Homebrew [DS(i)/3DS] TWiLight Menu++ - GUI for DS(i) games, and DS(i) Menu replacement

[Maximumbeans]

Can I ask if there's been any progress on the data abort bug with Pokemon HGSS ROMs that have been modified with a randomiser? Thank you for the constant work that goes into keeping this up-to-date, it does not go unnoticed

 

[RocketRobz]

Can I ask if there's been any progress on the data abort bug with Pokemon HGSS ROMs that have been modified with a randomiser? Thank you for the constant work that goes into keeping this up-to-date, it does not go unnoticed

No progress has been made. It'll likely never be fixed.

 

[Maximumbeans]

No progress has been made. It'll likely never be fixed.

Then we’ll have to live with it. Thank you for the prompt reply dude

 

[devlman127]

I have a very strange issue with my retail Mario & Luigi Bowsers Inside Story card, where it always crashes upon opening the inventory and sometimes while loading one save and always while loading the other. Changing from Direct to Unlaunch or Reboot makes the system hang at a black screen before startup.
Only while using TwiLight Menu do I have this problem, loading the DSi Launcher has the game work perfectly.
Hope this issue doesn't crop up when I play Partners in Time after I finish superstar saga.

 

[Maximumbeans]

No progress has been made. It'll likely never be fixed.

I've followed what you suggested before—AP patching a clean ROM before running it through something like the randomiser—and so far it seems to be working

 

[Pawel]

Hello, I have a question and a problem. I have a Nintendo DS Lite with M3 DS Simply and the latest available TWiLight Menu++, unmodified games work correctly DS but, for example, a game with a changed language immediately after launching freezes and nothing reacts, the same with another modified DS game, it turns on for a moment, it can be played and suddenly a red screen with an error pops up. My question is how to fix it or how to set the games in the TWiLight Menu++ settings where we select codes and launch the game

 

[RocketRobz]

Hello, I have a question and a problem. I have a Nintendo DS Lite with M3 DS Simply and the latest available TWiLight Menu++, unmodified games work correctly DS but, for example, a game with a changed language immediately after launching freezes and nothing reacts, the same with another modified DS game, it turns on for a moment, it can be played and suddenly a red screen with an error pops up. My question is how to fix it or how to set the games in the TWiLight Menu++ settings where we select codes and launch the game

You'd need to AP-patch the clean ROMs using DS-Scene ROM Tool, and then apply the translation patches to the AP-patched ROMs.

 

[4d1xlaan]

I've followed what you suggested before—AP patching a clean ROM before running it through something like the randomiser—and so far it seems to be working

if ap is the only problem with randomized rom, then it should be trivial for the randomizer program to make an ap fix .ips for twilightmenu to go alongside the randomized rom. unless the randomizer changes the game's code so much that the regular ap fix doesn't work lol

what randomizer is it? if it's still in development then the devs might be willing to implement that. all they need to do is get the ap fix .ips from twilightmenu repo (it's in /resources/apfix/), calculate the header crc from the finished rom (tinke does it, it's open source if they need a code example), and rename the last part of the .ips with the rom header crc in hex (IPKE-XXXX.ips/IPGE-XXXX.ips)

for convenience they can copy the ips after that to a /_nds/TWiLightMenu/extras/apfix/ folder in the randomizer's output directory, and just make people copy that _nds folder to their sd card and it would automatically put the ips file in the correct place

as long as the randomizer doesn't alter the game code so much that the original ap fix wouldnt be compatible anymore, of course... otherwise I guess the alternative could be for them to just include the ap fix in their program and pre-patch the rom whenever you randomize

 

[Pawel]

You'd need to AP-patch the clean ROMs using DS-Scene ROM Tool, and then apply the translation patches to the AP-patched ROMs.

Ok, this way I'll check

 

[Maximumbeans]

if ap is the only problem with randomized rom, then it should be trivial for the randomizer program to make an ap fix .ips for twilightmenu to go alongside the randomized rom. unless the randomizer changes the game's code so much that the regular ap fix doesn't work lol

what randomizer is it? if it's still in development then the devs might be willing to implement that. all they need to do is get the ap fix .ips from twilightmenu repo (it's in /resources/apfix/), calculate the header crc from the finished rom (tinke does it, it's open source if they need a code example), and rename the last part of the .ips with the rom header crc in hex (IPKE-XXXX.ips/IPGE-XXXX.ips)

for convenience they can copy the ips after that to a /_nds/TWiLightMenu/extras/apfix/ folder in the randomizer's output directory, and just make people copy that _nds folder to their sd card and it would automatically put the ips file in the correct place

as long as the randomizer doesn't alter the game code so much that the original ap fix wouldnt be compatible anymore, of course... otherwise I guess the alternative could be for them to just include the ap fix in their program and pre-patch the rom whenever you randomize

The randomiser is Universal Pokemon Randomizer ZX, it's pretty much the go-to. I think it's still technically in active development but updates come on like an annual basis.

As far as I can gather, the problem is that Twilight doesn't recognise the ROM as official once it's been randomised so its on-the-fly AP patching doesn't work. The randomiser doesn't recognise the ROM as official after the AP patch either, but it's still able to do its thing. I assume TWL/bootstrap draws from a database or something.

 

[Crystal_tofu]

hey i have a clean dump of pokemon black and the c gear lags the game on my dsi while it doesn't on my 3ds if its the SD card
(formatted to FAT32, 32kib clusters) is there any suggestions, if its not that is there anything else i should try?

 

[RocketRobz]

hey i have a clean dump of pokemon black and the c gear lags the game on my dsi while it doesn't on my 3ds if its the SD card
(formatted to FAT32, 32kib clusters) is there any suggestions, if its not that is there anything else i should try?

You should play with the C-Gear turned off and/or switch to DS mode.

 

[Crystal_tofu]

You should play with the C-Gear turned off and/or switch to DS mode.

alright it plays fine on dsi mode i was just confused because it doesnt lag on TM++ on 3DS, thanks tho


edit: i fixed it
for those reading, play in ds mode and turn card read DMA and have the clock speed be TWL.
for those who'd still like wifi features the only thing i can suggest is the usb wifi adapter or using a mobile hotspot

 

[4d1xlaan]

The randomiser is Universal Pokemon Randomizer ZX, it's pretty much the go-to. I think it's still technically in active development but updates come on like an annual basis.

As far as I can gather, the problem is that Twilight doesn't recognise the ROM as official once it's been randomised so its on-the-fly AP patching doesn't work. The randomiser doesn't recognise the ROM as official after the AP patch either, but it's still able to do its thing. I assume TWL/bootstrap draws from a database or something.

twilightmenu uses game code + header crc to know which ap fix to use. but for rom hacks, the header crc is usually different, so a specific ips file for the rom hack has to be included in the database or it fails to ap patch

for most rom hacks it's not a big problem, you just make one apfix file for that specific rom hack and you're good. but for randomizers it's a bit problematic because every different randomized rom will have a different header crc... so you cant just have a one size fits all patch for randomizer

I'll have to check the randomizer later, so I can confirm whether or not the regular ap fix for vanilla game works with the randomized rom. Although, if it works, and if AP is really the only issue, then maybe twilightmenu could have a game-specific setting or something to manually select ap patch instead of relying on header crc for everything. then people playing rom hacks could just select the base game's ap fix file in game settings, instead of twilightmenu having to specifically include separate apfix files for every possible rom hack out there

 

[Maximumbeans]

twilightmenu uses game code + header crc to know which ap fix to use. but for rom hacks, the header crc is usually different, so a specific ips file for the rom hack has to be included in the database or it fails to ap patch

for most rom hacks it's not a big problem, you just make one apfix file for that specific rom hack and you're good. but for randomizers it's a bit problematic because every different randomized rom will have a different header crc... so you cant just have a one size fits all patch for randomizer

I'll have to check the randomizer later, so I can confirm whether or not the regular ap fix for vanilla game works with the randomized rom. Although, if it works, and if AP is really the only issue, then maybe twilightmenu could have a game-specific setting or something to manually select ap patch instead of relying on header crc for everything. then people playing rom hacks could just select the base game's ap fix file in game settings, instead of twilightmenu having to specifically include separate apfix files for every possible rom hack out there

This sounds like it could fix a lot of future headaches! It's definitely helped me understand the issue with a lot more clarity, thank you

 

[signer-ink-beast]

Twilight Menu is wonderful. I checked out the wood ui recently. Found it even works with existing skins, including the default one my flashcart has. It has been fun changing things up. But I notice something. Would it be possible to implement a way to switch between console SD and flashcart SD, like you can in the other themes, such as DSi, 3DS, and Homebrew Launcher? I notice the Start button switches between DS classic menu and wood ui. Could it be possible to have the start button in that theme be customizable in the same way as it for the others, so that it uses what you configure for the Select menu in settings? Looks like Start functions the same way as Select does in other themes.

Plus using Twilight to directly launch some of the bundled emulators has been pretty nice. I didn't know the DS has really nice emulators for some of the Atari consoles, and the old funky consoles with the number pad as a gamepad, like the ColecoVision. Kudos to all who have made what we have now possible!

 

[RocketRobz]

Twilight Menu is wonderful. I checked out the wood ui recently. Found it even works with existing skins, including the default one my flashcart has. It has been fun changing things up. But I notice something. Would it be possible to implement a way to switch between console SD and flashcart SD, like you can in the other themes, such as DSi, 3DS, and Homebrew Launcher? I notice the Start button switches between DS classic menu and wood ui. Could it be possible to have the start button in that theme be customizable in the same way as it for the others, so that it uses what you configure for the Select menu in settings? Looks like Start functions the same way as Select does in other themes.

Press the R button to switch between console and flashcard SD cards.

 

[signer-ink-beast]

Press the R button to switch between console and flashcard SD cards.

The R button doesn't do anything for me.

 

[RocketRobz]

The R button doesn't do anything for me.

Everywhere, or just the Wood UI theme?

 

[Pawel]

And is it correct I currently have dsi xl and every ds game that I play takes quite a long time to configure the files before it enters the game, the game is set to dsi 133mhz mode