NEED HELP HEX strings in updates

Mjfdms

Mjfdms

Member
When PSN game is created with the updates appended two strings in param.sfo are changed. I want to understand why and what they mean.

This using psn liberators off course. I will post the images comparing the to param.sfo files differences in game version. One goes up and the other one goes down.

Captura de Ecrã (2).png
Captura de Ecrã (3).png


the first image represents game without updates and the second image with updates.
i need to understand why the last value in in red in hex string goes down when i update the game
 
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You are converting a disc game to a PSN game correct? :)

Every PS3 game as a APP_VER and VER (sometimes this is called a MASTER VERSION, so lets call it that). The master version is what version the game is on it's first release. Most of the time it's v1.00, but sometimes, for example lets say the game was already released on PC with version v1.02, then the company would release the game on PS3 with a master version of v1.02 (since the first release would probably have the update built-in). If the game on PC however had no updates then the PS3 version would be v1.00 alongside the PC version.

The app version is for updates only, so if a company released v1.05 of a game, they would leave the master version to whatever it was before (be that v1.00 or v1.02 whatever) and then change the app version to v1.05.

The red box at the top is the app version, the bottom is the master version. As for WHY the tool is bothering to touch either version I honestly have no clue, since it appears to me that all you're trying to do is convert a disc game to PSN game which shouldn't really require any of the versions to change.

However if this happens after applying the update then changing the app version would make sense, since the game has been updated the app version needs to be higher than the master version and whatever the app version was before, as for why the master version was reduced to v1.00 idk, this is most likely because whatever tool you are using is changing the app version to v1.01 and I don't think the master version and app version can be the same so it reduces the master version to v1.00.

If you still have questions feel free to ask, sorry if some of the info was unorganized. :D
 
Thanks for reply I now understand those two strings. One question tho. Why then is the master version higher in the first place without the updates applied I now know they cant be equal. But it makes no sense to me the master version of a psn game released be higher then app ver.

And yes I'm using psnliberator to convert do disc based.
 
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Mjfdms said:
Thanks for reply I now understand those two strings. One question tho. Why then is the master version higher in the first place without the updates applied I now know they cant be equal. But it makes no sense to me the master version of a psn game released be higher then app ver.
Click to expand...

The master versions is most likely higher to begin with because when that game was first released on PS3 it was most likely in v1.01, remember what I said about what the master version is above, it can be higher than the app version since the master version is the ORIGINAL version the game was first released with on PS3.

App version just cannot be lower than master version (I think if both master version and app version are 1.00 then that is allowed, since that just indicates the game never had updates applied onto it).
 
A0100V0100 (in an unedited pkg name) would have a master/base game of 1.00 with no updates applied to it. if you create an update of the game, the A0100 will change. I noticed this being a problem with gengp4 on the ps4 as it assumes all games will have the same A0100V0100. the pkg of an update (only happens with updates) requires the game pkg. if this criteria isn't met, the pkg creation will fail instantly.
 
Note the list of (human readable) names in capitals at most top of the sfo, are ordered alpahebetically

APP_VER <----- this is the first
ATTRIBUTE
BOOTABLE
CATEGORY
etc...
etc...
etc...
VERSION <--- this is the last

All the data inside the sfo is ordered following that same order exactly, and this list of names at top is like an "index table"
Inmediatly after the "index table" (and after a max of 3 padding bytes iirc to align what comes next to 4 bytes boundary) appears the values for them

What you marked in red is (in the original):
APP_VER = 1.00
VERSION = 1.01

Usually this values are both 1.00 for the PS3 games in bluray format
But incase the game is re-published (as part of a collection, or that "platinum" or "gold" low price series sony uses to do in all playstations) sometimes theys increases VERSION to 1.01

Incase the game had an exploit (this happened in PSP), or a bug, they stops production of that master disc, and replaces it by VERSION = 1.01 too
So... the VERSION is like the main game

-------------------
And APP_VER are the games updates, if the original game was APP_VER 1.00 (very usual, 99% of the PS3 games are like this) then the first update is APP_VER 1.01

But the game update has his VERSION too
This allows them to replace the game updates (incase had exploits or bugs)

Example, first update of the game is APP_VER = 1.01 and VERSION = 1.00
But after the game update is released (and hosted and indexed in sony servers) they realizes it has a bug, oppps
So they replaces it in the servers by APP_VER = 1.01 and VERSION = 1.01
 
So what im asking is why a master version of a game changes when I use psnliberator. If it is a master version that value should be the same in the first place.
 
It's the tool that is changing that value when the value shoudnt change its not ps3 servers. When I convert the game with updates the app version changes to the correct value but the master value decreases is this because of we can't have the same value in the app and the master version, and the tool just makes a shortcut and decreases that number so they aren't the same. Is this a trick o f the tool? Or something normal if I update the game via original way.
 
could be a bug? like I mentioned, ps4 pkgs won't be created unless the app and master version are 1.00. I did manage to get around that by either renaming the game pkg in gengp4 or by renaming the pkg itself. this results in a delta log, but the pkg is still created. I created a pkg with and without all this stuff, in case there's a problem. perhaps, the system or whatever app you're using forces this change on the ps3 as well?
 
Is not the master version of the game, look at this, a real example, this is a link from sony servers, click in it and if you see a warning in your web browser click in "advanced" and allow the page to load
https://a0.ww.np.dl.playstation.net/tpl/np/BLES01807/BLES01807-ver.xml

The game BLES01807 accesses that xml when you boot it in your PS3
In it you can see the list of game updates availables for the game

That list is updated everytime a game update is added to the list or removed (because was bugged, or was superceeded by a new game update including the files from previous game updates)

At the end of the PKG filenames you can see that appears the values for APP_VER and VERSION. This matches exactly with the SFO inside that PKGs

Note how is named the game update 1.21 (at the end of the filename) A0121-V0102-PE.pkg. This means:
APP_VER=1.21
VERSION=1.02

The reason why VERSION=1.02 is because it was released 3 times !!!
The first time was named A0121-V0100
Second was A0121-V0101
And the actual is A0121-V0102

When they published the "patched" versions of update 1.21 they removed the previous... and the XML was updated

The point is when you install an game update the PS3 reads the info from the SFO of the update, so if you want to add updates to a game you need to prepare the SFO with the APP_VER and VERSION of the last update

Otherway... some combinations could work, but if a new game update is released it could create problems
In the same way it could create problems to install game updates in a different order than what is shown in the XML i posted... or to forget to install one of the intermediate ones that appears on the XML
 
THANK YOU Sandungas you were the final piece of the puzzle i now know what is happening.

My update pkg is named app1.01 and v1.01, but as clayson told me is impossible for the two same values on the param.sfo. Clayson words "and I don't think the master version and app version can be the same so it reduces the master version to v1.00". So when i join the update with game the psnliberator takes the "liberty" to decrese the value. Now the last question remains why does this tool do this? Is this the original way to do it even in sony servers or is it just a shortcut from the tool to bypass this problem?

I just want to be able to convert the game to most possible original state

And thank you for all the support in the last 24h from this great community very appreciated for the quick response.

Funny thing my original psn game param lists app1.00 and v1.01 so if final version is 1.01 why on earth the app version is lower if the final version is already on 1.01 this is frustrating :/

So original game A0100-V0101
Update file A0101-V0101
 
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I merged your posts, dont post new messages consecutivelly in the same thread so frequently, wait for an answer or click in "edit" your last message to add more info

---------
The APP_VER and VERSION can be both 1.00, no problem, most bluray games are like this
VERSION should be always 1.00 except if the release was replaced (either release of the game or release of the game update)

So in this example both the game and the update was released twice, no problem
Original game A0100-V0101
Update file A0101-V0101

I guess the game update PKG was APP_VER=1.01 and VERSION=1.01 and this is why the tool is creating the PKG like that
 
Does this means that game was republished and thats why it have a master value of 101 but then it came an update to that master version so 101 master should become 100 because of a new update to the already republished game

Ok sorry about rh imense texting i will further patient im treating this like text messeging and i shoundnt sorry

Thanks to you all, all doubts were adressed you can now close the tread if you wish.
 
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yes, and you should look at the SFO of the latest update you are adding to the game, use a tool named pkgview.exe to extract contents of the game update PKG

If you are adding several updates to the game only matters the SFO of the last one (the one with bigger APP_VER). The tool should use that values from the bigger one
 
So my understanding is the following this update is in fact update 1.02 to the original game but then came a republished game with update 1.01 included so master version 1.01.
As this happens update 1.02 becomes 1.01 because of the republished and this being the first update to that master version ;)
 
that's interesting, 'cause I have shovel knight on the ps4 that says A0100V0102 with a patch A0101V0101 . orbis or gengp4, one of them, seems to merge both of them if you do this as a whole dump (both game and update). I'm not entirely sure how that works, but this seems to be the case when it comes to updates expecting A0100V0100.
 
sandungas said:
The original update is this one, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, it has only 1 update
https://a0.ww.np.dl.playstation.net/tpl/np/NPEB00311/NPEB00311-ver.xml

Is A0101-V0101
So we know the game update 1.01 was released 2 times
First was A0101-V0100 (APP_VER=1.01 VERSION=1.00)
Second A0101-V0101 (APP_VER=1.01 VERSION=1.01)
Click to expand...

Thats why I noted that there were already two patches the first one got nuked as there was a master version of the game with that patch already included.

I now can confirm this as I went online to update the original psn game and it told me it needed v1.02. That actually is my 1.01 version update for my master version 1.01.
 
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pinky said:
that's interesting, 'cause I have shovel knight on the ps4 that says A0100V0102 with a patch A0101V0101 . orbis or gengp4, one of them, seems to merge both of them if you do this as a whole dump (both game and update). I'm not entirely sure how that works, but this seems to be the case when it comes to updates expecting A0100V0100.
Click to expand...
So in this case this means the last patch the A0101V0101 is in fact update 4 right Sandungas?
 
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