Homebrew Official Retroarch WiiU (wip.)

[n00bsaib0t]

Yes playlists are broken for me too.

Thanks for confirming. I just updated to 1.8.4 last week so I’m not really rushing to update for minor fixes.

 

[Xemma]

Sorry not much of a help. Anyway:
-Yes Ozone theme works fine on RA WiiU. I suggest to use latest stable version.
-Shaders indeed require official SDK. Because of that support is limited here in this forum and I too have no idea.
-Sorry about thumbnails and boxart I never managed to make them work. I believe you have to create playlists with PC tools and then copy images folders. I remember a user here, @Retroaussie, that managed to get boxarts and snaps to work on Wii U.

Thank you for your replies!
Well I've been using my playlists with boxart thumbnails for a long time, but maybe I can't get Boxart + Titles to work because version 1.7.1 is a little old! And I even know how to create playlists manually!

Anyway, I would like to know if you or anyone with more experience in Retroarch WiiU if it is possible to use Boxart + Titles or Snaps in version 1.7.1?

How do I insert and manage to make music work in the menu in version 1.7.1?

Can anyone already run Killer Instinct I and II satisfactorily on WiiU, because before it was impossible?

Of all the versions, which is the most stable of Retroarch WiiU, which has colors with less problems or errors?

I await answers ... Thank you !!!

 

[cugel]

Ozone also seems to be broken for me. I just switched gx2 because I want it to be fast and don't care what it looks like.

What platform version of Killer Instinct? Arcade? I can try it out.

 

[robco7]

I want to thank everyone who's made this version of Wii U possible, though I have a couple dumb questions about it. Is it possible to brick your Wii U with RetroArch? Like I'm reluctant to mess around with removing games I know I'll never play, and the zip files are so big I don't have a big enough hard drive to rip everything and once, and I'd worry about starting RetroArch up if I missed some vital file. Could either of these lead to a bricked console?

And is it also a bad idea to try adding any MAME games not already included in the build?

 

[cugel]

I want to thank everyone who's made this version of Wii U possible, though I have a couple dumb questions about it. Is it possible to brick your Wii U with RetroArch? Like I'm reluctant to mess around with removing games I know I'll never play, and the zip files are so big I don't have a big enough hard drive to rip everything and once, and I'd worry about starting RetroArch up if I missed some vital file. Could either of these lead to a bricked console?

And is it also a bad idea to try adding any MAME games not already included in the build?

I doubt you could really damage your console with Retroarch. The worst that could probably happen is that it would lock up and you might have to reboot or pull the power cable.

I'm a little confused as to what you're asking wrt "MAME games already included" becuase retroarch is just a set of emulators and doesn't come with any games. I can tell you if you want to use MAME, you probably want to use games from the 0.78 romset, because that's the set meant to be used with the old versions of MAME that the Wii U port of retroarch supports. There will still be games that don't perform too well because of the Wii U's limited horsepower.

 

[cugel]

Also forgot to say that you may want to try the various FinalBurn cores as well, they may run some games faster than RetroArch, especially Capcom games.

 

[CORE]

WiiU RetroArch Playlists.

Since People are having a hard time you may need to modify what default Core for each Console however for things to show up just in case they dont.

Simply Use Find And Replace , I Use NotePad++ so things fairly straight forward and easy to modify in case you want to add entries or make edits for entire new Playlists.

 

[Ybzij]

Hello, I'm planning to play battle City (4 player hack) but I can't make 4 players work.
Used FixNES core, only player 1 works.
Use Nestopia core, player 1 and 2 works but not with player 3 and 4. I tried to change the device type of User 2 to Multitap but there is no option for that (There's only: None, Retropad, Retropad w/ Analog)

 

[denpanosekai]

Anyway has RetroArch changed media folder assets or something I have latest builds Stable or Nightly Cores dont load Takes back to WiiU Menu and Media folder keeps getting deleted and moves contents outside into retroarch folder.

I'm trying to install RetroArch on my WiiU for the first time and this is exactly what I'm seeing too. I followed the instructions from the OP and installed the Forwarder Channel, as well as copied the retroarch folder to the SD root. But starting it just kicks me back to the main menu. What is this about Assets? Where do I get them and where do I copy them on the SD?

 

[cugel]

I'm trying to install RetroArch on my WiiU for the first time and this is exactly what I'm seeing too. I followed the instructions from the OP and installed the Forwarder Channel, as well as copied the retroarch folder to the SD root. But starting it just kicks me back to the main menu. What is this about Assets? Where do I get them and where do I copy them on the SD?

I think you should able to boot retroarch without the art assets (it will just look ugly) so you should try to fix that first.

I think the problem that CORE is talking about is because a lot of the default directories for this version of retroarch are screwed up. But you change those in the retroarch Settings menu, or you can edit the retroarch config file.

 

[cugel]

As an example: every retroarch install I've used on Windows or Linux or Vita looks for bios files in /system. But for some reason this version of retroarch wants them to be in something dumb like /media/system. Not only that, but if you go to launch a Sega CD game and the bios file isn't where it's supposed to be, the whole Wii U hard crashes and you have to reboot. In every other instance of retroarch I've used, including on the 3DS, it just fails to load the game and send you back to the menu. It's not a great build of retroarch. But you can make it do what you want if you pay attention to the directories or change them to something you want.

 

[Incure]

Hi all. I've recently experimented a lot with RetroArch and learned a great deal about it. I'm still catching up by reading a lot of older posts in this thread and will post any findings which weren't mentioned before.

In the meantime I will try to answer some questions:

As an example: every retroarch install I've used on Windows or Linux or Vita looks for bios files in /system. But for some reason this version of retroarch wants them to be in something dumb like /media/system. Not only that, but if you go to launch a Sega CD game and the bios file isn't where it's supposed to be, the whole Wii U hard crashes and you have to reboot. In every other instance of retroarch I've used, including on the 3DS, it just fails to load the game and send you back to the menu. It's not a great build of retroarch. But you can make it do what you want if you pay attention to the directories or change them to something you want.

This commit on version 1.8.2. changed the directories to the defaults directory structure of retroarch, ditching the media folder used on the Wii U version. The bios file from this version should be in: retroarch\cores\system. The bios files are working fine in this path with the setup i'm using with RetroArch version 1.8.5.

 

[depaul]

WiiU RetroArch Playlists.

Since People are having a hard time you may need to modify what default Core for each Console however for things to show up just in case they dont.

Simply Use Find And Replace , I Use NotePad++ so things fairly straight forward and easy to modify in case you want to add entries or make edits for entire new Playlists.

Thank you @CORE that works! And default cores work fine, I may suggest there is no need to modify them.
Maybe the only thing to check is the roms path. We should make sure they match paths written in playlists (e.g : sd:/roms/Sega - Mega Drive - Genesis, sd:/roms/Nintendo - Nintendo Entertainment System...)

 

[Xemma]

Friends, please answer:
Could I access the WiiU Online Store to purchase an original DS game? I'm going to buy one of the games used on Haxchi to create a definitive forwarder that doesn't use CFW! Can I access the Store with WiiU in firmware 5.5.1U or does it have to be in the most current Firmware ???

 

[depaul]

Yes. If you plan to install haxchi, there is no risk at the moment to update to the latest version since it's compatible.

 

[ChiefReginod]

For everyone saying that playlists don't work in Ozone, are you talking about getting the games to load at all? Or are you talking about the fact that you simply can't see the playlists once selected? Because I can get the games to load just fine from my playlists (although the menu still makes it so I can't see what I'm selecting).

EDIT: I tried a bunch of things and still couldn't get the playlist entries to display, but thumbnails worked as a semi-workaround. You'll need to download the thumbnails first via RetroArch PC first, then copy them to your Wii U SD card and manually set the thumbnails folder in Settings > Directory > Thumbnails.

Is there some way to edit themes without having to recompile everything manually? Ie, just to change text offsets, etc.

 

[Xemma]

Yes. If you plan to install haxchi, there is no risk at the moment to update to the latest version since it's compatible.

Well, I have Haxchi installed and I'm looking to use the Haxchi installer to make a definitive forwarder by sacrificing an original Haxchi-compatible DS game! I need to know if to access Eshop I have to update the WiiU to the latest version or can I access the firmware I'm on, 5.5.1U ???

 

[CORE]

@Xemma You can use Injectiine.

Just a simple overwrite of the browser startpage and you get an Offline Local Console Exploit.

 

[NotReallySteve]

Are you guys just putting up with the menu being broken (xmb and ozone), or am I doing something wrong?
It looks fine as long as I stick to integer scale off and 16:9. As soon as I mess them about it fucks up the scale of the actual menu (images shift, writing gets bunched up and shifts, highlight cursor isn't where it appears to be, etc).

 

[ChiefReginod]

Are you guys just putting up with the menu being broken (xmb and ozone), or am I doing something wrong?
It looks fine as long as I stick to integer scale off and 16:9. As soon as I mess them about it fucks up the scale of the actual menu (images shift, writing gets bunched up and shifts, highlight cursor isn't where it appears to be, etc).

This was my experience as well. The Aspect Ratio setting defaults to 4:3 on a fresh install, which results in the menu icons being placed inside the text for that line instead of before it. 16:9 fixes this, but this ratio persists even in cores designed for 4:3, so leaving it on 16:9 isn't optimal either.

Setting the Aspect Ratio to "Core Provided" seems to work better all around. I haven't done extensive testing of this in Ozone though as I usually use Rgui.

It's just too bad the menu drivers don't have customizable layouts via XML or something. Everything seems to work just fine (loading games, playlists, thumbnails, etc) but the layout is broken.