Question Consolizing the 3DS through the Wii U interface

[noonja]

Hi everyone, I am new to the community and often a lurker and don't post. But I wanted to ask a question that some of you might be able to answer. How difficult would it be to interface the 3DS into the Wii U. So basically use the gamepad as that bottom screen and the top screen is output to the TV. The DS virtual console seems to already do this. So, in short, what would it take consolize the 3ds through the Wii U's interface?

 

[Stitches]

Are you asking about emulating the 3DS on the U, or taking the video from a 3DS console to display on the U?

 

[noonja]

Taking the video from a 3DS console and displaying it on the U.

 

[Stitches]

Well NTR View exists, so you could try that if your 3DS is a New3DS model and has NTR custom firmware. NTR View is a Wii U homebrew app that lets you stream the 3DS screens to the U over wifi. The downside to it is that you're using 3DS processor overhead to capture and transmit the video, so your framerate will always be unstable and usually below 30, and it only works in 3DS mode so GBA and DS games cannot be streamed to the U. You also can't send audio over NTR View, so you'll need to get audio via the 3.5mm jack if you want game audio coming from your TV

 

[noonja]

I knew that there was some custom firmware for the PC but I didn't realize the Wii U had this as well. I would really love to transmit this in close to real time. Maybe using a dock attached to the Wii U and allowing the 3ds to operate instructions as a sidecar? Does that sound feasible? Thanks for the responses btw!

 

[Shank]

It is one of those things that is probably possible, but would be extremely advanced. You likely wouldn't use the Wii U at all, beyond the gamepad. You would have to modify the 3DS to capture the display signal for both screens, output one through HDMI, and the other wirelessly to the Wii U. You'd also need to transmit the controller info including the touch screen back to the device wirelessly. This would be a very sophisticated FPGA project. I would guess it's beyond the capabilities of 99.9% of the members on this forum.

 

[noonja]

I appreciate the theory-crafting Shank. Btw, your channel is what made me join the community in the first place.
But anyways, I wanted to tackle this project in iterations. I first wanted to deal with Video and see how I can capture that Then I wanted to deal with the touch screen. Seeing that you have done a lot of work with the Wii U. How does a Wii U synchronize with the game pad anyways? Could the 3ds not represent the "console" of the Wii U?

 

[Stitches]

IIRC the U sends encoded video to the gamepad over a special wifi implementation. Some people have made a system that can allow a Linux PC to emulate a gamepad and recieve gamepad video data from the Wii U, but I haven't seen anyone release a project that can send video data to the gamepad alone. Everything I know of involving the gamepad requires it to be actively paired to a Wii U. Even just using the gamepad as a dinput controller for PC games requires the gamepad to be synced to a Wii U so that you can connect to a locally hosted web server to pass the inputs.

 

[Shank]

Seeing that you have done a lot of work with the Wii U. How does a Wii U synchronize with the game pad anyways? Could the 3ds not represent the "console" of the Wii U?

I really haven't done all that much with the Wii U. Seems people online elsewhere have been able to interface other devices to the gamepad, like this project for example.

 

[noonja]

Thanks for the insight on how the Wii U Gamepad works Stitches. I may have made an assumption that Shank knew about the Wii U from the Megathread related to Trimming the Wii U. And that's on me. Given that the gamepad is quite intertwined with the Wii U, that does give me some food for thought on how I would approach this. I am going to attack the 3DS video protocol first and then take a stab at interfacing it with the Wii U. Thank you for the responses and if there is any additional information you all think might be helpful, please let me know!

 

[Stitches]

That's all I know. Nintendo really didn't want us to have any fun with the gamepad