PS2 PSBBN Definitive Project 4.2

[nickxab]

If you already have an older version of PSBBN DP installed that doesn't have HOSDMenu, just select the option from the menu to "Update PSBBN software", this will also install HOSDMenu and keep all your data intact.

If you want a HOSDMenu-only install using my script, it will mean formatting your HDD. Alternatively, you can install HOSDMenu manually by visiting its GitHub page. However, if you install manually, you'll have no exFAT partition and you won't be able to use the game installer.

I have installed the PSBBN Definitive Patch v3.0, oh so if i do an update it will also install the new HOSD. Cool, thnks !

 

[Dr Alves]

This project are INSANE!
I hope the UI for games are "exchangable" in the future with a coverflow aspect or something else!
Absolutely PERFECT!
When i have time i help in translations with languages what I know!
Thanks a LOT!

 

[Berion]

@Dr Alves UI cannot be change in a way you described because it is Sony one, without source code published. PSBBN was Sony Linux distribution for PS2, which have open src only for GNU stuff, everything else proprietary, stayed closed.

 

[Dr Alves]

@Dr Alves UI cannot be change in a way you described because it is Sony one, without source code published. PSBBN was Sony Linux distribution for PS2, which have open src only for GNU stuff, everything else proprietary, stayed closed.

Dear Beiron,
I understand what you're saying and you have a point! Without the source code it's always more difficult. But nowadays, regarding everything retro, I say "it depends," because in computing, anything is possible.
Sony's Linux distribution is different, however, it may be possible to improve the UI with a patch or a MOD, and with the help of AI, which increasingly does things that were impossible a while ago, they become much easier now!
Let's see what the future holds!

 

[kraevd.pl]

I want to share some feedback for PSBBN. I've been using PSBBN on my PS2 slim for a while.

Pros:

1. modern design
2. everything is on HDD (except for saves)
3. fast game reading speeds (because of HDD)
4. DNS bypass integrated

What can be improved:

1. left-right horizontal navigation trough game list is slow and annoying when you have big library of games. Is that possible to increase navigation speed after press&hold left/right button?
2. you can not rename game in the game list (you have to modify ISO and that breaks checksum). Can PSBBN remember name of the game user gave it?
3. you can not have 2 copies/files of ISO of the same game on HDD with the same ID (SLUS-20946 for example). Probably PSBBN use key-value and game-ID as a key so it creates only 1 menu item per each game-ID even when there are multiple ISO with the same game-ID.
4. you can not change icon or disk image for the games in the game list
5. you can not create game collections/folders for user friendly navigation. This is what I expected when I saw PSBBN UI with tiles.
6. you can not exit game by button combination, you have to reboot console
7. slow boot (38 seconds for SSD installation from pressing power button to start menu). Not sure if it's PSBBN related or PS2 itself or my specific configuration (PS2 slim + IDE resurrector + PSBBN)

 

[Berion]

@Dr Alves Dear Dr.Alves, I'm pretty sure you don't know how AI works. No offense. ^^"

@metalor
Ad2. Saves are inside VMC which are on HDD. If you turn on that feature in OPL settings.

Ad1. Cannot be. APA wasn't designed for iterate so much partitions. Best efficient in this matter you can do achieve is on SSD.
Ad2. You can but that must be done on both sides, APA (partition name in Attribute Area) and disc image which lies on exFAT on MBR.
Ad3. Indeed, that's how it works. You can change GameID of game (in ISO9660+UDF tables, and SYSTEM.CNF) inside disc image before sync attempt.
Ad4. You can. Replace image by yours on target APA partition.
Ad6. You can if you will turn on IGR. But it is not recommending because will not work with all games. Best IGR is younger brother send on a mission. ;p
Ad7. It is full Linux distribution, so it is slow.

 

[Kevstah2004]

I've noticed the cdplayer gets reduced to v1.30 even if your base bios came with higher, is this normal?

 

[CosmicScale]

PSBBN Definitive Project: Já disponível em português!

Special thanks to Emertels for all their hard work on this translation.

 

[CosmicScale]

What can be improved:
1. left-right horizontal navigation trough game list is slow and annoying when you have big library of games. Is that possible to increase navigation speed after press&hold left/right button?

There's nothing I can do to increase the scrolling sleep but tbh, it already zooms through the list super fast if you hold the directional button down. I can scroll through hundreds of games in a few seconds, the artwork soon catches up when I stop scrolling too. But, if you've got 800 games installed and the game you want is right at the end of the list, then it can take awhile to get there. I recommend keeping your game collection to a reasonable number like 500 games. Also, don't forget that you can add up to 4 shortcuts to games and launch them quickly from the Navigator Menu.

2. you can not rename game in the game list (you have to modify ISO and that breaks checksum). Can PSBBN remember name of the game user gave it?

Yes, you can. Games are scanned for their ID then matched to a title in the database. You can rename games by either editing the database, or editing the info.sys file that can be found in the res folder on the game's launcher partition.

3. you can not have 2 copies/files of ISO of the same game on HDD with the same ID (SLUS-20946 for example). Probably PSBBN use key-value and game-ID as a key so it creates only 1 menu item per each game-ID even when there are multiple ISO with the same game-ID.

Yes, you can. If you have two games with the same ID (mods, hacks, etc), you can give one game a unique ID by renaming the ISO in the old OPL style. e.g. "SLUS_200.01.Tekken Tag Tournament.iso". The ID in the filename will then be used.

4. you can not change icon or disk image for the games in the game list

Yes, you can. Place a PNG file in the PSBBN-Definitive-English-Patch/icons/art folder. The file should be named after the game's ID (e.g. SLUS_200.01.png), it should be 256x256 resolution and 8-bit colour. If a game has missing artwork, and you create the artwork yourself, consider submitting it to the PSBBN Art Database so everyone can use it.

5. you can not create game collections/folders for user friendly navigation. This is what I expected when I saw PSBBN UI with tiles.

No, you cannot. That's how Sony designed it and there's nothing I can do about that.

6 . you can not exit game by button combination, you have to reboot console

Yes, you can. If you choose OPL as your game launcher, when running a PS2 game, you can exit the game and return to PSBBN by pressing L1 + L2 + R1 + R2 + SELECT + START, you can also turn off the console by pressing L1 + L2 + L3 + R1 + R2 + R3. You can exit PS1 games and return to PSBBN by pressing L1 + SELECT + START

7. slow boot (38 seconds for SSD installation from pressing power button to start menu). Not sure if it's PSBBN related or PS2 itself or my specific configuration (PS2 slim + IDE resurrector + PSBBN)

That's a little slow, but definitely in the ball park when booting directly from an internal drive. You can greatly speed things up by booting from your memory card instead. Install PS2BBL to your memory card, copy osdboot.elf to your memory cards too, set PS2BBL to autoboot osdboot.elf.

 

[CosmicScale]

I've noticed the cdplayer gets reduced to v1.30 even if your base bios came with higher, is this normal?

Hmm... never noticed that until now. The CD Player that's being loaded is part of HDD-OSD, that must be the latest version Sony offered with it. Totally normal. Not sure what, if anything, was added to later versions of the CD Player software.

 

[PoyrazDereli]

First of all, congratulations on your hard work and effort, it's a fantastic project.

There are a few details that have caught my eye:

- On a 16:9 HDTV (720p) screen, the image appears stretched; could widescreen support be added?

- The screen settings change seems locked within BB Navigator.

- BB Navigator doesn't have an animation of the "Playstation 2" logo on startup. (Is this the case with the original?)

- The spinning dots on the BB Navigator loading screen seem to have a lower resolution compared to a standard browser screen.

- "Adding a shortcut to Navigator" doesn't seem to work (I couldn't find a place to add one, or it simply doesn't function as I suspect).

- All games appear to be "8MB" in size (as if they don't exist on the disk).

- We can't see how much free space is available on the HDD (neither on the device nor in the PowerShell script).

- Automatic file naming for Neutrino, similar to PSBBN, would be nice.

- When launching any application/game from within PSBBN, the "FMCB" logo briefly appears, which seems to prolong the boot time.

Edit:
How can I access the language files for translating the language into Turkish?

 

[Berion]

- All games appear to be "8MB" in size (as if they don't exist on the disk).

It displaying size correct. It is because on APA side, there are PFS partitions which contains loaders, icons etc. PSBBN starting them, then they starting target game loader like OPL with arg telling which exactly disc image to start from exFAT. Disc images are on MBR space, on exFAT partition. PSBBN DP using APA-Jail, not APA. This cannot be changed.

We can't see how much free space is available on the HDD (neither on the device nor in the PowerShell script).

Because Windows not understanding APA. You can see only free space on exFAT partition and only if you not using script because you cannot use tools for both environments at once.

 

[CosmicScale]

- On a 16:9 HDTV (720p) screen, the image appears stretched; could widescreen support be added?

No. The PSBBN menu is 4:3, Sony never added widescreen support and it's not something I'll be able to add. If you don't want the screen to appear stretched, set you TV to 4:3.

- The screen settings change seems locked within BB Navigator.

Sony locked the system settings that changes the aspect ration in PSBBN to 4:3. I've recently added an option to the PSBBN Definitive Project's extras menu that allows you to change that. However, changing this setting will not make any difference to the PSBBN menus, the setting is used by games and HOSDMenu only.

- BB Navigator doesn't have an animation of the "Playstation 2" logo on startup. (Is this the case with the original?)

Yes, that is by Sony's design. That is what the boot sequence looks like when a PS2 console boot from the internal drive.

- The spinning dots on the BB Navigator loading screen seem to have a lower resolution compared to a standard browser screen.

Not something I've ever noticed but again, that's by Sony's design.

- "Adding a shortcut to Navigator" doesn't seem to work (I couldn't find a place to add one, or it simply doesn't function as I suspect).

Adding a shortcut does work. To access the Navigator Menu, you just need to press SELECT on the controller. You can set shortcuts for up to 4 games/apps

- All games appear to be "8MB" in size (as if they don't exist on the disk).

As far as PSBBN and the HOSDMenu Browser are concerned, they don't exists on the disk. They are completely unaware of the exFAT partition.

- We can't see how much free space is available on the HDD (neither on the device nor in the PowerShell script).

You can see the available space on the drive when you connect it to your PC, it will mount in file explorer when connected.

- Automatic file naming for Neutrino, similar to PSBBN, would be nice.

NHDDL gets the game titles from the filename. I don't think there's currently any way to change that. You would have to ask about that on the NHDDL GitHub: https://github.com/pcm720/nhddl

- When launching any application/game from within PSBBN, the "FMCB" logo briefly appears, which seems to prolong the boot time.

That should not happen and I can't think of anything that could cause that. You should only see the FreeMCBoot logo when launching HOSDMenu

How can I access the language files for translating the language into Turkish?

There's a thread on GitHub with a download link to the translation pack and a readme. Just leave a comment there to say hi and I can add you to the list of translators. If you need any technical help with the translation or have any questions, just ask there: https://github.com/CosmicScale/PSBBN-Definitive-English-Patch/issues/299

Edit: Currently, PSBBN only supports Latin-1 characters, making a perfect Turkish translation impossible.

 

[CosmicScale]

PSBBN Definitive Project: ¡Ahora disponible en español!

Special thanks to Nacheras and ViZoRRetrogames for all their hard work on this translation.
http:// https://github.com/CosmicScale/PSBBN-Definitive-English-Patch

 

[CosmicScale]

PSBBN Definitive Project Update: Movie and Photo Installers, OSDMenu Configurator and more!

More Languages:

• In addition to English, Japanese, and German, PSBBN is now available in Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish

Update PS2 System Software:

• Replaces Update PSBBN Software. This new option updates both the PSBBN and OSDMenu System Software
• The PSBBN Definitive Project Main Menu now shows a notification when PS2 system software updates are available

Install Movies:

• The Install Movies option has been added to the Install Media Menu
• You can now place a variety of video formats, including MP4, M4V, MKV, VOB, and more, in the movie folder
• Selecting Install Movies will convert the video files to the PSM format supported by PSBBN
• Videos will then be playable in the PSBBN Movie Channel

Install Photos:

• The Install Photos option has been added to the Install Media Menu
• You can now place a variety of image formats, including JPG, PNG, TIF, GIF, BMP, and more, in the photo folder
• Selecting Install Photos will convert the image files to PNG and resized them if necessary
• Images will then be viewable in the PSBBN Photo Channel

OSDMenu 1.2.0:

• Both OSDMenu MBR and HOSDMenu have been updated to version 1.2.0. The changelog can be found here: https://github.com/pcm720/OSDMenu/releases
• The OSDMenu Configurator app has been added. This allows you to customise your PS2 console by modifying the settings for both OSDMenu MBR and HOSDMenu
• The OSDMenu Configurator will be installed the next time you select Install Games and Apps from the PSBBN Definitive Project Main Menu. It can be launched from the PSBBN Game Collection, or HOSDMenu

HOSDMenu-only installs:

• Increased maximum POPS partition size to 130 GB.
• Added language selection. The selected language is used by the game installer for game titles and the POPS IGR message
• HOSDMenu-only users can now change the language of their install in the Optional Extras Menu

Change Screen Settings:

• Previously locked on PSBBN, you can now change your system's screen settings in the Optional Extras Menu to 4:3, Full, or 16:9
• Note: This setting is used by some games and HOSDMenu. It does not change the aspect ratio of PSBBN itself

Clear Art & Icon Cache:

• In the Optional Extras Menu, you now have the option to clears all previously downloaded artwork and icons that are stored locally on your PC
• You may want to clear the cache if games display incorrect or low-quality artwork, as updated artwork may now be available
• Running the Game Installer will then download the latest artwork and icons

PSBBN Launcher for Windows:

• Added support for installing games from a network drive
• Added a prompt that displays supported files for the Movie Installer and Photo Installer
• Corrected minimum drive capacity warning message
• Bug fixes

Bug Fixes and Improvements:

• Enabled PS2 logo when launching physical PS2 game discs for fresh installs. Users upgrading can turn this option on using the OSDMenu Configurator. MechaPwn users can now launch imports and master discs without skipping the PlayStation 2 logo or encountering a corrupted logo screen
• When reassigning the Cross and Circle buttons, your preference is now stored and no longer reset when installing updates
• Improved the title ID extraction from VCD files
• PSBBN Installer display the typical size requirements for music and movies when creating partitions
• A separate log file is used when installing and updating
• Fixed PSU extraction when folder names exceed 12 characters
• Fixed an issue with Navigator Menu shortcut being removed on reboot
• Fixed capacity and available space calculations for drives smaller than 128 GB
• Added a delay between unmounting and mounting filesystems to improve reliability
• Fixed error tracking for SQLite
• Improved art downloads for SAS and ELF apps

 

[Kevstah2004]

How can we confirm region patching works? just try booting a out of region game without it red screening?
the ROMVER info isn't altered on the osdmenu to report the region change like

AC - American Retail Console
JD - Japanese Developer Console

the ROMVER gets saved in the .nvm file also so it shouldn't be too hard to save it also since the ps1 texture smoothing & cd speed options are being saved into it properly
with this new version using the configurator.

Region info also has to matchup with VERSTR, letter before the copyright info, this is used by the PS1 emulator to set it's region, the compilation date for both the ps1 & ps2 bios.

 

[CosmicScale]

How can we confirm region patching works? just try booting a out of region game without it red screening?
the ROMVER info isn't altered on the osdmenu to report the region change like

AC - American Retail Console
JD - Japanese Developer Console

the ROMVER gets saved in the .nvm file also so it shouldn't be too hard to save it also since the ps1 texture smoothing & cd speed options are being saved into it properly
with this new version using the configurator.

Region info also has to matchup with VERSTR, letter before the copyright info, this is used by the PS1 emulator to set it's region, the compilation date for both the ps1 & ps2 bios.

For questions about OSDMenu, you'd have to ask the developer. The OSDMenu GitHub can be found here: https://github.com/pcm720/OSDMenu

 

[TnA]

the ROMVER gets saved in the .nvm file also so it shouldn't be too hard to save it also since the ps1 texture smoothing & cd speed options are being saved into it properly
with this new version using the configurator.

No, it is NOT saved in NVM nor an NVM file......!

 

[Kevstah2004]

No, it is NOT saved in NVM nor an NVM file......!

So it's just the model info that's saved to the nvm then? not the full ROMVER string?
Region is picked from the last number of SCPH-7500? or DTL-7500?
It displays C o D based on SCPH or DTL?

There's also another compilation date data chunk seperate to ROMVER & VERSTR that's regenerated with romman everytime with the current date from the .csv file but it's not saved to a file, it contains the binary name & Sony host terminal computer name it was built upon, I think it's repeated once or twice in the bios file?

 

[TnA]

No, neither...!
OSDmenu (and variants) does it in RAM!