Game patching idea?

I was just reading about HVS trying to fix some glitches in conduit and i was wondering if it would be possible to create a channel that would load the game but also patch the memory in such a way that it fixes the bugs.

This has been done on the ds for chinatown wars where an action replay code was used to stop the game freezing when load a save file so i was wondering if it can be done here.

It can!
Someone just as to figure out how to code the patches..
GeckoOs allows you to do this, Most Homebrewers in the Community play Brawl+ as apposed to Brawl because of the lack of competitiveness in Brawl, and it actually patches the game.

Well, I doubt the official developers will support a Gecko OS patch...

Off-topic: Is brawl+ just a Gecko OS code? I thought it was a hacked "backup"

Brawl+ is just Gecko OS.

And yes, of course basic pathcing can be done.
The question is: how can the patch come to the game.
Maybe HVS prepared the conduit to be patched.

Im not talking about GeckOS bieng patched...nor did I say that.
I stated that GeckOs through Ocarina can load Hex code to patch games.

And brawl+ uses GeckoOs and Ocarina to load standard brawl with hacks.

god nintendo's programmers must be s**t if they cant figure out how to do this, i know they patched the system for wii sports resort but that was something that could be fixed on the system if it couldnt be fixed on the system what would they do.

Also, i was thinking that to be able to patch games easily a mass storage of some sort most be plugged in the back, when the game first loads through a custom disc channel it copies the main.dol file to the storage device and uses the disc as authentication. When an update occurs it just updates the main.dol on the device which when loaded uses the resources of the disc.

Its just like the USB Loader but more legal and less unethical

I guess thats not a teribble idea, but I'd say more than the .dol would need copied. basically it'd need to "install" the game on the storage device the first time it is run, then patch it from there. coincidently, this would also improve the game's performance - loading would be faster. I reckon Nintendo should release an Official Hard Drive, and a new system menu as well, and thorugh this patch games. But I highly doubt that will happen. Would be awesome though.

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SteelSLasher
Also, i was thinking that to be able to patch games easily a mass storage of some sort most be plugged in the back

No, patches do not need so much space.
(The Xbox 360 does it in 4MB)

You're right. But discs cant be patched, and the Wii isnt designed to patch games on the fly, so he suggested that the game could be copied to a storage device (i.e. a hard drive) then the game could be patched there, and the disc is just used to launch it from there.

What exactly do you need to patch? Currently when you use a loader, you can patch the main.dol or even replace it completely. I have the code to load a .dol from sd card and run the game disc with that instead of the main.dol. Do you want it? (It's for a Gecko OS 1.07b mod)

Hmm, maybe that would work better. But in a homebrew context - whats the point? We can load a .dol with HBC, I dont see any point in loading a disc with a new .dol in it. It would probably only be useful for an official patching system, which wouldnt use homebrew obviously.

The idea is the same:
While loading a disc game's executable into memory, patch it.
Can be done with a new system menu / IOS

Even the biggest patches shouldn't be above 1MB.

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daniel_c_w
The idea is the same:
While loading a disc game's executable into memory, patch it.
Can be done with a new system menu / IOS

Even the biggest patches shouldn't be above 1MB.

If nintendo supported the use of USB drives we could patch the executable on the USB drive instead

Also, some games such as the metroid prime wii play controls remake might not be able to be patched via memory since it does an ios swap between loading the savegame and playing it.

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SteelSLasher
If nintendo supported the use of USB drives we could patch the executable on the USB drive instead

Also, some games such as the metroid prime wii play controls remake might not be able to be patched via memory since it does an ios swap between loading the savegame and playing it.

I had the same concern, thinking about SSBB's Virtual console demos.
But I am not sure, how official titles execute other applications, and therefore I said nothing baout that.
The question is: do developers have to make sure, their applications can be patched?

Anyway: Why is everybody (not just here, but almost everywhere) so eager to point out that an exetrnal storage device, or even a harddrive is needed? The Wii already has an internal storage dvice, big enough for that.

As mentioned before, there's already code to load another .dol instead of the main.dol for a game. The size of the .dol can be even totally different. And with a completely replaced main.dol, the game could load additional/replaced files from sd/usb instead of the disc if that was required. The homebrew scene can use that to patch whatever into games, but nintendo is just plain not going to add this. As it's now, you can play every game that comes on a disc without internet connection. If the developers get the chance to add patches, they will use this chance ==> You will need an internet connection in the future, pc, xbox and ps3 game patches are enough proof for that. I really doubt that would be ok for nintendo, to me this would not fit into their strategy.

About Metroid Prime 1: The IOS Reload would not be the problem with it. The problem would be that the main.dol is only used for the main menu and the actual game uses another .dol.

Well, could the second dol be moved to SD/USB, and can then be loaded by a patched original dol, and the second dol then has access to SD/USB as well. Would that work?

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WiiPower
As mentioned before, there's already code to load another .dol instead of the main.dol for a game.

Yes, but how does that work?

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WiiPower
You will need an internet connection in the future, pc, xbox and ps3 game patches are enough proof for that.

Proof for what?
You do not need an Internet connection to start any Xbox360 game

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SifJar
Well, could the second dol be moved to SD/USB, and can then be loaded by a patched original dol, and the second dol then has access to SD/USB as well. Would that work?

Propably not, because the games are likely hardcoded to use the disc.
But in your scenario, that could propably patched as well.

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SifJar
Well, could the second dol be moved to SD/USB, and can then be loaded by a patched original dol, and the second dol then has access to SD/USB as well. Would that work?

Yes of course. You would just need to change the code that loads from disc to loading from nand/sd/usb, i have no idea how to do it exactly, but i know it's possible.

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daniel_c_w

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WiiPower
As mentioned before, there's already code to load another .dol instead of the main.dol for a game.

Yes, but how does that work?

Technically? Dirty. It loads the main.dol as regular, while storing the information where it was loaded. After finishing the apploader, it clears that data then, loads the other .dol, sets the entrypoint to the one from the other .dol and proceeds as regular. It works for example to jump directly into the game in Metroid Prime 1.

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daniel_c_w

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WiiPower
You will need an internet connection in the future, pc, xbox and ps3 game patches are enough proof for that.

Proof for what?
You do not need an Internet connection to start any Xbox360 game

No you don't. But tell me how many games are there that really need a patch to be playable? I mean stupid stuff like, can't get past level 3 without the patch? Also how many games are there that get content that should have been there in the 1st place with updates? Sorry, i don't need such stuff. Also i think that does not fit into nintendo's family console strategy.

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WiiPower
But tell me how many games are there that really need a patch to be playable? I mean stupid stuff like, can't get past level 3 without the patch?

AFAIK on the 360: none (but I wouldn't be surpirsed, if there are one or 2, or even 5 examples for that)
On the Wii: I know two examples: Super Paper Mario (PAL) (imho minor), and Gutitar Hero 3 (doesn't hinder playback, but mono sound in a music game is an issue, imho). In both cases, replacement discs were offered.


I am not quite sure what is your point?
What is your stance on patching games?

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WiiPower
Technically? Dirty. It loads the main.dol as regular, while storing the information where it was loaded. After finishing the apploader, it clears that data then, loads the other .dol, sets the entrypoint to the one from the other .dol and proceeds as regular. It works for example to jump directly into the game in Metroid Prime 1.

Is that the way Wii games, that are spread over multiple .dols, use?

EDIT: rephrased qestions.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2009 02:45AM by daniel_c_w.