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[XPort]

PCSXBox - PSX Emulator for XBox v5


What's New:
- Fixed bug when reloading favorites list containing files with spaces in them
- Fixed bug where screenshots were not displaying on favorites list
- Samba/NetBIOS library updated and added option for a nameserver
- XBE should now load regardless of any screwy settings
- New option - see full path or just filename on favorites list
- Changed location of save files to E:SAVESPCSXBOX
  Existing save files will be moved there.
- User definable save directory.  If you don't like the default of
  E:SAVESPCSXBOX you can change it via the PCSX.INI file
- New option - overwrite D:PCSX.INI and D:EMUSKINSSKINNAMESETTINGS.INI
  files with current settings.  Makes it easier to package up your custom
  skins.
- Loading a new skin should work correctly now
- Record/Playback feature - record your gameplay in the emu and then
  play it back again.  Record up to 10 minutes of gameplay.
- New main menu option "Configure Game"  Set all configuration for a game
  from the main menu so you can just click on the game to play it.

============================
Note on Samba/NetBIOS Shares
============================

There are two INI file settings relating to Samba/NetBIOS sharing and they both
reside in the [GENERAL] section of PCSX.INI:

smbshare=smb://username:password@workgroup:ip_address/computername/sharename
smb_nameserver=192.168.0.1


The smbshare parameter accepts many different formats.  Here are the most
common:

smbshare=smb://username:password@workgroup/computername/sharename
smbshare=smb://username:password@workgroup:ip_address/computername/sharename
smbshare=smb://username:password@computername/sharename
smbshare=smb://username:password@computername:ip_address/sharename

Please try all of the above combinations before deciding it does not work.
Also be aware that some people have to select their SMB drive in PCSXBox a few
times before any files appear.

If it's still not working, then set the nameserver equal to the IP address of
the computer you are trying to reach or set it equal to your NetBIOS name server.
(If you don't know what a NetBIOS name server is, then just set it to the
IP address of the computer you are trying to reach.)


Also remember that when you make changes to PCSX.INI, you have to do a
"Force Reload of D:*.INI" from the Configuration Menu or else the changes
you made to PCSX.INI will not be loaded.  



=============================
User Definable Save Directory
=============================

There is another new INI file setting that can be placed in the PCSX.INI
[GENERAL] section :

save_dir=E:SAVESPCSXBOX

This specifies the directory where you want PCSXBox to save your files.  Please
note that the PCSX.INI and SKIN_SETTINGS.INI files that reflect your actual
PCSXbox settings and skin settings will *always* reside in the default save
directory which is E:SAVeSPCSXBOX    

If you already have saved games, don't worry.  PCSXBox will move those save
game files to the new directory automatically the first time you run v5.



Stella, Gnuboy, SMSPlus, FCEUltra, HUGO, NeoPop, DGen, Bochs, HUGO-CD, FMSXBox,
Bliss, WinSTon, Gens, Z26, StepmaniaX, PCSXBox....what's next?


Enjoy!

[XBLamer]

YOUR THE MAN XPORT - DOWN LOADING NOW MY KIDS WILL LOVE THIS

Seriously thank you.  This will make it so much crisper I really appreciate the changes. YOU ROCK

Thanks again

[noodle1009]

Nice work Xport!  Thanks for the release!

I hope you left 'schmoke and a pancake' support in!

[rhonk]

any compadibility updates? (*eyes his legend of legaia disc*) gracias amigo  

[chilin_dude]

Cheers xport this quick release is much appreciated!
Can't wait to do the screen capture thing.. please say you're adding this to all emus?
Also about that where is the capture saved and in what format...maybe so we can transfer to pc?
T.I.A

n.b. to the person who asked about compatibility: it aint mentioned so i doubt it.

[XPort]

There will not be any compatibility updates to PCSXbox until newer versions of PCSX or newer versions of Pete's Plugins source code are released.  

Please stop asking to "fix this game" or increase compatibility.


From the NFO:

QUOTE

Screenshot directory - default is E:SCREENSHOTS - goes in [GENERAL] section

[XBLamer]

Some feed back looks real good especially the favourites. easy to navigate and when each game is tweaked auto loads well.

when 001.png is deleted doesnt auto default to next png  (002.png) on favourites or game page.

Feature request abilaty to delete screne caps, Doing manually now though and is very easy with ftp (hence I found out you have to have a 001.png or no more caps on screen

Great work again thanks

[Dante_Ali]

I'm starting to wonder whether it would be worthwhile to implement a sort of ROMStatus feature similar to the one MAMEox has. Instead of telling you which games work or don't, or whether they run at a good speed or are very slow, this list would dictate the CPU and Graphics settings for each game. It's already becoming apparent, playing with the settings alot on PCSXbox V4, that lots of game can be made to run at a very good speed (near indistinguishable from the PSX version) by tweaking the settings.

For instance, the Resident Evil games are pretty basic technologically - just static backgrounds and only polys to render for the character and zombies, so it doesn't require much CPU power. When this game run with no frameskipping and framelimiting turned off, it runs at 4x times its original speed. Here's where the graphics filters come into use. Turn on the AdvanceMAME or SuperEagle mode and this will slow down the game - but to its advantage this time since the game was running too fast. It's now close to its original speed (I would say as close as it can get) which is great - far better than turning frameskip on which makes it a bit laggy.

The downside to this is that the door animations are slower than they are on the real PSX. I've noticed that if you turn off Graphics Filtering they will play at normal speed.

This is just one example of a game that can run at close to original speed by playing around with the settings.

Here's what I proposing: a sort of compatibility listing (in the form of .XML or whatever) that could dictate the CPU and graphics settings for each game so that it runs at its best (meaning best in terms of most playable, best speed and best sound). Perhaps Xport could take a look at the PCSXbox compatibility listings on this forum (though some of them are not very accurate) to see which settings work best for each game, and then implement these into an .XML.

The only problem would be how a game would be recognised. There is no unique manufacturer checksum in a BIN file like there is for game ROMs, so perhaps BIN files could be recognised by filename. If the BIN file is called Resident Evil 1.bin, it will load the settings contained in the ROMStatus XML and then play it.

Of course, if someone doesn't like this, they could always turn it Off in the options. But it would be a nice feature for the average noob - someone who doesn't necessarily know what all the settings mean or what to choose from.

Let me know what you think, Xport.

[chilin_dude]

!--QuoteBegin--XPort+Jul 12 2003, 07:17 PM-->

QUOTE (XPort @ Jul 12 2003, 07:17 PM)

There will not be any compatibility updates to PCSXbox until newer versions of PCSX or newer versions of Pete's Plugins source code are released.   Please stop asking to "fix this game" or increase compatibility. From the NFO: QUOTE Screenshot directory - default is E:SCREENSHOTS - goes in [GENERAL] section

I wasn't talking about screenshots i was talking about

QUOTE

- Record/Playback feature - record your gameplay in the emu and then play it back again. Record up to 10 minutes of gameplay.

-
where

[XPort]

Dante_Ali - Yes, it would be nice to have a system to auto-config a new game you want to play on PCSXBox, but I'm afraid it's not going to be me who creates a listing with all the appropriate settings.  Firstly, the compatibility list is merely a guideline - it does not contain the kind of specifics needed to create a true database of settings.  The first step would be to gather up the exact settings for games.  This would have to be a community task involving some sort of central, public repository.  All you would need to do in order to contribute to this repository is to play a game and tweak the settings until it plays just the way you'd like it to play.  Then go to the saves directory for PCSXBox ( default is E:\SAVES\PCSXBOX unless you've changed it in the PCSX.INI file) and locate the *.STG file.  This is the settings file that contains all the settings for a particular game.  Let's say you launched the game "CASTLE.BIN".  The settings file would be located at E:\SAVES\PCSXBOX\CASTLE.STG.  These STG files can be collected somewhere and when there is a large enough collection of them where an XML file could be made, then I'll consider adding support for that to PCSXBox.  The public repository would probably be a good enough first step, however, so that people can simply download the settings file they need and upload it to their XBox.

chilin_dude:

Again, from the NFO

QUOTE

There is another new INI file setting that can be placed in the PCSX.INI [GENERAL] section : save_dir=E:\SAVES\PCSXBOX This specifies the directory where you want PCSXBox to save your files.

The format is simply a binary representation of the emu buttons pressed each cycle.  It's not compatible with any PSX emu since, as far as I know, there is no PSX emu that does this.  It does not "capture screens" - it's actually playing the game from a predefined point (via a save state).  File names for save states are *.st# ( # = 0-9) and file names for recordings are *.sr#.

[chevi]

it will be really good if the config files for games will be included with emu to increase compatability as no everybody knows how to tweak the settings. I think people will help submitting their config files, perhaps we will have to create a naming convention to name the cue and bin or just make a txt file with all games and how they should be named to be recognised by the emu and include it in the emu.
I know it can result a hard work but would help lot of people  

[Dante_Ali]

I'll try to get the ball rolling. I'll post a thread (probably tomorrow) with a link to my site with a few STG files up for grabs. I'll only have 5mb webspace (lousy ISP is the main culprit and the fact I don't like free webspace providers and their million pop-ups free of charge) and a low data limit so when the traffic increases some mirrors would be nice.

I'll probably have STGs up for the following games by tomorrow:
Persona 2 - Eternal Punishment
Mega Man 8
Resident Evil 1
Mega Man X4
Castlevania: SOTN
Tekken 2

And a few others  I probably forgot or will be testing later in the evening. Hopefully it will catch on - it would be even better if somebody would beat me to the punch.

This post has been edited by Dante_Ali on Jul 12 2003, 08:54 PM

[XBLamer]

Maybe you can get it added to romcenter.com prog and  have the config files submitted as well some how. (That would be a nice little project if someone has some time on there hands)  

[Zanime]

Thanks so much Xport, I will enjoy some classics on my Xbox.



Oh, and you never replied to my request.  Is it possiable that you fix the stepmania health-bar bug?  PLEASSSSSSSSSSSSE?

[anti-pop]

Xport, here's two UI details i noticed, don't know if you want to fix them:

- When using a fade speed of 0, load_game_splash is never displayed.

- If i stop background music, play a game, exit game, when back to the menu, the background music starts again, even though it was stopped before.
(Maybe it's intented to work this way, or maybe it's impossible not to start background music again...)