Hacking USB Loader GX

[blackb0x]

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

It might be possible to do that, assuming it wouldn't trip up caching. Although I'd like to get a Wii U so that I can check the behaviour myself.

@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?)?

There aren't a ton of games that request IOS58, so you can most likely play all of your games by using the usual 3 slots. But if you don't care about installing the cIOS to 4 slots then that second configuration will improve game compatibility.

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.

I don't really plan to add tabs, but I do plan on adding a button that quickly rotates through game types. And that would probably replace the big Wii button, since that menu can be accessed at any time by pressing the start/home button anyway.

does it matter which revision I install dx2-v11-beta? rev65535 or rev21011?

It's not that important, but set it to 65535.

I looked here and for Vwii, it's d2x-v11-beta1 rev 21011. It doesn't have rev 65535 for vwii. Maybe it's different from the wii package.

You can't set the revision for vWii.

 

[rexus_pl]

So, if you want to run a particular game in its original 4:3 ratio (with pillarboxes), enter the game settings in ULGX, and in "Aspect Ratio", choose "Force 4:3". Then, obviously, change your TV display to 4:3 when playing this game.

I see this option in Wii games, but not in Gamecube games. Moreover - I can't see such option in Nintendont. The best soultion would be to set very low values of display width (about 500 in Nintendont, about -100 in USB Loader GX), but it looks that it is not possible at this moment.

There aren't a ton of games that request IOS58, so you can most likely play all of your games by using the usual 3 slots. But if you don't care about installing the cIOS to 4 slots then that second configuration will improve game compatibility.

What is real cost of this? Some blocks of Wii memory? Because I don't think losing one slot (still having about 50 free) is any problem (so why don't recommend that configuration?).

 

[Badablek]

@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!

or use tabmod rev1281...

 

[RetroPas74]

or use tabmod rev1281...

Can you send a link to the tab mod rev1281?

 

[r1vver]

Can you send a link to the tab mod rev1281?

 

[Maeson]

Ar the config files compatible between the normal version of USB Loader GX and the Tabmod version?

 

[Badablek]

tabmod is only a graphic mod to add three tabs to quickly enable/disable types of games (hardcoded, no option). So it doesn't touch anything related to the configuration file. So, yes, it is compatible.

 

[Ouaz]

I see this option in Wii games, but not in Gamecube games. Moreover - I can't see such option in Nintendont. The best soultion would be to set very low values of display width (about 500 in Nintendont, about -100 in USB Loader GX), but it looks that it is not possible at this moment.

Gamecube games are 4:3 only, so you don't have to force it (even if your Wii is set to 16:9) .

When lauching a Gamecube game, simply set your TV to 4:3 (you surely have a "aspect ratio" button on your remote, that allows to toggle between many aspect ratios, including 4:3)

Then in Nintendont: set "screen width" to 672.
Or if you launch Nintendont through ULGX, enable "video scale" in ULGX's Nintendont settings, and set the "Video scale value" to 72.

 

[zigoraty]

tabmod is only a graphic mod to add three tabs to quickly enable/disable types of games (hardcoded, no option). So it doesn't touch anything related to the configuration file. So, yes, it is compatible.

I tested this version, I liked the UI.

 

[blackb0x]

What is real cost of this? Some blocks of Wii memory? Because I don't think losing one slot (still having about 50 free) is any problem (so why don't recommend that configuration?).

It costs nothing, but people have been able to play the majority of their games with 2-3 slots for over 12 years. So at this point I think the opinion of many is that using an additional slot is unnecessary.

Personally I use 4 slots for maximum compatibility, but I think what's more important is that cIOS guides start recommending base 56 for slot 249 and base 57 for slot 250.

 

[Maeson]

When I modded my system many years ago I did that on that order by following a guide, but later on newer guides started swapping 56 and 57 spots for reasons that I never found out.

Why they started recommending that? In the order I did, the only game I had issues with was Fishing Resort but it was solved changing the cios...

 

[r1vver]

One more question about d2x-v11-beta1 (since we don't have separate official topic about d2x-v11-beta1):
I noticed that the files d2x-v11-beta1.7z and d2x-v11-beta1-vWii.7z have changed their posting date. It's 2023-01-15T19:22:11Z now.
Compared with the previous one, the checksums of DIPP.app, EHCI.app, ES.app, FAT.app, FFSP.app, MLOAD.app, USBS.app have changed.
Consequently, the checksum list in d2x-beta.bat has also changed.
What was in these changes?
Do those who installed it (d2x-v11-beta1) earlier need to "reinstall" it?

 

[XFlak]

When I modded my system many years ago I did that on that order by following a guide, but later on newer guides started swapping 56 and 57 spots for reasons that I never found out.

Why they started recommending that? In the order I did, the only game I had issues with was Fishing Resort but it was solved changing the cios...

Info from: https://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/Wii_cIOS_base_Compatibility_List

Previously it was recommended to use base 56 as the default installed to slot 249, even though base 57 offered better compatibility than base 56, as it was believed to offer slightly faster loading speeds, which eventually was never proven to be true. So until recently (2018-2019) this is what was usually recommended to install to slots 249 and 250:

slot 249: base 56
slot 250: base 57

 

[blackb0x]

What was in these changes?
Do those who installed it (d2x-v11-beta1) earlier need to "reinstall" it?

I realised that when I released the cIOS update I accidentally uploaded my pre-release stuff, so I corrected all of the uploads.

For Wii there will be absolutely no difference, so don't worry about it. But if you're using vWii and you care about having EmuNAND UStealth support then you might want to grab a fresh copy and reinstall the cIOS, since I can't guarantee if that feature was working in my pre-release version.

It's unfortunate, but mistakes happen. Especially when you're releasing updates for 2 different projects within an hour of each other

 

[XFlak]

I realised that when I released the cIOS update I accidentally uploaded my pre-release stuff, so I corrected all of the uploads.

For Wii there will be absolutely no difference, so don't worry about it. But if you're using vWii and you care about having EmuNAND UStealth support then you might want to grab a fresh copy and reinstall the cIOS, since I can't guarantee if that feature was working in my pre-release version.

It's unfortunate, but mistakes happen. Especially when you're releasing updates for 2 different projects within an hour of each other

There may be a slight different for the Wii, but only in the unlikely scenario someone is using a hard drive hidden by UStealth and also wanting emunand support for it. The only logical reason why someone would have their Wii hard drive hidden by UStealth is if they're sharing the same HDD for a Wii and a vWii

 

[rexus_pl]

Gamecube games are 4:3 only, so you don't have to force it (even if your Wii is set to 16:9) .

When lauching a Gamecube game, simply set your TV to 4:3 (you surely have a "aspect ratio" button on your remote, that allows to toggle between many aspect ratios, including 4:3)

Any option for lazy people who don't want to touch TV settings?

Something like "force 16:9" in Not64 and WiiSXRX?

I know consequences of this.

 

[Sypherone]

Sorry for the question. Does the d2x-v11-beta1 also includes fixes about drive compatibility? As the the d2x patch is known to have issues with a lot if drives as it uses a specific EHCI USB 2.0 protocol created by Intel, instead of the standart USB 2.0 by USB-IF Organisation in IOS 58?

 

[blackb0x]

Sorry for the question. Does the d2x-v11-beta1 also includes fixes about drive compatibility? As the the d2x patch is known to have issues with a lot if drives as it uses a specific EHCI USB 2.0 protocol created by Intel, instead of the standart USB 2.0 by USB-IF Organisation in IOS 58?

Nope. It's identical to v10-beta52 when it comes to USB compatibility.

By the way, you should probably remove the cIOS with the RiiConnect24 RSA key mod from your guide since it doesn't fix the problem. Only d2x v11 will allow patched RiiConnect24 channels to download data correctly.

 

[ViTOgx]

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)

...

Hi Blackb0x,

Great work again, custom channels do work again with this upgrade so I could upgrade from the older rev6!

As the release notes are not on all point completely clear to me, can you tell if this release should also fix the Tintin freezing issue after each chapter?

Kind regards

 

[blackb0x]

As the release notes are not on all point completely clear to me, can you tell if this release should also fix the Tintin freezing issue after each chapter?

Not yet, but I do plan on looking into it shortly.