iR Shell 1.2 with Adhoc WIFI File Transfer

[AhMan]

Here is a new release of iR Shell 1.2 with adhoc wifi file transfer function added. Again, the file transfer is an iR Shell multi-tasking function which means you can send files over to your friend's PSP, listen to your favor mp3 song and playing a UMD/homebrew game all at the same time.

Adhoc Wifi File Transfer Features:
- To use adhoc wifi file transfer, goto directory view and highlight the file or directory you'll want to send. Then, press Left Trigger + Cross and follow the on-screen instructions.
- You can choose a single file or a single directory to transfer. Pls pay attention when you choose a single directory as it'll send over all files & subdirectories under it.
- The file transfer protocol currently has no error recovery. If one of the PSP loses sync, you'll need to hit Square button to abort the transfer and restart the whole thing again.
- The file transfer throughput isn't that great at the moment and is around 90KB/sec when the receiving side has a Sandisk MS. It will drop down to 3XKB/sec when the receiving PSP has a Sony MS. This is just another way to prove the slow write access on Sony MS.
- The PSP wifi system modules are loaded into user space. As a result, you may encounter some compatibility issues when playing certain UMD games while doing file transfer simultaneoutly.
- File transfer progress & estimated time display.

Note: The current file transfer protocol is very primitive and there is no error handling or recovery. A proper file transfer protocol with error recovery will be incorportated into a future release which should also double the throughput.

Special thanks to StoneCut and Triable for doing an extensive beta testing with 4 PSPs and also reporting on the Sony MS crappy access time, and to our gfx artist Skydew for providing the new icon & background.

The donation approach that I put up doesn't seem to work. I'm now considering moving iR Shell to a premium member scheme similar to Psix. In other words, a private technical support forum will be setup and requires a small fee to join the premium membership. The premium membership will entitle you to access a techical support forum and download beta copies with advanced features whenever they're available. There will still be public releases, but will be less frequent. The same features will probably be a few months after the beta. For those who make donations will automatically be upgraded to premium members if such scheme is to be implemented in the future. Pls feel free to leave comments or make your poll in my forum thread http://www.phpbber.com/phpbb/viewtop...mforum=irshell


Visit my site to download
http://www.ahman.co.nr

[spvn]

omg i didnt even know this was being created even though i was a beta tester for the earlier version.. i thought you said you were taking a break from the psp scene??? but no matter, thx and i cant wait to try it out, dling it now..

[AhMan]

yeah I know I'm supposed to be taking a break, but hey I can't help it.

[spvn]

Originally Posted by AhMan

yeah I know I'm supposed to be taking a break, but hey I can't help it.

excellent the scene would be boring without IRShell.. btw the receiving psp also needs irshell for this to work rite??

[AhMan]

Originally Posted by spvn

excellent the scene would be boring without IRShell.. btw the receiving psp also needs irshell for this to work rite??

Of course, both PSP will need to be using iR Shell v1.2. Old version doesn't has this function.

[chronomaster5042]

MP3's, now transfering files, This is awsome. Keep up the good work

[Nevada]

Originally Posted by AhMan

The donation approach that I put up doesn't seem to work. I'm now considering moving iR Shell to a premium member scheme similar to Psix. In other words, a private technical support forum will be setup and requires a small fee to join the premium membership. The premium membership will entitle you to access a techical support forum and download beta copies with advanced features whenever they're available.

From experience, i can tell you that this approach is a double edged sword, one the one hand many, many people will turn tail and flame you at every given oppertunity, and on the other, you will have a stable, helpful and supportive user base to give you input and suggestions on your application, i support you in your descision if you do indeed take this approach, drop me a pm sometime if you want to discuss aspects of it for you to consider, as after taking the plunge i've learn quite a deal from the resulting chaos

also before any other non-dev user even starts, just don't even begin, AhMan has already given you guys an amazing and functional application free of charge, so rather than act like 2 year olds, you can either support him, continue to use the free releases or say nothing!, flaming devs will get you nowhere.

That said, i like pink

[AhMan]

Fluff, thanks a lot for your support. I still haven't really make up my mind yet. Your experience in this area can really help out me. Pls check your PM.

[Master-Chief]

Wow, AhMan has done it once again. Who knows what feature he will bring up next.

[StoneCut]

I'd just like to note that this is most likely one of the most underestimated homebrews out there.

iR Shell is soooo powerful ! I wish there were a way I could replace xmb with it.

[skydew]

iR Shell is, and always will be the best!! keep up the awesome work!!!

[EminentJonFrost]

are you planning to make a photo viewing function? (sorry if other people bugged you about this. there's no way to ask about a feature without it sounding like a request is there?)
i have this program that takes txt files and turns them into jpegs. it would be convenient to be able to listen to my music AND see the lyrics.

file transfering...cool
what types of files can you transfer?

[EminentJonFrost]

whoops! double post, sorry

[AnonymousTipster]

Nice update AhMan. Unfortunately the only people I know with PSPs all updated to 2.6

A list of things I'd like to see in future versions (whether possible or not):
1. User-mode mode when not running an app in the background. This would allow enough free RAM for:
-Fully featured image viewer (.png .jpg .bmp .gif)
-Video Player
-Eclipse Browser plugin *cough* shameless plug *cough*
-GU-accelerated GUI
2. Remote Control support for MP3 player (currently only the +- buttons work, but being able to control the music without leaving the game would be nice)
3. Game-state serialization (game save). This is one which is probably not feasible. It would require dumping the contents of RAM to a file on the memory stick, ready for re-loading later. I think it would be similar to what the PSP does in 'sleep' mode.
4. Muting game. I.e stopping the application you're running over iRShell from playing music/sounds so that it doesn't conflict with the MP3. Not sure if this is possible either.

Anyway, keep up the good work :mrgreen:

As for charging, you already know my views on that as of a few days ago - be cautious.

[AhMan]

Originally Posted by EminentJonFrost

are you planning to make a photo viewing function? (sorry if other people bugged you about this. there's no way to ask about a feature without it sounding like a request is there?)
i have this program that takes txt files and turns them into jpegs. it would be convenient to be able to listen to my music AND see the lyrics.

file transfering...cool
what types of files can you transfer?

If you check my forum, a photo viewer is planned. As for file transfer, you can transfer any files or directories.

Originally Posted by AnonymousTipster

Nice update AhMan. Unfortunately the only people I know with PSPs all updated to 2.6

A list of things I'd like to see in future versions (whether possible or not):
1. User-mode mode when not running an app in the background. This would allow enough free RAM for:
-Fully featured image viewer (.png .jpg .bmp .gif)
-Video Player
-Eclipse Browser plugin *cough* shameless plug *cough*
-GU-accelerated GUI
2. Remote Control support for MP3 player (currently only the +- buttons work, but being able to control the music without leaving the game would be nice)
3. Game-state serialization (game save). This is one which is probably not feasible. It would require dumping the contents of RAM to a file on the memory stick, ready for re-loading later. I think it would be similar to what the PSP does in 'sleep' mode.
4. Muting game. I.e stopping the application you're running over iRShell from playing music/sounds so that it doesn't conflict with the MP3. Not sure if this is possible either.

Anyway, keep up the good work :mrgreen:

As for charging, you already know my views on that as of a few days ago - be cautious.

Maybe one day, we'll have kernel access for homebrew apps on 2.6, just hope that day won't be too far away.

1. I'm already being forced to settle with user mode app when implementing adhoc wifi access. There is just no other way as the PSP sytem's ahdoc prx modules are already loaded into user space. However, I'll still prefer to limit the access to user space unless there is no choice. Currently, even with wifi modules loaded into user space, you can still run most homebrew games & some UMD games. The key is to keep the user app module small, so as to allow other apps to load.

No plans yet to implement browser & GU accelerated GUI. As for the nice non-GU GUI, Ive totally 2 different feedbacks from users. All users in my forum told me they don't need a nice GUI. I only heard a few users complains about the GUI from other forums. I don't really know if I should spend time in the GUI first.

2. Remote control support should be very simple, but I need to borrow one from my friend first 'cos mine doesn't come with it.

3. Game-state serialization. I'm supposed you're talking about being able to save the game anytime, anywhere you want. This one is tough as you'll need to save the data segment & stack segment for each thread/module, various system states, register contents, etc. The biggest problem is loading these data back to where they belong. I won't say it's impossible, but I don't think you'll see this app coming out for the life of PSP. This is totally different than sleep mode. You won't lose any memory content for sleep mode at all. Sleep mode mainly affects some devices, such as UMD & MS access.

4. Muting the game completely isn't the best way. Very often we'll prefer to mute the in-game music, but want to keep other sound effects. The only way to do it atm is via the in-game volume control.

[ro0kie42]

this is the best shell imo. functionality beats aesthetics anyday (not saying your shell is ugly =P).

[Rengoku]

Hi Ahman, thank you so much for all your work on this. The Adhoc file transfer feature really surprised me. Once again, awesome job!

I just have one question, is it possible to make the IR Shell communicate with say a laptop in Adhoc mode? I imagine you'd need some kind of application on the laptop itself to receive the Adhoc signals...

[AnonymousTipster]

As I said, just throwing out ideas in case you could do any of them.
Functionality is more important that a nice GUI, I agree. It's of course up to you whether you want to update the graphics or not.

So when the PSP goes into sleep mode, it freezes the devices but keeps the RAM active to stop it losing data? When I bring Wipeout back from sleep, it freezes for a while and accesses the MS, I thought it might be some sort of MS state save, but I guess not.

As for the muting, some games don't let you control the music levels seperately, so you end up with a mix of the game's music and the MP3. I think Wipeout does this, and i'll want to change ThrottleX to be more iRShell friendly for when I do another version (in a while).

[Glynnder]

WOW, shame I cant use it, so what's this about user mode and stuff, you're not saying that your going to make a user mode version that MAY work on 2.6 are you?


Also, i am backing you idea of the 'premium members' you never know if this goes to 2.6 or i go to 1.5 - I might become one!

From what I've heard this is a super app, grats and keep up the good work

~Glynnder

[AhMan]

Originally Posted by Rengoku

I just have one question, is it possible to make the IR Shell communicate with say a laptop in Adhoc mode? I imagine you'd need some kind of application on the laptop itself to receive the Adhoc signals...

It's possible if an approprite application is developed on Windows. It may even be possible without having a specific Windows app if someone ports samba over to PSP. With Samba running on PSP, you can mount the MS as a PC drive on Windows or mount Windows drive as a PSP device.

Originally Posted by AnonymousTipster

So when the PSP goes into sleep mode, it freezes the devices but keeps the RAM active to stop it losing data? When I bring Wipeout back from sleep, it freezes for a while and accesses the MS, I thought it might be some sort of MS state save, but I guess not.

As for the muting, some games don't let you control the music levels seperately, so you end up with a mix of the game's music and the MP3. I think Wipeout does this, and i'll want to change ThrottleX to be more iRShell friendly for when I do another version (in a while).

When the PSP resumes from sleep mode, all open file handles to MS will be invalid. I suppose Sony made it this way to avoid MS corruption as you can physically swap another MS while sleeping. If the file handle still valid after resume, you may corrupt the swapped MS. I didn't test UMD in sleep mode, but I suppose it works the same as MS.

As for muting the music, I've tested simply grabbing all audio channels before starting the game. Unfortunately, most games will just fail & abort if they can't allocate audio device. Another approach is to hook the audio APIs, then we will be able to do whatever you want.

Originally Posted by Glynnder- PSPro

WOW, shame I cant use it, so what's this about user mode and stuff, you're not saying that your going to make a user mode version that MAY work on 2.6 are you?

Nope, the user mode I was talking about is the way iR Shell uses system memory for various functions. It will always require kernel mode access to work. It's just impossible to provide all these iR Shell functions with only a user mode app. However, some iR Shell functions are possible on 2.x firmware, such as Adhoc WiFi File Transfer. But then, I don't have a 2.x PSP and I won't be able to build these functions for 2.x.

[UD1121]

Is there any way to change the background color to black?

[Kick In Da D0oR]

Possible for user to have the option to pick which button/key to have a constant signal sent to a device, i had my reciever volume controlled by the analog stick, by just holding the stick up or down, think the way it is now, i have to keep tapping the stick up or down to send a constant signal.

[spvn]

this is obviously the best shell ever... i have no idea why people are all drooling over psp-oss or pspcrazy's new shell.. yes, i've tried all of them but none of their functionality can be compared with irshell..

[Kick In Da D0oR]

Possible for user to have the option to pick which button/key to have a constant signal sent to a device, i had my reciever volume controlled by the analog stick, by just holding the stick up or down, think the way it is now, i have to keep tapping the stick up or down to send a constant signal.

[AhMan]

Originally Posted by UD1121

Is there any way to change the background color to black?

The newest version allows you to choose a custom bitmap background and is currently in beta.

Originally Posted by Kick In Da D0oR

Possible for user to have the option to pick which button/key to have a constant signal sent to a device, i had my reciever volume controlled by the analog stick, by just holding the stick up or down, think the way it is now, i have to keep tapping the stick up or down to send a constant signal.

Well, this feature is actually in iR Shell already. The 3rd & fourth field of each Pronto Code controls the repetition of IR code.

If there is a non-zero in the 3rd field, the IR code will be sent once. Example:

0000 006E 0008 0000 01EE 0072 0026 0026 0026 0026 0026 0026 0026 0026 0026 0026 0026 0026 0026 0026

If you move the number from the 3rd field to fourth field, the IR code will be repeated continuously while you're holding the key. Example:

0000 006E 0000 0008 01EE 0072 0026 0026 0026 0026 0026 0026 0026 0026 0026 0026 0026 0026 0026 0026

Only swap the number between the 3rd & 4th field and don't change the value.

[Kick In Da D0oR]

Good Looks, did u explain this before? sorry if i missed it.