Comprehensive List of Natively Supported Compression Formats

[Aorin]

You can currently use single disc pbps for each disc of a multidisc game and load them individually fine. You just can't swap on the fly in RetroArch using the disc eject and next/prev hotkeys and you have to rename your save file to carry it on to the next disc, since the Mednafen PSX core creates separate saves for each disc (because they are separate files). Both of those should be fixed when they add support for multidisc pbps (all discs in a single file).

 

I found out after experimenting a bit that .m3u playlists pointing to multiple .pbp discs do work. But I have crashing issues when loading those sometimes if I also have the "skip BIOS" core option on.

Nice to know that, so you can easily swap discs with a pre configured key and take advantage of the save progress since the core will assume the multi disc pbp file is a single file, right? For example, Grandia (USA).pbp (with both discs inside), the save would be named Grandia (USA).srm and this very file will be used for the second disc, right?

 

Maybe waiting a little more so the devs will make the cores stable enough to both run multi discs pbp and m3u so we won't have any problem, I think we'll also need the Rocket Launcher to support multi disc pbp files since it needs an index of each rom/disc.

Or, we can ignore the fact that a game has multi discs and put only one pbp file, for example Final Fantasy VII (USA).pbp with all discs inside it, and swap inside Retroarch when needed, any other ideas?

[Awakened]

Nice to know that, so you can easily swap discs with a pre configured key and take advantage of the save progress since the core will assume the multi disc pbp file is a single file, right? For example, Grandia (USA).pbp (with both discs inside), the save would be named Grandia (USA).srm and this very file will be used for the second disc, right?

 

Yep.

[Awakened]

Multi disc pbp support is working now! I've only tested Chrono Cross so far, but it works just like using a .m3u playlist. The disc change hotkeys work and you get a single save file for all discs.

[Aorin]

Nice one Hiei, thanks for updating us!

Anyway, I think this doubt will arise soon or later.

 

Although this multi disc pbp feature is very useful, how do you use it in Hyperspin and Rocket Launcher?

I believe Rocket Launcher will recognize only the first disc.

So like I said in the ealier posts, should we use only a Chrono Cross (USA) instead of Chrono Cross (USA) (Disc 1) Chrono Cross (USA) (Disc 2), and so on?

 

And, taking a 5 discs game like Riven as an example, this game prompts us to swap discs when needed, but it's not sequential, I can go to the 3rd disc from the first, and even when, at some point, I'm at the 4th or 5th disc, I need to go back to the second, and the first disc sometimes.

Does Retroarch remember the last disc used when I exit, say, in the 3rd disc? So I can just launch the game Riven (Europe) and it will load the right disc for me?

[Awakened]

You would launch Chrono Cross (USA).pbp from HyperSpin or RocketLauncher. Then you handle disc switching inside RetroArch with the hotkeys.

 

It doesn't remember what disc you left off on. So you would have to launch the game, hit the open tray hotkey and then disc next until the yellow text tells you you're on the right disc, then close the tray. Then reset from RetroArch's menu or with the reset hotkey. If you don't have the skip BIOS option on, you could probably switch discs fast enough during the boot sequence to not have to reset. But yeah, it's slightly inconvenient.

[Aorin]

You would launch Chrono Cross (USA).pbp from HyperSpin or RocketLauncher. Then you handle disc switching inside RetroArch with the hotkeys.

 

It doesn't remember what disc you left off on. So you would have to launch the game, hit the open tray hotkey and then disc next until the yellow text tells you you're on the right disc, then close the tray. Then reset from RetroArch's menu or with the reset hotkey. If you don't have the skip BIOS option on, you could probably switch discs fast enough during the boot sequence to not have to reset. But yeah, it's slightly inconvenient.

Nice to know that, maybe Rocket Launcher guys could sort that since they are the masters of complicated stuff like this.

I think that it would be and will be better for my current setup if I make all the multi disc games use one save file in common, so I can start through the last Disc I was on. Maybe until this is totally sorted out.

[thcdgaf]

i dont know how to quote on android but gcz seems work better than wbfs but test more maybe tomorrow...

Sent from my LGL16C

[OneBadVeggie]

Hey!

 

They added PBP support in Retroarch for the Mednafen PSX core, saw it on their forum here. Tested it myself, worked fine for the one game I used it on. Gonna try a multidisk game next.

 

I just want to make sure I have all the steps right to convert. I currently have all my games zipped, so...

 

1. Extract game from "game.7z"

2. Mount "game.cue" in Daemon Tools.

3. Use IMGburn to rip mounted game to one .bin/.cue file.

4. Use PSX2PSP to compress newly made "game.bin" to "game.pbp"?

 

I'm mostly asking because this gonna be a long process, and if there is a quicker way, please do tell! (full Database of 1700 PSX games...)

 

Edit: How does one make a single multidisk game using PSX2PSP 1.3?

 

Edit 2: Just used PSX2PSP 1.4.2 to make a multidisk game. Was able to switch disks via Rertroarch. Worked great.

[Awakened]

I've tested all 70 games in my collection and they all work great in pbp format with the latest core

 

My Playstation folder is so much tidier with only one file per game and I save about 16GB with the compression.

[SkyHighGam3r]

Man, I've been so focused on XBOX games I haven't been keeping up with this stuff. Spent the last while searching for the games (XBOX games are HARD to find) downloading the games, extracting from zip to xiso, then extracting from the xiso to the FTP ready folders, then transferring those folders via FTP to the XBOX itself... Almost done though... phew... lol

Turns out in my absense: RetroArch had a huge update, AND now has PBP support? That's crazy!

I'll update the front page to reflect this information now that it's in the official update. I'll also try to test it personally this week sometime as well.

It's gonna be a **** to convert all those bin/cue into PBP though...Does PSX2PSP 1.4.2 have a batch process by chance?

[SkyHighGam3r]

Nvm to that last question about batching.... Seems that I already added that to the front page a while back.

Which completely exemplifies why I felt this thread was so important lol.


That being said.... On creating an .M3U playlist file...

I didn't see that I had a tutorial on that posted, so it's probably something we should go over. It's just a text file, if I'm right? I feel like there was some kind of naming scheme involved...

[Aorin]

Nvm to that last question about batching.... Seems that I already added that to the front page a while back.

Which completely exemplifies why I felt this thread was so important lol.

That being said.... On creating an .M3U playlist file...

I didn't see that I had a tutorial on that posted, so it's probably something we should go over. It's just a text file, if I'm right? I feel like there was some kind of naming scheme involved...

It's been a long road since I started converting PSX isos to PBP, and when I started to use batch processes for that I had to deal with somethings you'll want to take note.

PSX2PSP 1.4.2 is the latest version we know, and it's been this way for years, still is a great tool and doesn't have any compatibility issues with newer Windows.

But, if you'll batch convert your Bin+Cue to PBP, and mainly the Multi Track Bin (+ lots of tracks)+Cue to PBP, remember you'll need to first separate everything that is multi track in a separate folder to make them all become single tracked (aka Bin+Cue).

So far, so good, now that you have only single track Bin+Cue there, you'll batch convert them to PBPs.

But don't use PSX2PSP 1.4.2 or you'll have as a result a buch of folders with the game IDs, those SLUS0000, SCUS0000 and stuff, it's a bug of this version (1.4.2) and it doesn't matter what options you change it will keep creating folders with IDs, instead of folders with the game title, for example a folder like > "

 

Dino Crisis\eboot.pbp"

 

For this, use PSX2PSP 1.3, and make sure you select 'options\create title folder when converting'

 

This tool was meant for PSP, and PSPs can only recognize PSX games when they are inside a folder and they are exactly named as "eboot.pbp", any other name won't work and will become a "corrupt file" in the PSP system.

 

I don't know if someone already developed a new tool that could make such batch process less complicated, I believe an improved tool can be easily created by a programmer as PBPs are getting more and more popular thanks to almost all PSX emulators support it now.

A tool that could, in a batch process, make multi track bins become one and then convert it to PBP, and then name it according to the original Bin file would be perfect.

 

So, in short, PSX2PSP 1.3 will convert Bins to PBP and will put each converted game into a folder:

 

Crash Bandicoot\eboot.pbp

Resident Evil\eboot.pbp

Tomb Raider\eboot.pbp

 

You'll have your folder with the game title, it won't add any tag like (USA) or anything, just the main title, you'll have to name each pbp according to your database.

I converted over 800 titles to PBP this way, it was more than a year ago, I think it was the best thing I did for this system, the roms folder are clean, 1 file per game, no need to decompress before playing and lots of GBs saved.

 

Maybe awakened has a better way to convert PSX games to pbp, maybe I followed the hard way.

[Awakened]

Maybe awakened has a better way to convert PSX games to pbp, maybe I followed the hard way.

 

Nah, I converted them one by one and renamed each pbp by hand

 

It'd be nice if someone made a simple command line tool you could drop in a folder full of .bin files and run once to convert all to .pbp.

[Aorin]

Nah, I converted them one by one and renamed each pbp by hand

 

It'd be nice if someone made a simple command line tool you could drop in a folder full of .bin files and run once to convert all to .pbp.

Yeah you can batch convert them at once into pbp, but them you'll still have to rename them by hand, even so, it's not a lot of work, if you have the full PSX set, then you're in trouble lol

 

I used this sequence, viewing all folders in a list:

 

Down Arrow+F2+Ctrl+C+Enter+Enter+Down Arrow+F2+Ctrol+V+Enter+Backspace

 

If you repeat this, you'll do all this without thinking, I renamed 100 games in less than one minute this way.

 

Hope that helps, and good luck!

[OneBadVeggie]

I'm actually having some issues with the batch process. For some reason, the program keeps freezing up after the first game is converted.

[Aorin]

I'm actually having some issues with the batch process. For some reason, the program keeps freezing up after the first game is converted.

If PSX2PSP is freezing, check if you're using version 1.4.2 which is the latest version, if so, find 1.3 instead as 1.4.2 has bugs in its batch process.

 

In 1.3, check the highlighted options:

 

 

Also make sure you're converting a single Bin+Cue game, if your game has multiple Bin tracks, you should make it become a single file using the batch process that Iggy shared with us some time ago, I'm sure you'll find such files in the first page of this thread.

 

After you check the above, try the batch again and let us know if it worked.

 

PS: The cue files aren't needed, PSX2PSP will only convert the Bin file to PBP, so you can even remove the cue files for single Bin+Cue games, even those that were multi track bins.

One more thing, I assumed you were talking about PSX2PSP when you mention "the program keeps freezing up after the first game is converted", so I'm not sure if it's PSX2PSP or the batch process that converts multi track games into single track games.

[OneBadVeggie]

Alright, I've got that all figured out, but now I'm having an error with IMGburn when converting some discs from multi-bin file to a single bin file. I just want to see if any of you guys have seen/fixed/know what this error is. It doesn't happen with every game, and I don't see a correlation either (Other than a few are from the same series, but other games in said series worked fine). Anyway, attached a screen of said error.

 

 

[Aorin]

I don't have any idea of what this error could be, probably an internal IMG Burn error, broken Iso, but probably not a iso problem at all.

Anyway, I want to ask you, why don't you use the batch process that make use of Iso Buster instead?

 

I used Img Burn for some games, all worked fine, but in the most part, the batch process I mentioned worked fine, you could try that if IMG Burn isn't helping with some games.

[OneBadVeggie]

Basically because IMGburn is free and ISObuster is not.

[Aorin]

Basically because IMGburn is free and ISObuster is not.

I understand.

[Aorin]

You still should try Iso Buster, the Free and Pro versions don't differ too much, actually the trial/free version will ask you to register from time to time, and in between the batch process, nothing you can't handle.

[Aorin]

So, guys, another compression method for a new system, as WIIU emulation is coming along pretty nice lately, I bet this will be really useful for everyone.

WUD to WUX conversion, a really nice conversion I can say.

 

This text is copied from GBAtemp:

 

How does it work?
It detects duplicate sectors and only stores them once. Essentially this leads to all the empty ranges being shaved off, storing only ranges which contain file or filesystem data.
Although the algorithm is simple, it works really well. In almost all cases it will reduce the size by more than 50% (12GB+!)

Examples (uncompressed size is always 23.3GB):
Super Mario World 3D -> 2.61GB (20.69GB saved)
DKC Tropical Freeze -> 11.7GB (11.6GB saved)
Zelda WW HD -> 2.70GB (20.7GB saved)
Darksiders 2 -> 9.43GB (13.87GB saved)
Mario Party 10 -> 4.01GB (19.29GB saved)

 

Link for the tool:

 

https://gbatemp.net/threads/wii-u-image-wud-compression-tool.397901/

 

PS: The conversion tool is a exe file alone, like Maxcso for PS2 and PSP, you just have to drag and drop your WUD file on the exe and it will convert them to Wux, I just tried that, the tool also checks for errors.

[Aorin]

Dear friends and HDD sellers, I have news for another compression.

 

I'm compressing PS2 games to CSO, it has lots of advantages over Gzip, it ends as a clean and 1 file only, it doesn't need an index file, the emulator launches it as an uncompressed iso, it saves far more space compared to an uncompressed iso, it doesn't have much difference compared to a Gz+temp file though.

I noticed that there are games that comes in Bin format, I read that PS2 has a lot of CD-Rom games, I always thought all its games were in DVD media, these CD-rom games end up in Bin, because the CD mode is different from the DVD mode.

With that, I didn't want to have CSO and Gzips, I wanted all my isos to be compressed to CSO, so I ended up finding a simple tool to make Bins become Isos, and now they can all become CSO.

 

If you are interested too, you can get PS2 Bin to Iso program here:

http://psx-scene.com/forums/content/pc-tool-ps2-iso2bin-v0-1-krat0s-4076/

 

It's intended only for PS2 games that were released in CD-Rom medias, they all end up in Bin, instead of Iso, it won't work for any other bins for any other console.

I tested and it works flawlessly, all songs, everything should be fine, but anyway, I can't run all the games till the end, but I believe everything is fine.

[alcoatjez]

Thanks a lot for this topic. I found out a lot of new and useful information.

Personally, I only like compression formats that can be reversed. I'm busy with my GameCube set ATM and looking into GCZ compression.

 

Can someone please compress one of their GameCube ISOs with Dolphin to GCZ and post the crc32 of the ISO and GCM?

I'm wondering if this produces the same file every time. If it does, I can create a clrmamepro datfile for the complete GCM set that people can re-create.

 

Thanks

 

[Aorin]

It's really hard to know that, I'm posting mine anyway, I never cared about CRCs since we have so much sources to get content from, if I dump a GC disc to iso in my PC will it have the same CRC as from other person that dumped it too?

Anyway, I used a gui tool to calculate CRCs so you can make sure if it creates the same CRC when compressed to GCZ.

http://esrg.sourceforge.net/utils_win_up/md5sum/

 

Files to signature:  1.

--------------------

[001/001] \HyperSpin\Roms\Nintendo GameCube\Super Mario Sunshine (USA).gcz

Size: 1,416,728,028

CRC-32: ECD87C41

MD-5: 0edf1ec830b4db523e154a60700ec989

-------------------- FILE SIGNATURE COMPLETE --------------------