[RELEASE] PSPAR to CWCheat Converter 0.10 (warning: very limited)

[raing3]

I was originally going to post this on the CWCheat forums but I am still waiting for my account to be activated so I can post therefore I am posting it here. I'm hoping I can get some help.

Here is my PSPAR Replay to CWCheat code converter thingy.

Please DON'T post a list of cheats which don't work as I can quite easily see which cheats don't work and until it can convert the cheats better I DON'T care about reports of cheats which don't work. Also when you do convert the cheats you must place the PSPAR code file in the root of the Memory Stick and call it "pspar_codes1.bin". The difference between conversion mode 1 and 2 is that mode 1 will try to convert the addresses and values if needed to CWCheat format and save the file to "ms0:/cheats.txt". Whereas mode 2 will simply dump the addresses and values as they are written in the original PSPAR code file to "ms0:/cheats_nomod.txt".

Since I am unable to solve these issues further releases will be unlikely unless I can get some help fixing the issues which I am having.

What is planned in future releases (if I can get help fixing the big issues):
- Fixing all the code conversion issues (I need a lot of help here)
- Adding conversion to NitePR format
- A PC conversion tool
- Adding conversion of CWCheat format to PSPAR format (If I can figure out how the hash is calculated and where it is stored in the unknown bits of the PSPAR code file)
- Maybe I could also add support for conversion between as many cheat formats as possible (I'm not too sure about this one cause it will probably take some time)

What I can currently do:
- Understand about 98% of the PSPAR cheat file format.
- Convert all the different controller handling PSPAR codes to CWCheat format.
- Convert the Game ID and Game Name to CWCheat format.
- convert "some" of the standard cheats (cheats which don't use DMA/RLE/other stuff I don't know about)
- Convert DMA cheats from PSPAR format to CWCheat format.

What I can't do:
- Convert RLE compressed cheat from PSPAR format to CWCheat format.
- Convert other format codes to CWCheat format.
- Convert any remaining standard codes to CWCheat format.
- Remove codes which are unneeded (if their are any, which I'm pretty sure there are)
- Fixing of any other issues with the code database.

The PSP Action Replay code file can be downloaded from www.pspar.com.

Some useful action replay DS code information is available here.

PSPAR Code Manager can be downloaded here. This application is not in english. But hopefully this will assist in finding out the remaining unknown bits of the PSPAR code file format.

The latest version of this software can be downloaded from here.

[nukester]

i was hoping for something like this or a pluggin that will run the pspar files.
keep it up

[NoEffex]

I'll look into it and try and give you any information I can find(I'm all hyped up on caffeine right now so I suppose it'll keep me occupied). I'm pretty good at that kinda stuff .

You should also include a nitePR output, as the majority of the people use it nowadays, and the DMA format is simple.

EDIT:

For DMA, it looks like they do something along the lines of....well... pseudo code.

if(address&0xb000000) address = dma;
address+4 = 0x00000000;
address+8 = FLAG_DMA_OFFSET;
address+0x0c = FLAG_DMA_VALUE;

Then it seems it follows that trend until the end of the code.

[raing3]

Thanks for your help. I've got a bit more information which I'm also going to go through tonight (or maybe sometime on the weekend). I hope I can get it working a bit better soon.

[NoEffex]

I think I figured out how dma works, entirely.

http://pastebin.com/d41985902 <-More in-depth pseudo-code

http://www.sendspace.com/file/qst23j <-Excel document with random crap

@Above post: No problem

[NoEffex]

Another little finding:

Structure of dma cheat:
0x6.... - pointer
nop
0xB.... - pointer confirmation?
nop
offset 0
value 0
offset 1
value 1
..so on
d2000000 - end flag
nop


Next cheat..


The above seems really consistent with dma cheats.

[slasher101]

Yes the cheats in NitePR are pretty consistent when it comes to DMA codes.
They all follow the same structure

[NoEffex]

That wasn't nitepr..that was pspar. I was talking about the binary structure. NitePR uses a text-based structure.

NitePR:
0xFFFFFFFF 0xpointerinfakeaddressing
0xoffset0 0xvalue0
0xoffset1 0xvalue1
so on

[slasher101]

woops that what i meant, i dont have a pspar so i cant really help there

[raing3]

Here is a quick update.

Version 0.2 is just a quick update which fixes the following issues:
- Fixed: Issue filtering comments which utilize multiple lines
- Fixed: Improved detection of joker (controller) codes
- Fixed: Issue converting jokes (controller) codes
- Fixed: Some problems with the conversion of standard codes
- Fixed: Added preliminary support for DMA cheats
- Other: Improved conversion speed

Refer to the first post for where to download.
With this version I have tested ~126 cheats and in version 0.1 64% of them worked and in this version 80% now work.

[Outcast]

Is it normal that the PSP hang after the conversion takes place?

[raing3]

No it isn't supposed to hang but if you have CIRCLE set as enter instead of CROSS it hangs when you go back. However that is fixed in version 0.21.

*****************

Here is another quick update to fix a few issues.
Changes in version 0.21:
- Fixed: Crash if CIRCLE is enter
- Fixed: Issue converting various DMA cheats (thanks to haro and NoEffex)

With this version I have tested ~235 cheats and this is the compatibility results:
- version 0.10: 71.30%
- version 0.20: 87.75%
- version 0.21: 90.13%

As you can see that is quite close to the 100% however I still need help fixing the codes which aren't converted correctly. I've attached all of my notes with version 0.21 and there is quite a lot more than there was before. I've also added a few links to some useful information and a useful java PC application to the first post.

[Outcast]

Thanks for the update and the 'bugfix'. Just a suggestion, can the program be less fussy with the filenames of PSPAR code bases? This is because they are 2 different databases being offered (EU/US and Jap) and I have to rename either one of them in order to convert.

I played games from all regions.

By the way, the few Jap codes I've tested are working however when converting the PSPAR -> CWCheat codes to NitePR format, they do not work.

~Edit~

I tried converting the Japanese game code base with the v0.21. There are 2 bugs, first the number of game is reported wrongly (over 200,000). The previous versions only report a few hundred only. Secondly, the X and O buttons bug is back. Nevertheless, the codes are converted properly.

EU/US code base converted with no problem.

[raing3]

What X/O bug?

There was a bug which occured that if the O button was set as enter it would crash so I just changed it so that X is always enter. Are you meaning that X is always enter, Because this is normal now.

When a release the next version I will make it so the filenames can be pspar_codes*.bin that will allow an unlimited number of code files to be converted in one session.

Also I've had a quick look into the Japanese code file conversion problem and I'm having the same issue but I can't find out why at the moment but I will have it fixed by the next release.

[Outcast]

Originally Posted by raing3

What X/O bug?

There was a bug which occured that if the O button was set as enter it would crash so I just changed it so that X is always enter. Are you meaning that X is always enter, Because this is normal now.

No, I was trying to say that when converting Japanese codes, pressing O at the end crash the PSP.

[RocSqualie]

Thanks for the 0.21 update! It seems that this is coming along really nice now!
LOL at the download speed of this, first time this happened at file.it:

[nukester]

any more updates on this

[raing3]

I've been a bit busy since uni started and haven't managed to get much done. Also I've tried and failed to work out how some of the cheats work which aren't being converted properly. I also wasted a bit of time trying to figure out how to convert the Burnout Legends Infinite Burnout cheat and then tested it with the official PSPAR and it still didn't work lol.

Anyway here are the changes I have made so far.

- Added: Multiple files can be converted during one session (file names must be pspar_codes#.bin, # can be anywhere between 0 and 100)
- Fixed: Crash when converting Japanese code file caused by the buffers being too small

As you can see not that much has been done.

************************* *****

EDIT:

Here is another quick update v0.25. The changes made are:

- Added: Conversion of PSPAR code files to nitePR mode (please note that nitePR doesn't support DMA cheats so many of the converted codes will not work, this CANNOT be fixed by me).

************************* *****

EDIT 2:

Here is another quick update v0.27. The changes made are:

- Fixed: Stupid bug introduced in v0.25 which prevented conversion of PSPAR code files called pspar_codes#.bin
- Fixed: DMA codes are now converted to nitePR mode.
- Other: Joker codes are now omitted from mode 1 of nitePR conversion until a solution is found.

[Lain_Iwakura]

Keep it up and hope a pc version comes out soon!

[slasher101]

It won't be that hard, if he has a function like ConvertCode(char code)

[Lain_Iwakura]

Good to hear the dificulty factor of this being a reality isnt so hard after all.

[raing3]

Yeah I just couldn't be bothered doing it. But since you requested it I decided to make a PC version and just finished it, I might release it soon.

EDIT: There we go PC version release (http://raing3.co.cc/2009/08/01/psp-a...onverter-0-30/). Only PSPAR to CWCheat conversion for the PC version though because NitePR conversion barely works.

[Outcast]

raing3, I can't get the application to work. I'm using Windows 7.

[raing3]

Far out, I hate when stuff like this happens but it doesn't happen to me. I don't know what the problem is. Could you please try the following two exe's and tell me if either of them work:
Download - ifile.it
Download - ifile.it

If not I'll just do what everyone else does and say it is M$ fault.

[Lain_Iwakura]

Yikes none of them work on WinXP!!!!

[raing3]

Are you dragging and dropping the PSPAR code file onto the EXE like this:



I've tested the program on both Vista and XP now and it has worked.

[Outcast]

raing3, only the 'devcpp' can work. The other no; still the same error.

[slasher101]

The others were compiled with Visual Studio, and probably relying on some kind of reference. Make sure you have .NET 3.5 installed, and are running the latest service pack.

[raing3]

Originally Posted by Outcast

raing3, only the 'devcpp' can work. The other no; still the same error.

Haha... cool, I guess part of my Visual Studio configuration could probably be causing the problem.