Homebrew Wiisx unofficial mods

[ploder]

I'm assessing my options for PSX/PS1 emulation and have a few questions:

1. Is Wiisx the best experience for PS1 emulation for Wii or am I better off with something else or even popstarter on PS2?
2. Is it now recommended to use the various mods for Wiisx and if so which one?
3. How accurate is the compatibility list for the matguitarist mods?: wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/WiiSX_compatibility_list_(beta_2) Do they really add much performance over the official version?
4. Is any type of compression/rebuilding/shrinking compatible for games on Wiisx or must we use 1:1 bin/iso only?

Thanks

 

[zerofalcon]

PS emulation on Wii is very unstable with really low compatibility, some games are playable while others dont work. Yes, you're better off with something else, I use a Raspberry Pi with RetroPie for psx games.

 

[Cyan]

better Emu experience is probably PS1 emulator on PC (lot of plugins, HD rendering, etc.)
playing on PS2/PS3/Popstation is also good alternative.

But just try the game you want on WiiSX and see if it's good enough. It depend the game. Some play well, other are bad.
I think retroArch has a PSX emulator too. I don't know the compatibility.



The matguitarist mod adds mostly read speed.
IOS58 used by official WiiSX is slower than IOS202.
I think mod02 was the best, just be sure to have Hermes IOS202 (base 60), or mod03 with Rodries IOS202 v1.1 (I never tested it).

You can also try to load from SD card if you have a slow USB.


PS1 doesn't have compression. You need the full ISO.
the wii is not capable of loading zip or rar file, as it would require fast decompression and enough RAM.
there is a compression (ecm format), but it's for storage purpose, you can't play games in compressed form. like explain on the wiki, if you have a ecm format, you will have to restore the file to full iso first.

 

[ploder]

Ok, thanks for some good info. I have a question about the need for a 'full iso' though. I know from PS2 homebrew that it is possible to rebuild iso with isobuster, CDDVD generator & apache method etc. without much of the blank space or dummy files that some games have. You could then play them through Open PS2 Loader at a drastically reduced size. Is something like that possible for Wiisx? I mean, you are still presenting it with an iso, it's just had unnecessary parts removed.

 

[Cyan]

yes, PS1 games are working the same way.
You can remove unused files (languages?), or replace video with dummy files.
I think you can use CDVD generator, or any basic ISO editor. as long as it contains the .cnf file it should boot fine.

But most PS1 games are already small games (less than 600MB) compared to other console's ISO size it's small.

Attention, some games can't be edited as they are using LBA position to read files (Chrono cross, Xenogears)

 

[Acidflare]

PS1 doesn't have compression. You need the full ISO.
the wii is not capable of loading zip or rar file, as it would require fast decompression and enough RAM.
there is a compression (ecm format), but it's for storage purpose, you can't play games in compressed form. like explain on the wiki, if you have a ecm format, you will have to restore the file to full iso first.

WiiSX is based off of PCSX-R isn't it? if so it should support Z compression although it breaks a lot of games especially multi disc games. PCSX-R itself isn't capable of applying the Z Compression but Mooby CDR plugin can do it.

 

[Cyan]

I don't know about the Z compression, but I don't think the wii is capable of realtime decompression for files this big.
It requires enough RAM and good CPU speed, and it's already barely emulating games at proper speed.


Snes9xGX with zip compression is fine, 7z is fine at a certain extend. even small filesize decompression is not always possible.

 

[Acidflare]

Yeah try to decompress a <750MB file would be difficult for the little tiny CPU the Wii has installed, a low-end PC today has a bit of trouble playing a game while decompressing it's data.
Z compression for PSX is like WIA for the Wii the game data itself is compressed except Z Compressed images are still playable unlike WIA images for the Wii

 

[Acidflare]

But on another note I find that WiiSX Mod02 works the best especially with Hermes+Rodries 202 cIOS v5.1 installed

 

[ploder]

yes, PS1 games are working the same way.

You can remove unused files (languages?), or replace video with dummy files.

I think you can use CDVD generator, or any basic ISO editor. as long as it contains the .cnf file it should boot fine.

But most PS1 games are already small games (less than 600MB) compared to other console's ISO size it's small.

Attention, some games can't be edited as they are using LBA position to read files (Chrono cross, Xenogears)

Awesome. I know they are small but I'm using a 16GB flash pen because I didn't want to take a gamble on buying a modern 3.0 usb hard drive not on the compatibility list that won't work for Wii. You can't find those old drives on Amazon UK most of the time and certainly not for reasonable prices.
Is there a list somewhere of PS1 games that use LBA position to read files?

Yeah try to decompress a <750MB file would be difficult for the little tiny CPU the Wii has installed, a low-end PC today has a bit of trouble playing a game while decompressing it's data.

Z compression for PSX is like WIA for the Wii the game data itself is compressed except Z Compressed images are still playable unlike WIA images for the Wii

Sounds interesting. I had the idea of shrinking games and then applying z-compression.

But on another note I find that WiiSX Mod02 works the best especially with Hermes+Rodries 202 cIOS v5.1 installed

Could we just have multiple dols of Wiisx in the same folder? That way we could just switch between them.

 

[duffmmann]

PS emulation on Wii is very unstable with really low compatibility, some games are playable while others dont work. Yes, you're better off with something else, I use a Raspberry Pi with RetroPie for psx games.

I wouldn't say the compatibility is "really low," it's actually fairly decent. Many games run at or close to full speed. Yes there are games that don't work at all or error out after awhile, but depending on the games one wants to play, they can get a full playable experience through the latest rev of WiiSX on the Wii.

 

[Acidflare]

Unless you create specific forwarders for your own purpose no you can't have different dols in one folder, but you can edit the meta.xml sheet to state which mod it is. if you are using the system menu and not a usb loader or any other homebrew as a system menu replacement forwarders might be the best way to go.
If you want to use forwarders download CustomizeMii from modmii to get started just don't forget to use the proper boot IOS or WiiSX will fail to work with the forwarder, for example the original WiiSX uses IOS 58, Mod02 uses Hermies cIOS 202 mod03 uses Rodries cIOS 202 v1.1.

I have never heard of mod03 untill Cyan mentioned it in this thread, I wonder if mod02 and mod03 will both work with Hermies+Rodries cIOS 202 v5.1, v5.1 is Hermies cIOS 202 v5.0 with some things added from rodries source i'm pretty sure.

 

[Cyan]

Like acidflare said, you can use multiple folders if you want to use multiple version of WiiSX.
Some games are even working on 2.0 but not on 2.1, so it's useful to keep multiple versions ready to launch.

I uploaded all versions and mods to filetrip.
Look in the menu "Other version : 13".

I think I miss v2.1 mod05
or maybe a version compatible with Ustealth.

 

[Acidflare]

Well Cyan technically you can use system menu apps with the different mod versions if he wants to do it that way. I use a few homebrew with this method myself.

 

[fariasluciano]

Any improvements on Wiisx?

 

[Cyan]

Not for the last 5 years.
Nobody worked on it, and the official team didn't release the beta/progress/fixes they did since 2.1 release.

 

[michele59]

My driver 2 won`t work for me!!
I am tried it on epsxe on my compter.