Discussion Announcing Hiidra

[Aurelio]

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Hey everyone. For the past few weeks or so I have been working on a massive software project for Wii portablizing. This is something I have been wanting to work on for so long, but I never got to actually start doing it, until now.
Hiidra is going to be a custom kernel for the Wii with the main purpose of allowing an easy injection of IOS modules and game patches, by simply loading them from the USB drive. This will be the core of portablizemii and it will also replace neek2o for Wii games and VC titles. The VGA patches, WiiHUD and the Wiimote emulation hacks will all be included in this.
I am also working hard to make sure to make it as stable as possible, trying to increase the USB compatibility with respect to neek2o.

The name was obviously inspired by the greek mithology creature, with the idea of each head representing a custom module/patch loaded by Hiidra. However, no heads chopping is involved. This definitely calls for a logo, so if you have ideas, please take a step forward.

The current status of Hiidra is the following:
-Fully on-the-fly kernel injection and loading
-USB media storage support implemented
-FS module for emunand completely implemented

Next TODO on the list are ES and DIP modules. The first one is required for booting any title, while the second is required for emulating the disc drive.

Also, Hiidra will be COMPLETELY open source. The whole kernel implementation will be released on github, along with WiiHUD and the other hacks. I will also release example code and related documentation for you to develop your own IOS modules and safely run them under Hiidra's emunand. The code will also allow you to easily interface pretty much any i2c device to the Wii.

This project is made possible by the amazing support I am getting on Patreon. My patrons have been following the development of this system for the past few weeks. If you want to help me developing this, my patreon is in my signature

I will make sure to post more details in the next weeks.

 

[cheese]

-USB media storage support implemented

Don't worry I can fix that ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

[HackerBilly]

Hail Hiidra

 

[xsping]

usb compatibility is the most needed！hope it will be improved

 

[Aurelio]

usb compatibility is the most needed！hope it will be improved

Tests already showed better compatibility than neek2o, however SanDisk USB drives still don't work. They somehow hang after few write cycles. I will try to get them to work

 

[antonioks]

Oh yes congratulations, I think now I can use emulate the wii remote on my wii, without giving the black screen in games.

 

[Fruity_Grebbles]

Eh?

(I'll make it better if you like it. This was just thrown together from clipart)

 

[Aurelio]

Eh?

(I'll make it better if you like it. This was just thrown together from clipart)

@Pablo_The_Great already made one, but I like your idea as well lol

 

[Fruity_Grebbles]

@Pablo_The_Great already made one, but I like your idea as well lol
View attachment 9552

Ooh, sleek. I know when I'm beat.

 

[pikapark201]

Quick question Aurelio: will there be a way to have Riivloution-style patches? Just curious

 

[Aurelio]

Quick question Aurelio: will there be a way to have Riivloution-style patches? Just curious

Uhm I would like to implement them, but probably not for the first release.

 

[The_Smeags]

Eh?

(I'll make it better if you like it. This was just thrown together from clipart)

I like that one lol

 

[Davve_DP]

Perhaps you could consider asking for support on GBAtemp. There are plenty of guys who know their stuff over there and seen as it’s open source I don’t see why not. Just an idea

 

[havocb]

Do you think we will see improvements in n64 rom play-ability with this? Some of them now are really temperamental.

 

[Aurelio]

Do you think we will see improvements in n64 rom play-ability with this? Some of them now are really temperamental.

No, I can't do much about that

 

[Xerehm]

The code will also allow you to easily interface pretty much any i2c device to the Wii.

I can tell this has really big potential, but not being the smartest guy myself, does anyone have any examples or maybe future plans for cool things that utilize this feature?

 

[jefflongo]

I can tell this has really big potential, but not being the smartest guy myself, does anyone have any examples or maybe future plans for cool things that utilize this feature?

One example is WiiHUD, which enables features such as your PMS being able to tell the Wii the current battery percentage, and have the Wii draw the battery percentage on the screen. It essentially gives the ability for the Wii to communicate with programmable external hardware.

 

[Xerehm]

One example is WiiHUD, which enables features such as your PMS being able to tell the Wii the current battery percentage, and have the Wii draw the battery percentage on the screen. It essentially gives the ability for the Wii to communicate with programmable external hardware.

sorry, i should have mentioned i knew about WiiHUD, i was wondering if there were any other applications I couldn't think of :/

(also, off topic but do you need specific hardware (PCBs) for WiiHUD? if yes, would that ever be on the BB store?)

 

[Commandblock6417]

Seems very promising. I, as a Greek, approve the name and the logo, though for the latter you may want to look into the ancient greek pottery and arts regarding the myth of Hercules and the Hydra. In any case, hail hydra!

 

[pikapark201]

I like mythology so I like it too. Personally I really feel like drawing art for it, just too busy. I'll try to maybe do it, can't make any promises though. Oh and Aurelio if it helps (not sure if you already know this) the Gecko OS source code is Available in case you ever wanna do gecko codes.