game data on two path

[Cypher_CG89]

The ICON0_01.PNG, ICON0_02.PNG, ICON0_03.PNG, etc... ?

Not quite.... ICON0, ICON1, ICON2, ICON3. I know these ones you mentio are lingo related as Amazon Prime Video has loads of them, they all got deleted as well lol as there is no point in them for me at least eating up valuable kb's of HDD space, I know am stingy even though it's a 1TB HDD lol.

When I was researching a while back these appear to be for the PS3 to know where to display things on the XMB when it come to the game, so I was thinking instead of the game poster covering the whole of the xmb I wanted it to be in the bottom right hand corner the game case cover art on top of it.

And as you mentioned in your post, but i didn't find that info on the devwiki, I cannot remember where i found it lol. I quickly put together a ruff example of what I wanted to achieve, don't laugh it by far not my best graphic's work but will do for an example:

Spoiler: Custom XMB Game Art

Now the screenshot is of me in game on BO2 on Carrier MP as you can see the kill feed, from a couple of years ago, some poor person just got quick scoped lol, and the game cover is BO1 but its enough to get the iead of what I am saying about the locations on the XMB.

That game have an special protection, veeeeery unusual, and very interesting because is supported by some rare firmware functions, im very used to PARAM.SFO and long story short... that PARAM.SFO hides some mistery
I guess far cry 3 could be doing the same

If you have the proper PS3 "System File Utility" as it called you should be able to see any "Special" attributes added to it, I do but have never checked this out on FarCry and I think I may do this when I get round to Backing up FarCry 3 again, as i do remember seeing this "Special" Attribute part on another game I have but as to which one I cannot remember of hand as I have so many games.

 

[sandungas]

Oki, yeah i modifyed that images in some games, but i stopped doing it
And i got you, the trick you mentioned is about taking advantage of the overlapping of the "full screen" background and the other image that is "floating" at the right
I imagined another effect while looking at your image, you can do this design... with the game cover + the plastic game case at left
This area at left is always "available"... so is a good place to add custom images
By doing this the game cover+case is part of the background... but most of the background is transparent, and visually it looks like is located at "top layer"

Another cool detail i like of managunz (following a bit this same concept of taking advanage of the overlappings) is the main ICON0.PNG (with the managunz bullet logo) and how well it matches with the background... this is something i was trying to achieve for many time but failed miserably because i could not find the exact position where is overlapped (but @Zar found it, ehehe)

 

[aldostools]

thanks bro.
but a question :
whick folder is for symlinks? i search forum and found two methods:
in multiman i must delete files in the GAMES\BLxx-xxx and create symlink in this folder or i must delete files in the game\BLxx-xxx folder and create symlink on it?

Here is some additional info that could be useful:
- AFAIK symlink (aka Shadow Copy) only works for files in the internal HDD.
- When you use symlink both files act like real file, but only one of the copies use HDD space. The other uses just a few KB.
- IRISMAN's file manager also has the Shadow Copy in case you prefer it Use LEFT/RIGHT over the Copy option to change mode.
- Cobra has a remap feature that works between internal HDD and USB. It can be called using the web command /remap.ps3
- wMM's external gameDATA (select+SQUARE) can be used to install game data in /dev_usb000/GAMEI
- The external gameDATA doesn't work for games with files larger than 4GB

 

[sandungas]

Im imagining a combination of tricks that maybe works
I never used symlinks though. And im wondering how the symlinks needs to be made if the backup is an ISO... making symlinks to a PS3 game in JB format is pretty straightforward, but with an ISO ?

It can be made a PKG with the symlinks intended to replace the gamedata installation (+ the original eboot.bin, sprx and executables)
This PKG should use VERSION 1.00 and APP_VER 1.00 and it needs to be isntalled BEFORE the first boot of the game
This way when the game boots, it detects the gamedata installation has been performed before so it bypasses it

Additionally, this PKG can be included as part of the game, there are 3 ways to do it, PS3_EXTRA, PKGDIR, and INSDIR
I think INSDIR is very handy for this case, because is a "mandatory" installation, and is "hidden in XMB" (there is no icon for it displayed in XMB). When you boot the game it shows a warning advising you is needed to install a PKG, if you acept it the PKG is installed and the game boots, if you dont acept it the game takes you back to XMB

The fact that the INSDIR is a "mandatory" installation is very important because assures us that is going to be instaleld BEFORE the game boots for first time... so in other words... is imposible for the game to perform the default gamedata installation normally

 

[rocknard]

...

Hm... but the pkg inside of INSDIR must be created with "forceinstall" or "InstallDirectory" package (i remember it because deank spoke something about installing .edats and implemented with some tools of aldostools), because some mandatory installs place the data on "/game/BLXX_install" o similar, instead of only /game/BLXX (?).

 

[sandungas]

Hm... but the pkg inside of INSDIR must be created with "forceinstall" or "InstallDirectory" package (i remember it because deank spoke something about installing .edats and implemented with some tools of aldostools), because some mandatory installs place the data on "/game/BLXX_install" o similar, instead of only /game/BLXX (?).

As far i was testing... the PKGs inside INSDIR doesnt needs any requirement
I remember i was adding the INSDIR folder in disc backups with a PKG of a homebrew app inside, and the homebrew was installed correctly

 

[rocknard]

As far i was testing... the PKGs inside INSDIR doesnt needs any requirement
I remember i was adding the INSDIR folder in disc backups with a PKG of a homebrew app inside, and the homebrew was installed correctly

Ok, sandungas. I did'nt remember about the "gamedata" (and others) pkg install the data on /game/Blxxx, so i only need to rename the folder to Blxxx_install (or the titleID from paramsfo and pkg, i don't remember ), repack and profit.

Thank you. Maybe i try this shadow copy with some game (jb folder only, because ISO is not "implemented" featured).

EDIT: i will leave this until i really need this

 

[sandungas]

Ok, sandungas. I did'nt remember about the "gamedata" (and others) pkg install the data on /game/Blxxx, so i only need to rename the folder to Blxxx_install (or the titleID from paramsfo and pkg, i don't remember ), repack and profit.

Thank you. Maybe i try this shadow copy with some game (jb folder only, because ISO is not "implemented" featured).

EDIT: i will leave this until i really need this

@lmn7 explained it in the previous page of the thread, i never tryed it but my understanding of the steps needed to make are this:

1) Uninstall the gamedata incase you already had installed it, this also uninstalls the optional game upates you had installed. This step is needed just because we are in experiment stage so we need to start from a safe point

2) Boot the game, it will make the gamedata installation, allow it to complete it

3) Use a filemanager to look at dev_hdd0/game/TITLE_ID_GD (this is the same TITLE_ID inside the original PARAM.SFO + some added characters at the end of the folder name)

4) Take note of all that files that has been installed (needed for the next step)... and yeah this could be a pita if the list is long

5) Use a filemanager to look at dev_hdd0/GAMES/TITLE_ID (this is the PS3 game in JB format)

6) Copy the files that matches the installation to a "working directory" but instead of copying the files make symlinks of them

The goal is to overwrite the gamedata files with the symlinks, so instead of using a "working directory" you can overrite them in the gamedata instalation directly
But if you want to make a PKG with the contents of the "working directory" then i guess you need to add the EBOOT.BIN (and not sure if the other executables too: sprx, self, etc...)

 

[aldostools]

I never used symlinks though. And im wondering how the symlinks needs to be made if the backup is an ISO... making symlinks to a PS3 game in JB format is pretty straightforward, but with an ISO ?

As I mentioned above, symlinks only work from hdd0 to hdd0. As ISO are mounted as /dev_bdvd it it not an option, unless you use /remap.ps3

If you have used webMAN MOD, you probably have used symlinks but never noticed it By default wMM always uses symlinks when copying files from hdd0 to hdd0, unless you use a double slash in the path to force a real file copy like this: /copy.ps3//dev_hdd0/blah&to=//dev_hdd0/bleh

https://github.com/aldostools/webMAN-MOD/blob/master/include/file.h#L361

A common example of symlink is when PS2 Classics .BIN.ENC are mounted with wMM. They are "shadow copied" to the folder PS2 Classic Launcher.

If the purpose is to save space using symlinks, it is more practical to shadow-copy & replace only the bigger files after the game data have been installed, instead of try to replicate the whole game folder structure which can be a lot of work.

BTW If you edit a shadow copy of a file, the changes are automatically reflected in the original path. So never use a shadow copy if you plan to modify files and don't want to lose the original.

 

[Cypher_CG89]

....you mentio...

Looks like am on the typio's now lol....just noticed...either that or am typing another lingo without realising it lol.

with the game cover + the plastic game case

Now that looks good with the actual case as well. Could make that 3D and show the spine on the case as well.

 

[x23are]

i reach to some results :

1. in some games you can delete files in JB folder and shadow copy from hdd0/game to jb folder. (GTAV) (for this title i tested it and it works vice versa)
2. i think the best way to shadow copy is delete files in hdd0/game folder and shadow copy files from jb folder to hdd0/game folder. bcz if you delete files from jb folder and the game check disc folder it may face with problem.

3.if you install updates it may cause problem for running games.
some updates install in another folder and not effect to installation folder but if updates install in the same installation data folder then it may not run if change any file shadow copied to jb folder.
or if files shadow copied from jb to install folder and install data then you can lost update changes.

with this in mind i think the second method is the best way with this conditions :

1. first keep the files in the game disc folder (jb - in GAMES) untouched.
2. run game and let to install data.
3.go to file manager and find big files are same in jb folder and data folder (i think to increase hdd size the big files are important i mean if you shadow copy 1 5GB is better than to shadow copy 100 numbers of (1-5MB) files!
4. install updates
5. and then delete duplicate files in the installation folder and shadow copy files from jf folder to it. (if updates not change installed data)

 

[sandungas]

The good way is by having the symlinks in dev_hdd0/game because by doing it the otherway we are "dividing" the game in 2 paths and this is a pita for storage purposes out of the PS3
Also, if we replace the game files by symlinks we could hit with a (unusual) anti-tampering protection and the game could stop working

I think (just a theory, never tryed it) for the first gamedata installation in dev_hdd0/game (usually using APP_VER and VERSION = 1.00) all the files can be symlinks, with the only exception of PARAM.SFO and ICON0.PNG (or to be more precise... all the "content information files" for a GAMEDATA content)
The reason why that files are needed is because are used by the XMB as a "preview" so are loaded at every boot of the PS3... but if you delete the game then are going to be displayed as corrupt (because the symlink is pointing to a file that doesnt exists)

So... as a recap... for the first gamedata installation all files (except root images and sfo) can be replaced by symlinks
And when you install a game update some of that symlinks are going to be overriten by "real files" (that actually are needed to be loaded)... so everything is fine, right ?