Hacking Unity with WiiU

[handy333]

I glad to see that someone else loves the wiiU as much as I do. I'm no saying the Switch is bad or anything but I don't think i'll be buying it. Along with other problems I have with it I just don't like paying for online.

 

[lordelan]

I glad to see that someone else loves the wiiU as much as I do. I'm no saying the Switch is bad or anything but I don't think i'll be buying it. Along with other problems I have with it I just don't like paying for online.

I'll buy the Switch when it's at a state where it could run RetroArch as it would be the ultimate gaming machine then.
But for now the Wii U is the ultimate gaming machine.

 

[handy333]

That would be a good reason to get it. Although I haven't had a good track record with retroarch but when it works it works great.

 

[lordelan]

That would be a good reason to get it. Although I haven't had a good track record with retroarch but when it works it works great.

At least it handles all old SEGA und Ninty consoles on the Wii U and many Arcade/MAME games (great graphics) so it's a really nice addition to what the Wii U already was able to handle on its own (GC games, Wii games and Wii U games).
But we're getting off topic here.

 

[handy333]

Your are right but if retroarch is on wiiU I think I may need to try it out one day. Speaking of one day, maybe one day we could work on a small game together. Maybe like a silly game jam for streamers to gawk at. But further down in the future when we're finished with our projects.

 

[lordelan]

Your are right but if retroarch is on wiiU I think I may need to try it out one day. Speaking of one day, maybe one day we could work on a small game together. Maybe like a silly game jam for streamers to gawk at. But further down in the future when we're finished with our projects.

Why not?

 

[komabear]

Sorry to barge into this thread, but this got me quite interested. I'm wondering if you guys got devkits or are you using hacked Wii Us? I don't use Unity but I do have a Construct 2 license and I'm registered as a Nintendo dev too, but I never got to release anything on it because devkits are expensive as hell (including shipping to my country). I don't plan on releasing anything for it but it would be pretty cool if I could test my games on it just for the heck of it...

 

[handy333]

I don't have a devkit yet but I don't think I should get one now. I'm aiming for a 3ds one though. But yeah i would like a wiiu devkit just for the learning experience.

Why not?

When I make a durable prototype I'll see if I can post it on the dev fourm so people can test but I'm not sure if I can do that yet.

 

[lordelan]

Sorry to barge into this thread, but this got me quite interested. I'm wondering if you guys got devkits or are you using hacked Wii Us? I don't use Unity but I do have a Construct 2 license and I'm registered as a Nintendo dev too, but I never got to release anything on it because devkits are expensive as hell (including shipping to my country). I don't plan on releasing anything for it but it would be pretty cool if I could test my games on it just for the heck of it...

There's no need at all for one of those (expensive) devkits.
I'm just building "unpacked" games with Unity for Wii U which is giving me the three magic folders (code, content, meta).
Then I just use Loadiine and am completely happy. At least there's one reason left to use Loadiine.
If everything turns out to be running fine I could install my game with WUP installer to my homescreen at any time.
Would need a CFW though.

 

[handy333]

Is there a fully functional CFW yet? I haven't been keeping up with the scene lately.

 

[komabear]

There's no need at all for one of those (expensive) devkits.
I'm just building "unpacked" games with Unity for Wii U which is giving me the three magic folders (code, content, meta).
Then I just use Loadiine and am completely happy. At least there's one reason left to use Loadiine.
If everything turns out to be running fine I could install my game with WUP installer to my homescreen at any time.
Would need a CFW though.

This is very interesting! I wish I could test with my Construct 2 games but I have no idea where to start. There used to be a plugin for it on the nintendo dev forums but they've updated it and I lost the part where you could download middleware.. I'm not sure if they removed it completely.

 

[handy333]

I remember being able to test html on my wiiu or maybe it was that devkit I had for a while.

 

[lordelan]

This is very interesting! I wish I could test with my Construct 2 games but I have no idea where to start. There used to be a plugin for it on the nintendo dev forums but they've updated it and I lost the part where you could download middleware.. I'm not sure if they removed it completely.

Log in, go to Wii U and downloads. Press CTRL + F and type in "Unity". Download the newest one. You could use the Ninty Dev software to download it for you as well.
You should end up with Unity 5.4.4 and a Wii U Add On installer.
Install Unity first. Open any project. Walk through the menu, find "Manage Keys" and enter the Unity licence key you got from Nintendo (in Unity's download details).
Now install the add on, open a project again (be sure to make a copy of the project folder as some files will receive changes), go to build settings and select:
Wii U, unpacked, NAND, Master (no network as long as you don't need it).
If there's errors then you didn't install GHS Multi and the Cafe SDK properly.

 

[handy333]

I was hoping someone would develop some homebrew that would cast your game from unity to an app on your retail wiiU. I'm sure it's more complicated that it sounds.

 

[lordelan]

I was hoping someone would develop some homebrew that would cast your game from unity to an app on your retail wiiU. I'm sure it's more complicated that it sounds.

Do you mean to install your app to the homescreen or to debug it in real time on the console while doing code changes on PC? That would be epic!

 

[handy333]

Yeah, kind of like upload it to the wiiU for debuging. However it's done on consoles like the xbox360 or psvita when it had it's thing.

 

[QuarkTheAwesome]

If you're willing to get comfy with some low-level programming, you can set up an exception handler to deal with outright crashes (though I'd imagine Unity has its own ways here). You can also wiiload RPXes with HBL over the network now; although you can't take content/meta with you so your mileage may vary. Loadiine is always a safe bet. Depending on NDAs and whatnot, you could even package finished stuff as app/h3 files for people to install outright.

If you want to get super down and dirty; there are patches floating around that redirect all PowerPC-side logging to the network, which is likely the best debugging you'll get on a retail system. It's actually the same sort of thing us non-SDK people have; it's not as inhibiting as it first seems.

Either of you tried Decaf or CEMU? I'd imagine they (especially Decaf) could make things waaay easier for you.

 

[handy333]

I tried CEMU. I think It crashes because of my gpu. I'm on a laptop but I haven't heard of Decaf. I've just been testing in Unity but I'd bring the game over to the wiiU when I want to check the UI or something because as of now I'm only working on 2D sections of my game.

Both emulators crash when trying to boot the unity project. Normal games run fine though.

 

[handy333]

I'll go ahead and ask here since the fourms on the site rarely answer questions.
How do you go about buttons on the gamepad? They don't seem to work for me in the editor.

 

[lordelan]

I'll tell you once I'm back at my PC (sunday or monday).