[sandungas]

I have been documenting all things related with PARAM.SFO in ps3devwiki months ago, and this is one of the few elusive files left

Its explained here: http://www.ps3devwiki.com/wiki/Emula...ons_in_PS3_HDD

But as a resume:
this games (real original PS2 DVD disc games) can be installed in the internall PS3 HDD:
Nobunaga's Ambition Online and Expansion Packs
Final Fantasy XI and Expansion Discs
SOCOM II: U.S. NAVY SEALs and Related discs included with OPM Issue 87, OPM Issue 88, OPM Issue 89, OPM Issue 90
SOCOM 3: U.S. NAVY SEALs
SOCOM: U.S. NAVY SEALs Combined Assault

The installation its supposed to be done with files generated by the PS3 (not from the disc) that are managed by the XMB
The big files extracted from the disc are stored in a special partition, and the folder managed by XMB points to this partition



Well, its needed one of this install folders to understand further how all this works, it can lead to something interesting (or to nothing), but even if its nothing it will help complete the PARAM.SFO page

[TizzyT]

Originally Posted by sandungas I have been documenting all things related with PARAM.SFO in ps3devwiki months ago, and this is one of the few elusive files left Its explained here: http://www.ps3devwiki.com/index.php?...ool_package.29 But as a resume: this games (real original PS2 DVD disc games) can be installed in the internall PS3 HDD: Nobunaga's Ambition Online and Expansion Packs Final Fantasy XI and Expansion Discs SOCOM II: U.S. NAVY SEALs and Related discs included with OPM Issue 87, OPM Issue 88, OPM Issue 89, OPM Issue 90 SOCOM 3: U.S. NAVY SEALs SOCOM: U.S. NAVY SEALs Combined Assault The installation its supposed to be done with files generated by the PS3 (not from the disc) that are managed by the XMB The big files extracted from the disc are stored in a special partition, and the folder managed by XMB points to this partition Well, its needed one of this install folders to understand further how all this works, it can lead to something interesting (or to nothing), but even if its nothing it will help complete the PARAM.SFO page

My uncle has FFXI and when I get my ps3 fixed and no one has fulfilled the request I will ask my uncle for the game and provide info.

[svenmullet]

I tried this with SOCOM 3, it makes a folder under /dev_hdd0/game/SCUS97275
Contents of the folder is PARAM.SFO and /USRDIR/IMAGE.DAT
The IMAGE.DAT is just a 2GB virtual HDD file for the game to save map packs (it's empty, I didn't even play the game. I looked at it with a hex editor, and it has a sony header and zero-filled) and here is the PARAM.SFO Hope this helps your research

PARAM.rar

[sandungas]

Thx guys, i really apreciate it

@tizzy yesterday after talking a bit with bobbyblunt i realized there are 2 different PS2 installations from discs (one for DLC, and another for the main game)
It seems the socom games (the main games) cant be installed in hdd... what they installs are only his DLC (format managed by the XMB similar than patches)

But... FF XI uses the same installer, and can be fully installed to the HDD (the main game), and also his patches, but this ones are separated
It has no much importance if the original disc its needed to be in the drive to play or not.... the important part is this installation creates an icon in XMB (out of Game Data Utility) so this icons is "bootable (you can boot it by pressing cross over it)
I think this is exclusive for FF XI... socom doesnt have it (bobbyblunt insisted in this)

The difference between the main game, and his DLC when installed.... is:
-DLC (marked as category "2D" as svenmullet just confirmed) are placed inside "Game Data Utility" at the top of game column, and are not bootables from the icon
-Main game (marked as category "2G" based in my tests) are placed out of "Game Data Utility" with all other bootable content, and is bootable from the icon

@svenmullet great info, so you confirmed the format of this "virtual ps2 hdd" and his path when installed as a DLC, this was not documented accurately i will take a time for understand this a bit better and i will do

And is interesting what you said that the VHD are filled with zeroes (i tend to think in them as the "virtual memory cards" that when created are empty but with the final size, and the data is stored using "slots")... at first sight seems something similar

Have you tryied to compress the full folder ? (e.g: in a .zip)
A huge file in size (this 2GB) because its filled with zeroes if you compress it it will be reduced his size drastically (lets say this 2GB file when compressed can have 5mb size)

If not... can you make a list of the folder/files with his sizes ? (bobbyblunt said there was no ICON0.PNG and it has sense because PS2 discs doesnt has an icon but there is still the option that the installer can generate a "standard" icon)
This little details sometimes gives some hints, and are needed to document standard paths and valid files in the structure

[svenmullet]

I could give it a shot (compress it) but I should point out something: I didn't even do this on a BC PS3... My CHECA01 is dead, but I have a CECHP01 and a COBRA dongle, and actually used a DVDR of SOCOM3 I could try finding an iso of FFXI and see what it does.
************* [ - Post Merged - ] *************
Here ya go. Compressed down to under 6MB

Attachment 1221

And now I see it's not simply zero-filled (was using the hex viewer in multiman before, gave up after scrolling down for 5 minutes)
After the header which looks like a HDD partition info, starting at 0x18B5929 there is data. It's in irregular chunks, and ends at 0x18C724FE, then zeros again until 0x18C8B3BD - 0x18C8D60E and so on. There's little snippets of code throughout the image after that. I have no idea what this data would be, like I said, I booted the disc on a non-BC machine (and it doesn't even boot properly) and didn't install anything to the partition after it created it.

[sandungas]

Nice, im going to take a look at it
When you say "it doesn't even boot properly" you mean cobra boots them from a "non-standard" way (but the game boots)... or you have other problems (and the game doesnt boot)

And have you tested with the "PS2 System Data" package installed ?
Its supposed this installation is made by this package, if you have it installed try to uninstall it (to avoid the game installation)

And another question... when you have copyed this folder... at this moment you was able to see the installed folder in XMB ? (in the data utility at the top of game colum)
If yes... i think this comfirms the installation was made correctly

Later the game can "fill" this VHD with files, but this is the second part of the installation, in socom only is used when installing patches





Edit:
After looking at the virtual disc image... i cant see nothing interesting, but there is a clear reference to a "mbr" (Master Boot Record from a hard drive, or the first sector of a hard drive), this mbr is out of the filesystem (and its not marked as "mbr" in a hard drive), so this first lines probably are pointing to other positions (where the filesystem begins)
Also some possible strings that can be offsets to other positions of the file (pointing to the positions you said where the big chunks of data are)

Maybe these are the slots ?, but are preceded by a "mark" where the filesystem begins

[VIRGIN KLM]

There are more games than jUst those if you are interested that work on PS3, I don't remember if they create a PARAM.SFO or something but (with the ones that were able to get emulated) I had success installing them even on a non BC PS3:

-Resident Evil: Outbreak
-Resident Evil: Outbreak 2
-Kingdom Hearts (NTSC-U) (may have to try 8-10 times. Also the menu got removed before release and you have to enable it with a cheat, on top of that it took ages to install because emulation gets slooow while installing that specific game/version)
Kingdom Hearts Final Mix+(NTSC-J) (that one worked fine)
Xenosaga Ep.1 (This one took super long)

These ones failed on me:
-Final Fantasy XI (It appears you are not able to create an installation that overally exceeds 4096MB in size and since that game exceeds that limmit it will fail while you reach that limmit, that's a bug that Sony forgot to patch on the PS2 Installation Data from PSN which kind of makes silly the idea that they pretty like created that addon having that game in mind)
-The Urbz: Sims In The Sity (if you try to boot the game with the PS2 Installation Data on your PS3 it will hang after the intro movie)
-The Sims 2 (Same as the Urbz, there is something that EA games don't like in that PS2 Installation Data thingy)

[sandungas]

Originally Posted by VIRGIN KLM There are more games than jUst those if you are interested that work on PS3, I don't remember if they create a PARAM.SFO or something but (with the ones that were able to get emulated) I had success installing them even on a non BC PS3: -Resident Evil: Outbreak -Resident Evil: Outbreak 2 -Kingdom Hearts (NTSC-U) (may have to try 8-10 times. Also the menu got removed before release and you have to enable it with a cheat, on top of that it took ages to install because emulation gets slooow while installing that specific game/version) Kingdom Hearts Final Mix+(NTSC-J) (that one worked fine) Xenosaga Ep.1 (This one took super long) These ones failed on me: -Final Fantasy XI (It appears you are not able to create an installation that overally exceeds 4096MB in size and since that game exceeds that limmit it will fail while you reach that limmit, that's a bug that Sony forgot to patch on the PS2 Installation Data from PSN which kind of makes silly the idea that they pretty like created that addon having that game in mind) -The Urbz: Sims In The Sity (if you try to boot the game with the PS2 Installation Data on your PS3 it will hang after the intro movie) -The Sims 2 (Same as the Urbz, there is something that EA games don't like in that PS2 Installation Data thingy)

Ok, i bought the PS3 not too much time ago (an slim) so im not used to the backward compatible PS3's
All this time i was looking at this manual http://manuals.playstation.net/docum...ddinstall.html but now that you said... this game list seems to be old

Actually im having doubts if FF XI is the one using this "2G" category because there can be severall different installations, and one of them is "2G"...
The only hints i can give to find it is that is "bootable" (if you press cross over his icon the content tryes to boot) and it has a mini-grey icon "PS2 Game", and when booting it (in some special behaviours) there is an error message complaining about the missing "virtual HDD image" (so its obviously something related with one of this games)

Do you have some idea what can be "2G" ?

[svenmullet]

Originally Posted by sandungas Nice, im going to take a look at it When you say "it doesn't even boot properly" you mean cobra boots them from a "non-standard" way (but the game boots)... or you have other problems (and the game doesnt boot) And have you tested with the "PS2 System Data" package installed ? Its supposed this installation is made by this package, if you have it installed try to uninstall it (to avoid the game installation) And another question... when you have copyed this folder... at this moment you was able to see the installed folder in XMB ? (in the data utility at the top of game colum) If yes... i think this comfirms the installation was made correctly Later the game can "fill" this VHD with files, but this is the second part of the installation, in socom only is used when installing patches

Yes, I installed the PS2 System Data pkg, it shows up in Game Data Utility.
What I mean is, the first time I inserted the disc, it shows up as Playstation 2 Disc in XMB, as usual with Cobra. I started it, and immediately got the "Install to Hard Disk" message, so I went OK, it created a partition of 2GB then continued to boot. Right after the Playstation 2 bootscreen and sound, the machine resets and boots back into XMB with no error. I tried deleting the HDD partition (which appears also in Game Data Utility) but then I get the "Install to Hard Disk" message again.I tried with an ISO and a DVDR, no dice on either with the PS2 System Data thing installed. I just tried deleting PS2 System Data and booting it, and I *still* get the Install to Hard Disk message, if I click OK it says I need to go to Playstation Store and download PS2 System Data The game just doesn't work on non-BC PS3s I guess.

Originally Posted by VIRGIN KLM There are more games than jUst those if you are interested that work on PS3, I don't remember if they create a PARAM.SFO or something but (with the ones that were able to get emulated) I had success installing them even on a non BC PS3: -Resident Evil: Outbreak -Resident Evil: Outbreak 2 -Kingdom Hearts (NTSC-U) (may have to try 8-10 times. Also the menu got removed before release and you have to enable it with a cheat, on top of that it took ages to install because emulation gets slooow while installing that specific game/version) Kingdom Hearts Final Mix+(NTSC-J) (that one worked fine) Xenosaga Ep.1 (This one took super long) These ones failed on me: -Final Fantasy XI (It appears you are not able to create an installation that overally exceeds 4096MB in size and since that game exceeds that limmit it will fail while you reach that limmit, that's a bug that Sony forgot to patch on the PS2 Installation Data from PSN which kind of makes silly the idea that they pretty like created that addon having that game in mind) -The Urbz: Sims In The Sity (if you try to boot the game with the PS2 Installation Data on your PS3 it will hang after the intro movie) -The Sims 2 (Same as the Urbz, there is something that EA games don't like in that PS2 Installation Data thingy)

Hey, I have Kingdom Hearts, how do you enable the install option?

[sandungas]

Originally Posted by svenmullet Yes, I installed the PS2 System Data pkg, it shows up in Game Data Utility. What I mean is, the first time I inserted the disc, it shows up as Playstation 2 Disc in XMB, as usual with Cobra. I started it, and immediately got the "Install to Hard Disk" message, so I went OK, it created a partition of 2GB then continued to boot. Right after the Playstation 2 bootscreen and sound, the machine resets and boots back into XMB with no error. I tried deleting the HDD partition (which appears also in Game Data Utility) but then I get the "Install to Hard Disk" message again.I tried with an ISO and a DVDR, no dice on either with the PS2 System Data thing installed. I just tried deleting PS2 System Data and booting it, and I *still* get the Install to Hard Disk message, if I click OK it says I need to go to Playstation Store and download PS2 System Data The game just doesn't work on non-BC PS3s I guess.

Heheheh, this confirms the list with all the DISC_ID's that support this installation is in the emulator itself (not in the data package) because you have the advise message without the data package