Wii U

• Emulator: Cemu
• Folder: /userdata/roms/wiiu
• Accepted ROM formats: .wup, .wud, .wua, .rpx, .squashfs , .wux*

*.wux removed in v37, but back in v38+

No Wii U emulator in Batocera needs a BIOS file to run.

Place your Nintendo Wii U ROMs in /userdata/roms/wiiu/.

You can use the following ROM formats:

• wup: an installer format for titles to be installed on the Wii U console - not recommended.
• wud: a single file, which is a direct physical game dump, this format requires an accurate keys.txt file.
• wux: single-file compressed versions of .wud dumps, this format requires an accurate keys.txt file.
• wua: single-file compressed file, it's a file that contains both base, update and dlcs game content. (Supported since Cemu version 1.27)
• Loadiine: a directory structure with multiple files and folders, usually shared as an archive. You must unpack the archive and place the containing folder in the ROMs directory. This format is a decrypted version of .wud dumps. Batocera will use the [game].rpx binary file in the /code/ directory structure of the Loadiine unarchived ROM to launch the game.

How to compress files to .wua format.

You need a text file named keys.txt. This file needs to go in the /userdata/bios/cemu/ folder. If you have a pop-up window telling you “Error in keys.txt line XX”, it might be because your keys.txt file is not correctly located in /userdata/bios/cemu/.

This keys.txt is a plain text file containing several lines, one for the common Wii U key, plus one for each game you want to support. # is used for comments.

Some games need an update to be playable via Cemu or maybe you want to install available DLCs for a game.

You can install them easily with cemu-config. First make sure that you connected an external drive or a network share with the installation files or copied them to the Batocera share.

• select File → Install game update or DLC
• select the meta.xml in the meta folder of the update or DLC
• wait for the installation process

Cemu is a free and open-source Wii U emulator created in October 2015. Though still under development, it is able to run the majority of commercial games smoothly, 15% of tested titles are perfect and 38% are, at least, playable which sums to 45% of total tested titles, with varying degrees of glitches for the imperfect ones. Check out the up-to-date official compatibility list for more information.

Standardized features available to all cores of this emulator: wiiu.videomode

Cemu works best with Vulkan drivers if your GPU can support it.

For most games Community graphic packs are available.

Unlike the name suggests these are not only graphic enhancements but also mods and patches that make the game more stable or playable. Most Wii U games run in 720p; the graphic packs allow to run games in 1080p or even in higher resolutions. They are highly recommended.

To download and use the community graphic packs follow these steps in cemu-config:

• Right-click a game and select Edit graphic packs
• Select Download latest community graphic packs You need to be connected to the internet.
• Choose and enable the graphic packs / mods / cheats etc. that you want
• Press [Alt] + [F4] to exit the window

The Cemu Wiki offers tons of well documented guides and optimizations for specific games - just use the search function on that wiki to find your desired game guide.

When your game is loaded, check for its ID on the title bar in front of “SaveDir:” and note it down. The directory where transferable shader caches are stored is \userdata\system\configs\cemu\shaderCache.

They're generated the first time you play through a game and at that time cause noticeable stuttering. You can download a complete cache from places like here and rename them to match your game version's ID to spare yourself most of that unpleasant experience. Just keep in mind that shader caches from versions older than 1.8.0 are incompatible with later versions of Cemu.

Some games require custom game profile settings (often to use the CPU mode “single-core recompiler instead of auto).

To create customized game profiles follow these steps in cemu-config:

• right-click a game and select Edit game profile
• change the game settings as needed
• press ALT+F4 to exit the window

Again the Cemu Wiki offers tons of well documented guides and optimizations for specific games - just use the search function on that wiki to find your desired game guide.

Here are the default Wii U's controls shown on a Batocera Retropad:

If you are using a XBOX One Controller the mapping to the Wii U (Pro) Gamepad is really easy. The most buttons are as expected, only the following are different:

Here's a picture of a physical Wii U Pro controller to help illustrate:

The Wii U Gamepad offers an integrated touchscreen. You can access the Gamepad view by pressing and holding the [Tab] key on your keyboard. Clicking somewhere with the mouse simulates a touch on this screen.

Some games require the motion control function of the Gamepad (e.g. Splatoon forces you to use motion control in the tutorial if you start the game for the first time)

Cemu emulates motion control via mouse gesture + right mouse button

Since v41, Wiimotes may be used as controllers in Cemu. To do so, pair a Wiimote and make sure the MODE in WIIMOTE GUN SETTINGS is set to JOYSTICK (not GUN). Both models Wiimote (RVL-003) and Wiimote incl. MotionPlus (RVL-036) are supported.

Extensions may be used as far as Cemu supports them. Reported as working in Cemu 2.0-81:

• RVL-003 with Nunchuk or MotionPlus or both

Reported as not working in Cemu 2.0-81 (see PR #12291 for details):

• RVL-003 with Classic Controller (broken button mapping)
• RVL-003 with Classic Controller Pro (not recognized)
• RVL-036 with any extension (unstable connection)

Batocera uses the Windows build of Cemu up to v35 and the Linux build from v36.

The directory layout of these builds is incompatible to each other. It was reported that Cemu in v36 does not properly start with the v35 configuration in place. Thus, the configuration must be moved before Cemu is started for the first time after migration:

• mv /userdata/system/configs/cemu/ /userdata/system/configs/cemu-wine/

If you'd like to keep your existing data, copy it to the new location:

• Save states: cp -a /userdata/saves/cemu/drive_c/cemu/ /userdata/saves/wiiu/
• Graphic packs: cp -a /userdata/system/configs/cemu-wine/graphicPacks/ /userdata/saves/wiiu/graphicPacks/
• Shader cache: cp -a /userdata/system/configs/cemu-wine/shaderCache/ /userdata/system/cache/cemu/shaderCache/

After verifying that everything works as expected, and if you're sure that the old data of v35 is not required anymore, you can remove the files:

• rm -r /userdata/system/configs/cemu-wine/ /userdata/saves/cemu/

If you'd like to go back from v36 to v35 instead, you have to undo the move:

• mv /userdata/system/configs/cemu/ /userdata/system/configs/cemu-linux/
• mv /userdata/system/configs/cemu-wine/ /userdata/system/configs/cemu/

After you make upgrade of Batocera in v31 you need to move your backups.

• mkdir -p /userdata/saves/cemu/drive_c/cemu
• cp -a /userdata/saves/cemu/sys /userdata/saves/cemu/drive_c/cemu
• cp -a /userdata/saves/cemu/usr /userdata/saves/cemu/drive_c/cemu

For further troubleshooting, refer to the generic support pages.