1.0.0 - A brand new era

Changelog

Note: the release was silently updated a day after the original release, fixing issues with sound in themes and with log files

Video showcasing the UI redesign:

General

• The menu entry system was completely remade:

  • Cleaner grid-like system, deeply inspired by the 3DS menu (and partially DSi/Wii menus as well), easier than ever to navigate and customize.

  • Homebrew and applications are no longer split in separate menus: the menu initially contains all applications, hbmenu, uManager (check below) and other special entries (user page, settings/themes...), and homebrew entries may be easily added in the menu (or they can always be accessed via hbmenu, of course)

• Support was added for detecting when the gamecard fails mounting (even displaying the result, something the original HOME menu doesn't do).

• Support on SD removal was improved.

• Now using arc to neatly organize result codes and display their names.

• All uLaunch components now generate logs (cleaned every reboot) which can be really helpful for pinpointing any problems.

• Translations are provided for additional languages: Spanish, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese (those volunteered by translators)

  • If you'd like to add new translations or improve existing ones, feel free to contribute!

• As always, all libraries were updated to their latest releases (therefore, this works with latest Atmosphère).

• Many other internal bits of the code were improved or straight up redesigned.

uSystem

• Basically many internal changes to reflect changes in the other parts of the project more noticeable by the end user.

uLoader

• Implemented support to use uLoader as a homebrew chooser, thus now being able to return the homebrew the user selected via hbmenu instead of launching it.

• Minor changes reflecting more closely the logic actual hbloader follows, probably fixing minor issues.

uMenu

• Changes relative to the new menu:

  • Several options previously placed elsewhere (user page, uLaunch settings/themes, controllers menu...) are now actual menu entries, making the UI cleaner overall.

  • Mii editor is now accessible from both the entry menu and the quick menu.

  • Folders are back, and better than ever! Subfolders, sub-subfolders, etc. can be created like before, while the new menu grid-like layout makes moving entries inside/outside folders more intuitive than ever.

• Major graphical improvements aside from the new menu:

  • All assets/logic were upgraded to 1080p, thus no longer having lower quality on TV (another thing the official HOME menu doesn't have).

  • Menus are highly themeable now, since more attention was dedicated to little customizable aspects.

• The quick menu can now only opened with ZL/ZR (L/R are used to nagivate through the main menu), and a mii editor option was added back.

• The web browser URL input dialog starts with https:// as default for simplicity.

• There is no longer a separate homebrew menu, instead homebrew entries are added via the new uLoader mechanism.

• Inputs are now nicely shown in an input bar right above the entry menu.

• Several menu transitions were made nicer, fading into the theme background instead of a black screen.

• Some basic checking is done on whether titles are launchable in the first place (rather than trying to launch them, failing and reopening uMenu with an error dialog)

• Increased internal menu memory from 176MB to 296MB, thus allowing loading better quality theme assets while everything else should (in principle) work fine.

Themeing: uDesigner

Themes have changed a lot: this version introduces a new version of the theme format, comprising both minor changes and a LOT more customizable stuff, to the point where all the changes are too long to be listed here.

• The new default theme has blue as its overall color and almost entirely brand new assets.

• Themes are now distributed as ZIP files.

• The themeing wiki has been rewritten covering everything about creating themes.

From all this, it follows that old themes are far from compatible (not only differences in format/files, but also on the resolution since we are 1080p now!), so any old theme must be reworked manually. Regardless, the new themeing is more customizable than before, opening many more opportunities for any creative minds out there.

Along these lines, an (experimental) official theme editor is finally here: check uDesigner!

• The wiki has also been rewritten, covering every relevant detail. Wiki pages are the perfect documentation for those who will make themes manually as well as those using the (experimental) editor.

uManager

This new release introduces uManager, a brand new homebrew app to control uLaunch's functionality!

Manually tinkering files will no longer be necessary (aside from weird cases, of course).

• Automatically enable/disable uLaunch

• Update uLaunch to the latest GitHub release

• Reset the menu layout / uLaunch's generated image cache (might come useful if something happened to break)

uScreen (formerly uViewer)

uViewer was replaced by uScreen, a brand-new (Java) tool for USB screen capturing, where its functionality is the same overall.

Remarks

Note that many other not-too-complicated features could've been added into this release: more system settings, menu entries for amiibo options, per-user theme options, important application checks that the official HOME menu does (needed updates and corrupted data)...

Features like these will (hopefully) be tested and implemented on future releases, but too many major changes were already waiting to be in a new release (for those unaware, this release's work is the result of combining features of several years of half-finished rewrite attempts) and I was not risking losing motivation again because of constantly expanding the next release's goals.

In other words: enjoy by best work despite still sucking at UI design ;)