Hacking WiiFlow Lite

[dishe]

reasonable to ask? maybe

Fair enough. I don't necessarily need the feature to accomplish what I'm trying to do, but it would be a useful alternative to navigate.

wiimc plugin - no. i don't remember why. i know it was talked about but for some reason it was never made into a plugin.

Yeah, I'm seeing a lot of back and forth and conflicting information about whether or not it is possible (some say it doesn't accept arguments to be passed, others say it does for them, etc). I'm thinking now maybe I'd do something like this post:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/wiiflow-an-open-source-gui-usb-loader.204106/page-749#post-4936541

Where WiiMC would actually be an auto-bootable application directly from sourceflow. Usage could be: All games in one menu, press B to launch source flow and if the WiiMC/Video source is selected, you are thrown directly into WiiMC's UI to find a video. Not as elegant as searching within a nice flow of icons to find a title, but at least this way I don't need to find cover graphics everytime I add a new video file.
And if the B to advance option isn't available, I'm going to be using the Source Flow anyway, so this could work out.
Thanks for your help and input!

 

[kaisersozeh]

I saw something about Wiimc being worked on more recently - not here. Maybe on github, look around. It wasn't "Wiimc+" - it was Wiimc"something else". If it's being actively developed you could ask about argument support. If it's not being developed and you find the source, it might be possible to ask around for a developer to look at it.
A Wiimc that supports a arguments with a wiiflow setup could be very simple and very powerful - they might just do it to see the result, but paying a skilled person for their skills is fair, I think.
--you can still use the covers downloaded by other software in wiiflow by moving and renaming etc. I read a guy was using kodi to get the meta data and images from his collection and transferring that to his wiiflow covers. A bit of a pita.

mp3s have images encoded, is Wiimc opening those?

That link to a post on wiiflow- I use loads of his stuff, and I've just found a shed load of boot animations, thanks! - but that's what I've been saying, I was the someone with "greater knowledge"

 

[kaisersozeh]

How the hell do people get around without a source menu?
(Post EDITED to remove nonsense - pride comes before a fall^^^^))

 

[fledge68]

@fledge68 - I'm being a bit experimental with dodgy memory card reader, so I'm not sure - but has the latest update killed the source menu and source flow?
How the hell do people get around without a source menu?

no. source menu and flow are still there. but if you don't want or don't like them the alternative is the select plugin menu - click home icon on main screen to got to home menu then click on select plugins.

 

[kaisersozeh]

No, I prefer the source flow - thanks for the info - I'm going to try this out, haven't looked for years!
(EDITED)

 

[fledge68]

No, I prefer the source flow thanks for the info - am going to try this out, haven't looked for years!
Are you sure the source menu is ok for new installs, not even options are there?
Also, Freudian slip, the folder is called "wiiflow" had to add the _lite.

i don't understand what you are saying? is there something wrong with your source menu now?

 

[Billy Acuña]

Yo @fledge68
Any chance to have libwudrc support?
I would love to browse my ROM collection with gamepad controls on WiiU with that beauty coverflow that only WIIflow offers.

 

[kaisersozeh]

@fledge68 it works fine! ! ! My mistake, apologies. I was experimenting and hadn't named my source_menu.ini back correctly. Entirely my fault.

 

[fledge68]

Yo @fledge68
Any chance to have libwudrc support?
I would love to browse my ROM collection with gamepad controls on WiiU with that beauty coverflow that only WIIflow offers.

its a possibility. right now im attempting to get wiiflow lite to compile with devkitpro PPC r29 and libogc 1.8.17.
got a lot of the code cleaned up but now it appears i need to update the libs too. when i'm done i think wiiflow lite will run much smoother (i hope). then i will see about DRC support.

 

[Billy Acuña]

its a possibility. right now im attempting to get wiiflow lite to compile with devkitpro PPC r29 and libogc 1.8.17.
got a lot of the code cleaned up but now it appears i need to update the libs too. when i'm done i think wiiflow lite will run much smoother (i hope). then i will see about DRC support.

Sweet! Hope you can get the devkitppc r29 port.
Thanks for the feedback

 

[fledge68]

@GreyWolf @Cyan ok so im updating wiiflow lite to compile with the latest ppc and libogc. i've got the code cleaned up but after it says linking elf i get errors pertaining to libvorbisidec, libturbojpeg, and libcustomfat.

i suck at libs. what is custom about libfat? how do i update these libs? where do i get them?

i get these errors - undefined reference to `__ctype_ptr__'

please help

 

[GreyWolf]

The custom libfat/libntfs/libext2 versions have an extra function to get the file fragments for WBFS files so cIOSes can use them.

Updated libfat is here: https://sourceforge.net/p/usbloadergx/code/HEAD/tree/trunk/source/libs/

Here's libtremor updated to later devkitPPC.

 

[kaisersozeh]

@GreyWolf @Cyan ok so im updating wiiflow lite to compile with the latest ppc and libogc. i've got the code cleaned up but after it says linking elf i get errors pertaining to libvorbisidec, libturbojpeg, and libcustomfat.

i suck at libs. what is custom about libfat? how do i update these libs? where do i get them?

i get these errors - undefined reference to `__ctype_ptr__'

please help

Good to know it's not just me!
Would this help with potentially using transparency images in a coverflow?
I'm still not sure if such a thing is possible.
EDIT Possibly not a good time to mention it, sorry.

 

[fledge68]

The custom libfat/libntfs/libext2 versions have an extra function to get the file fragments for WBFS files so cIOSes can use them.

Updated libfat is here: https://sourceforge.net/p/usbloadergx/code/HEAD/tree/trunk/source/libs/

Here's libtremor updated to later devkitPPC.

thanks now i just need libturbojpeg. or figure out how to compile it

 

[JacobM]

Yo @fledge68
Any chance to have libwudrc support?
I would love to browse my ROM collection with gamepad controls on WiiU with that beauty coverflow that only WIIflow offers.

Has anybody had any luck with Wiiflow Lite booting as WiiVC. It's been a while since I've done my testing and I am a bit hazy on the results, but I recall only being able to get CFG USB Loader and USB Loader GX to boot as WiiVC. Wiiflow might need a larger overhaul like Nintendont required.

 

[einsteinx2]

Hi everyone, I'm a software developer that recently got into Wii modding, mainly to play GameCube games. I was using USB Loader GX but wasn't happy with the UX and performance and then found WiiFlow and eventually WiiFlow Lite. A huge thanks to @fledge68 for keeping the project alive!

Anyway with that out of the way, here's the reason I'm posting. I'm using WiiFlow Lite because it works better with Nintendont and is in active development. However, there's one thing that works way better in the original WiiFlow--cover loading. In WiiFlow, no matter how fast I scroll through my games, they always have a cover. However, in WiiFlow Lite, whenever I scroll fast, all of the covers have the white placeholder cover which then gets replaced with the real cover when I stop scrolling.

I've tried increasing the cover_buffer from 20 to 120 to 600, but it doesn't make any difference. Also I tried moving the covers to my USB drive thinking maybe it was a loading speed issue, but that also makes no difference. Since it works fine in the original WiiFlow, it's clearly possible to achieve, I just don't know how yet.

I'm currently trying to get WiiFlow Lite to compile on my Mac so that I can try and fix this, though it appears there is currently active work going on to update the code to compile with the latest libs and toolkits, and I also have to figure out how to install the gcc powerpc toolchain. But that's a problem for another post.

But in the meantime, does anyone know the reason for the cover loading change between WiiFlow and WiiFlow Lite? Or even better, what code changed to cause it? I downloaded the source for WiiFlow (EDIT: actually looks like I got the old source from the Google Code repo and not the updated source from the open-wiiflow-mod repo, so I need to diff those now, but my question still stands) and diff'd the coverflow.cpp files from both repos and do see some minor changes regarding the cover loading, so I was going to try just replacing the WiiFlow Lite CCoverFlow::_coverLoader method with the one from WiiFlow and then work from there by trial and error, but I'm just making guesses as I'm not familiar with the codebase.

Any help or pointers would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

[kaisersozeh]

Hi everyone, I'm a software developer that recently got into Wii modding, mainly to play GameCube games. I was using USB Loader GX but wasn't happy with the UX and performance and then found WiiFlow and eventually WiiFlow Lite. A huge thanks to @fledge68 for keeping the project alive!

Anyway with that out of the way, here's the reason I'm posting. I'm using WiiFlow Lite because it works better with Nintendont and is in active development. However, there's one thing that works way better in the original WiiFlow--cover loading. In WiiFlow, no matter how fast I scroll through my games, they always have a cover. However, in WiiFlow Lite, whenever I scroll fast, all of the covers have the white placeholder cover which then gets replaced with the real cover when I stop scrolling.

I've tried increasing the cover_buffer from 20 to 120 to 600, but it doesn't make any difference. Also I tried moving the covers to my USB drive thinking maybe it was a loading speed issue, but that also makes no difference. Since it works fine in the original WiiFlow, it's clearly possible to achieve, I just don't know how yet.

I'm currently trying to get WiiFlow Lite to compile on my Mac so that I can try and fix this, though it appears there is currently active work going on to update the code to compile with the latest libs and toolkits, and I also have to figure out how to install the gcc powerpc toolchain. But that's a problem for another post.

But in the meantime, does anyone know the reason for the cover loading change between WiiFlow and WiiFlow Lite? Or even better, what code changed to cause it? I downloaded the source for WiiFlow (EDIT: actually looks like I got the old source from the Google Code repo and not the updated source from the open-wiiflow-mod repo, so I need to diff those now, but my question still stands) and diff'd the coverflow.cpp files from both repos and do see some minor changes regarding the cover loading, so I was going to try just replacing the WiiFlow Lite CCoverFlow::_coverLoader method with the one from WiiFlow and then work from there by trial and error, but I'm just making guesses as I'm not familiar with the codebase.

Any help or pointers would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

I think I'm going to like you. I've been having a lot of bother building wiiflow lite - let me get back to you on this.

@dishe http://www.emucr.com/2017/05/wiimc-ss-20170524.html

@einsteinx2 This is for the current published build, or the one before - fledge is updating the code to the latest libraries now.

" in order to use PPC r27 and libogc 1.8.15-1 you need to download them and replace the devkitPPC and libogc folders that are in devkitpro folder. I recommend renaming the ones currently there before you replace them. the ones devkitpro installed are PPC r29-1 and libogc 1.8.17

one more thing - you'll need to get and install libsicksaxis to libogc. wiiflow lite uses this for ps3 controller support. get it here - https://gbatemp.net/threads/libsicksaxis-connect-sixaxis-ds3-to-the-wii.339191/
unzip it in a source folder( not wiiflow lite folder). inside the folder hold shift key and right click to open a command prompt window. now type
make install
and press enter. this will compile it and install it to the libogc folder.

now go to the wiiflow lite source files and double click wiiflow.pnproj file to open it in programmers notepad. you'll need to change one line in menu_download.cpp. change line #429 to int val = if_config(ip, NULL, NULL, true, 0);
and save

now go up to tools and choose make.
wiiflow lite should now compile and produce and boot.dol in the out folder."
If you're successful - i'd love to hear about it. and Guten Tag

 

[einsteinx2]

Thanks for the tips @kaisersozeh! Unfortunately I probably won't get to mess with this much more until next week, but I might have some more time to give it a try tomorrow night.

Regarding my original issue, I just re-opened WiiFlow 4.2.1 and whadayaknow...it does show white "loading" covers. It definitely loads them faster, but I'm not getting the 100% covers I was getting before. No idea why. In any case, although this is purely cosmetic, it's still something I'd like to play around with fixing, if only to get my feet wet with Wii homebrew development, so I'll keep working on getting compiling working.

In the meantime, do you know if there's any way to turn off the audio that plays when you select a GameCube game? Each game I select plays the GameCube boot song and it gets old pretty fast haha. I know there's a sound setting for it, but it affects Wii games as well. Even worse, if I turn it all the way down, it causes Wii games to not display their animations at all. I was looking for a sound file to delete, but it appears to be baked into the binary and I don't see a specific setting for it.

 

[kaisersozeh]

You're right, it's baked in. i'm not a fan either!
It's called gc.ogg in the data/sounds folder - maybe it will encourage you to get stuck in, and put something, small, not irritating and groovy there. Is there anything from the gamecube interface that will fit?

 

[einsteinx2]

My plan was actually to just remove it entirely. Or even better add a setting for it, even if it's only in the ini file. I'm putting together a small list of changes and fixes I'd like to attempt once I get it compiling. Currently it includes:

1. Faster or background loading of covers so that the loading cover is never seen
2. Antialiasing or some kind of better smoothing on resized banners (currently they are extremely jaggy when shown in the top right)
3. Add option to disable GameCube boot sound when choosing a game (or maybe have it optionally load an ogg file from the wiiflow settings folder so people can change it).

I'm sure I'll end up adding more as I find more small annoyances

Overall I love WiiFlow, I just get easily annoyed by small UX and UI things haha. In any case, it'll be a fun project to tackle in my spare time. Then I can move on to messing with Nintendont!

Since I can't currently compile the binary, I might try the quick and dirty route of just using a hex editor to zero out the ogg file or replace it with a silent ogg file of the same file size...