Best way for PSX Multidisc games

[patl]

Use the .pbp format. It compress the PSX diskimage and save about 30% and you could put
multiple images in one file.

On Windows download the program PSX2PSP (latest version 1.4.2)
You can input 1 to 5 images from one game. The output is one file „EBOOT.PBP“
[attachment file=”psx2psp_shot31.jpg”]
You can rename the file.
lr_PCSX_ReARMed can read this file.

Open Rgui and select:
– Settings
– Input Settings
– Scroll down until „Disk eject toggle“, setup a key or button for it.
– The same for „Disk next“ and „Disk prev“

Leave the Rgui.
To Swap a disk, first you have to press the hotkey and the button you have set for
„Disk eject toggle“. With this the virtual PSX tray is opened.
Then with the buttons for „Disk next“ /„Disk prev“ select the image that you want to load.
Push again the „Disk eject toggle“ button to close the tray.

You don’t need to restart the game or emulator or so. The game will automatically find the new selected image.

To test put all 3 disks of FF7 in one .pbp file and load the game.
When you are at the screen where you can select „New Game“, chose the second CD as described above. Then you will get a screen that you should insert the first CD.
If you then chose again the first CD as described above, the game will continue as it should.

[denus]

Nice tutorial, thanks!!

[Anonymous]

I’ve run into a problem with Metal Gear Solid (PSX) where I eject the disk, switch to disc 2, close the tray, and then hit start as the game tells me to. When I do this it says Checking Now and never advances. I don’t know if this is a problem with the game file or something else I’ve missed but it doesn’t ever seem to be able to successfully read and launch disc 2.

I’m going to try and do the conversion again and see if I missed something in the creation of the game file. It loads disc 1 just fine when I launch the game from emulation station.

EDIT:
So I did the conversion again and this time the file size was much larger so that maybe an indication that something went wrong earlier even though it claimed to contain two discs. When I replaced the .pbp on the retropie and fired up MGS I was able to switch between disc 1 and 2 without a problem. Thanks for the tutorial!

[hobo]

Just a warning, this method does NOT work for Final Fantasy VIII! The resulting .pbp is too big (2.06GB), apparently; it spits out a “Value too large for defined data type” error and exits back to ES without loading. Is there a workaround for this, or is it just impossible to run this game as a .pbp file on lr-PCSX-ReARMed?

[juicebag85]

Works great. Thank you very much.
But if you just edit it inside the rom it wont save it, so that you have to configure it every time you start a game.

So here are the commands for it. Write them to your specific controller config at /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/configs/ and write your prefered button inside the “”.

input_disk_eject_toggle_btn = ""
input_disk_next_btn = ""
input_disk_prev_btn = ""

[hobo]

Alternatively, if you have a way to SCP into the Pi, you can save the config after editing any settings in the emulator GUI, then just rename the new config file to “retroarch.cfg” through SCP. The default retroarch.cfg does not have the “save config on exit” option enabled, so it will unfortunately never save your settings unless you edit it manually or save a new config and rename it.

[Floob]

[quote=101494]Alternatively, if you have a way to SCP into the Pi, you can save the config after editing any settings in the emulator GUI, then just rename the new config file to “retroarch.cfg” through SCP. The default retroarch.cfg does not have the “save config on exit” option enabled, so it will unfortunately never save your settings unless you edit it manually or save a new config and rename it.

[/quote]

Do bear in mind if you do it this way it will affect the way retropie deals with the config files, so I wouldn’t suggest this unless you are comfortable understanding the effects.

[smaikel]

Maybe this can help others. I had problems using my PBP file. I was using compresion level 0. But after I had changed it to 1, my PBP file worked.

[geneworld]

I’ve been trying to figure out how to get this to work without having to merge all the disk images into one file.

I’ve added:

input_disk_eject_toggle_btn = ""
input_disk_next_btn = ""
input_disk_prev_btn = ""

to my retroarch.cfg file but when I try it it shows that it ejects it but only shows one cd to switch with. All my files have the same name and formatting with CD1, CD2, CD3, CD4 on the end.

Has anyone been able to get this way to work? Is it maybe just a formatting issue maybe?

[epe9686518]

The way listed here to swap games works, but it also envolves a lot of work and the process of converting games on a PC. I wanted to share the method that I use as it works nicely for all games and is all done on the Pi. When looking at the steps, it appears to be a long process, but once you do it in real-time it takes about 30 seconds and is quite easy. This is with using a wireless Xbox 360 controller but should work with most control inputs.

I have my Xbox Button set to open the Rgui and my Hotkey Button is the Left Joystick Button, so I have to press down on the joystick and the Xbox BTN at the same time to open it but one can set this up pretty much how ever they want this is just how I have it on mine.

When a game disc swap pops up, open the Rgui and do the following in the menu…

STEP 1: Go down to “Options” and press the “B Button”.
STEP 2: Select “Core Disc Options”
STEP 3: Select “Disc Image Append” (this will take you to a file broswer). Press the “B Button” on this screen to open up the directory list. Go down to your PSX roms directory and press the “B Button”. Go through the game list until you find the .CUE file of the next CD for the game your playing (EX: Metal Gear Solid (USA) (v1.1) (Disc 2).cue). Select the file by pressing the “B Button”. This will take you back to the game screen…
STEP 4: Open the Rgui menu again and go back to “Core Disc Options”.
STEP 5: Select “Disc Cycle Tray Status” (this will eject the virtual disc tray).
STEP 6: Go up to “Disc Index” and move the “Left Joystick” to the right to select the next Disc. (should go from Disc 1 to Disc 2…)
STEP 7: Go back down to “Disc Cycle Tray Status” and hit the “B Button”. (this will close the virtual disc tray).
STEP 8: Press down on the “Left Joystick Button” at the same time as pressing the “Xbox Button” to exit the menu back to the in-game disc swap screen.
STEP 9: Press the “Start Button” on the disc swap screen to have the game check the disc. At this point it should load the new disc and allow you to continue playing the game.

A quick way to practice this method is to load the 2nd Disc of MGS and start a new game… It will bring you to a disc swap screen asking you to put in the first disc and press stop and then you can use the method above.

Whats nice about this is its quick, simple, and the save games should work just fine when swapping discs.

[xd3l]

“Open Rgui and select:
– Settings
– Input Settings
– Scroll down until „Disk eject toggle“, setup a key or button for it.
– The same for „Disk next“ and „Disk prev“”

There is nothing there called Input Settings.

[xd3l]

[quote=101491]Works great. Thank you very much.
But if you just edit it inside the rom it wont save it, so that you have to configure it every time you start a game.

So here are the commands for it. Write them to your specific controller config at /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/configs/ and write your prefered button inside the “”.

input_disk_eject_toggle_btn = ""
input_disk_next_btn = ""
input_disk_prev_btn = ""

[/quote]

So how would I enter this if I want my Disc Eject toggle to be more than one key, I.E. Select, L1 and L2?

[Floob]

@xd31 RetroArch hotkeys use only one key.
So you hold the hotkey enable button (usually “Select”), then press the hotkey you want. It wont deal with two buttons.

[smaikel]

I dont have /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/configs/ All I can see is /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/retroarch.cfg. When i insert
input_disk_eject_toggle_btn = “1”
input_disk_next_btn = “2”
input_disk_prev_btn = “3”

it doesn’t do anything.

Help!

[Floob]

@smaikel
Which version of RetroPie are you using?
The controller file is most likely in /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-joypads/

[smaikel]

@Floob
I use Retropie 3.
I made the changes in /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-joypads/USBgamepad.cfg
When I start Metal gear Solid (PBP file) and press SELECT + A it says “Eject tray” but then the game freezes.
But maybe that’s normal?
I’ll have to test this when MGS actually says “swap disk”?

[xd3l]

OK, well hopefully I can talk the Retroarch guys into supporting more than one button to trigger this feature… not all of us are using XBOX 360 controllers with a spare button after all.

In the mean time, since I am using PSX controllers, I’ll assign it to Right Analog Down, and change discs with Right Analog left and right.

So if I turn all my multi disc games into one file using PSX2PSP, they will work when I get to that point right?

Does someone have a save game I can test this with to be sure?

[epe9686518]

Still not getting the point of using this method to swap discs…. First of all, mapping disc swap buttons to any controller, even 360s, still uses buttons that can/are used by other systems. Then you got the whole process of converting all of the games on the PC to even make this work.

This is a ton of extra work all for a process that you only encounter once ever so often when a game disc needs to be changed. The process I listed above is simple, takes 30 seconds to do, and doesn’t require you to convert anything on the PC, doesn’t require mapping buttons on the controller to handle disc swapping etc….. You do it all through the Rgui and thats it……

[oleguer]

Can configure the options with 2buttons?? (For example input_disk_eject_toggle_btn = “1+3” (“L2+R2”) As??
How many other commands can write in the config file to configure more options?? Like savestate, loadstate etcetc Anyone have a list of this options?? Thanks and sorry for bad english ;)

[juicebag85]

[quote=106719]Can configure the options with 2buttons?? (For example input_disk_eject_toggle_btn = “1+3” (“L2+R2″) As??
How many other commands can write in the config file to configure more options?? Like savestate, loadstate etcetc Anyone have a list of this options?? Thanks and sorry for bad english

[/quote]

No. Unfortunatly you can’t bind 2 buttons to 1 command.

I post you my list of hotkeys:

input_enable_hotkey_btn = "8"
input_exit_emulator_btn = "6"
input_save_state_btn = "5"
input_load_state_btn = "4"
input_pause_toggle_btn = "2"
input_reset_btn = "1"
input_menu_toggle_btn = "7"
input_state_slot_increase_btn = "h0right"
input_state_slot_decrease_btn = "h0left"
input_disk_eject_toggle_btn = "10"
input_disk_next_btn = "h0up"
input_disk_prev_btn = "h0down"
input_hold_fast_forward_btn = "3"

input_rewind_axis = "+5"

[mikeveli20]

Does using a PBP file instead of the original BIN/CUE affect performance in any way? I would think since the PBP file is compressed that it would have to decompress itself while playing which would take up precious CPU cycles, no?

[hobbswon]

How do these have to be stored inside the lr-pcsx folder? Just rename the EBOOT file to the gake title and place it in the rom folder? Can you still scrape to the core with the eboot files? Or will this be something that has to be done manually?

[Author]

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