If you are a gamer or even an everyday tech nerd like me, you will be familiar with a famous gaming console developed by Nintendo. It is the Wii U. It is a gamepad with its display in between, but unlike the more recent Nintendo Switch, it is not modular by any stretch of the imagination. Thus, you must know about the sites to download Wii U Roms or Wii U ISO from.
This game has unused models. This game has unused cinematics. This game has unused items. New Super Mario Bros. Wii takes the revamped 2D side-scrolling action from the DS title and kicks it up a notch by what many fans would consider a dream come true: simultaneous cooperative multiplayer in the main game. It also marks the return of Yoshi.
That said, the Wii U is completely equipped with all the dope sensors that a great gamepad should have, such as a gyroscope and an accelerometer, and rubberized analog knobs.
It became popular because it got along just fine with the existing Wii controllers, s you could use it as a standalone controller when playing with multiple other players on a console hooked to a TV or something. Nintendo knows their stuff!
Contents
- 2 The Best Sites to Download Wii U Roms
- 2.2 DarkUmbra
- 2.3 ChaosGames at Discord
What to Know Before You Download Wii U Roms for Cemu
Now, even though the Wii U is the official gig for running the commercial games designed for it, it can’t stop the market from coughing up emulators that can mimic its functionality seamlessly. (well, more or less!) One such well-built emulator is known as Cemu; you have probably heard of it. It allows you to emulate games originally meant for Cemu to run on your PC.
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This emulator can run all commercial games meant to be executed on the Nintendo Wii U gaming console. This emulator software is still a bit of work in progress. But the developers behind it are working extra hard to make it as impressive as possible for us, the users.
You can, of course, use their services for free. But it is tough to maintain it on their end, considering all the sweat they put in to make it better every day. So it would be flipping awesome of you to donate a little to them, over at their patreon page. Here is the website link.
They have been bringing some fantastic things to Cemu recently. Stuff like enabling 60 FPS gaming on the thing! They have used some miraculous compiler software that can handle such high frame rates.
Anyway, now that even multiplayer support is added, you should be looking for ways to install a Wii U ROMs on Cemu, and rightfully so. Who wouldn’t want a taste of Mario Kart 8 at 60 frames per second? So here are 3 best websites where you can find and download Wii U ROMs for Cemu.
| Roms | Description |
|---|---|
| Portalroms | It is a great place to get some ISOs to enjoy on your Cemu emulator. |
| DarkUmbra | their tagline reads 'Your source for custom gaming awesomeness!' |
| ChaosGames at Discord | you have to create an account at discord to be a part of all their custom gaming action. |
The Best Sites to Download Wii U Roms
If you find it difficult to read the article then here’s a video explanation of Wii U Roms mentioned in the content:
Portalroms
Visit Portalroms if you are looking for a fast website to install Wii U ROMs for the same, you should be heading over to PortalRoms. The website seems responsive, and more importantly, you can easily download the ROMs from the site.
You can download ISOs for Mario Kart 8, super Mario bros, Xenoblade, super Mario maker and more. You can find some more ponderous titles like the legend of Zelda and also Bayonetta over there!
But it looks like they no longer have specific games like super smash bros. I mean, the last upload dates were there from 2016. Which is to say, older titles have not been refreshed if they have formerly got any updates. But it is a great place to get some ISOs to enjoy on your Cemu emulator.
DarkUmbra
DarkUmbra is the place for all your custom gaming needs. A very nerdy combination of a computer graphics term there! I mean, their tagline over at their website reads “Your source for custom gaming awesomeness!”.
They have a forum, a leaderboard to see who is the most active uploader and stuff over there. You can just search for pretty much any game you want in the search box, and I can almost guarantee that you will get instant results.
There have not been any instances where a fellow gamer who is looking for some dope ISOs for their Cemu emulator has returned gone back empty-handed. You can find all the major titles here and can easily download them, but you need to register yourself as a member.
More About DarkUmbra
One can browse the content and see details about the games and the ROMs as a guest, but the download links and other specifics will hide but obvious. You can use your existing Facebook or Twitter accounts to sign up just like any other website these days, so no sweat there.
Under the “more” option, there even seems to be a donate button. So that you can support your favorite member over at DarkUmbra. It shows error messages when people access it, but then again, I am not a registered member.
That could be the reason why I got the error message that read “could not locate the item you are trying to view.”
But overall, I am digging what they have going on at DarkUmbra. Worth taking a look at, if you are after some great Wii U ROMs, i.e., ISOs.
ChaosGames at Discord
Although ChaosGames had their forum community, it was shut down on November 26th, 2017. In case you don’t know, discord is kind of like a free voice mail and a chat app designed for gamers. Pretty cool, isn’t it? The public forum is now dead. And you will find the same notice over at what otherwise would’ve been their official site.
You can however, direct yourself to join the gamers’ social media, known as Discord. They have their groups and chats as usual over there. But you will have to create an account for yourself at discord. To be a part of all their custom gaming action.
For the sake of writing this paragraph, I registered with a dummy account. Without giving any legit email id or username for my account, something like 12344321. I’ll have to say, the verification process they have over there is pretty legit.
About Discord
It did not ask me anything secure and did not check my email validity either during joining. So going in, I initially think that this place that hosts most of spam accounts and bot generated accounts. And eventually would close down again.
But I got a message from the ChaosGames group or “server” as they call it at Discord, that I will have to go through the rules page and then, answer two questions. Them being “how did you find us” and “why are you here.”
If I don’t answer them within an hour. And if they cannot reliably confirm my authenticity of being a real user. They will remove my account in the next hour of my joining. That is cool if you ask me.
All chat services should do that before allowing new members to access and crawl all over their content. So what I am trying to tell you is, you don’t have to worry about the authenticity of the existing members. Or the files that you are about to download from there.
Final Words
So, this was all about the Wii U Roms websites where you can download them. And, there is a lot of it. You can find most of the popular gaming titles made for Wii Roms and download their ISOs for your Cemu emulator.
Just follow the staff rules for the time that you’re there, and you should have easy access to all the shared links over at their discord server.
So join the gamers’ chat room, chat with some automated bots and real players, download your favorite Wii U ROMs or Wii U ISOs, and have fun!
All textures must be within a folder that contains the Game ID of the game you are installing the pack for or the region free 3-letter equivalent. Usually the texture pack maintainer will distribute the pack using the proper Game ID. If the entire Game ID is used, it will limit the pack to that region. If the textures are not in a folder that is named properly, then the pack will not work! To check the ID of your disc image, right click the game in the Dolphin browser, click Properties, open the Info tab, and the ID will be listed next to 'Game ID'.
Instructions:
1.) Verify that the main texture pack folder is named to the proper Game ID or the first 3 letters.
2.) Place the texture pack into the global Dolphin directory:
C:UsersUserNameDocumentsDolphin EmulatorLoadTextures
Super Mario Bros Wii Custom Models Iso Download How To Import A File
3.) Open Dolphin emulator.
4.) Enter Graphics > Advanced tab > Check Load Custom Textures.
Performance Options:
Prefetch Custom Textures - Caches textures in RAM when game is loaded. May reduce stuttering. Found on GraphicsAdvanced tab.
Examples:
> Xenoblade Chronicles region free ID. The path to the textures should be...
C:UsersUserNameDocumentsDolphin EmulatorLoadTexturesSX4
Super Mario Bros Wii Custom Models Iso Download How To Import Software
> Xenoblade Chronicles (USA) Game ID is SX4E01. To limit textures to USA only the path should be...C:UsersUserNameDocumentsDolphin EmulatorLoadTexturesSX4E01
> Xenoblade Chronicles (PAL) Game ID is SX4P01. To limit textures to Europe only the path should be...
C:UsersUserNameDocumentsDolphin EmulatorLoadTexturesSX4P01
Note: If the texture pack does not appear to be 'working', it could be that you need to increase the internal resolution! Higher resolutions require a more powerful system.
Graphics > Enhancements tab > Internal Resolution.
The rest of this post is geared towards texture pack creators, maintainers, or interested users. No need to read further if the goal is only to install texture packs.
When playing the game, dumped textures will show up in ..DocumentsDolphin EmulatorDumpTextures<GameID>. Textures must be loaded in-game for them to dump. You can not dump the entire game in one go. Textures can not be dumped from the disc themselves, as the filenames will not match the hash needed by Dolphin. The only way to dump all textures is to play the entire game and experience all textures in-game.
Now just to throw this out there, it's not entirely impossible to dump the files from the game disc and get the correct hashes. But it would require a LOT of effort, and the method of doing so would be different from game to game. You would need to find a way to extract the raw images from the disc which are most likely using propriety compression techniques, use xxhash to calculate the hashes of the raw images, and assemble a file name using the naming scheme that Dolphin uses (tex1_dimensions_hash_format.extension). By the time this is all accomplished, in the end it may have been easier to just play the game and dump the textures.
• The header 'tex1' means that this is the first revision of the new format.
• Next is the dimensions, the dumped texture has the dimensions 256x256.
• Next is the letter 'm', which says this is a mipmap texture.
• Next is the unique hash of the texture.
• Last is a flag for the texture format.
Features of the current texture format:
• No Game ID in the texture name. When converting a pack for another region, you only need to rename the GameID folder (or use the region free 3 letter equivalent).
• Texture packs can have any number of sub-folders that contain textures within the GameID folder for better organization.
• Textures can be dumped with ANY Texture Cache accuracy setting, and are are always compatible with every Texture Cache accuracy.
• The dimensions of the original texture are now in the file name so there is a permanent reference for your custom texture.
• Paletted textures once retextured, load up correctly everywhere in the game. (There are exceptions, see section on wildcards).
• If a texture requires mipmaps, the dimensions will be followed with an 'm' flag (Example: tex1_256x256_m_efef240984783a47_14.png).
• If a texture has arbitrary mipmaps, then the texture will end with an '_arb' suffix (Example: tex1_128x32_m_acb0eea2ba61e548_2_arb.png).
• The '_arb' suffix can be used on any custom texture to draw mipmaps at a fixed distance (see section on arbitrary mipmaps).
2x size : (128*2)x(128*2) : 256x256
3x size : (128*3)x(128*3) : 384x384
4x size : (128*4)x(128*4) : 512x512
5x size : (128*5)x(128*5) : 640x640
6x size : (128*6)x(128*6) : 768x768
... and so on ...
To calculate the upscale factor of an existing custom texture, simply divide the custom width by the original width and the custom height by the original height.
The quotients (results) are the upscale factor of each dimension. Both dimensions should always be equal, and always be an integer and not a decimal. For example....
Original Dimensions: 16x32
Custom Dimensions: 144x288
Width Scale Factor: 144 / 16 = 9(x) scale
Height Scale Factor: 288 / 32 = 9(x) scale
This is a valid integer scale of 9x.
Textures should not be resized using a decimal scale. It will work in Dolphin, but abusing this will make your textures slower!
Original Dimensions: 128x128
Custom Dimensions: 300x300
Width Scale Factor: 300 / 128 = 2.34(x) scale
Height Scale Factor: 300 / 128 = 2.34(x) scale
The decimal value 2.34 is not an integer scale!
Textures also should not have uneven scales. This throws off the aspect ratio of the texture.
Original Dimensions: 128x64
Custom Dimensions: 640x384
Width Scale Factor: 640 / 128 = 5(x) scale
Height Scale Factor: 384 / 64 = 6(x) scale
The dimensions have different upscale factors between them!
Dimensions for each Mipmap level should be half of the dimensions of the previous level, and should be created all the way down to 1x1. Each MipMap texture name must end with the level of the Mipmap that it represents. For example, level 1 should end with '_mip1, level 2 should end with '_mip2', level 3 should end with '_mip3', etc. Below is an example of properly creating mipmaps for a mipmap texture.
• Level 00: tex1_256x256_m_efef240984783a47_14.png : 1024x1024
• Level 01: tex1_256x256_m_efef240984783a47_14_mip1.png : 512x512
• Level 02: tex1_256x256_m_efef240984783a47_14_mip2.png : 256x256
• Level 03: tex1_256x256_m_efef240984783a47_14_mip3.png : 128x128
• Level 04: tex1_256x256_m_efef240984783a47_14_mip4.png : 64x64
• Level 05: tex1_256x256_m_efef240984783a47_14_mip5.png : 32x32
• Level 06: tex1_256x256_m_efef240984783a47_14_mip6.png : 16x16
• Level 07: tex1_256x256_m_efef240984783a47_14_mip7.png : 8x8
• Level 08: tex1_256x256_m_efef240984783a47_14_mip8.png : 4x4
• Level 09: tex1_256x256_m_efef240984783a47_14_mip9.png : 2x2
• Level 10: tex1_256x256_m_efef240984783a47_14_mip10.png : 1x1
The final mipmap should always have dimensions of 1x1. This holds true even if a dimension hits 1 before the other. In this case, continue to halve the larger dimension, and keep using 1 for the other.
• Level 00: tex1_128x512_m_940b020ff9e6dda0_14.png : 512x2048
• Level 01: tex1_128x512_m_940b020ff9e6dda0_14_mip1.png : 256x1024
• Level 02: tex1_128x512_m_940b020ff9e6dda0_14_mip2.png : 128x512
• Level 03: tex1_128x512_m_940b020ff9e6dda0_14_mip3.png : 64x256
• Level 04: tex1_128x512_m_940b020ff9e6dda0_14_mip4.png : 32x128
• Level 05: tex1_128x512_m_940b020ff9e6dda0_14_mip5.png : 16x64
• Level 06: tex1_128x512_m_940b020ff9e6dda0_14_mip6.png : 8x32
• Level 07: tex1_128x512_m_940b020ff9e6dda0_14_mip7.png : 4x16
• Level 08: tex1_128x512_m_940b020ff9e6dda0_14_mip8.png : 2x8
• Level 09: tex1_128x512_m_940b020ff9e6dda0_14_mip9.png : 1x4
• Level 10: tex1_128x512_m_940b020ff9e6dda0_14_mip10.png : 1x2
• Level 11: tex1_128x512_m_940b020ff9e6dda0_14_mip11.png : 1x1
Starting with Dolphin 5.0-3506, DDS textures can have built-in mipmaps and do not require external mipmaps mentioned above. This means a DDS texture and all of its mipmaps can be built into a single file. PNG images can not have internal mipmaps, and will always need another image per mipmap layer. DDS internal mipmaps should only be created within mipmap 'm' textures, otherwise it's a waste of resources as Dolphin will not make use of them.
Manually creating mipmaps can be a pain. For windows users, my Custom Texture Tool PS can automate creating mipmaps.
Below is an example of a lava texture that uses arbitrary mipmaps in Super Mario Galaxy, as dumped by Dolphin. And how it looks in-game can be seen here (with GPU Texture Decoding disabled).
Starting with Dolphin 5.0-6197, custom textures can now make proper use of arbitrary mipmaps. Before custom texture mipmaps were drawn at a distance that was defined by the Internal Resolution and Anisotropic Filtering settings, making where they appear unpredictable. Now textures that include the '_arb' suffix, mipmaps will appear at a fixed distance so the artist has full control over where these effects appear. The '_arb' suffix can be added to any custom texture to draw mipmaps at a fixed distance, or it can be removed from textures that dump with the suffix to dynamically draw mipmaps depending on Internal Resolution and Anisotropic Filtering settings. It will be up to the artist or pack maintainer to decide when to use the '_arb' suffix.
Not long after came Dolphin 5.0-6199. This update picks the same mipmap level for custom textures as it would the game's stock textures, meaning it's possible to perfectly line up custom texture effects with the game's stock effects. This also allows for much higher resolution mipmaps. For the best results, the texture's upscaling factor should match the target Internal Resolution setting. Meaning, a 128x128 texture, upscaled by 4x, resulting in a 512x512 texture, will look best at 4x Internal Resolution.
Sometimes paletted textures will dump multiple times when the tlut hash changes.
While this is not a common issue (in fact it is very rare), it can happen. Games that are known to be affected are The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii) and Wind Waker (GC). Without the wildcard, every instance of this dump would need to be found in order to have it retextured all the time. This is a nearly impossible feat that wastes a lot of time dumping and ultimately precious disk space. So using the example above, a '$' can be used as the second hash which will effectively retexture every instance.
Example: tex1_48x51_53403146169829a2_$_9.dds
The disadvantage of DDS textures is that they are compressed with a lossy algorithm, meaning, the overall quality of the image is reduced when converting to DDS. The quality hit can be avoided using uncompressed DDS textures, but they are much larger in file size and require the same amount of VRAM as PNG. This makes them ideal for UI elements, but not so much for environments and other large textures. Uncompressed DDS textures do however still have a speed advantage over PNG.
• Dolphin currently supports four types of DDS block compression: BC1 (DXT1), BC2 (DXT3), BC3 (DXT5), and BC7.
• It also supports uncompressed DDS textures: DX9 ARGB, DX10 RGBA, or DX10 BGRA. Ishiiruka can not use DX10 RGBA, Red/Blue will be reversed.
• DXT1 textures are half the size of DXT5/BC7, and are faster than most other formats. Not recommended for images with transparency.
• DXT3 should not normally be used as it is the same size as DXT5, only supports 4-bit alpha, and can create noticeable banding.
• DXT5 textures may yield higher quality than DXT1 textures. This is the format that should be used for images with alpha (if not converting to BC7).
• BC7 offers much higher quality than most other formats, is equal in size to DXT5, and has the same VRAM requirements. Requires a DX11 capable GPU.
• Uncompressed provides lossless quality, but are 4x the size of DXT5/BC7 and require 4x the VRAM. These should only be used for smaller textures (like UI/HUD elements).
• DDS textures can have built-in internal mipmaps. These are supported starting with Dolphin 5.0-3506.
• I personally suggest creating packs using BC7 and uncompressed textures going forward. My custom texture tool can aid in converting packs using these formats.
This is a great article on the D3D9 DDS format:
http://www.buckarooshangar.com/flightgear/tut_dds.html
An in-depth explanation of the types of DDS block compression:
http://www.reedbeta.com/blog/understanding-bcn-texture-compression-formats/
How to calculate the file size of a DDS texture (I've seen many misconceptions on this, so hopefully this clears things up):
http://bhemuhelp.co.nf/other/ctt/DDS_Size_Calculations.txt
Super Mario Bros Wii Custom Models Iso Download How To Import Pc
This has since been removed from the master branch, but you can still use Dolphin 5.0 to convert to the new format.
• Navigate to C:UsersUserNameDocumentsDolphin EmulatorConfig.
• Open the configuration file GFX.ini with a text editor.
• Find the setting ConvertHiresTextures and set the value from False to True.
• Now just play the game. When Dolphin loads a custom texture it will automatically rename it.
Texture Converter Features:
• If a duplicate paletted texture is found while playing, it will be automatically deleted.
• The texture converter will rename any mipmap files that are found if the base texture (top layer) is found.
• If multiple textures are found that share a duplicate ID, then they will be appended with an incrementing integer.
• Dolphin 4.0-8583 - Support 3-digit GameIDs for custom texture folder.
• Dolphin 5.0-3506 - Natively support DDS textures and internal mipmaps.
• Dolphin 5.0-4894 - Support for loading DDS BC7 custom textures.
• Dolphin 5.0-6197 - Treat custom textures with '_arb' suffix as having arbitrary mipmaps.
• Dolphin 5.0-6199 - Apply custom texture scale for arbitrary mipmaps.
• Dolphin 5.0-6208 - Remove support for old custom texture format.
• Dolphin 5.0-7631 - Replace usage of SOIL with libpng.
• Dolphin 5.0-8598 - Use simplified libpng PNG reading (fixes PNG transparency bugs since 5.0-7631).
• Dolphin 5.0-8606 - Fix critical buffer overflow in LoadPNG (fixes crash since 5.0-8598).
• Dolphin 5.0-8619 - Change wildcard to Windows compatible character.
• Dolphin 5.0-9217 - Implement resource packs (an alternative to texture packs).
• Dolphin 5.0-9558 - Support compressed resource packs.
This is a PowerShell script that can help identify issues and fix textures in your pack! It can detect bad aspect ratios, improper scaling factors, generate mipmap textures, convert textures between PNG, DDS, and JPG formats, and even fix some textures with bad scaling factors! It requires ImageMagick to function, as Windows cannot read dimensions and write images in batch without an external program. If you want to know more then click on the title above.
Texture Name Sync Tool (Windows):
As you rename textures with Dolphin from the old format to the new, this handy tool by StepDragon can watch for which textures get renamed, and search for and rename any files you have (PSD, XCF, TXT, etc..) that share that texture's name. For example, if texture GAMEID_12345678_0.png gets renamed to tex1_32x32_abcdef0987654321_0.png, then GAMEID_12345678_0.psd will also be renamed to tex1_32x32_abcdef0987654321_0.psd.
• These fonts will NOT work if IPL.bin is present in Dolphins GC<Region> folder.
• There may be alignment issues with some games that may need to be manually fixed for a specific target internal resolution.
• Anyone is free to use it in their texture packs or do anything they want with it.