads of games.
But I noticed something. Apart from the long loading times there were some games not working on Loadiine. Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure didn’t work properly. So I instead tried Wuuiiu and it worked.

 

[MrBlizzard]

Wuuiiu

what is Wuuiiu never heard of it?

 

[lordelan]

Wuuiiu

I don't know what that is but yeah, Loadiine's compatibility was never anywhere near 100%. It's still great for VC injections though.

 

[jul16ares]

To me if devs cares enough to realese new version I will be happy to set this thing new to me up (I enjoy set builds more than games ) If they don't, I will not.
But what I understand from my window, is that despite wiiu is a very capable system, it's the system of compromise and limitations, that's maybe the price to achive so many thing for a console though.
Hoppefully thing change fast those days

 

[haimbilia]

sorry for bumping, just found this post when searching to see if there is something new with the loadiine format as it's the only thing that keeps me from deleting tiramisu, im sorry to see it's still dead i agree with everything you said and i think no-installation formats are very important for a retro console adoption.
the ability to copy a drive full of games and just give to a kid so he can just launch the games is very convinient. number 1 reason i love modding the 360. i think you should start a fund raiser to pay someone to start some development or at least port it to aroma, i will gladly donate the first 100$

 

[lordelan]

i will gladly donate the first 100$

Now that's something.
Unfortunately www.bountysource.com is down currently.
Is there any other fitting space to do that?

 

[haimbilia]

maybe do a go fund me and see if any developers like maschell or dimok789 want to take the money?

 

[OldGnashburg]

To my understanding the performance problems with Loadiine come from the FAT32. And to my knowledge it wasn't even using the terrible slow Wii U built in FAT32 driver but already the fatfs driver. So if you don't want to spend a significant amount on developing a more performant FAT32 driver for the wii u with caching and everything it's either FAT32 or performance but not both. If you want good performance, you want it on wfs.

MBR+FAT32 has the same limitation as wfs, both can only address 2^32 lbas. What you did with the format utility was increasing the lba size from 512bytes to 4k. That would also allow the Wii U to use 16TB with wfs. Data Management will displax the free space wrong, but in the logs you see it is using the full size and NUSspli shows the space correctly. But I never bothered to fill it up.
But most HDDs don't support changing the sector size, so that won't work in general. With the USB Partition thing I offered adding 4k emulation to enable more than 2TB but no one wanted it. So I don't think that is a real problem.

For the thing with the updates: has someone ever tried to just use SDcaffine to use an older update?

For the 300 title limit, is that really a problem? It seems more like an inconvenience for piracy hoarders. And to get around that you would just need a replacement for the menu. Something like Launchiine. Maybe one could rip out most of the backend from Loadiine and just use it's gui as a menu replacement. But I doubt there is enough interest to spend time on that.

Wait? You have a way to use drives over 2TB for the USBPart? Are you sure you won't implement it? I ended up sticking with SDUSB because I couldn't format a 4TB drive for use with that plugin. Actually ordered a 4TB drive specifcally for that reason and was a little disappointed when it didn't work.