Hacking [WIP] Wii U Development Tutorial

[QuarkTheAwesome]

Concerns have come up surrounding teaching a tempoary, unclean environment (browserhax). As such, this project is on hold for now and I won't be writing any more content until further notice. Read thread page 2 for details. Sorry about that.

I've now started writing a Wii U Development tutorial! Please help me edit it on Google Docs, that'd be awesome.

I just need people to read over it and make suggestions (I feel like there are quite a few holes in it so far.) If you want to write a few paragraphs I won't say no ;3
It's set up so you should be able to make suggestions and stuff pretty easily.
Also, keep in mind that my Wii U is on 5.5.1 so if I post any code that doesn't work on another version, please let me know!

At present (22nd April 16), the plan is:

1. Intro [written, draft]
2. Chapter 1 - Before the Basics (learning C) [written, draft]
   1. External Tutorials [written, draft]
   2. Test Yourself [written, draft]
3. Chapter 2 - Let's get that Wii U Running! [written, draft]
   1. IDE, not IDA [written, draft]
   2. Compiling [written, draft, high priority (needs work)]
   3. Right! Let's Compile! [written, draft, high priority (important info)]
   4. Running on the U [written, draft, high priority (ditto)]
4. Chapter 3 - Wii U Programming Basics [written, draft]
   1. The Mystery of the Missing Standard Libraries [written, draft]
      
   2. Pointing to the Code [written, draft] (OSDynLoad and pointers if you can't figure out my titles ;3)
      
   3. Limitations [written, draft, low priority]
5. Chapter 4 - Browserhax, the Kernel, and the IOSU [written, draft] (PLEASE DO NOT DISCUSS BELOW!!!!!!)
   1. Browserhax Userspace [written, draft]
      
   2. Kernel [written, draft]
      
   3. IOSU [written, draft, high priority (touchy subject)]
      1. Thanks to chettibi tarik for being an awesome writing buddy during this bit. Sorry I took so long getting a keyboard ;3
6. Chapter 5 - Are your Buttons Working? [unwritten]
   1. Here we take apart the "template" project from libwiiu/osscreenexamples/template.
   2. I'm not really sure how the headings will go.
   3. I can easily swap this to a different project; but it's too late for that - I've started writing it!
7. Chapter 6 - Adding the Sticks [unwritten] (Where the rubber really hits the road!)
   1. Here we add the locations of the sticks to the "template" project.
   2. Again, I can swap this if I need to but I'd like to know ahead of time ;3
8. Chapter 7 - It's Dangerous to Go Alone, take these links [unwritten, low priority]
   1. WiiUBrew [unwritten, low priority]
      
   2. libwiiu [unwritten, low priority]
      
   3. The 5.5.x ELF Loader [unwritten, low priority]
      
   4. A Quick Note on Elves [unwritten]
      
   5. WiiUBru (not ew, U!) [unwritten, optional]
9. Outro [unwritten]

Holey moley, I've set myself a lot of work.

Big thanks to all of you who are helping! @filfat, thanks for basically rewriting everything in a far more professional way! It's awesome. Also thanks to flashcardsinfo (couldn't find a GBATemp, sorry) for pointing out how shoddy my C self-test was and helping me fix it (the original had pointer arithmetic! Ew!) Also thanks to all of you who are reading it and generally showing your support. It really helps ;3

Spoiler: Original Post (explains first few replies)

Lately, I've seen too many people getting angry around the forums at trolls. AFAIK this seems to be because they don't know how to program on the WiiU but they still want to be active in the community. This leads me to my question - would tutorials on getting into WiiU programming (should they be written) be appreciated and/or required?

For obvious reasons, you probably wouldn't need to be talking about basics. That's what HOCs and interactive C tutorials are for. I'm thinking about stuff like OSDynLoad and the general WiiU code flow, which can be a bit weird to get your head around. I'm also thinking a quick line-by-line on the OSScreen/"template" example from libwiiu.

I don't know, just poking around to see if anyone would want something like this. I reckon it'd be useful, but I've been wrong before ;3

Late update 23/04/2016 - Moved pointer basics down into chapter 3, wrote chapter 3, wrote chapter 4, fixed the last edit message that was just plain wrong. How did I manage that?

 

[handy333]

Its unanimous.

 

[ryuutseku85]

yes , inedded it would be really welcome .

i think the first one that sould be done is explaining to people how to use , existing code to make they own .

for example take the snake code , get rid of the snake game , begin to write the new game and addapt.

 

[ajd4096]

Yes, as long as it is primarily plain old text. You can't search youtube videos for code snippets.

 

[QuarkTheAwesome]

I've started throwing together a bit of a plan on Google Docs, feel free to take a nosey and suggest some stuff.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pOuBGlLmDVYBtKy4aU7RKi0R0R7xojcgFJ_S4ekmN5o/edit?usp=sharing

 

[YugamiSekai]

If only there were updated 3ds tutorials.

 

[aracom]

Why do you even ask? It's pretty obvious that we need some more actual content in here

 

[QuarkTheAwesome]

Finally drafted all the basics and concepts, looks like I can finally start writing about actual programming ;D
If any of you guys could just skim what I've got so far and point out the many flaws that'd be awesome.

 

[Dylon99]

Yes please, good tutorials and useful guides help people who want to get into homebrew. It makes it way easier for them.

 

[cmdj13]

I read through it quickly, first impression is 'very nice'
I will look into the details later, but as I said, I think it is really nice ans Jeep up the good work!

 

[QuarkTheAwesome]

Finished writing up Chapter 5! Huzzah!

I plan to explain specific functions while going through the example.

 

[ryuutseku85]

Nice , i will read it completely and give you my opinions

 

[mznova]

This is awesome! Thanks so much for taking the time to write it.

 

[filfat]

I'll take a look at writing some actual content "soon-ish"

 

[QuarkTheAwesome]

Holey moley @filfat, just went online quickly to find you've basically rewritten the tutorial. I think I love you.

 

[vgmoose]

Hey thanks for this so far! It's super in-depth and exactly the sort of thing I would've loved to have when I was started. I'd be happy to contribute instructions and a demo project on drawing "images/sprites" with OSScreen-- unless there's a more user friendly way with GX2.

 

[oumoumad]

The best and most advanced application made in the Wii U homebrew scene I believe is Loadiine GX2.
So if I choose a methodology for this, I'd definitely take Dimok's, it has proven to be the most successful, not only he made a great application but he made it supported by multiple firmware versions at the same time And easy for other developers to add extra stuff.
You should definitely contact Dimok and ask for his input.

 

[QuarkTheAwesome]

Hey thanks for this so far! It's super in-depth and exactly the sort of thing I would've loved to have when I was started. I'd be happy to contribute instructions and a demo project on drawing "images/sprites" with OSScreen-- unless there's a more user friendly way with GX2.

This would be awesome, but I'm not sure it's within the scope of this tutorial. We can always write another! There's a few graphics things that I'd like to cover too, but again, I'm unsure if it fits within this particular tutorial.

The best and most advanced application made in the Wii U homebrew scene I believe is Loadiine GX2.
So if I choose a methodology for this, I'd definitely take Dimok's, it has proven to be the most successful, not only he made a great application but he made it supported by multiple firmware versions at the same time And easy for other developers to add extra stuff.
You should definitely contact Dimok and ask for his input.

Dimok's code is awesome but I can't make heads or tails of it. Sorry.

 

[Margen67]

Awesome.
I can't wait for the online version of Pong

 

[iAqua]

I'm gonna do a bit of suggesting. Guide looks awesome. Nice job.