Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums
Is Dolphin legal? - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: Is Dolphin legal? (/Thread-is-dolphin-legal)

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Is Dolphin legal? - Luigi__ - 04-17-2009

Hello,

I'd like to know if Dolphin is fully legal.
Is it using a BIOS from a Wii? Or is it using an HLE BIOS?

I'm asking these questions because I think I maybe could contribute to the project (mostly the Wii emulation part) in some way, and I'd like first to be sure Dolphin is legal. For the ISOs, I can dump my games myself.

Thanks in advance for replying Smile

RE: Is Dolphin legal? - Unknownforce - 04-17-2009

(04-17-2009, 08:34 AM)Luigi__ Wrote: Hello,

I'd like to know if Dolphin is fully legal.
Is it using a BIOS from a Wii? Or is it using an HLE BIOS?

I'm asking these questions because I think I maybe could contribute to the project (mostly the Wii emulation part) in some way, and I'd like first to be sure Dolphin is legal. For the ISOs, I can dump my games myself.

Thanks in advance for replying Smile

Dolphin is 100% legal.

RE: Is Dolphin legal? - Luigi__ - 04-17-2009

It's using an HLE BIOS, right?

Thank you! Smile

EDIT: I read on some forum that Dolphin was using the Wii BIOS... apparently it isn't true.

RE: Is Dolphin legal? - Runo - 04-17-2009

It's using HLE BIOS, I'm glad that more people want to contribute to this great emu!

RE: Is Dolphin legal? - Luigi__ - 04-17-2009

Yeah. I think I could contribute in some way... but first I'd need time to understand the code.

I am already working on DeSmuME, which is a Nintendo DS emulator, so you see that I've some coding skills.
I've the game Zelda Twilight Princess, so I can install the Homebrew channel on my Wii through the Twilight hack, then I can run a program to dump my games, so I should never be "red-handed with games I don't own" (like the rules say). But I'll do all that only once I've understood the code enough.

RE: Is Dolphin legal? - Unknownforce - 04-17-2009

(04-17-2009, 09:34 AM)Luigi__ Wrote: Yeah. I think I could contribute in some way... but first I'd need time to understand the code.

I am already working on DeSmuME, which is a Nintendo DS emulator, so you see that I've some coding skills.
I've the game Zelda Twilight Princess, so I can install the Homebrew channel on my Wii through the Twilight hack, then I can run a program to dump my games, so I should never be "red-handed with games I don't own" (like the rules say). But I'll do all that only once I've understood the code enough.

http://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/w/list

This is where to start...

RE: Is Dolphin legal? - shuffle2 - 04-17-2009

The bios is HLE'd: http://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/source/browse/trunk/Source/Core/Core/Src/Boot/Boot_BIOSEmu.cpp

Dolphin is always open to more people of course. If you are serious about contributing, get in touch with ector or F|RES and let them know - or just post back here and I will.

As for understanding the code...it's pretty much a continuous project. Since there are so many people and the codebase changes rather frequently. However, the layout of the svn should be enough to give you an idea how things work.

p.s. you have a decent chance of being able to run the wii menu and related apps if you dump your NAND and plop it in the ./User/Wii folder. Probably that's what people meant by "wii bios"....

p.s.s. - #dolphin-emu on efnet is the most convenient place, or the dev message group...once you're added to the group :p

RE: Is Dolphin legal? - Luigi__ - 04-18-2009

Wow! There are rules for coding. I perfectly understand it since it's the best way to keep the code clean.
DeSmuME doesn't have coding rules and sometimes the code is really messy.

I'll do my best to apply the coding rules. These rules also give me ideas to make DeSmuME's code cleaner.

RE: Is Dolphin legal? - nosound97 - 04-18-2009

Hey, I remember you from DeSmuME project. DeSmuME advanced a lot. I hope you can make some good changes in Dolphin too Wink Dolphin is legal and open source Smile

RE: Is Dolphin legal? - Luigi__ - 04-18-2009

Yeah, I'll try to do my best. Once I've understood the code enough, of course.
I needed understanding code for DeSmuME too. Even now, some parts of it are still obscure to me.