Open PS2 Loader Project - v0.9

[zin0099]

if psone support is included that would be nice but ps2 games with 2 disc are:
-xenosaga 2
-xenosaga 3
-star ocean 3 til the end of time

[dlanor]

if psone support is included that would be nice but ps2 games with 2 disc are:
-xenosaga 2
-xenosaga 3
-star ocean 3 til the end of time

Yes they do use more than one disc, but do those disc games also require a disc change with the game running, or do they simply use the traditional method of having the user save game at end of the first disc, and then start gameplay on the second disc by loading that gamesave ?

Games which use that method need no special support by a game launcher (or emulator), since the disc swapping can simply be done by installing each disc as a separate game, and restarting the console to 'swap' the virtual discs.

Special disc swap support is only needed for games that demand a disc switch with the game running, using no gamesave to transfer from one disc to the next.

So which method is used by those games you mentioned ?

Best regards: dlanor

[zin0099]

Yes they do use more than one disc, but do those disc games also require a disc change with the game running, or do they simply use the traditional method of having the user save game at end of the first disc, and then start gameplay on the second disc by loading that gamesave ?

Games which use that method need no special support by a game launcher (or emulator), since the disc swapping can simply be done by installing each disc as a separate game, and restarting the console to 'swap' the virtual discs.

Special disc swap support is only needed for games that demand a disc switch with the game running, using no gamesave to transfer from one disc to the next.

So which method is used by those games you mentioned ?

Best regards: dlanor

the reason i bring it up is i don't remeber if like metal gear soild(psone) if the disc is needed to be swapped but the disc continuely spins? so swaps are out unless you have the originals

[dlanor]

the reason i bring it up is i don't remeber if like metal gear soild(psone) if the disc is needed to be swapped but the disc continuely spins? so swaps are out unless you have the originals

I was not speaking of that kind of swapping at all, as used to run backup discs.
Those issues have NOTHING to do with the current discussion.


I'm talking only of the kind of swapping where you end gameplay on disc 1 of a multidisc game to continue gameplay on the next disc of that game.

The standard method for doing this is to make a gamesave at end of the first disc, then restart the game (effectively) on the second disc and reload that gamesave. For such games there is NO need for any special support for that disc transition, as it will work perfectly even if the two discs of that game are installed as separate games for a game launcher/emulator.

But the other method requires that the user remove the first disc and replace it with the second disc while the game is still running, and without using any gamesave for this transition. This is where most game launchers (eg: HDLoader) and most emulators too fail to handle it correctly, as they have no way of switching virtual disc files without restarting the program, thus requiring a restart of the game. And for a game using this kind of transition from the first to the second disc, such a restart with the second disc will not work (unless you imported a gamesave from somewhere else).

So for this second method a game launcher or emulator does need special support for in-game switching of the virtual disc.


And I still have no idea which method applies to each of the games you mentioned.

Best regards: dlanor

[Bootlegninja]

Yes they do use more than one disc, but do those disc games also require a disc change with the game running, or do they simply use the traditional method of having the user save game at end of the first disc, and then start gameplay on the second disc by loading that gamesave ?

One program to examine would be the POPS loader for the PSP as it allows in game "disc switching" of the image. It does an excellent job of handling swaps of the ps1 game "discs". I'm sure that ps2 discs behave in a similar manner that the ps1 discs did.

[zin0099]

have you played metal gear soild 1 for psone? then you should know that if you were to beat disc one it never asked for to save the game till you take disc 1 out and put disc 2 in andthen load it up. then it would ask you to save!plus the bad side is the disc would always spin not like ff7/8/9 would stop the disc

but since hdd/usb loader won't be able to swap the virtual disc there will be problems thats the only reason i bring it up!

but FFGriever's in game rest feature might be of some use right? because it brought you back to the menu you loaded your game from right so with this feature it might fix the void for the swapping of disc part

i'm not going to fight anyone just brought this to your attention so that this doesn't get skipped out on.

@dlanor :oh yeah i still need to get you your info you asked about my ps2 v9/10 can't remember wich but will be willing 2 help out in anyway

[JNABK]

I hope for that "Multi-Device-Gameloader" too,...
Functionality has the highest priority, but a good question would be...

How to make the GUI/Skin (& programm-stuff) configureable, while still holding the features and access to different devices.

For example, the Game-Menu-Part of USB-LDs "XMB" could show several icons, where one icon means a connected device (similar to the MemoryStick [PRO] Duo shown in the PSPs XMB, but a new icon for every new device).
After selecting the device, the list of games installed to this device could be shown.

It also could show one list for all devices and games (so no differing between PS1- and PS2-Games), refreshed when a new device is plugged in.

There are many possibilities, but that is one thing to keep in mind, to keep a standardized structure (in GUI for this case).

I dont think that would be too hard to do......here, i made a 'mock up' of how a simple GUI might look with the extra devices....IDE HDD, Network and the USB HDD. The game list would follow the same listing as the current USB HDD does.

[SP193]

But the FAT32 filesystem can only support that for small ISOs.
Larger ISOs will have to be split anyway due to the filesize restriction.

The largest possible file on a FAT32 system is 4GB. I've calculated the maximum number of sectors that can fit on a 4GB image, but I can't remember that figure as I've stored on another part of my computer which I currently do not have access to. I will post this figure here when I re-login.

BTW since it seems like the programmers here want to stick to the old USBExtreme/Advance format so this should not really matter.

About PS1 disc support for those wondering:
Maybe not possible to implement now, but maybe in the future(This may be another long and lenghtly project). We could possibly reverse engineer SCE's PS1DRV and see what it does. Then we could create our own version that loads a CD-ROM driver that emulates the PS1's discs. The PS1's CD-ROM drive runs at 6x(Around the speed of USB 1.1), meaning that the USB1.1 interface would just be enough to satisfy most games.

@Ifcaro, I think that there was a bug in OpenUsbLd v0.4 the last time I looked. When you called New_IopReset() in your EE loader, it would set SifSetReg_hook to 4. You must therefore set it to 0 before starting the game(Best after the IOP reset) or it may block out the "harmless" SifSetReg() calls, which may cause the game to crash.

[TnA]

I dont think that would be too hard to do......here, i made a 'mock up' of how a simple GUI might look with the extra devices....IDE HDD, Network and the USB HDD. The game list would follow the same listing as the current USB HDD does.

It looks good.
A bit other then I thought, but similar.

One drawback on this version of a gui is,...
The HD [+other devices] is forced to start-up (if there is no config), or it will be started, after you choose/"selected item" the device and press a button.


(@JNABK: ) Can you make a sample like this, but a bit more similar how the PSP do it?
So instead of the "HDD-Games" the USB-Games and Network-Games as main-tabs/Icons in the main-menu, one "Game-Tab" which has the hd, usb and network in a row like the gamelist?


Similar to this picture (just to give you a basic sample, what I mean).
http://www.mypsp.com.au/img/contents/XMBPSP.jpg

Where photo is "Game" and then it lists the devices, similar to this picture after another.
So "camera" would be HD for example, the stick is USB and a new entry is HOST for example.


...and if you then choose the device, the list pops up, like now.

[yoshi314]

i don't think making an xmb-ish menu is a good idea.

i mean, it's practical and pretty, etc. but unfortunately it's patented by sony.

But the FAT32 filesystem can only support that for small ISOs.

or you could use a different filesystem, e.g. ext2, which has way higher file size limit.