Hacking Forwarder or Channel - what's the difference?

[jadog]

I was looking through this forum to try to understand how to place a shortcut channel for the different apps I have in HBC, but I see some that say channel and others say forwarder. Are they the same thing?

 

[Slimmmmmm]

Channel is installed to wii

Forwarder is a shortcut pointing to SD/HDD

Both have advantages and disadvantages.

Channels, might not need an SD card or USB inserted but they tend to not have any option to change anything then as most devs (if not all... there was an old N64 emu that wrote to a save file) would write files to SD/USB. So a channel stays the same, and needs reinstalled to change anything or be updated.
Channels tend to take a lot more blocks too as they contain the actual app.

Forwarders, the channel is just a shortcut and loads the app from SD/USB, so you can update the app without needing to reinstall the channel, and also write/read config files etc. As the app is stored on SD/USB the channel forwarder takes a lot less space on the Wii NAND.

 

[jadog]

Thanks Slimmmmm, that was very helpful. Now I just have to figure out which way to go...

 

[Riley]

Forwarder would be the best as it doesnt take much blocks and most of the time your usually keepin the sd card in the wii anyway.

 

[jadog]

Ok, I thought I just installed a forwarder, but now I'm not sure. How can I tell if I have a channel or forwarder installed? Is a channel a .wad and a forwarder a .dol? Sortof confused here.

 

[harmor]

What is a hybrid channel?

 

[harmor]

Ok, I thought I just installed a forwarder, but now I'm not sure. How can I tell if I have a channel or forwarder installed? Is a channel a .wad and a forwarder a .dol? Sortof confused here.

Take out your SD card. If the game and/or application does not launch then you have a forwarder.

 

[SifJar]

What is a hybrid channel?

A hybrid channel is a mix of a forwarder and a regular channel. If it cannot find the app on the SD/USB, it will load the built-in version in the channel, meaning it will work even if the SD card isn't inserted, but it can be easily updated to a newer version of the app in question by placing it on the SD card instead of reinstalling the new channel. IMO, they're a waste of space on your Wii, and you're better with a normal forwarder if it's going to be loading the app off the SD card or USB drive anyway.