Hacking USB Loader GX

[Mikef1]

Hello,
Has the 'Slow EmuNAND game saving' (sometimes) issue been fixed?

PS: I'm not sure if it's a loader issue or the ISOs.

Thank-you

 

[wiio]

Have u tried a new/fresh rip of the game?

Not yet.

Other games on the same drive are working I'm assuming, right?

Yes, with the game "Rabbids Go Home" I actually backed up from the disk to my HD using USB Loader GX.

Simple : Verify your game backup image is not corrupted by running it on PC or Smartphone withDolphin Emulator

I gave it a try, under Linux: seems to run fine.

I mounted the wbfs image using "wfuse", I checked my image against the redump database. For what it worth, the SHA/md5 of the iso embeded in the wbfs file seems wrong according to the rebase database:

$ sha1sum mnt/wbfs/slot/0/disc.iso
a4ac4289a7a70209a4dcf5bee85e1072b777dd0c

$ md5sum mnt/wbfs/slot/0/disc.iso
ed16b8a0158929473730765bb1d4084b  mnt/wbfs/slot/0/disc.iso

I'm not sure this is the correct way to check the iso signature though, as the iso might be changed during the wrap inside the wbfs image... ?

I'll check with an image from archive.org and report back tonight.

Cheers,

 

[CoolMe]

I swear I tried looking before asking this, but where do I put the Wii WBFS files on the SD card if I want to boot them from there?

Sd:/wbfs
==============
@wiio since the wbfs file didn't work on both the hdd and usb flash drive means it's probably corrupt.

I'm not sure this is the correct way to check the iso signature though, as the iso might be changed during the wrap inside the wbfs image... ?

Use WiiBackupManager to verify your Wii isos & wbfs files for corruption, it's under "tools".

 

[wiio]

Hi all,

Well, you were right, off course: the wbfs was probably corrupt. I tried with another one and was able to play for about 1h with no freeze.

Use WiiBackupManager to verify your Wii isos & wbfs files for corruption, it's under "tools".

I couldn't as I'm only running Linux.
I did check/verify the wbfs file using "wtt" (from wit.wiimm.de), but this tool doesn't detect any error... but I'm not sure how deep it checks things...

The new wbfs and the old one looks a bit different inside ... anyway it works!

It's not the cause of your issue, but it seems like you're missing bootmii (and probably a nand backup)

I'll have a look at documentations about these, I'm not 100% sure yet how useful they might be. Thanks for the advice!

Thanks a lot for your help, advice, patience and for USB Loader GX!

 

[homestar92]

Maybe I'm missing something really obvious, but is it possible to have Wii games load from SD card but use an EmuNAND that's on the USB drive? That is pretty much the piece that's missing to make this absolutely perfect for my workflow.

 

[CoolMe]

but is it possible to have Wii games load from SD card

Yes, with both usbloadergx and WiiFlow Lite. Just make sure you have the latest of either to be able to do that.

but use an EmuNAND that's on the USB drive?

Yes, sure, usbloadergx has the function to that, you could use it to install vc and wiiware games. There's also Uneek (emunand), you can make it with ModMii.

 

[homestar92]

Yes, with both usbloadergx and WiiFlow Lite. Just make sure you have the latest of either to be able to do that.

Yes, sure, usbloadergx has the function to that, you could use it to install vc and wiiware games. There's also Uneek (emunand), you can make it with ModMii

See that's the thing though - unless I'm missing something obvious in the UI, USB Loader GX doesn't seem to support USB EmuNAND when it's in SD mode. If I flip it back to USB mode, then I can use the USB EmuNAND, but not my Wii games on the SD card.

 

[blackb0x]

A small feature request: for the "VI Width" option, it would be interesting to be able to force arbitrary (or a preselected set of) width values in addition to the existing "auto" and "framebuffer" options. The mega man 9/10 games ought to be rendered in 512-pixel width given the games' assets but the framebuffer value is 640 pix, which causes unsightly shimmer distortion when the game scrolls.

I had experimented with custom widths, which is why the setting isn't simply an ON/OFF toggle. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get it working correctly though, but I'll probably look into it again at some point.

Has the 'Slow EmuNAND game saving' (sometimes) issue been fixed?

Does that issue occur when playing a specific game? Since I've never experienced slow saves.

Maybe I'm missing something really obvious, but is it possible to have Wii games load from SD card but use an EmuNAND that's on the USB drive?

When you enable SD card mode the loaders reconfigured to work with just your SD card. That's why it restarts, changes some settings and tells you that EmuNAND saves aren't supported if you try to enable the setting globally.

I'd like EmuNAND saves to work from the SD card, but the d2x cIOS doesn't currently allow anything to be written to your SD card while you're playing a game from it.

 

[FerLu]

Hi guys, first i would like to thank you for your hard work on this usb loader, i really apreciate all the features that it has. Second, does this thread also acts as a help thread? Because i need some help with the online error 50330 that only appears when using usb loader for some reason

 

[lordelan]

@Cyan When I launch the forwarder to start USB Loader GX while the Wii U HDD is also connected it would stay at the boot screen (trying to detect) forever.
Luckily enough I have an active USB hub with separate on/off switches for each USB slot so I can turn the Wii U HDD off but I was wondering whether you could detect (and ignore) it.

@Cyan Additionally to this: Why is it impossible to create GitHub issues in your repository?

 

[Maeson]

About Mega Man 9 and 10, there are gecko codes to make them look better. SuperrSonic did them for Mega Man 9, and I did the same for Mega Man 10 by using the ones from SuperrSonic to know where to start to look back when we were still looking around at the deflicker filter removal.

Mega Man 9

Spoiler

WR9E
Mega Man 9

Game width part 1, 4:3 512 [SuperrSonic]
203016b0 028001e0
043016b0 020001e0
e0000000 80008000

Game width part 2, 4:3 512 [SuperrSonic]
2039b264 028001e0
0439b264 020001e0
e0000000 80008000

Mega Man 10

Spoiler

WRXE
Mega Man 10

Game width part 1, 4:3 512 [Maeson]
2046bb24 028001e0
0446bb24 020001e0
e0000000 80008000

Game width part2, 4:3 512 [Maeson]
2050d680 028001e0
0450d680 020001e0
e0000000 80008000

Based on SuperrSonic's codes for MM9.

Between that and being able to patch them to work on Progressive Scan (and Blackbox fixing USB Loader GX' wiiware patching) it was cathartic to replay them. I haven't tried 9 and 10 on the currently available collection, but I still cannot fathom how Capcom dropped the ball so much on the picture quality of these two games not just on Wii, but also on PS3 and 360. At least now I can play one of these in a decent way...

As a curious note, while earlier Mega Man games seemed to be designed for a 256 pixel wide, from I think it was MM3 forward they actually are 240 pixel wide and the rest is used to load graphics, which a large number of more visually polished games did, like Super Mario Bros. 3 and wasn't intended to be seen (just like the top and bottom lines were also not intended to be seen in basically any game). I believe MM9 and MM10 fall into this latter group as far as pretending to be NES-like games.

 

[Lefteris]

I've installed the d2x-v11-beta1 in my vWii. In USB Loader gx 1281, I can't get my lan adapter to work. Wifi works fine in both vWii and Wii U. I tested the lan adapter in Wii U and it works. Also in HBC in vWii, internet works with the adapter and wifi. Something is going on in USB Loader 1281 and the cIOS maybe. Any help? Should I change cIOS?

 

[XFlak]

I updated this wiki recently based on info shared by blackb0x

Slot 251 base 58: only bases 38 & 58 can play SpongeBob's Boating Bash, and only 58 supports the LAN adapter

So install d2x v11 beta 1 with base 58 to spot 251, and use that to see if it gets your Lan adapter working

 

[Lefteris]

Yes! 251 fixed it! Thanks so much!

 

[Cyan]

@Cyan Additionally to this: Why is it impossible to create GitHub issues in your repository?

I'm not working on USBLoaderGX anymore (lack of time mostly, but also lack of knowledge). that's too bad, because I had a lot of ideas, but too much to work alone.
For some time, the github repository was only a copy of sourceforge releases, in case new developers were willing to create branches (like tabmod etc.) and maintain their own repositories without the need to send me patches, and me to maintain different branches on sourceforge.

Blackb0x made newer revisions from this last sourceforge/github copy version. He is now at a relative r1281 version, his repository is therefore the one where you should post issues.
If needed, I can update the first post of this thread to reflect progress, and make a better visibility of his being the new official version.

 

[XFlak]

I think updating the first post is a great idea

 

[GDX]

@blackb0x
How does automatic ios assignment for games work? Does the loader contain an internal database or is there a logical choice?

 

[blackb0x]

@blackb0x
How does automatic ios assignment for games work? Does the loader contain an internal database or is there a logical choice?

Every Wii game contains information about what IOS it uses, so the loader takes that information and compares it to the cIOS you've got installed. So you'll always boot games with either the correct cIOS or the next best option.

Someone recently asked me if WiiFlow also does this, since it's got an "auto" setting. But the auto setting for WiiFlow doesn't actually pick the correct cIOS to use for games, so you wouldn't be able to play both Call of Duty and Worms Battle Island without one of them freezing.

 

[Sypherone]

And additionally he implemented that USBLGX 1280+ will scan the cIOS for the used base IOS to choose the correct one automaticaly.
By using the recommended cIOS settings order, it will also give a bit faster loading times. Because of preventing reloading the game cIOS.

 

[Cyan]

The game cIOS will reload anyway if set to Auto and the game uses another base than the one in the current slot used by the loader.
no ?
unless you favor the current IOS instead of the default game's base, but then Auto loses its purpose.
if you want to favor base56 because most games request that one and users will have statistically less reloads, just set the default loader's slot to where that base is installed.

Isn't the loader scanning and mapping the IOS bases at initial run (or when the user asks to re-check), and sets the slots to use in the settings for boot/xml, loader and games? Then it would use what's in the settings, whatever the slot number you installed your bases.


I didn't check the sources, but based on logic, cIOS base and slot order shouldn't affect the speed.
if base56 is in slot250, then the loader can have 250 as default, and will be as fast than having base56 in slot 249 and using 249 by default.
If "auto" is based on the installed IOS Base, and not the slot order, then base56 could even be random slots from 230 to 253, and that's the same for all other bases. the loader should maintain a map of bases. Isn't how it's working ?


Wiiflow "Auto" is based on slot, instead of base, so it expect all users to have the exact same setup. if it detects a game needing "base57" it will reload to 250. (too bad for you if you didn't install what it expects in it)