Talk:Wii U system software

Pre-installed system software version

My Wii U came with firmware 1.0.2U pre-installed.--Vahnx (talk) 00:23, 24 November 2012‎ (UTC)

Do you have any screenshots that can prove that. All the Wii U's reciedved by both the media and consumers have came with 1.0.1U (North American version), and looking by your editing record you seem have caused quite some problems.--Arkhandar (talk) 14:54, 24 November 2012 (UTC)

Confirmed, my Wii U also came with 1.0.2U. Unfortunately I don't have a screenshot, I updated it first thing. Aaron44126 (talk) 19:25, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

Europe Update

Should there be a Europe update date becuse it did not go active untill 30th November for Europe A Candela (talk) 02:34, 2 December 2012 (UTC)

Wii Hardware

"The Wii Mode system memory is limited to 512 MB, just like the Wii system memory is."

No, the Xbox 360 had 512MB of RAM, the PS3 had 256MB for graphics and 256 for system, and the Wii had something like 80MB, can we fix this? Bumblebritches57 (talk) 01:10, 8 September 2013 (UTC)

~Edit~ looks like the Wii had 512MB of flash storage so maybe that's what they mistook it for.

"88 MB main memory (24 MB internal 1T-SRAM integrated into graphics package, 64 MB external GDDR3 SDRAM)[102] 3 MB embedded GPU texture memory and framebuffer"

IDK how we should word this, should we combine it all together, or just take the 88MB number? Bumblebritches57 (talk) 01:12, 8 September 2013 (UTC)

It's referring to storage memory, not RAM.--Arkhandar (Talk • Contribs) 01:14, 8 September 2013 (UTC)

Okay, but what would be the point in limiting storage in Virtual Wii mode? what would that achieve at all? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bumblebritches57 (talk • contribs) 11:00, 1 October 2013 (UTC)

Time since update column

In the System Update releases section, the "Release Date" column follows this format:

November 18, 2013; 4 days ago[3]

or

November 18, 2012; 11 months ago[3]

But today is 11/30/2013, meaning that the "days ago"/"months ago" values are out of date. Is there perhaps a better way to have wikipedia display these values?

Something like

days_passed = now - date(2013,11,18)

if (days_passed < 30) "[days_passed] days ago" else if (days_passed < 365) "[days_passed/30] months ago" else "[days_passed / 365] years ago" — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.93.182.248 (talk) 21:13, 30 November 2013 (UTC)

written from scratch or based on existing OS

Forgive my asking, but the operating system written from scratch or is it based on some existing operating system? E.g. PlayStation 4 system software is based on FreeBSD 9.0 User:ScotXW^t@lk 18:03, 26 June 2014 (UTC)

It is currently unknown. There has been little to no information regarding OS development directly from Nintendo.--Arkhandar (Talk • Contribs) 19:01, 27 June 2014 (UTC)

Barring reliable sourcing saying otherwise, I would assume that the OS is proprietary. --McDoobAU93 19:11, 27 June 2014 (UTC)

@ScotXW and Arkhandar: That's an extremely good question, man! I've researched it before and your question prompted me to include the ridiculously scant information that I had found. The only other meaningful factoid that is even loosely publicly mentioned, is that it is titled "Cafe OS", along the cafe-based theme of the chips' names (starbuck, latte, espresso). But the only public Internet sources for that name that I can find are an idle mention in a few fail0verflow articles about the hardware and its default OS (but no explicit mention of exactly where fail0verflow got the name) and an idle mention from the Australian government (but no explicit mention that this is the Wii U's default OS, nor where they got the name). I desperately want to cite those just to give it a name and maybe a person could "get away with" citing those, depending on who cares; but I think legalistically, without a one would be committing WP:OR when connecting the idle mention of the name with the idea of what exactly it is naming. I personally asked fail0verflow where they got the name "Cafe OS", and they said it's from the OS's boot logs, so I asked them to please cite that explicit statement (or post the logs) connecting the name to the product in a future article so I can cite them. I figured at that point, I'd have something more than a rumor or implication. I guess technically we could cite the super secret SDK or Nintendo developer manuals, but I have no access to that and I don't know if there are legal restrictions on a citation ;) I also updated Green Hills Software to mention their dichotomous controversy toward open-source software, so after glancing at your user page, I'm sure you'll "love" that as much as I did. ;) It seems like an interesting partnership split there. :( — Smuckola (Email) (Talk) 09:41, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

Good find! Well we are already citing Hector Martin (aka marcan42) for some information regarding clock speeds and such in Wii U and since he is part of fail0verflow I see no harm referencing them too. As for citing the source code itself, that would be a little bit tricky as the it is most likely copyrighted, so that would make the referencing illegal. I'll check the Iwata Asks on Wii U development and see if I can find anything on the matter.--Arkhandar (Talk • Contribs) 14:07, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

@Arkhandar:Yeah we could cite them as a source, but they don't currently have a document that's citable as far as I know. Of course everything's strictly copyright encumbered, but a citation itself isn't illegal. Wikipedia policy (though not law) says we can't link to a source that in itself violates copyright, as is commonly seen when citing a YouTube video of a copyright-infringing TV commercial (which I've done, as a type of extended "fair use" for archival and identification purposes :-o). We could cite a source which it just so happens can be legally accessed, though almost nobody in the world will ever be legally allowed to access. Accessibility is not strictly key, or else price would restrict most books because nobody (including libraries) can afford to buy all the books cited on Wikipedia. My only concern is that Nintendo's SDK and documentation would probably have a license that says its contents are a trade secret, and so I would want to cite someone like fail0verflow who has already jumped that fence for us and retrieved certain harmless artifacts. And heck, I couldn't even format a citation for a secret document whose name and other metadata I don't even know. I could guess in bad faith, that the SDK probably names the OS, and cite <ref>Nintendo Wii U SDK documentation</ref> lol. I am babbling impatiently for posterity right now. Talk page archives, here I come! — Smuckola (Email) (Talk) 21:42, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

@Smuckola:I completely agree, and I wasn't questioning the accessibility. I was only unsure whether citing (and consequently post) the source code here on Wikipedia would be illegal or not. If I remember correctly, several news outlets reported that the Wii U SDK had been leaked online, with the name Cafe SDK 1.7. If we can find a reliable source reporting the news, than maybe that should suffice to say that the native name of the Wii U OS is in fact Cafe OS, as was the name of the Wii U project itself.--Arkhandar (Talk • Contribs) 23:21, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

PS: Turns out we have been posting some wrong info on Wikipedia after all. Take a look at this. It basically confirms that the OS is in fact called Cafe OS. But that's not all. The GPU is not called AMD Radeon Latte, it's actually AMD Radeon GX2. Latte is pretty much most of the circuit board, not the GPU. Same thing goes for Hollywood on the Wii. That GPU is actually called GX. I'm still reading the article. Maybe there's some more stuff we can cite in it. Oh, and it's actually core 1 that has the 2MB of memory, not core 0.--Arkhandar (Talk • Contribs) 00:00, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

@Arkhandar: Ahoy, matey. Yes that fail0verflow article is what I was referring to. They call the OS "Cafe OS" but they don't say why. They don't say "Nintendo calls the OS 'Cafe OS'" or "the default system's logs say 'Cafe OS'". They just call it that. We don't officially know if that's their personal nickname based on the "Project Cafe" moniker, for lack of anything else from Nintendo. The only way I personally know this is official is that I asked them on IRC and they checked the logs again while I waited. But I'm not a reliable source. Also, I've never even seen the logs and can't cite ephemeral system logs. So that's why I thought that very strictly speaking, it'd be WP:OR instead of WP:SYNTHESIS. All we could say is "noted hacking group fail0verflow calls it 'Cafe OS'" which sounds somewhat flimsy just on its own. There should be a comprehensive synthesis of their articles, even if it's just a summary paragraph. And I'm hoping they'll actually do another public document which says "Nintendo calls this 'Cafe OS' which is prominently stated in the system logs of every Wii U". — Smuckola (Email) (Talk) 21:45, 4 July 2014 (UTC)

@Arkhandar: Regarding the hardware specs, of course the ever secretive Nintendo has never published any real specs. So it's up to ifixit or arstechnica or fail0verflow or whoever to reverse engineer it and to sometimes guess or approximate. Furthermore, if there are discrepancies between those sources, the discrepancy (though I assume it's not a real controversy, unless RSes are publicly disagreeing) should be noted as such, noting which report came later. I'm not super into hardware so it sounds like you're a lot more attentive and competent at that than me, where I kinda nod and go along. And I guess the hardware stuff should go in Wii U, eh? — Smuckola (Email) (Talk) 21:49, 4 July 2014 (UTC)

Firmware 4.0 missed a big feature addition

With that update, 4:3 Wii software started at long last to be displayed pillarboxed when the Wii U was set to output in HD. Previously, everything was stretched to 16:9 regardless if it was an anamorphic widescreen Wii release or 4:3 only.

To draw a parallel with the Wii, it would've been like if your tv remote control's mode button was wrecked and your HDTV was stuck on stretch mode. Not only did this Wii update fix your mode button, but it does it all automatically without the need of the user intervening to turn stretch mode on and off as appropriate.