PS2 Noob questions about PSXmemcard Gen 2 and Homebrew

[DTR]

Hello

So i bought that card with the intent of using it for MMCE and to my surprise it already comes with homebrew installed and it seems up to date? (forgot to check OPL). However i want to use a bigger card and also install that app that let's you measure PS2 temps. I already flashed the memcard with the current XTD firmware and i plan to use freemcboot as opposed to the tuna one since it loads on startup and should be compatible with my console (700004). So with that and the fact i literally have no idea of what i am doing, I'd like to ask a few questions:

1- Since the sdcard it came with already has everything set up (along with a bunch of emulators i don't care about) can i just open the card in windows and copy paste all the folders onto the new formatted card? If possible are there any detriments to doing that? Will it just work despite the card being much bigger? Is there a better way?I heard about premade card images but this sentence more or less is the extent of my knowledge.

2- I opened up wlaunchELF to see what was inside it but then i did not know how to close it because there was no opinion listed. So i ended up backing as far as i could and then just turning off the console by holding the power button. Is that how you're supposed to do it or did i do a no no? Please tell me i didn't corrupt anything. I saw some text appear on the top of the screen as it was turning off but it was too fast to read.

3- I want to install the temp monitor app i found on this site, but...how the hell do i even do that? I download the file, then what? Is it something i do in windows or on the PS2 via USB drive?

4- I have some disc games i intend to keep using and those games have saves in my regular PS2 memcard which is in slot 2 now, but know this card creates a VCMs for every game i launch so is there a way to have it not do that for these particular disc games and use the normal memcard instead? Will i just have to remove the homebrew card if i want to use my regular card? I know i can use the homebrew one as a regular card but i don't want to for fear of corrupting it .Do i just let it create the virtual card and just never use it and savv and load from slot 2?

Thank you-

 

[Berion]

If you want move existing files to another VMC on PS2, you need create it first. After that, switch back to preview one. Start wLE ISR MMCE to mount new VMC, and copy "mc0:/" contents to "vmc0:/". Unmount it. And switch on PSXMCG2 to new MMCE.

You cannot copy files on Windows just like that because... files aren't lies on SD card just like that. Memory Card images (VMC) are used as PSXMC/PS2MC exposed to PS2 because both environments are incompatible with each other.

- - -

For copy saves from real card to VMC, you can do it i.e by mounting target GameID VMC in PSXMCG2 and copy saves from one card to another in OSDSYS.

 

[DTR]

If you want move existing files to another VMC on PS2, you need create it first. After that, switch back to preview one. Start wLE ISR MMCE to mount new VMC, and copy "mc0:/" contents to "vmc0:/". Unmount it. And switch on PSXMCG2 to new MMCE.

You cannot copy files on Windows just like that because... files aren't lies on SD card just like that. Memory Card images (VMC) are used as PSXMC/PS2MC exposed to PS2 because both environments are incompatible with each other.

- - -

For copy saves from real card to VMC, you can do it i.e by mounting target GameID VMC in PSXMCG2 and copy saves from one card to another in OSDSYS.

Well...first two parts i pretty much don't understand at all lol. I guess i just need to find a comprehensive video tutorial for dummies on how to make a MMCE PSXmemcard Gen 2 from start to finish. I am gonna back up what is in the original SD Card just in case but in practice there is nothing there i should need, right? It's all open source i can find on the internet?

Last part i sort of understand what you are saying after decrypting those abbreviations and it sounds simple enough. But how do i mount a VMC of a specific game, especially if it's a disc? Will the disc show in OPL or the OPL MMCE and i mount it from there?

Also i would really appreciate a confirmation on whether or not quitting wlaunchelf by turning off the console is the correct thing to do. I am paranoid about these things.

Sorry about these kinds of questions, i understand it's basically asking to teach caveman how to use a computer. I appreciate you taking the time to help in any way. Thank you.


EDIT: Wait...it just dawned on me that this card might be all VMCs stored in the SD Card. I was thinking there was a regular Memcard component too and that was where the homebrew was installed. So when you say "mount" you mean using the actual buttons on the card to select the VMC created with the game ID then? If so does it matter which one is in slot 1 and 2?

 

[Berion]

MMCE have two storage kind: internal and external. Internal is flash where firmware is stored, and is not normally accessible. External is microSD card. On SD card, there are files and folders. Files like memory card images, files like disc images etc. etc. Based on settings, MMCE fw exposing one of memory card images (VMC) to PS2 as Memory Card, so PS2 don't know that he not read/write to something different than PSXMC or PS2MC. So also homebrew applications doesn't know that, however, due to MMCE drivers, they can access to SD card directly ("mmce0:/"), not only to exposed VMC ("mc0:/") in the same time (this is what eg. OPL doing but for disc images).

GameID is feature of MMCEs which can hear from eg. OPL: "hey, user starting game SCUS-12345", then MMCE responding: "Roger that, switching to VMC for it if exist, else creating that and then switching".

wLE ISR MMCE have, as name suggest, MMCE drivers. So hew can access to "mmce0:/". Which means, you can use mounted by MMCE VMC as "mc0:/" and mount by wLE ISR MMCE chosen VMC file (*.mcd) and will be mounted at "vmc0:/".

Or less headache way, export saves from "mc0:/" to "mass:/" (USB) into *.psu format. Then switch VMC by buttons on MMCE ;] to target card, and import saves from usb to mc.

Or you can do that on PC. Whatever fits you best.

 

[DTR]

How do i unmount vmc0?

Edit: Shit...i backed out to the main menu and the vmc0 folder disappeared...i didn't see an "unmount" option anywhere. I hope i am not corrupting things.

By the way, can i delete a game's vmc entirely? if so how and does the card create a new one the next time i start the game? This is all just a test drive to see how things work now.

Oh and do i copy every single file inside the official memcard game folder into the vmc one?

Thanks.

 

[Berion]

How do i unmount vmc0?

Under context menu, on mount point (it is not folder, it is mount point ;]).

Shit...i backed out to the main menu and the vmc0 folder disappeared...i didn't see an "unmount" option anywhere. I hope i am not corrupting things.

If has been killed, hard to judge; shouldn't just closed itself just like that, so it seems you encountered some wLE ISR bug. I suggest to always have data backup, you know. :P

By the way, can i delete a game's vmc entirely? if so how and does the card create a new one the next time i start the game?

Yes.

Oh and do i copy every single file inside the official memcard game folder into the vmc one?

No, that's nonsensical and even impossible (max size of VMC supported by sd2psXtd is 64MiB, max size supported by MCFS file systems is 512MiB AFAIR). I'm not sure if You understood me in the first place... :P

I made a diagram which can help you better understanding stuff we dealing here:

Why there is no vmc0? Because it is not related to MMCE. vmc0/vmc1 can be mounted from any non-ECC PS2MC image from any device in any uLE/wLE. Just in your case, you can doing that from SD card over MMCE.

 

[DTR]

There is for sure misunderstandings happening. I'm sorry.
I don't understand. Aren't the saves inside the game ID folder literally the saves for the one game i am trying to copy? How/why would that be dumb or impossible?

At the risk of exhausting all your patience (if it hasn't happened already), I am gonna write all the steps the way i understood them one by one and with no abbreviations. Stop me at the point where i make a stupid mistake.

- PSxMemCard Gen 2 is in Slot 1, Official PS2 Memory Card is in Slot 2

- I want to copy saves from one game in Official PS2 Memory Card to a Virtual Memory Card created specifically for that game in the
PSxMemCard Gen 2

- I launch the disk so the PSxMemCard Gen 2 automatically creates a Virtual Memory Card for that game. I restart the console

- I launch wLaunchELF 4.43x_isr

- Go to mmce0:/MemoryCards/PS2/SLES-12345/

- Select and mount the SLES-12345 .mcd file as vmc0

- Go to mc1:/BESLES-12345/

- Copy contents (save files, correct?) (can i even just copy the folder entirely?)

- Go to vmc0:/BESLES-12345/

- Paste files inside

- Unmount vmc0

Correct?

Still no idea how to unmount vmc0 by the way. Using the R1 button that option does not appear anywhere. Not in root when highlighting vmc0, not inside when highlighting the ... or the BESLES-12345 folder, not inside the BESLES-12345 folder either. It's like the option does not even exist.
Also i found out what makes the folder disappear. It's if i open up the mmce0:/ directory after mounting vmc0. When i back up to the root the vmc0 directory will still be there but trying to enter it makes the GUI flick and nothing happens. If you exit to the start of the program and open file browser back again, the vmc0 directory will be gone.

 

[Berion]

Aren't the saves inside the game ID folder literally the saves for the one game i am trying to copy? How/why would that be dumb or impossible?

FAT32 or exFAT are supported file systems on SD card. On PS2MC file system is MCFS. On PSXMC there is no file system but simple index. This makes all three worlds incompatible with each other.

Assuming we could drop PSX support, we still couldn't use MCFS on SD card because it limiting size to 512MiB without standard violation, and that would make it extremely slow even for saving in games alone.

That's why MMCEs using memory card images (VMC). So then no, saves aren't in any folders at SD card. Saves are inside VMCs. And with GameID feature turned on in MMCE settings, each game getting his own VMC where saves are (with turned off, VMCs aren't switching/creating but using set VMC by user for everything).

Often people, especially non technical, on YT or Reddit, using saves term for VMC. Which brings confusion what is what. Please don't be one of them. Saves are saves, VMCs are VMCs (mc card images).

I want to copy saves from one game in Official PS2 Memory Card to a Virtual Memory Card created specifically for that game in the
PSxMemCard Gen 2

So then place PS2MC in one slot, PSXMCG2 in another. Using buttons, navigate for VMC where You want copy saves, eg. on VMC: SCUS-12345 if that's your game id and if it is already created.

Then go to OSDSYS (so called PS2 Browser) and copy save(s) from one card to another. Like from one real card to another real card.

 

[DTR]

Sigh...

Dude, how? How do i use the buttons to select the the vmc assigned to a specific game? Are you sure you're not explaining to me how to save to a generic virtual memory card instead? When i press the second button to change channels it just changed to the funtuna card and the different versions of freemcboot installed. When i long pressed it just created a new generic card to save to. It did not cycle through game id cards that are created when you launch a game.

I ended up corrupting the whole thing when i either pressed the button too fast or pressed the 1 button while the channel was set to 1 (shouldn't it just loop back to 8?). The LCD screen was displaying "Fatal error: then something about the size of something, i forgot". So i had to format the whole thing and learn how to do it from scratch. Since no one answered my question on where to get card image files (is it against the rules?) i got one from some Youtube Brazilian guy's website. I got it to work but the problem is i don't see a PS1 folder now so i don't know if i lost that functionality entirely. I hope i did not mess with or corrupted the firmware. it still says 1.3.0

In the LCD card menu, for PS2 settings under the card size it says: 64* . Is that what it should say?

More importantly, I decided it was at least time to test if this thing can even run any games at all. So i set Final Fantasy X-2 International + Last Mission up, got the covers using that OPL manager program and everything. So i got into OPL MMCE Beta 2, got to the MMCE settings, change boot to auto, set Wait Cycles bla bla bla to 0, set Alarms to off. Go to display options and set the covers to on. Open games list and the game is there. WOW! Time to launch this bad boy and bring on the good times. It launches, my screen flickers with some green lines and then NOTHING. Just a black screen. No PS2 logo no nothing. Waited like 5 minutes. Still black screen. Did this multiple times. Look online for a solution. Nothing. No one on earth has ever tried to play this game this way and have this happened to them.

So far it looks looks like i just bought a headache.

Edit: OK, OK. So i tested Ace Combat 4 and it worked and played really well. The thing is not borked. So what could have been the issue with the other game? Was it because it was a Japanese game?

Edit 2: Well now tried that Japanese Berserk game and that played fine too and it's even a hacked iso with the translation as well. So i have no idea why that game did not work. Did i seriously pick the one game out over 100 that doesn't work as my first test? That sounds like me...

Edit 3: The iso is borked because the translation patch is still in progress. Amazing. Can't win 50 cents in the lottery but i can do this every day all day.

Sorry, this has turned into blogposting nonsense. I'll stop.

 

[Berion]

IF you started game via OPL, and if OPL GameID feature is turned on, and if GameID feature is turned on in MMCE settings; then you have already created VMC for that game. And then you can navigate to it using buttons which are described in device manual.

You should check real SD card size by f3write or f3probe or H2Testw. If it is fine, then make sure it have exFAT on MBR, 32KiB clusters. Error you mentioned sounds strange. :P And you cannot corrupting anything on SD card by using MMCE.

Games region doesn't matter.

Hacked games could not work in OPL/NTR. Also you will not get 100% game compatibility in OPL/NTR from any kind of device.

If you want clean basic setup, use PSUja.

 

[DTR]

IF you started game via OPL, and if OPL GameID feature is turned on, and if GameID feature is turned on in MMCE settings; then you have already created VMC for that game. And then you can navigate to it using buttons which are described in device manual.

I just can't get that to work. Long pressing the second button just creates a new card and short pressing the second button just creates a new channel. I can tell it's creating them because the progress bar is slow, unlike loading.
I'm over it. I'll just play those games again. It's gonna be a pain to unlock all i had for one of them but what can ya do.

You should check real SD card size by f3write or f3probe or H2Testw. If it is fine, then make sure it have exFAT on MBR, 32KiB clusters. Error you mentioned sounds strange. :P And you cannot corrupting anything on SD card by using MMCE.

Yes, i followed your guide when setting up the SD card after formatting so it's all set right. Don't know what the error was about, i don't know if i was pressing the buttons too fast or something. The reason i worried is because the error happen when i pressed a button on the actual card, not while messing with homebrew stuff. The error wouldn't go away too, i had to format the SD card.

I just have one last question for you, if you don't mind. It's about the VMC size option in the card's menu. It's set to 64. Is this the default? Is that what it should be?
This means every virtual memory card created for every game will be 64mb, right? Isn't that a bit much for a single game? I don't know, the whole Cards vs Channels thing confuses me (shocking, i know). I mainly just want to make sure i have the most optimal size set up for compatibility and storage optimization.

I guess i gave up on installing that temp checking app too. It seems to me the console runs cooler when the disc drive is not in use, so that's good. Maybe I'll just use this for even the games i own after all. Kind of depressing since i own quite a few.

 

[Berion]

If that is over your head, just use one VMC for everything.

And check SD card real size, in the proces you will check also if all sectors are fine.

64MiB is default value. And yes, that means it will be creating VMCs at that size. Some games refuse to save or see card in different size than 8MiB, so been on Your place I would use that value.

 

[DTR]

And check SD card real size, in the proces you will check also if all sectors are fine.

I'm doing all this testing in the SD Card that came with the MemCard, not the expensive one i bought, so i am not too worried about it. Maybe I'll check it out of curiosity though. Speaking of that card, it actually performed adequately when testing. I only saw it stutter briefly during a FFX FMV. Can basically only hold one game but, not bad. I imagine it would be perfectly adequate if i was just using it for saves.

4MiB is default value. And yes, that means it will be creating VMCs at that size. Some games refuse to save or see card in different size than 8MiB, so been on Your place I would use that value.

Yeah i think i will use that size since it's the one of my official card and i never filled it in all these years. Just wanted to make sure it was supported.

Dude, you're a saint for putting up with my dumb ass. Thank you so very much for all the help. All the best to you and yours.

 

[Berion]

You are welcome.

Such games are eg. Metal Gear Solid 3/Subsistence. They accepting only 8MiB.

Remember also that you can always make save backup into *.psu format on USB or MMCE if space will becoming scarce and while you will use only one VMC.