Hacking Widescreen USB Loader Cover Images

[evvil]

Ok guys it is now up and running

http://www.theotherzone.com/wii/ Big thanks to both antiaverage

(who nearly single handily made this happen) and of course the great djtaz

(without his awesome site none of this would be possible) we all owe them much gratitude for there dedication to this great community! Thanks again fellas, your both top notch!

Well guys ,

Thanks to Evvil for pointing it out and antiaverage for doing up a script , there are now widescreen images available on the site as well.


QUOTE(djtaz @ Apr 17 2009, 05:25 AM) Once again antiaverage jumped in here and sorted things out for us.

It seems the loaders didnt like getting images from the URL style , so i gave antiaverage access to the files and he re-coded the site for to be able to handle links for the router.

Excellent work antiaverage and thanks for jumping in and sorting this out for the community

The new widescreen images are made on the fly and use what looks to be a normal link :
www.theotherzone.com/wii/widescreen/{region}/{GAMEID}.png

for example
http://www.theotherzone.com/wii/widescreen/ntsc/RJ2E52.png

Thanks agian antiaverage for helping everyone out with this.

Ok for anyone making widescreen backgrounds, I have found the perfect size to start out with, make your bg, then resize to 640x480. I have been trying it out for a few hours, making, resizing measuring boxes on my tv, but I finally found it. The size you want to start with is 800x480 If you want to test this for yourself here is my test pic http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/9862/800k.png turn off covers to measure boxes, they were perfect squares made in photoshop before the resize. The lines and numbers on the edges are showing how many pixels are being cut off (on my tv it cuts 16 from the top and 14 from the bottom) so try to keep important things out of the cut off area.

Again the size you want to start out with is 800x480, then make and complete your background, and then resize it to 640x480. Using these sizes you will get perfect aspect ratios!

*** Quick update***
Ok I have been trying to figure out this pal 50 issue all night/day, I tried the suggested 640x520 and 640x528 both of those give me a code dump as soon as I press the button to enter the options menu. I did quite a bit of testing and I even tried 640x481 (just 1 pixel bigger!) and that gave me a code dump on pressing I then resized the exact same image to 640x480 and no dump on press. I am on a ntsc wii using component cables. So it looks like the pal 50 friendly sized backgrounds will not work for ntsc, could a pal 60 user test this as well? It seems as though we will need 2 different background size standards after all

Im sorry guys I really tried to help, hopefully someone will eventually figure out a way to make the loader itself do the stretch.

 

[Daileon]

It sure would be nice, since the devs are having problem with the resize functions...

 

[infamousdragon]

I would definitely make good use of this. Stretched covers look ugly on my TV

 

[evvil]

It sure would be nice, since the devs are having problem with the resize functions...

Yes exactly! and this way it would work for any loader/version no need to debug tons of code. We really only need 2 sizes of box art 4:3 and 16x9 so if this happens the site would be an end all be all repository for wii box art

 

[Kosaic]

I'm all for this, what the big deal about resizing the cover pack ?

I can do all the images available (1000+) in 1 minute, as well as rename all 1000 in 15 minutes.

Just say the word !!!!!

(and give me the new sizes

)

 

[SpaceJump]

I asked djtaz about this a while ago. Hopefully he will host the widescreen versions.

 

[evvil]

I'm all for this, what the big deal about resizing the cover pack ?

Its not a big deal, but it would be easier for everyone if you uploaded your resized box art to that site and then our loader will download it for us. That way we don't have to seek you out every time a new game comes out, you just upload it there and we can all get it through our loaders

QUOTE(Kosaic @ Apr 16 2009, 08:27 PM) If someone will give me the proper size, and naming convention for the Widescreen Covers, I will do them NOW

size is up in the air for now play around and see what works best, names would be the same, they would be kept in different folder of your sd

 

[Kosaic]

If someone will give me the proper size, and naming convention for the Widescreen Covers, I will do them NOW


Posts merged

I'm all for this, what the big deal about resizing the cover pack ?

Its not a big deal, but it would be easier for everyone if you uploaded your resized box art to that site and then our loader will download it for us. That way we don't have to seek you out every time a new game comes out, you just upload it there and we can all get it through our loaders

Agree, and if you notice on the covers site, my "name" might just be mentioned

Your in good hands

 

[chibiushi]

I would like this too, (the site could use imagemagik to convert the images as soon as a new one was added)

 

[Kosaic]

Let me ask this ... Why 120x220 ? The aspect ratio is off if you do a straight conversion from 160x225 obviously, and the picture looks "skinny"

I'm at a loss as to why a background cannot be made for 16x9 , while maintaining 160x225 image sizes ..

Are the 120x220 getting stretched when loaded or something ?

I'm missing something here.

 

[evvil]

Let me ask this ... Why 120x220 ? The aspect ratio is off if you do a straight conversion from 160x225 obviously, and the picture looks "skinny"

I'm at a loss as to why a background cannot be made for 16x9 , while maintaining 160x225 image sizes ..

Are the 120x220 getting stretched when loaded or something ?

I'm missing something here.

Yes they get streched, there is no way in homebrew to do proper 16x9 (not even the HomeBrew Channel itself) so we have to squish the images smaller so when they get streched they look right.

 

[Kosaic]

Ok,

I pulled ALL the images from here: http://www.theotherzone.com/wii/ 5 minutes ago.

Changed ALL NTSC, NTSCJ & PAL to 120x220

Who wants em?

** NEW DOWNLOAD **

NTSC - 120x220 Wii Cover Pack

NTSC-J - 120x220 Wii Cover Pack

PAL - 120x220 Wii Cover Pack

 

[donnyp]

here are all the covers pulled from djtaz's site. Resized to 120x225 and they work perfectly on my widescreen tv.

100 mb file, all folders are inside the included rar.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?1l3nmndjjyd

let me know what you think. I posted this on a different thread a few days back.

 

[Kosaic]

here are all the covers pulled from djtaz's site. Resized to 120x225 and they work perfectly on my widescreen tv.

100 mb file, all folders are inside the included rar.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?1l3nmndjjyd

let me know what you think. I posted this on a different thread a few days back.

LOL, did you not read my post directly before yours ?

Why 120x225? , and how old is this pack now exactly? Mine is new, as of less than an hour ago. MANY images are added daily (I'm a moderator at that site, and was the original creator of the images)

Just hate someone to duplicate work, especially incorrectly.

 

[Reign1]

Hmm... why exactly are people saying 120x220? Shouldnt it be 120x225? I dont think the loader stretches vertically, only horizontally, and the original images are 160x225, no?

 

[Kosaic]

Good point ... You know what the REAL problem is, there are 1000000000 loaders out there in every shape and form known to human kind.

There is no consistency AT ALL .. it is just a free for all.

Hence, MANY different size cover images floating around.

My thought is: 160x225 be the standard, and figure out the proper coding (within the loader) that works to resize them for each and every loader & application. (4:3 , 16:9 , 50Hz , 60-Hz, etc ....)

Otherwise, we are all like ducks with one leg, constantly swimming in circles.

 

[xem1x]

yea, im sticking with a loader that works with the standard 160x225. Makes life easier.

 

[donnyp]

yes, i read your post, just thought I would add to it. I resized mine to 120x225 because using widescreen you have to make the width skinner for them work. That resolution works perfect on my widescreen and fits the backgrounds perfectly.

I got the covers 3 days ago from djtaz's website, I downloaded all regions into a .zip, resized them, then re upped them to fit with the widescreen settings.

Sorry if i offended anyone, just trying to do my part.

 

[evvil]

We can figure out the best size for widescreen later! Im just trying to see if anyone else wants widescreen versions to be hosted at all. We don't need more then 2 sets just 4:2 and 16x9 thats it no loader will use different setting then that. Pal looks fine with both.

My thought is: 160x225 be the standard, and figure out the proper coding (within the loader) that works to resize them

Dude we have been trying for days!!! it won't work, the library that resizes the images breaks the rest of the loader! (the wii only has so much memory) This may be a quick fix but it would also be a permanent one and would work for ALL loaders using the 16x9 setting.

 

[donnyp]

yes, i think it would be a great idea for djtaz to host both sets on his website. one for 4:3 and one for 16:9

Then the user can do as he/she prefers. Then Depending on which background they decide to us, they can alter them to their liking.