A cue sheet, a CloneCD .ccd, or a bare .bin, .img or .iso of a PS1 disc
now boots on the firmware's POPS, as the converted EBOOT.PBP popstation
would make from it. PS1EbootFileLoader builds the PBP header, PARAM.SFO
(the disc ID from SYSTEM.CNF) and the PSISOIMG header, TOC and block
index, and serves the disc image from the image's own files. Each block
of 16 sectors is a stored DEFLATE block: the manager won't read an image
of uncompressed blocks in its own format, but the converted PBP's inflate
takes stored ones, and with every block the same size, reads map straight
onto the files. Nothing is compressed or written anywhere.
Cue sheets can have any number of files, AUDIO tracks, INDEX 00 and
PREGAP, and a missing FILE falls back to the cue sheet's own name. A
2048-byte .iso gets Mode 2 Form 1 sectors made around its user data.
The EBOOT is mounted as the only file in host0:, through BlobFileSystem,
which now saves its open handles in savestates. The game browser lists
.cue, .ccd, .bin and .img, leaving out the .bin and .img files a cue
sheet or .ccd next to them describes, and a bare image opened directly
goes through the cue sheet that names it. GameInfoCache reads the title
and ID of these, and of real PS1 EBOOTs, from their PARAM.SFO.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
3.9x's emulators set the block size a few instructions before the jal,
not next to it. Still a single site in every emulator from 4.05 to 6.61.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The user modules started after the manager now come from the firmware's
own boot configuration (pspbtcnf.bin's POPS mode), since they differ by
version: 4.05's pafmini.prx needs heaparea2.prx first. 6.60's also
lists common_util.prx, which wasn't started before.
4.05 renumbered the kernel NIDs again. Its aliases are checked like
5.55's, and the sysreg ones by what they do to the registers: the call
sites got five of those wrong. Its manager allocates from a pool with
the kernel's sceKernelAllocateFpl, which stays unresolved for kernel
modules (see ThreadManForKernel), so only the manager's import gets the
user one. scePower_driver gets 6.60's clock frequency NID, which 6.20's
and 4.05's old one now map to.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
They import by 5.55's NIDs, and their managers are 5.55's at other
layouts. 5.0x's scePopsManLoadModule only loads the emulator when its
second argument is nonzero (later ones skip it on 2), so the layout says
what to pass.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
5.55's manager is an older design: the kernel hands it the version key
(there's no license probe to replace), and the emulator opens the game
through a manager export that first looks up its license. A converted
PBP has none, so that lookup now returns success, as the MAC checks do.
Store games still need 6.00 or later, so the 5.55 layout only matches
for converted PBPs.
Its code changed too much to map every import by call site, so its NID
aliases are only the ones used here, each checked by its call site (and
the sysreg ones by lowio.prx's code).
The emulator's disc read call is now found by the block size next to
it, which 5.55's pops.prx passes from the other side of the jal: the
same single site as before in every 6.x emulator.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
6.10's popsman.prx imports by 6.20's NIDs, and has the same code at
another layout.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
6.20 renumbered the kernel NIDs again, so it gets aliases of its own,
mapped through 6.30's from the call sites in popsman.prx. Its manager has
the same code at another layout, and its scePopsManLoadModule has a
bigger frame (it also picks a model-specific emulator module), so the
layouts now carry that function's frame size for the check.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The manager's code used here is the same from 6.30 on, but 6.30/6.31's
sits at other offsets. The offsets are now a table of layouts, picked by
the code at them when the manager loads, and kept in the savestate (the
patches change that code). With the NID aliases, Crash Bandicoot plays
the same on 6.30, 6.31, 6.35, 6.36, 6.37 and 6.39 as on 6.60/6.61.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Both as CFW's popcorn does, for any EBOOT. The emulator only shows the
manual when a name the manager hands it matches one it keeps, and popcorn
makes that check pass.
It only takes an 80x80 PNG as ICON0. A converted EBOOT without one hangs,
and one with a 144x80 ICON0 (the size of a PSP game's) crashes it. Such an
ICON0 now reads as a blank 80x80 PNG: its size and its read are replaced.
Both are found by their code, which is the same in pops_01g and pops_02g.
The manager's module_start registers its license check with SysMem
(SysMemForKernel_310802A9), and the kernel calls it before loading the game,
which needs the game's license (.rif) and activation. The init thread now
calls it, replaced by one that takes the version key from the disc image's
PGD header (its MAC_70 is the key's MAC), as popcorn does on the Vita. It
latches the key and the content ID fingerprint where the manager's first
successful check would. The disc image's MACs are checked for real, with
sceAmctrl_driver.
Crash Bandicoot's store release is playable, with sound.
EBOOTs made with popstation and similar tools have a plain disc image of
raw DEFLATE blocks, where a store game has a PGD in the emulator's own
format, and no MACs. Like popcorn: the emulator's decoder calls go to its
scePopsMan_0090B2C8 import, which now inflates; its CD audio track index
check always takes the full-length branch, as the converted image adds CD
audio tracks the index doesn't count; and the manager's two MAC checks
pass.
A converted EBOOT is one whose disc image doesn't start with a PGD.
Crash Bandicoot is playable.
A PS1 EBOOT now boots the installed firmware's POPS manager
(flash0:/kd/popsman.prx), which loads its PS1 emulator (pops_0Xg.prx) for
the game. Load_PSP_POPS stands in for the kernel's reboot into its POPS
configuration: it loads the manager and that configuration's user modules,
and a helper thread makes the kernel init's scePopsManLoadModule(path, 0)
call. InitForKernel reports a POPS boot from the memory stick.
The emulator plays its sound on the Media Engine, so a PS1 boot always
gets the emulated ME, whatever the homebrew setting says, and is refused
on platforms that can't emulate it. The manager boots the ME with its own
code (POPS's reboot has no me_wrapper, so Sony's ME firmware isn't booted
for it), and its ME loop runs there unchanged, playing through the audio
block.
Everything in POPS that reaches hardware registers is kernel code, so a
POPS boot leaves the ME's kernel mode stopgap (g_kernelModeAnywhere) off:
7% fewer host instructions in Crash Bandicoot.
The manager also drives the GE directly: its stall register and FINISH
status are an MMIO device that only answers during a POPS boot, and stall
writes extend the HLE GPU's current list.
The 6.60 and 6.61 popsman.prx and pops_01g/02g.prx have the same code. The
manager's is checked when it's loaded, and any other one fails the boot
with a message. Savestates include the boot's threads.
Reading a game's disc image needs the next two changes.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
