Game patching idea?

My point about updates/patches is that developers are currently under high pressure to release working and complete games. If they get the option to patch the game after the release they will make use of it.
On the other side, i would love to see an update for Wii Sports with wm+ support.

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

I don't understand. I described how i am able to load another .dol instead of the main.dol. Which can be used for example to load the actual game .dol directly. If the loader loads the actual .dol of the game, you can for example hook into that easily(that's what Gecko OS does for debugging and cheating).

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daniel_c_w

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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?

Yep thats how its done,

Also, we wont need to change how the resources are loaded since we can patch an ios to check if an updated resource is available locally and redirect the file to that, if there is no updated version the one on the disc is used. I say patch the ios since making a new wont allow old games to work but patching it would allow any game to work.

Also, external storage would be required, the reason being is that SD cards are much slower than usb drives (well atleast mine is anyway) and I would prefer to use a storage device that can be loaded from at swift rate rather than a flash sd card. Another reason is that external storage tends to have higher capacity and i have noticed that the main.dol files in wii games vary quite largely in size and so higher capacity would be prefered again.
Price is also important, 32GB SD cards can cost well over the price of a 1TB USB HDD -> [www.amazon.com]

So personally, I would prefer to use an external storage device rather than internal/flash memory

WiiBrew really needs to create some kind petition like thing which we send to Nintendo at varying rates to try and persuade them to give us what we want.

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SteelSLasher
Yep thats how its done,

How did you find that out?

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SteelSLasher
Also, we wont need to change how the resources are loaded since we can patch an ios to check if an updated resource is available locally and redirect the file to that, if there is no updated version the one on the disc is used.

That's a good idea.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2009 07:17PM by daniel_c_w.

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WiiPower

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

I don't understand. I described how i am able to load another .dol instead of the main.dol.

Yes I see. But in your post (the one I originally aimed the question at) you were talking about Metroid Prime.
I assumed you meant: "that is how offical games execute another .dol", not "that is how we can execute and patch another .dol".
Doing the later was never in question, because the homebrew scene has already proven that, obviously.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2009 07:25PM by daniel_c_w.

In the case of metroid prime we could just load the game dol instead of the menu dol and patch the game dol but for the users sake it should be doen via a channel so that people dont freak out



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2009 08:42PM by SteelSLasher.

it would be nice if a separate channel was made to update and apply patches to a game of your choice. (heck we should send something like a request to nintendo)
i for one would love to have an official (or unofficial) channel to do this. patches inserted to an actual game?! that would save nintendo and developers alike.
i vote yes

*cough* GeckoOS *cough*

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daniel_c_w
*cough* GeckoOS *cough*

Last time i checked, every Wii sold comes with wii sports not the HBC, and some games do not work with gecko os, an example being my copy of MoHH2 pal,

since region free isnt needed we only need the patching system not the region check bypass

I am not quite sure if you wanted to make a point?

Just wanted to say, that a homebrew game-patching-channel is already done.

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SteelSLasher

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daniel_c_w
*cough* GeckoOS *cough*

Last time i checked, every Wii sold comes with wii sports not the HBC, and some games do not work with gecko os, an example being my copy of MoHH2 pal,

since region free isnt needed we only need the patching system not the region check bypass

Did you try the latest Gecko OS AND my latest Gecko OS mod? Both are available at:
[wiibrew.org]
and should have a higher compatibility than Gecko OS 1.07b, which could be different for each.

Also the region free capability is nothing that can reduce compatiblity. Nintendo's disc channel checks the disc id and simply refuses to work for import games, while loaders just start all games.

There is one catch in all this patching business.. security...

Nintendo can't simply put the patches or the new content into a harddisk or sd card... it should be secured like savegames for modification... though it will increase the overall complexity of the job, it's still doable...

But there is already a mechanism that can be used to do this thing, downloadable contents that is... a game can be coded to accept certain dlc's to patch itself... though this can not be used for games that doesn't have such patching implementation in them...

And, I agree with WiiPower, if Nintendo had cared for patching the games they would have done that from start... This is not their style... Here is the reasons
1. Patching will confuse people
2. Supporting patching means accepting to fail from the start
3. This is the most important possibly, patching means more people will be aware of a small glitch otherwise taken note by a small number...
4. As introducing new features, they already do it either by making a new product or having games use DLC, note that as I said it can be used for patching but Nintendo didn't do it...

I like to add to your list, that some Virtual console games we're updated.
The user has to download the update on his own, and there is not even a notification, but
IIRC it was mentionend in the front page of the shop channel, once.

I am actually working on a patching method as a component to a translation of a game (Fatal Frame 4). We originally started out using GeckoOS to modify the filesystem loader, but a) none of our three team members knew assembly, b) the filesystem modification code wasn't very portable or easily reusable, and c) GeckoOS had problems with bannerbomb. Since I want to use this on even unmodified Wii's (some people have some sort of homebrew prejudice), that wasn't really acceptable. Since then I've moved to a temporary IOS patch which interrupts the dev/di calls and replaces them with SD calls when necessary. I've got partial code, which will install the IOS, but I'm having a problem because the IOS uses the ARM processor and we don't have any SD FAT filesystem code for it, so we need to parse the filesystem into sectors and then pass it to where the IOS can read it somehow. After that, just the compare disc filesystem to SD filesystem and the call interrupts themselves need to be written. Right now they're just empty modules.

Some applications include translation patches (us), bug/glitch fixes, texture hacks, custom music, removal of the Nintendo warning screen, and various other mods. If anyone wants to check out what we've got so far (most of it by Aaron/AerialX), then I'll pass it to you via e-mail or post a link here. I'm the coder on our team with the most Wii experience, and I only started three months ago (in the middle of doing everything else) so it's a bit of a struggle and I'd appreciate an experienced Wii hand or even just another eager coder to help us finish up the last bits.

The goal of the project is to make an easy patching method for any game on any system for any purpose. We intend to attach a simple frontend to region free and check for physical disk loading, and allow minor content management. Flexible, simple and powerful are the key goals! Post here if you've got any ideas or would like to help us out, or e-mail me at Tempus@inbox.com. If there's interest I'll keep the thread posted with updates until it's done!

Great work :D

If none of you know assembly, how did you achieve things like surpressing the warning screen or bug fixes?

Didn't you create a thread about the project, when you started it?
IIRC it was about a file format.
Great to see you haven't given up.

Did you try to move the entry point of Gecko OS to make it compatible with bannerbomb? That would be my 1st guess why it does not work from it.

Also, Gecko OS contains lots of code not dvd loading related. If you need any help with cutting the unnecessary code out of it, i may be of some help. Another option would be of course to use SoftChip's code.

If you want to make to closed source in order to prevent that your code is used to play backups, ask Nuke if he permits you to release your Gecko OS mod as closed source. I'm almost sure he would allow it.

Already a bunch of stuff implemented fat in ios and they have the sources... namely

1. Bootmii's Mini
2. Wiigator's nifty boot2 hack (http://www.gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=156199)

Not quite sure about the first but I'm sure for the latter...

If we can make a model or system which can allow simple patching of a game and then find a FUBARed game to patch, record footage of the game patched and unpatched, we might then be able to pull some support from bigger people

Tempus, the DS has an ARM cpu so maybe looking at devkitarm might help you

daniel_c_w: Haven't atually done any bugfixes or removal or warning screens yet. All we've done is replace existing content with translation versions inside the in-house RSL files. We've been steadily working since my first post and we've decoded everything essential (text and images, font, event calls, etc...) and this is what we are putting in at this time. I was only talking possibilities - since this would allow for those things if someone would be interested.

WiiPower: we're actually looking at Softchips code a little. While getting bannerbomb to load gecko was an issue, the ability to use this on more games than just one without complicated hacks was also a consideration and a temporary IOS patch is easier in this way. That said, I was planning on using the Gecko DVD loading code as reference for my frontend, since it would make things easier. So I might take you up on that offer. I plan on releasing it open source (at least the frontend) - backup users can already run games with modifications/patches via WiiScrubber, so it's not as if this benefits them in any way. Hell, that's how I test out the modifications we've done!

I.R.on: Thanks for the tip, I'll check it out.

SteelSlasher: Already have devkitARM installed. as for using this to fix FUBARed games, I'm all for it. Bug fixing is never easy though, especially when you've only got the compiled code to work from. The game I'm making this for, Fatal Frame 4, has some bugs - I'm not certain they'd be easy to fix, it's last on my list. Most games contain a separate file for controls - fixing some broken controls might be possible with testing. If you have any ideas then by all means.

I've uploaded what we've got to here. Most of this is thanks to other people. I can post an explanation if requested.

For an example of why we're making this patch, you can check out the translation project site here or the forum (with more actual progress info - but no tech stuff).

For language patching i think i know someone who can help you, but he is on a forum which supports wads and wii roms so its a bit iffy.

Basically, this guy was able to patch a japanese copy of the metroid 1+2 wii control game so all the strings where in english (no translations of pictures), apparently it works great and with no bugs or glitches so it might help to contact him

Edited Out

but until you guys finish anything we cant really do much, i'd help but right now i am working on my own project



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/16/2009 10:13PM by Arikado.

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SteelSLasher
For language patching i think i know someone who can help you, but he is on a forum which supports wads and wii roms so its a bit iffy.

Basically, this guy was able to patch a japanese copy of the metroid 1+2 wii control game so all the strings where in english (no translations of pictures), apparently it works great and with no bugs or glitches so it might help to contact him

Edited Out

but until you guys finish anything we cant really do much, i'd help but right now i am working on my own project

Patching Metroid Prime 1+2 to english, german, french and ... is very easy. The games already contain those languages, and the patch is just changing which language to use.