Hacking Swap Magic / Open PS2 Loader - Questions

[Elliander]

I decided to buy Swap Magic for use with my PS3 (since PS2 Classics won't support software, and Cobra USB requires it's own CFW to be functional even with multiMAN.) My console is first generation so I have no problems loading it, but...

Although it works with my PSP in USB mode, when I load Open PS2 I don't see a game list. It has options to load from the internal hard drive, but in either case I can't find any directions on where to put the games.

On my 4 TB hdd it just went to a black screen. I read here that it needs special formatting, but "USB Extreme" is screwy. I used the command prompt mode so I could select the drive letter to format. First it formatted to NTFS, then to FAT32. When it was done all my data was safe on the first partition, but the second partition it formatted listed it's free space as the size of the entire hard drive which meant that if I added any files to it they could potentially overwrite and corrupt files on the first partition. Oddly, in partition managers the second partition still showed it as 50 GB, but it didn't have a way to resize partitions. I decided to delete that partition, and create a new one. Still waiting for that to get done, and hoping it doesn't mess with my data on the first partition.

Anyway, my question there is this: How exactly does that "USB Extreme" thing work? Is it supposed to allow files larger than 4 GB even though it is FAT32? Is there a way to make it work without giving it access to the space devoted to other partitions?

 

[Yanazake]

Wait, PARTITION? No, I think that's what screwing it up. Were you able to actually access BOTH partitions via the ps3? AT ALL? Like, via Multiman file browser? If not, or if you can only access one of the partitions, that's likely your problem.

I may be talking gibberish here, but all I know is that the ps3 is supposed to read pendrives, and those are normally on fat32 formatting. You know, no files over 4gb.

 

[codezer0]

Might be the fact that you have a 4TB drive. FAT32's logical limit is still around 2TB IIRC. And even then, you start wasting a lot of space in that regard.

It's one reason i wish that the PS3 could support something better, like NTFS for example. Maybe we'll see something to address that when laptop drives start reaching the so-called 2.2TB limit that forced bigger sectors from drive manufacturers. I would expect at least one more firmware update from Sony to handle that.

 

[Magsor]

It is clear that you should look into the Ethernet route instead.
This guide might help you.
http://psx-scene.com/forums/f150/play-ps2-backup-isos-fat-backwards-compatable-ps3-opl-works-110483/

The setup is pretty much the same.
Note that most routers nowadays come with a USB port that is especially made for that. Plug in your NTFS hard drive with the right files. Setup your router and ps2 and you are good to go.

 

[Elliander]

Wait, PARTITION? No, I think that's what screwing it up. Were you able to actually access BOTH partitions via the ps3? AT ALL?

When I first tried using multiple partitions MultiMAN had no problems viewing them and writing to them, but Swap Magic wouldn't load from either partition. From what I read I had to use this "USB Extreme" thing, but I didn't even TRY to launch that in multiMAN because I know that it is very VERY bad for a second partition to be given an entire hard drive's worth of space.

Might be the fact that you have a 4TB drive. FAT32's logical limit is still around 2TB IIRC.

um... no. That has nothing to do with it. Formatting an entire drive to FAT32 is no problem, it's just that when trying to format multiple partitions with this tools the second partition has too much available space. The sum of two partitions should never be greater than the capacity of the entire hard drive.

It is clear that you should look into the Ethernet route instead.
This guide might help you.
http://psx-scene.com/forums/f150/play-ps2-backup-isos-fat-backwards-compatable-ps3-opl-works-110483/

The setup is pretty much the same.
Note that most routers nowadays come with a USB port that is especially made for that. Plug in your NTFS hard drive with the right files. Setup your router and ps2 and you are good to go.

So going through the router is faster than using USB? That seems counter intuitive. Every review I read about network hard drives is that they are slower than a direct USB connection. In any case, the problem right now isn't the type of connection. It's the formatting required.

 

[Magsor]

So going through the router is faster than using USB? That seems counter intuitive. Every review I read about network hard drives is that they are slower than a direct USB connection. In any case, the problem right now isn't the type of connection. It's the formatting required.

Yeah that's the case. Only because the PS2 is USB 1.1 and PS3 still is limited to that. And review you read are BS because a network hard drive IS faster said that you have the infrastructure to support it(cat6+gigabit router) unless you are using USB 3.0 which is just a tad faster than gigabit internet.

 

[mechadylan]

If you're already on CFW, why not simply convert your choice PS2 isos to PS2Classics and use PS2CM in conjunction with PS2 Placeholder to launch?

EDIT: Sorry if off-topic.

 

[codezer0]

If you're already on CFW, why not simply convert your choice PS2 isos to PS2Classics and use PS2CM in conjunction with PS2 Placeholder to launch?

EDIT: Sorry if off-topic.

I don't have nearly enough storage for that, lol.

It's why I wish that OpenCOBRA would finally come out, so that I could at least in the meantime play the disc backups directly that I do have, until such time I can buy a bigger hard drive to put internally.

 

[Elliander]

If you're already on CFW, why not simply convert your choice PS2 isos to PS2Classics and use PS2CM in conjunction with PS2 Placeholder to launch?

Simple: There is a reason I purchased a first generation PS3. It was to be able to play all the PS2 games in hardware mode. Since PS2Classics are stuck in Emulation mode it's not really an option for me. I thought about using Cobra USB, and would have no problems buying a dongle, but I don't like the fact that I would have to use their CFW and that it's only a CFW while the dongle is inserted. I know that the Cobra CFW was reverse engineered for everything exception the stuff on the USB so I don't see why someone can't put that code into a loader to use Cobra ODE's ability to load PS2/PSP games with the dongle inserted. For that matter, I don't see why Cobra themselves can't make a standalone loader to use their dongle with other CFW. That's pretty much the only way I would buy a dongle, so lacking that happening the only option available to me is Swap Magic.

The good news is I finally got a new router in the mail. It is a 10/100/1000 with the latest AC dual band and not only 5 ethernet ports, but 2 USB ports to turn any USB hard drive into a network hard drive. I also got a 4 TB network hard drive as well and a new 1 TB internal hard drive for the PS3. So as soon as I can get around to putting everything together and configuring it all to work I can see about trying the network suggestion for Swap Magic. I am going to give an entire 4 TB hard drive to swap magic.

 

[codezer0]

Also, PS2Classics only works with one ISO at a time. I have wayyyy too many on disc since i have a chipped PS2, and am in much the same boat.

don't get me wrong, if I could afford the storage I would totally put 'em all on a hard drive and load them that way... but that just isn't fiscally practical at this time for me either.

 

[Elliander]

Also, PS2Classics only works with one ISO at a time.

Really? Well that seems a bit tedious. So what, you have to process the ISO new for each PS2 classic or something?

I have quite a few PS2 and PS1 games too, but I don't have any PS2 or PS1 anymore. Both were stolen from me like 10 years ago along with my memory cards and some of the games. It really sucks to be near the end of a game and then have the memory card stolen because the game just isn't as fun to replay immediately like that. That's when I switched over to the Xbox and then Wii. Since I never got to finish any of my PS2 games, well, I have plenty of reason to get them all to work. Thankfully they aren't really scratched up (lack of use), but I would still prefer playing from backups. Actually, if I can get it all working correctly from a network hard drive I might even be inclined to get a second console so that more than one person can play a game at a time. I get that with a wired ethernet connection it is faster than USB, but I wonder if the wifi would be strong enough?

Unfortunately, it looks likes the site is down for openps2loader I hope it's just temporary.

 

[codezer0]

No, meaning that the current homebrew to enable PS2Classics doesn't support more than one ISO at a time, and since it uses a single gameID, you can't do PS2Classics for more than one game at a time.

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

Just a bit of a correction here... PS3's version of Multimann has supported reading from NTFS drives for quite some time now.

Not sure about writing but I use an NTFS format drive for my PS3.

 

[codezer0]

Yea, the problem is that if you want to use it for anything else that the PS3 is supposed to be able to do, you rather have to use FAT32 then, which is still limited to ~2TB for any practical purposes.

 

[remlei]

You can just do that plain and simple using 3K3Y. Plus it supports HDD larger than 2TB and I heard it support 3.0 USB HDD but I really doubt that you can benefit from 3.0 USB HDD in terms of speed since BD is still limited on certain read speeds.

Also, PS2 Classics on BC PS3 will still use the hardware capabilities and im sure for that since some converted games that works on 20GB models doesnt work on non backward compatible PS3.

 

[elgarta]

Also, PS2 Classics on BC PS3 will still use the hardware capabilities and im sure for that since some converted games that works on 20GB models doesnt work on non backward compatible PS3.

False. The PS2 Classics placeholder is purely software based, so even on a US/Jap launch model PS3 you will run into problems loading quite a few PS2 titles through it. Cobra USB is the only current option that will play PS2 backups in hardware mode.

I ended up just using the Cobra Dongle for my PS2 backups, but the main issue I have is that things like reactpsn, 4.41 spoofer, rebug toolbox etc won't work on Cobra 4.30. I have a few store-bought PSN titles/DLC that I couldn't natively use on the firmware without doing some edat resigning or finding patched pkg files. The firmware seems fine otherwise, although I did hear alot of reports of the XMB not working in-game, but I haven't had that since I first loaded Metal Gear Rising.

But word from Cobra regarding the ODE is that they will implement a PS1/PS2 loader into the Cobra Manager for BC machines. So we might see a time shortly where we can load backups from PS1 to PS3 on the ODE, but I'd wait before throwing down money at a pre-order

 

[remlei]

^youre not reading ps3 dev wikis are yah?

according to the real geniuses, Sony manage to emulate PS2 hardware inside PS3 mode, so yeah we can get a PS2 working on non-BC PS3, but heres one more thing. The BC PS3 will still call the ps2emu.self (this executable file is doing its job for PS2 hardware based) even if you play a PSN PS2 classics or Disc based games.

so to get things right, I tested series of games that works on CECHCA that doesnt work on non-BC ps3, the result is, its result seems to be compelling, the BC PS3 does have a high compatibility rate than the non-BC.

 

[elgarta]

^youre not reading ps3 dev wikis are yah?

according to the real geniuses, Sony manage to emulate PS2 hardware inside PS3 mode, so yeah we can get a PS2 working on non-BC PS3, but heres one more thing. The BC PS3 will still call the ps2emu.self (this executable file is doing its job for PS2 hardware based) even if you play a PSN PS2 classics or Disc based games.

so to get things right, I tested series of games that works on CECHCA that doesnt work on non-BC ps3, the result is, its result seems to be compelling, the BC PS3 does have a high compatibility rate than the non-BC.

I am no stranger to the dev wiki, but don't see anything that supports what you are saying. Everything I find suggests (including Flatz' original algorithm post) says that the PS2 Classics run within ps2_netemu.self. Feel free to point me in the direction of something that says the PS2classics run off ps2_emu.self for hardware support as I must be missing it somewhere.

So what games did you test and what comparisons did you make to compatibility on a slim? The compatibility charts show varying results on some titles, but nothing as drastic that suggests hardware mode is enabled and making the difference between a title working or not.

 

[mechadylan]

Really? Well that seems a bit tedious. So what, you have to process the ISO new for each PS2 classic or something?

The PS2 Classic Placeholder holds one game that can be launched from the XMB. PS2 isos need to be converted to .iso.enc format and placed in a folder on the internal hdd. Once the isos have been converted, they don't need to be converted again; in fact, you can delete the .isos at this point if you wish (or you can simply convert them on a pc and transfer the .iso.enc files.) PS2 Classics Manager is a homebrew app (much like multiMan) that displays the .iso.enc games on your internal hdd and allows you to select and enable which game will be launched from the PS2 Classics Placeholder. If you think about it, it's no different from going to mM, selecting a game, getting put back in the XMB and selecting your loaded game.

I don't believe that this method works with external storage media at the moment, so I completely understand that a large PS2 library will suck up a lot of your internal hdd space. However, if there are a small handful of PS2 games that you'd like to play immediately then this is a usable solution. I don't know the specifics of hardware mode vs. emulation mode, but Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 look great in my opinion; Flipnic on the other hand looks horrible.