WBFS Manager

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

WBFS Manager 3.0 Released

The final release of WBFS Manager is now available here at http://wbfsmanager.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=26808. The source code is also now available at the same location (It would be much appreciated if any derivative work retained the donation links and references to the main download site on CodePlex). The released installer has two missing lines from the Italian translation and some missing text from the Chinese version that will be released in short order.

This will be the last major release of WBFS Manager, at least for the next few months. I will make any quick fixes that may be necessary but will be discontinuing active work on the project.

As such I’d like to thank everyone for the great support they showed and the positive feedback from most sceners. It was through your great support that this project was made possible and is now the fourth most downloaded project on CodePlex (in the past 7 days).

I'd like to thank everyone who helped in this project, the donors, the translators, the beta testers and of course the main reasons this was possible, Team Twiizers and Waninkoko. I'd also like to thank RedSquirrel who helped get things going for the Channel Creation feature.

Translators:

French, courtesy of TheCrach
Italian and Perugino, courtesty of cerocca
German, courtesy of BarbaxX
Spanish, courtesy of dgtor
Dutch, courtesy of villadelfia
Chinese (Traditional), courtesy of IvanChen

Beta Testers:

TroyTheZombie, BIG MOE, the ripper, cwstjdenobs, lavamasta, Wiinie, buby78, zidane_genome, w10a6.

Changes (3.0):

  • Added Channel Creation support. (Disabled by default, to enable go to Options->Channel Creation and Enable. Follow the instructions provided below.)
  • Added "Large Cover View"s, which are two side panels that display the cover for the currently selected item.
  • Added Automatically Check for Updates option (Requires Internet access, can be disabled).
  • Added the option to cancel batch operations (cancellation occurs as soon as the current item is finished).
  • Added drive status indicator under the left-hand list, blue shows amount of used space, green shows amount of used space after adding all entries from the "Games To Add" list.
  • Added Help menu option.
  • Added direct drive-to-drive copying for drive's with similar sector sizes. Drive-To-Drive copying will now first check if it's possible to do direct copying, if not it will revert to indirect copying.

Fixes (3.0):

  • Now automatically requests to Run as Administrator.
  • Fixed the estimated size being wrong for some games.
  • Fixed an issue with CSV files being exported incorrectly sometimes.
  • Save expander states, so the user doesn't have to keep re-opening them each time.
  • Fixed Homebrew Channel creation. (Now using WiiCrazy's USB Loader DOL instead of Yal).
  • Fixed an issue with the "Estimated Total Size" not updating correctly when games were removed from the right-hand list.
  • Now checks the filesystem type of a drive before loading to make sure it's not NTFS, FAT or ext.
  • Fixed an issue with games with ":" or other special characters causing issues during batch extraction.
  • Fixed issue with game regions showing up incorrectly in initial 2.5 release.
  • Fixed issue with RAR files in subfolders not being detected during drag and drop operations.
  • Removed thousandth of a seconds from elapsed time in progress bar.
  • Fixed mislabled blocks status (was Blocks Used, should be Blocks Free).
  • Fixed some other minor issues.
  • Changed installer (now prompts for .NET 3.5 SP1 before installing, also gives options for installing langauges, etc).

Channel Creation notes:

WARNING:

Exercise caution when using any channel files from any source as they may result in a banner brick. It’s recommended that you have preloader or some other form of banner brick protection on your Wii before using custom Channels. It’s much safer to use Hombrew Channel entries (which have been fixed in this version). Only create System Menu channels if you know what your doing!

I will not be held responsible for any damage caused to your console as a result of channel creation (or any other use of this software).

Instructions

  • To enable channel creation, go to Edit->Options and click on the Channel Creation tab. Then specify the base WAD file that you want to use, the location of the common-key.bin file, as well as the loader that you want to use. Click OK to confirm the changes.
  • Once channel creation has been enabled, you can choose one or more entries on the Games To Add list then click "Create Channels" (or right click and choose "Create Channels").
    • If you choose multiple entries, you will be asked to choose a folder to save the WAD files in and a batch creation process will begin.
    • If you choose a single entry, you will be prompted for the 4 letter Channel ID you want to use and where you want to save the file.
      • Be careful with the Channel IDs you choose, if you have an existing channel with the same ID, it will be overwritten when you install the channel.
    • If you want, you can specify a USB loader DOL file other than the packaged presets. To do this, fill in the "USB Loader DOL File" setting with the DOL file you want to use, then type in the placeholder title ID in the "Title ID Placeholder" field, then click OK to confirm the changes.
    • A base WAD is not included with this application, you must supply your own. It is best to use a WAD file that belongs to a channel and one that is the same region as your console.
    • The common-key.bin file is not included with this application, you must supply the common-key.bin file.

Requirements

  • .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 (the installer will prompt you to automatically download and install it if you don't already have it.)

Supported Operating Systems

  • Windows Vista (tested thoroughly. May need to "Run as Administrator" depending on user's settings and UAC settings).
  • Windows 7 (tested and working. May need to "Run as Administrator" depending on user's settings and UAC settings).
  • Windows XP (tested by a few other users, should work fine.)

Screenshot

WBFSManager3.0

19 comments:

  1. the channel creation feature need a better help, an a datailed information on how the user can make the channel, hat he nned, and for what propuse....

    the version 3.0 rules!!! Bigger, Badder an Better...like the neogeo xD

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  2. "Bigger, Badder and Better" = Great!

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  3. Thanks. There are some instructions in this post, refer to the Channel Creation notes section of the post.

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  4. Awesome update, however, whenever I try channel creation in windows 7 32-bit, it crashes the program.

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  5. NVM, I deleted the creation temp folder and tried again and it's working now :)

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  6. Hi WBFS Manager,

    1.st THANKS ALOT! GREAT JOB
    2.nd: whats the difference when choosing in "Options-Advanced-Partition to keep:" between "only GAME" and "Remove Update,keep Rest" ?

    Thanks

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  7. The difference between those is that if you choose the second one, Channels and any other unusual extras (like the Mario Kart Wii Channel) will be kept, if you choose the first, only the game will be kept. Best to use the first option unless your really need to keep other partitions (like in the case of Mario Kart Wii).

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  8. Hi,
    I am getting "Error occured while creating channel. (error code -504)".
    Can you help/advice?

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  9. Only one thing... WBFS Manager should copy to a WBFS USB from the DVD... :)
    Thx for this program!

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  10. I'm getting "Error occured while creating channel. (Error code -303)"
    Need advice.

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  11. Try changing the Temp folder!
    Worked for me :)

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  12. Trying to create a channel for a iso on the drive. I don't understand what "base" wad I am supposed to use. Currently everything works perfectly in the USB loader on the wii, but want a direct channel. Where do I find the "base channel" if I want to make a channel for a game? Thanks.

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  13. How do I get it to download the cover for games. I was running with no internet and I copyed the files to the drive. Now no matter what I do I can not download the covers for 5 games. Can we add an enhancement to right click on the game and download cover. Thanks

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  14. Somebody knows how to add a cover ??

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  15. I'm using WBFS Manager 3.0 x64 on Windows 7 x64, and was unable to format my USB stick as WBFS until I wiped the start of the disk to remove the existing FAT32 partition.

    Later versions of Windows are stricter about locking, and won't let you write to a device that has mounted volumes. You probably need to lock and dismount any on it before it'll let you format.

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  16. buenas tengo un problema hasta ayer me funciona a las mil maravillas el disco duro pero hoy es como si no me lo reconociera no me sale la barra de seleccion y no puedo jugar a ningun juego podria decirme alguien que hacer

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  17. hola. Soy nuevo en esto... me he bajado WBFS,y un juego de la wii dividida en 3 partes que me las he bajado ya. He podido meter la "parte 1" en WBFS,pero al meter la "parte 2" se para y no me deja. Me podeis ayudar? muchas gracias

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  18. hello
    Whay i dont see the covers off the games in the wbfs manager?
    How can I di to see the covers?

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  19. Hi..how save the covers from my local drive c:/cover/cache save into hard drive? my hdd now didnt show any covers.

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