Homebrew HBWare / Homebrew Channel Discussion

[Stormwave]

I've been thinking about making a program that will not only be able to launch homebrew, but also download and install it from filetrip. Like a homebrew channel type thing, or HBWare.

A few people have expressed an interest in such a program so I made this thread to allow people to request features, describe how they envision it, and for anyone who wishes to help. I'd like to get an idea of what people want from it before I start working on it properly.

 

[8BitWalugi]

This idea has been pitched over and over and over again. This isn't new, or original.

Here's the old discussion topic.

 

[rockstar99]

lmao did you even read he means making a homebrew channel style gui for flashcarts that can download apps from filetrip xD

 

[Stormwave]

Indeed, Rockstar is spot on. My intention is not the same as that of the thread. That thread would mean an actual homebrew channel on the DSi, which would require finding an exploit (that anyone has yet to do, etc). My idea was to create a homebrew version, for people with flashcarts

Whilst I'm sure this has been discussed several times in the past, as far as I am aware nothing has been finished as of yet.

 

[spinal_cord]

I'm in. It sounds fun.
I see something that looks halfway between the official DSiWare store and the Wii HBChannel.

 

[rockstar99]

If you could manage to do something like the dsi store gui it would be awesome

 

[Berthenk]

Doesn't DS Organise have something like this? The Homebrew on the DSO server is pretty dated though, so if you could keep updating the server we'll be downloading from, that'd be a huge plus.

 

[jurassicplayer]

I think something like this would be nice (maybe something similar to the Homebrew Browser for the Wii...only maybe with skinning customizations maybe).

 

[Berthenk]

I've got a suggestion for the GUI. Have the selecting of homebrew to download happen at the touchscreen. I'd like to see something that's like the DSTWO menu, however, with multiple rows. Here's a picture of both screens, from the DSTWO menu:

Spoiler

Imagine something like that, however, with 2 or more rows to select from. I'll try and have a go at paint to make it more clear.

 

[jurassicplayer]

I've got a suggestion for the GUI. Have the selecting of homebrew to download happen at the touchscreen. I'd like to see something that's like the DSTWO menu, however, with multiple rows. Here's a picture of both screens, from the DSTWO menu:
Imagine something like that, however, with 2 or more rows to select from. I'll try and have a go at paint to make it more clear.

If what I'm imagining is what you are proposing, then the images would have to be hosted somewhere and then moved somewhere onto the microSD which would take up time and space...unless it is just generic images on the microSD already, but that doesn't make any sense if it were generic images xD (then again...maybe you can stream images o.0...but there is still a 4mb limit, some of which is probably needed to run the homebrew maybe...).

 

[spinal_cord]

the main question is, Do you come up with some sort of mini web browser to load the pages from the ds section of filetrip, OR (i prefer this idea) persuade the gbatemp guys to set up a minimal site that can be used directly on the DS with little no no conversion.
I tink one of th ebiggest problems though, is the lack of .zip support in ds homerew. I don't think I have seen a ds zip program yet, not to mention the fact that a lot of the files onfiletrip will be .7z or .rar.

 

[Berthenk]

That's sort of what I was thinking... please don't mind the yellow stuff, it was just a guideline to place the arrows.

Anyway, about the images... I don't know how small they are, and I also don't know if Wi-Fi is fast enough to download it so it's displayed at the point you browse to it. This could be a problem yes. However, I think I have a solution: at boot of the program, let it check if its database is up to date. This can be done simply by letting the program create a .txt file with the date the last update was. If it's not up to date, let it download the images and descriptions of the homebrew. If it's up to date, don't let it download.

 

[jurassicplayer]

(i prefer this idea) persuade the gbatemp guys to set up a minimal site that can be used directly on the DS with little no no conversion.
I tink one of th ebiggest problems though, is the lack of .zip support in ds homerew. I don't think I have seen a ds zip program yet, not to mention the fact that a lot of the files onfiletrip will be .7z or .rar.

I prefer that idea too (preferably something semi-open to the public so they can update it too so it doesn't end up like the DSO's database).
On the zip files, I think I once read somewhere that something could sort of use .zip files on the nds, but I have never tried it before (DsOS). Anyways the developer's website has an example for unzipping (at least I think its for nds homebrew...I didn't check).

-edit-
Yeah, its for nds homebrew =D...so if there is a wonderful external site, we could always reup everything as zipped files...or maybe someone would be nice enough to take a look at the source code for 7-zip and make something (it was opensource last I remember)?

 

[spinal_cord]

I think layout wise, we could use something like the old DSiHBC idea...

Obviously change it a bit, see what it ends up looking like. But that sort of layout would be good I think.

Would this app be a combined downloader a launcher? would there need to be two different style guis required?

 

[jurassicplayer]

I think layout wise, we could use something like the old DSiHBC idea...

Obviously change it a bit, see what it ends up looking like. But that sort of layout would be good I think.

Would this app be a combined downloader a launcher? would there need to be two different style guis required?

Wow, that GUI actually looks nice (I never looked deeply in those sort of threads xD). The only thing I think I would ever tweak would be to make everything a bit smaller and fit more slots =).

Now that I think of it, DSCovered embeds the images somewhere (in the dscovered.nds?) so maybe that might work...though we would need some images for the homebrew (so many homebrew coders never seem to care for icons xD).

 

[Stormwave]

Excellent, thanks for all the ideas guys.

I like Berthenk's UI idea, perhaps with the ability to scroll up or down multiple rows to sort them into categories.

As for Zip files, I don't think I'll have too much problem with. If I can't find any premade zip libraries I should be able to just make my own (never made a zip library before, but I've worked on other compression formats before). 7z and RAR on the other hand might be difficult, primarily because I'm not sure what documentation is available on the specification. I've got a seven zip library I use in C# which handles zip, rar and 7z, but I'm not sure if they have made one for C, I'll look into it.

As for the server ideas, I was half planning on setting up my own host for the server, but if the GBATemp guys would be willing it would certainly make my life easier. For the general usability, my plan was to do something similar to homebrew browser. When the program boots it will check it's database is up to date, if not it will update it's own database of images and descriptions (to minimise lag while browsing). Obviously, all of the files will need to be added manually so I was thinking of making a simple PHP admin type system for selected volunteers (I wouldn't want to make it completely open) to be able to add and modify it's database of homebrew. For the installing I'll write a simple script language to allow the contributors to design how a program is installed.

If GBATemp are willing to host something like this, we could perhaps repackage the homebrew into zip files (meaning I'd only have to write one library) and store them on a server seperate to filetrip. I'm not sure what to do otherwise just yet.

Spinal_Cord: If you're willing to make the UI, since you're skills at that far surpass my own, then that would be great. I don'tmind working on the Wifi, server, extracting, installing etc stuff. I was planning on making this both a launcher and downloader, so two UIs would be great. That one you posted could be used for downloading, and Berthenk's idea could be used for launching maybe.

-edit-

Would you also be willing to work in libnds? (I noticed in your other thread you use PALib) I suppose if you want to use PALib I could set it up on my end and use that for the other things (not used PALib before).

 

[Berthenk]

Two GUI's...? I don't know, however, we'll have to see if it works, as it probably will.

There was this homebrew for the DSTWO... it lets you download skins and updates for the firmware. It's called DS2TOOLS.
It says when done downloading, that it needs to unzip the downloaded files, so you could ask the creator of it.
I think it's Fef51, it's probably the creator's name as it is on the menu.

 

[fishykipper]

i'd never seen these moc up pics before! Im not to good with programming and stuff, but i'll help out as much as possible, ie, photoshop design, testing, bugging!!

this sound amazing!!!
lets get on it!!!

 

[jurassicplayer]

Just a thought after looking at DS2Tools, it would be massively cool to have a skins section (maybe ndsthemes could help with that one =D)...

 

[SifJar]

There's already GameUP for downloading homebrew, but its kinda ugly (no offence to Mik, the coder) and i don't think it's database has been updated in a while.

As for the extraction concerns: Would it not be "easier" to have a custom server for homebrew to be in this "store", where homebrew must be uploaded in .zip or .nds format (.zip if there are external files)?

Other than that, I look forward to this, hope it works well.