PS2 [Testers Needed] Open PS2 Loader with ZSO support (compressed ISO)

Midnight Club Street Racing and Gradius V both work

MCSR has some stuttering in FMV, but otherwise doesn't freeze, is playable

RRV is a CD based game, perhaps that is why it is freezing ?

Next I test Street Fighter EX3, Kings Field IV and Eternal Ring
 
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VTSTech said:
Midnight Club Street Racing and Gradius V both work

MCSR has some stuttering in FMV, but otherwise doesn't freeze, is playable

RRV is a CD based game, perhaps that is why it is freezing ?

Next I test Street Fighter EX3, Kings Field IV and Eternal Ring
Click to expand...

Way of The Samurai is a CD game as well and it works compressed. Try Mode 1 and Mode 2.
 
Tried a couple of games I have on hand:

10000 Bullets, Ape Escape 2, Evergrace, Gregory Horror Show, Jade Cocoon 2, King's Field: The Ancient City, MS Saga, Robot Warlords, Shining Force EXA

All work just as they did uncompressed, the ones with stuttering FMVs still stutter about the same. Which is still a huge win in my eyes, since this means massive storage savings without any evident downsides. Massive thanks for implementing the ZSO support!

And there's no perceptible difference between ZSOs made using ziso and maxcso, I tested all the games compressed with both. Btw, maxcso can be batched like so:
for %%1 in (*.iso) do maxcso --format=zso "%%1" -o "%%1.zso"
 
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I tested it with Super Galdelic Hour (on USB) and it always stuck on the contestants introductory (The music and game animation still runs though), particularly after your QTs introduction it stays there and won't move to your opponents (already tried it with any possible modes). Haven't tested it on HDD yet.

Also, is the ZSO format not compatible with PS2 logo? Everytime I launch the game with that format it skips the logo despite I already enabled it in the OPL settings.
 
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I did convert the BIN/CUE to ISO for RRV and then fed that to ziso.py

Haven't tried giving it a bin yet.

tbh with a 96% compression rate, i'll just keep using the ISO. It's like a 16MB savings with ZSO

Code: 
C:\ZSO>ziso.py -c 1 "C:\FTP\GAMES\PS2\Ridge Racer V.iso" RRV.ZSO
ziso-python 1.0 by Virtuous Flame
Compress 'C:\FTP\GAMES\PS2\Ridge Racer V.iso' to 'RRV.ZSO'
Total File Size 653264896 bytes
block size  2048  bytes
index align  1
compress level  1
ziso compress completed , total size = 629756647 bytes , rate 96%

Armored Core 2 works

Gran Turismo 3 gave me 'Game is fragmented.' Which is unusual for something *just* copied i think. I will try to compress that one again.
 
Not all games will have the same compression level, I've seen games that compress to 99% and that's hilarious. Just use ISO in that case.
For CD games, I did try Tekken Tag Tournament, but I had already downloaded it converted to ISO, so I don't know the exact steps to convert CUE/BIN to ISO.
 
Eternal Ring & Burnout 2 work

SFEX3 black screen on me every time. Gonna re-test GT3 next.

GT3 Works :) Not a great ratio thou

Code: 
C:\ZSO>ziso.py -c 1 "C:\FTP\GAMES\PS2\Gran Turismo 3 - A-Spec.iso" GT3.ZSO
ziso-python 1.0 by Virtuous Flame
Compress 'C:\FTP\GAMES\PS2\Gran Turismo 3 - A-Spec.iso' to 'GT3.ZSO'
Total File Size 3878666240 bytes
block size  2048  bytes
index align  2
compress level  1
ziso compress completed , total size = 3711431474 bytes , rate 95%

AC2 has a nice compression ratio

Code: 
C:\ZSO>ziso.py -c 1 "D:\DVD\Armored Core 2.iso" AC2.ZSO
ziso-python 1.0 by Virtuous Flame
Compress 'D:\DVD\Armored Core 2.iso' to 'AC2.ZSO'
Total File Size 3546939392 bytes
block size  2048  bytes
index align  2
compress level  1
ziso compress completed , total size = 1818938592 bytes , rate 51%
 
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I've only compressed about a dozen games so far.

Eternal Ring has a nice ratio

Code: 
C:\ZSO>ziso.py -c 1 "C:\FTP\GAMES\PS2\Eternal Ring.iso" ER.ZSO
ziso-python 1.0 by Virtuous Flame
Compress 'C:\FTP\GAMES\PS2\Eternal Ring.iso' to 'ER.ZSO'
Total File Size 4637687808 bytes
block size  2048  bytes
index align  2
compress level  1
ziso compress completed , total size = 996973206 bytes , rate 21%

So does King's Field IV

Code: 
C:\ZSO>ziso.py -c 1 "C:\FTP\GAMES\PS2\Kings Field IV.iso" KF4.ZSO
ziso-python 1.0 by Virtuous Flame
Compress 'C:\FTP\GAMES\PS2\Kings Field IV.iso' to 'KF4.ZSO'
Total File Size 3464921088 bytes
block size  2048  bytes
index align  2
compress level  1
ziso compress completed , total size = 546718830 bytes , rate 15%
 
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Hey guys, new release here: https://github.com/JoseAaronLopezGarcia/Open-PS2-Loader-ZSO/releases/tag/r111
PS2 Logo is now working for ZSO files on all devices!

On a side note, many users are experiencing a black screen when playing ZSO games on internal HDD.
We have come to the conclusion that ZSO actually reads data at a faster rate than plain ISO and this introduces many timing issues.
Most games can easily be fixed by using Mode 1 and/or Mode 2, and maybe even lowering the DMA speed and HDD Cache.
 
60fpshacksrock said:
Way of The Samurai is a CD game as well and it works compressed. Try Mode 1 and Mode 2.
Click to expand...
OPL only reads Mode 1 Level 1 images.
Packing Mode 2 into an ISO is not standard either.

swosho said:
And there's no perceptible difference between ZSOs made using ziso and maxcso, I tested all the games compressed with both.
Click to expand...
Not true... maxcso cuts the first 16 sectors, which includes the PS2-Logo!
Those compressed with the script (or app based on it), actually can be uncompressed to the same original ISO with the same hashes, unlike in maxcso's case!

Berion said:
(none of the PS2 games using the rest so it is safe to strip this data).
Click to expand...
AFAIR there were very few discs which DO!

VTSTech said:
Gran Turismo 3 gave me 'Game is fragmented.' Which is unusual for something *just* copied i think. I will try to compress that one again.
Click to expand...
Re-compression Will not fix fragmented files.
 
TnA said:
Not true... maxcso cuts the first 16 sectors, which includes the PS2-Logo!
Those compressed with the script (or app based on it), actually can be uncompressed to the same original ISO with the same hashes, unlike in maxcso's case!
Click to expand...
Aparently this is not true either, maxcso doesn't skip the first 16 sectors it seems. The issue with PS2 Logo was the function that checked the hash of it, which attempted to read it as a plain ISO. It should work now on latest release.
 
Oh! But do maxcso compressed ZSOs unpack to an ISO with the same hash, just like it does when compressed with the Python-script?
 
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