PS2 [Open PS2 Loader] Requests, suggestions, ideas

El_Patas

El_Patas

Member
As the title says this thread is for requests, sugestions and ideas about the official OPL development.

Mainly i have gathered all the requests that had been opened in the issues section of the OPL repository, since most open issues are not problems but requests.

And the issues section should be free just to report problems, so you have here a place to talk about
requests, sugestions or ideas.

I have put a link to the requests that had been opened in the repository issues section, as they contain
interesting conversations and comments so they can be remembered and continued here in this thread.

- ext2 support from E2OPL:

https://github.com/ifcaro/Open-PS2-Loader/issues/238

- NTFS support for OPL:

https://github.com/ifcaro/Open-PS2-Loader/issues/110

- ExFAT support for OPL. [ACCOMPLISHED]

- PADEMU driver implementation:

Wiimote
Xbox360
Gamepads (Generics)
Arcade stick (PS3)
Arcade stick (PS4)
Arcade stick (Generics)

https://github.com/ifcaro/Open-PS2-Loader/issues/81

- Support for CSO/GZIP compressed ISOs: [ACCOMPLISHED WITH ZSO]

https://github.com/ifcaro/Open-PS2-Loader/issues/225

- Disc boot support from a menu option:

Feature that allows discs to be booted without the CDVD emulation parts,
But with the rest of OPL present and functional.
Hence allowing things like VMC, PADEMU etc to work on game discs.
Essentially a halfway between how OPL currently boots games and apps.

https://github.com/ifcaro/Open-PS2-Loader/issues/131

- Support for 576p in OPL menu:

https://github.com/ifcaro/Open-PS2-Loader/issues/221

- Flicker filter:

https://github.com/ifcaro/Open-PS2-Loader/issues/218
https://www.psx-place.com/threads/flicker-filter.29851/

- Migrate to Smbv2 or Smbv3:

https://github.com/ifcaro/Open-PS2-Loader/issues/86

- Multi-Disc games - Swap in memory:

https://github.com/ifcaro/Open-PS2-Loader/issues/87

- Firewire support: [ACCOMPLISHED although not very yet compatible]

https://www.psx-place.com/threads/opl-with-firewire-support.25585/

- IGR Path works only for memory card:

https://github.com/ifcaro/Open-PS2-Loader/issues/230

- CMakelist.txt for CLion IDE:

https://github.com/ifcaro/Open-PS2-Loader/issues/245

- Power options:

Add Power Options section on Display settings menu.
The goal is both save energy and avoid screen burn-in (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_burn-in):

+ Turn off the display after x minutes of inactivity on OPL's GUI, via DPMS*
+ Turn off console console after y minutes on OPL's GUI, using a timer
+ Turn off console console after y minutes in-Game, using a timer (via ee_core/padhook.c -> IGR_Thread function)

*VESA DPMS Mode Setting should be tested on CRT/LCD TV/Monitors on NTSC, PAL, HDTV and VGA modes,
in order to realise where it works.
GS Priviledged Register SMODE2->bitfield DPMS -> Possible values: 0 (On), 1 (Stand-by), 2 (Suspend) and 3 (Off).

HDD related:

https://www.psx-place.com/threads/open-ps2-loader-requests-suggestions-ideas.29712/#post-244342

- Add into OPL ability to act as mini-OPL (HDD OSD): [ACCOMPLISHED via arguments and OPL Launcher]
Mini-OPL - it is an old rework of OPL which has the ability to be injected inside HDD partition so it will be
possible to launch games from HDD OSD // BB Navigator // PSX DESR XMB with one-click. In fact, this
can be reworked in the main OPL by adding the ability to parse boot arguments and load the game from the
partition just after OPL loads. Or maybe it will be better to add some helper app that can be injected in HDD
partition and load OPL with some boot arguments from a static path (so all games will use the same OPL
version).

- Change place on HDD where OPL settings are stored [ACCOMPLISHED]
"+OPL" partition to my mind isn't a good place for storing app settings. Sometimes it will be better to use
some HDD OSD compatible partition name (for example "PP.OPL"), or maybe it will be even better to use
common partition (for example "__.common/OPL/"). I understand that this more related to the user but
256Mb can be saved. It can be achieved by scanning HDD, so firstly it checks if "__.common/OPL" exists,
if no it checks if "PP.OPL" exists and only then it assumes that we should use "+OPL".

- Non-genuine HDDs accepted by games that have built-in HDD support
The game with built-in HDD support can be easily modified by patching the ATAD module with @krHACKen
ATAD patcher. It will be cool to see such a feature in OPL, so atad.irx is patched in memory on the fly. I don't
know if it is possible though.

Other features:
- Auto-language detection.
OPL is translated into many languages so this feature can be useful for those who have PS2 set up into
preferred language. So OPL can read language settings from NVRAM and then parse them inside the app.
So in language selector will be an additional option: Auto.

- Change game region before the game starts
Some games have hidden multi-selector which will change game language and sometimes game behavior
on the console's region basis. It will be useful to parse the preferred region. New option: Game region:
AU/JP/RU/KR and so on.

- Add more console's info in the Debug menu.
For users to be easy to understand which build cause some bug it will be cool to add more info in the Debug
information menu. It can consist of 2 sections: OPL info and Console info. So when you enter this menu you
can see basics about OPL build: git commit, compilation date and time, compile flags, and so on. In the next
section can be seen information about the console: Model, Model ID, BOOT ROM version, the information of
the attached device. Offtopic: It can be also very useful for my side project PS2Ident.

- Add some checksum verifier (MD5) - so the whole game can be checked
This can be done for checking if your games are not corrupted. But of course, it is overkill and will be very
slow, but also a very nice feature. Calculated MD5 sums can be compared with some game checksum
database (for example redump database) to see if you have a proper dump.

Best regards.
 
Last edited:
disc boot with vmc, pademu, etc sounds cool to me! i dont have any multi disc games but im sure the people that do would really like that.
 
- PADEMU driver implementation:

This one please!!!! It would be so nice to use my USB arcade stick with OPL!!!!!
 
Neither NTFS nor ext2 support is a good idea. As i said before the best would be ExFAT. It overcomes the FAT32 limitations and works right out of the box on all major OS.

@El_Patas why did you close it? The GH issue tracker is perfect for this. Why not add a label and link the corresponding project? An issue makes it easier to track commits relating to a specific topic.
The way i would do it:
Link the thread in the first comment at psx-place
Make a project entry and link the issue
Keep this single thread to discuss stuff with non developer people not on GH
 
Last edited:
I have already explained it, because they were not issues, they were requests, people demanded a
place to talk and discuss the topics that are about requests, sugestions and ideas, even the
developers commented in some of them that they were nothing more than requests and they
should be closed and commented elsewhere.
And many of them were years old even without receiving any new comment.
The ones which are issues remains there.
If all the developers agree among themselves, and they wish otherwise, it can always be changed.

Best regards.
 
I love to see that damn flicker filter disabled just like in silent hill 3, tekken 5 etc...makes all the difference on a 480i crt

the thing is, almost nobody even understand what is it or just dont care
 
Carloss said:
I love to see that damn flicker filter disabled just like in silent hill 3, tekken 5 etc...makes all the difference on a 480i crt

the thing is, almost nobody even understand what is it or just dont care
Click to expand...
There's no hardware option for "flicker filter" in the GS. So what is it really? I once asked about this before and understood this to be caused by the half-pixel offset trick that is used to improve the vertical resolution under an interlaced video mode. If you want to "turn off" that, good luck with hacking the game's code to not do that since it is part of the rendering process (and how they planned to use VRAM). It is definitely doable, but the procedure may have to be tailored for each game. Similarly, it's going to be equally challenging to get a game to do this, for the guys who want to move in the opposite direction.
 
Here is my list:
HDD related feature requests:
- add into OPL ability to act as mini-OPL (HDD OSD):
Mini-OPL - it is an old rework of OPL which has the ability to be injected inside HDD partition so it will be possible to launch games from HDD OSD // BB Navigator // PSX DESR XMB with one-click. In fact, this can be reworked in the main OPL by adding the ability to parse boot arguments and load the game from the partition just after OPL loads. Or maybe it will be better to add some helper app that can be injected in HDD partition and load OPL with some boot arguments from a static path (so all games will use the same OPL version).
- change place on HDD where OPL settings are stored
"+OPL" partition to my mind isn't a good place for storing app settings. Sometimes it will be better to use some HDD OSD compatible partition name (for example "PP.OPL"), or maybe it will be even better to use common partition (for example "__.common/OPL/"). I understand that this more related to the user but 256Mb can be saved. It can be achieved by scanning HDD, so firstly it checks if "__.common/OPL" exists, if no it checks if "PP.OPL" exists and only then it assumes that we should use "+OPL".
- non-genuine HDDs accepted by games that have built-in HDD support
The game with built-in HDD support can be easily modified by patching the ATAD module with @krHACKen ATAD patcher. It will be cool to see such a feature in OPL, so atad.irx is patched in memory on the fly. I don't know if it is possible though.

Other features:
- auto-language detection.
OPL is translated into many languages so this feature can be useful for those who have PS2 set up into preferred language. So OPL can read language settings from NVRAM and then parse them inside the app. So in language selector will be an additional option: Auto.
- change game region before the game starts
Some games have hidden multi-selector which will change game language and sometimes game behavior on the console's region basis. It will be useful to parse the preferred region. New option: Game region: AU/JP/RU/KR and so on.
- add more console's info in the Debug menu.
For users to be easy to understand which build cause some bug it will be cool to add more info in the Debug information menu. It can consist of 2 sections: OPL info and Console info. So when you enter this menu you can see basics about OPL build: git commit, compilation date and time, compile flags, and so on. In the next section can be seen information about the console: Model, Model ID, BOOT ROM version, the information of the attached device. Offtopic: It can be also very useful for my side project PS2Ident.
- add some checksum verifier (MD5) - so the whole game can be checked
This can be done for checking if your games are not corrupted. But of course, it is overkill and will be very slow, but also a very nice feature. Calculated MD5 sums can be compared with some game checksum database (for example redump database) to see if you have a proper dump.
 
akuhak said:
- add some checksum verifier (MD5) - so the whole game can be checked
This can be done for checking if your games are not corrupted. But of course, it is overkill and will be very slow, but also a very nice feature. Calculated MD5 sums can be compared with some game checksum database (for example redump database) to see if you have a proper dump.
Click to expand...

Theoretically this could be useful for HDD users...
- When HDD have a bad block or game hasn't been transferred properly.

For SMB or USB md5sum can be checked on e.g. PC with other tool (e.g. WinMD5 Free).
USB speed is quite small so it can take very long time to check it...
 
Please please please PADEMU for PS4 fighting sticks. This would be amazing for fighting games on the PS2, which many of them are amazing.
 
would it be possible to add an image cache to load images directly from a file named (images.bin)? that will load the covers instantly, right?
 
akuhak said:
- add into OPL ability to act as mini-OPL (HDD OSD):
...
- change place on HDD where OPL settings are stored
...

Other features:
- auto-language detection.
...
- change game region before the game starts
...
Click to expand...

Great points! Especially the first one!

especially the last one would be interesting as there are some (german) games that would loose there censorship (like GTA III or Red Faction II).
 
I think this should get some attention:
Migrate to Smbv2 or Smbv3
As time goes by, the average user of OPL will be less and less capable of getting it to work over SMB, because operating systems and network attached storage are making it harder to select and configure SMBv1.
 
Hi,
CD based PS2 games are properly dumped as CUE / BIN images (at least according to redump guidelines) in contrast to DVD based PS2 games of course.
CUE / BIN backups can currently not be loaded with OPL. Can this be implemented?
 
SpaceAgeHero said:
Hi,
CD based PS2 games are properly dumped as CUE / BIN images (at least according to redump guidelines) in contrast to DVD based PS2 games of course.
CUE / BIN backups can currently not be loaded with OPL. Can this be implemented?
Click to expand...

Imho is better to convert them to ISO (with WinBin2Iso) for a question of order (better having a single file for each game).

However if having the choice is better for someone, I have nothing in contrary on implementing it.
 
It may be dumb, but...
Is there a way to add clock showing time from console in the upper left corner?
Right upper corner is currently being use for notifications.

I have notice that recently my battery (CR2032) in PS2 died.
Mostly when I'm not doing anything with the console I just unplug the power cable.

Back to the topic, it can help a little to notice that something bad happens to the battery...
Who is visiting System Configuration to check if the time is correct? Probably not many.
Also not set date\time will create saves with default timeline (2000 0:00:00).
 
Should be fairly easy to implement. The newlib port supports time/localtime/asctime. Example:
Code: 
time_t rawtime;
struct tm * timeinfo;

time(&rawtime);
timeinfo = localtime(&rawtime);
printf("Current local time and date: %s", asctime(timeinfo));

The only thing missing in newlib is timezone conversion, so this will always show GMT. More info on the timezone issue here:
https://gitlab.com/ps2max/ps2sdk/-/issues/4
 
SpaceAgeHero said:
Hi,
CD based PS2 games are properly dumped as CUE / BIN images (at least according to redump guidelines) in contrast to DVD based PS2 games of course.
CUE / BIN backups can currently not be loaded with OPL. Can this be implemented?
Click to expand...
This would be a really good idea, especially for those CD-based games that use audio stored across multiple tracks. Not sure how conversion works exactly in that case but I can imagine some people messing it up. (Me, for instance.)

Also, I like your username, SAH. Is it a reference to a Feeder B-side with the same name from the Yesterday Went Too Soon era?
 
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