Hacking WiiFlow Lite Einstein Mod

[einsteinx2]

Is the Forwarder vWii compatible?

Sorry I don't have a WiiU (yet...) and have only tested this on my Wii. I'm not familiar with the differences, so I can't assure you it will work. What I can tell you is all I did was take the forwarder boot.dol and inserted it into an existing WiiFlow Lite forwarder channel and changed the channel ID from WFLA to WFLE to make it unique. I assume the same could be done with an existing WiiFlow Lite vWii Channel using the ShowMiiWads tool that I used. I'd make one myself but would have no way to test it.

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With 3D boxes, WiiFlow has great potential to be a far more expressive front-end for media than even the most recently released media centers on modern hardware.

Boxes molded in the shape of Blu-ray cases, VHS boxes, DVD cases, Laserdisc, and Jewel CD cases are all made possible. I have already made coverflows for blu-ray and VHS (this also works great for vertical Super Famicom boxes). DVD-shaped boxes already come standard with WiiFlow, of course.

In this way, we are able to showcase multiple generations of the video format in WiiFlow, in the same way we are currently able to showcase multiple generations of video game consoles.

As it stands now, I can click the Blu-ray button (WiiMC plugin) from my SourceFlow and watch a movie. It works great.

However, it would prove very beneficial to have the option to use folders as selectable titles within a source button, which leads to more titles within. This would make it very easy to have categories within a source, without littering those categories all over your Source Menu/Source Flow.

For instance, if you click a Source called "WiiMC" from your Source Menu/SourceFlow, you will see a new coverflow load containing your folders with titles such as "Action", "Horror", "Anime", "TV Shows", etc. Click one of these, and you will see another coverflow load containing the content within that file or category. I believe this would be a good all around solution to have a single Source loading all your media.

This option would also "fix" WiiFlow's Music Player plugin, as it would enable you to have selectable albums or categories with cover art, which could then be selected to show the audio files within; instead of all of your audio files being in one single coverflow without organization.

Using screenshots in WiiFlow looks best in 2D, but with how WiiFlow Lite is currently setup, this is only possible if everything is set to 2D covers. The option to enable 2D covers on a per-plugin, per-source or even per-category basis would prove very beneficial for this purpose. For example, you could have your TV shows in 3D boxes, then have the episode screenshots show up in 2D.

On the subject of TV shows, the ability to give each screenshot or box cover a "Title" of text either above or beside it would provide the ability to make floating lists that can be navigated in a vertical nature or horizontal nature. Or any angle really, since it's a 3D space.

As it stands now, only 1 Title of text can appear on the screen at once. If we were able to add or subtract multiple instances of the title text, in the same manner we can add or subtract the amount of covers on-screen on a per-coverflow basis, it would prove very beneficial.

The metadata idea is brilliant. It would be great for games and media alike. I have been considering the possibility of utilizing WiiFlow's banners for that purpose, and adding the info within those as a vertical scrolling image animation with a transparent background layer.

Alas, that would be a job that would take ages to do for a large library. Something more automated and cleaner than the banner is able to represent would be ideal for metadata.

Transitioning background images that fade in after 1-2 seconds of hovering over a particular title would also be a nice touch for the media center feel. I believe WiiFlow originally used to have a similar feature called "Fanart" that would play an animation on screen or in the background after a title is selected.

If WFCs were able to retain the transparent layer of PNG files, we would also be able to use floating 2D logos or custom-shaped icons as selectable covers, which would be ideal for folder/category coverflows, as well as being able to make SourceFlow more closely resemble something similar to Emulation Station and HyperSpin's appearance.

Loving this concept and I saw your screenshots in the other thread, your setup looks amazing.

Things like downloading metadata text can be automated using a scraper, the big game dbs have the info. If they were saved as text files they should be able to be displayed in the banner area with just a little extra UI (though I'm currently pretty inexperienced with the UI side of things on the Wii so that may be a bigger challenge for me than I'm assuming, but I need to get familiar with that eventually anyway).

 

[GreyWolf]

There's a WiiFlow forwarder for vWii in the thread I linked on the last page. There is also a link to the 00000001.app apploader for the vWii so you can update any other forwarder, too.

 

[huma_dawii]

There's a WiiFlow forwarder for vWii in the thread I linked on the last page. There is also a link to the 00000001.app apploader for the vWii so you can update any other forwarder, too.

Any links to how to pack an app into Wad ? Do the forwarders have a main.dol? (can it be patch to use Wii U gamepad? )

Why so many questions?

 

[einsteinx2]

Any links to how to pack an app into Wad ? Do the forwarders have a main.dol? (can it be patch to use Wii U gamepad? )

Why so many questions?

I used this app: http://wiibrew.org/wiki/ShowMiiWads

You point it to the folder with an existing channel wad and it will show it in the list. Then right click on it and choose Insert Dol to add the forwarder dol, and then right click again and click Change Title ID to change it to WFLE. That's all I did to make the forwarder dol in my repo.

 

[huma_dawii]

I used this app: http://wiibrew.org/wiki/ShowMiiWads

You point it to the folder with an existing channel wad and it will show it in the list. Then right click on it and choose Insert Dol to add the forwarder dol, and then right click again and click Change Title ID to change it to WFLE. That's all I did to make the forwarder dol in my repo.

Sounds easy enough, by the way what is it that makes the forwarder dangerous to use on vWii?

 

[einsteinx2]

Sounds easy enough, by the way what is it that makes the forwarder dangerous to use on vWii?

I honestly have no idea. I have no experience with the Wii U or the vWii.

 

[GreyWolf]

I think the replace dol option only replaces the actual application, not the bootloader. You can extract the WAD with ShowMiiWads, replace the 00000001.app file, then pack the folder back into a WAD. The forwarder in that thread does work, though.

 

[Brawl345]

Or just use Convert2vWii which converts forwarders automatically: http://www.hacksden.com/showthread.php/7649-Convert2vWii-Make-your-forwarder-channels-compatible-with-the-vWii

 

[Wiimpathy]

The metadata idea is brilliant. It would be great for games and media alike. I have been considering the possibility of utilizing WiiFlow's banners for that purpose, and adding the info within those as a vertical scrolling image animation with a transparent background layer.

Alas, that would be a job that would take ages to do for a large library. Something more automated and cleaner than the banner is able to represent would be ideal for metadata.

Transitioning background images that fade in after 1-2 seconds of hovering over a particular title would also be a nice touch for the media center feel. I believe WiiFlow originally used to have a similar feature called "Fanart" that would play an animation on screen or in the background after a title is selected.

The fanart is a flexible way to display information with some screenshots for example. I shared a quick wiiflow mod and fanarts tests with Mastershoes few years ago. I was waiting for the feature to be implemented for plugins... It never happened and I thought nobody would be interested anyway. With scripts and a few tools I've generated nes, snes and megadrive packs. Here's how it looks like :

If you want to test it, here's the mod and 3 samples : Wiiflow1072-fanart
It's based on Wiiflow 1072(non lite since fanart was completely removed).

You'll need to rename some files and folders first.
For ex you have Addams Family, The (E).zip rom and a snes9xgx coverfolder. In /wiiflow/fanart you'll have a snes9xgx/Addams Family, The (E).zip folder and inside a Addams Family, The (E).zip.ini file.
Then, in WiiFlow, you select a game and press Wiimote +.

 

[Omnom911]

Hi! Not sure if you'e still developing your Wiiflow mod (I see the last post in this thread was back on June 2), but I did notice that you're quite active on the Wiiflow Lite thread. Just a quick note for you, as I just tried your build this afternoon. I tend to use Retroarch-based plugins in Wiiflow (I like the common interface between emulating the different consoles), and was testing the SNES plugin (snes9x_next) with several ROMs. Using Wiiflow Lite, the quicksave feature of the Retroarch plugin works correctly ... however, with the Einstein mod, Wiiflow crashes (and eventually reboots). Tried with several different ROMs, saving at different points in each game. Just wanted you to be aware.

 

[suspendedhatch]

Speaking of RetroArch, not sure if anything can be done on this end, but if you "Close Content" instead of "Quit RetroArch", it hard crashes. It'd be nice if it returned to Wiiflow.

The path for boxcovers is relative, but the path for roms is absolute. It's not clear in the documentation and this trips a lot of people up for a long time. Consistency would be nice but documentation would be okay too.

HATE HATE HATE having to rename art to include the file extension of the rom. None of the emulators require this. Can this requirement be eliminated?
Can a fuzzy renaming utility be included?

I have been trying to hide the entire homebrew section and not had any luck using categories and editing the ini to include "hidden". A GUI setting would be nice.
Also, turning off rumble has to be done manually in the ini. Can this be added to settings in the GUI?

I could not for the life of me get the cache reload, cache covers to delete the current cache. I had to go in manually and delete the offending covers for it to load the replacements.

Can each emu plugin be kept separate instead of throwing them all in the same wheel?

Is there a better channel than the bouncing NES characters with a pixelated out-of-place mario flying by in the background? I see other people just have the logo for their channel but is that just for wiiflow not lite or einstein?


Not to be nitpicky, I only meant to give an experience from someone with fresh eyes. Thanks to everyone for their hard work and generosity in sharing.

 

[fledge68]

Speaking of RetroArch, not sure if anything can be done on this end, but if you "Close Content" instead of "Quit RetroArch", it hard crashes. It'd be nice if it returned to Wiiflow.

The path for boxcovers is relative, but the path for roms is absolute. It's not clear in the documentation and this trips a lot of people up for a long time. Consistency would be nice but documentation would be okay too.

HATE HATE HATE having to rename art to include the file extension of the rom. None of the emulators require this. Can this requirement be eliminated?
Can a fuzzy renaming utility be included?

I have been trying to hide the entire homebrew section and not had any luck using categories and editing the ini to include "hidden". A GUI setting would be nice.
Also, turning off rumble has to be done manually in the ini. Can this be added to settings in the GUI?

I could not for the life of me get the cache reload, cache covers to delete the current cache. I had to go in manually and delete the offending covers for it to load the replacements.

Can each emu plugin be kept separate instead of throwing them all in the same wheel?

Is there a better channel than the bouncing NES characters with a pixelated out-of-place mario flying by in the background? I see other people just have the logo for their channel but is that just for wiiflow not lite or einstein?


Not to be nitpicky, I only meant to give an experience from someone with fresh eyes. Thanks to everyone for their hard work and generosity in sharing.

Speaking of RetroArch, not sure if anything can be done on this end, but if you "Close Content" instead of "Quit RetroArch", it hard crashes. It'd be nice if it returned to Wiiflow.

you're supposed to exit the game and return to retroarch main menu then scroll down to the last option which is exit retroarch. not very complicated. but 'close content' would have to patched in retroarch.

The path for boxcovers is relative, but the path for roms is absolute. It's not clear in the documentation and this trips a lot of people up for a long time. Consistency would be nice but documentation would be okay too.

covers are handled by wiiflow but the roms are handled by the emulator. you can have all your roms in one directory with subfolders if that's what you want. you just have to edit all of your plugin.ini's. documentation is on wiiflowiki 4.

HATE HATE HATE having to rename art to include the file extension of the rom. None of the emulators require this. Can this requirement be eliminated?
Can a fuzzy renaming utility be included?

for starters - you have to rename all covers to match the roms title anyway. big deal if the file extension has to be included.
second - renaming covers with extensions for wiiflow plugins has been that way for years now. if you change it now then all the veteran users of wiiflow will have to go back and rename all their covers again. i'm sure they'd rather not have to do that.
third - the extensions were included because some game titles are on more than one system. if all covers are in same folder then the right cover may not be displayed.

I have been trying to hide the entire homebrew section and not had any luck using categories and editing the ini to include "hidden". A GUI setting would be nice.
Also, turning off rumble has to be done manually in the ini. Can this be added to settings in the GUI?

if you are using wiiflow lite the homebrew icon can not be hidden. it doesn't hurt anything if it shows ... just don't use it.
i thought rumble was off by default. i may have to change that. adding a gui button for it isn't a good idea. the more buttons and text we add to the gui takes up more memory space leaving less for your games. and also strangely leads to problems with wiiflow stability.

I could not for the life of me get the cache reload, cache covers to delete the current cache. I had to go in manually and delete the offending covers for it to load the replacements.

reload cache does not delete and recreate the cached covers wfc files. it merely deletes the lists of games and recreates the list so if you manually add a game you do reload cache to recreate the list so wiiflow will include your new game.
if you manually changed the cover png then yes you will need to manually delete the wfc cached cover. maybe there should be a update cached cover wfc file option in the game settings.

Can each emu plugin be kept separate instead of throwing them all in the same wheel?

not sure i understand this one. each emu plugin is separate. plugin mode doesn't have to show all plugins at the same time. you can use the plugin select menu via the home menu or just use a source menu with buttons for each plugin. again check wiiflowiki 4.

Is there a better channel than the bouncing NES characters with a pixelated out-of-place mario flying by in the background? I see other people just have the logo for their channel but is that just for wiiflow not lite or einstein?

again their's forwarders on wiiflowiki 4. i happen to like the mario characters to me that represents the wii and nintendo. but you're in luck i just updated the wiiflowiki 4 forwarders page. which means the first 9 (or 8) forwarders are available for both wiiflow and wiiflow lite.