Triiforce MRC user guide
revision 7 (Added a FAQ section at the end)


UPDATE Jan 17, 2010
New SD FREE VERSION! Triiforce_mrc_SS available! - This is a USB only version. You must have your nand files and a triiforce_mrc folder on the root of your USB device. You can have your apps folder on an SD card OR your USB device.
TRIIFORCE_MRC_SS_USB_ONLY.rar


Source: triiforce_mrc_ss_source.rar



New! - WiiWare Image Pack for Triiforce MRC
I spent some time and created many of the game images from scratch. This file has game images for 168 WiiWare games in it.
triiforce_mrc_WiiWare_images.rar



Triiforce MRC REQUIRES cIOS 38 rev 14, 15 or 17. rev 16 is NOT SUPPORTED.

***Triiforce MRC can not load a nand on an SDHC card. Your nand folders must be on a usb device OR an SD card.***


Triiforce is a Homebrew application that allows you to run WiiWare off of an emulated NAND backup of your Wii.

So why not just install a Wii Ware wad and move it to the SD card and run it from there? Well apparently, before the Wii can run it, it copies it to the Wii's NAND and runs it which is even worse than installing it directly to the NAND due to it writing it every time you load the Wii Ware game. Also, adding or removing multiple WiiWare games is done in a few seconds.

Another advantage to running Triiforce is that you can exceed the 512MB storage limit that the Wii has. Some Wii Ware wad files are close to 50MB and can quickly eat up your Wii's storage space preventing you from saving games.

There are other advantages as well beyond saving wii-NAND space. You will be able to add cheat codes to your games and you will be able to run your games in other wii consoles.



What is required before using Triiforce
A Wii
cIOS 38 rev14, rev15 or rev17 already installed (aka: IOS38-64-v3610) - rev16 not supported
BootMii already installed
SD card (Using a 2GB SanDisk Class 2 for this guide)
AND/OR
USB device (external USB2.0 hard drive OR flash drive)


System Menu's and the users whom have verified as working with triiforce in this guide
4.2U - Sinyk
4.2J - JuNyA8971
4.1U - emuhack
4.1E - Kensai D
4.0U - pedeu
4.0E - genius2008
3.2U - Stomp_442


***Download this if you are just starting out with Triiforce***
- Triiforce_Pack_R2.2 - updated Jan 20th

(Copy the apps, triiforce_mrc and WAD directories to your USB device root or SD card root. Copy the Windows Programs folder to your computer. There are 4 versions of triiforce in .rar files in the apps/triiforce folder. Pick which version you want to use and unrar the boot.dol file into the same folder you are in (apps/triiforce). Please see below for what the various versions do.

If you do not use the above package, individual downloads are available below:


Triiforce Versions (pick one)

Triiforce MRC SS - updated Jan 17th

- Sinyk/Smyers75 mod based off of triiforce mrc v7.

- Option to load games for a certain console only at time of load and on the fly.

- USB nand loading ONLY.

- Can run everything from a USB drive, No SD card required.

- Game images and config files can be on either the USB device OR an SD/SDHC card.


Triiforce MRC v7 Multi Console - updated Dec 25th

- Triiforce MRC with the option to load games for a certain console only.

- Allows SD and USB nand loading.

- Config files MUST be on an SD/SDHC card. Game images can be on a USB drive or SD/SDHC card.


Triiforce MRC v7 AUTO SD - updated Nov 16th

- Triiforce MRC that auto loads the nand on an SD card. (does not work with an SDHC card)

- SD nand loading ONLY.

- Game images and config files MUST load from an SD card.


Triiforce MRC v7 - updated Nov 16th

- The original triiforce MRC.

- Allows SD and USB nand loading.

- Game images and config files MUST load from an SD/SDHC card.


Optional Downloads
- ShowMiiWads 1.3b (comes in both x86 and x64 versions) - updated January 13th
- WADManger 1.5
- Original Triiforce Forwarder - Use this if booting triiforce from an SD card.


Files below are from the original nand dump/game install method
- SimpleFSDumper 0.42 - boot.dol is located in the HBC folder.


Debugging version: debug.rar

Please note that this is an auto sd loading .dol file.

Go into your SD:\apps\triiforce folder and rename the boot.dol file you have in there for backup purposes.

Extract the debug.dol file to the SD:\apps\triiforce folder and rename it to boot.dol.

Fire up triiforce_mrc.

This version should pause on ANY error message that could possibly pop up. This may not be necessary in some cases as some error messages already pause when they display.

If you get an error, please post what it is. I modified every error message I could find with the word "IN" and then the function it belongs to (for example instead of just seeing the message "Identify failed", you should see "Identify failed IN BOOT_TITLE".

This will make things a lot easier to try and figure out what is going wrong. To get post the error message, just press any button and triiforce should continue running. All this version does it have a function that waits for you to press any button on the wii remote when an error occurs.



[size=15pt]***Installation Guide***[/size]
I hope you downloaded the Triiforce_Pack_R2.2 above like it said to!


Step 1. Creating a NAND Dump
Pending rewrite once I figure out how ShowMiiWads can extract a BootMii nand

1. Dump the nand with BootMii. (Make sure you have at least 550MB free on your SD card so that the nand file will fit. My original BootMii nand dump was 528MB) You will get a file named nand.bin on your SD card.

Note: I am not going to cover all the steps involved in installing and running BootMii. Those steps are available in any of the main hacking guides located in the tutorials section of WiiHacks (Messie's 4.2 guide or Dogeggs' 3.1-4.1 guide both have the steps. You MUST dump the nand though so if it says optional, do it!). Just click the TUTORIAL button in the menu bar at the top of the page to find them. If you can't find this link, turn off your computer, pack up your Wii in the original packaging (if available) and either: a) Give your Wii to a friend,  b) Sell your Wii OR c) Toss it out a window. Why? Because you are obviously blind and helpless and would not experience any of the enjoyment you would get from playing a Wii. Now, back on topic...)

2. Put the nand.bin file you get from the BootMii dump in the nand-tools folder from the Triiforce_Pack_R2 posted above.

3. In the nand-tools folder, run nand-aes-dump.exe. It will extract your AES key from your nand.bin into a file called nand-key.bin.

4. Proceed by opening the cmd.lnk and a command prompt should pop up.

5. In the command prompt, type -» "NAND-bin2raw.exe nand.bin nand_dec.bin" (without quotes) and press enter. It should start the decrypting process. You should end up with 2 .bin files: an encrypted and a decrypted nand dump.

6. Next, type in that command prompt "zestig.exe nand-key.bin nand_dec.bin nand" (without quotes) and press enter. It should have decrypted everything and placed it into a new folder called nand.

NOTE: The NAND you get from this dump is going to be bigger than the original SimpleFSDumper method from this guide. My original BootMii NAND was around 520MB, but this decrypted nand is smaller.



Step 2. Installing Triiforce


USB Loading Steps
If loading from an SD nand skip to Step 3 of the guide.

You must have a FAT 32 partition on your USB device and this partition must be set to ACTIVE.

A. To set the partition to active, go to your Control Panel, then Administrative Tools, then Computer Management.

B. Under storage, select Disk Management. You will get a list of all your drives and partitions on the right.

C. Select the drive with the Fat32 partition you are using. You will see it highlighted below.

D. Right click on the drive and select Mark Partition as Active.




Step 3. Installing Triiforce Forwarder

I prefer to launch the Homebrew applications that I use frequently from the Wii's main channel screen. In order to do that with Triiforce, wee need to install a forwarder.

NOTE: The Triiforce_Pack_R2.2 has both an SD and a USB forwarder.

READ THIS!!! You must unrar ONE OR THE OTHER before installing the forwarder. Make sure you use the right one!

- If you are only using a USB device, you MUST use the WAD in the "Triiforce MRC SS USB Forwarder.rar" archive.
- If you are running the boot.dol from an SD card or only using an SD card, you MUST use the WAD in the "Triiforce_SD_Forwarder.rar" archive


1. Go to the Homebrew channel and run WadManager 1.5 (included in the Triiforce_Pack_R2)

2. When WadManager opens, Press A at the disclaimer screen.

3. Make sure you have < IOS 249 > selected (this is what mine had selected by default and what worked for me).

4. When asked for NAND emulator device, leave it on the default < Disable >.

5. Make sure you have source device set to < Wii SD Slot >.

6. You should see the Triiforce WAD in the list. Press A to select whether to install or uninstall the WAD and make sure you select install WAD.





7. Once it is done, exit Wadmanager. When you go back to your system menu, you should now see Triiforce as a channel. (third one from left on the top row)





The forwarder.




Step 4. Installing Games

Next, wee need to convert games into a format usable by the emulated NAND. For this, wee will use the program ShowMiiWads.


1. In ShowMiiWads, go to the Options menu and select Change NAND Backup Path.

2. Navigate to where the nand folder (from step 1-5) is located, select it and press OK.

3. Go to the View menu and then select ShowMiiNand. You should see a long list of everything that is in the nand backup listed. I recommend not messing with any of these files!

4. Go to the tools menu then select Create common.key. (only needs to be done once)

5. Click on the View menu and select ShowMiiWads. (To get back to the nand view, go to the view menu and select ShowMiiNand.)

6. Click on the File menu and select Open Folder.

7. Navigate to where you have your wad files located and press OK. You may have to wait a bit for the program to load up the list of wads if you have a lot.

8. Select the game you want to install in the list, right click on it and select Extract then To NAND. Now if you go to the ShowMiiNand view, you will see the game listed at the bottom of the list.

Note: You can right click on a game and select Delete to remove it.


9. Finally, copy the contents of the nand folder created in the step above and paste them on the root of your sd card or USB device. ***If the nand files are anywhere else, triiforce will not load.

Here is what the root of your USB device/SD card should look like:


Here is an example of what the 00010001 folder inside the title folder should look like. Each game has a unique name and appears in it's own folder.




Step 5. Getting Game Pictures in Triiforce

If you were to go and load Triiforce now, you will get a screen with a bunch of question marks on it where your game images should be (see below). Not exactly a nice way of picking a game, so wee are going to get Triiforce to show some images instead.



There are two ways to get image files: Download them or create your own. For the majority of Wii Ware games, the image packs you can download will cover them, but there may be some that are harder to find or don't exist.

Sinyk's WiiWare Image Pack (168 games in total): triiforce_mrc_WiiWare_images.rar

Links to some image downloads: triiforce mrc - GBAtemp.net

1. Any image files you want to use must be in .png format. Put all image files in the triiforce_mrc folder you should have on the root of your SD card OR USB Device.

2. If you can't find a game image to use, go to Step 6 below to find one way to create an image. You can also download any picture you want, resize it to 192 pixels wide by 112 pixels high and save it as a png file.

NOTE: The file name must match the 3-4 character Title ID code of the game of the image will not load. You can find the Title ID codes in ShowMiiWads or at the bottom of the triiforce screen when you select a game.


FAQ

Q1. When I launch triiforce from the forwarder, I am getting a different version of triiforce (0.42).
A1. Check the name of the folder where the triiforce boot.dol is in the apps directory. The forwarder looks for a folder named triiforce, not triiforce_mrc or anything else.
- Also, make sure you are using the correct forwarder. If you use the SD forwarder when your nand is on a USB device, you will load into this built-in triiforce.

Q2. When I try to exit a game, I get a black screen and have to restart my Wii.
A2. Most games will not exit by going Home > Wii Menu. Try selecting Reset instead of Wii menu. Many games will reset the Wii instead of the game, but some games still reset the game only. Another thing to try are the steps Smyers75 posted HERE

Q3. I Keep getting "Error: I can't get title list Press any button" when triiforce loads.
A3. This can be caused by a few things:
- You are trying to load from an SD card or USB device and your nand files are not on the root of the device. Make sure the folders that make up the nand are NOT in another folder. Many people tend to put them in a folder called nand on the root of the device to keep the device directory clean. This is wrong.
- You are trying to load triiforce from a nand on an SDHC card. Triiforce can only load a nand from an SD card or a USB device.
- You are trying to load triiforce from a nand on a USB device and the Fat32 partition is not set to ACTIVE. Refer to the section of this guide titled USB Loading Steps on how to fix this.
- You do not have cIOS 38 installed to 249 and/or if you are not using rev 14, 15 or 17. Triiforce specifically requires cIOS 249 and is not compatible with revisions lower than 14 or 16.
- You are trying to load triiforce from a nand on a USB device and the USB device is turned off (most 3.5" hard drive enclosures need to be turned on manually).
- You have no games installed on your nand. Use ShowMiiWads and install some as per step 5 of this guide.

Q4. Some of my games take a long time to load.
A4. Some games seem to have longer load times or save game creation times when running them from triiforce. I have seen some games with 10 second or even 30 second load times. Just be patient. If nothing comes up, the game may not be compatible with triiforce.

Q5. After decrypting my nand and putting the folders on the USB device/SD Card, do I need to keep nand.bin or nand.dec on the root of the device?
A5. No. nand.bin is the actual nand you dumped and nand.dec is the decrypted version that the folders you need come from. I would save a backup of nand.bin on your computer, but you can delete nand.dec.

Q6. The game I really want to play won't work in triiforce.
A6. Not all games are compatible, that is known. If you really want to play it, I recommend installing it to your wii instead of the nand on your usb device/SD card.

Q7. Triiforce is not loading any game images.
A7. Make sure the triiforce_mrc folder is named correctly (there's TWO i's) and is on the root of your USB device/SD card (depending on the triiforce version you are using).
- Also, make sure the pictures are the proper size 192 pixels wide x 112 pixels tall.
- Make sure the file format of the image is a .png

Q8. Triiforce did not save my options for a game.
A8. If you are using Triiforce_MRC_SS, it saves a config file for every console type you load, including the ALL option. To see the config you saved for a game, load the same console type the next time. If you save a config on a particular console type then load ALL games, the config will not be there as ALL is loaded from a separate config file.



Step 6. Creating Game Pictures for Triiforce

If you can't find an image file for the game you can create one using a simple program called ShowMiiWads. For this example, I am using the Japanese PC Engine Dracula X wad.

1. Download the program from the link above.
http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac174...iiWads.png


2. Go to the File menu and select Open Folder.

3. Navigate to the folder with your wad files. Your wad files should load up in the list (as shown below).

4. Select the wad file from the list that you want to create a picture from.

NOTE: You will want to write down the code shown in the Title ID field. This is what you must name the image you are going to create or else triiforce will not be able to load the image for the specific game. In this example, the code is QAPJ






5. Go to the Edit menu and select Preview.
http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac174...iWads3.png



6. A window will open up with two list boxes at the bottom. You can cycle through these list boxes until you find an ideal image.

NOTE: The size of the image below is 256 x 192 pixels which is too big for Triiforce. The maximum size an image can be is 192 x 112 pixels. Also, the files must be in .PNG format. (I haven't tested to see if other formats even work)





7. Click on the save button and name the image with the code you got from the Title ID field for the game in Step 6-4 above.

8. Next, create a folder called triiforce_mrc in the root of your SD card. This is the directory that Triiforce looks in for game image files.

9. Copy the image file you created for the game into this directory.
http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac174...iWads5.png



Step 7. Playing Games in Triiforce

Now that wee have some games installed and the icons that triiforce will use, it's time to play some games!

1. Start up Triiforce using the forwarder or from the Homebrew Channel.

2. Depending on the version you are using, you will be shown a prompt on the bottom of the screen that says < Use USB-NAND >. If your nand files are on your USB device, Press A or press left on the directional pad of the controller until you see < Use SD-NAND > and press A.

Note: If you used the AUTO SD LOAD or Triiforce MRC SS versions, you will not have to select a nand type. Triiforce will automatically load to the game menu of the AUTO SD LOAD version or you will be prompted to select a console type to load.


3. Triiforce MRC will load and you should see all of your games like in the example below.





4. You can not use the pointer to select a game in Triiforce. You must use the directional pad. If you move to the left or right, you will be able to cycle through the different pages full of your Wii Ware games.

5. If you want to reorder the games select the game you want to move and press 1 or 2 on the controller. If you want to swap the game with another, select the other game and press 1. The games will swap positions in your list. If you want to just move a file into a position in the list, highlight the file you want to move, press 2 and then highlight where you want the game to be moved to and press 2 again.

6. Once you have ordered your games, press the home button on the controller and select Save Changes to SD. If you do not save the changes, the order of your games will revert to what it originally was.

Note: If you are using the original .dol file (the one where you have to manually select SD-NAND), you may get a code dump if you try to exit to Homebrew. If you are using the AUTO_SD_LOAD version from Step 2, the Wii will restart instead when you exit.

6. Click on a game title to load it up and have fun!




Thanks to:
- Nicksasa, TheLemonMan and WiiPower for creating the original Triiforce application.
- marc_max for creating the Triiforce MRC program.
- Leathl for the ShowMiiWads app.
- Nicksasa again for SimpleFSDumper.
- Waninkoko for WadManager and cIOS revisions.
- Smyers75 for helping me with coding, testing, debugging Triiforce MRC SS. You are the man!



WiiWare I have tested as working with Triiforce MRC
- Castlevania - Dracula X: Rondo of Blood
- Castlevania Rebirth (japanese version)
- Contra Rebirth
- Mega Man 9
- Gradius Rebirth
- Tetris Party
- Bomberman Blast
- You Me and the Cubes
- Frogger Returns
- Arkanoid Plus!
- Bubble Bobble Plus!
- Adventure Island: The Beginning
- Gravitronix


WiiWare I have tested as NOT working with Triiforce MRC
- Lost Winds - Winter of the Melodias (freezes after the first zone)
- Swords & Soldiers (freezes during load)
- Eduardo the Samurai Toaster
- Ant nation


I claim no credit for this guide. It was written, in it's entirety, by sinyk

what about rev 20 and 4.2 eu

(03/08/2010 01:48 PM)Mickey Wrote:  What's this do?

Quote:Triiforce is a Homebrew application that allows you to run WiiWare off of an emulated NAND backup of your Wii.

So why not just install a Wii Ware wad and move it to the SD card and run it from there? Well apparently, before the Wii can run it, it copies it to the Wii's NAND and runs it which is even worse than installing it directly to the NAND due to it writing it every time you load the Wii Ware game. Also, adding or removing multiple WiiWare games is done in a few seconds.

Another advantage to running Triiforce is that you can exceed the 512MB storage limit that the Wii has. Some Wii Ware wad files are close to 50MB and can quickly eat up your Wii's storage space preventing you from saving games.

There are other advantages as well beyond saving wii-NAND space. You will be able to add cheat codes to your games and you will be able to run your games in other wii consoles.