PS2 [Testers Needed] Open PS2 Loader with ZSO support (compressed ISO)

@Acid_Snake

Something I have noticed is that most backup loaders require a 32KB cluster size on USB.
May I ask why this is? It is the same for loading GameCube and Wii backups.

I thought a smaller cluster size would be more accurate because of the 2048 alignment on ISO.
Also, does cluster size affect ZSO?
 
60fpshacksrock said:
@Acid_Snake

Something I have noticed is that most backup loaders require a 32KB cluster size on USB.
May I ask why this is? It is the same for loading GameCube and Wii backups.

I thought a smaller cluster size would be more accurate because of the 2048 alignment on ISO.
Also, does cluster size affect ZSO?
Click to expand...
most likely since ZSO uses its own alignment and it doesn't have to match the filesystem. This is probably why Mode 1 (Accurate Reads) is required for many ZSO games to work.
 
@Acid_Snake

How do you use games compressed in ZSO above 4GB on FAT32?

Is there an installer for this? Will USBUtil work if the extension is renamed to .iso?

Edit:

I noticed you have some pcsx2 modifications with ZSO support. Could I request a 1.6.0 complied version for WIndows 7?
 
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60fpshacksrock said:
@Acid_Snake

How do you use games compressed in ZSO above 4GB on FAT32?

Is there an installer for this? Will USBUtil work if the extension is renamed to .iso?

Edit:

I noticed you have some pcsx2 modifications with ZSO support. Could I request a 1.6.0 complied version for WIndows 7?
Click to expand...
For ZSO files above 4GB you could possibly use the USBUtil format, but a tool to make it compatible isn't done yet.
The pcsx2 modifications was mainly to show how easy it is to add ZSO support but I couldn't bother compiling it so go ahead and request for a proper build to be made.
 
Acid_Snake said:
For ZSO files above 4GB you could possibly use the USBUtil format, but a tool to make it compatible isn't done yet.
The pcsx2 modifications was mainly to show how easy it is to add ZSO support but I couldn't bother compiling it so go ahead and request for a proper build to be made.
Click to expand...

So make a request in the Github page?
 
60fpshacksrock said:
So make a request in the Github page?
Click to expand...
I and other people have but the pcsx2 dev team doesn't consider it an important feature (despite that I explained the three lines of code needed to get it done).
Maybe if you and other users start requesting that feature over and over again they will change their mind a realize that actual PS2 users will now be installing their games as ZSO and PCSX2 should support it.
 
Acid_Snake said:
I and other people have but the pcsx2 dev team doesn't consider it an important feature (despite that I explained the three lines of code needed to get it done).
Maybe if you and other users start requesting that feature over and over again they will change their mind a realize that actual PS2 users will now be installing their games as ZSO and PCSX2 should support it.
Click to expand...

I honestly doubt they would listen to me.
I expressed my dislike of them dropping Windows 7 support and they didn't like that.
 
Acid_Snake said:
They won't listen to one request, but enough requests and they will most likely consider it.
I guess it will depend on how popular this goes.
Click to expand...

Even if I did, they would only add it to the newest version and I can't run that since they stopped supporting 7.

I noticed a batch file for building it with Visual Studio or something.
If I installed a version of VS on my PC, do you think it would build it properly?

@Acid_Snake

Is there a way to make OPL only read and write settings to USB instead of the memory cards?
I know that all solid state media has a limited amount of writes and I was hoping to expand my memory card life. I only have one official Sony card and a Datel 16MB. I use and keep the Sony card in for FMCB though they both have it installed.

Also, I was wondering if you or the other developers thought about adding a ZSO icon under the game information tab for compressed games.


Edit 2:

@Acid_Snake

Maybe it's just me because I use a 256GB SanDisk USB flash drive, but the default block cache settings of 16 (sectors?) causes games compressed in ZSO to load significantly slower that ISO.

I haven't tested many games because this flash drive formatted to FAT32 is slow on writing so defragmentation takes a while. I have two others for my 360 and PS3 and the one for PS3 is NTFS and writes data a good bit faster including defragmentation.

The game in question is LEGO Batman (USA). To test the loading speed (I haven't went far on it) I load level two (Mr. Freeze) and the way I measure the speed is by seeing when the Press Start option appears. On level loading it shows text about the level's boss.

Now, in ISO it appears shortly after all the text is done writing. In ZSO with block size 16 it takes probably at least 5 seconds or more. I was able to get it to load faster in ZSO by setting the block size to 8, or 4. Is this setting in OPL to help certain games load faster or to help read certain devices faster? I ask because I am sure this a relatively new option in OPL.

I have been using OPL since 2013 when I first was able to softmod another PS2 I owned using the Action Replay MAX Media version to load the uLE ELF.

Note: I know it is not recommended to use flash drive because they are slower but it's what I have at the moment. The main reason I ask is because I figured ZSO *should* load faster than ISO since the compressed sectors are smaller than ISO.

Also, I tried to rename a game and OPL instead deleted it.
 
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60fpshacksrock said:
Even if I did, they would only add it to the newest version and I can't run that since they stopped supporting 7.

I noticed a batch file for building it with Visual Studio or something.
If I installed a version of VS on my PC, do you think it would build it properly?

@Acid_Snake

Is there a way to make OPL only read and write settings to USB instead of the memory cards?
I know that all solid state media has a limited amount of writes and I was hoping to expand my memory card life. I only have one official Sony card and a Datel 16MB. I use and keep the Sony card in for FMCB though they both have it installed.

Also, I was wondering if you or the other developers thought about adding a ZSO icon under the game information tab for compressed game.


Edit 2:

@Acid_Snake

Maybe it's just me because I use a 256GB SanDisk USB flash drive, but the default block cache settings of 16 (sectors?) causes games compressed in ZSO to load significantly slower that ISO.

I haven't tested many games because this flash drive formatted to FAT32 is slow on writing so defragmentation takes a while. I have two others for my 360 and PS3 and the one for PS3 is NTFS and writes data a good bit faster including defragmentation.

The game in question is LEGO Batman (USA). To test the loading speed (I haven't went far on it) I load level two (Mr. Freeze) and the way I measure the speed is by seeing when the Press Start option appears. On level loading it shows text about the level's boss.

Now, in ISO it appears shortly after all the text is done writing. In ZSO with block size 16 it takes probably at least 5 seconds or more. I was able to get it to load faster in ZSO by setting the block size to 8, or 4. Is this setting in OPL to help certain games load faster or to help read certain devices faster? I ask because I am sure this a relatively new option in OPL.

I have been using OPL since 2013 when I first was able to softmod another PS2 I owned using the Action Replay MAX Media version to load the uLE ELF.

Note: I know it is not recommended to USE flash drive because they are slower but it's what I have at the moment. The main reason I ask is because I figured ZSO *should* load faster than ISO since the compress sectors are smaller than ISO.

Also, I tried to rename a game and OPL instead deleted it.
Click to expand...
I don't know about writing settings to usb, but it should be possible.

As for an icon for compressed games, @TnA mentioned this, he keeps insisting in distinguishing ZSO games for some reason.
I personally believe a ZSO game should not be distinguished from an ISO game, it should work as transparent as possible so most tools can easily handle the new format without any big changes.

As for the slower boot time of sector cache, now that's very interesting but also makes sense. The sector cache helps reduce IO and stuttering in FMVs by sequentially reading data ahead of the current reads.
But it has the downside that if the data requested by the game isn't senquential, like it happens at boot time in many games, then the extra data read into the cache is unused, thus boot times are slower.
This is why the cache can be configured. Different users might have different experiences with it.

From my tests, USB devices work well with a cache of 4, but SMB works better with 8-12, while HDD doesn't even matter.
 
What? Insisting??? I mentioned it ONCE on the PS2-Scene-Discord! WTF??

With just adding/changing the name of the partition we could keep compatibility everywhere whilst still distinguishing them AND keeping transparency!


60fpshacksrock said:
I only have one official Sony card and a Datel 16MB.
Click to expand...
Those often can be unlocked to bigger sizes. Take a look at the chip! ;)
 
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@TnA

I may open it up sometime. It is sort of loose so I had to tape it together.
Though to be honest, space really isn't the issue for me. I prefer to use OPL's memory card emulation.

The main thing that bugs me though is that RE4 cannot be used with it and this is one of my favorite games.
Looking around, it seems to be related to Magic Gate encryption. It works fine on pcsx2, even back to 0.9.4.
So it makes me wonder: Does pcsx2 emulate Magic Gate encryption? I doubt it.

Or, did they find a way to patch it to use non-encrypted cards? If so, maybe this patch they may have created
could be used on OPL, though I am mostly sure that this is easier done in an emulator compared to actual hardware.
 
@60fpshacksrock Data on PS2 Memory Card isn't encrypted (none on the fs level, none device level) except executables for OSD Update (DVD-Player, FMCB, XEB etc.). Virtual Memory Cards used in OPL or PS2 emulators (except fully software emus on PS3) do not encrypting cards in any way (and speaking of which OSD Update, not supporting it to).
 
@Acid_Snake

Another thing I wanted to ask about was an option to disable updating the memory card towers feature as this is more writing.

Though I was wondering if it updates the real memory cards when vmc is enabled or only when disabled.
 
Just some feedback from a test.

I noticed regular stuttering during gameplay on Burnout 3.
I was using a 2.5" sata HDD with a iso compressed to zso using latest python script with compression -c2
Just start the game, do a one off event, random track any car.

Thank you for your work on this.
 
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