Anyone want the DAT files from the PS2 version?

[bungiefan]

The file system was finally cracked open and there's a means to read/write files from inside the official partitions. I've successfully replaced a couple of files that are compatible in PlayOnline Viewer, and my FFXI macros from the PC. However, the main DAT files seem to be different, as installing FFXIStyle and FFXICartography seem to break the game from loading after POL Viewer's Play button.

I'm putting up the files right now so anyone that wants can analyze them, and maybe DAT mods can be made for the PS2 version. I'll link them as soon as I can get them uploaded, it's going to have to be a torrent though. It's only 4.2 GB uncompressed, nowhere near as big as the PC version, but the music and sound effect files are much smaller with the format used.

I know it's kind of late in the game for there to be a lot of interest in this, but there are still people like me that mainly play on PS2 instead of PC, and this is the soonest the files have been made available.

I'll be including the program used to read/write the PS2 HDD. It runs on the PS2 itself, so you'll need a means of booting it, like FreeMCBoot, and then you can copy files to/from a PC with a USB flash drive or FTP setup. The DATs I'm uploading are from the March 22nd 2010 version, they released the patch to fix things while I was in the middle of ripping the files off the HDD with the slow USB 1.1 speeds of the PS2.

This file set can't be used to install the game on your HDD. Some files won't copy off the drive needed for that, and it's probably better so as to not have a big issue over piracy of the game.

PS2 FFXI (HDD rip) for DAT modding - Demonoid

Feel free to put this info up on any Japanese FFXI communities too, as they have a lot of DAT modders, and one of them might be OCD enough to take the project on. Goodness knows there's more JP PS2 players than anyone else.

[Elwynn]

Re: Anyone want the DAT files from the PS2 version?

I've successfully replaced a couple of files that are compatible in PlayOnline Viewer, and my FFXI macros from the PC.

L1+L3 load / R1+R3 save at the character select screen is a bit more convienent, though.

However, the main DAT files seem to be different, as installing FFXIStyle and FFXICartography seem to break the game from loading after POL Viewer's Play button.

Does the MIPS CPU run big-endian or little-endian? According to wiki, the architecture is bi-endian and can be switched one way or the other. This would be the number one reason I would expect DAT files to be incompatible. The second is that the 3D models might be in a different format than the PC/DirectX wants them.

I know it's kind of late in the game for there to be a lot of interest in this, but there are still people like me that mainly play on PS2 instead of PC, and this is the soonest the files have been made available.

I don't think it's going to be all that useful in the long run as long as we're limited by genuine PS2 hard drives, which are going to die eventually, not to mention that SE has stopped producing the media needed for new installs. It would be really cool if someone figured out what part of the PS2 boot process verified the MagicGate support in the HD and how to bypass it to use a generic HD as though it were a Sony drive. Even if the HD utility disk didn't work with it, a PC-based formatter program could be used.

[bungiefan]

Re: Anyone want the DAT files from the PS2 version?

The macros were a test for compatability, and that just writing files to the drive wasn't going to screw up some checksum or something in the filesystem to make me fail DNAS.

It's part DNAS locking the hard drive and games, and part firmware on the logic board of the drive. HDDs are still made and sold in Japan. People on some of the torrent sites I know of have figured out how to install burned FFXI discs for PS2. Auto-ATAD patching has allowed official HDD support to be enabled on non-Sony HDDs, but the problem is passing DNAS with that patch enabled, and you can't log in or have POL boot a game without passing a DNAS check.

Relinking torrent in a minute, transposed something in the tracker address...

[Elwynn]

Re: Anyone want the DAT files from the PS2 version?

I guess what I meant was has anyone gotten ATAD patching working with Free McBoot? I had forgotten that modchips could do that.

At least one thing that would probably be true about DNAS is that if a way is figured out to get around it on a Fat PS2, I don't think Sony would take the time to fix it.

[bungiefan]

Re: Anyone want the DAT files from the PS2 version?

Free MC Boot doesn't support the HDD at all, it won't activate an official one when it boots. I have to boot with that memory card ejected if I want to play FFXI.

New way of booting FMCB for people with SONY HDD - PSX/PS2/PS3 Scene Newz

He's got a way to boot FMCB from the HDD, but I don't think it can actually launch other programs from the HDD yet unless you make their own installs.

[Elwynn]

Re: Anyone want the DAT files from the PS2 version?

Right, that just uses the Sony HD in memory card mode.

[bungiefan]

Re: Anyone want the DAT files from the PS2 version?

I don't think it's going to be all that useful in the long run as long as we're limited by genuine PS2 hard drives, which are going to die eventually, not to mention that SE has stopped producing the media needed for new installs. It would be really cool if someone figured out what part of the PS2 boot process verified the MagicGate support in the HD and how to bypass it to use a generic HD as though it were a Sony drive. Even if the HD utility disk didn't work with it, a PC-based formatter program could be used.

MagicGate was broken when the PS3 firmware was hacked. The security keys were stored in the PS3 for PS2 compatability, and people on PSX-Scene have done some things to get PSBBN running on non-JP systems.

Of course it's quite late in the game, but these files can also be used for a reinstall on a system that no longer reads discs, or to add expansions you can't find install discs for.

One of the main people on the project, l_oliviera, plays FFXI, and has been looking into what goes on with the PS2 when it locks up on some of the newer content too.