Hacking The Great Quest for Wiiflow Plugins™ - A call for adventurers!

[Tetsuo Shima]

WIIFLOW PLUGINS PACK​

LATEST UPDATE
Download: WiiFlow Lite Plugins Pack 2023 (Updated April 27, 2023)
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OLD VERSION
Download: Wiiflow Plugins Pack
Rev 6 (last updated: May 27 2021)
Download: Rev 6 fix
(last updated: Jun 05 2021)
========================

Spoiler: CHANGES

Plugins Pack - rev.6
Changelog:
- Reworked folder structure and rewrote installation instructions to be as complete as possible
- Changed the cover colors to 111111 for plugins with clear cases (jewel cases, cassette cases). Use Wiiflow 5.4.9 or above to show them.
If you're updating from a previous Pack version, reload the cache in Wiiflow or they will be showing up in green color.
- Fixed conflicts in configurations between Fceu GX, RX and TX. Each one is now in a separate folder and saves its own configuration file. Control mappings and save states are working again. They still use a common romspath for games (roms/nes and roms/fds) but you can change it if you want to have them separated
- Same as above for Snes9x GX, RX and TX. Their common romspath are roms/snes and roms/satellaview
- Added Atari XEGS (atari800_libretro and wiixl)
- Added Amstrad GX 4000 (cap32_libretro)
- Added Sega 32X (picodrive_libretro and picodrive_HEXAECO)
- Updated the DosBox plugin to version 1.7x beta4 r4301 dynrec. Huge improvement in performances thanks to Dynamic Recompiler. I've left the old version to be able to edit the mapper files with the Wiimote
- Updated RA-HEXAECO to April 27 2021
- Updated many other plugins to their most recent versions (see dol_versions.txt in wiiflow/plugins)
- Added Retroarch Fuse core for the ZX Spectrum
- Splitted the 'Color' and 'Black & White' versions of Wonderswan and Neogeo Pocket. They are separate platforms now, just like GB/GBC
- Updated platform.ini with the new platforms and flows
- All plugins .ini files are saved with Windows end-of-line, as they should be
- Added a few missing banner sounds. Some are still missing
- Fixed some HEXAECO cfg files that still needed the private folder. Now all paths are pointing to wiiflow/plugins/RA-HEXAECO

Follow all these steps to correctly install and configure the Plugins Pack

1.Installation2.Source Menu Setup3.Games partitions4.Roms Paths5.Bios files6.Covers setup

1. 
   
   INSTALLATION​
   
   1- Extract the archive.
   
   2- Copy the content of the 'COPY_TO_SD_OR_USB' folder to the root of the device of your choice.
   Merge every folder and overwrite all the files when requested.
   
   Notes:
   *The 'wiiflow' folder must be copied over your existing one on root.
   *The 'ROMS/0_HEXAECO_cfg' folder must be copied to the same partition as your Hexaeco games.
   *You need 1GB to copy all these files, so if you are limited in space you may need to move the 'ROMS' folder to a bigger partition.
   *Some plugins are coded to use their own folders for games, instead of the ROMS folder (see point 4 Roms Paths).
   These folders can be usually found on root, or in the apps folder. You can move these folders to a different partition, if you lack space, but you have to keep the folder structure intact.
   Use the correct 'rompartition' value in your .ini file (see point 3.Games partitions).
   
   3- Copy the content of the 'COPY_TO_SD' folder to the root of your SD card.
   These files are for plugins that require to be on SD to work.
   
   4- Copy the content of the 'COPY_TO_USB' folder to the root of your USB HDD.
   These files are for plugins that require USB to work.
   
2. 
   
   SETTING UP YOUR SOURCE MENU​
   
   Starting from Wiiflow 5.4.7, you can easily configure your Source menu pressing the Home button while you're viewing a source menu screen (or sourceflow) containing plugins.
   
   With the Source Menu Setup, you can link source buttons to plugins, set ROMs paths (and partitions) and hide undesired source buttons.
   For more advanced settings (covers folder, case color, banner sound, file types) you have to manually edit your plugins .ini files.
   
3. 
   
   CONFIGURING GAME PARTITIONS​
   
   All the plugins in the 'COPY_TO_SD_OR_USB' folder are configured to use the 'Plugins Default Partition' for games (Wiiflow settings --> Plugins Default Partition). It can be either SD or USB, depending on your setup.
   If Wiiflow can't find any game, it will show the expected roms path for that plugin in a message. Using the Source Menu Setup, change roms path and partition, or move the games to the path showed in the message..
   
   On Wiiflow versions older than 5.4.7, to change the roms path and partition you have to manually edit the plugins .ini files with a text editor (Notepad++ is recommended, or any other editor that saves with Windows end of line).
   Partitions will need to be set up as follows:
   
   For games on SD, use:
   rompartition=0
   
   For games on USB, use:
   rompartition=1
   
   Games on default partition:
   rompartition=-1
   
   Notes:
   *Retroarch mame2003plus cores require roms on the SD partition for increased compatibility or performances, so they're configured this way. However SD is only needed for a few games, so you can change it to USB if you need.
   *Dosbox game partition is set to USB, but it can be changed to SD if you edit the .conf files from my collection, replacing all USB instances with SD in the [autoexec] section.
   
4. 
   
   WHERE TO PUT THE GAMES FILES​
   
   Most plugins (including Retroarch and Wiimednafen) will look for games in 'device:/ROMS/', but there are some exceptions.
   
   A quick reference list:
   Abuse ............... apps/abuse/data
   Amiga ............... uae/floppies/
   Amstrad ............. apps/wiituka/DISKS
   Apple II ............ wiiapple
   Atari 2600 .......... wii2600/roms
   Atari 5200 .......... wiixl/software/5200
   Atari 7800 .......... wii7800/roms
   Atari 800 ........... wiixl/software/800xl
   Atari ST ............ hatari/fd
   BBC Micro ........... apps/beebem/discs
   C64 ................. frodo/games (.sav) and frodo/images (floppies)
   DOS ................. Dosbox/Games
   Eduke32 ............. apps/eduke32, apps/eduke32-dukedc, apps/eduke32-nwinter, apps/eduke32-vacation
   Grim Fandango ....... apps/grim
   Heart of Darkness ... hode
   Hexen II ............ apps/wiihexen2/data1
   Jazz Jackrabbit ..... apps/OpenJazz
   MSX ................. MSX/Games
   N64 ................. not64/roms
   Nintendo DS ......... DS/roms
   PC8801 .............. quasi88/disk
   Playstation ......... wiisxr/isos
   SCUMMVM ............. scummvm (*)
   VG5000 .............. apps/dcvg5k/software
   ZX Spectrum ......... fbzx-wii/tapes
   Wolf 3D ............. apps/wolf3D
   Spear of Destiny .... apps/SoD
   
   (*) To actually add games to ScummVM, you have to launch it for the first time from the Homebrew Channel, then add your games using the app's interface. After that, the file 'scummvm.ini' will be created inside apps/scummvm. Copy this file in wiiflow/plugins/scummvm.
   Scummvm covers must be named after game id's, you'll find them between [ ] in scummvm.ini, at the top of each game section (e.g. [sky] is the id for Beneath a Steel Sky, so the cover must be named sky.png).
   
   See the included ReadMe.txt files inside the wiiflow/plugins subfolders for specific information.
   
5. 
   
   BIOS FILES​
   
   Bios files are not included in the pack, because they're still copyrighted material.
   You'll have to get them by yourself.
   
   Not every emulator requires the bios, but if they are not launching the games chances are you will need it.
   
   Generally, all the bios files need to be placed in the respective emulator folder located on the root of your device.
   See the included ReadMe.txt files inside each wiiflow/plugins subfolder for information.
   
   Some examples:
   Atari 800/5200/XEGS bios files.. device:/wiixl
   PS1 bios for Wiisx-R ........... device:/wiisxr/bios
   Retroarch-Wii bios files ....... device:/retroarch/system
   Retroarch-HEXAECO bios files ... device:/wiiflow/plugins/RA-HEXAECO/system
   Wii Mednafen bios files ........ device:/wiimednafen
   
6. 
   
   COVERS PATHS​
   
   - The covers folders have to be created inside 'wiiflow/boxcovers'. Their names are found in the plugin .ini files in 'wiiflow/plugins/..' (at the coverfolder= line). The plugins .ini files can also be edited to use your existing covers folders.
   
   - When editing the .ini files, remember to always use a path relative to 'wiiflow/boxcovers' (e.g. if covers are in 'wiiflow/boxcovers/DOS', use coverfolder=DOS)
   
   - Plugins .ini files are configured to use transparent cases for Cassettes and Jewel Cases (covercolor=111111)
   You need to have Wiiflow Lite 5.4.9 to see them.
   If you're updating from a previous Plugins Pack version, reload cache in Wiiflow to see them, or they will be in green color.
   

Credits:
Thanks fly out to: RunningSnakes, Fledge68, Wiimpathy, Hakaisha, SuperrSonic, niuus, MrSW, kokokool, Tototi, OfficialRammy.
Thanks for all your kindness, help and assistance during this hard quest!
Without your precious contributions I would have been lost, and this pack would not have been possible.

 

[RunningSnakes]

Ill do a little testing tonight. Just wanted to point out, I highly recommend Virtual Boy & Atari Lynx using WiiMednafen 0.2pre. Virtual Boy is full speed without any major problems & Lynx has Vertical/Horizontal auto detect. Colecovision (0.3),, Atari 7800 (0.5) have newer stand-alone emulator updates that work as WFL plugins without any modification and Atari 2600 (07-13-13) works great. Im going to focus on SNES, WonderSwan, Neo Geo Pocket, Game Boy Advance first. Ill post results. Thanks

Edit:
Note that I'm using USB exclusively for all tests.

Neo Geo Pocket RA1.8.2 (code dump 3 consecutive times when launching random game) RA 1.8.1 is working without problems as far as I can tell...tested 6-8 games.

Game Boy Advance mGBA RA 1.8.2 (WFL reboots when trying to launch random GBA game.) (In fact, I have never had any RA version successfully launch a game through WFL.) Also, the official mGBA stand-alone stopped working as WFL plugin as of version 0.6.1 using USB. It is very possible they are working through SD. I am using Enhanced mGBA (01-29-20) and it is easily the only GBA emulator I would recommend, as a plugin or stand-alone.

WonderSwan RA 1.8.2 does work but I get random code dumps. The settings did save for me as well but RA 1.8.1 is more stable as settings are saved and I launched 8-10 random games without any problems.

Using your 1.8.2 cores of...
FCEUmm
Gambatte
Sega (All)
PCE Fast
PCE SGFX

Everything worked fine, I will be using these 1.8.2 cores, although they were all working fine before.

If you'd like, I can upload the working .dols and cfg.ini files for trouble and missing emulators for others to test & use?

The 1.8.2 SNES emulator it seems is working fine, but I am not familiar with SMW2, so my testing of that game is really insignificant. Super Metroid, Ken Griffey Baseball, Donkey Kong Country 2 all seem fine & I've had many hours on those 3 games. The RA 1.8.1 Snes9x 2010 I was using is unstable and looking for a stable replacement. I think I'll try the 1.7.8 2010 version & report back tomorrow most likely.

 

[Tetsuo Shima]

Thanks @RunningSnakes that's really what I needed!
Where can I find WiiMednafen 0.2pre?
I'm using a mixed setup, wiifow on SD, games on USB (except for Mame2003plus, which seems to work better on SD).
I just removed the rompartition=1 from all my ini's before sharing them, to let everyone decide what to use.

If you'd like, I can upload the working .dols and cfg.ini files for trouble and missing emulators for others to test & use?

Sure, please send them, that would be very appreciated!

Game Boy Advance mGBA RA 1.8.2 (WFL reboots when trying to launch random GBA game.) (In fact, I have never had any RA version successfully launch a game through WFL.)

So my mGBA is not working for you? It's working great for me, performance are great. It was not working on any other 1.8.2 nightly build that I tested, but with the 2020/01/04-nightly I was successful.
What I really love about the RA plugins is the ability to use scanlines overlay. Using scanlinesgrid.png for handhelds emulation is really really nice! I don't know if the standalone has it too, but it's a feature that I would not want to miss

 

[MrSW]

I personally use emGBA for all GB/GBC/GBA related things, works great for me. It lets you use borders, automatically sets to the perfect resolution, runs everything at fullspeed, and allows for filters among other things.

If changing disks in FDS is an issue, then you might try FCEUGX. Unfortunately FDS saving is unemulated there, so you would have to resort to savestates.

WiiMednafen (non RA) works amazing for NES/FDS and a number of other systems (like WonderSwan or Lynx), to the point I prefer it over the respective RA cores, but the lastest official release (0.2-pre) doesn't work as a WiiFlow plugin. Raz0red was working on an update, so we just might hope he releases it soon.

 

[RunningSnakes]

Here are what i have if anyone is interested in testing and/or using. Going to get after the SNES core tonight, ill keep you posted.

Please use Tetsuo latest release.

 

[fledge68]

here is the wiiflow 5 plugin pack i was working on.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/4ol455mlovv2fal/fledge68_plugins_pack.zip/file

But I had things to do for wiiflow itself plus the covid 19 stay at home orders and other things have caused me to have to pause on it.
i was keeping it in the style of mastermod but the wiiflow/plugins folder i was trying to organize things in subfolders. a lot of the plugins are the updated ones by wiimpathy and the latest gx releases. and a lot of the folders contain readme's to explain what version it is and where i got it and how to use it.

you can make your plugin pack how you want - i'm just providing this as an example and maybe it will be helpful to you.

on a side note i do have fever and chills today. I'm hoping its just a virus or flu and not covid 19.

 

[RunningSnakes]

Thanks @fledge68

Hope you start feeling better, take care.

 

[Tetsuo Shima]

@fledge68 I'm really sad to hear this, my friend. It happened to me too, when this thing arrived here in Italy, 2 months ago. I was a little afraid and no doctor wanted to visit me. I was lucky it wasn't covid19.
Monitor your breath ability always and don't hesitate to call for medical assistance if it's not good.
Take care and have some rest

 

[RunningSnakes]

I've decided to start at 1.8.5 stable and work down if there are problem cores. I'm also testing SNES latest only, no 2010, 2005, 2002 core tests, as the latest is based on Snes9x 1.6.0 improvements. Quickly I have ruled out 1.7.8 & 1.8.2 Snes9x cores since both code dump Tengai Makyou Zero very early in game. RA 1.8.5 played with no problems over 20 minutes. I then tested several other SNES 1.8.5 with FPS enabled, including SMW2 and I'm not seeing any frame drops. So I am happy with SNES RA 1.8.5 (for now) as the best solution for this console. I am going to test major consoles NES, SEGA, TG16, then try my luck with handhelds.

 

[Tetsuo Shima]

Thanks @RunningSnakes you're really helping a lot!
I really love the folder structure of @fledge68 's plugin pack. I think that's the way we all should follow for a final pack!
Really polished and less confusing, very user friendly. Thank you so much!

 

[fledge68]

@fledge68 I'm really sad to hear this, my friend. It happened to me too, when this thing arrived here in Italy, 2 months ago. I was a little afraid and no doctor wanted to visit me. I was lucky it wasn't covid19.
Monitor your breath ability always and don't hesitate to call for medical assistance if it's not good.
Take care and have some rest

yes i'm watching my breathing. practicing deep breaths which usually make me cough. I have a tummy ache and a headache as well. the good news is i took a cool shower and a couple Tylenol and went to bed last night. slept pretty good and this morning my temperature is normal. but headache and tummy ache still there. i'm calling my doctor later.

Thanks @RunningSnakes you're really helping a lot!
I really love the folder structure of @fledge68 's plugin pack. I think that's the way we all should follow for a final pack!
Really polished and less confusing, very user friendly. Thank you so much!

Thanks, i was going for a organized look to make it easier to understand what files and folders go with each plugin.
I was going to make a readme to explain what all the root folders are for and why you need the folders in apps even though they have no boot.dol.
also, i had decided to stick with retroarch v1.7.6. after v1.7.6 there really isn't any major improvements for the wii. all the updates are for other devices. plus v1.7.6 is what wiimpathy used for his mame2003+ cores.

 

[Wiimpathy]

I would say around 1.7.8 and above. Because usb controllers are fixed and Wiimotes as pointer is possible.
Well, this last feature may be buggy and not as easy to configure as in other emulators. But motion controls are also the essence of the Wii right?
It could render some computers ports usable since there's no usb mouse/keyboard in Retroarch.

The pack is very well organized @fledge68 . Any specific reason for rompartition=-1?
Anyway, I hope you get well soon. Take care.

I then tested several other SNES 1.8.5 with FPS enabled, including SMW2 and I'm not seeing any frame drops.

I'd really like to have a final answer and other's opinions. I've read several times the performance was worst in the latest retroarch Snes. Whereas at first, it was supposed to be better than the Snes9x GX.
Same thing was said about Genesis Plus GX core by the way.

@niuus and others, is it really slower in Retroarch now? And which core are you comparing, snes9x2010?

 

[fledge68]

I would say around 1.7.8 and above. Because usb controllers are fixed and Wiimotes as pointer is possible.
Well, this last feature may be buggy and not as easy to configure as in other emulators. But motion controls are also the essence of the Wii right?
It could render some computers ports usable since there's no usb mouse/keyboard in Retroarch.

The pack is very well organized @fledge68 . Any specific reason for rompartition=-1?
Anyway, I hope you get well soon. Take care.

rompartition=-1 isn't a must. but i put it in there in case the user wants to specify i partition different than the diffault plugins partition. for example the default is set to SD but for snes9xgx for some reason you put your games on usb so you would set rompartition=1
-1 default, 0 =sd, 1=usb1 2=usb2 etc

 

[biggzsizzle]

Following for preservation! Lol @fledge68 prayers for you my man!

 

[niuus]

I would say around 1.7.8 and above. Because usb controllers are fixed and Wiimotes as pointer is possible.

USB is a must for arcade cores, haha. I don't know if other people use them for 8bit / 16bit console gaming, but at this point i certainly can't live without it for all CPS cores, MAME and Neo Geo. The only downside is that you can only play with 1 player even if my adapter has 2 PSX ports, though i don't know if 2 USB adapters would be recognized.

I've decided to start at 1.8.5 stable and work down if there are problem cores. I'm also testing SNES latest only, no 2010, 2005, 2002 core tests, as the latest is based on Snes9x 1.6.0 improvements. Quickly I have ruled out 1.7.8 & 1.8.2 Snes9x cores since both code dump Tengai Makyou Zero very early in game. RA 1.8.5 played with no problems over 20 minutes. I then tested several other SNES 1.8.5 with FPS enabled, including SMW2 and I'm not seeing any frame drops. So I am happy with SNES RA 1.8.5 (for now) as the best solution for this console. I am going to test major consoles NES, SEGA, TG16, then try my luck with handhelds.

I'd really like to have a final answer and other's opinions. I've read several times the performance was worst in the latest retroarch Snes. Whereas at first, it was supposed to be better than the Snes9x GX.
Same thing was said about Genesis Plus GX core by the way.

@niuus and others, is it really slower in Retroarch now? And which core are you comparing, snes9x2010?

I'll download 1.8.5 and check if it really runs 100%. I tend to always go and test 2002 first since mainline Snes9x is just too demanding for the Wii.

In the case of GenesisPlus GX, i have never found a reason to play it on Retroarch, since the standalone works completely perfect and looks awesome. Only tested RA version a couple of times way too many years ago, circa 1.0.0.2 probably.

 

[niuus]

I've decided to start at 1.8.5 stable and work down if there are problem cores. I'm also testing SNES latest only, no 2010, 2005, 2002 core tests, as the latest is based on Snes9x 1.6.0 improvements. Quickly I have ruled out 1.7.8 & 1.8.2 Snes9x cores since both code dump Tengai Makyou Zero very early in game. RA 1.8.5 played with no problems over 20 minutes. I then tested several other SNES 1.8.5 with FPS enabled, including SMW2 and I'm not seeing any frame drops. So I am happy with SNES RA 1.8.5 (for now) as the best solution for this console

@niuus and others, is it really slower in Retroarch now? And which core are you comparing, snes9x2010?

Okey, so these were my results 1.8.5 stable:

They all drop frames on the heavy games, tested with Star Fox and Super Mario World 2, the worst of all was Snes9x Current, and the fastest was 2010, which got closer to 60 fps most of the time, but crashed twice for me after some seconds in the game, don't know if it was random. 2002 did not load any game (just a black screen). I used this scene on the very first level:

Snes9x 2010 @57-60fps, some audio hiccups.

Snes9x RX @59-60fps, no audio hiccups.

SuperFX performance on 2010 was very good, since they use the speedhacks i would love to port to RX to finally get 100% speed on the Wii.

 

[RunningSnakes]

Yes @niuus , I just tested Star Fox & there are huge drops. I played through SMW2 first two levels last night with no drops, but today drops in opening scene and throughout entire 1st level. Very strange and the speeds are unacceptable. Ill most likely go back to RX as WFL SNES plugin solution since RA SNES is a bottled mess.

 

[niuus]

Yes @niuus , I just tested Star Fox & there are huge drops. I played through SMW2 first two levels last night with no drops, but today drops in opening scene and throughout entire 1st level. Very strange and the speeds are unacceptable. Ill most likely go back to RX as WFL SNES plugin solution since RA SNES is a bottled mess.

I forgot to mention that the SMW2 intro is another good speed benchmark, along with the cave/background waterfalls scene on 1-1.

Savestates creation is kinda slow. I also checked video options, found out that if you disable bilinear filtering, you will have shimmering on horizontal scrolling, which was not negotiable for me.

A bottled mess indeed.

 

[Tetsuo Shima]

For me, with snes9x "regular" on 1.8.2, frame rate drops to 46 FPS in Yoshi's Island intro.
I tried to increase the SuperFX overclocking from 150% or 200% but performance is always poor.

 

[Tetsuo Shima]

USB is a must for arcade cores, haha. I don't know if other people use them for 8bit / 16bit console gaming, but at this point i certainly can't live without it for all CPS cores, MAME and Neo Geo. The only downside is that you can only play with 1 player even if my adapter has 2 PSX ports, though i don't know if 2 USB adapters would be recognized.

I have a Namco arcade stick for PSX. Really good quality stick and microswitches. I'm using it with an USB adapter like yours, with 2 psx ports. I'm using it on the PC and on the C64Maxi and I love it! I tried it on the Wii long ago and it never got recognized.
Do you say I can now use it on newer Retroarch Wii?
Sorry for this little off topic.