Homebrew Elf/Dol Forwarder for Custom Channels

[SpaceJump]

Sorry, I've looked around for some Images, but found nothing...

Of course you won't find any images because I created the app

 

[Blue-K]

No, I had something like a big Forward-Button in my mind..but like I said..no Images...

 

[OSW]

Ah, i suspected that it could be an issue with the elf loaded.

I'm really impressed at the speed that the ELF forwarder launches ELFs! I can't distinguish any difference from a standard channel.

Kudos

 

[SpaceJump]

Thanks OSW!

The DolForwarder is done. I added it to the first post with instructions. The archieve contains the .dol and a blank channel ready for installation

Can someone make a simple banner for the elf/dol Forwarders? It can be a simple text "Dol Forwarder" on white background. Nothing fancy.

 

[OSW]

Great. Testing now.

I wonder if its any slower or faster than the ELF loader...

Also, if i make the dol loader forwarded.dol, and then boot a copy of dol loader from the HBC and boot it, will the wii go on an infinite loop or will it crash? lol

I could have a go at designing the art for the banner after i finish exams in 3 days, but i don't have the skills to make it into a proper banner.
And thats if no-one gets there first.

 

[SpaceJump]

Great. Testing now.

I wonder if its any slower or faster than the ELF loader...

Also, if i make the dol loader forwarded.dol, and then boot a copy of dol loader from the HBC and boot it, will the wii go on an infinite loop or will it crash? lol

I could have a go at designing the art for the banner after i finish exams in 3 days, but i don't have the skills to make it into a proper banner.
And thats if no-one gets there first.

The speed of the DOLForwarder is the same as the ELFForwarder. I didn't notice any difference.

About the bolded part: Yes, I'm sure you would get an infinite loop. If you take the sd card out while in the loop, you should get a message that FAT could not be initialized and the Wii will be resetted

If you design a banner, I could put it into a wad. I just made a new GeeXboX-Forwarder channel using Blue-K's files. I added it to the first post

EDIT: I also added a blank banner wad for the DolForwarder ready for use

 

[Blue-K]

Thank you for doing the Channel with my Image . Can't wait to try it when I'm at home

.

 

[Master Mo]

Wow, I tried the Channel with blues banner and it looks great. Nearly like it`s officially from Nintendo. It is right beneath my Disc-Channel

 

[djdynamite123]

well done spacejump

 

[SpaceJump]

Thanks. The only thing I couldn't do is changing the sound. I'm not sure about some of the steps in the stickied topic.

 

[Blue-K]

Yeah, me too...let me guess: converting it to a .bin, right? Let's hope we will find a solution, so we can include the sound...this would be EPIC! At least for me

 

[Master Mo]

Yeah, me too...let me guess: converting it to a .bin, right? Let's hope we will find a solution, so we can include the sound...this would be EPIC! At least for me

Not only for you... Believe me

 

[SpaceJump]

Yeah, me too...let me guess: converting it to a .bin, right? Let's hope we will find a solution, so we can include the sound...this would be EPIC! At least for me

No, not the converting but the repacking of 000000000.app with the new sound.bin. The instructions there are not clear enough.

 

[Blue-K]

First: The Channel looks awesome!!!

many Thanks for compiling it, you're the best, SpaceJump!!!!

I simply can't help you with the sound...maybe you should ask in the Tutorial or we ask someone to do it...Now, the channel is awesome, but with my sound, ot would be unbelivable (at least for me

)

 

[Cyan]

I want to say thanks to all of you

after seeing all the wad updated when new emulators are out, I wonder why something like your channel forwarder didn't exist, and you made it ^__^


I have three requests, or at least ideas.

1)
I'm not familiar with wad packer, or animated banner format. But I would like to know if it could be possible to make an interactive banner like the vote channel with printed question, or mario kart with new challenge ?
The data change time to time, where that data are read from ? wii memory I suppose. Could the data be read from the SD card ?

So, do you think you can make a banner that will change according to the picture on the SDcard:/elf_dol_forwarder/logo.png or banner.png
That would be really great to print the homebrew logo on the banner without injecting a new one each time we change the .dol/.elf

even if the logo is not full screen (like the size used by HBC), the banner could be

---------------------------------------

ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂChannel forwarder 

Run this homebrew [here the logo to load]

[ Wii menu ]ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ[ Start ]
---------------------------------------

If no logo.png is found, print a generic/blank banner.

Maybe the text could be read from the HBC xml too, for the homebrew title and short description.



2)
I would prefer the elf and dol to be named boot.xxx instead of forwarded.xxx to match the names in the HBC apps/ folder
if future use can point elsewhere than elf_dol_forwarder folder, it will be compatible with hbc.


Then 3)
If you could store preferences on the SDcard, you could point another directory without re-building and re-injecting it.
elf_dol_forwarder/preferences.txt
in the txt, having the path to the boot.dol and logo.png and xml to print/load.

if no SD is inserted, or no txt found, run a blank banner.

if you can script a little more, the txt could be edited directly on Wii.
run the channel without button pressed : forward it
run the channel with 1 pressed : show a config menu to select which folder to redirect the boot.xxx from




Ok, that's only ideas, I don't know if it's even possible to make animated and scripted banners (HBC is animated though, maybe they can help).
but it would be great

Thanks again for your application !



Edit :
I didn't test it yet, I want to know if we can install more than 1 on the same time.
for example Geexbox + dol_forwarder + elf_forwarder.
Does they have different internal name ?

 

[SpaceJump]

1) Sorry I have no clue how to make a banner dynamic. What I can do if someone makes a banner, I can cimpile a wad with the banner.

2) I will consider this for a next version, but more likely is 3)

3) I also had the idea to read the path to the boot.xxx from a .txt-file. I already started this but I have to find out how to parse through such files in C (it's no problem Java, but that doesn't seem to help me).

I didn't test it yet, I want to know if we can install more than 1 on the same time.
for example Geexbox + dol_forwarder + elf_forwarder.
Does they have different internal name ?

If you mean the wad's IDs, then yes, you can install them cause each has its own ID. The only exception is mine and Blue-K's GeeXboX wad and Sonic DX's GeeXboX wad, they both have the same ID.

 

[djdynamite123]

Yeah they do have the same ID, they overwrite each other if you installed the "other" one, anyway, seen as you all like geexbox, do any of you know hot to use Samba SMS wit geexbox, mplayerwii allows it in unofficial versions, but its really buggy, just wanting to test geexbox, im sure it'l be slightly better. "HELP"

 

[Cyan]

Thank you for your reply.

I thought it was difficult for the banner, I can't help you there

for the preference file, maybe you could use xml parser (mxml.h).
I don't know if it can help you, here the source of Snes9xGX with xml parsing (creating and reading preference in xml file)
http://snes9x-gx.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/...preferences.cpp

it uses xml command instead of character's parsing into a text file/array


continue your great work

 

[Patryc]

1) Sorry I have no clue how to make a banner dynamic. What I can do if someone makes a banner, I can cimpile a wad with the banner.

2) I will consider this for a next version, but more likely is 3)

3) I also had the idea to read the path to the boot.xxx from a .txt-file. I already started this but I have to find out how to parse through such files in C (it's no problem Java, but that doesn't seem to help me).

I didn't test it yet, I want to know if we can install more than 1 on the same time.
for example Geexbox + dol_forwarder + elf_forwarder.
Does they have different internal name ?

If you mean the wad's IDs, then yes, you can install them cause each has its own ID. The only exception is mine and Blue-K's GeeXboX wad and Sonic DX's GeeXboX wad, they both have the same ID.

One question

Is it possible to forward more than one dol at the same time?

The Geebox channel is really beautiful!!

 

[SpaceJump]

Patryc, can you explain what you mean by forward two dols at the same time?

Loading the path to the boot.dol/elf from a config-file is done. I will have to clean the code so it will be released tomorrow.