"Let's make GD ROM emulation happen" Facebook group.

so if i understand it correctly you want to split the track03 to 2 files (track03.bin and track04.bin) an the first file have all the padding and the second the data so if GDEMU won't search for track03.bin only for track04.bin?

 

May I just say that you guys are epic badasses? Thanks to your work it's gonna get easier and easier to keep a working archive of the Dreamcast's library <3

 

I completely understand what you're doing. I just think it's a bit overkill to rebuild the file system when you can simply remove the padding data.

Not quite, the idea is to have the TOC on track 3 but data on track 4. The TOC lists the files on the disc and points to their location. Now if there's no entry that points to track 3, you can truncate it to be as small as possible; this is where you save space.

It's akin to erasing the chapter 1 entry in a book TOC, and tearing the associated pages. But that chapter was only blank pages anyway, so the same information is in the book, but it's thinner!

FG

 

It is overkill if you're just trying to compress your existing games, yes. But that was never my intention. I just wanted to add the option for people who were using GDIBuilder to build brand new images for various reasons. It was trivial for me to add to the existing tool (basically just an extra if statement in the disc building code, then all of the front end changes to use it) so I figured I'd do it and let you know how well it works or not.
It's possible depending on how official discs are spread out that you may be able to save a little bit of additional space by rebuilding completely. No idea, someone else can try it and find out.

 

yes some games make the same with the track03, tasted BANG! - Gunship Elite

original stracture

9
1 0 4 2352 track01.bin 0
2 450 0 2352 track02.raw 0
3 45000 4 2352 track03.bin 0
4 119449 0 2352 track04.raw 0
5 129391 0 2352 track05.raw 0
6 134550 0 2352 track06.raw 0
7 172395 0 2352 track07.raw 0
8 188336 0 2352 track08.raw 0
9 209658 4 2352 track09.bin 0


then i removed the tracks 4-8

4
1 0 4 2352 track01.bin 0
2 450 0 2352 track02.raw 0
3 45000 4 2352 track03.bin 0
4 209658 4 2352 track09.bin 0


game boot normally so i think it can be done

 

Yeah, don't get me wrong, I think it's great that you implemented it in your program. I just think that in order to make a program that will shrink many gdis, the other approach is preferable.

The example you stated is only removing the audio tracks, you might have silence in some part of the game.

What I suggested would not modify the GDI file, only track03.bin, and you would keep the audio tracks. You can try the program I posted a bit earlier on your track03.bin and keep the original GDI.

I will keep testing on my side and I might release a final gdishrinker program that would take a gdemu folder as the input and outputs a shrinked folder as the output.

Keep in mind that such GDI ARE NOT MEANT FOR CONSERVATION, they should only be used for playing in emulators, on phones or for gd-rom emulators.

 

I tested a game with 200mb but it only shrink it few kb

 

I think some wince games put wav files in track03, try another game.

 

SNK vs. Capcom 2 is the game I tested the files are only 200mb I didn't see any wav with the gdiexplorer

edit: i will see if i can rebuild the track03 and then shrink it

 

If you're using unpadbinfile.py, you should apply it to track03.bin of a 5+tracks game. It reads from the end of the file until it reaches non blank sectors, then copy the track without the blank sectors. Maybe there's somehow data in that track in which case we can't shrink it without rebuilding it.

BTW: I just saved 694.45 MiB on ChuChuRocket ...

 

ok now i see why didnt work 5+ tracks game

btw
ok i made some tests

1) extract all files then rebuild it with GDIBuilder then used unpadbinfile.py on track03.bin 0mb saved

2) extract all files then rebuild it with GDIBuilder and truncated option final size 244mb with track03.bin and track04.bin game boots normaly

 

If you use unpadbinfile.py you should not use GDIBuilder. Both should save roughly the same amount of space as long as track03.bin doesn't contain files, else gdibuilder can save more space.

To be clear: unpadbinfile.py will truncate track03.bin of a 5+tracks game. Most of the time you should save a lot of space, sometimes there's non-empty sectors in track03 and you won't save much.

FG

 

offtopic but i have problems with your gditools i tasted to extract a game with multiple audio and data files and the files extracted but not correct also i changed the following part to work on windows, something have to do with paths

 

Could you be more specific? What game is it doing this on? It has worked for 100% of the games I tested for me so far.

The modification you suggested is not clean, please provide me with a detailed explanation of the incorrect behavior so I can reproduce the problem and fix it.

 

South Park Rally (GB) (2000) [T-8112D-05] [345-5198-31971-2]

the path problem if i try to extract files or the ip.bin and set an output directory i am getting the flowing error

the command is

and the error

 

It seems like the program doesn't figure out you're using a absolute path as it'd expect the root "/" to be "C:\". As a workaround for now you can extract files to the C partition or use the modification you listed earlier. I'll work on a fix in the next days.

[EDIT]

Can you change lines 844 to 847 from (ignore bad spacing in the quote):

to (with 12 spaces before, so it's correctly indented):

And tell me if it works then? If so I'll update th program on sourceforge.

Cheers!

FG

 

I stumble upon this page. Where it gives you the instruction to build a Digital Output module for Dreamcast. I did not know, dreamcast was capable of Digital Out.

http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=av:dreamcastda



There is also a Version 1.2 of this kit in the wild.



I wonder where can I get it?

Actually it will be awesome if someone or behariu builds the next version of TORO where the digital out is built-in and the Audio and Video comes out as a single HDMI!

Thank you.

 

IT WORKS!

but on the extraction of files the
South Park Rally (GB) (2000) [T-8112D-05] [345-5198-31971-2]
game i get empty files.

 

(slightly OT, but in reply to @duskdawn)...

Hi,

Almost all consoles from the mid=90s (that used digitized audio samples) can be modded for S/PDIF output, as most of them use a separate DAC chip with the standard I2S protocol.

I2S is really common with audio DACs, and is used on things like the N64, Jaguar, DC, DVD / Blu-Ray, Satellite, and very likely the original Xbox, PSX, PS2 etc.

The S/PDIF protocol just merges the few I2S signals into a single cable, so it can be sent via Coax or Optical.
The type of chip used for the gamesx S/PDIF mod are very common too.

HDMI is still being worked on btw.

I've had a working prototype board for some time now, but have yet to test it on the DC.
It's working well with the Gamecube, and is simple enough to hook up to many other consoles.

The new board design is nearly finished, and I hope to send off for some PCBs in the next few weeks.

When I get it working with the DC, I'll post a new thread on here and upload some HDMI captures to YouTube etc.

OzOnE.

 

The HDMI chip would be incredibly interesting Ozone. You could make a small fortune by commercializing such kits for different consoles. It's getting more and more complicated to hook up old consoles on modern TVs and this would be a GREAT way to do it while loosing as little quality as possible!

PS: I updated gditools, feel free to report any other bug/problem related to Windows. I'll investigate what's the issue with South Park Rally in the next days/week.