Hacking SoftChip Backup Loader

[stev418]

On http://devkitpro.sourceforge.net/ they have a easy Windows installer thingy.

Have a question/concern if anyone can please help...

I've downloaded/installed the Windows devkitProUpdater-1.4.7 from the above site; edited the etc/fstab & copied the softchip folder; moved the include files; and everything seems to compile with no errors (revision "11").

However, my output SoftChip.dol is 269,440 bytes while the one uploaded to the following link is 280,352 bytes! WHY THE DIFFERENCE??? (Do I need updated libs or something???)

I can confirm my compiled dol size is also 269,440 bytes for r11 using windows.

 

[WiiPower]

This loader is proving to be great so far.

I am happy to confirm that Wario Land: TSD (PAL) now DOESN'T FREEZE WHEN LOADING THE "DISTURBING TOMB" LEVEL!

Did you try the entryholder fix version of 0.3b, too? You can find the entryholder fix versions for both 0.1 and 0.3b here(i made 3 different version for each, ios247, ios248 and iso249) here:
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=112885


QUOTE(cdreams @ Nov 7 2008, 02:55 AM) Ok I tried some stuff out. It seems I couldn't boot the Softchip boot.dol if I had a game in my machine. I still think I have the wrong cIOS though, so would like a definitive one that I know is correct and working properly. Someone said rev6, I have rev5 for some reason.

rev5 is used for 0.1 loaders. You really need rev6, it's nearly identical to the one installed by Wiigator's cios_installer(from 0.3b package). It shouldn't matter if you use rev6 or Wiigator 0.3 cios, but Wiigator's read retry fix cios seems to be the best version to get.

 

[WiiPower]

How about a FAQ in the Wiki section of the google code site? (with download links for cIOSes and other stuff forbidden)

- How do i download SoftChip, i can't see a download link, do i need special software?
- What are the requirements for SoftChip?
- What's this cIOS everbody is talking about? And how do i get it?
- I have a compiled .dol, how do i install SoftChip?
- I don't know how to compile SoftChip at all, please help(noob guide).
....

I would have added it myself, but i only can add issues on the site. I really am willing to write some of the answers.



----
How about a meta.xml in the repository, and an icon in the download section?

PS: Please excuse my terrible english, i'm not a native english speaker.

 

[BIG MOE]

wiipower : thanks man , can you please make cios_fix_248 for v0.1 ??

 

[old_darkness]

The problem with the "black screen" i have solved with to turn on the "60HZ" modus.
With 50HZ my Wii show me only a black screen.

On R13 No Problem

 

[WiiPower]

To me it looks like the IOS load is designed to be done with
s32 cIOS::Load(u32 Version)
which uses the IOS_ReloadIOS-function, instead of using it directly
IOS_Loaded = !(IOS_ReloadIOS(IOS_Version) < 0);

 

[Rod_Hull]

This loader is proving to be great so far.

I am happy to confirm that Wario Land: TSD (PAL) now DOESN'T FREEZE WHEN LOADING THE "DISTURBING TOMB" LEVEL!

Did you try the entryholder fix version of 0.3b, too? You can find the entryholder fix versions for both 0.1 and 0.3b here(i made 3 different version for each, ios247, ios248 and iso249) here:
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=112885

No, not yet.

The only deviation from the original Wiigator release I've tried is using the read_retry cIOS. I might still give it a go, but to be honest I prefer this early code in the SoftChip loader over Wiigator's already. The UI is clean, sparse and as I said feels like it initially boots the games faster than Wiigator's (could just be me, of course!)

Also, in having its own SVN repo. this is a big bonus for us who like to fiddle about and try/test every little change and iteration. The mechanism in how it's been released and maintained is more traditional and preferable to the Wiigator release - at least this has its own release page allowing for more structured, constructive feedback.

I can see this one having plenty of potential (mainly due to requiem4d's clean code and frank, honest and intelligently written replies on this thread for starters).

Part of the reason for some of the discrepancies in performance from one user to another with Wiigator's loader I'm sure is partly down to users not reporting things correctly or not really understanding what they've done, or why they've installed a particular cIOS or fix...this comes inherently by releasing a pre-compiled executable that the "average joe" can get up and running fairly easily. At least the compiling steps needed with requiem4d's code at the moment is providing a barrier to a big proportion of users from trying this one out...

I really don't think that a noob guide should be made available just yet (all IMO, of course) - it will just mean this thread (and others probably) get flooded by people asking silly questions like "I wANT tO plaY BACckup GAEMs!?? CaN NAYone HELp!?" like we've seen all over since Wiigator released the beta of his compiled code.

Once the project is more mature, and there are fewer of the bugs that "regular" noob users won't be able to help themselves from asking about, then it would make sense to release it as a compiled version rather than relying on SVN access and manual compilation...

 

[WiiPower]

I really don't think that a noob guide should be made available just yet (all IMO, of course) - it will just mean this thread (and others probably) get flooded by people asking silly questions like "I wANT tO plaY BACckup GAEMs!?? CaN NAYone HELp!?" like we've seen all over since Wiigator released the beta of his compiled code.

Sorry i meant it a little different. I meant a guide for people willing to learn about programming, compiling and the whole stuff. People who are interested to play around with the source and try different things on their own(at their own risk, of course). I myself would have used such a guide a few days ago. The backuplaunchers are the first C programs i got in contact with.

With the FAQ i wanted to keep the "I wANT tO plaY BACckup GAEMs!?? CaN NAYone HELp!?" people outside by giving them their answers before they ask. Ok i know, thay would ask anyway, but it would reduce the amount of questions.

 

[Rod_Hull]

Agreed. It would be a good introduction to many...

A FAQ is essential though, to prevent duplicate threads and clogging of current threads with inane questions!

 

[WiiPower]

I took a look at the Set_VideoMode function, just a few thoughts:

The comment is maybe wrong:
Set_VideoMode: Sets the video mode based on the region of the disc
The function sets the video mode based on the region code you use at the call, at this moment it is the region code of the disc, but maybe that will change somewhen, most likely when SoftChip should run games region free


Are P, D, F, X, Y, E and J the only existing disc region codes, or are there maybe others? If the region code used for the video mode setup is none of these then Memory::Video_Mode is not set, which means the video mode is NTSC. I would love to add there a
printf("You are using an unknown region code / your game has an unknown region code. Your region code is [...] please post this on www[...]");


How about a try catch block around VIDEO_ClearFrameBuffer to catch the video mode 1 and 0(PAL and NTSC) issues?

 

[kashin]

Tested your loader requiem, and it seems to work great with mario kart.
Kudos on that! Someone oughta create a XML and banner to accompany it, though i guess that's of later concern lolz

 

[bootsector]

Tested this new loader with two games yesterday: Mario Kart and Medal of Honor Heroes 2, both NTSC/USA on a NTSC/USA unmodded Wii. Results for both games were identical to the reported in the official WiiGator's 0.3 loader.

I think this SoftChip approach is great because we can easily take apart all that GeckoOS overhead and by using a simpler loader we can focus on what's really interesting: running the games.

By testing MoH Heroes 2 with this simple loader, we can say for sure that the hanging problem in the wiimote screen is a problem with cIOS and/or DIP module.

Said that, I think it's time to move on and starting working on the cIOS/DIP module bugfixing. Waninkoko and WiiGator's help would be much appreciated!

 

[SamSpade]

I can confirm my compiled dol size is also 269,440 bytes for r11 using windows.

Thanks for letting me know that we had matching results... I was worried that I had set something up incorrectly...

-ss-

 

[nicksasa]

does the blob work? im dumping it and i want to try if it works with softchip else i use wiigator 0.1 for the blob

 

[Cmurda187]

Using r11 dol provided by armthehomeless I am only able to run PAL games on wii with the new loader. Is this correct or is the loader suppose to run NTSC games as well? Either way the new loader has been running flawlessly with the PAl games I have. Thanx requim

 

[nicksasa]

if you have ntsc wii --> ntsc backups pal wii --> pal games i thought

 

[Cmurda187]

@nicksasa I have ntsc wii usa to be exact just wondering why the ntsc backups don't work with this loader but the pal backups do. Is everyone else having this problem?

 

[WiiPower]

if you have ntsc wii --> ntsc backups pal wii --> pal games i thought

At the moment it's:
pal game --> video mode set to pal


While writing this i maybe found the bug with black screen before SoftChip asking to press A on pal consoles.

There's a execution of
Set_VideoMode(0);
I'm pretty sure this is causing problems, because there is no Region 0, which leads to the videomode not set. Videomode 1 = PAL, Videomode NTSC = 0. I thought it would be then 0, maybe it gets random values, or does not always delete it.

 

[WiiPower]

Is it possible to detect the region of the wii and set to videomode to this if the region of the game could not be identified as PAL or NTSC?

 

[requiem4d]

Not quite: Set_VideoMode(0) gets the preferred mode from the console. As of current it doesn't set 0x800000cc if it's called with a 0 though.