[PS2] POPS stuff & POPStarter

POPStarter is fantastic. Thanks you to kHn for all the hard work. I have been learning recently about the compatibility modes (patch 1-7) and the ability to tweak even using a CHEATS.TXT file and all its commands via SMB and PS2 Internal HDD. Although I've had no success trying to get 'NHL Open Ice: 2 on 2 Challenge' (greatest NHL game on the playstation) with POPStarter. I've tried many combo's but nothing seems to get past the intro screens naturally and the only way I got passed them finally was to keep pressing start on the intro screens to take me to the main menu. The only downside after, is then after when pressing X to start game, it just freezes. I'm afraid this is one of those incompatible releases but I'm just throwing this out there hoping maybe someone DID figure how to make it work.

Thanks for your time guys.

 

Hello .
So yeah, RIP 06 sucks, lags and stuff. Here's a new build for testing : POPSTARTER.ELF
Please report if you find something that no longer works. I tried to solve the piss poor performances of the rushed RIP 06 release, but since it's been 11 months I probably broke things. Need to know so I can fix possibly broken shit, add LibCrypt keys, publish RIP 07 and go back to gaming.

EDIT : to begin with, the cheat engine is down.

 

I just test the new version with Croc from USB. The first movies are very very choppy, I get to the title screen a movie starts and freeze. In the POPS folder I have croc.vcd, xx.croc. elf and POPS_IOX.PAK.

 

Thank you .
Yeah, surely because I've compiled POPStarter with another set of USB drivers, once again -_- . Will downgrade them in the next build...

Cheat engine not working is a matter of hook address. Will be fixed too.

 

Thank you for your work. I've tested Croc with the new version from the hdd and it's working like a charm. Previous version from usb had the audio a little choppy, but now it's perfect!

 

Have you tried using the latest driver? It was only this year when it was made to read more than 8 sectors at a time. Performance should have gone up.

There may be problems that I cannot replicate and fix, but I am starting to think it is a hardware problem rather than a software one. Given how it always affects some people, but seemingly not most others.

 

USB drivers in this build were the same as the ones in wLaunchELF build 2018/07/23.
Perhaps it's the user hardware issue you've mentioned, but I also highly suspect that POPS doesn't like the driver. More likely the file I/O service going mad for some reasons. Especially when streaming full motion videos. Sadly I cannot replicate the problems and I don't debug PS2 stuff anymore. Everytime I changed the USB modules users reported stutterings and crashes.
So I'll just embed the old drivers again, since they're known to work well. Users still can load their own as :
mcX:/POPSTARTER/usbd.irx
mcX:/POPSTARTER/usbhdfsd.irx


Here a new test build : POPSTARTER.ELF

USB drivers rolled back. Cheat engine hook fixed.
Also I've re-enabled 9 recompiler subroutines that I forgot to uncomment in yesterday's build. A blob of assembly that was crafted during the prototype series and which is present in the final RIP 06. I guess it was required for some game(s) to stop glitching... Seems to not impact the performances.

Also, I have not tried, but the command $SET_TIMINGS may potentially cause slowdows and crap to come back, judging by how this has been implemented. No one uses it anyway, it's useless. I'll patch it in the next build.
EDIT : Nope. In fact $SET_TIMINGS got completely disabled.

 

Excellent! Now croc plays from usb stick. Audio in fmv a little choppy. From internal hdd it's perfect!

 

New test build : POPSTARTER.ELF
Possibly the last one before RIP 07.

 

Please ,cd support <3

 

There is CD support, at lest in RIP 06, or you need more fixes for this feature?

Why not WIP 07?!

 

Hello my friend thank you for these new adjustments made in these last builds before the RIP version 0.7, I would like to pass some feedback from some tests that I performed:

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace - He's in the game I call after his intro, but before he bugged me in this part, now you can hear the conversation between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn so the camera stays on top of the scenery.

Mortal Kombat Trilogy - plays normally, but if you press the Start button inside the battle, the background music stops and only plays when you start the other round.

Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger - this will lock the screen when it will start the second battle, but until RIP 6 when it locked the screen the audio was an unbearable noise, now when it locks continues the normal music of the game.

Doom and Final Doom - noticed a significant improvement in the performace of the game, now it is almost playable, until the 0.6 rip was very legendary the speed of the game, Final Doom keeps locking in Loading.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories - game does not work. (Game very requested by the staff).

Tomb Raider 2 - bug in the audio, but until RIP 0.6 finalized the game play, agoro gets black screen when it will start the gameplay.

Brave Fencer Musashi - For the record, Musashi did not lock the loading screen, but gave a black screen after it, we hoped!

Final Fantasy 7 - still bogged down in battles.

Hexen - small improvement in fps, but still impossible to play.

I tested it and the vigilante game 8.2 hangs with the time I put it old pro works good

 

In fact, people want support for VCD files in CD/DVD. For testing on PS4, or making multi-game compilations for example.

Cuz its development is dead for now.

@Antonioks thanks for your feedback !

 

It starts at 1:01.

 

So, is this a possibility? Or is there some technical reason it is not?

 

I have come across some errors found in this latest popstarter trial.
Arc the Lad Collection - Arc Arena: Monster Tournament (USA) [SLUS_012.55]
- A noise appears when the game menu appears.
- HDD

Azure Dreams (USA) [SLUS_006.14]
- There FPS drop during the loading screen.
- HDD

Beyond the Beyond (USA) [SCUS_947.02]
- There FPS drop during the change screen in the gameplay.
- HDD

Brave Fencer Musashi (USA) [SLUS_007.26]
- BSOD after the first scene of the game in the "New Game" (IGR), even cutting the scene, BSOD when starting the 1st chapter (without IGR). Thus leaving the game unplayable.
- HDD

Chrono Trigger (USA) (v1.1) [SLUS_013.63]
- There is FPS drop during battles, text window, menu and change of screen (in short, when loading something).
- HDD

Eternal Eyes (USA) [SLUS_010.34]
- There FPS drop when entering any town or when out of a (home or store) in the same city.
- HDD

Fighting Force 2 (USA) [SLUS_009.34]
- Needs to be fixed to $COMPATIBILITY 0x07. But the patch does not work perfectly.
- HDD

Final Fantasy V (USA) (v1.1) [SLUS_008.79]
- There is FPS drop during battles, menu and change of screen (in short, when loading something).
- HDD

Final Fantasy VI (USA) (v1.1) [SLUS_009.00]
- There is FPS drop during battles, menu and change of screen (in short, when loading something).
- HDD

Gran Turismo 2 (USA) (Disc 1) (v1.1) [SCUS_944.55], (USA) (Disc 2) (v1.2) [SCUS_944.88]
- Game opening has FPS drop (Fixed $CODECACHE_ADDON_0).
- Some audio distros in FX sound (Fixed $CODECACHE_ADDON_0).
- All cars turn black.
- HDD

MediEvil II (USA) [SCUS_945.64]
- Graphic errors in the game leaving unplayable.
- Needs to be fixed to $COMPATIBILITY 0x07. But the patch does not work perfectly.
- HDD

Tekken (USA) [SLUS_000.06]
- During the fights the sound effects of the voices and blows of the characters are wrong.
- During the game "Galaga" there is no sound effect.
- HDD

The Raiden Project (USA) [SCUS_944.02]
- The game is mute.
- HDD

Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft (USA) (v1.0) [SLUS_006.91]
- Needs to be fixed to $COMPATIBILITY 0x07. But the patch does not work perfectly.
- HDD

Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (USA) [SLUS_008.85]
- Needs to be fixed to $COMPATIBILITY 0x07. But the patch does not work perfectly.
- HDD

Tomb Raider Chronicles (USA) [SLUS_013.11]
- Needs to be fixed to $COMPATIBILITY 0x07. But the patch does not work perfectly.
- HDD

Vagrant Story (USA) [SLUS_010.40]
- The game has FPS drop in the menu "Vibration" and "Sound" (this bug can not be corrected with $CODECACHE_ADDON_0.
- The game has FPS drop in the icons "New Game", "Vibration" and "Sound" in the main menu (Fixed $CODECACHE_ADDON_0).
- The game has FPS drop when the camera is switched from first to third person or vice versa (Fixed $CODECACHE_ADDON_0).
- HDD

Valkyrie Profile (USA) (Disc 1) [SLUS_011.56]
- In the "Prologue" of the game, when Lucian and Platina are in the poisonous garden, and it loads to a next screen, the same one is in a black screen but the music continues to play (IGR).
- When you start the game in NEW GAME and after the first scenes the screen turns black and the game crashes. Fixed with CODECACHE_ADDON_0, but crashes on the next screen (without IGR). Thus leaving the game unplayable.
- HDD

WipEout (USA), [SCUS_943.01]
- Errors in the FX and absence of the speaker's voice.
- HDD

WipEout XL (USA) [SCUS_943.51]
- Absence of the speaker's voice.
- HDD

Xenogears (USA) (Disc 1) [SLUS_006.64], (USA) (Disc 2) [SLUS_006.69]
- After "New Game", a long and continuous noise during the video.
- The screen blinks black when there is any action of the Fei character, also when rotating the camera or animations in 3D. These last two I'm not sure if it's because of Fei. Thus leaving the game unplayable.
- HDD

That's it for now, then I'll post more mistakes as soon as I find out.

 

via smb.

Crash Bash: graphic errors and freezes.
Crash Team Racing: freeze in introduction. (rip 06 was perfect.)
Resident Evil - Director's Cut: needs to be fixed to $COMPATIBILITY_0x04

 

Recently @sp193 made patch for 576p (in OPL):
https://github.com/ifcaro/Open-PS2-Loader/commit/659cbef004431b3da626220a2b4b718da11e1138.
With this patch 576p works on every console, even with these that natively don't support it.

So 576p and fixed mode 7 will be awesome.

 

Interesting, thanks for reporting.
This could be VCD identifier not working in SMB mode, or game fixes not hooking at all lol.
I'll check this asap.

EDIT : Confirmed. I broke a dependency and all the game fixes are down roflmao.

 

New test build : POPSTARTER.ELF
Game fixes and the MediEvil-specific LibCrypt crack are now working.