[PS2] POPS stuff & POPStarter

The IRX loading is enabled by default since WIP 02. ENABLE_ IRX_LOADING.PPF does exist just because the function which loads IRXs was disabled in WIP 01. The PPF is useless now.

Because of the odd fileXio issues that appeared when I implemented the in-game SMB support, I had to tamper with the IRX loader. I can't tell it still works in WIP 06 Beta 11, haven't tried it...

Quoting myself @ ps2home :

So I've done some d-pad to left-stick remapping test just now, with a game that does not support the analog mode.
Tekken 2 (SCES-00255)
Official DualShock 2 Analog Controller SCPH-10010
POPStarter WIP 06 Beta 11
Built-in BIOS, no TROJAN/PATCH/OSD/TM2 files
SMB mode, PS2 connected to a NAS
CHEATS.TXT in the VMC folder of the game

It seemed to work to me...


Here are the SMB mode compatibility lists, courtesy of AlGollan84 and I :
The lists : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LoLl_YVY2qlJN6F3Ubwd0AvqkeK0tbHqrIEjBiGmDpQ/edit#gid=0
The form : https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1zimkx1nufqgF808EyoDqC9_USV2FqSQKlka678wo67w/viewform

 

@ krHACKen
I tested the cheat.txt file with 1 game so far, which is : marvel vs street fighter, and i have say, the analog controls work perfectly.
Thanks krHACKen for providing the cheat.txt file and some insight into the matter.
I just have one more question: how to enable analog controls for player 2 ?

 

@hsb083
Thanks for reporting.
I've added a "Stay on Digital Mode" for the second pad in CHEATS.TXT. Please re-download it.
Tested with Tekken 2 in VS mode, it worked for me.

 

@krHACKen
Thanks for the updated CHEAT.TXT. I wanted to know if support for ps2 multitap adapter possible with POPStarter WIP 06 Beta 11 ? Is 4 players supported ?

 

Nice work. Thanks a lot!

It took me some time and a bit of trying around in order to get it to work. In particular, I had to do the following things a little bit different than documented:

For me, the SMB mode did not work without IPCONFIG.DAT. Without the file, popstarter consistently states something like "LOGIN failed".

I did not find the modules ps2smap.irx and smsutils.irx in PS2SDK (build with ps2toolchain-master). I'm not sure, maybe, they were included in an older version of it? In the end, I took ps2smap.irx from ps2eth and smsutils.irx from open ps2 loader.

I tried the SMB setup for 3 games and the respective save states I still had:
- Final Fantasy Tactics
- Grandia, CD 1
- Lunar 1, CD 1

I did not test the games in depth. Each one started, the saved game could be loaded and I was able to move around without problems.

One especially positive aspect is that the intro video of Lunar 1 plays without any stuttering from SMB. Via USB (under WIP 02), I always experienced some stuttering.

My hardware setup is a PS 2 slim connected to a synology diskstation DS215j NAS drive.

By the way, are there any plans to also support username/password for SMB authentication. Usually, I do not allow login without credentials at my SMB shares. But, for the time being, I will make an exception for popstarter.

 

Also, can OP post all the useful stuff that people found throughout the thread on the first post? That way people don't have to keep scrolling to find the answer they need (if they already exist).

 

simople dumb question, but of great value to me: what is the maximum size that the POPStarter supports in Question size? for example if I fill a HD 1tb with PSX games, the POPstarter supports this whole amount on Internal HDD?

 

Here's beta 12, with SMB user auth as requested :

Download : POPStarter_r13_WIP_06_OBT_20151124.zip

It comes with config file samples, just in case...
A video below, showing "Blitter Boy in Operation: Monster Mall" run from my password protected NAS. I've injected a homemade TMD and a crappy text in the boot sector for testing. $FORCEPAL was used too, worked no problem.

Nope. Sadly POPS was coded to support 2 controllers only. Loading the multitap drivers doesn't help, as POPS retrieve the PadInfos from two controller regardless of the loaded modules.

@mueihn
Thanks for telling us how you got the SMB set up and for posting your hardware info !

In fact the reason why I can connect to my NAS without the need of an IPCONFIG.DAT, is because my NAS is also a router.

Oh yep, I went to the GitHub and there's no smsutils. The SMAP driver of the sdk gets compiled as smap.irx it seems. Sorry. Glad the OPL modules worked.

As for the other modules that are needed for the ps2host and napLink modes, ps2host.irx is part of uLaunchELF and link2301.irx is available from CDVDMANIA (or into the naplink-ps2-v1.0.1a package, named NPM-2301.IRX)... Anyway those two network modes are crappy and don't even deserve a compatibility list lol. SMB for the win.

I believe that if I embed the SMB modules in POPStarter, the resulting ELF size will make most users sad (if not sick); so I prefer to keep'em loaded from the MC. The smaller the ELF is, the better, cuz my uLE modification has no SMB support and the SMB users have to rename/copy one POPStarter ELF per installed game.

I'll do that as soon as I can.

I dunno. It depends on the homebrew HDD drivers limitations.
POPStarter itself supports up to 10 __.POPS# partitions of 131072 MB max + 1 __.POPS partition of 131072 MB max. If that's not enough, hardcore gamers can continue to install their games with the old method, into individual PP.GameName partitions.
The "131072 MB max" I'm talking about is the maximum size of a partition uLaunchELF allowed me to create.

 

Thank you for your very fast response and the quick update of the beta version.

You are most likely right about most users not liking a much bigger size of the popstater elf. Although, for my particular setup, I would not mind. I put the renamed copies of the popstarter elf in to a special folder on my local computer and then sync that folder to my nas drive. On my NAS, there is plenty of space. Then, I configure the newly added copies as apps started from SMB in OPL. So far the only inconvenience about this is that I have to manually transfer the updated app list to the MC folder of OPL. But this can likely in the future be improved by a little bit of scripting to automatically fetch an updated version of the opl app list also from the NAS drive before OPL ist started.

 

thanks keep it up. and be good

 

@krHACKen
Thanks for the info regarding 4 player support

 

Oh it might be a good idea to share my setup too, in case that helps anyone...
Like mueihn, i had to find ps2smap.irx and smsutils.irx in OPL. Dunno if it's cool/allowed/useful but i made a zip of the libraries i used in attachment. I compiled them with the latest PS2SDK and OPL at the time, which is like a week ago so should still be valid If it's against rules, i'll of course remove it (haven't seen anything in the rules but you never know...)

Anyway, i copied all that on my MC in the POPSTARTER folder as instructed, created my SMBCONFIG.DAT, copied the POPS_IOX.PAK, renamed POPSTARTER.ELF to SB.name_of_game.ELF and converted a game using toolbox from WIP_05 as name_of_game.VCD, put it in my share and tadaa, elf launches!

Since that worked that well, i checked if OPL could be used to launch POPSTARTER, and the stars aligned : it does now! Jay-Jay @ PS2home made new builds (which can be found there :http://ps2home.freeforums.net/thread/108/opl-daily-builds-releases) that support what he calls "ELF loader menu", meaning that with a config file called conf_elm.cfg in the root of your shared folder, you can list your POPSTARTER games and even give it any name you want! It's all explained on the link. And it supports ART files too, so you can make your OPL look badass with PS1 titles OPL_Manager won't download those automatically though, so you have to do it by hand, but that makes it all the more personal and cool imho. That's probably not news for most of you of course, just wanted to share how happy i was to see it all work

And since krHACKen now updated POPSTARTER, i hardlinked all my ELFs to the new version and that worked! So i'm update-ready now, keep 'em coming hehehe

If if could make a small request for future releases (which i know has been requested already, so it's more of a bump), it would be that IGR resets to mc0:/BOOT/BOOT.ELF instead of PS2Browser. I know there's a workaround that Jay-Jay posted that involves FMCB, but since i'm a 90010 PS2 owner, that's no dice for me.

Anyway sorry for the long post, and if there was too much redundant info.

Thank you for reading

 

I host my VCDs on my laptop, and this laptop is mostly connected via wifi with DHCP, and its IP address not always is the same, i could set a static IP but it's kind inconvenient for me because i also carry the laptop with me and i use other networks with it.

If we could set the NetBios Name instead of IP of the SMB server...

 

In the configuration of my router, it is possible to optionally always assign the same IP address to a particular device via DHCP. Maybe, this is possible for your router as well? In my router's web interface, I simply have to go to the list of known/connected devices, select the device of interest and check a box 'always assign same address to this device'. Sometimes, this feature is informally referred to as 'static DHCP'.

 

Of course mate! I had already thought to have done it a while ago but I forgot, thanks for the tip and for helping me to remember it

 

You can also assign multiple IPs to a single interface. No idea if Windows (which I assume you're using) is able to mix dhcp and static ones, but if it does you could use a static one for all PS connections and a dhcp-assigned one for everything else. Whatever works for you.

 

Dream come true: SMB support. Thank for all.

 

ELM not run elf file: Error, could not run the item
1 Saga Frontier SCUS.94.230
2 Saga Frontier II SLUS.00.933
3 Tomb Rider 4 The Last Revelation SLUS.00.885
4 Vagrant Story SLUS.01.040
I try WIP 13 BETA 12, Computer SMB, Windows 7 Pro, CUE2POPS 2.0
Convert from mdf, img to cue and then to vdc.

 

the Open PS2 Loader Daily Build is a crap Jay-Jay version of OPL, is too buggy = SHIT

 

dears

I am on last OPL PS2 Loader (launch elf menu) , and POPStarter Revision 13, WIP 05. How to Puse PS2RD and GSM (in GSM menu in sub menu game PS2 appears 480p PS1)?

thanks