It is now possible to use 2 Wii U GamePads in Wii U games!

The ability to use two GamePads on one console exists in the code, but was never released. It is possible to still use this though! Lets hop in!

PLEASE BE WARNED THAT YOUR SYSTEM COULD BE PUT INTO A RECOVERABLE OR UNRECOVERABLE BRICK IF YOU MAKE A MISTAKE USING THE SYSTEM CONFIG TOOL, SO PLEASE DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!

We will be using these homebrew tools:
Aroma Environment
Gamepad To Pro Plugin
System Config Tool (WILL NOT BE LINKED FOR LEGAL REASONS!)
A second Wii U GamePad

The Simple Guide:
1. Get the Gamepad to Pro Plugin, and put it in your SD card where your plugins usually go.

2. Set the channels accordingly in the Aroma plugin menu. Set the first gamepad to FALSE if you do not want a Pro Controller to be emulated on DRC0. (Primary GamePad) For the Second GamePad, it should ALWAYS be set to TRUE. DRC1 (Second GamePad) usually never registers input. This will allow DRC1 to send input to the emulated Pro Controller.

The channels should be 0 and 1. If you are using a real Wii Remote or Pro controller alongside these patches, then set it to 1 and 2. You get the point.

3. Enter the Sys Config Tool, and go to the DRC settings. Enable the option Multi DRC, and pair the second GamePad there. Once it is paired, you should see the System Config Tool displaying on DRC1. (Second GamePad)


(PLEASE BE WARNED THE SYSTEM CONFIG TOOL HAS BEEN CONSIDERED DANGEROUS! ONE SMALL MISTAKE COULD LEAD TO A BRICK! IT IS UNKNOWN IF IRREVERSIBLE, BUT USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE TOOL IS ALSO TECHNICALLY ILLEGAL, IT WILL NOT BE LINKED HERE.)

4. Once you exit the Config Tool, you should hear audio playing from DRC1. This means Multi DRC mode has been successfully activated!!
Please be aware that there are multiple flaws when Multi DRC is activated. DRC0 will have many connection issues, and DRC1 will NOT display anything on the screen.

5. With the code in the system and Aroma now activated, try booting a game! If it works, you did it! Congrats! If not, it may be a channel issue, or game issue. Smash 4 has been reported to not work with the emulated Pro Controller :(

Whenever you reboot the console, Multi DRC option MUST be re enabled in the System Config Tool.


Have fun with wacky multi-GamePad support! (And buggy, lol)
 
Last edited by awesomeee,

mrmagicm

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Does it work in all games? When you boot and go in the parameters of the wiiU, does it appear on both Gamepad wiiU?
 

awesomeee

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Does it work in all games? When you boot and go in the parameters of the wiiU, does it appear on both Gamepad wiiU?
No, and I already stated those two things. DRC1 will NOT display anything unless a game is coded to do so, and Smash 4 is reported to not work with it. If DRC1 disconnects in the middle of a game then it cant re connect.
 

awesomeee

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I don't want to be a dick, but this feature isn't new to the homebrew scene: @GaryOderNichts accomplished as much 2 and a half years ago: https://gbatemp.net/threads/multidrcspacedemo-using-two-gamepads-on-a-single-console.617955/
Dont worry, you arent being a dick. This is more of “Its possible to use it in GAMES now!!”

The one Gary showed was more of the homebrew demo, and some code being merged in the WUT respository.
Post automatically merged:

In the past it hasnt been possible since the second gamepad wont register input unless a game allows it to. We have the homebrew now though!
 

MikaDubbz

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Dont worry, you arent being a dick. This is more of “Its possible to use it in GAMES now!!”

The one Gary showed was more of the homebrew demo, and some code being merged in the WUT respository.
Post automatically merged:

In the past it hasnt been possible since the second gamepad wont register input unless a game allows it to. We have the homebrew now though!
I see, the wording of the title just triggered me: as if we hadn't already found a way to use the dormant feature.
 

Evilengine

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The idea is interesting...Do you see any practical use for this? I guess it could be used for Retroarch Multiplayer or someone creates a game, that supports this...
I always liked the demo from the very beginning, where you can throw shurikens towards the TV...Or some form of Splitscreen Arkanoid...



 

CaptainSmackdown

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The idea is interesting...Do you see any practical use for this? I guess it could be used for Retroarch Multiplayer or someone creates a game, that supports this...
I always liked the demo from the very beginning, where you can throw shurikens towards the TV...Or some form of Splitscreen Arkanoid...




Two player shmups could be fun.
 

The Real Jdbye

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This is cool. I assume making it display an image should be possible (just copying the output so both gamepads receive the same image), that would give it more of a practical use, since most people seem to hate the gamepad, off-TV play seems to be the only reason that most people would use it. Even then, you have to be close to the Wii U (and usually in the same room) so even that use case is limited.

There are definitely some potential use cases in homebrew, though that was a possibility before. It would be fun if Nintendont could be made to work with dual gamepads, to play stuff like Zelda Four Swords Adventures and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, but that would likely require some significant modifications to the Wii Mode to even support outputting 3 different images (or for Nintendont itself to be ported to Wii U mode... which is probably even less likely)

I personally like the gamepad, it was very comfortable to use for my big hands, but even I don't think it's worth getting a second one when literally everybody I know prefers using any other controller over it anyway :P
 
Last edited by The Real Jdbye,

N7Kopper

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This is cool. I assume making it display an image should be possible (just copying the output so both gamepads receive the same image), that would give it more of a practical use, since most people seem to hate the gamepad, off-TV play seems to be the only reason that most people would use it. Even then, you have to be close to the Wii U (and usually in the same room) so even that use case is limited.

There are definitely some potential use cases in homebrew, though that was a possibility before. It would be fun if Nintendont could be made to work with dual gamepads, to play stuff like Zelda Four Swords Adventures and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, but that would likely require some significant modifications to the Wii Mode to even support outputting 3 different images (or for Nintendont itself to be ported to Wii U mode... which is probably even less likely)

I personally like the gamepad, it was very comfortable to use for my big hands, but even I don't think it's worth getting a second one when literally everybody I know prefers using any other controller over it anyway :P
Maybe I'm just the weird one, but I don't understand why people hated the GamePad. (Maybe it was too big?)
While I do prefer to use other controllers with games that don't utilise both screens, this is purely for reasons of battery life. As for making Wii VC work with two GamePads, that could just be a matter of doing whatever Wii VC mode does to DRC0 to DRC1, but on a different emulated Classic Controller port. That sounds like something that could happen after the community geniuses fix the weird colour bleed thing.

But what you're asking in the bolded part seems to be not only leveraging the Wii backwards compatibility of the Wii U combined with the forwards compatibility with GameCube games provided by Devolution and Nintendont, but also to outright emulate a GBA or two. Now, if you could fully port Nintendont to native Wii U mode (fecking hell, don't ask me!) that could happen. Emulation of single-threaded systems doesn't really need multithreading, and the Wii U is a tri-core system, so I could see it FCing with a GCN game whilst also emulating two GBAs and the link protocol... in theory. Emulating the GCN-GBA netcode is harder than emulating a GCN and GBA separately, so it might not be feasable, even with the GCN part being achieved via a forwards compatibility hypervisor that is a lot more lightweight than an emulator.
 

awesomeee

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As for making Wii VC work with two GamePads, that could just be a matter of doing whatever Wii VC mode does to DRC0 to DRC1, but on a different emulated Classic Controller port. That sounds like something that could happen after the community geniuses fix the weird colour bleed thing.
I actually tried Wii VC with Multi DRC enabled and the audio is actually being sent to DRC1, which is really interesting. I hope this becomes a real thing!!!
Post automatically merged:

@GaryOderNichts Sorry for the ping. Do you know if any of your Multi DRC space code could be used for getting a second gamepad to work in VC injects aswell? Audio actually plays through DRC1 in VC mode, so do you have any code that could possibly implement input support? Thanks again. @ZestyTS Actually said he MIGHT be able to implement it if any code exists, but its a MAYBE.
Post automatically merged:

@MikaDubbz @E1ite007 @FanNintendo I got an admin to rename the thread to be more clear 👍
 
Last edited by awesomeee,

Tur7L3

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(or for Nintendont itself to be ported to Wii U mode... which is probably even less likely)
That would be awesome, there are so many obvious use cases for even only 1 Gamepad that make me wish the feature was still around. It's been found now that native Gamecube emulation was planned, so even Nintendo knew the feature wasn't just to show off (even if sometimes they acted as such....)
 
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The Real Jdbye

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Maybe I'm just the weird one, but I don't understand why people hated the GamePad. (Maybe it was too big?)
While I do prefer to use other controllers with games that don't utilise both screens, this is purely for reasons of battery life. As for making Wii VC work with two GamePads, that could just be a matter of doing whatever Wii VC mode does to DRC0 to DRC1, but on a different emulated Classic Controller port. That sounds like something that could happen after the community geniuses fix the weird colour bleed thing.

But what you're asking in the bolded part seems to be not only leveraging the Wii backwards compatibility of the Wii U combined with the forwards compatibility with GameCube games provided by Devolution and Nintendont, but also to outright emulate a GBA or two. Now, if you could fully port Nintendont to native Wii U mode (fecking hell, don't ask me!) that could happen. Emulation of single-threaded systems doesn't really need multithreading, and the Wii U is a tri-core system, so I could see it FCing with a GCN game whilst also emulating two GBAs and the link protocol... in theory. Emulating the GCN-GBA netcode is harder than emulating a GCN and GBA separately, so it might not be feasable, even with the GCN part being achieved via a forwards compatibility hypervisor that is a lot more lightweight than an emulator.
Maybe it was the size, maybe it was the weight. Maybe people would be more accepting of it now that handhelds have grown in size and stuff like the Steam Deck is way more bulky and heavy than the Wii U gamepad was.

Tri-core access in vWii is already a thing (https://gbatemp.net/threads/vwii-tri-core-linux.351024/) so we don't need Wii U mode for that. In theory, the other two cores go completely unused in vWii mode, whereas I don't believe that's the case in Wii U mode since they are used for network functionality and background tasks and such, so there might actually be more available CPU time for running additional tasks while in vWii mode.
Certainly not saying it would be easy though. GBA linkage is difficult to emulate even on a modern PC. But I'm hoping that the Wii U running on similar hardware as the GC and Wii makes it easier. Since GBA linkage works on a Wii running Nintendont, and AFAIK there isn't any special hardware the Wii has that the Wii U doesn't that facilitates this, the controller ports are just wired to the SoC right? Not 100% sure though.
 

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