Help with Disgaea Hour of Darkness

[flowofsoul]

I am trying to run Disgaea: Hour of Darkness off of my usb flash drive using OPL v0.7 but I haven't had any success. I am using the NTSC SLUS 20666 version of the game, and I first made an ISO using imgburn, and then made the iso as a game using USBUtil v2. The game flashed through all the colors but then my TV went black and printed "unsupported video" as if it were outputting as a PAL game. I then made a game on the USB flash drive directly from the disk using USBUtil and the game was stuck on a white screen.

Anyone have a clue what I'm doing wrong or is the game just not supported?

[noetikos]

take a look at using iso2usbld.exe (included with OPL v0.7).
http://home.comcast.net/~jnabk2/openps2/installing.html

[dlanor]

I am trying to run Disgaea: Hour of Darkness off of my usb flash drive using OPL v0.7 but I haven't had any success. I am using the NTSC SLUS 20666 version of the game, and I first made an ISO using imgburn, and then made the iso as a game using USBUtil v2. The game flashed through all the colors but then my TV went black and printed "unsupported video" as if it were outputting as a PAL game. I then made a game on the USB flash drive directly from the disk using USBUtil and the game was stuck on a white screen.

Anyone have a clue what I'm doing wrong or is the game just not supported?

This game works fine for me when using the USB core to run it, though it does have problems with the SMB core (due to lack of IOP RAM), which jimmi is working on fixing.

But with the USB core it should work fine, like it does for me, provided of course that you correctly install a healthy ISO file.

As for ripping ISOs, I never use ImgBurn myself, but prefer using its predecessor "DVD Decrypter". I suspect that the newer ImgBurn has focused a bit too much on the needs of PC-compatible ripping, rather than generic DVD ripping (like "DVD Decrypter" does). And for some cases USBUtil can do a fine job itself, installing a game directly from its physical disc instead of using an ISO.

Best regards: dlanor

[l_oliveira]

I use ImgBurn myself and never had a single case where it underperformed when compared to DVD Decrypter. In fact, both are the same software, considering the fact that ImgBurn no longer contains the CSS circumvention bits of software, making it more of a generic CD/DVD burning tool (as the name implies).

[flowofsoul]

I tried making the image using DVD Decrypter, and installing it using iso2usbld.exe to install it, and once again I received an "unsupported format" from my TV as if the game is being outputted in PAL, which doesn't make any sense.

I tried switching from my component cables to composite video, and my TV no longer displays the "unsupported video" message, but I just get a black screen and nothing happens. This is weird since I have had other games run fine like God of War.

Edit: The black screen is after all of the debug colors have flashed.

Edit: From what I've googled it seems that Disgaea just doesnt work with component cables if your TV can't display 240p, so I'm just screwed. Thanks for your help anyway.

[noetikos]

one more thing, the usb flash-drive/hdd has to be defragged every time that you install a game by whichever method being (usbtil or iso2usbld).

a. defrag at least twice if you are using an external hdd.

b. if using a usb flash-drive create a folder called 'work' and copy over all of your data (games) to it. reformat the usb flash-drive fully under NTFS and then to FAT32 and copy over the data (games).

dlanor gave a better explanation for defragging a usb flash drive.

[flowofsoul]

Formatting it to NTFS and then to FAT32 worked, thanks! I've gotten Disgaea to work with GS Mode Selector, forcing it to output in 480p, but every time I boot GSM up I have to configure the settings again. Is there anyway to save the previous settings so that they are the defaults the next time I open the elf?

[dlanor]

Formatting it to NTFS and then to FAT32 worked, thanks! I've gotten Disgaea to work with GS Mode Selector, forcing it to output in 480p, but every time I boot GSM up I have to configure the settings again. Is there anyway to save the previous settings so that they are the defaults the next time I open the elf?

If you are using a modern version of GSM, meaning v0.23u or v0.23v, then the CNF file can contain up to 16 video modes that you have 'tweaked' the settings of yourself, so as to best suit your TV set. This is organized as an array of 16 'slots' where you can store your custom video modes. And if you store such a mode in slot #00, then it will become the default mode automatically reactivated each time you start the GSM program (so choose a mode that works on all the TV sets you use with the PS2).

If you look at the GSM menu you will see a group of four text lines that deal with these video mode slots, and this group is located just above the bottom group of four lines that deal with the GSM program exit modes and the CNF save command (R2 + L2).

The section to look for looks approximately like this:

CNF FILE - Current User Slot:00(Base vmode:unused)
                              ^ Save Slot to RAM
             Previous Slot < [R2] > Next Slot
                              v Load Slot from RAM

This may look a bit cryptic, but is not all that hard to read once you get used to it.

The part saying "Slot:00(Base vmode:unused) will change when you manipulate the array slot index, which is what the "00" number refers too. And the lines below that one show the command button combos used, with the central 'R2' button being used in all of them.

So a combo of R2 + DPad_Up means that you save current video mode as slot data into the ram array of video modes. (NB: Just in RAM at this point, so not yet to CNF file)

A combo of R2 + DPad_Right means that you increment the slot index, and a combo of R2 + DPad_Left means that you decrement the slot index. And each time you do this the first line mentioned above is updated, to reflect the new selection and the video mode that slot contains.

A combo of R2 + DPad_Down is what you use to load a video mode from the current slot to the preset settings, so you can load not just a single default mode but any one of the 16 slots. This loading does not activate the mode however, but just transfers the data from the array slot into the current preset settings, so you have a chance to give them a manual 'tweak' or two before activation. And activation is now as always done just by pressing the DPad_Down button alone.


So, what you need to do in order to always get 480p as you start the program is really quite simple.

1: Launch GSM v0.23u or v0.23v
2: Close the splash screen (I just push some harmless button) or wait for it to auto-close
3: Push 'O' button once, to set presets to NTSC-I (== 480p)
----- Here you insert whatever tweaking you want, for good centering of the picture -----
4: Push DPad_Down to activate the preset video mode
5: Push R2 + DPad_Up until you get a status message confirming the save to RAM
6: Push R2 + R1 until you get a status message confirming the save of the CNF file.

After saving the CNF file you can exit GSM and turn off the console, to make your first test of how GSM works on a restart. (You should turn it off for this test to ensure that no 'remnant' of what you just did remains in the active TSR routine.)

So next you power on the console and launch GSM again, and this time it should use the video mode you saved in the last session automatically. So you can use the exit command directly each time that video mode is what you want to use.

And when you want to save other tweaked settings in other slots than the default slot:00, then you use the same commands as above, but with different slot index set by the combos R2+DPad_Left and R2+DPad_Right.

This way you can save not just one customized mode, but up to 16 of them in the CNF file for future reuse, though of course only one of them can be loaded by default. The others require manual reloading by the command combo R2+DPad_Down, when you want them.

Best regards: dlanor

[flowofsoul]

Ok thanks dlanor that works great!

[flowofsoul]

I don't see the point of creating another thread, so I'll just double post here. I'm trying to play La Pucelle: Tactics, and I am getting a black screen after all of the debug colors flash. I have verified that none of the files are fragmented, and I am using GSM in order to solve the 240p resolution issue. Is this just a compatibility issue with OPL or GSM?