Vanilla

This is a work-in-progress software clone of the Wii U gamepad. No warranty is provided and everything should be considered alpha at best.

Announcement Video

Usage/Installing

Official builds are provided for all supported platforms on the Releases page. Most users are recommended to use these.

Distro-specific packages

Vanilla is also available in the package managers of certain Linux distributions.

Arch (AUR)

An Arch User Repository (AUR) package called vanilla-wiiu-git is available for easy installation on Arch Linux and derivatives. For more information, see the AUR page: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/vanilla-wiiu-git

What devices are supported?

• Nintendo Switch
• Steam Deck
• Linux (check Wi-Fi hardware compatibility)
• Android
• Windows (currently frontend only)
• Raspberry Pi (requires external Wi-Fi adapter)
• Orange Pi (requires external Wi-Fi adapter)
• macOS (currently frontend only)
• iOS (currently frontend only)

What Wi-Fi adapter should I use?

At a minimum, you will need an adapter that supports 802.11n 5GHz. Newer standards (e.g. 802.11ac) are backwards compatible and should work as long as they can run at 5GHz.

In practice, not all hardware/drivers appear to work at this time. Check the Wireless Compatibility page on the wiki to check if a card is confirmed working or not.

Keyboard Mapping

Special Functions

Extra Vanilla functionality can be accessed through these keyboard shortcuts. On platforms like the Steam Deck, these can be mapped to the back grip buttons.

Function	Key
Start/Stop Recording	F5
Toggle Fullscreen	F11
Take Screenshot	F12
Disconnect	Esc

Gameplay

While a controller/gamepad is strongly recommended for the best experience, it is possible to use the keyboard as a fallback. This is the default keyboard mapping, but the keys are remappable in the settings:

Gamepad Button	Key
A	Z
B	X
X	C
Y	V
Plus (+)	Enter/Return
Minus (-)	Left Ctrl
Home	H
TV	Y
Left Stick Up	W
Left Stick Left	S
Left Stick Down	A
Left Stick Right	D
Left Stick Click	E
D-Pad Up	Up Arrow
D-Pad Left	Left Arrow
D-Pad Down	Down Arrow
D-Pad Right	Right Arrow
Right Stick Up	Keypad 8
Right Stick Left	Keypad 4
Right Stick Down	Keypad 2
Right Stick Right	Keypad 6
Right Stick Click	Keypad 5
L	T
ZL	G
R	U
ZR	J

Compiling (Linux)

Vanilla currently requires the following dependencies:

• Debian/Ubuntu

  apt install build-essential cmake libsdl2-dev libsdl2-image-dev libsdl2-ttf-dev libavformat-dev libavcodec-dev libavutil-dev libswscale-dev libnl-genl-3-dev libnl-route-3-dev libxml2-dev libnm-dev libpolkit-agent-1-dev
  

• Fedora

  dnf install libavcodec-free-devel libavutil-free-devel libavfilter-free-devel libnl3-devel SDL2-devel SDL2_image-devel SDL2_ttf-devel make automake gcc gcc-c++ kernel-devel cmake libxml2-devel NetworkManager-libnm-devel polkit-devel
  

• Arch

  pacman -S base-devel make cmake ffmpeg libnl sdl2 sdl2_image sdl2_ttf libxml2 libnm polkit
  

• Alpine/postmarketOS

  apk add build-base cmake sdl2-dev sdl2_image-dev sdl2_ttf-dev ffmpeg-dev libnl3-dev libxml2-dev networkmanager-dev polkit-dev
  

The build process is otherwise normal for a CMake program:

git clone https://github.com/vanilla-wiiu/vanilla.git
cd vanilla
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
cmake --build . --parallel

Optionally, to install the program:

sudo cmake --install .