Homebrew Channel
The Homebrew Channel is a freeware homebrew application loader that was developed to provide a way of easily running unofficial software on the Wii console. Once installed, it appears as a standard Wii Channel on the Wii Menu. When launched, it displays a list of applications found on an SD card or USB drive. The user then selects an application to launch by using a Wii Remote or GameCube controller. It also accepts application uploads via a USB Gecko or TCP/IP (over Wi-Fi or Ethernet), which allows for quick application testing during development. When launched from the Wii Menu, the Homebrew Channel will check for updates to itself and automatically download them if the user chooses to do so.
Homebrew Channel | |
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Type | Downloadable (third party) |
Developer(s) | Team Twiizers |
Platform(s) | Wii Channels |
Release date(s) | April 2, 2008 |
Genre(s) | Utility |
Input methods | Wii Remote, Wii Remote + Nunchuk, Classic Controller, GameCube Controller, Guitar Controller |
Compatibility | 4 Playable |
GameIDs | |
See also... |
Dolphin Forum thread |
The functionality provided by the Homebrew Channel is provided by Dolphin directly, so the HBC is not needed (except to work around Dolphin's broken Wii homebrew detection in some cases).
Emulation Information
Pre-1.1.3 Black Screen
The developers of the Homebrew Channel had placed traps into the program to prevent the Homebrew Channel from loading in Dolphin. There are other problems in pre-1.1.3 versions, which won't be documented here. The 1.1.3 release of the Homebrew Channel, which is now open source, has removed the anti-Dolphin code.
Problems
Networking
Network initialization never completes.
Direct3D
Using Direct3D with XFB enabled will cause the screen go black, but the app stills work normally otherwise. Use OpenGL to solve this. Fixed since at least 5.0-10472
Configuration
No configuration changes are known to affect compatibility for this channel.
Version Compatibility
The graph below charts the compatibility with Homebrew Channel since Dolphin's 2.0 release, listing revisions only where a compatibility change occurred.
Testing
This channel has been tested on the environments listed below:
Test Entries | |||||
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Revision | OS | CPU | GPU | Result | Tester |
r7598 | Windows 7 | Intel Quad Core Xeon @ 2.8GHz | ATI Radeon HD 5770 | All issues in the Problems section are present. | SephirothFanatic |
3.0 | Windows 7 | Intel Quad Core Xeon @ 2.8GHz | ATI Radeon HD 5770 | All issues in the Problems section are present. | SephirothFanatic |
3.0-376 | Windows 7 | Intel Quad Core Xeon @ 2.8GHz | ATI Radeon HD 5770 | Starts and runs normally, except when reloading or exiting with the Home button. | SephirothFanatic |
5.0-1422 | Linux (Debian sid) | Intel Core i5-4210H @ 3.5GHz | NVIDIA GeForce GT 940 | Everything works (including launching homebrew, returning to Wii menu, shutting down) except networking. | Léo |
5.0-2742 | Windows 7 | Intel Celeron G1610 @ 2.6GHz | Intel HD Graphics | With D3D and XFB disabled looks normal but cannot launch homebrew; enabling XFB to real made it look black, but didn't crash. Using OGL and XFB to real seems to work normally, except for network. | EblfIYH |
5.0-3951 | Windows 10 | Intel Celeron G1610 @ 2.6GHz | Intel HD Graphics | Now, it crashes with D3D. OpenGL still work | EblfIYH |
5.0-3965 | Windows 10 | Intel Celeron G1610 @ 2.6GHz | Intel HD Graphics | D3D works again, with the same problems | EblfIYH |