Alright we have been hearing about JFW-DH for a while now and a lot of speculation has been going on.  Well very soon it will be in a beta form for testers.  How do you get to be a tester, well you have to be a Demon friend on DH.org and meet the requirements for the group your ps3 falls into.  The return of online will be the openpsTore which is where you will be able to find and download homebrew for your ps3.  Also it looks like people will have to wait until October, if you don’t qualify to be a beta tester,  because they have said if the beta gets leak they will brick the tester who leaked it and anyone who is not a tester using it. The anti leak measure will not be in the final release. Also do not trust any leaked beta’s you find.

Quote from DH.org:

Hello friends of the Community DHorg, we know the impatience of many to JFW-DH.Teneis expected to know that the work we are doing is very tiring and among all those who compose the JFW-DH Team want to open the period beta testers.

The requirements are:

-Registered user community with the status DHorg “Friend devil”
_____________________________________________________________
____________________________Grupo A __________________________
User-Spanish speaking (in Spanish beta)
-Internet Connection on the PS3 (not psn)
Backward-Console PAL, NTSC FAT
Game-Original 3.56 (not dispensable)
-Console with Firmware 3.41 or less
Original game-PS2, PS1, PS3
-Backup of the above both PS3, PS2, PS1 (PS3 unpatched)
-Game store NPDRM 3.56 or 355 (not psone)
-Backup 341 / 355Kmeaw
Linux live cd-USB Red Ribon
_____________________________________________________________
____________________________Grupo B __________________________
User-Spanish speaking (in Spanish beta)
-Internet Connection on the PS3 (not psn)
Console not backwards-PAL, NTSC FAT
Game-Original 3.56 (not dispensable)
-Console with Firmware 3.41 or less
Original game-PS2, PS1, PS3
-Backup of the above both PS3, PS2, PS1 (PS3 unpatched)
-Game store NPDRM 3.56 or 355 (not psone)
-Backup 341 / 355Kmeaw
Linux live cd-USB Red Ribon
_____________________________________________________________
____________________________Grupo C __________________________
User-Spanish speaking (in Spanish beta)
-Internet Connection on the PS3 (not psn)
Console not backwards-PAL, NTSC Slim
Game-Original 3.56 (not dispensable)
-Console with Firmware 3.41 or less
Original game-PS2, PS1, PS3
-Backup of the above both PS3, PS2, PS1 (PS3 unpatched)
-Game store NPDRM 3.56 or 355 (not psone)
-Backup 341 / 355Kmeaw
Linux live cd-USB Red Ribon

The beta test shall undertake not to publish the beta, and have a mechanism that anti leaks, this means that not only would find the informer, but you use it the users activate the safety mechanism to make them shiny bricks (Forewarned is a traitor)
The beta testers inform the organizer of the bugs to be repaired.
The testing period will be from 2 weeks to address everything that contains the JFW-DH and so do not leave nothing out.

The estimated date for the publication of the JFW-DH is October 1, 2011 (after two weeks testing the above)

SOURCE

Developer Redsquirrel87 doesn’t give it a rest. He has been getting down to business by releasing another unofficial build of Showtime!  The repack is currently at version 3.1.27.  There are some more small changes to be enjoyed.

Changelog:

Download
Source

PS3 hacker tical has managed to disable the annoying Cinavia DRM protection on the PS3 console. In short he basically found the files on the PS3 responsible for the checks and patched them. The file he released is known as change_cinavia_files.tcl for the PS3MFW builder – allowing you to create your own modfied firmware with the cinavia patch.

Currently the fix only works for DLNA playback and copying and is still being worked on for AVCHD and BD playback.

To quote:

I have traced the Cinavia DRM checks to 4 separate sprx files and after a long time trying to patch these files I have found that 3 of those files are present in the DEBUG (DEX) firmware don’t have the Cinavia DRM checks enabled. Files are videoplayer_util sprx, videoplayer_plugin sprx and videoeditor_plugin sprx.

I have successfully copied these 3 sprx files from DEBUG (DEX) FW 341 over to my retail PS3 unit running OFW 341 using dev_blind and Cinavia seems to be now disabled. I’ve confirmed this by playing back a number of Cinavia affected video files.

This means that Cinavia is now disabled for all DLNA playback and copying, but Cinavia checks on AVCHD and BD playback are still present with Message Code 3 that mutes the audio as the sprx file with the Cinavia check bdp_plugin sprx is not present in DEX firmware because BD playback is disabled in DEBUG. If someone is able to patch Cinavia out of bdp_plugin sprx this will be solved too.

I have created a new task for PS3MFW so this can be easily made part of any new MFW’s as needed. Any FW version that has had the DEX firmware leaked should be able to be used to create a CFW of the same version. eg DEX 3.41 -> MFW 341 or DEX 355 -> MFW 355 etc etc. Don’t use sprx files from different FW versions! See git hacks for change_cinavia_files task source.

Big thanks to the KaKaRoTo and REBUG team for their community contributions as this would have never been possible without the knowledge they’ve shared with us.

PLEASE NOTE I DO NOT OFFER ANY GUARANTEE WHEN MESSING WITH YOU PS3 SO DOING ANYTHING TO YOUR PS3 IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. I WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE IF YOU DAMAGE YOUR PS3

[Download change_cinavia_files.tcl]

[VIA Git]

[VIA PSX-Scene] - Thanks to manster for original news tip

The Showtime has been updated with new fixes since the latest unofficial build. This version 3.1.22 brings add fixes to Showtime, making it more stable. I should alert that this build is unofficial, so it may be unstable, it was tested by myself (facanferff) and it works very well.

In addition to that, I added two new amazing plugins that are not available at the moment in the official GIT, they are: Revision3 (author: NP) and Channel9 (author: facanferff). These two plugins were testes by myself, I should alert the HD feature on Revision3 plugin needs some work but for Channel9 it works very well (only gives some “CPU too slow …” alerts).

If you find problems with any of those plugins you may issue them here: https://github.com/facanferff/showtime

Do you have suggestions about Channel9′s plugin? If so, please contact me (facanferff), I’m working in it at this moment.

Download

After many trials and errors, Spanish hacker varicela has posted his success of finally installing a working dual NAND on his 40gb PS3.

To quote (translated):

Very Good After trying out several tests of the Nand Fat off the console with poor results because of the long cable and data loss, I decided to approach the issue by putting the two Nand and activating of interest.

Here I leave a flash1 photo of a folded and functional Sem001.

flash0 I decided to put it on this side also Flash0 Native Here the selection of the switch to nands The next video A greeting

Pictures of install:

Not a easy job for the faint, but none the less awesome work indeed (total of 32 solders for those who are too lazy to count).

[VIA Elotrolado] – Thanks to tenshou for news tip.

You heard it here first @ PS3Hax.net

For those who ordered and are keeping tabs on ProgSkeet, they have released their diagrams, software and driver tools today.

To quote from Flasher.exe readme:

ProgSkeet Flasher (BETA 110726-a)
——————————-

History:

110726:
Private flasher release. Only for reviewers. Does not support Flashing due to some difficulties with some NAND Flash devices.
Note: Production went too fast, so I didn’t have enough time to do everything promised yet. It will all come on time. I am working on fixing this ASAP. Tomorrow we are thoroughly testing it to find any bugs that may be hidden. We cannot risk the customer flashing a wrong image and then blaming us for it.
For now you have to specify the specific values taken from datasheets.
This goes without saying: DO NOT LEAK.
You can however tell people that you have the software.
Please click “test shorts” prior to soldering to ensure you have a working ProgSkeet.

110726-a:
Added NAND Flashing. Be cautious when using. Not tested on every sort of flash yet.
Removed “PageSize” and added “Raw” and “LargeBlock” checkboxes.

110627:
- Added NAND Flashing (confirmed working) with differential flash option (read sector before flashing, eventually saving some time)
- Optimized NAND Dumping by a whole lot (28kB/s on average ~~~~~)
- Fixed NOR dumping

Note: if you get too high speed (more than 1035kB/s) during dump, it’s probably got an error and you should let me know about it.

yours truly,

uf6667

[Grab downloads via offical site]

Durante over from NeoGAF has posted how to enable FXAA on PS3 games. While the difference would be noticeable by only the hardcore-gamer, the recent release of the Nvida FXAA has made the implementation possible. The only downside of this method is that it requires the use of a HD capture card and a decent computer.

To quote:

Some PC gamers (myself included) like to go on about the huge image quality advantages of playing on PCs. Now, your PC can actually improve the visual quality of console-exclusive games! (outside of emulation)

I’ve previously posted about the small program PtBi that I use to display 360 and PS3 games. Today I added the ability to use NVidia’s FXAA — thanks to them for releasing the code to the public domain and making it easy to integrate.

For those that are unaware, FXAA is a post-processing method that tries to reduce the amount of aliasing artifacts (think pixel staircase) in an image. It’s similar to MLAA in that aspect. Like all post-processing methods that act purely on image data, it has some drawbacks:
- It can’t handle subpixel aliasing well. (Unlike most similar methods, it at least tries to reduce it though)
- Sometimes aliasing may be detected incorrectly, resulting in an overblurring of the image. PtBi can mitigate this by adaptive sharpening after the FXAA pass.
- Particularly when used as a post-filter external to a game, it’s impossible to distinguish between UI and rendered 3D elements. This results in some UI distortion.

Advantages are that it can be used on any image data, it is really good at smoothing the edges it detects and it’s very fast. On my system, with YUV decoding, FXAA and adaptive scaling on, it still only takes less than 5 ms for a frame to be completely processed. Another nice point is that it can be used on top of images generated with eg. 2xMSAA (like many modern console games) and still achieve an improvement in edge quality.

That out of the way, here is an example of it in action on Everybody’s Golf. First without any post-processing, second with FXAA and adaptive sharpening.

[More pictures/comparison screenshots]

[VIA NeoGAF]

PS3HaX member judges has release his NORway project for the public to enjoy.  He has be working on improving the original code for the noralizer released by Marcan of FailOverflow.  You can expect a downgrade tutorial soon, but remember this is for NOR based PS3s. below is a qoute of his post:

Hi there..

Here comes my initial release of a NOR flasher soft for the PS3 called “NORway”. I know, there are other “WIP” projects, but I got a little impatient, so I’ve decided to create my own solution. It’s a port of “noralizer” by marcan, a pretty good working NOR flasher implementation for another FPGA board.

Anyway, here’s the README.txt, which should explain everything:

NORway v0.1 This project has been ported for the Teensy++ 2.0 from the original NOR flasher tool (“noralizer” by Hector Martin “marcan” <[email protected]>) that was used to flash AsbestOS onto the demo PS3 at 27C3, and for experimentation. Contents: teensyNORway.avrsln – Source code for the Teensy++ 2.0 (AVR Studio 5.0) teensydefaultNORway.hex – Compiled hex-file for the Teensy++ 2.0 (AT90USB1286) hwinstallinstall-*.jpg – Some pics of how I’ve mounted the Teensy (CECH-2504A/B) hwinstallnor_testpoints.png – Connection diagram of the NOR testpoints (CECH-2504A/B) serial_install.exe – Teensy serial drivers for Windows README.txt – this file NORway.py – PC Python client Hardware connections (see “hwinstallnor_testpoints.png”): PS3 Teensy A0-7 PF0-7 A8-15 PA0-7 A16-22 PB0-7 D0-7 PD0-7 D8-15 PC0-7 CE# PE0 OE# PE1 RESET# PE4 WE# PE5 RY/BY# PE6 TRISTATE# PE7 GND GND There are no modifications to the Teensy itself required. Don’t install any power regulators, don’t cut any traces. DON’T CONNECT THE VCC SOLDER PADS TO ANYTHING! Connection diagrams for other boards can be found at: http://ps3devwiki.com/index.php?title=Hardware_flashing Prerequisites for Windows: Python 2.7.2 (http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7.2/python-2.7.2.msi) pyserial 2.5 (http://pypi.python.org/packages/any/…-2.5.win32.exe) Usage: Install Python + pyserial (see “Prerequisites for Windows”). Install drivers. Connect Teensy to your PC. Flash Teensy with “teensydefaultNORway.hex” and reset it after completion. Start Windows’ “Device Manager”, expand the “Ports (COM & LPT)” node, you should see something like “USB Serial (Communication Class, Abstract Control Model) (COM4)”. This tells you that “COM4″ (or whatever shows up) is the COM port used by Teensy. At the command prompt enter “NORway.py” to display help. Procedure to dump your flash: - PS3 is turned off - At the command prompt enter: NORway.py <your com port> - Turn on your PS3, it shouldn’t boot - At the command prompt enter: NORway.py <your com port> dump flash.bin - When dumping is finished enter: NORway.py <your com port> release - Power off your PS3 (disconnect Teensy if PS3 doesn’t boot when restarted) Dumping takes about 3 minutes. A file “flash.bin” with a size of exactly 16 MB (16.777.216 bytes) has been created in your current directory. Flashing is rather slow. Writing a complete flash with the “write” command takes about 2 hours. Might be improved in future versions… IMPORTANT: Before you flash your PS3 with anything new, make sure that the content of your dump is correct (e.g. compare ros0/ros1 area of your dump against “CORE_OS_PACKAGE.bin” from an actual PS3UPDAT.PUP of your current firmware). And keep your original dump in a safe place. You might need it. It’s tested on Win7 x86, but should also work just fine on any x86 Windows >=XP. Basically it should also work on Linux, but I didn’t test. If you’re running Linux, you probably know what to do. Serial drivers are not required for Linux. Unfortunately I couldn’t manage to make it work on any x64 version of Windows, because of the Python pyserial module. Thanks to “marcan” for the original implementation. – judges ([email protected]

PS: I’ve already managed to downgrade my OFW 3.61 to CFW 3.55. There’re minor things to rule out, but expect a downgrade tutorial coming soon..
PPS: Thanks to defyboy for the original idea of using a Teensy for flashing!

Download

Source – Right here on PS3HaX

PS3Hax dev samson, who was responsible for the PS3 messenger has created a simple IRC client for CFW PS3 users. The application has been tested and confirmed working on Rebug CFW, but other CFW’s should work and you can report via reply(s) below. Works on CFW 3.41/3.55.

Also contains a link to the PS3Hax offical IRC channel

[Download PS3 IRC Client here]

And the news just keeps getting better! Anonymous developer, No_One, has contacted  us with some good news: he has successfully dumped the 3.60 NOR flash.  What does this mean? – 3.6X CFW! But hold your horses, because with all good comes the bad – or in this case – the vacation. No_One will be taking a three week vacation and has left the project on stand-by in the mean time.

To quote No_One:

Hi mates,

I’m going to be on vacations for 3 weeks.
I just wanted to tell you that PNM project will be stopped during this period.

But, i’ve some great news for you.
I successfully dumped a 3.60 NOR flash using one of the socket !
The second socket has been validated too.
We are not far from our main goal : “jailbreak again the PS3″ !

Here are some snapshots :
- host console with a new feature (NOR FLASH details…),
- PNM with a NOR Flash on Socket #1,
- an extract of the 3.60 NOR dump as a proof

Cheers

No_One

Many of us in the PS3 hacking community may have just had their wishes fulfilled because just today the team behind Cobra-USB have released the long-awaited Cobra 3.0 Firmware Pack! This means only one thing! – Cobra-USB functionality on 3.55 machines. A quote from their official website:

Quote from Team Cobra:

The Cobra Team is proud to present the Cobra 3.0 firmware pack, available from downloads section. In this release we enabled the Cobra USB device on 3.55 via use of our own cfw. Enjoy the release and look forward to many new features to come in future releases. Please be sure to read the updated user manual for detailed instructions on upgrading and usage!

Changelog:

- Added compatibility with 3.55. Support for firmware 3.41 is discontinued, since now all updates will be for 3.55.
In 3.55, Cobra keeps all the features of previous versions, adds the ones listed below and also removes some of the annoyances of the jailbreak exploit.
Please, follow the steps in the manual, you must install first Cobra 3.55 cfw.
- Added a new discless mode for PS3 backups in jailbreak format. This mode will be activated automatically when you load a backup and there is no disc inserted.
In this mode, games are loaded from disc icon, not app_home, although app_home hack is still supported.
This mode has a higher compatibility than the app_home hack, and smaller than discless PS3 isos.
- Added support for PS2 backups in iso format to the remaining backwards compatible models (CECHA and CECHB).
- PS2 isos can now be played discless too.
- Fixed compatibility issue with GT5. If you still experience poroblems, please delete installed game data from XMB and try again.

SOURCE

Gaia Manager developer Drizzt, has released a small, unofficial update for his useful tool which now supports Unicode.

Download
Source

SnakePlissken–PMW has announced their project and has posted a few screenshots of their latest developments. They are going to release an open source Homebrew Engine and their self made Homebrew Game PMW NATION. More information and a project webpage will be posted soon.

My Name is Snake Plissken. I am Chief Commander of a group known as PMW NATION. Im currently directing our groups development branch into bringing to the PS3 one great First person gaming experience by means of homebrew on Playstation Custom Firmware.

we hope to release onto the world a whole new concept in homebrew development on the PS3 by developing an “homebrew engine” that future developers can use to make homebrew with to be used on the PS3.

With the engine one could make your own First person shooter homebrew. It has been proven that other forms of homebrew can be made for and used with the engine as well. Not only that but This would offer a interface for developing homebrew outside of PSL1GHT for all types of CFWs (as we will port the engine to work with multiple types of CFW’s )

Developers would need a way to install a .pkg onto there PS3s. They would then make homebrew in form of “recourse data” with the Gaming engine’s tool chain. that is then coupled and distributed with the engine.
A user can download the engine.pkg and insert it on a USB stick along side there recourse data” followed by installing it on there PS3,

the engine would pick up on the resource data, in turn presenting the homebrew content…..

Our first release will be that of our own game using this engine. Upon that release we will release the engine for others to develop future forms of homebrew as well as hopefully more great First Person Shooter Homebrew.

Our game and its engine will have great features: such as…

:~~A version of the engine as well as its tool chain will run well under all modern versions of Windows, from Windows 95 to the new Windows Vista. If you have Linux, it works with that too. But compiling the data to work will be horrible and time consuming

:~~ Free-Looking free-view ( up-down, left-right ) pseudo-3D rendered environment

:~~ a since of basic objects that a player can interact with move, push, pull,ect.

:~~ ACS based event scripting

:~~ in game hub’s
;~~ Colored sector lighting.
;~~ Custom monsters, weapons, and items.

;~~High resolution textures.

;~~ High resolution

;~~ Many, many extensions to ACS

;~~ music formats: Ogg Vorbis, MOD, XM, IT, S3M, MIDI, and MP3,MUS.

;~~ More sound formats: FLAC MP3 and WAVE can be used for sound effects.

;~~ texture formats: PNG and JPEG are both useable for artwork.

. ;~~ Translucency (regular and additive).

;~~ Full-featured joystick/gamepad support under Windows. With other device support in development.

;~~ player network games using UDP/IP to server support, including team-based game play.

;~~ light effects, including dynamic lights, bright maps, and glowing flats

;~~ As of now: md2 and md3 model support.

;~~ True color support

;~~fog, deep water.

:~~ film focus effects

;~~ Jumping.
;~~ crouching
;~~ Crosshairs.
The works.

——————————————————————————————-
As stated the engine will be developed to incorporate resources data made present to the engine after its installation onto the ps3. Application tools in a windows environment would be used to develop HOMBREW in form of resource data.
Releasing PMW NATION the Video Game at first would show off the possibilities of the games engine so perhaps others could take interest
———————————————————————————————–

We will soon release a project webpage on the matter and I will surly filter that out to those who are interested.
With that We personally hope to contribute a lot to the homebrew café’ as we will use this as our basic means of discussing ‘certain’ forms of our game and its engine’s development to the PS3.

Help getting this underway can be used on this project by those interested and who are familiar with operating PSL1GHT ,those who have knowledge in c languages, and/or those who are familiar with software compilation with GCC, should attempt to message me personally at my email: [email protected].

“Hell.. Just email me for any reason, questions concerns ect. Hell you can feel free to ask me a question right now W/e.”

Our engine will be made open to anyone willing to use it in hope that great homebrew will ensue bringing us ever that much closer to a greater tomorrow where we can fully embrace the ideas that are “ the soul concept of HOMEBREW”

More information soon,

Source Homebrew Café Forum

The work has begun on  an open-source PS3 debugger/emulator! The project is called RPCS3.  This will be a great way for developers to test PS3 hombrew,  when the program can do more.  Right now this is only a disassembler and  the makings of an ELF compiler.  Eventually this program could become a very useful way to test homebrew and years down the road a ps3 emulator.

Source : http://code.google.com/p/rpcs3/ via PS3crunch

If your a lurker within the scene, then chances are you are not aware of the problems that have been going on recently with the PS3 scene (mainly due to everything was being censored). Now I really did not want to post this, but there is a limit for everyone and I believe that limit has been reached and the public needs to be told.

Recently two PS3 scene sites most of you are familiar with, PSX-Scene and PSGroove where bought out by a media company that also owns QJ.net. The new administrations lack of knowledge on PS3 scene has quickly spiraled the scene development downward, leading to the departure of many well known PS3 devs to other websites.

It has been unveiled that PSX-Scene is now bribing their lost developers back (Microsoft anyone?), and even trying to buy back ex-staff which were forcibly removed and banned in helping other scene sites.

What is even more disturbing is what was uncovered in the new TOS (terms of service), under the new PSX-Scene.com administration brought to light by well known emulator developer Squarepusher2, and Halsafar.

To summarize, the new PSX-scene TOS states that by posting your work at PSX-scene.com you waive your rights to what you post. Meaning any theme/emulator/backup manager/homebrew/anything you post at their site, it is the property and ownership of PSX-scene.com and you give them the right to sell, redistribute, and do as they please with it.

To quote TOS:

“User Provided Content, License. You are solely responsible for all content or materials that you post, submit to, or transmit through the Service. By submitting materials or content to PSX-SCENE.COM, you grant PSX-SCENE.COM a license to copy, use, display and create derivative works of the material or content submitted for any purpose, including, without limitation, the promotion and marketing of the Service and the operation of the PSX-SCENE.COM system. By submitting materials or content, you automatically agree (or, to the extent you do not own all rights to such materials or content, you represent and warrant that the owner of the content or materials has expressly agreed) that without any particular time limit, and without the payment of any fees, PSX-SCENE.COM and anyone it permits may reproduce, display, distribute and create new works of authorship based on and including the content or materials. You may not submit content or materials trademarked or copyrighted by anyone other than yourself.”

You can read up more information detailing the TOS at Squarepusher2′s blog here. And if you thought that was bad, read this. You can also read more at Dashhacks here.

Its disappointing to treat respectable homebrew developers like dogs, giving them a bone to fetch – holding them by a leash.

Homebrew devs are welcome to post their work at PS3Hax, where we actually have a staff that is passionate and knowledgeable about the scene, and treat you with respect. We don’t have any of this crap in our TOS related to ownership, we are in it for the passion, and fun – not the money.

Scristopher and lunuxx have released a test version of Paintown, an open source 2D side-scrolling fighting game, for the PS3. The Project is still under development and they plan to add network play and 100 % compatibility with M.U.G.E.N.

Thanks go to Jon Rafkin and Juvinious, creators of paintown.

There’s also a #paintown channel on irc.ps3sanctuary.com:6667

Download Paintown Characters

Source PS3Hax

Update:

!!XMB changes and fixes, resolution switching fixed, game data is included now, so it’s 1 .pkg instead of 2!!

Download Paintown PS3 pkg

Developer CrashSerious has announced on Homebrew Cafe, His project PS3Roar. It is still in a work in progress but from the exclusive pre-release he gave me it already works pretty well.  Anyways enough of what i have to say, let us get on with it!!!

Quote from CrashSerious

Today, The team of developers behind JFW DH modified firmware have posted an update about the project. Their new firmware will have tons of new features currently found no where else!

Quote from Demonhades.org below:

If you would like to provide us with a better translation use this

Source via DemonHades.org

Update:

Before the upcoming release of this firmware, Demonhades.org has released a tool to check the lowest version of firmware that your PS3 Console can downgrade to!!

quote below:

Tutorial created by DeathHades.

This tutorial will teach you to how to know the base firmware of your PS3 with a few steps and images.

The first thing you must need is:

- A PS3.
- MinVerChk

Here is the simple steps you need to follow:

1 – Copy the MinVerChk to your USB stick, the same way as if it was an firmware upgrade.
2 – Insert the USB stick into the PS3.
3 – Start a firmware update like normal from XMB (Don’t worry, it will not update!)
4 – It will shortly fail and display the Firmware Base Value

Download – MinVerChk