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Devolution - Gamecube loader for Wii/Wii U updated to r234

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 8:03 am
by noobcube
Hey Everyone,

Devolution, a Gamecube loader for Wii/Wii U, has recently been updated to r234 "Zero Sum". Given that tueidj is active here, perhaps this is as good a place as any to chat about this excellent homebrew program.

From the included readme:
DEVOLUTION: What is it and how do you use it?

Devolution is a loader designed to run Gamecube games on a Wii. Dolphin was the codename
for the Gamecube, Revolution was the codename for the Wii, add them together = Devolution.
Although most Wii models include backwards compatibility for Gamecube games it is rather
limited; support for several Gamecube peripherals is missing, the original wired
controllers must be used, unreliable memory cards are still required for saving games...
It seemed like it should be possible to do things better. So I did...

Devolution currently offers the following enhancements to the regular "Gamecube on Wii"
experience:
- Alternative mediums for loading games (SD and USB)
- Alternative controllers (Wiimote with classic controller, WiiU Pro Controller, PS3
controller, OUYA controller, USB/BT keyboards)
- Alternative mediums as memory cards (SD / USB / NAND)
- Emulation of the Gamecube modem hardware using the Wii's networking hardware (wifi or
wired)
- Wii Family Edition and WiiU support
- Screenshot captures
- Playtime recording on the system menu's daily log
- Horizontal stretching to accomodate underscan areas on newer TVs.
Loader: http://www.tueidj.net/gc_devo.zip
Source: http://www.tueidj.net/gc_devo_src.zip
Compatibility List: http://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/Devolution ... ility_List

Re: Devolution - Gamecube loader for Wii/Wii U updated to r2

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 1:20 pm
by iamdablasta
WiiU pro controller? Hngg!
Very nice tueidj.

Re: Devolution - Gamecube loader for Wii/Wii U updated to r2

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 3:41 pm
by Ashen
I love that Devo's compatibility list is pretty much pure green. :D

OUYA controller support is a pretty nice addition! I've got 4 of them here. I dunno how I missed this.

I didn't realize Devo was open sourced? Or only certain parts of it?

Re: Devolution - Gamecube loader for Wii/Wii U updated to r2

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 4:04 pm
by tueidj
The sample loader app is open to demonstrate how to implement it in other loaders.
The OUYA controller support is complete but the controllers themselves seem to be a bit flaky, they seem to do their own built-in calibration and dead-zone compensation and the trigger sensitivity varies greatly between individual controllers.

Re: Devolution - Gamecube loader for Wii/Wii U updated to r2

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 9:46 pm
by panmusic
Ι just tried r234 and I finally can say that Luigi's Mansion is playable without broken controls!!!
My happiness cannot be expressed enough by words! I had almost lost all my hope about the analog triggers problem (for the launch games) but a miracle just happened!

Tueidj your are a true programming wizard! From the bottom of my heart THANK YOU!!!

P.S The only thing I may request for a future revision is the L3 + R3 Exit Devolution function that is currently exclusive to PS3 controller.
I imagine that this is not very difficult to be implented to Wii U Pro controller too.

Re: Devolution - Gamecube loader for Wii/Wii U updated to r2

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 10:51 pm
by noobcube
Examples like the above and the fact that several problematic games have been removed from the compatibility list are reasons why I asked whether there were more undocumented changes to the program . It would appear that a few graphics and controller fixes have been added to nudge Devolution even closer to 100% compatibility. There was also mention previously that certain games may exhibit slowdown due to program overhead; has this been addressed as well?

Re: Devolution - Gamecube loader for Wii/Wii U updated to r2

Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2014 12:50 am
by tueidj
panmusic wrote:P.S The only thing I may request for a future revision is the L3 + R3 Exit Devolution function that is currently exclusive to PS3 controller.
I imagine that this is not very difficult to be implented to Wii U Pro controller too.
The wiimote/wii u pro don't need an exit button combo, they have a power button...

Re: Devolution - Gamecube loader for Wii/Wii U updated to r2

Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2014 5:10 am
by panmusic
tueidj wrote:
panmusic wrote:P.S The only thing I may request for a future revision is the L3 + R3 Exit Devolution function that is currently exclusive to PS3 controller.
I imagine that this is not very difficult to be implented to Wii U Pro controller too.
The wiimote/wii u pro don't need an exit button combo, they have a power button...

Silly me, I actually never tried it! :lol:

Re: Devolution - Gamecube loader for Wii/Wii U updated to r2

Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2014 3:09 pm
by Nukatha
Only feature that I'd really want to see is GCN controller support when the USB adapter comes out with Smash Bros.

Re: Devolution - Gamecube loader for Wii/Wii U updated to r2

Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 4:59 pm
by Ashen
tueidj,

aside from the disc verification, which no one can really accomplish with this game. Is it possible for Devolution to run the beta GCN version of Metroid Prime 3? The barrier seems to be that the GameCube runs out of RAM when the game is loading. Being that Devo runs in Wii mode, could this barrier be overcome? I know its a single, obscure beta. But, you know, just curious.

Re: Devolution - Gamecube loader for Wii/Wii U updated to r2

Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 7:03 pm
by tueidj
Not without a lot of hackiness. It's simple to make the CPU "see" more memory (by borrowing from mem2), but not so much the GPU/audio interface/video interface.

Re: Devolution - Gamecube loader for Wii/Wii U updated to r2

Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 10:56 pm
by emu_kidid
Is there enough MEM2? I think shuffle2 said it needed 128MB MEM1.

Re: Devolution - Gamecube loader for Wii/Wii U updated to r2

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 12:20 am
by Ashen
Intresting. Thanks for explaining tueidj.

Emu, when run in dolphin it never seems to go above 50mb of memory used. So i thought maybe the Wii's 88mb might be enough. Like i said though, just a curiosity really. Would be cool to have it run on real hardware.

Re: Devolution - Gamecube loader for Wii/Wii U updated to r2

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 12:48 am
by emu_kidid
Yeah it would be cool, still can't believe I found that on a GameCube dev cart :)

Re: Devolution - Gamecube loader for Wii/Wii U updated to r2

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 4:32 am
by Ashen
Yep, now that was an amazing find. How the hell did I miss that back when it happened?

It seems like all that RAM is used converting large textures to a smaller size. I wonder if we dumped the textures and resized them beforehand if we could avoid the RAM overload/crashing. I might have to tinker a bit with the ISO.

That's for another topic though, lets not derail this one too much. :)

Re: Devolution - Gamecube loader for Wii/Wii U updated to r2

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 5:23 pm
by ShadowOne333
I have one problem with RE4 on Devo.
No matter what settings I use, the vertcal lenght of the game doesn't cover my entire screen, while the horizontal one does.
I tried using different video settings, widescreen, everything and is still the same.

It looks as if I were watching a cutscene with two black borders on the top and bottom of the game while in core gameplay.

Re: Devolution - Gamecube loader for Wii/Wii U updated to r2

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 5:35 pm
by badsector
I get the same result when playing RE4 (PAL) with forced 480p on the GameCube, because 576p does not work. Are you using a PAL image, too?

Re: Devolution - Gamecube loader for Wii/Wii U updated to r2

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 6:06 pm
by tueidj
ShadowOne333 wrote:I have one problem with RE4 on Devo.
No matter what settings I use, the vertcal lenght of the game doesn't cover my entire screen, while the horizontal one does.
I tried using different video settings, widescreen, everything and is still the same.

It looks as if I were watching a cutscene with two black borders on the top and bottom of the game while in core gameplay.
Not sure why you're saying that's a problem with Devolution, haven't you played the game normally and seen that it does the same thing?

Also you obviously haven't tried the latest build with widescreen patching on...

Re: Devolution - Gamecube loader for Wii/Wii U updated to r2

Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2014 4:09 pm
by Nukatha
Given that the Wii U's disk slot appears to have the same mini-dvd compatibility as the Wii ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txk_ltGAI1w ), is it within the realm of possibilities to allow games to run on the Wii U off of the original disk?

Re: Devolution - Gamecube loader for Wii/Wii U updated to r2

Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2014 4:22 pm
by tueidj
That video shows the drive can't read the disc at all because it's too small.

Re: Devolution - Gamecube loader for Wii/Wii U updated to r2

Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2014 9:05 pm
by Nukatha
Really? I thought it showed the mechanics worked since it was accepted and the ejected without breaking the thing. (Serious here, please explain)

Re: Devolution - Gamecube loader for Wii/Wii U updated to r2

Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 1:46 am
by noobcube
By design, the Wii U cannot recognize the disc and spits it out.

Re: Devolution - Gamecube loader for Wii/Wii U updated to r2

Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 2:19 am
by tueidj
Nukatha wrote:Really? I thought it showed the mechanics worked since it was accepted and the ejected without breaking the thing. (Serious here, please explain)
If you listen you can hear it keeps trying to pull the disc in further. It's too small to trigger the spindle latching mechanism so after a while it gives up and ejects it.

Re: Devolution - Gamecube loader for Wii/Wii U updated to r2

Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 8:30 am
by wii_HD
noobcube wrote:By design, the Wii U cannot recognize the disc and spits it out.
Image

Re: Devolution - Gamecube loader for Wii/Wii U updated to r2

Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 8:39 am
by noobcube
wii_HD wrote:Image
Have you actually tried this? Seem to recall that others have used an adapter and the Wii U still rejected the disc.