Hacking USB Loader GX

[Hiitech]

Lately I've been playing Opoona, a Wii RPG. I bought the game back in the day and did a backup iso to play on USB Loader GX for convenience. I don't want to burn the Wii U lens out more than the necessary.

Here is the issue. Opoona has a 4:3 aspect ratio, but when I load it in USB Loader GX the image is stretched to fill the screen and the aspect ratio goes to waste. My system settings are in 16:9 so at first I thought it was the Wii U fault, but lately I tried to run the game using the disc channel and the game shows fine. The Wii U add two bars to the side of the screen so the aspect ratio is perfectly preserved.

So I wonder if there is some way to get the same aspect ratio the disc channel achieves on Usb Loader GX. I've tried some of the loader options but I am not having any results.

I should note that I'm using the last version of the app (v3.0-r1281).

 

[RetraCarteR]

Lately I've been playing Opoona, a Wii RPG. I bought the game back in the day and did a backup iso to play on USB Loader GX for convenience. I don't want to burn the Wii U lens out more than the necessary.

Here is the issue. Opoona has a 4:3 aspect ratio, but when I load it in USB Loader GX the image is stretched to fill the screen and the aspect ratio goes to waste. My system settings are in 16:9 so at first I thought it was the Wii U fault, but lately I tried to run the game using the disc channel and the game shows fine. The Wii U add two bars to the side of the screen so the aspect ratio is perfectly preserved.

So I wonder if there is some way to get the same aspect ratio the disc channel achieves on Usb Loader GX. I've tried some of the loader options but I am not having any results.

I should note that I'm using the last version of the app (v3.0-r1281).

Try setting "Aspect Ratio" to "Force 4:3" and "Dol Video Patch" to "All". If that doesn't work, set "Video Width" to "Framebuffer". If that doesn't work, go to "Features" in the global settings menu and set "Wii U Widescreen" to "Off". I don't have a Wii U myself, so I can't test it out, but I'm willing to bet that at least one of those three solutions will work.

 

[Magnus87]

@blackb0x You are amazing! Thank you very much for keeping USBLoader GX alive, seeing an update in 2023 fills me with joy!

 

[zigoraty]

I found that what caused the problem with some games the first time I tested the r1281 was changing the game window mode to display the discs instead of the banner, so some games freeze when trying to exit. I also noticed that when I load SD mode and go back to USB, if I load an emunand wiiware game, when I exit I'm thrown to the Wii U menu. I'm using emunand on SD and the games work fine, but via USB(Ustealth) when trying load some emunand game, it doesn't load and goes to homebrew. Lastly, I noticed that the displayed SD storage is bugged.

 

[blackb0x]

@zigoraty I'll see if I can replicate the issues later on my Wii, but it does seem odd that you're the only person reporting these issues.

Lastly, I noticed that the displayed SD storage is bugged.

What seems wrong with the SD storage info? Since both myself and my testers have never seen it display incorrect information.

 

[OldGnashburg]

Current release - r1281

Fixed

• Fixed an issue that would cause USB Loader GX to crash as it boots on some systems
• Fixed an issue that would cause some games to freeze if you turned off the deflicker filter

Improved

• The video width patch should no longer conflict with other patches
• Updated the Spanish translation (thanks to bjxuf)

Previous release - r1280

New

• Added the ability to play Wii games from SD cards
• Added automatic cIOS selection for games (cIOS changes are recommended)
• Added automatic language selection for when a Wii game doesn't support your systems language (requires wiitdb.xml)
• Added basic CISO support for Nintendont
• Added an option to render games at their framebuffer widths
• Added an option to hide or show your game count
• Added an option to remember your last played game
• Added patches that make Kirby's Return to Dreamland playable (SUKE01, SUKP01 and SUKJ01)
• Added cover action options for the list view (download covers or view information)
• Added the ability to navigate USB Loader GX via guitars
• Added the ability to scroll through the channel grid view
• Added support for multiple instances with separate config files (this is mainly a developer feature)
• Added support for Devolution's progressive patching and regional emulated memory cards (thanks to xperia64)

Fixed

• Fixed an issue that made Excite Truck unplayable
• Fixed an issue that made Driver: San Francisco freeze after you'd complete the tutorial
• Fixed an issue that prevented other homebrew from accessing your USB storage device
• Fixed an issue that prevented USB Loader GX from launching custom channel forwarders correctly
• Fixed an issue that prevented homebrew from returning you back to USB Loader GX when you'd exit
• Fixed an issue that prevented Devolution from loading games from an SD card (thanks to xperia64)
• Fixed an issue that would cause the amount of free space to not be displayed correctly
• Fixed an issue that would cause game ID's to be displayed for EmuNAND titles

Improved

• Drastically improved caching (huge thanks to Oddx for this)
• Improved the accuracy of the region information that's displayed in the list view
• Improved cover downloading (it refreshes less and it should download more covers)
• Improved the quality of the built-in audio files
• The DVD drive should now stop spinning after you've installed a game
• Nintendont's PAL50 patch can now be applied to any video mode
• Game ID's can now be viewed from the info screen (press 2 when the cursor is over a game)
• Some EmuNAND and WAD settings were cleaned up
• USB Loader GX can be compiled with devkitPPC r41
• The development environment was overhauled (Visual Studio Code support, Codespaces support etc.)
• Some translations were updated (thanks to bjxuf, DDinghoya & Bamsemesteren)
• Other miscellaneous corrections and improvements

Source: https://github.com/wiidev/usbloadergx
Donate: https://ko-fi.com/blackb0x
Download: https://github.com/wiidev/usbloadergx/releases

Along with this USB Loader GX update I've also released d2x v11 beta1, which fixes a RiiConnect24 compatibility problem and it also adds EmuNAND UStealth support. I've attached installers for both Wii and vWii to this post.

Special thanks to everyone who's tested debug builds, sent me pull requests at GitHub and patches here at GBAtemp.

Spoiler: History

Seventh release:

• Fixed boot issues for some people
• Fixed an issue that would cause some homebrew to fail to return to the loader
• Fixed an issue that prevented WiiWare and VC games from being patched correctly
• Fixed an issue that would cause the date and time to be wrong for some people
• Fixed an issue that would cause some Wiimotes to connect as player 2 instead of player 1
• Added deflicker filter options (the safe option is recommended)
• Added Portuguese and Russian synopsis support
• Added an option to reset all game settings
• Restored the option to update Nintendont from the features screen
• Corrected analog stick ranges and made the cursor speed much more consistent
• Corrected some translations (update your languages)
• Improved how banners are displayed on Korean Wii systems
• The loaders homebrew browser will now only search for boot.dol and boot.elf files
• The custom server option will now only be displayed when necessary
• The cheats URL can now be edited via the config file
• Updated the build tools and some libraries
• Miscellaneous corrections and improvements

Sixth release:

• Updated the Wiimmfi patch thanks to Leseratte10
• Fixed a crash that occurs when using some third party classic controllers
• Fixed an issue that would cause a few games to freeze
• Fixed parental controls not working when header caching is enabled
• Fixed PAL to NTSC video mode patching
• Fixed background music selection
• Fixed game size detection when exporting to a list
• Fixed zip file extraction after updating to devkitPPC r38

Fifth release:

• Fixed NTFS partition size detection
• Fixed a crash that would occur when removing a game from an NTFS partition
• Fixed a crash that would occur when networking is enabled and you're using proxy settings
• Fixed a few issues with game header caching
• Fixed an IOS reloading and patching issue for some devices
• Restores compatibility with older versions of Nintendont (pre-BBA)
• Miscellaneous corrections and improvements

Fourth release:

• Automatically patch error 23400 for CoD (Black Ops, Reflex, MW3) and Rock Band (3, The Beatles)
• Automatically patch the Mario Kart Wii remote code execution vulnerability
• Removed BenFi as a private server option because the server went offline
• Added an option to set a custom private server address directly from the loader
• Added HTTP(S) proxy support and improved how connection timeouts are handled
• Added game header caching thanks to Oddx & geoGolem (disabled by default)
• Changed the URL for cheats because geckocodes shutdown
• Other general fixes

Third release:

• Added AltWFC and BenFi as private server options
• Added the ability to edit the cover and banner URLs
• Added the builds Git commit ID to the boot screen
• Fixed Japanese descriptions not being displayed correctly
• Fixed an issue that would cause the storage details to not be shown
• Updated the networking code to achieve faster downloads
• Updated WiinnerTag to RiiTag
• Updated the meta.xml information
• Updated Portuguese and Korean translations thanks to Codemastershock & DDinghoya
• Removed some unnecessary files
• Removed an extra forward slash from the language path

Second release:

• Added Nintendont BBA emulation and net profile options
• Restored compatibility with WiiGSC and older forwarders
• Fixed GPT partition size detection (provided by Cyan)
• Correctly filter the games list after downloading covers so that Wii games don't go missing
• Disconnect Wiimotes before calling WPAD_Shutdown
• Changed "Game Cube" to "GameCube" (update your languages)
• Enabled the 480p enhancement by default

First release:

• Fixes cheat downloads from geckocodes.org
• Fixes a minor memory leak
• All downloads now use HTTPS
• Optimised all images
• Removed some old redundant code

Please send me a private message if you need to report a problem.

Replace all files when upgrading.

Holy crap! I've been peeking my head into the Wii/Wii U scenes updating my setups that I haven't really touched in 5 years and running some pretty ancient stuff. It's really nice to see the scene still active and doing awesome work adding cool features, fixing longstanding bugs and improving QoL. Thanks for this.

 

[zigoraty]

@zigoraty I'll see if I can replicate the issues later on my Wii, but it does seem odd that you're the only person reporting these issues.


What seems wrong with the SD storage info? Since both myself and my testers have never seen it display incorrect information.

But everything is working very well, I just decided to report these details. I took a picture from SD storage, maybe I didn't explain well.

 

[blackb0x]

I took a picture from SD storage

How much space is actually free if you check via a PC?

 

[zigoraty]

Quanto espaço é realmente livre se você verificar por meio de um PC?

11 GB grátis.

Edit: For some reason now it's displaying correctly again.

 

[lwiz]

Just installed the latest versions of USBLGX and CIOSes on my Wii and WiiU - excellent work - everything worked out of the box!

One wish (it might even be a setting nowadays) but could it be possible not to disable wii games after failed HDD scan? I tend to put the HDD in wrong port or switch it on and it's a bit of hassle to tick Wii games back on after restarting USBLGX

 

[Hiitech]

Try setting "Aspect Ratio" to "Force 4:3" and "Dol Video Patch" to "All". If that doesn't work, set "Video Width" to "Framebuffer". If that doesn't work, go to "Features" in the global settings menu and set "Wii U Widescreen" to "Off". I don't have a Wii U myself, so I can't test it out, but I'm willing to bet that at least one of those three solutions will work.

Thank you for your help. Neither the "Force 4:3" + "Dol Video Patch" or "Video Width" solutions worked, but the "Wii U Widescreen" one did the trick. In fact, this last option changes the aspect ratio of the USB Loader GX itself.

 

[Clector]

I also noticed that when I load SD mode and go back to USB, if I load an emunand wiiware game, when I exit I'm thrown to the Wii U menu. I'm using emunand on SD and the games work fine, but via USB(Ustealth) when trying load some emunand game, it doesn't load and goes to homebrew. Lastly, I noticed that the displayed SD storage is bugged.

Maybe it's resetting the console back from the emuNAND, but on the Wii U this causes it to reset back into Wii U mode?
The return to WIi U Menu "channel" does something similar of just restting the console and back into Wii U mode.

 

[zigoraty]

Maybe it's resetting the console back from the emuNAND, but on the Wii U this causes it to reset back into Wii U mode?
The return to WIi U Menu "channel" does something similar of just restting the console and back into Wii U mode.

I didn't understand

 

[rexus_pl]

After some days of using new version (and finally updating cIOS) I can say it's the most stable version released. Last version could crash during boot from time to time - new version hasn't crashed even single time. Good job and thanks @blackb0x!

Anyone has sucessfully runned We Dare? I've read this game is changing IOS while running, so option to block IOS changes has to be enabled. Despite this, game is hanging on the begining (scene with sofa). Any other options should I change? It's the only game I have problems with.

Another question: some games (Broken Sword, Fortune Street) have image narrower than normal (resulting two black lines on both sides on screen) - is there any patch to make them display correctly?

@blackb0x - what are real pros and cons of both of IOS configuration you recomend (except fact, that one is optimal, and other one should give more compatibility - so what's wrong with this one?)?

 

[matto21]

After some days of using new version (and finally updating cIOS) I can say it's the most stable version released. Last version could crash during boot from time to time - new version hasn't crashed even single time. Good job and thanks @blackb0x!

Anyone has sucessfully runned We Dare? I've read this game is changing IOS while running, so option to block IOS changes has to be enabled. Despite this, game is hanging on the begining (scene with sofa). Any other options should I change? It's the only game I have problems with.

Another question: some games (Broken Sword, Fortune Street) have image narrower than normal (resulting two black lines on both sides on screen) - is there any patch to make them display correctly?

@blackb0x - what are real pros and cons of both of IOS configuration you recomend (except fact, that one is optimal, and other one should give more compatibility - so what's wrong with this one?)?

I have no problems with We Dare Pal
250 base 57
249 base 56

 

[rexus_pl]

250 base 57
249 base 56

I use PAL version too. Same cIOS (newest versions by @blackb0x) + 251 base 38. Any other special settings?

 

[Maeson]

@blackb0x - what are real pros and cons of both of IOS configuration you recomend (except fact, that one is optimal, and other one should give more compatibility - so what's wrong with this one?)?

As I understood, the differences are:

The Optimal one spends the least time changing from Cios to Cios to work properly, so it's faster and I guess less prone to mistakes or failures.

The other one is for the couple games that need a specific less used CIOS. I only know of the games We Sing 2 and one of the Spongebob games. So it is only necessary if you want to play one of those very specific games. But because of changing the recommended spot of base 38, it might take longer to load games?

Lately I've been playing Opoona, a Wii RPG. I bought the game back in the day and did a backup iso to play on USB Loader GX for convenience. I don't want to burn the Wii U lens out more than the necessary.

Here is the issue. Opoona has a 4:3 aspect ratio, but when I load it in USB Loader GX the image is stretched to fill the screen and the aspect ratio goes to waste. My system settings are in 16:9 so at first I thought it was the Wii U fault, but lately I tried to run the game using the disc channel and the game shows fine. The Wii U add two bars to the side of the screen so the aspect ratio is perfectly preserved.

So I wonder if there is some way to get the same aspect ratio the disc channel achieves on Usb Loader GX. I've tried some of the loader options but I am not having any results.

I should note that I'm using the last version of the app (v3.0-r1281).

What strange but lovely game, and what a fantastic soundtrack. I should make the time to replay it again. Glad you found out the fix!

I tried on my end, and with my WIi on 4:3 it seemed like forcing 16:9 / 4:3 worked. PAL system and Game, just in case, although I did not see much difference between modes, in fac 4:3 seemed to show a bit more vertically.

 

[matto21]

I use PAL version too. Same cIOS (newest versions by @blackb0x) + 251 base 38. Any other special settings?

no special settings

 

[Hiitech]

What strange but lovely game, and what a fantastic soundtrack. I should make the time to replay it again. Glad you found out the fix!

I tried on my end, and with my WIi on 4:3 it seemed like forcing 16:9 / 4:3 worked. PAL system and Game, just in case, although I did not see much difference between modes, in fac 4:3 seemed to show a bit more vertically.

Yeah it's a very special and enjoyable game. Currently I find myself listening to the Artiela track one time after another. Great OST!

I'm playing it on a Wii U, at some time I configured the system video settings to 4:3 and the game showed fine. The problem is that for configuring the aspect ratio at 4:3 (with black bars at the sides) on a Wii U you have to set the resolution to 480p and I noticed a downgrade on video quality. People says the Wii U upscale for Wii games is average to say the best but in my monitor the game looks better at 1080p that at 480p. I suppose my monitor is not very good haha. So I was looking for a way to play it in 4:3 with 1080p settings on USB Loader GX, thankfully there is one.

 

[Agusum]

@blackb0x Thank you so much for these awesome releases and keeping USB Loader GX alive!!

You said that you will be working on some UI updates next. It'd be great if you can consider introducing some form of tabs like the tabmod has. I remember you saying this breaks compatibility with existing themes so it can, instead, be a UI setting for those who prefer this version of the UI and don't mind using the standard theme for it.

Now I feel I need to make a tradeoff of either using the latest and greatest release or the tabbed UI that keeps my games more organized.

Thanks again for all your hard work!