GDI and CDI size limitations

Will give it a try... Who wants to be my test subject? I currently dont have either alternative to GDrom drive.

I kinda hit a brick wall... all my newer encodes are coming out BLANK... no idea... has anyone messed with SFDs my old videos worked fine... no idea what im doing wrong this time

 

For the record, GDIbuilder will not let you build a GDI whose final sector LBA would be larger than 549150. This is the size of every single GD-ROM I've ever dumped, (and probably all of them) since data files get padded to the end of the final track. It's designed to throw an error if you exceed the amount of space that would fit on a GD-ROM. It would be pretty simple to change the hard-coded maximum, but sizing automatically for discs beyond the "true" maximum would be a bit more work. I'm not sure if it's worth making the changes, see next paragraph.

GDEMU has that special flag for supporting oversized CDI's, you're probably safer with that. If you plan to use something like the homebrew VCD player, that can only read from CD-ROM anyway, so you're going to have to use CDI.

 

Many of us could be test subjects, just throw an image into a public server and those who have alternatives will try.

 

I figured 4gb is sufficient for a movie or two but for a series was hoping to figure out a way to make a multi track gdi to allow 1 season in one gdi

 

I am still working on the project... just have not had too much time on the PC to mess with file formats ect.... but while i am working on the Video side of things.... I was wanting peoples input on another somewhat easier project that I was considering. I am not 100% sure if this would work... but I have noticed and accepted the fact USB-GDrom does not and probably will not ever have a detailed/visual menu system. would people be interested in a menu system ran by the Dreamcast web browser?

 

I could volunteer, I also have a GDEMU at my disposal, what's the project about?

 

well Project Number 1 Is just movies and TV shows converted to SFD and using the web browser as a menu system... project number 2 is Primarily for USB-GDROM due to the limited menu set up. The plan was to use the browser as a mutli game disc image. but instead of a standard 700mb disc size make it about 4GB or even larger and let ppl select games that way

 

I'm guessing that making an automated method to create a cdi file for [Project 1] would be the best, once it's figured how to put up the files for:

1- Creating the SFD files individually.
2- Create an HTML with any number of links to play each SFD.
3- Make bootable the web browser with such HTML menu.

Each of those steps could be automated with enough coding on Visual Studio Express or any other programming tool, could be the closest thing for turning the Dreamcast into a good Media Center after all, because those DivX files look awful when downsized to be played on the console.

As for [Project 2] I think there are some cdi compilations that carry any number of games and fitting into a 700MB disc. Figuring out how to create one of those and then creating a bigger cdi could be the answer.

 

thats how i made my old Movie disc... I spoke to Jefma (i think that was his name) he created the puzzle pack... Got his permission to gut what i could from his code. It has worked VERY well... but noticed that he cut allot of the Browsers abilities due to him not needing them. So I currently have Planetweb 3.0 extracted... and going to extract Dreampassport and hope I can recreate what he did but keep more functionality. I would love to have Java Script menu system like a simple but nice DVD menu. Yeah CDI will work great for single movie or even Trilogy but 4GB is the limit due to fat32. So I hope to also come up with a GDI solution for Bigger Projects. 32 GB disk size limit for GDI is a nice chunk of data.

 

Okay i have hit a little issue... bootdreams doesn't like my file sizes and wont build the CDI correctly.... it seems to almost completely ignore the video so i end up with 18mb CDI images... any input or any other software i could try to build my folder?


And right when i post this i get a GD break... and it finally works... im going to upload and link right in this post for people who want to test... ill label each one with the presets i used.... I think i may have found the issue with bootdreams... the template that i used on 1 made the file over 2gb. the template I used on the one that works made it under 2gb... maybe it has a size limit?

 

Wasn't BootDreams some kind of compilation of command-line applications? Perhaps there's a parameter in the batch process that limits the file size and one of the apps enters in a validation that ignores the rest of the files in the source folder.

 

If it is a compilation but there's no way to check for parameters, I'm afraid it will be manual work for this part.

 

Why don't you use my Selfboot pack?
It generates a nrg that you have to convert to cdi by mounting it in deamontools and ripping with discjuggler, but it should work for any size.

 

Maybe, but he'll need to check for parameters in command-line apps anyway, let's see what he can find out first and if he still needs more help.

 

it is 100% a file size limit.. no matter if I load it in W10 or XP. How would i manually fix this? I am going to try to use the Selfboot pack and see what that gets me. also i have NEVER been able to get Discjuggler to work for me. umm I already have everything done I just need to convert the folder into a Disc image... what do i use just to make the image...

I liked using that older program because it also had CDI burning built in

Movie project Progress so far...
got 1 working... Please ignore the names and info i was using my old set up from a release that never happened... just click on the enter link and the video link movie should play... please let me know what you think. Audio, Video quality ect...

This is for Dreamshell, USB-GDrom, and DCemu testing only please dont attempt to waste any CDs testing this collection. https://mega.nz/#F!kUMjFDIZ!A_l_vmRbzlY85v3eQV8AjQ

 

Bootmake is what I use to generate CDI images.

It even works from command line if need be.

http://sizious.com/download/dreamcast/#img4dc

 

It wont mess with my current Ip.Bin and stuff will it? I spent allot of time creating my own Boot logo lol... its been soo long i forgot how i did it... but i do remember the headache lol

 

You can insert a logo easily using my pack BTW.

 

bootmaker is the same as bootdreams lol... and same under 2gb limit

 

It doesnt effect your IP.bin it just uses it.

Also I'am not sure how/why you'er getting the 2GB limit, Bootmake works fine. I just created a 3.94GB CDI.
(It takes a while to start building the image)

Spoiler: Image

Update: the above CDI doesn't work, it just loops to the DC Dashboard (Bios menu)