Hacking Wii ISO Loader

[teq]

Oh yeah, that's was my uber-complicated-theory : Could we use an lan adapter to access a hard drive and make an Iso loader?

It's possible, but it would require a lot of different protocol conversions, slowing it down dramatically.

 

[Shuny]

Oh yeah, that's was my uber-complicated-theory : Could we use an lan adapter to access a hard drive and make an Iso loader?

It's possible, but it would require a lot of different protocol conversions, slowing it down dramatically.

Hmmmpf, objection.

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u258/ex...harddriving.jpg

Some hard drives gives direct access to their content throught the ethernet cable

 

[teq]

Oh yeah, that's was my uber-complicated-theory : Could we use an lan adapter to access a hard drive and make an Iso loader?

It's possible, but it would require a lot of different protocol conversions, slowing it down dramatically.

Hmmmpf, objection.

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u258/ex...harddriving.jpg

Some hard drives gives direct access to their content throught the ethernet cable

Objection to your objection: It does so through several TCP layers.

You would have to write a driver for the USB LAN adapter that lets the emulator know it's sending FAT commands over TCP, and then be able to recieve data in the same fashion. Not only that, but it's possible that USB 2.0 is enabled via software requests sent to Starlet, which would require having IOS loaded.

Conclusion: More trouble than it's worth. Better solution would be to use the front SD for a buffer and settle on streaming via USB 1.0.

 

[Shuny]

Objection to your objection: It does so through several TCP layers.

You would have to write a driver for the USB LAN adapter that lets the emulator know it's sending FAT commands over TCP, and then be able to recieve data in the same fashion. Not only that, but it's possible that USB 2.0 is enabled via software requests sent to Starlet, which would require having IOS loaded.

Conclusion: More trouble than it's worth. Better solution would be to use the front SD for a buffer and settle on streaming via USB 1.0.

A max. of 4Gb buffer for a max 8.5Gb of game ?

It would take a lot of time to load the buffer

And if the data required isn't in the buffer... moar load time

 

[HowardC]

It would require tapping into the starlet and controlling IOS internally, which seems nearly impossible without additional hardware.

dont you remember streaming to gamecube through homebrew?
why does it seem so impossible to use USB?

The difference is that the Starlet prevents direct access to the system.

Using USB is also hindered by the fact that it's currently limited to USB1.0 data rates.


Once Starlet is completely hacked and USB2 is enabled, an ISO loader isn't out of the question... but I don't see that happening without additional hardware on the Starlet.

Well then it'd be a rather moot point wouldn't it. If starlet was hacked we could ignore the "non wii disc" complaints sent to it by the dvd drive and simply run burned discs.

 

[teq]

A max. of 4Gb buffer for a max 8.5Gb of game ?

It would take a lot of time to load the buffer

And if the data required isn't in the buffer... moar load time

Actually, a maximum of 2GB. But bear with me and do the math:

The DVDROM drive in the Wii has a maximum of 8MB in cache. The cache has a burst rate of 2048KB. A 2GB SD card would give you 2GB of precache, essentially limiting reading from the hard drive for a very long time. Burst read rates for an SD card are upwards of 16MB.

So, technically, there would be less load time and disk thrashing. If you need a good example, look up Ready Boost.

HowardCWell then it'd be a rather moot point wouldn't it. If starlet was hacked we could ignore the "non wii disc" complaints sent to it by the dvd drive and simply run burned discs.

Not without a drivechip.

It's the drive that limits burned discs.

 

[Shuny]

A max. of 4Gb buffer for a max 8.5Gb of game ?

It would take a lot of time to load the buffer

And if the data required isn't in the buffer... moar load time

Actually, a maximum of 2GB. But bear with me and do the math:

The DVDROM drive in the Wii has a maximum of 8MB in cache. The cache has a burst rate of 2048KB. A 2GB SD card would give you 2GB of precache, essentially limiting reading from the hard drive for a very long time. Burst read rates for an SD card are upwards of 16MB.

So, technically, there would be less load time and disk thrashing. If you need a good example, look up Ready Boost.

HowardCWell then it'd be a rather moot point wouldn't it. If starlet was hacked we could ignore the "non wii disc" complaints sent to it by the dvd drive and simply run burned discs.

Not without a drivechip.

It's the drive that limits burned discs.

From wikipedia : "Standard SD card capacities range from 8 MB to 4 GB" so 4Gb is possible, maybe limited by some stuff in the Wii, but still possible in non-SDHC.

Let's do some moar maths : Let's say 2Gb = 2 000 000 000bytes (I know it isn't true, 1024bytes makes a kilo, blah bah). The maximum *theorical* speed of the USB 1.1 port is 1.5MB/s, so 1 500 000bytes

2 000 000 000/1 500 000 = 1333seconds for the precaching, 22 minutes to *preload* a part of the game. Of course you could read the precached data before the end of the precaching, but it would highly reduce the writing speed on the SD card.

Now let's take as example the best game ever created : Smash Bros Brawl. The player, let's say Shuny, wants to play Emissary Subspatial so badly. He boots the game (22minutes of precaching so he eats some nutella) and start the Emissary Subspatial. Big problem : All the videos are on the second layer, so on the latest 4.37Gb of the ISO, so they are NOT precached. Here, you have two solutions :

- Precaching the video before playing it : Videos are uncompressed and 100Mb each, moar loading time
- Directly reading the video throught the USB port but it would be really laggy.

I think the precaching with the 2Gb SD card is a really bad idea. It would be better to directly read the data throught the USB 1.1. It would act like a 1x DVD reader and be slow.

BTW it's all theorical so it's the best case. I highly doubt a USB 1.1 port can stand a 1.5MB/s speed and I'm pretty sure the SD reader of the Wii can't read the SD at a 16MB/s speed

EDIT : Posts: 666 : I'm teh devil

 

[teq]

I take it you don't understand what a buffer is...

A buffer is essentially a cache that is only occupied with data that is ready to stream. It ensures smooth playback and compensates for any mechanical issues that would cause the streame to hiccup.

So, you wouldn't be "precaching" anything... you would just be buffering more data ahead of time. As data goes out, more comes in, but the bulk of it would already be accessible from the SD card.

Your reference to Brawl is also flawed because we are no longer talking about a DVD, so there are no layers and seek times are a lot faster. Not only that, but the videos aren't cached, they are streamed from the disc.

 

[Mysticcal]

Oh yeah, that's was my uber-complicated-theory : Could we use an lan adapter to access a hard drive and make an Iso loader?

It's possible, but it would require a lot of different protocol conversions, slowing it down dramatically.

I get 15MB/s network transfer though my router, 5-6MB/s wireless

considering USB1.1 gets 1.5, I think it would take a pretty huge slowdown to make it not realistic

plus. it gives us a chance to have network backup rather then a required drive.

 

[teq]

Oh yeah, that's was my uber-complicated-theory : Could we use an lan adapter to access a hard drive and make an Iso loader?

It's possible, but it would require a lot of different protocol conversions, slowing it down dramatically.

I get 15MB/s network transfer though my router, 5-6MB/s wireless

considering USB1.1 gets 1.5, I think it would take a pretty huge slowdown to make it not realistic

plus. it gives us a chance to have network backup rather then a required drive.

Yes, but the network transfer on your computer is hardware accelerated. External drives with RJ45 ports are also hardware accelerated.

This would be entirely software based, so it would be extremely slow.

 

[Shuny]

I take it you don't understand what a buffer is...

A buffer is essentially a cache that is only occupied with data that is ready to stream. It ensures smooth playback and compensates for any mechanical issues that would cause the streame to hiccup.

So, you wouldn't be "precaching" anything... you would just be buffering more data ahead of time. As data goes out, more comes in, but the bulk of it would already be accessible from the SD card.

Your reference to Brawl is also flawed because we are no longer talking about a DVD, so there are no layers and seek times are a lot faster. Not only that, but the videos aren't cached, they are streamed from the disc.

Anyway, the streaming can't be faster than 1.5Mb/s which is way too slow to play a game. Your buffer would be useless because the game will always need the full capacity of the USB 1.1 and creating some buffer will just make the game lagging

 

[jan777]

@ everyone:here's a thought: make your own one

 

[bubbleboy]

USB 2.0 is hardware supported and is only a matter of time before it's unlocked, either by Ninty or bushing!

 

[Shuny]

@ everyone:here's a thought: make your own one

Your post was certified 100% useless.

Before making an ISO Loader, we have to think how it'll work and for now, there is no way to read an ISO at a good speed rate.