Hacking USB Loader GX

[Cyan]

Thanks.
as long as it's helpful to someone, I'm not wasting my time

If you want, you don't need to format your drive again.
Nintendont is compatible with games located on the second partition as long as you don't have another FAT partition located on the first partition.
Nintendont loads the first primary FAT partition.
NTFS+FAT, putting games on the 2nd partition is working and the FAT is primary.
FAT+FAT, putting games on the 2nd partition is working only if the first partition is logical and the second is primary.

So, you current setup should work if you only want Wii games and Nintendont.

 

[awefour44]

dol patching should be needed for most games. a lot of games include multiple "compatible video mode" in their main.dol file.
When you launch the game, it selects the best mode from its list based on your current detected setup.

in the loader :
Video mode : It's the "detected setup". The loader is forcing this mode before launching the game.
dol patch : it's used to edit the "compatible mode list" inside the main.dol

Video mode alone should be enough, as SSBB is compatible with 480p and the loader is setting 480p before launching the game.
When the game check your current video mode, it detects that you are using NTSC480p and pick the same mode from its list.

The dol patching is used if the main.dol doesn't contain the video mode you want to use by replacing the "possible mode to use" for the game.

I don't know why SSBB is not using 480p when using that option in the loader.

A thing to note : Channel patching doesn't seem to work.
it's a known bug for a long time. It also affects aspect ratio and ocarina (well, all patches in fact).

Thanks Cyan!

I should have tested more games before posting because---after having now checked more---it appears many Wii games can indeed be successfully forced to NTSC480p (again, when the Wii system setting is set to 480i, otherwise patching is irrelevant).


Here's the list of games I tried which do properly switch to 480p when the loader's "Force NTSC480p" and "DOL patch: ALL" are used:

Spoiler: successful 480p patch

Donkey Kong Country Returns
GoldenEye 007
LEGO Lord of the Rings
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest
Lost in Shadow
Mario & Sonic Olympic Games
Mario & Sonic Olympic Winter Games
Mario Party 8
Mario Party 9
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Metroid: Other M
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
Muramasa: The Demon Blade
NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams
Pokemon Battle Revolution
Resident Evil 0
Sin & Punishment: Star Successor
Sonic and the Black Knight
Sonic and the Secret Rings
Sonic Colors
Sonic Unleashed
Star Trek: Conquest
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Warioland: Shake It
Xenoblade Chronicles

Here are the games I tried that that do not boot into 480p when I use "Force NTSC480p" and "DOL patch: ALL":

Spoiler: failed 480p patch

Animal Crossing: City Folk
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers
Kirby's Return to Dream Land
Klonoa
Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Mario Kart Wii
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Resident Evil 4
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Paper Mario

Wii Sports

I verified that all of the games in the above "failed" list do properly startup in 480p mode if the Wii system settings is set to 480p. So it definitely is the patching failing in these ones, not some inherent lack of 480p compatibility.

By the way, I mistakenly said SSBB didn't work in a previous post, but I meant to say NSMB (New Super Mario Bros. Wii) doesn't patch properly. Brawl does patch properly after all, hence I list is in the "working" list above.

Despite your stating that channel patching doesn't work, I found several Wiiware channel games that I succeeded in forcing to 480p, also with the "Force NTSC480p" and "DOL patch: ALL" settings:

Spoiler: successful Wiiware 480p patched

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As King
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Gradius Rebirth

Retro City Rampage

There are many other Wiiware games (e.g. Sonic 4 Episode I, Castlevania Adventure Rebrith,...) which do load as 480p if the Wii system settings are set to 480p. but fail to patch to 480p while the Wii is in 480i. As you say, this seems to have been known for a long time.

I now acknowledge the possibility that there may be some Gamecube games which Nintendont's "Force NTSC480p" setting will not successfully work (I haven't tested all my GC games yet, though I might later). So there probably is no difference between Nintendont's video patching and USBLoader GX's patching methods, contrary to what I said earlier.

In any case, I am pleased to now know that the majority (around 70%) of my Wii games do in fact patch properly to 480p. So this is not a big problem anymore---but there are several good games that still are failing to patch to 480p (I encourage someone to verify that any or all of these fail to patch to 480p on your system). So hopefully this can be fixed in a future build of USB Loader GX.

Thanks again!

 

[drewtheretrogamer]

Hi!
This is a small request. I was wondering if you could add Wii U GameCube Adapter support to USB Loader GX so we can use GameCube controllers with our Wii games on the Wii U? Also being able to run Virtual Console/WiiWare off the SD Card Menu would be great too.
Thanks!

 

[ned]

Thanks Cyan!

I should have tested more games before posting because---after having now checked more---it appears many Wii games can indeed be successfully forced to NTSC480p (again, when the Wii system setting is set to 480i, otherwise patching is irrelevant).


Here's the list of games I tried which do properly switch to 480p when the loader's "Force NTSC480p" and "DOL patch: ALL" are used:

Spoiler: successful 480p patch

Donkey Kong Country Returns
GoldenEye 007
LEGO Lord of the Rings
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest
Lost in Shadow
Mario & Sonic Olympic Games
Mario & Sonic Olympic Winter Games
Mario Party 8
Mario Party 9
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Metroid: Other M
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
Muramasa: The Demon Blade
NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams
Pokemon Battle Revolution
Resident Evil 0
Sin & Punishment: Star Successor
Sonic and the Black Knight
Sonic and the Secret Rings
Sonic Colors
Sonic Unleashed
Star Trek: Conquest
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Warioland: Shake It
Xenoblade Chronicles

Here are the games I tried that that do not boot into 480p when I use "Force NTSC480p" and "DOL patch: ALL":

Spoiler: failed 480p patch

Animal Crossing: City Folk
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers
Kirby's Return to Dream Land
Klonoa
Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Mario Kart Wii
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Resident Evil 4
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Paper Mario

Wii Sports

I verified that all of the games in the above "failed" list do properly startup in 480p mode if the Wii system settings is set to 480p. So it definitely is the patching failing in these ones, not some inherent lack of 480p compatibility.

By the way, I mistakenly said SSBB didn't work in a previous post, but I meant to say NSMB (New Super Mario Bros. Wii) doesn't patch properly. Brawl does patch properly after all, hence I list is in the "working" list above.

Despite your stating that channel patching doesn't work, I found several Wiiware channel games that I succeeded in forcing to 480p, also with the "Force NTSC480p" and "DOL patch: ALL" settings:

Spoiler: successful Wiiware 480p patched

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As King
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Gradius Rebirth

Retro City Rampage

There are many other Wiiware games (e.g. Sonic 4 Episode I, Castlevania Adventure Rebrith,...) which do load as 480p if the Wii system settings are set to 480p. but fail to patch to 480p while the Wii is in 480i. As you say, this seems to have been known for a long time.

I now acknowledge the possibility that there may be some Gamecube games which Nintendont's "Force NTSC480p" setting will not successfully work (I haven't tested all my GC games yet, though I might later). So there probably is no difference between Nintendont's video patching and USBLoader GX's patching methods, contrary to what I said earlier.

In any case, I am pleased to now know that the majority (around 70%) of my Wii games do in fact patch properly to 480p. So this is not a big problem anymore---but there are several good games that still are failing to patch to 480p (I encourage someone to verify that any or all of these fail to patch to 480p on your system). So hopefully this can be fixed in a future build of USB Loader GX.

Thanks again!

Are all these games multi dol games?

 

[GreyWolf]

Hi!
This is a small request. I was wondering if you could add Wii U GameCube Adapter support to USB Loader GX so we can use GameCube controllers with our Wii games on the Wii U? Also being able to run Virtual Console/WiiWare off the SD Card Menu would be great too.
Thanks!

This is not possible. USB Loader GX doesn't determine what controllers can be used with Wii games, the libraries that are linked with them when they're compiled does. GC loaders like Devolution and Nintendont can use nonstandard controllers because they use compatibility code that intercepts the original libraries and replace them with new code similar to the way the actual Wii backwards compatibility does.

As for Wii Shop content off SD, I assume you mean the content.bin files from copying titles from NAND. Those are encrypted and launched by the system menu by unpacking them to a temporary folder in NAND. I have not seen anything that deals with those other than BlueDump.

 

[awefour44]

Are all these games multi dol games?

Hmm interesting suggestion...
I personally don't know if this is the case---nor do I know to find out. I do know how to examine/extract files from Wii ISOs using Dolphin, but there's probably a better tool for checking the DOL structure. Perhaps since you're asking you know how to check this?

If they are multi-DOL games, then would the loader's "Alternate DOL" option allow video patching to the specified DOL?

 

[dotphil]

Thanks.
as long as it's helpful to someone, I'm not wasting my time

If you want, you don't need to format your drive again.
Nintendont is compatible with games located on the second partition as long as you don't have another FAT partition located on the first partition.
Nintendont loads the first primary FAT partition.
NTFS+FAT, putting games on the 2nd partition is working and the FAT is primary.
FAT+FAT, putting games on the 2nd partition is working only if the first partition is logical and the second is primary.

So, you current setup should work if you only want Wii games and Nintendont.

Thanks again, I decided to just format my drive to FAT32 and now everything is working swell and all the games are running. Although now it is taking like 5 times as long to install a game with USB Loader GX. Super Smash Brawl is queued for 50 minutes when yesterday I could install it in about 15 minutes. It's not the biggest deal but is there any reason for this? I haven't really change any settings.

 

[OriginalHamster]

This is not possible. USB Loader GX doesn't determine what controllers can be used with Wii games, the libraries that are linked with them when they're compiled does. GC loaders like Devolution and Nintendont can use nonstandard controllers because they use compatibility code that intercepts the original libraries and replace them with new code similar to the way the actual Wii backwards compatibility does.

As for Wii Shop content off SD, I assume you mean the content.bin files from copying titles from NAND. Those are encrypted and launched by the system menu by unpacking them to a temporary folder in NAND. I have not seen anything that deals with those other than BlueDump.

I think he means Wii games that natively supported GameCube controllers, if that's the case it could be interesting if that kind of support is possible.

 

[Cyan]

Wii games that support Gamecube controllers natively are not compatible with the adapter.
The adapter is a HID USB controller, not a gamecube controller, thus the games are not developed to talk to HID on either Wii or gamecube consoles.

on WiiU, only Smash Bros is supporting HID adapter.
Nintendont supports HID adapters too (and in-game it's still Nintendont which is running and interpreting all user's input)

There's no way to add HID support into a Wii game, same as there's no way to add WiiU pro or WiiU gamepad support.
The developers used the SDK with libraries looking at the Gamecube Ports to read gamecube data.
The game will not look at USB ports to read gamecube data, the library used to compile the game is not doing it.


Awefour44 :
Thank you for all your tests.
It's strange that some games are based on the console's setting and not on the detected current video mode. I guess it's all based on the developer's choice.
I suppose the other way it's the same, you can't force 480i if your console is 480p.
I don't know if there's anything I can do about it, unless I'll edit the sysconf before launching a game but it will not revert back when exiting or shutting the console.
What I don't understand is why the game is still using the console's mode instead of picking one of the modes found in its dol's list.


All your listed games are not multi-dols, so it's not the issue here.
Only Zelda is, but the "video.dol" is not loaded if you already watched the wiimote+ video.
All dols from multidols games should be before launching the game. If not, you can try to select the dol to launch.
It could help if the video mode is checked only on the main.dol and not on the reloaded dol. But like said, your list doesn't have any.

 

[awefour44]

I suppose the other way it's the same, you can't force 480i if your console is 480p.

Yes, this is also true.

I don't know if there's anything I can do about it, unless I'll edit the sysconf before launching a game but it will not revert back when exiting or shutting the console.

This is a decent idea worth considering as a new loader option, maybe called "Change sysconf video" or similar. It could be used not only for the problem Wii titles I listed, but also for Wiiware/VC channels (since they don't patch with the current method anyways). With this option all games (and channels!) could be started with their desired resolution without having to manually change the Wii settings. Like you said, the console's video mode would be different depending on the last game played, but assuming each game's video option was properly set this wouldn't matter (or add an additional option to automatically change the sysconf to some preset mode when USBLoader is booting up).

Anyways, thanks again for your replies and for supporting USBLoader!

 

[drewtheretrogamer]

I also was having some trouble with loading VC/WiiWare games off my emunand. Whenever I extract my NAND, and install a WAD to the emunand, whenever I try to open up the game, I am brought back to USB Loader GX. I am using a vWii, but I have no idea if that has to do with anything. I am aware that some VC/WiiWare don't work with nand emulation, but I tried it with Super Mario Bros. for the NES and it still didn't work.

Thanks for responding!

 

[Cyan]

it's a vWii NAND dump? not an old Wii dump?
- try a different game
- be sure to use updated version of the loader (r120x have was install issues)
- dump and install wads with the loader running on d2x, if you dump while using IOS58 some path on FAT32 might be wrong.
- try dumping and launching a channel without installing wads, if it works try installing wads using something else than the loader internal installer.

 

[[Truth]]

Is there still an option planned to seperate Wii and GCN Games into two lists for a better browsing experience?

 

[Shiranui-san]

Is there still an option planned to seperate Wii and GCN Games into two lists for a better browsing experience?

That feature is already implemented:

 

[[Truth]]

I´m talking about something like a button for fast swapping.

 

[Cyan]

You can try the tabmod.
it will add 3 buttons to quickly switch between Wii/channels/gamecube.

It's still "planned" as in "I still would like to implement tabs", but I don't know when/if I'll do it.


I'm currently looking at neek2o functionality.
When exiting a game from neek2o, what is the expected result?
I guess it's supposed to "return to" Nswitch channel (NK2O) installed on emuNAND, which will exit neek by rebooting the console.
It will then be back on SysNAND to whatever you have set to launch at boot, right? (priiload, system menu, bootmii, HBC, etc.)

I thought neek2o could exit directly back into the loader used to launch n2o.
Only users with priiloader or bootmii set to autoboot USBGX will return to it.

postloader seems to edit priiloader config file when launching neek2o to tell where priiloader should return to.
I prefer not editing any file on NAND to prevent bricks or corruptions.
And some users don't use priiloader (like me) so it's not the best solution.
I guess only some users will benefit from returning into the loader when exiting a game located on n2o.


Edit:
I made a uneek2o+di, launching from Nswitch2.2
loading is very slow, the hidden menu now works fine (it didn't with sneek2o+di).
I can't launch some channel :/ (NK2O for example to return to realNAND..., HBC or USBGX forwarder)

 

[AbdallahTerro]

This is the new link for game banners (GC and Wii mods)
http://nintendont.gxarena.com/banners/
please update in your next release

 

[[Truth]]

You can try the tabmod.
it will add 3 buttons to quickly switch between Wii/channels/gamecube.

It's still "planned" as in "I still would like to implement tabs", but I don't know when/if I'll do it.

Nice.
Where can I find this tabmod and is it compatible with the newest rev?

Edit:
Nvm, found it.

 

[Cyan]

Originally created by Garfunkiel.
he and Badablek are often releasing a compiled version of latest rev, but you can do it too.

I don't have a patch, but you can just replace files and recompile.
These files will work as long as I don't edit GameBrowseMenu.cpp file.
http://filetrip.net/dl?sFsLWcqfIs

 

[sideskroll]

Originally created by Garfunkiel.
he and Badablek are often releasing a compiled version of latest rev, but you can do it too.

I don't have a patch, but you can just replace files and recompile.
These files will work as long as I don't edit GameBrowseMenu.cpp file.
http://filetrip.net/dl?sFsLWcqfIs

Hi Cyan
I was just wondering, how's the neek2o implementation going? Do you need any help testing?
Also, were you able to decide on a way to implement Wiiu Widescreen for Wii/VC/Emunand games? Not only for GCN (games with poorly implemented AR detection like Resident Evil would benefit from it. Also, some guys mentioned other games I think...)
I know there's a GLOBAL Wiiu Widescreen. But it doesn't "stick" (which is good) and it doesn't "fix" the issue a couple of games have (it merely "bypasses" it momentarily).
Thanks for everything and like always, if you need help with anything testing related let me know. I know my way around your loader and I'm more than able to provide you with detailed info.
Cheers.