PS2 [MX4SIO/SIO2SD] SD Card Adapter and SD-driver for the PS2 SIO2 interface

[Workz_777]

Friends...

Important to know... about MX4SIO + OPL Beta v1.2.0 (1917)

If you have a non-Deckard PS2 (IOP - 70K model and lower) then the latest OPL Beta v1.2.0 (1917) will not be as fast for you, and can cause stuttering FMVs and stuttering game play, when compared to OPL BDM3...

...because OPL Beta v1.2.0 (1917) has checksumming which makes the non-Deckard PS2 slower. But for Deckard PS2s using OPL Beta v1.2.0 (1917) is about the same as OPL BDM3.

Here is what MX4SIO OPL BDM3 Dev - Maximus32 said about the latest OPL Beta v1.2.0 (1917) - "It has checksumming enabled, bdm3 did not have checksumming. This makes the current mx4sio slower on FAT ps2's, but almost the same speed on slim ps2's."

So in short...

If you have a Slim (Deckard) PS2 (75K and above) welcome to the OPL Beta v1.2.0 (1917) party with exFAT + VMC functionality.

If you have a Phat PS2, for now it would be better to keep with OPL BDM3 for best performance (smooth FMVs and game play).

 

[Haker120]

Ok but few games stutter for me on 90004 so how about that?

 

[Workz_777]

Ok but few games stutter for me on 90004 so how about that?

Yeah that's right bro, Deckard PS2s + MX4SIO + OPL v1.2.0 (1917) = very good / smooth FMVs and game play

The problem is with the Phats / non-Deckard PS2s, if they use OPL v1.2.0 (1917) it will be much slower (stuttering FMVs and game play) compared with BDM3 (which is super fast for non-Deckard PS2s).

...because of the reasons Maximus32 speaks about (checksumming) see my previous post for the Maximus32 quote.

 

[Techuhak]

Is there a version of OPL that you find to be more stable and works with a larger variety of games than others? I'm on a 79xxx using the latest version, v1.2.0-Beta-1917-7d786b3 and I find that there are still a number of games that show working on the tracking sheet, but don't work, at least not on my setup.

Just as an example these show as green

Nickelodeon SpongeBob SquarePants - Lights, Camera, Pants!

Nickelodeon SpongeBob SquarePants - The Movie

Nickelodeon SpongeBob SquarePants in - Battle for Bikini Bottom

But none of them work for me. They either boot, then freeze at some point or don't boot at all.

 

[Workz_777]

Is there a version of OPL that you find to be more stable and works with a larger variety of games than others? I'm on a 79xxx using the latest version, v1.2.0-Beta-1917-7d786b3 and I find that there are still a number of games that show working on the tracking sheet, but don't work, at least not on my setup.

Just as an example these show as green

Nickelodeon SpongeBob SquarePants - Lights, Camera, Pants!

Nickelodeon SpongeBob SquarePants - The Movie

Nickelodeon SpongeBob SquarePants in - Battle for Bikini Bottom

But none of them work for me. They either boot, then freeze at some point or don't boot at all.

Ok bro, so a few questions...

(1) Are you using exFAT or FAT32?

(2) What MicroSD card and size are you using?

(3) Are you using a PS2 gamepad only?

(4) What region are the games you are testing, NTSC or PAL ?

(5) Are you using a Sony PS2 FreeMcBoot MC, or a clone?

(6) Are you trying VMC?

So one thing to remember is - that MX4SIO game compatibility list / google sheet (you mention) is for games mainly tested with BDM1 and BDM3, which isn't the same as what you are testing now:- OPL v1.2.0-Beta-1917

Also look at the game compatibility list and see what region those games you mention are, maybe the ones working on the google sheet are USA versions, and your ones are Euro versions, or vice versa?

 

[Techuhak]

Ok bro, so a few questions...

(1) Are you using exFAT or FAT32?

(2) What MicroSD card and size are you using?

(3) Are you using a PS2 gamepad only?

(4) What region are the games you are testing, NTSC or PAL ?

(5) Are you using a Sony PS2 FreeMcBoot MC, or a clone?

(6) Are you trying VMC?

So one thing to remember is - that MX4SIO game compatibility list / google sheet (you mention) is for games mainly tested with BDM1 and BDM3, which isn't the same as what you are testing now:- OPL v1.2.0-Beta-1917

Also look at the game compatibility list and see what region those games you mention are, maybe the ones working on the google sheet are USA versions, and your ones are Euro versions, or vice versa?

Here you go, should have included this to begin with.

(1) Currently FAT32
(2) TeamGroup 256GB
(3) yes PS2 only
(4) all NTSC
(5) I installed FreeMcBoot 1.9666 on a PS2 8MB Magic Gate card
(6) No VMC at this time.

 

[Workz_777]

Here you go, should have included this to begin with.

(1) Currently FAT32
(2) TeamGroup 256GB
(3) yes PS2 only
(4) all NTSC
(5) I installed FreeMcBoot 1.9666 on a PS2 8MB Magic Gate card
(6) No VMC at this time.

Ok so checking the MX4SIO game compatibility google sheet, the ones tested as working, which you are testing...

Nickelodeon SpongeBob SquarePants - Lights, Camera, Pants!

Nickelodeon SpongeBob SquarePants - The Movie

Nickelodeon SpongeBob SquarePants in - Battle for Bikini Bottom

...were tested on a 77k PS2, so similar to your 79K PS2, however, this test was done with OPL BDM3, and there is a difference between OPL v1.2.0-Beta-1917 and OPL BDM3, which is:- OPL "1917" has checksumming, and BDM3 does not have checksumming. So maybe your games are not passing their checksum, meaning there is a fault / errors with your games.

You could try a couple things to test, it's up to you...

(1) Format your 256GB SD / MicroSD card to exFAT and try to see if this makes a difference.

(2) If option (1) didn't change anything, and those games still didn't work, then try with BDM3.

I'm not sure, maybe OPL v1.2.0-Beta-1917 works best with exFAT, i do know that VMC with FAT32 using OPL v1.2.0-Beta-1917 would make my games freeze / crash when the PS2 was checking for the game's save file. With exFAT, VMC worked perfectly and no longer crashed the game during loading.

 

[Techuhak]

Ok so checking the MX4SIO game compatibility google sheet, the ones tested as working, which you are testing...

Nickelodeon SpongeBob SquarePants - Lights, Camera, Pants!

Nickelodeon SpongeBob SquarePants - The Movie

Nickelodeon SpongeBob SquarePants in - Battle for Bikini Bottom

...were tested on a 77k PS2, so similar to your 79K PS2, however, this test was done with OPL BDM3, and there is a difference between OPL v1.2.0-Beta-1917 and OPL BDM3, which is:- OPL "1917" has checksumming, and BDM3 does not have checksumming. So maybe your games are not passing their checksum, meaning there is a fault / errors with your games.

You could try a couple things to test, it's up to you...

(1) Format your 256GB SD / MicroSD card to exFAT and try to see if this makes a difference.

(2) If option (1) didn't change anything, and those games still didn't work, then try with BDM3.

I'm not sure, maybe OPL v1.2.0-Beta-1917 works best with exFAT, i do know that VMC with FAT32 using OPL v1.2.0-Beta-1917 would make my games freeze / crash when the PS2 was checking for the game's save file. With exFAT, VMC worked perfectly and no longer crashed the game during loading.

They seem to work when using BDM3 so I could just go that route. The only thing with BDM3 is every time I launch OPL I have to remove and re-seat the SD card. Not the end of the world, just annoying.

I ordered another SD card today. When that gets here I'll format it with exFAT and see if that helps.

 

[TnA]

@Maximus32 also uploaded BDM4 to the PS2-Scene-Discord.

I'll go ahead and attach it here for the sake of testing and comparing with BDM3 and the official OPL Beta-builds.

 

[Techuhak]

Did a quick test with BDM4 and the above games still fail. But the SD card loads every time now so that's nice.

 

[longsun_zhao]

I'm aware of how some people here feel about the MC2SIO, so please save your own time and don't bother replying to me if it's just to slam that product.

I'm testing out OPL 1.2.0 1917 on MC2SIO and things are MUCH improved. Several games that didn't boot at all before now boot and run really well. For example, Half-Life and the Phantasy Star Collection both work great now. Also, I was deep into a run on Super Robot Wars OGs with the English patch applied and had been encountering intermittent issues with models and character portraits failing to load, which appears to be totally gone now.

EDIT: BDM4 is definitely the way to go. I'm testing it out now and some weird "regressions" I had noticed in 1.2.0 1917 vs BDM3 have been cleared up completely by going to BDM4. It's great.

EDIT 2: Sakura Wars 5 boots now! But it fails to play FMVs all the way through and skips them, as if I had pressed start, a few seconds in. It seems to work fine other than that.

 

[TnA]

MX4SIO is an open project, so we hold no grudge there.

I know that MC2SIO tends to "eat" SD-Cards though, hehe.

THX for the tests!


Edit: @BitfunX Seriously... How many have you produced??? A million?!?




Even Walmart:


LOOOOOL

 

[longsun_zhao]

MX4SIO is an open project, so we Gold no grudge there.

I know that MC2SIO tends to "eat" SD-Cards though, hehe.

THX for the tests!

Oh I plugged that gap in the case day 1; it was a real annoyance, haha.

 

[TnA]

I edited my previous post...

I am for officially changing the project-status from "experimental" to "beyond nuts viral"!

 

[Techuhak]

So I went through my games that weren't working with v1.2.0-Beta-1917-7d786b3 and tested them with BDM4 (They don't work with BDM3 either) and they still don't work.
Here they are for reference.

System: 79001
MC2S10
TeamGroup 256GB Fat32

Burnout 2
Disney's Stitch - Experiment 626
Disney-Pixar - Monster's Inc
Disney-Pixar Toy Story 3
Dreamworks Shrek- Crash n' Smash
LEGO Batman - The Videogame
Looney Tunes - Space Race
Nickelodeon - Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius
Scooby-Doo! First Frights
Scooby-Doo! Mystery Mayhem

 

[longsun_zhao]

With BDM4 I cant get any controller response in the OPL menu around half the time. has anyone else encountered this?

 

[TnA]

Original DS2 or another controller?

 

[Techuhak]

With BDM4 I cant get any controller response in the OPL menu around half the time. has anyone else encountered this?

I've been using it quite a bit over the last week, using an OEM DS2 controller with no issues.

 

[longsun_zhao]

Original DS2 or another controller?

Original DS2. I experience it on both FAT32 and EXFAT.

 

[TnA]

Original SONY MemoryCard?