Hacking WiiFlow - an open source GUI USB-Loader

[AbdallahTerro]

Banner support is here

Nice Job Fix

 

[PolloDiablo]

[yt]FMg-lZVQu_E[/yt]
Just felt like making a video

awesome!
now we just have to make a new skin and arrange the buttons to the bottom

 

[AbdallahTerro]

Fix Banner support is awesome, thanks a billion

Some observations & recommendations:

1. There are 3 sizes of banners Full screen, Small framed and small unframed like in the following 3 screenshots:

Spoiler

Only last one looks ugly

Recommendation 1: Crop the banner display area to the small size and force black frame outside.

Of course Buttons are in the way so

Recommendation 2: Hide them while wiimote is away
or rearrange them at the bottom like this for instance:

Spoiler

Recommendation 3: Add icon support in icon-flow view mode (if possible or in simple grid similar to GX mode would do the trick.

Regarding Wiiflow icons: Since "About" and "Settings" are accessible through Home-Menu now
Recommendation 4: We can replace their icons with dedicated "Select View mode" i.e. covers vs icons and "Select Source" button. this way you can get rid of most of the shortcuts
example:

Spoiler

Recommendation 5: Add baner cache support and custom banners download

Old Recommendation 6: Add support for magix#.png in source menu folder where this PNG is used when no game cover is present - you may also add wii.png Gc.png Nand.png and emuNand.png homebrew.png for completion sake (why not )

Old Recommendation 7: New Wiiflow loading logo

Abz

 

[crwys]

I tried the new banner version but its really buggy.
I get code dumps on other themes
And on the current theme it displays only one banner, then I can't switch to a new game or anything. Its stuck on that banner.

Edit:
NVM Its just my old ciosd2x.
I reinstalled the latest and better bases 56, 57 and it seems to be more stable now.

 

[bostonBC]

[yt]FMg-lZVQu_E[/yt]
Just felt like making a video

Sweet... I was going to request if you could add what they did with the latest USB Loader GX

 

[shortz1994]

sweet. banners are here, hope they are more stable then gx, i hate that you HAVE to use the regular wii theme.(menu is plain white.) for the buttons to show up.( the PLAY an SETTINGS, an is the reason i switched back to wiiflow, an i'm happy i did.)
i hope this will not be the case with wiiflow.
since every one is giving input.
1 keep the covers like they are showing up, make the banners show up after you choose the game.( when the box flips around, then the banner comes up.)
2 keep the buttons the way they are,( they are already transparent,so they really don't take away from the banner) let the banner take the whole screen.(like ABZ'S #1 spoiler. ) looks a lot cleaner. i hate the empty space or the cropping of the banner.
3 this will give me an excuse to make menu banners for movies using mplayer, or if wiimc gets working music banners (love to see metallica,korn,and slipnot. banners ).
for every one who is asking for me to show how i changed the color of the txt, an my custom box colors, sorry my sd card reader crapped out, so had to order a new one, also a new mouse.( i hate using tab button to navigate). as soon as i get those, i'll upload every thing i did.( i have to look at the ini i changed. can't remember what line i changed to get txt to change.). kinda weird that no one else know how to do it, seeing that they make themes an have to write ini's. . if they do understand why are they not telling others how to do it.
great work FIXA94.

 

[failburn]

Anyone perhaps have some steps for me to try.

I've gotten all aspects of NAND emulation working, with the exception of actually launching anything from the NAND.

Everything's recognized, I just get the classic black screen/non-load when I actually try to launch anything from the emu-nand.

I've checked all my cIOS'es etc, and everything's up to date. Modmii checks out etc. All other aspects of my setup are currently working.

Any tips for troubleshooting?

 

[FIX94]

So, just finished new test rev, lemme know again what you think:
[yt]zzHrB3IJ0t0[/yt]
And also a new download link if you wanna test by yourself:
http://www.mediafire.com/?i3fw8a976z25zoa

 

[kineticUk]

I have not used the newest version with banners but it will be good if FIX94 can get them working stable with wiiflow... looks really nice well done mate.

1. Like shortz1994 says, can you have the banners show only when a box is selected in the coverflow with "A"?
This would be great.

2. Could they all be made to fit the screen if possible so everything looks really clean neat tidy. Edit: Just watched the latest video and it looks good, neat.

3. I'd love if those buttons/game options could be shown/hidden with "+" on the wiimote after a game is selected in coverflow with "A". They should be hidden by default.
And the look of them across the bottom of the screen like in Abz's picture, that looks very clean and pro. Tidy. That should be the default style.

4. Also what abz mentioned last in his last post about getting rid of some of the shortcuts... This is a good idea, hopefuly free up a button on the wiimote preferably "+" to show/hide game settings as mentioned.

Thanks a lot and nice work.

I've gotten all aspects of NAND emulation working, with the exception of actually launching anything from the NAND.
Any tips for troubleshooting?

I just wanna check with you, do you have your emu nand on sd?
I have reported a bug with nand coverflow, it only works on my real nand or when emunand on usb but not on sd.
http://code.google.c...es/detail?id=95

 

[failburn]

I just wanna check with you, do you have your emu nand on sd?
I have reported a bug with nand coverflow, it only works on my real nand or when emunand on usb but not on sd.
http://code.google.c...es/detail?id=95

I have not, I was just reading this issue you posted.
I'm going to try tonight after work, however the issue I was having didn't match up with yours otherwise.
I'm able to identify the Nand, AND all the software on it. I don't have a problem with WiiFlow being able to 'build' the emulated Nand, and execute the cover flow on it.

It's just actually starting an app, causes a soft-freeze/black screen.

 

[fishears]

So, just finished new test rev, lemme know again what you think:
[yt]zzHrB3IJ0t0[/yt]
And also a new download link if you wanna test by yourself:
http://www.mediafire.com/?i3fw8a976z25zoa

Now THAT is f##king nice
...but I keep getting dumped to HBC when I try to load a game. And getting reloads when pressing B after viewing any non-wii cover. Also my emu covers don't load. R522 works perfect.

 

[kineticUk]

I'm able to identify the Nand, AND all the software on it. I don't have a problem with WiiFlow being able to 'build' the emulated Nand, and execute the cover flow on it.
It's just actually starting an app, causes a soft-freeze/black screen.

Right, when I re-read your post it sounded like a different problem.
I haven't used nand coverflow much yet cause its on my sd but the only thing I noticed last time I checked was that I was returned to system menu not wiiflow when I exit a program on emunand.
Apart from that I would check the video, nand emulation and IOS settings in your coverflow and retry loading the channels a few times (my wiiflow on r506, any changes to game settings always caused a black screen on 1st load for me, 2nd load onwards they worked so..)
Hope you get your problem sorted and if you do try nand coverflow off sd card let me know if it works for you, you can post reply to that issue. Just wanna know its not just my setup cause that would suck.

 

[failburn]

...I was returned to system menu not wiiflow when I exit a program on emunand.

I believe if you change the settings of "Exit To" to WiiFlow as opposed to system default (Which I'd assume it is now) That should solve that issue at least.

 

[kineticUk]

I believe if you change the settings of "Exit To" to WiiFlow as opposed to system default (Which I'd assume it is now) That should solve that issue at least.

It was set to "exit to wiiflow" so I dunno... its no big deal but only problem I had when I used my nand coverflow last.

 

[bostonBC]

So, just finished new test rev, lemme know again what you think:
[yt]zzHrB3IJ0t0[/yt]
And also a new download link if you wanna test by yourself:
http://www.mediafire...i3fw8a976z25zoa

This is great but I am seeing some artifacts when you use the left and right arrow keys to switch games.

Looks like there is an 8 pixel artifact on the left side of the screen when displaying certain games and the bottom quarter shows the old coverflow on some games.

Also it would be great if you could toggle between the regular coverflow cover selection and the new banner display.

I propose that there be an ini entry to select which is the default and when you are on the screen pressing minus (-) toggles between the new banner and other display.

For those having problems loading games - as always try deleting your apps/wiiflow/wiiflow.ini file and having WiiFlow recreate it. I tested this rev with a number of games and didn't have a crash.

 

[Maxternal]

Seeing these banners I was reminded of a couple older posts that I dug up and quoted for this

That pic is exactly how I would love to have it if I get game banner videos to work Well atm its not possible...

Assuming I understood [member='fix94']'s intentions on this post, I really like the idea. It would be cool to have the smaller banner image placed where the "game trailer" box is in the above pic.

EDIT : Just a clarification, when I say "smaller banner image" I'm referring to the smaller image where 12 fit on the screen at a time in the System Menu, the UNSELECTED banner, to put it in other words.

Fix Banner support is awesome, thanks a billion

Some observations & recommendations:

1. There are 3 sizes of banners Full screen, Small framed and small unframed like in the following 3 screenshots:

Spoiler

Only last one looks ugly

Recommendation 1: Crop the banner display area to the small size and force black frame outside.

Of course Buttons are in the way so

Recommendation 2: Hide them while wiimote is away
or rearrange them at the bottom like this for instance:

Spoiler

Recommendation 3: Add icon support in icon-flow view mode (if possible or in simple grid similar to GX mode would do the trick.

Regarding Wiiflow icons: Since "About" and "Settings" are accessible through Home-Menu now
Recommendation 4: We can replace their icons with dedicated "Select View mode" i.e. covers vs icons and "Select Source" button. this way you can get rid of most of the shortcuts
example:

Spoiler

Recommendation 5: Add baner cache support and custom banners download

Old Recommendation 6: Add support for magix#.png in source menu folder where this PNG is used when no game cover is present - you may also add wii.png Gc.png Nand.png and emuNand.png homebrew.png for completion sake (why not )

Old Recommendation 7: New Wiiflow loading logo

Abz

I must say I agree with almost all the recommendations here.
#3 : What would be really cool would to have an OPTION to replace the cover images on the boxes and change the shape of the box to the size of the small banner icons with the icon animation in full motion on it's front (or just floating like when "box_mode=no" in the INI).

#4 : Just a little hesitant with the idea of actually replacing any existing buttons for those users who actually like those buttons at present. One thing that could be done is the ability to click on the small banner in the "game trailer" position above to activate it.

#7 : Wanted to quote this post as a suggestion.

OK, quickly done this while i had a spare min, but off to do work work now

That is very nice but the app is currently set to display 1 of 5 png's with a .3 second delay between each. I dummied these up but I like the original dot..dot one.

(http://makeagif.com/i/d0Y2aj)

 

[bostonBC]

Nice... I played with r527 for a bit and saw some more graphic oddities when switching games. Switching from some games results in a cropped bottom display and then switching again results in a whitespace in the same location. You may need to clear the buffer to black between loads.

I kind of prefer the full screen approach of the new USB Loader GX but this is a nice addition.

 

[matto21]

Wiiflow r517, DIOS MIOS v2.0
games GameCube, Discex - GCReEx
error :
area! al error App-entry is not within the apploade
Help
thanks

That would be an issue with DM, not WiiFlow.
see DM FAQ

USB loaderGX, and configurable usbloader is ok
DM is not the problem

 

[Maxternal]

Nice... I played with r527 for a bit and saw some more graphic oddities when switching games. Switching from some games results in a cropped bottom display and then switching again results in a whitespace in the same location. You may need to clear the buffer to black between loads.

I kind of prefer the full screen approach of the new USB Loader GX but this is a nice addition.

Spoiler

That looks cool. I still think it would be better with the small, unselected icon in that position and then click it to see the full screen version.
At least when it's small like that, the bottom that's usually covered with two buttons the system menu could be cropped out without it being noticed as much.

 

[kineticUk]

At least when it's small like that, the bottom that's usually covered with two buttons the system menu could be cropped out without it being noticed as much.

Would be nice if the wiiflow buttons were there instead along the bottom. They wouldn't need to be transparent/hidden as they don't get in the way of anything...

Spoiler

Like in this pic but rearrange the different icons from left to Back, Hand (I don't know what that does, parental?), Star, Delete, Settings, Play on the right.. something like that.