PS3 PS3 PRO MOD - Give your XMB a new look with these mods by LuanTeles

TizzyT · Aug 9, 2017

The coldboots I don't think can be too complicated, I mean there is a constraint on the coldboot size in the documentation. I think it was the whole coldboot cant be larger than 2MB (don't quote me) but if the coldboot is too large it simply wont load.

pinky · Aug 9, 2017

I didn't know that about coldboots, but it's understandable. NOR flash has like 3.5 MBs of free space. I think it's y they removed gameboots actually since NOR consoles came out around the same time. there was also a second coldboot audio that was around 1.5 MBs combined (2 files as usual) lol. doing what u want could allow for more dynamic coldboots. there's a tutorial on this that I told a member about. I never wrote one myself. it's on the ps3 theme website.

sandungas · Aug 9, 2017

The bigest difference in between a coldboot and an dynamic theme is how many times the animation is triggered
In the pastebin example TizzyT posted is used the function IntervalTimer... this creates an infinite loop... and is intended for themes

In a coldboot you need to use OneShotTimer instead because it runs only one time

Actually, you can take the original coldboot.raf and make a dynamic theme with it (without any modification) and you can see how the animation plays only one time after applyed the theme. In this example if you want to see the animation again you need to apply the theme again
I was using this method a lot to make tests with the coldboot.raf in a safe way

Other than that... the .raf format allows for lot of things nobody has used ever (as far i could see in non official and official themes)
The models can be poligonal .dae objects included skelletons with bones... and allows to use .dae "paths" to animate models
You can do things like attaching the camera to a path... so the camera does the effect used in cinema named a "camera traveling"
Also, there is an entitity named "actor"... and actor is composed by several models... this is intended to build complex objects (like a human body with separated parts... or a machine with several mobile parts, every one using different materials and textures, and animated individually)

And for texturing... this works like opngl, every material could be composed by several textures applyed one on top of the other... as example you have a colormap (this is what everydoby knows as an image), and the bumpmap (to create elevation and depressures in the surfaces), and lightmaps (to create shines for some materials that could use them, as plastics, metals, etc...)

This i just mentioned about textures i think is very related with the problem pinky usues to mention about images that are displayed in pure white only... is because the "type" of the image is not a standard colormap

pinky · Aug 9, 2017

sandungas said:
The bigest difference in between a coldboot and an dynamic theme is how many times the animation is triggered
In the pastebin example TizzyT posted is used the function IntervalTimer... this creates an infinite loop... and is intended for themes

In a coldboot you need to use OneShotTimer instead because it runs only one time

Actually, you can take the original coldboot.raf and make a dynamic theme with it (without any modification) and you can see how the animation plays only one time after applyed the theme. In this example if you want to see the animation again you need to apply the theme again
I was using this method a lot to make tests with the coldboot.raf in a safe way

Other than that... the .raf format allows for lot of things nobody has used ever (as far i could see in non official and official themes)
The models can be poligonal .dae objects included skelletons with bones... and allows to use .dae "paths" to animate models
You can do things like attaching the camera to a path... so the camera does the effect used in cinema named a "camera traveling"
Also, there is an entitity named "actor"... and actor is composed by several models... this is intended to build complex objects (like a human body with separated parts... or a machine with several mobile parts, every one using different materials and textures, and animated individually)

And for texturing... this works like opngl, every material could be composed by several textures applyed one on top of the other... as example you have a colormap (this is what everydoby knows as an image), and the bumpmap (to create elevation and depressures in the surfaces), and lightmaps (to create shines for some materials that could use them, as plastics, metals, etc...)

This i just mentioned about textures i think is very related with the problem pinky usues to mention about images that are displayed in pure white only... is because the "type" of the image is not a standard colormap

thanks for this. I do remember seeing oneshottimer in the script. I'm just curious if the settings in a colored coldboot could apply to a white coldboot.

sandungas · Aug 9, 2017

pinky said:
thanks for this. I do remember seeing oneshottimer in the script. I'm just curious if the settings in a colored coldboot could apply to a white coldboot.

By modifying the compiled .raf file in a hexeditor... im not so sure, never took a look at where is stored that info

But before compilation... this image "type" is indicated in the .xml file that works as a descriptor of the scene
In it you need to tell the name of every image and his type... i posted an example of it in this thread some messages ago iirc
The value that is annoying you is named sce_01 iirc... try to search for that in a hexeditor and change it by sce_02.... or sce_03... and build a theme .p3t with it to see what happens

This is just a blind shot because we know sce_01 is a valid texture type (and is non standard btw, looks like a group of settings sony decided to group them together and put the label sce_01 on them)
But sce_02, sce_03, etc... are just speculative... im just guessing could exist but maybe doesnt exists... but worths a try i guess because is easy to do

To change this correctly... you should use other of the known valid texture types... the problem is its names are way longer than the sce_01 you need to replace... so im not so sure if is going to be room to replace them in a hexeditor

Edit:
Another test that could work is to consider that numbers are like binary flags that are enabling/disabling 2 things, so all this 4 values could be valid:
sce_00
sce_01 <--- this one we know is valid for sure
sce_10
sce_11

pinky · Aug 9, 2017

u certainly know ur stuff. I'm just a beginner compared to u. I think I may have mentioned not to use a colored coldboot (dynamic theme's) script with a white coldboot in my tutorials. I don't know enough about the script to use one on a white coldboot. white coldboot's fade in/out is my favorite thing about them, and y I prefer them to colored coldboots. however, if there's a way to have that effect on a colored coldboot, I'm all in. lol

pinky · Aug 9, 2017

btw, @sandungas , I think u can pad a script like I did with the icontex.qrc. however, if it's too large, I'm not sure what would happen. I've never tried it. iirc, the script is the last file in the coldboot, so a larger script may not matter.

sandungas · Aug 9, 2017

The fades are basic effects in the script, are easy to do
At the start of the script is needed to declare the images and give a name to them (lets use "test" for this example)

Then you can write:
test.color<0.0.0.0>

This makes the image invisible, is made instantly, this is used also as the first step of a fade effect, is like a verification that the values starts exactly as we want, in this example i want to be 100% sure that the image is fully invisible before triggering the "fade in"
After that you use the OneShootTimer to change to color again... and this includes a time (so it changes progresivelly) and you can also use a curve to create accelerations (so the speed along the animation varies... this is optional thougt)

But for all this is needed to build the .raf from scratch
Another way is to compile a modifyed script like what im suggesting, and then "inject" it in the official coldboot.raf with a hexeditor, so the coldboot.raf is not compiled... but the script has been replaced
To make this is going to be needed for the two scripts to have same size (in jsx format)... and i think it can be done because you can add "trash" code in the script to make it bigger until you match the size of the original

An easy way is by declaring variables at top of the script (and not using them later, are going to be there just to make it bigger), some examples tizzyt and me used in the development of jsx viewer :P
var fart = 0;
var penis = 24;
var poop = 1;

pinky · Aug 9, 2017

the problem is that colored coldboots rn't meant to fade in/out. I've never seen a theme do this. I tried adding a colored coldboot via hex editing with a white coldboot's script, and it didn't work. it was a mess like the shading worked but not the image.

sandungas · Aug 9, 2017

Not sure if i understand you right, so what you want is to remove the fade effects ?, hmmm, there must be an easy way to do this by modifying the RGBA values inside the <>

Imagine, we start with <1.1.1.1> then the script does a fade effect being the final result <1.1.1.1>... so the animation runs... but visually doesnt changes anything

I can imagine a problem why maybe this could not work though... most probably inside the .raf internal structure this values (named vectors) are stored in a "array table", if the same vector is used several times inside the script is posible the value is stored only 1 time inside the "array table" (and there are several pointers that loads the same value)
Im not sure if .raf works this way... but if i had to bet i would bet on it
So is going to be a bit problematic to make this replacement, even if you identify where is stored the vector you want to modify... because is posible that there are several ponters that loads it... so the result when modifying a single vector is several functions could be modifyed
This is easy to know just by looking at how many places in the script is used the same vector though

Anyway, you are going in the hard way, what you want to do is more complicated
Is better to take the original script from coldboot.raf and make the small modifications you need to it (basically you need to keep only one image at full screen and change his type to a basic colormap)... and then compile it in the official way
The .raf structure of it is going to be very different than the original coldboot.raf... but is ok

And after that you can use it as a layout to "inject" a full screen image on it in a hexeditor... or a simple program that automatizes patches in binary files (the classic search and replace method)

BTW... something you was mentioning before... i just recalled....
Coldboot.raf is an scene at full screen... the logos are not full screen, but the "invisible" plane where the images are applyed is full screen
Is actually a polygon with 4 vertex, one in each corner (technically is a 3D object)... this file is plane.dae
To manipulate it or to create others like this one is needed to use 3D programs like maya, 3dmax, blender, etc...
DAE format is intented to exchange in between 3D programs... the ones i mentioned has a plugin to import or export dae files.... and the plugin is named collada

pinky · Aug 9, 2017

thanks. what I'm wondering is how custom_render.sprx fits in to this. it has coldboot instructions. if u manipulate them, it can have weird effects on the coldboot. it still has both coldboot1 and coldboot2 info.

sandungas · Aug 9, 2017

Is because custom_render_plugin existed before sony implemented the raf format, so the rco contains some "calls" to the sprx to trigger some animations that was done by the .sprx at that time

Im not sure how many of it is still used in coldboot... but you can see the names of the animations inside the rco, are named "native events"
http://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/Custom_render_plugin#Native_Events

The most important of them (and i think are still used) are the terminators... that tells the PS3 to display the XMB, like this one:

Code:

<FireEvent event="event:native:/anim_coldboot_Finished" />

Without it probably the XMB doesnt shows (so the firmware should be stucked at that point, after completing the animation... or something weird should happen, lol)

But the others can be removed... or replaced by the ones in the link i posted... are just small effects, not critical

Edit:
This ones are also very important... i just recalled i was making some tests with other people (sorry for not remembering his nicks, it was in casabonita irc channel) and are critical... seems to be related with some kind of "lock" to pause the loading of XMB
So before starting the animation it "locks" XMB... and when the animation is completed it "unlocks" it

Code:

<Lock unknownInt0="0xffffffff" />
<Unlock unknownInt0="0xffffffff" />

*The words "lock" and "unlock" are just speculative, not based on codenames, actually how this works is partially unknown, zingaburga (who coded rcoedit and rcomage) invented this names... and personally i think he was right, the way how are used and where are located seems to fit well with that concept of "lockcers/unlockers"
Probably is something more complex though

sandungas · Aug 9, 2017

I just remember another detail... while making frankenstein experiments with that events and changing times... we had a surprising weird effect

If you have a dynamic theme installed (so the theme runs a .raf) and make appear the XMB before the coldboot.raf animation is completed... this means you are pushing the PS3 to play 2 raf animations together

The result is the PS3 crashes (it cant handle it... so is not posible to play 2 raf animation together)... this problem was solved by disabling the dynamic theme... funny... so it was problematic only if the user had enabled a dynamic theme... but with an static theme (or without theme) the PS3 was working normally

We refused this fast... it was not aceptable... interesting test but fail

At that time we did not know how all this was working... so we was doing a few weird tests... i bet most of the failures was because we was removing the critical native events i mentioned in my previous message

So lesson learnt... dont touch that ones, are there for a good reason

EussNL made a log of all the tests i prepared and the results of all them, it was posted it in wiki (for research purposes)... but i dont even remember where is it, and im looking for it and i cant find it
We considered it was too much experimental... so it was added in some wiki page that i forgot

pinky · Aug 9, 2017

sounds like the wave I made that broke apart. there was so much happening on the screen that the system slowed down on the xmb. it never crashed though. lol I have a photo of it on here somewhere. it doesn't even look like a wave.

TizzyT · Aug 9, 2017

@pinky I don't know man but it sounds like you don't have the documentation to this stuff, if you don't I can give you it. Just let me know.

pinky · Aug 9, 2017

TizzyT said:
@pinky I don't know man but it sounds like you don't have the documentation to this stuff, if you don't I can give you it. Just let me know.

no, I don't have the documentation. I've never even seen it.

sandungas · Aug 10, 2017

sandungas said:
I just remember another detail... while making frankenstein experiments with that events and changing times... we had a surprising weird effect

If you have a dynamic theme installed (so the theme runs a .raf) and make appear the XMB before the coldboot.raf animation is completed... this means you are pushing the PS3 to play 2 raf animations together

The result is the PS3 crashes (it cant handle it... so is not posible to play 2 raf animation together)... this problem was solved by disabling the dynamic theme... funny... so it was problematic only if the user had enabled a dynamic theme... but with an static theme (or without theme) the PS3 was working normally

We refused this fast... it was not aceptable... interesting test but fail

At that time we did not know how all this was working... so we was doing a few weird tests... i bet most of the failures was because we was removing the critical native events i mentioned in my previous message

So lesson learnt... dont touch that ones, are there for a good reason

EussNL made a log of all the tests i prepared and the results of all them, it was posted it in wiki (for research purposes)... but i dont even remember where is it, and im looking for it and i cant find it
We considered it was too much experimental... so it was added in some wiki page that i forgot

Sorry, i dont want to go more offtopic (this thread is about LuanTeles release in the end) but i found that log of the experiments, is here
http://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/Patches/sandbox#custom_render_plugin.rco_remove_delay

This gives an overal idea of how that "native events" works... what can be modifyed and what not
My purpose was to create a custom_render_plugin.rco the most smaller posible (the one labeled "patchtest 10" in the link)

Some days later mysis found the patch in the .sprx that disabled the coldboot.raf entirelly
Before that we was using other mysis patches (his initial patches was different and not successfull) in combination with some of the tests of this link i posted, and other weird things (by reading the link i just remember i made a coldboot.raf dummy from scratch with an empty script and without images... iirc it was working fine but the boot times was the same)
I never wanted to remove coldboot entirelly though... i was trying to understand how this works in detail to use it with other ideas i had, and this helped me a bit, hope it helps others too... im posting here for the record because has been hard to find that wiki page (i needed to use google search engine, wiki search engine doesnt finds it because the url where the page is located)

pinky · Aug 10, 2017

interesting. what I know about coldboots is from testing by myself which required a lot of time. I wouldn't want to disable coldboots since they're pretty neat imo.

and, about this conversation being off topic, that was probably my fault. I originally posted some pics of some mods that I did, and I too felt like it was detracting from @LuanTeles ' mod. we seemed to go off on a tangent at some point after that. besides, when has a thread I ever posted in stayed on topic? I'm the master at making off-topic posts.

sandungas · Aug 10, 2017

XD is ok i guess unless luanteles gets annoyed, but he was looking at this too and we have not derrailed too much, is related with his mod, is just we are not talking about his mod, we moved the talk from coldboot scripts, to raf format features, to custom render plugin... and so on to infinity and beyond o/ (and probably back to loop again)
Im a bit mr. offtopic sometimes too, but some of this kind of messages are small bits of info that i think could be handy and i could not find a better place to post it... sometimes writing this kind of messages helps me to put in order my thoughts about how things of the PS3 firmware works... even sometimes after some time i return back to read what i wrote XD

pinky · Aug 10, 2017

since LuanTeles is interested in mods, he might find such posts interesting. he has a lot of views for this thread (almost as much as my ps3 tutorials thread which is like several years old).

I try my best to learn as much as possible about every system I hack/mod. I'm starting to understand how wii-u works atm. it's my favorite system or at least has my favorite games on it for the time being. anyway, I would be lying if I said I figured it all out myself. it's posts like urs where I learn the most. I did read a lot on psdevwiki, but nothing about the coldboot process. I was mostly concerned with keys and how the security of the system worked.

PS3 PS3 PRO MOD - Give your XMB a new look with these mods by LuanTeles

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