Wii Internet Channel and Nintendo DS/DSi Browser Homebrew

We’ve recently begun a new year, and with new years come New Year’s resolutions. I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon and place some goals for the Wii Opera SDK / HullBreach SDK. If these resolutions can be kept, expect to see many more features arise in the SDK this year. Some of these depend on Opera releasing the much rumored Wii Opera 2.0 / Internet Channel 2.0 that so many believe will see the light of day after a Photoshopped image several months ago. Inevitably, a new release will come on day. It will probably not have a spinning tab-cube and big, unproportioned buttons like the Wii Opera 2.0 / Internet Channel 2.0, but there will obviously be a newer Opera built.

These resolutions will be listed in priorities and based on dependencies of a new Internet Channel build. I would also like to optimize some of the existing classes for Nintendo DSi usage.


RPGStats Class (New)
Priority: Moderate
Dependency: None

This class will create RPG character and enemy objects with all their stats. There will also be another helper-class to perform calculations relating to battle damage and item usage.

Comm Class (Existing)
Priority: High
Dependency: None

This class has existed since the 1.x series of the SDK, so it’s in bad need of an update. This update will use more efficient serialized values and offer multiple asynchronous AJAX calls.

Mee Class (New)
Priority: Low
Dependency: None

This class will create an Internet Channel version of Miis so that games using the SDK can have avatar heads that will carry across any games for consistancy.

Mode7 Class (New)
Priority: High
Dependency: None

This class will reproduce the screen mode 7 effect of the Super NES where scanlines of rotated backgrounds are scaled in 3D perspective. This effect was popularized in games like F-Zero and Super Mario Kart.

Terrain Class (New)
Priority: Low
Dependency: None

This class will create height-mapped terrains by passing texture and height values to the class. It will effectively open voxel graphics for the Internet Channel.

Keyboard Class (New)
Priority: Moderate
Dependency: None

This class will allow developers to have a translucent on-screen keyboard pop-up on the screen for entering characters into textboxes and textareas without an entirely new screen appearing.

3D2 Class (New)
Priority: Moderate
Dependency: Canvas 3D

This class will wrap Opera’s 3D canvas much in the way that the Draw class currently wraps the 2D canvas. It will allow for much faster texture-mapping of 3D meshes.

I have a new widget out that is compatible with the Wii. It can be found here. The widget demonstrates some of the features of the Wii Opera SDK so that developers can see what is possible to add into their Internet Channel games. The widget is a scaled down version of the General Wii Remote Demo at http://wiioperasdk.com/.

It auto-detects if the user if on a computer or a Wii and determines if a Wii Remote is facing the screen or not. It then displays positional and button press data. The Wii Opera SDK can also read Nunchuk button presses, but the Internet Channel does not support the Nunchuk for the primary Wii Remote, so that detection has been dropped.

I have two more widgets available, but I'm waiting on Opera to allow Wii usage for them. They can be found here (3D Mesh Demo) and here (Raycasting demo).

HullBreach Online has just moved to a faster server, and what better way is there to usher in the change than a major update? Asteroid mining has been added to the capabilities ships have in the game universe. Now players can scout out prime spots in the far reaches of space to gather goods to sell for credits. In addition to this update, there have been bug fixes in the areas of trading goods and disembarking from locations.

The Bynar system consists of two planets, which are exact mirrors of each other. Missions and goods are already populated. You can read about the backstory to these planets in the blog at hullbreachonline.com.

Some players have been asking about the special Christmas "present" that was hinted on the homepage of http://hullbreachonline.com. I won't tell specifically what it is, but let's just say to check the in-game credits.

Also, NPCs are starting to populate the game world. They will mainly be in the form of stationary ships docked at locations. Due to the speed of the Wii's Internet Channel, I cannot create the advanced AI that I had hoped. Still, seeing a few extra ships while playing is a nice addition. Oh yeah, try hailing the NPCs.