PS1/2 Whats better OPL or HDLoader

[BiggieCheese]

They're generally poorly built and tend to have random hardware faults in my experience. Slims are just better. The Slims have the obvious problem of no IDE connection (although some still have it in the board), but compared to USB Ethernet is serviceable.

Outside of the (unfortunately) inevitable disc read error that plagues them and an issue I had once where my disc tray got stuck due to a tab coming loose, I haven’t had any issues with my fat model so far. They’re not as bad as, say, the old fat PS3s for example - those are pretty much ticking time bombs that probably aren’t worth the upkeep costs.
Slims are still better though for the most part though, I agree; the massive size reduction and better build quality is really nice to have. The aforementioned lack of a concrete solution for hard drive use is a huge shame, though.

 

[Foxi4]

Outside of the (unfortunately) inevitable disc read error that plagues them and an issue I had once where my disc tray got stuck due to a tab coming loose, I haven’t had any issues with my fat model so far. They’re not as bad as, say, the old fat PS3s for example - those are pretty much ticking time bombs that probably aren’t worth the upkeep costs.
Slims are still better though for the most part though, I agree; the massive size reduction and better build quality is really nice to have. The aforementioned lack of a concrete solution for hard drive use is a huge shame, though.

There are some kits that enable you to add a drive by soldering on a ribbon with the missing connections, but I haven't found any in the wild yet. HD Pro is one of them. Older Slims have the connections on the board already, they just need a socket. That's a lot of trouble for little gain though as keeping all your games on the network is super easy.

 

[uyjulian]

Newest builds of Open PS2 Loader have higher USB speed and compatibility. https://akuhak.github.io/test_build

Also, it is still being improved continually. There is some work on a better networking interface that has higher compatibility.

 

[Foxi4]

Newest builds of Open PS2 Loader have higher USB speed and compatibility. https://akuhak.github.io/test_build

Also, it is still being improved continually. There is some work on a better networking interface that has higher compatibility.

That's nice, but there are technological hurdles in the way. The optical drive is 4X, around 44Mbit/s peak, USB 1.1 peaks at 12 Mbit/s, and no amount of patching will change that - that's the hardware. USB will always be slower.

 

[uyjulian]

That's nice, there's technological hurdles in the way. The optical drive is 4X, around 44Mbit/s peak, USB 1.1 peaks at 12 Mbit/s, and no amount of patching will change that - that's the hardware. USB will always be slower.

Did you actually try it with your problematic games?

 

[ym2612]

whoa! i just tried opl-1499-db with eth loading and was surprised how fast it was... tried God of War, loading times felt like it was loading from hdd, no stuttering etc, tried Shadow of Rome, intro run perfectly smooth, tried Lupin the 3rd, intro was stuttering all the time on usb (like many other games on usb), with eth loading almost 99% perfect, although it felt access times were faster on hdd with this game...

 

[Foxi4]

Did you actually try it with your problematic games?

Absolutely. Either way, this is a hardware limitation that you can't overcome with software - USB will get better and better, for sure, but it will never be as good as ETH, HDD or DVD, it's just how the system works.

 

[slaphappygamer]

I like hdloader. Simple GUI. Not many options to go through. I use an old laptop that still runs xp to run winhiip. I install my games that way. I have used ftp (from ulaunchelf and execsftp with hdlgameinstaller) it was much slower to install a game. I haven’t had much luck with opl. This is on a fat ps2. My ps2 was loud af too! I had to stand it up just right, now it isn’t as loud. The hard drive would vibrate if it wasn’t standing properly.

 

[uyjulian]

I haven’t had much luck with opl.

Why doesn't OPL work for you?

 

[Lopo492]

Opl is a different in setting up where they look for games but has much higher compatibility while hdl has a simple gui and quick but supports less games but hdd or thru eth is fastest method to run games hand downs

 

[slaphappygamer]

Why doesn't OPL work for you?

I couldn’t get it work the way I wanted and I didn’t like the way it displays games. And Loading games over network isn’t a good option for me (I only have laptops). I was mostly interested the ability to exit a game back to opl, showing homebrew, psx loading (vcf’s Can F off), and virtual memory cards. Getting it all just right is more of a hassle than I thought. So I just keep HDLoader. That’s been my boot.elf for for a while now. Maybe I was trying a bad version of opl.

 

[tbb043]

fat ps2 with an internal hard drive is just too loud.

Someone's never used a dreamcast or "fat" 360 if you think the og ps2 is too loud

 

[smf]

Someone's never used a dreamcast or "fat" 360 if you think the og ps2 is too loud

I've got a dreamcast. A fat ps2 with a hard drive is more annoying personally.

 

[Foxi4]

Someone's never used a dreamcast or "fat" 360 if you think the og ps2 is too loud

I have a Dreamcast, but I specifically avoided the OG 360 for this reason - the thermals on the system are ridiculous.

 

[uyjulian]

I couldn’t get it work the way I wanted and I didn’t like the way it displays games. And Loading games over network isn’t a good option for me (I only have laptops). I was mostly interested the ability to exit a game back to opl, showing homebrew, psx loading (vcf’s Can F off), and virtual memory cards. Getting it all just right is more of a hassle than I thought. So I just keep HDLoader. That’s been my boot.elf for for a while now. Maybe I was trying a bad version of opl.

Why don't you like the way OPL displays games? It displays games in a list, like HDLoader.

You should try the newest build of OPL and see if it works for you: http://akuhak.github.io/test_build

 

[uyjulian]

I apologize for the double post.

 

[slaphappygamer]

Why don't you like the way OPL displays games? It displays games in a list, like HDLoader.

You should try the newest build of OPL and see if it works for you: http://akuhak.github.io/test_build

That’s awesome! I’ll give these newer versions a shot. Didn’t even know they were still being worked on. I’ll check out the new wlaunchelf too. Thanks.

 

[Darth Meteos]

Winhiip is not really recommended for installing PS2 discs (it creates partitions with nonstandard names, has a list of games to which apply some default settings that are counterproductive for OPL/miniOPL) - hdl_dump or hdlgameinstaller are superior for everything except the scan and relink partitions feature (because they don't have it - but even Winhiip's implementation has its problems if you have official DNAS protected software on the disk); hdlgameinstaller can in fact install/rename games without even using a PC (and it's the best for use with miniOPL!)

Is there a better program for moving files onto the HDD on PC than Winhiip? I bought a SATA network adapter for the softmod, and the ethernet port is a dummy, the only way to get it onto the HDD is via USB 1.1, which will take hours and hours.

 

[Ryccardo]

Is there a better program for moving files onto the HDD on PC than Winhiip? I bought a SATA network adapter for the softmod, and the ethernet port is a dummy, the only way to get it onto the HDD is via USB 1.1, which will take hours and hours.

Files as in, not PS2 backups (use hdl_dum* for those) but for example PS1 games?

In theory there's pfsshell, but it leaves a bit to be desired, and the last version is linked to corruption (possibly of other partitions) - this https://github.com/uyjulian/pfsshell may have that problem fixed but you'll probably have to compile and try it yourself...
The ultimate plan, I've read, is to make a proper FUSE driver for APA disks and PFS filesystem - but quite some more work is required

Yet another reason the original network adapter is superior...

 

[Darth Meteos]

Yet another reason the original network adapter is superior...

I don't wanna fork out for an IDE hard drive for convenience's sake just yet.

The ultimate plan, I've read, is to make a proper FUSE driver for APA disks and PFS filesystem - but quite some more work is required

I'm pretty excited for that. PS2 hacking really opens up the console in ways other consoles mostly don't, I'm in love with my PS2 library again with the great load times and GSM stuff. Thanks for all the information!

 

[Ryccardo]

I don't wanna fork out for an IDE hard drive for convenience's sake just yet.

Oh, just disassemble it and replace the connectors with a conversion kit (like the ones from maxdiypower or abittop)