PS3 ManaGunZ - PS3 Backup Manager by Zar v1.41

[sandungas]

I made some screenshots

-Are affected all game icons with semitransparent pixels at the borders
-The semitransparent pixels displays the color of the background (blue in this example because my theme have a blue background)
-Im not sure if is happening because the blue pixels from background are "captured" before scaling the icon up

-Or maybe is happening because the "dark layer" effect is not applyed under the semi-transparent pixels
-Anyway, this "dark layer" doesnt exists in official XMB... so i think is better to remove it (with the goal of cloning the official XMB)

-And now im talking about that screen i would like to mention the last detail that "doesnt looks like official XMB"... that icons are huge when scaled up... so i think is needed to reduce that scale factor (again... with the goal of cloning the official XMB)
-At this point im not sure which exact size should have that icon... we need an screenshot of official XMB to meassure the pixels size accuratelly
-But initially i think needs to be reduced to half the size you are using actually (or so)... lets say.. you are scaling the icons to x4... and i think the official XMB is scaling them around x2 or so


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Edit:
I decided to take some meassures (in a innacurate way) with a ruler on top of the TV and i realized the scale factors are giving me a very rounded number

The icon have 3 sizes, the smallest is when "out of focus", medium size is "in focus", and bigger size is when you press triangle to see the game settings (like in my screenshots above)
Well... if we consider the smallest size (out of focus) as x1... then the bigger size is exactly x3

So my suggestion is whatever value you used for the "out of focus" size (the smallest).... multiply it by 3 to get the biggest size

I guess this simplifyes it... and as far i could meassure is pretty accurate, and i dont think that "x3 scale factor" is a coincidence

 

[sandungas]

This is an image of what i was trying to explain about the relationships of sizes
Im guessing this way is going to be easy to change because the "bigest icon size" im suggesting to use is proportional to the other "smallest icon size" you are already using

And the "dark layer" is exactly like this, exists in official XMB but doesnt covers all the screen, is way smaller, i painted it in red, it have the same height than the ICON0.PNG and goes all to the right border (behind the side menu)
Also, the transparency levels of this "dark band" is way smaller than yours... initially i would reduce it to half the transparency value you are using now (is barelly visible in official XMB)

But actually, that area of the "dark band" that overlaps at right under the side menu looks like a pita... this is the kind of details i prefer not to copy from the original design, i think is better to remove the part overlapped under the side menu because is going to cause problems with themes and managunz graphics library in general when rendering several layers overlapped with semitransparent pixels (the dark band, and the sidemenu) + the posible problems of fonts in the sidemenu
Like this, not sure if could be a pita to implement it this way matching exactly with the sidemenu border, and im not completly sure if is a good idea, but by now i think i will look better this way:

 

[sandungas]

We was talking about this screen before, i never took a detailed look at all efects used in this display mode in official XMB, but now i realized a few more effects, im going to post it for completionism
If you are going to take a look at this part of the code maybe you find some time for this details, if you do you are going to nail it

This is the first things that needs to be mentioned because the icon image is not affected by any other effect, but the text transparency needs to be animated

This is easy to explain, all icons needs to be reduced in transparency... except the actual category (the PS3 folder icon in this example)

The horizontal bar and vertical bars uses different effects
The horizontal bar icons and gaps are reduced in size... so they moves closer to the center

And the game icons of the vertical bar moves far away from the center because the gaps are static, when the icon "in focus" increases his size it "pushes" the other icons far away

 

[sandungas]

I realized that semi-transparent pixels are having the same effect in the "dark layer", the "game cover", and the "game case", see this image

Note how can be seen the hexagons of the wave animation (a big hexagon in the shoulder of the guy, and few tiny ones over there), in my TV i can see how are moving and have the original size (so my theory i mentioned before about "capturing" pixels by mistake was wrong)

What is happening is the semi-transparent pixels of the ICON0.PNG are making "dissapear" the pixels of 3 elements:
-dark layer
-game cover
-game case

So whatever you do... im thinking additionally could be a good idea to move down (few units in -Y axis) the game cover/case images
Because that overlapping of the game cover/case with the ICON0.PNG only could cause problems, and (in my oppinion) visually is not good to have this 3 images overlapped anyway

 

[sandungas]

I been looking a bit more at this animation effects and i realized about some mistakes in my previous explains, im going to explain it not only for zar but also if somebody is interested, and because my own curiosity sake
I wanted to make a list of this effects (because otherway i will forget about the small details), but i dont want to leave a "partially broken" explain

In this image what i painted in red represents a polygon (not an image), and is filled with color by the graphics libraries, but is not filled completly, it uses degrades at the sides. Basically it does a:
opacity = 0 (located at left border) ----> opacity = 25% (located at 1/3 of ICON0.PNG) ----> opacity = 25% (located at sidemenu border) ----> opacity = 0% (located at 1/3 of sidemenu border)

In this image the way i suggested to scale sizes down i think "should" work, but i think the official XMB does it in a different way. In official XMB the eviroment is a 3D space (where objects are located with 3 coordinates of X,Y,Z axis), and i think what is doing is to move the "layer" with the category icons "far away" from the camera (in Z axis)

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Additionally, there is a "blur layer" effect i have not mentioned before, that covers the whole screen but only affects 3 elements (because are located behind the blur layer):
-Background image
-Waves animation
-Sparks animation

Im guessing making this blur effect with the graphics library of managunz could be tricky, and/or problematic, and/or imposible, but dunno... im just mentioning it incase "it works" it could be a good detail to add



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Btw, the best way to see all the details of this animation effects in official XMB is by doing this:
-Go to "theme settings" ---> "theme" and select "original"
-Go to "theme settings" ---> "color" and select "january" (the first on the list that is close to white)
-Go to "time and date settings" ---> "manual config" and select time 12:00

Then go to the game column, move to a game icon with "non-rectangular" shape... and press repeteadly triangle--->circle--->triangle--->circle--->triangle--->circle etc... (to enter-exit the sidemenu)

 

[Realrj]

Btw, do you mind if i merge all the messages of this thread with the official managunz thread ?
This is becoming interesting, and i just had an idea about how to add a warning in a very visible way (is the kind of annoying thing that the user will know for sure the patch is applyed and cant be reverted)

Oh please, be my guest buddy =D

I'm sorry for the delay, I had some crazy weeks at work and with my family =)

 

[sandungas]

Oh please, be my guest buddy =D

I'm sorry for the delay, I had some crazy weeks at work and with my family =)

Done, the posts of our conversation has been moved to this thread in chronological order
Are the posts with date 6 and 7 december (in previous page 40 of this thread)

 

[Zar]

You couldn't put them after the last message ? anyway I went back to read them

Unfortunately, as soon as I used that option on the game's menu, the option to undo it disappeared, unlike the 480p option or the LIMG one that changes to "disable", the wide-screen one just vanished in my case so I couldn't revert it :/

This is definitivly a huge bug, I'll try to reproduce it to fix it.
I'll put a update, once it's fixed.

Do you remember which game? backup MD5 ?

 

[sandungas]

You couldn't put them after the last message ? anyway I went back to read them

Is not posible to change timestamps of the forum posts, we can move them from any thread to any other thread, and we can merge them (joining several posts together in a single post, and in this merging is needed to choose which post is going to be the "target" that will host all other merged posts, at the end all the merged posts have the timestamp of the "target" post)
An example... in this thread the first post is yours (post 1), then there are 5 posts writen by other people (up to post 6)... and then another post by you (post 7)

If for some reason you want to have post 1, and 2 of this thread made by you there are 4 ways to achieve it (as far i imagining right now)
-By finding another post in the forum written by you with a timestamp in between post 1 and 2 of this thread... then moving it here
-By finding another post in the forum written by you with a timestamp older than post 1 of this thread... then moving it here
-By deleting posts 2,3,4,5,6
-By merging posts 2,3,4,5,6... with post 7 (written by you)

The first option is the best

Im explaining this because everybody should know what can we do to help you organize threads if needed, it doesnt causes us much work, is just it needs to be calculated well (checking timestamps) to dont fail

This is definitivly a huge bug, I'll try to reproduce it to fix it.
I'll put a update, once it's fixed.

Do you remember which game? backup MD5 ?

He mentioned xenosaga, but did not mention the exact title ID or MD5
Is better if he tells the exact ID, im just mentioning it because last time he took several days in joining forum so maybe he is not going to reply in the next days

Unfortunately, as soon as I used that option on the game's menu, the option to undo it disappeared, unlike the 480p option or the LIMG one that changes to "disable", the wide-screen one just vanished in my case so I couldn't revert it :/

He realized about the problem with the "widescreen" option, but he was enabling/disabling the others too
So maybe the bug is trigged (only) by a combination of applying/removing the widescreen patch + the other patches

 

[Realrj]

Hey there guys

I didn't understand if you need any more information from me. If you do just reply and I'll add everything that's needed.

Regarding the patch. It happened on more than one game, so I assume it's not related to Xenosaga specifically

 

[marronnes]

Hello everyone! Help me please. managunz 1.34 doesn´t work on ferrox STANDARD 4.83. Could you see this problem?
Thanks a lot!

 

[sandungas]

Hello everyone! Help me please. managunz 1.34 doesn´t work on ferrox STANDARD 4.83. Could you see this problem?
Thanks a lot!

Can you elaborate a bit what doesnt works ?

 

[marronnes]

Ok, this is exactly what happen. When i try to mount an iso inmediatly the PS3 is freeze. Then i have no choice that restart the console. Try it yourself on your machine. managunz 1.34 on ferrox "STANDARD" 4.83
Thanks you very much for your help.

 

[sandungas]

Ok, this is exactly what happen. When i try to mount an iso inmediatly the PS3 is freeze. Then i have no choice that restart the console. Try it yourself on your machine. managunz 1.34 on ferrox "STANDARD" 4.83
Thanks you very much for your help.

And are you talking about a PS3 game in JB format ? (JB format means folders and files)
You need to configure how the game is mounted (triangle over game icon to see the "game settings")

I dont remember right now the settings names, and every setting have several options, but you need to try them

As far i remember... i was using something like this:
payload = mamba
explore_plugin patch = iris
mount app_home = yes

 

[marronnes]

Actually i use iso format. I think the problem is the manager 1.34 was made only to work on cobra CFW. because the standard version was published on 17th october 2018.(check the link out) I hope Zar could make it compatible on ferrox standard 4.83 by Lizzo https://www.cybermodding.it/downloads.php?do=file&id=398 . Before When I used ferrox standard 4.82 i hadn´t troubles with managunz 1.33.
And my playload is mamba because i use standard version.
What about mount app_home? Well me in previus version (managunz 1.33) my settings was NO and my games were mounted perfectly. So i think the settings are not the issue.

Thank you again, Sandungas!!!
Tell this issue to Zar, please.

 

[Zar]

I already read it and i have also ferrox installed unfortunatly i didn't have time to test it yet, someone tested it for me, and i was confident because it's very similar to the 4.82.
Anyway, please give me some times to investigate :p

 

[marronnes]

Thank you for your support, Zar!!!
So, do you have ferrox cobra or standard?
Make sure to test it on standard version (that's what i use, and there is my issue) on ferrox cobrar seems to be no problems.

i love managunz, so i'll wait your new release.

 

[sandungas]

Btw, there is something i always forget, im going to copy it here for the record, because this is what was working for me in a non-cobra CFW with PS3 games in JB format stored in internal dev_hdd0/GAMES

Payload = iris
Blu-Ray emulation = BDEMU
Patch libfs = iris
Mount in app_home = yes
Patch explore_plugin = yes

------------------------------------
The detail i always found weird... is im trying to use the same settings i was using in iris (before irisman) years ago
But in iris the only things i had to do is to use the libfs patch and explore plugin patch (iris was not mounting the backup in app_home)

The problem is in managunz i need to enable the "mount app_home" for the option "patch explore_plugin" to appear (otherway with app_home disabled managunz hides the "patch explore_plugin" so i cant use it)

To be clear... the point is i dont want to mount the game in app_home (because i know is not needed), iris was not doing it with the settings i was using years ago and 100% of the games was working this way

Not sure if there is something im not getting right, but this looks a bit weird... and i guess all the people that was using iris lot of time ago are going to find it confusing too

 

[Zar]

Patching Explore plugin means :
-Extract explore_plugin.sprx
-change every "/app_home" to "/dev_bdvd"
-change the icon of /app_home
-change the msg of /app_home
-sign the sprx
-redirect the path of the offcial self to the patched self

So, yes. It's 100% related to app_home

 

[sandungas]

Patching Explore plugin means :
-Extract explore_plugin.sprx
-change every "/app_home" to "/dev_bdvd"
-change the icon of /app_home
-change the msg of /app_home
-sign the sprx
-redirect the path of the offcial self to the patched self

So, yes. It's 100% related to app_home

But iris was mounting it by using the retail bd icon in XMB (not in app_home)
Im wondering if is because iris was making something additional, i remember other of the mount modes used a "trick" to mount the backup as retail icon (not app home)

I dont remember right because there are so many options, but im sure i was mounting PS3 JB from internal hdd without using app_home
I always considered app_home as a mount method with a low compatibility, so my way of thinking has been always "dont touch app_home with a 10 feet pole", this is why i remember well that i was not using it (maybe it was used internally, but visually in XMB the backup was not mounted "on top" of app_home icon)



Edit:
Never mind, other day i will write a better post to compare the settings i was using and the differences i noticed in between iris and managunz