GS Mode Selector: Development & Feedback

[Cory]

Any ideas? I'd like to get this working not only so it looks better on my screen but so I don't have to worry about image retention with the black borders around the edge of picture.

[dlanor]

I tried doing the Dev1 and then going into the ps2browser or w/e, but just did the same thing.

I don't even understand what you wanted to do now.

Earlier you complained that restarting FMCB as PS2 Browser from GSM did not work,
so then I advised you to use the DEV1 exit and use uLaunchELF instead.
But when you got uLaunchELF to start that way, the one thing you did was to use the PS2Browser exit of uLE instead, which is completely pointless.

Exit to PS2Browser from GSM is exactly the same thing as exit to PS2Browser from uLE after DEV1 exit to uLE from GSM.
So if one of them fails to work right then the other one will fail in exactly the same way.

The whole point of using the DEV1 exit was to let you use the powerful launch abilities of uLE to start whatever game you wanted in whatever way you need. There is absolutely no need ever to go back into the FMCB menu for any such things.

Also is it normal when switching to 720p for it to cut off the bottom of the screen. I can't see the part where it says to exit on the GMS screen. Where you select where you exit too.

This reputedly differs for different HDTV brands. But it is indeed true that my own Panasonic HDTV is unable to display the full count of scanlines for all of the HDTV modes. So for 480p I see the same amount of lines as I do for standard NTSC (a little over 448), and for 576p I see the same amount as for standard PAL (a little over 512), rather than the full count of 480 and 576 scanlines (as used in HDTV video files). And for both 720p and 1080p there are similar 'losses' between the theoretical mode size and what my HDTV set is able (or 'willing') to display.

I suspect that some 'service mode' trimming may be necessary to force a set to display the entire theoretical scanline count of ALL the HDTV modes. At least it seems that way with my own set (and I have no idea how to get it into service mode).

You can use the trimming controls to adapt the screen size 'seen' by GSM, reducing the logical screen height until it matches what your set displays. But you need to understand that this may affect the scaling of things to display too.

720p is really most useful for playing low-rez NTSC games, of 224 pixels height scaled by a factor of 3 to 672, which is often close to the physically visible height of an HDTV screen in 720p mode. But if you set the enforced height value less than that, then the scale factor will be reduced to 2, and there will be huge black borders.

There is also a similar problem with screen width, as my own HDTV set can only display a maximum of 1214x682 pixels in 720p mode. Here it is interesting to note that the 'lost' pixels can be expressed as 66x38, which shows that it is approximately the same proportion of pixels for both X and Y axes that are lost, and that they are approximately 5 percent of the full screen so that when distributed evenly 2.5% of the theoretical screen width and height is lost at each corresponding edge. I think this is their way of applying the 'Overscan' concept of the old SDTV standards to the new HDTV video modes.

I am not myself sure of what the 'official' stand on this is, and how many pixels a 'proper' HDTV set should display along X and Y axes for each of the HDTV modes. So if anyone else has definite info on this I'd appreciate a 'pointer' to where I can find such info.

Best regards: dlanor

[dlanor]

Unless someone else has clear info on this, I will have to get back to you on that, as I have not yet had time to play this game, though I do have it (SLES_546.44). But I do not have and thus can not test the US version myself.

At a guess though, there is a strong risk that this is one of the games that do use GS chip controls beyond the usual, since Square-Enix is involved, who have done such things with other game releases of the same approximate time period (like FF12 for example).

Replying to myself here, the info is primarily aimed at nickblame again, as the post I'm replying to now was a reply to him.

I have now made extensive tests with "Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria" == SLES_546.44, and I can now definitely confirm that this game does now work properly with GSM. Not even for 'simple' NTSC/PAL switching, or even just for screen recentering.

The one and only thing that does work is the enforcing of a physical video mode, but without any corresponding adaption of screen scaling or positioning that is worthless.

At first I was not sure if this happened because the game removed the GSM trap links or just because The crucial parts of the program always ran with traps disabled. But then I tried using IGR and found that after IGR (which does not kill GSM) I got back into FMCB and even uLE with the same type of display error as I saw in the game. Even when the game was terminated, and I was running homebrew again (so no weird trap disabling) the same error still persisted, so that no GSM rescaling or positioning was done. This proves that the game at some stage has removed or disabled the GSM access trap link, which we use to interfere with GS register access.

I'm not sure how to deal with this kind of thing yet, so until I (or we) can think of a good way to prevent or repair such trap link removal, we just have to accept that game as not working with GSM at all !!!

I can of course think of many ways to do such link repair, but none of them are what I would call good, as in being safe from side-effects of any kind. Any auto repairs done in a cyclic fashion risk wasting lots of CPU time when not needed. And even checking for the need can waste a lot of time in critical routines.

So for the time being I'm not going to do anything about it, except think about it...
(There's no point in acting blindly.)

Best regards: dlanor

[Cory]

Sorry for confusion dlanor. Heres EXACTLY what I am doing.

1. I turn on my PS2 and it goes to FMCB logo then loads ESR.
2. At the ESR screen I go to Launch App and it loads launch.elf.
3. I go to file browser and then /mass directory for the flash drive and load GSM.elf.
4. I set the res at 720p@60hz and set exit to dev1, I apply the changes with down button then exit to the dev1.
5. Now I'm back at the launch.elf screen from step #4. I go to /mc0 then /BOOT and select ESR.elf.
6. This brings me back to the ESR screen from step #2. I go to launch cd/dvd and it goes to black screen.

I tried a different game, a non-burned copy of MGS3 and it loads the game, however the screen has huge border around all edges. It could be a compatibility issue that causes my FFX International to not load. I'm not sure.

[dlanor]

Sorry for confusion dlanor. Heres EXACTLY what I am doing.

1. I turn on my PS2 and it goes to FMCB logo then loads ESR.
2. At the ESR screen I go to Launch App and it loads launch.elf.
3. I go to file browser and then /mass directory for the flash drive and load GSM.elf.
4. I set the res at 720p@60hz and set exit to dev1, I apply the changes with down button then exit to the dev1.
5. Now I'm back at the launch.elf screen from step #4. I go to /mc0 then /BOOT and select ESR.elf.
6. This brings me back to the ESR screen from step #2. I go to launch cd/dvd and it goes to black screen.

In that case I still don't understand what it was you tried to describe earlier, so perhaps we should just drop that.

I tried a different game, a non-burned copy of MGS3 and it loads the game, however the screen has huge border around all edges.

That happens with some games, indicating that something is wrong with the scaling. In some cases it can be fixed by size settings, but sometimes the game is just incompatible, at least for that physical video mode. So if you get such a failure for say 720p, you can still try 1080i.

And frequently the extra borders can be due to scaling efforts, as the scaling is optimized to ensure that all parts of the logical screen remain within the rectangle defined as physically visible (though sometimes it is useful to 'lie' about that size in the config).

It could be a compatibility issue that causes my FFX International to not load.

No it couldn't, because "FFX International (JP)" == SLPS_250.88 is one of my favourite games, and I've played it a lot with GSM active. It works perfectly in many video modes, though there are some odd side effects (as usual with Square-Enix games).

One such side effect is that when I run the game in 480p (using only 448 p of course), and with my HDTV set to 16:9 screen use. The effect should have been (as for other games) that Tidus and Yuna and the others got 'fatter' by a factor of 4/3, as the full screen width is 'stretched' to my 16:9 screen.

But for some odd reason that never happens, and the game is displayed in 4:3 proportions, with black borders around it, even though the HDTV is set to use 16:9, which means that something secret that Square-Enix did to some GS register has changed the proportionality in a way that I would love to be able to do or undo in a controlled fashion. Because then we would be able to rescale stuff not just by integer factors, but also by 4/3 or 3/4 (depending on the cases). So this is a very interesting test case for research.

In any case, a properly made "FFX International" backup should definitely work with GSM, as I have used it so in many different forms including all three OPL cores as well as ESR and HDLoader, and using many different experimental video modes.

But in fact I get the best results when using either the normal NTSC mode (only recentered) or that 480p mode I mentioned above. For many of the other modes there is no way to scale the picture without getting really fat black borders above and below the useful screen rectangle. One way to modify that, by sacrificing some visibility, is to 'lie' to the program in trimming DH, claiming to have somewhat larger height than is really true, so as to increase the auto-scale factor for the Y axis by one unit. The same trick can also be used for horizontal width in some cases.

In any case, though it doesn't look good with some settings, FFX is one of the games that does run with most settings. So I don't understand why it wouldn't work for you at all, unless you used some specific setting that creates some problem I never saw. But somehow I find it a little more likely that there's something wrong with your game files, either in the ripping or how they were installed.

Best regards: dlanor

[nickblame]

or there could be a serious issue with your eyes. in such case check with your doctor or something :PPppP sorry just a little humor no offence

[Cory]

So what would your suggestions be? I gave you the step by step as to what I am doing now. Am I doing something wrong? Or is GSM just malfunctioning?

[Cory]

Apparently it is possible when playing via an emulator on a PC to convert games to run on a 1080p res.

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/2125/ffx.jpg

Image from another forum I found of the game running in 1080p. I'm so jealous :"(

[dlanor]

So what would your suggestions be?

To do your game launching by a different (and simpler) step sequence.

I gave you the step by step as to what I am doing now.

So you did, and today I will go through that in detail.

Am I doing something wrong?

Yes, I think so.

Or is GSM just malfunctioning?

You have not mentioned anything that makes me believe that GSM is responsible for your problem. Especially not when you claim that it would be incompatible with a game that I have been using with GSM in (literally) a multitude of game sessions. So if your problem was just due to GSM, then I too would have suffered from it every time.

1. I turn on my PS2 and it goes to FMCB logo then loads ESR.

Here is your basic problem, having configured FMCB to always autostart ESR (apparently even when you have no disc in the tray, as you describe this as unconditional here).

2. At the ESR screen I go to Launch App and it loads launch.elf.

This means that it is the GUI variant of ESR you are using, and assuming that the erroneous abbreviation "launch.elf" in fact refers to uLE installed as "mc0:/BOOT/BOOT.ELF", then I see another problem here. For this launch ESR will first start the ESR drivers, and will thereafter start uLE with the ESR drivers still active as uLE runs.

3. I go to file browser and then /mass directory for the flash drive and load GSM.elf.

Nothing wrong here, but we need to realize that ESR drivers are still active here.

4. I set the res at 720p@60hz and set exit to dev1, I apply the changes with down button then exit to the dev1.

This is fine by me (though 720p is a very bad choice for FFX), but again we need to realize that ESR drivers are still active. So when the DEV1 exit launches uLE it will be with both ESR and GSM drivers active.

5. Now I'm back at the launch.elf screen from step #4. I go to /mc0 then /BOOT and select ESR.elf.

Here you are inside the ESR program for the second time, and this time with ESR drivers already active from earlier (though now also with GSM drivers active).

6. This brings me back to the ESR screen from step #2. I go to launch cd/dvd and it goes to black screen.

That form of exit command installs ESR drivers a second time, which crashes the console.

Further below is the corresponding step-by-step sequence I use myself, but first a few words (quite a lot actually ) about how you need to configure FMCB, uLE and GSM to use this method just like I do.

FMCB_1: Start the FMCB configurator, in order to do a set of config changes
FMCB_2: Configure "FastBoot: OFF" in the top level config menu
FMCB_3: Configure "Skip Disc Boot: ON" in the "OSDSYS options"
FMCB_4: Go into the submenu for E1 launch keys for the following changes
FMCB_5: Set the "Auto" link to use the uLE boot elf mco:/BOOT/BOOT.ELF
FMCB_6: Set the "X" link to use special entry OSDMENU
FMCB_7: Set the "Select" link to use the special entry "FASTBOOT"
FMCB_8: Back out to the top level menu and use "Save CNF to MC0"
FMCB_9: Exit from FMCB configurator to uLE through either of the two bottom commands
(The first by direct launch, or the second by FMCB restart. (Doesn't matter either way.))

uLE_1: In uLE, go into its configurator and make the following Button Settings adjustments.
uLE_2: Set nothing to "Default:" (not an absolute rule, but the best default usage)
uLE_3: Set 'Circle' to use "MISC/FileBrowser"
uLE_4: Set 'Cross' to use "MISC/PS2Browser" (This also interacts with FMCB_6 above)
uLE_5: Set 'Square' to launch either the 'mcard' variant of the ESR r9b elfs, or the ESR GUI
uLE_6: Set 'Triangle' to use "MISC/PS2Disc"
uLE_7: Set 'R1' to use your GSM.ELF, which I suggest you store in "mc0:/BOOT/"
uLE_8: Below the button settings, set "Disc control: ON"
uLE_9: Exit from configurator with the OK command, to also save settings
uLE_A: Launch GSM by pressing 'R1'

GSM_1: Set DEV1 as the exit method
GSM_2: Press and hold both 'L2' and 'R2' until you see the status message about saving
GSM_3: Reset your console to see that it now works as I describe below

This gives you a console with the following behaviour:

It always boots into uLE, regardless of disc tray contents, unless you use boot commands
One boot command is to hold 'Select' during boot, to make GSM boot a disc directly
(auto-invoking ESR if an ESR patch is detected on the disc)

Once inside uLE you have several powerful commands for your right thumb.

'Circle' invokes FileBrowser for all PS2 storage maintenance and backups
'Cross' invokes the FMCB menu (hold button until the menu is visible, or fall back to uLE)
'Square' is used to get ESR drivers active for CDVD access in uLE ('mcard' elf preferred)
'Triangle' is for launching CDVD discs, and for ESR backups also invokes ESR ('dvdv direct' elf preferred), and for DVD-Videos it invokes the DVD player, while PS1 game discs (originals only) cause the PS1 Driver to be invoked (as when booting such a disc normally)

For both cases of a 'preferred' ESR elf mentioned above, use of that elf will improve the speed and convenience. But the ESR GUI can do both jobs too, though that just requires a little more button pushing each time.

With such a setup the standard sequence for launching a game with GSM is as follows:

1: Start console, which then boots directly into uLE after showing FMCB splash screen
2: Press 'R1' to launch GSM
3: Use GSM commands to select and activate the video mode you want
4: Exit GSM to uLE using the DEV1 exit method (already preset)
5a: For an original PS2 game, just press 'Triangle' to boot the disc directly
5b: For an original PS1 game, just press 'Triangle' to boot the disc directly (GSM_note_1)
5c: For an ESR backup game, just press 'Triangle' to boot the disc via ESR invocation
5d: For a DVD-Video disc, just press 'Triangle' to boot the PS2 DVD Player
5e: For an OPL game on any supported OPL device, just launch OPL (via button or browser)

For all of these cases the disc may have been present in the drive from power-on, or just inserted at any time before step 5. But directly after disc insertion you need to allot enough time for the 'Disc control' routines to get a stabe indication from the CDVD mechacon, So going into step 5 directly after closing the disc tray is probably not going to work. but if you await the 'Stop Disc' status message, everything should work fine.

And the above is all it takes. Couldn't be easier...
(For those who are this familiar with all the stuff that is... )

GSM_note_1:
PS1 games can only have modes changed by simple NTSC/PAL switching, which needs to be done in a crazy way, via two HDTV modes even if your TV set can't display those. But that isn't so bad a problem, as all you need to do after activating such a mode (thus losing visibility) is to briefly press 'Start' +DPad_Down so as to relaunch uLE, and then press 'Triangle' to launch the PS1 game. As the PS1 Driver then starts up and begins to boot the game disc, it will also activate a proper PAL or NTSC mode (as chosen in GSM, instead of the default of the game) restoring the visibility to normal.

Btw: If you use the 'Square' command to activate ESR drivers for use from inside uLE, like when copying files from an ESR backup disc to other media, then you should be careful about not doing things to again invoke ESR while the first drivers remain active, and the best way to ensure that completely is to make an extra reset when you are done with the special CDVD accesses that you needed the ESR drivers active for.

Best regards: dlanor

[Cory]

@dlanor, THANK YOUUUUUUUU.

That helped so much man, thanks a lot. Now its easy to set the screen config via GSM.

Now the only problem is adjusting it to fit the screen. I tried in 1080p and there is a very large black border on all sides. The game image is centered in the screen, kind of small. Any tips or ideas for tweaking the image settings?

Appreciate your help. I know it can be difficult communicating with a newby such as myself.