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[ZeoVGM]

Wait, so you need the total memory of the game available on the system to play it from the card?

That seems fine.

 

[beje]

Any word on homebrew? Does the HBC keep working?

 

[Dragona Akehi]

Just finished updating the Wii. It added a SD card channel option next to the option button. You can save your channels and games on there and "play" them as long as you have the available memory on the Wii itself.

1. Add FAT filesystem code to IOS retroactively, disabling any SD access for titles that launch from SD
2. Add FAT filesystem code to IOS retroactively and push title updates for everything that uses SD, to remove the in-title FAT code and replace it with a new interface to IOS
3. Just fake it and transparently copy titles to the Wii system memory when you want to launch them, causing more Flash wear and tear and longer launching times

Chances are they’re going to go for number 3. And the only reason 1. and 2. exist is because downloadable content access is implemented through a unified “application security” subsystem, which forced them to define a sort-of-standard interface for it. They wouldn’t have done it otherwise.

Quoth the marcan: OLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

 

[nightside]

anything about compatibility with SDHC?

 

[rpmurphy]

Awesome. So basically you can keep everything on an SD card and never have to worry about how much memory you have left ever again? :O

 

[Ridley327]

I just tested this with the Nintendo Channel. Here's what I've got so far.

1. The menu for the SD channel is identical to the Wii's front end, except that it has a black background. All of the normal options are there, including sorting. It might be different with larger card sizes, but you get 20 pages with 12 channels on each page to work with.

2. I have a regular 2 gig SD card and I was actually really surprised to see how fast it loaded onto the Wii. It was about as long as it would normally take to boot it directly from the Wii itself.

3. The channel itself functioned as it normally does, so there has been any issues.

If Nintendo also added SDHC support, then the speeds should be even faster. I kind of hate to say it, but they may have done alright with this option after all...

 

[AniHawk]

Fingers crossed for a permanent kill of the Twilight Hack.

*high five*

 

[Boerseun]

I just tested this with the Nintendo Channel. Here's what I've got so far.

1. The menu for the SD channel is identical to the Wii's front end, except that it has a black background. All of the normal options are there, including sorting. It might be different with larger card sizes, but you get 20 pages with 12 channels on each page to work with.

2. I have a regular 2 gig SD card and I was actually really surprised to see how fast it loaded onto the Wii. It was about as long as it would normally take to boot it directly from the Wii itself.

3. The channel itself functioned as it normally does, so there has been any issues.

If Nintendo also added SDHC support, then the speeds should be even faster. I kind of hate to say it, but they may have done alright with this option after all...

Thanks for the summary.

I'm updating my PAL console now. I reckon I'll have to go out tomorrow and pick up a bigger SD card.

 

[Ridley327]

Edited after further tinkering

IMPORTANT UPDATE

For shits and grins, I checked the memory on the Wii after doing my experiment and came across this information.

1. It does not create a temporary cache, per se. It adds a general SD Channel option to the Channels part of your system's memory. This does not actually leave the system until you actually erase it or load up a new channel; even turning it off won't get rid of it.

2. Any save files associated with a channel needs to save on the system itself; these files cannot be moved or copied to the SD card at all.

Sorry for the confusion that may have ensued.

 

[Carlisle]

IMPORTANT UPDATE

For shits and grins, I checked the memory on the Wii after doing my experiment and came across this information.

1. It does not create a temporary cache. It adds a general SD Channel option to the Channels part of your system's memory. This does not actually leave the system until you actually erase it; even turning it off won't get rid of it. This is important because....

2. ...it's a continually growing file depending on what you send to the Wii. So, for example, if you load the Nintendo Channel and then the Internet Channel, the SD Channel file adds the Internet Channel's size to it. This wouldn't be so bad...

3. ...if it wasn't for the fact that any save files associated with a channel needs to save on the system itself; these files cannot be moved or copied to the SD card at all.

Wow hardcore buzz kill right there. But great to know. So basically when you play an SD game, the wii copies it to the internal memory behind the scenes. And when that fills up, you have to clear it out to play a new game? So it's the same as it's always been only neater and with fewer manual clicks?

Still a cool feature, but I value my imports a little more than that. :/

Edit: All it would take to make this feature ideal would be to have this background SD channel auto-empty its contents when you exit the game... or hell, even when you shut down the Wii. Then you can just maintain an amount of free blocks equal to your largest VC/WW game title and freely play whatever you want whenever you want with no fridge clearing.

 

[MiketheBSG]

CONFIRMED

The Wii now supports SDHC, according to Iwata's Keynote speech.
Cards up to 32 GB will be supported.

Also from Keynote: Final Fantasy on VC, and VC Arcade