The link to why Spyro 4 Does not work.

[rama]

Working with PS2DIS is no walk in the park. Profound knowledge of the PS2 and mips assembly is required.

[Blyss Sarania]

Working with PS2DIS is no walk in the park. Profound knowledge of the PS2 and mips assembly is required.

Well the only way to get this figured out is for someone to jump in head first lol, and I don't have the game. I was hoping maybe something could be gleaned from the simple location of any references to his files. For instance if they are right smack at the start of the program then there is a better chance that he is on to something. That way we might actually determine if these files are the culprit or not. He seems rather sure they could be, most everybody else is saying they aren't. I was just trying to give him a way to pursue his train of thought. If he is wrong he can see for himself, and if he is right then he can be "the guy" that figured it out.

I used PS2DIS myself a while back to help create a patch to make Ar tonelico playable to completion. That was back before the mpeg decoder got all sorted out and there were some videos in the game that crashed the emu and some that didn't. The old standard skip videos patch didn't work. By using PS2DIS I was able to develop a patch that redirected the pointers for the videos that did crash to one that didn't. And I did that with very little knowledge of what I was doing lol. Maybe it was dumb luck, I dunno.

[Slvr99]

Well the only way to get this figured out is for someone to jump in head first lol, and I don't have the game. I was hoping maybe something could be gleaned from the simple location of any references to his files. For instance if they are right smack at the start of the program then there is a better chance that he is on to something. That way we might actually determine if these files are the culprit or not. He seems rather sure they could be, most everybody else is saying they aren't. I was just trying to give him a way to pursue his train of thought. If he is wrong he can see for himself, and if he is right then he can be "the guy" that figured it out.

I used PS2DIS myself a while back to help create a patch to make Ar tonelico playable to completion. That was back before the mpeg decoder got all sorted out and there were some videos in the game that crashed the emu and some that didn't. The old standard skip videos patch didn't work. By using PS2DIS I was able to develop a patch that redirected the pointers for the videos that did crash to one that didn't. And I did that with very little knowledge of what I was doing lol. Maybe it was dumb luck, I dunno.

Alright, i have used PS2DIS and it is not difficult to use at all really. The only instance of initscrn i found was @ the Address 0x5D837F68 with the Data 74696E69. This references only the .pxh file, not the .pxt. Once i can access my demo copy, i'll check for those 2 files and hope the demo doesn't use them so i can see if they exactly are the problem.

[Blyss Sarania]

Alright, i have used PS2DIS and it is not difficult to use at all really. The only instance of initscrn i found was @ the Address 0x5D837F68 with the Data 74696E69. This references only the .pxh file, not the .pxt. Once i can access my demo copy, i'll check for those 2 files and hope the demo doesn't use them so i can see if they exactly are the problem.

Can you post the code from that area? IDR if PS2DIS will let you copy/paste, but if it does I'd like to see the 10 lines before and after the reference.

If the demo works AND uses the files then do a binary compare on the ones from Spyro 4 with the demo one. If they are identical then they are not the problem. If they are different then maybe try swapping them? I know I'm gotta get told that's a silly thing to try probably, but hey why not? You never know lol.

[Slvr99]

Can you post the code from that area? IDR if PS2DIS will let you copy/paste, but if it does I'd like to see the 10 lines before and after the reference.

If the demo works AND uses the files then do a binary compare on the ones from Spyro 4 with the demo one. If they are identical then they are not the problem. If they are different then maybe try swapping them? I know I'm gotta get told that's a silly thing to try probably, but hey why not? You never know lol.

Alright, here is the code in text form 10 lines ahead and behind:

Code:

#
#    TAB=8
#
    .byte        $74            # 5d837f5a    116 't'
    .byte        $69            # 5d837f5b    105 'i'
    .byte        $6f            # 5d837f5c    111 'o'
    .byte        $6e            # 5d837f5d    110 'n'
    .byte        $20            # 5d837f5e    32  ' '
    .byte        $66            # 5d837f5f    102 'f'
    .byte        $69            # 5d837f60    105 'i'
    .byte        $6c            # 5d837f61    108 'l'
    .byte        $65            # 5d837f62    101 'e'
    .byte        $00            # 5d837f63    0
    nop                    # 5d837f64:00000000    
"initscrn.pxh":                    #
    .byte        $69            # 5d837f68    105 'i'
    .byte        $6e            # 5d837f69    110 'n'
    .byte        $69            # 5d837f6a    105 'i'
    .byte        $74            # 5d837f6b    116 't'
    .byte        $73            # 5d837f6c    115 's'
    .byte        $63            # 5d837f6d    99  'c'
    .byte        $72            # 5d837f6e    114 'r'
    .byte        $6e            # 5d837f6f    110 'n'
    .byte        $2e            # 5d837f70    46  '.'
    .byte        $70            # 5d837f71    112 'p'
    .byte        $78            # 5d837f72    120 'x'

And just in case you can't read this properly, i screenshotted the program itself on the file's area:
http://i.imgur.com/OtJvY8M.png

[Blyss Sarania]

Alright, here is the code in text form 10 lines ahead and behind:

Code:

#
#    TAB=8
#
    .byte        $74            # 5d837f5a    116 't'
    .byte        $69            # 5d837f5b    105 'i'
    .byte        $6f            # 5d837f5c    111 'o'
    .byte        $6e            # 5d837f5d    110 'n'
    .byte        $20            # 5d837f5e    32  ' '
    .byte        $66            # 5d837f5f    102 'f'
    .byte        $69            # 5d837f60    105 'i'
    .byte        $6c            # 5d837f61    108 'l'
    .byte        $65            # 5d837f62    101 'e'
    .byte        $00            # 5d837f63    0
    nop                    # 5d837f64:00000000    
"initscrn.pxh":                    #
    .byte        $69            # 5d837f68    105 'i'
    .byte        $6e            # 5d837f69    110 'n'
    .byte        $69            # 5d837f6a    105 'i'
    .byte        $74            # 5d837f6b    116 't'
    .byte        $73            # 5d837f6c    115 's'
    .byte        $63            # 5d837f6d    99  'c'
    .byte        $72            # 5d837f6e    114 'r'
    .byte        $6e            # 5d837f6f    110 'n'
    .byte        $2e            # 5d837f70    46  '.'
    .byte        $70            # 5d837f71    112 'p'
    .byte        $78            # 5d837f72    120 'x'

And just in case you can't read this properly, i screenshotted the program itself on the file's area:
http://i.imgur.com/OtJvY8M.png

Interesting that it's preceeded by "configuration file." Is the initscrn.pxh file a binary file or a plain text file? If it's not a huge file, try opening it in notepad to see if it's plaintext. If it isn't, try opening it in a hex editor like XVI32 and see if there is anything interesting going on in it.

I've got to cook supper now but I will think on this.

Edit: Any of you devs know what PHX files are usually used for? Or is this a unique file extension?

[Slvr99]

Interesting that it's preceeded by "configuration file." Is the initscrn.pxh file a binary file or a plain text file? If it's not a huge file, try opening it in notepad to see if it's plaintext. If it isn't, try opening it in a hex editor like XVI32 and see if there is anything interesting going on in it.

I've got to cook supper now but I will think on this.

Edit: Any of you devs know what PHX files are usually used for? Or is this a unique file extension?

It's not text so it's binary. The PXT is larger (32.2kb) than the PXH file(128 bytes). BTW, that isn't a config file, the text you see before the file reference is "Spyro_Application: Error parsing configuration file". It still has something to do with the config though.

[Blyss Sarania]

That's not actual code we are looking at. I'm pretty sure it's just plain data, like the names of variables and such. Like imagine this in freebasic.

Line 5: dim level_file as string
Line 6: level_file = "level1.dat"

skip many lines

Line 199: Open level_file for binary as #1

etc.


As in what I'm saying is that part right there is not actually doing whatever that file is for, it's just loading the file to a pointer. I think.

[Blyss Sarania]

Also and I'm not trying to rain on your parade, but it seems really unlikely that a 128 byte file is gonna be the problem, unless it points to the PXT file somehow.

[Slvr99]

Also and I'm not trying to rain on your parade, but it seems really unlikely that a 128 byte file is gonna be the problem, unless it points to the PXT file somehow.

Well then could you please tell me what a 128 byte file called initscrn could possibly do? If it's 128 bytes, it's unlikely it does anything involving the screen but the name proves it has something to do with the screen. How about i put this on hold until i have access to the demo. Then we can advance this further. BTW, i bet it does point to the PXT. If you'd like, i can send you the 2 files so you could look at them.