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DriftDroid 1.4.0: a new settings menu, 14 languages, Retro Rewind 6.13.4, your own Switch icon

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@dorPXP dorPXP released this 02 Nov 23:46
· 26 commits to android-port since this release
v1.4.0
4cba039

DriftDroid 1.4.0: a new settings menu, 14 languages, Retro Rewind 6.13.4, your own Switch icon

Important

Android: no PC needed. Install DriftDroid-v1.4.0.apk (over 1.3.0 if you have it: your saves, game data and Retro Rewind stay), open it and import your own Mario Kart Wii disc image (.iso or .wbfs) once, as before. The game code is included in the APK, the same as in 1.3.0; the game's own files (courses, music, textures) are never included: they always come from your own disc.

Switch needs a PC, once. DriftDroid Builder (Windows or Linux) makes the Switch files from your own disc. It can also make an Android game pack with the newest Retro Rewind code (optional, see below).

It was tested on a Huawei Nova 9 and a Nintendo Switch. The Windows version of the Builder was only tried under Wine (building for Android), and joining online rooms could not be tried on the day (see Known problems). If something breaks, please open an issue with Export Diagnostics attached.

Setting up 1.4.0

Android (no PC)

  1. Install DriftDroid-v1.4.0.apk.
  2. Open DriftDroid, tap Install with ISO/WBFS and pick your disc image (PAL, game ID RMCP01). The app extracts the game's data to the phone once.
  3. For Retro Rewind, tap Install on its card: DriftDroid downloads it.

Switch (a PC, once)

  1. Download DriftDroid-Builder-1.4.0-windows.zip (Windows 10/11) or DriftDroid-Builder-1.4.0-linux.zip and unpack it somewhere with a short path (for example C:\DriftDroidBuilder). Keep the folder together. There is no Mac version of the Builder yet.

  2. Run DriftDroidBuilder, drop your Mario Kart Wii disc image onto it, tick Switch and press Start. It takes from 30 minutes to a couple of hours, needs about 16 GB of free space, and needs devkitPro with Switch Development installed (installer).

  3. Copy the files to the SD card one by one. Do not drag the whole output/switch folder over: the files then end up in the wrong place, and Retro Rewind says "Needs RetroRewind.nro". Create the WiiCompiled folder yourself inside switch if it is not there (exactly that spelling). The SD card must end up like this:

    SD card/switch/DriftDroid.nro
SD card/switch/WiiCompiled/RetroRewind.nro          (only if you want Retro Rewind)
SD card/switch/WiiCompiled/your Mario Kart Wii disc (.wbfs or .iso, PAL)

    DriftDroid.nro goes directly in switch, never inside WiiCompiled. With Switch icon in the Builder you can use your own picture for the icon.

  4. Start DriftDroid from its Home tile, or from hbmenu opened by holding R while you launch a game. Do not start it from the Album (applet mode): it gets too little memory there and can crash Atmosphere.

Optional on Android: a game pack from the Builder. Tick Android as well and the Builder makes DriftDroid-GamePack-1.4.0.zip with the newest Retro Rewind code it finds. Copy it to your phone and tap Import Game Pack... on the launcher; it takes over from the code in the APK. Not needed for normal play.

Your saves, game data and Retro Rewind stay when you update. A game pack only works with the DriftDroid version it was made for.

New

  • A new settings menu on phone and Switch. A side drawer (a bottom sheet in vertical mode) with Display, Controls, Sound, Music and Advanced pages, and a quick panel for the things you change often: pull down from the top of the screen on the phone, press - on the Switch. The technical options moved to Advanced.
  • 14 languages for the menus, the launcher and the Builder: English, Spanish (Latin America and Spain), Portuguese (Brazil), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Simplified), Russian, Turkish, Dutch and Polish. They follow your phone or console language, and you can pick one in the settings. First versions were written by an AI; corrections are welcome.
  • Motion controls, redone. Settings > Controls: Steer with Stick, Tilt or Wii Wheel, and Shake for tricks. Shaking the phone now does real tricks in Wii Wheel mode. With a real controller connected, the game plays like a normal controller.
  • Switch: two to four players. Every player gets their own controller, their own tilt steering and their own shake-to-trick. A new Players list shows who holds which controller, and Change controllers opens the console's own screen.
  • Switch: music player. Put MP3 files in /switch/WiiCompiled/Music and play them over the game from the quick panel or the Music tab: play/pause, next, previous and a volume slider. The game's own music is lowered while a track plays.
  • Switch: Retro Rewind downloads and updates itself from the launcher, and the Mods screen shows the load order.
  • Button mapping: L2/R2 can be remapped like any other button (#15), the button names say what they do, and there is a Reset mapping button next to the presets.
  • Touch layout editor with separate layouts for horizontal and vertical play. Vertical mode (experimental): play upright like Mario Kart Tour (Launcher > Graphics...).
  • Save Data... (#14) imports or exports your rksys.dat, for example from a Wii or Dolphin; saves from another region are converted to PAL. Mii data... exports, replaces or adds a Mii.
  • Brightness, contrast and saturation in the Display settings (#15).
  • Choose your own Switch icon. With Switch ticked in DriftDroid Builder, Switch icon lets you pick any picture (for example your own copy of the game's cover) for the .nro files. It is cropped to a square and stays on your computer; the default is DriftDroid's own. From a terminal: --switch-icon picture.png.
  • A new app icon with the DRIFTDROID name on it, and a restyled two-tone title in the app, the Switch launcher and the Builder.

Retro Rewind 6.13.4

Works with Retro Rewind 6.13.4. Tap Retro Rewind after updating: an older install updates itself.

Fixes

  • Audio crackling and slowly falling behind: the game's audio clock dropped a fraction of a microsecond on every update, so sound ran about 0.5% slow and the queue slowly emptied. It now keeps that remainder (the same fix as upstream WiiCompiled's).

  • Settings button: Reset in the touch layout editor now puts the settings gear back at its default spot too. (To hide the gear: Settings > Advanced > Hide the settings button; Back still opens the settings.)

  • Retro Rewind online: the game no longer crashes on the online globe, and no longer stops with a "fatal renderer error" a few seconds after you disconnect.

  • Export Diagnostics says why Android last closed the app (out of memory, a crash...), how much memory the phone has and which controllers are connected. If the game closes without an error (#11, #12) or a controller isn't found (#13), please send a new diagnostics zip.

  • A crash at start when Android took the screen away while shaders were being prepared (Mali-G57, #12).

  • Menu headings keep their accents in capitals (for example "PREDEFINIÇÕES"), and long translations shrink to fit.

  • Guest threads have more stack space, which may fix silent closes while loading tracks (#11, #12). Not confirmed.

Known problems

  • Retro WFC may show error 84020 or 94020. The game's connection to Retro Rewind's matchmaking server gets no answer on some networks. Other players report the same error, and it has cleared up on its own for some. It is not something the Builder or the app can fix.
  • Online players show no country flag and a wrong spot on the globe: the game never gets a country from the console. A country setting is planned.
  • PowerVR phones (#3): missing models and backgrounds are still not fixed.
  • Silent closes while loading a track (#11, #12) are not understood yet; the new diagnostics should tell us more.
  • Starting DriftDroid on the Switch from the Album (applet mode) can crash Atmosphere. Start it from its Home tile, or from hbmenu opened by holding R. A later version will show a message instead of crashing.
  • The Switch's faster "sound on its own core" mode is off by default because it froze Retro Rewind online before. Put an empty file named sound_core.flag in /switch/WiiCompiled/ to try it.

Icon credits

The new app icon is a 3D render made for DriftDroid. The kart is "Kart" by absence_art on Sketchfab (CC BY 4.0), repainted and rendered with the other elements. The Android robot is reproduced or modified from work created and shared by Google and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License.

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