Hacking USB Loader GX

[vettacossx]

@ giantpune cant you use ZLIB for compressions? does that allow a rar archive to zipped/unzipped in a wii application? If say i knew a coder who wanted to add a rollback option would that lib work or am i fully misunderstanding its use? reason i ask is i know your not interested in doing this but seems the source is open...I can have a friend @ theplayground-uk.com code it for me but i wanted to get some resources for him before i ask

what libs would he need? (he normally codes for pc and psp but if i got the libs he would try it for me i know he would)

http://www.devkitpro.org/

was reading up here but i figured it best to inquire on this thread seems you guys code for this everyday i was hoping you could put me in a proper direction to impliment a rollback feature myself (just advice on libs and tools to use for this type of goal?)

Thanks in advanced to Giantpune,Dimok,Cyrex or whoever gets to this question first! thank you for the assist guys! keep up the awesome work!

 

[OuahOuah]

To curious people (and to gx coders

) : LOADER CFG (the one with MANY options in a txt file) come with 2 "flow" style, that could be added to GX, no ?
Flow and Flow -z => cool iris style

Just a suggestion

Also : in update part : why not ask about update a specific language file (from svn ?) and put the name automatically in the settings part of lang filename...

 

[bnm81002]

r449 still provides code dump when playing games, anyone else as well?

 

[NeoRame]

i have updated the full channel on the main post, now i have used the more stable r447...

 

[Pakatus]

Noob Question:

anyone could explain me the Guide Lines of VidPatch?

what does it do ....really?

Really would would to know...thanks.

 

[giantpune]

@ giantpune cant you use ZLIB for compressions?

If I were going to go about it, I would probably use unzip or sz libs. I haven't really even look into them but here's what I do know about them...
Tantric is able to read roms in .7z and .zip format. He also updates apps (all homebrew browser apps plus his own) by downloading them and then extracting the contents. I didn't really look it the files, I just read the titles of them and I don't see and title that looks like it has to do with saving a zip/7z. They all appear to just deal with extracting them. So anyways, here seems like a good place to start.
http://code.google.com/p/snes9x-gx/source/...trunk/source/sz

 

[vettacossx]

thanx alot pune! your the best!

 

[BenJeremy]

Forgive my ignorance, I've only updated this loader a few times, and I'm impressed with the performance.... but does this feature automatic downloads of the cover and disc images?

I ask because even after unlocking the settings, I see nothing that would indiacte this, though I've seen comments and stuff in the changelog that indicates that it does.

I'd also like to see some sort of ability to update the titles.txt file from an online database.

 

[Smiff]

@BenJeremy
the cover downloads ui is unintuitive, i think.. you need to first change your view to the list (first one) then click a cover, then press two buttons (one for covers, one for discs). both of which require several more presses.
methinks there should just be one separate button at the bottom which does it all, and accessible from any view.
and update the titles.txt with that aswell, why not

 

[nubecoder]

I had a thought for a rollback feature, it should be relatively easy to implement also.

When the usbloader does an update, have it download the new revision and save it as the original revision name (i.e. r440.dol) then copy/rename to boot.dol. That way it would be possible to (manually) load up the SDExplorer homebrew app and delete the (broken) boot.dol and then copy/rename the previous (working) version to boot.dol. (No need to zip/rar/compress IMO.) This could be implemented as a selectable "rollback" option (defaulted to off) so that people not wanting this feature would not have lots of leftover files on their SD (see below).

The biggest drawback of this would be left over files on the SD card (left overs as in the original revision named files sitting on the SD). Which could also be easily managed with the SDExplorer homebrew app.

Also it would be a great idea (IMO) to allow a setting to select using either dol or elf for the auto update. Yes the elf files are larger and would take more time to download, but for those of us who are using the elf files it would be a nice addition. (I suppose you would need make sure that if using the elf for auto update, the updater would remove any existing boot.dol and vise-versa.)

These features should be relatively easy to implement, and would (IMO) add much convenience to the loader (while testing the new revisions).

BTW great job on this, and keep up the very active dev'ing, I'm loving it!!!

 

[jesterscourt]

The "fan" visualization is great, as is the Stars/Favs feature. I would agree though that the cover update feature isn't as intuitive as it could be, maybe in a future revision there could be a specific UPDATE button that would be a catch-all (covers, DOL, game images, the whole nine yards)

 

[D34DL1N3R]

Is it possible to add a feature to shut down/eject the usb drive when exiting the loader? It would come in handy when playing WiiWare or other games for hours when I'm finished with a game on the hdd. That way the hdd wouldn't need to remain running for long periods of time when not in use.

 

[Royusmc]

Thanks for r447. It fix the settings problem and speeded up the loading times. Last time I posted a few ideas 2 days later the team had made a grid view that works great and I am very inpressed. So I thought I would post some other things and hope for the best.

My Wish List:
usb suport for things in settings page
run game in dvd drive, a button to start the wii or gc games in the dvd drive
play avi, mp3 files (look in usb movie folder, network, play dvd, sd card) maby press b button to switch from games to movies to music.
run from preloader
download updates to usb or sd card
more ios to load games form. most load for 249 some form 222 but uloader has m249 and m222 and 223, 250. I don't know if these fix games like mortal kombat. but I hope it might
more options for grid mode. like usb loader config

I know most of these would be asking alot and I don't thank some of these we will ever see. However just puting some ideas on the table. Thanks for all of the teams hard work.

 

[CorneliousJD]

Bug Reporting: in latest rev. when adding a game to favs list, it makes the play count go CRAZY.

 

[nubecoder]

@BenJeremy
methinks there should just be one separate button at the bottom which does it all, and accessible from any view.
It would be better placed in the settings menu, with a pop up type sub menu IMO.

I would also like a disc eject button (placed opposite the SD card Button?) or the option to have the disc ejected after an install has completed (wouldn't require extra theme modification).

Is there a feature request thread I should be aware of?

[edit]

maybe in a future revision there could be a specific UPDATE button that would be a catch-all (covers, DOL, game images, the whole nine yards)
I would not like to have the loader(boot.dol) and images linked into the same updater. I would prefer to be able to update only the images when desired (having the option for normal/3d of course).

QUOTE(Royusmc @ Jun 1 2009, 08:32 PM)

usb suport for things in settings page
run game in dvd drive, a button to start the wii or gc games in the dvd drive
play avi, mp3 files (look in usb movie folder, network, play dvd, sd card) maby press b button to switch from games to movies to music.
run from preloader

1. I totally agree, WBFS and FAT(32) combined support would be great (those of us with small SD cards would enjoy saving the images/themes/music to a FAT HDD partition).

2. I again, totally agree, it would be a nice addition (I wouldn't put it on the top of the todo list tho).

3. This would be amazing! Someone (I don't know who, but anyone!) should be working right now on making a nice looking Video/Movie/Music player interface using the (beautiful) LibWiiGui. (Is there one already in the works? Please link me if you have any info.)

4. Couldn't you already use this with Preloader? I thought you could load any .dol with Preloader and then set it to boot to it, no?
[/edit]

 

[self_slaughter]

i have updated the full channel on the main post, now i have used the more stable r447...

after playing with 447 last night i was thinking it should become the new stable myself until i tried to play a game and got a black screen every time haha...

but only code dumps i got with that was if i tried to update or download covers as i don't have and never have had internet on the wii... even if i click cancel it'll either lock up or code dump...

i'll take a few photos of the code dumps later

edit: just compiled 449 and the first game i tried to load actually came up!

hopefully it'll be a bit more consistent...
and as a quick request can we swap the + and - buttons around on the carousel view so it actually spins the dirrection you push... ie push + to spin to the right and - to spin to the left... just kinda seems backwards

 

[invitroo]

My wish list

1.Button for eject disk

2. Possibility see "id game" before installation.

 

[nubecoder]

and as a quick request can we swap the + and - buttons around on the carousel view so it actually spins the dirrection you push... ie push + to spin to the right and - to spin to the left... just kinda seems backwards

Isn't that in the settings already? I think it's called Flip-X, I have mine set to "like sysmenu" I think.

[edit]
Small request, change the link to the themes thread contained on this page to the theme db website.
[/edit]

 

[djricekcn]

My wish list

1.Button for eject disk

2. Possibility see "id game" before installation.

why eject disk feature when you have to go up to the machine to pick up the disc anyway?

 

[nubecoder]

why eject disk feature when you have to go up to the machine to pick up the disc anyway?

Because it's nicer to have it already ejected when you get there.
=]