Building an ISO the Correct Way | mari@macintosh.garden

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So after you've made the changes you want to the game's files, you'll likely want to turn them into something you can actually test. In a perfect world, we'd have that fabled PC Milo build that'd let us take raw scripts and expanded archives and test it directly, but we don't. As a result, we have to turn our extracted files into an ISO that we can either boot on hardware or in an emulator.

You can use something like Imgburn if you really want, but keep in mind it will only boot on emulators and not on real PS2s. If you want your disc to boot on a modded PS2, say, one using Mechapwn, you'll have to generate the ISO using Sony's official CD/DVD Generator and an IML-to-ISO solution. Apache2 is currently my go-to, so I'll be demonstrating with that. There are other options. You can find both of these in my GH2 tools tookit.

Firstly: Building the disc layout with CD/DVD Generator

In my toolkit, in the CDVD2 folder, lurks the former. Open it up and notice the popup. You'll want to create a new project, and from there, you're given the choice of three different kinds of master disc formats. Naturally, you'll want a DVD-ROM project. There's a lot of people who will tell you the dual-layer DVD-ROM format won't work for GH2, but they're interchangeable. Pick either one. This will open up to the Directory tab in CD/DVD Generator.

Now, go open up where you keep your GH2 disc's files. You'll need four things in your IML to make the game boot, and they're the four things you extracted off your original master GH2 disc:

• The GEN folder
• The IOP folder
• The game executable, usually SLUS_214.47, SLUS_215.86, or named something custom
• And SYSTEM.CNF, which is the file that tells the PS2 where to start loading the game executable

You might've just gotten confused because I didn't list the VIDEOS folder. One thing to note about this process is that it's not quick. Building can take under 15 seconds for a disc with only a few songs on it to upwards of a minute for a fully decked out GH2 ISO with 64 songs and the three extra videos (or perhaps longer, depending on your computer).

So if you want faster burns, skip the VIDEOS folder. (Of course, you can add it if you want to.) Your game will boot fine without it. The game won't crash even if you do try to load a bonus video, so they're truly optional.

Whether you've got four items or five, drag them all into the right side of the CD/DVD Generator window. The only thing that matters as far as the order in which they go in is concerned is that the SYSTEM.CNF file needs to be last in the list. Generally, I go GEN, IOP, (VIDEOS,) the game executable, and then SYSTEM.CNF.

Switch to the Volume tab. There's only two bits of information you need to punch in here, and that'd be the disc ID for "Disc Name" and "PLAYSTATION" for the "Producer Name". (I guess if you're operating on a non-US version of the game, change the "License Area" as well to match your region, but I've never needed to play with that.)

Go to File > "Export iml file", and save it somewhere. Two files will be created in that folder, an IML and an IMS. Both pertain to the physical layout of data on the disc, hence why this method is a whole lot better than using ImgBurn or the like. ImgBurn just doesn't get everything necessary to boot the disc on the ISO.

Converting the disc layout file to ISO with Apache2

Now comes the other half: taking that IML into an appropriate IML-to-ISO generator and getting a disc image out of it. There's a lot more you can do with Apache2, but we're just focused on building discs right now. (Apache2 is labeled as just "Apache" in my toolkit. Apologies for the confusion.)

Open it up and admire the lovely water effect you get when you drag your mouse through the GUI. Then go to File > Import IML File. Navigate to where the IML that CD/DVD Generator created is on your hard drive. The files will appear in the file list.

Select Build ISO from the File menu and choose a place to save the ISO. Apache2 will grind momentarily, and a progress bar will appear at the bottom. You'll notice it takes the most time to bake the ARK into the disc image, which is why people tend to be so interested in dropping weight like videos, practice mode audio, the tutorials, or extra songs they don't need.

When it's done building, you'll get a popup saying it completed "sucessfully" and you can close Apache2. This ISO is ready for play on TEST PS2s and you can ESR patch it and burn it to a disc and play to your heart's content. (You'll have to repeat this process every time you edit your disc, however. If you're primarily testing on emulator, the Imgburn route will be much faster. Just please don't release a disc without doing this.)

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