CDRMooby release 1.6

Another week, another feature =)

New Features:
    REALLY added support for .Z and .Z.table files.

Experimental features:
    Added support for subchannel data.  It's not fully tested so I'd appreciate any feedback on whether it really works or not ;)  Use Pete's CD-ROM plugin to generate a M3S or SBI file, then name it the same as the image name (i.e. einhander.bin -> einhander.sbi) and place it in the same directory as the image.  The plugin will automtically use the subchannel file if it's there.  If both files are available (SBI and M3S), it will use the SBI file.  Because this isn't a real CD-ROM drive and my plugin can't fully emulate a CD drive, some of the subchannel data won't be correct so this may not work with all games.  If it works, cool.  If not, there's always version 1.7 =)

Bug fixes:
    Everywhere.  You really think I test this before I release it? ;)

A big thanks to linuzappz and pete bernet for their help with this release =D

Finally, A super huge thanks to Keith for offering me hosting for the plugin.  You can find it at http://mooby.psxfanatics.com and a help forum at http://www.psxfanatics.com/phpbb/ under hosted sites.



CDRMooby release 1.5 

New Features:

	Added support for .Z and .Z.table files like linuzappz plugin. It's untested (because I have a worthless Linux box), but it should work *crosses fingers*.
	Added support for .bz and .bz.index files that you can generate with this plugin.  Use Configure to zip an image and Test to unzip.  It only works on .bin (or other raw) images and doesn't support CD-DA, but it's better than my RAR support because it works on the fly - no more waiting 5 minutes before your game begins.  This should compress better than the .Z images.  Open the .bz or .bz.image filewhen the dialog box shows to run the image.  The compressed files made with this plugin are NOT compatable with bzip.  People with slower computers may notice stuttering because of the decompression, especially in MDECs.  When compressing, DON'T MINIMIZE THE EMULATOR.  Windows thinks the program has stopped responding when it's compressing.

Bug fixes:

	Save states work under EPSXE now.

bzlib is available at http://sources.redhat.com/bzip2/ and was written by Julian Seward (jseward@acm.org) and others.



CDRMooby release 1.4

New features:

	RAR compression support.  Please read the notes on how to make a RAR that's compatable with this plugin.
	CD-DA track looping.
	ISO-9660 support is gone.  It will warn you when you're using one of those images.  If you still want to use those images, use Daemon Tools or find an iso to bin utility.

Bug fixes:

	There was a potential problem where the CD-DA could break if it played past the last track.  Track looping was my solution to this.

RAR support:
	Use 'best' and multimedia compression for best results.  With those options, the image will compress between 40-90% of its original size.  Don't ask for zip support - rar beats the crap out of zip for PS disk images.  Also, you'll need enough memory (ram + swap) to hold the entire image (that can be as much as 700MB).  If you have that much in RAM, it should take a pretty short amount of time to open.  If not, it may take several minutes for a RAR to open.  If you're RARing a cue and image (i.e. agame.rar), name the cue sheet the same as the RAR name (i.e. agame.cue).  Also make sure the FILE portion only has the file name (like "agame.bin") and no directory information (not like "d:\cds\agame.bin").  If you're just RARing the image and no cue sheet, it can be named whatever you want, but the plugin will only open the first file it encounters if there are more than one in the RAR.  FYI, I used WinRAR 2.9 to make my images.  I haven't tested it with other RARing programs so I can't tell you whether those will work or not.

thanks to the "UniquE RAR File Lib" for RAR support, written by Christian Scheurer and others.  http://www.mountpoint.ch/unique/project/urarfilelib/





CDRMooby release 1.3

New features:

	CD-DA streaming with bin/cue images.  To use this, you MUST load the .CUE file at the open file dialog.  It works pretty well, but there are some emus and games that it won't work for (no sound or screeching-like sound).  If the CD-DA is messing up too much, you'll have to run the image (.BIN, .IMG, etc) instead of the cue sheet (sorry, you won't get the cd-da sound then).  Also, any HD thrashing by other apps will mess it up so close your other programs if you have skipping or stuttering problems.  At this point, I really want to thank the people behind Daemon Tools and CDRWin because without those, I'd be up sh*t creek right now.  Especially big thanks to Daemon Tools because without it, I wouldn't have been inspired to make this plugin =D
	BTW, for ePSXe and others where you can hit ESC and go to the menu, the CD-DA still plays.  Just deal with it =P  Also, there's no volume control right now, and any in game volume controls won't work.  Deal with that too =P  There may be other bugs... just find me in the forums and let me know.

	Detects binary images that are named .ISO.  Shame on you all for naming them incorrectly ;P

Bug fixes:

	Fixes the problem with Wipeout (and probably other games) in FPSE because of track start time issues.  Thanks to lu_zero for the assistance.

New bugs:

	ePSXe 1.5 killed my fakie-iso support, but that's ok because I don't think anyone was using it anyway.  well, at least i *HOPE* they aren't using it and are using real binary images instead =) I'll deal with that later...

The source code is a mess right now with the CD-DA support so you'll have to wait a bit before I release it.

yadda yadda yadda...  NGEmu formums... blah blah blah... any problems you have... moo

mooby




CDRMooby release 1.2

PLEASE READ THE NOTE ABOUT .ISO FILES BELOW BEFORE YOU COMPLAIN ABOUT THEM NOT WORKING!!!

Bug fixes:

	Graceful exit when you hit "cancel" at file selection.
	CD track starts and lengths are now correctly calculated.  I mean calculated to-the-frame correctly, verified against the original CD and Daemon Tools.  This fixes some games that once didn't work (like the troublesome Wipeout XL) but only in PSEmu mode (ePSXe, PCSX, psinex) so try those images again.  Thanks to Calb for pointing me in the right direction.
	
Some notes:

	I'm having some strange issues with FPSE =/  First, don't use this plugin in FPSE's PSEmu mode, as FPSE doesn't make the PSEmu calls correctly.  Next, the problem with Wipeout still exists in FPSE.  That's the next bug to be fixed...
	Finally, I'm tired of people batting around the term ISO like it means it's a full disk image.  ISO refers to the ISO-9660 standard for putting filesystems on CD-Rom.  An ISO image is NOT a full binary disk image. If you run this plugin with a file that has a .ISO extension, it will treat it like an ISO-9660 image.  If you ripped a full binary image and named it .ISO and it isn't working, rename it to .BIN and try it again.  Maybe in the future I'll improve the detection for image types, but if you're using this plugin and can setup any of these emus, you can handle renaming the file ;)  Hell, you can even rename it in the open file dialog box...

As usual, find me in the NGEmu forums with complaints, compliments, and comments.

mooby




CDRMooby release 1.1

New features:

    ISO image support!!!  Lemme know if you find any problems with it.

Bug fixes:

    FPSE bug where the open dialog wouldn't always open - you may safely use the native FPSE mode again.
    A REALLY stupid error in my int->BCD function.  Fortunately, it didn't affect anything so it's all good =)

I have one special request...  I couldn't get my image of Wipeout XL to run, but somehow it works if you open it with epsxe's native mode.  So...

1) Have you tried any games that haven't worked with this plugin?
2) Does anyone know the secret of why Wipeout doesn't work (and perhaps other games)?

mooby



CDMooby release 1.o

So here's the first release of CDMooby.  Consider it an alpha or beta release for now.  It works very well with bin/cue cd images and works with PSEmu style emulators (epsxe, psinex, etc.) as well as native support in FPSE.  I've only tested it with images I've made with CDRWin but any binary images should work correctly.

I say it's an alpha/beta release because I haven't tested it with too many cd images, nor have I done extensive play testing except for some extended sessions of Brave Fencer Musashi.  Also, I've done all my developing and play testing in Win2K, so I'd appreciate feedback from any 98/ME/XP users out there.  *COVER MY ASS SECTION* I take no responsibility for your computer breaking because of this, but since I use it on mine without problems, you should be safe too, right? *END COVER MY ASS SECTION*

I have some ambitious goals for this project, but I don't have the time to fully commit myself to doing it.   After getting the code into some semblance of organization, I'm going to release it publicly in the hopes that other people will continue developing it.  Eventually, there will be some useful info in here that will help out other emu developers with increasing support for different CD formats...

So enjoy it.  I'll be lurking in the NGEmu forums if you need to get in touch with me.  You can post there if you're interested in working on the project too - I'll get in touch with you once I've organized a bit more.

later
mooby

ps. thanks to prafull from the ngemu forums for telling me about a problem with PCSX.  If you're gonna use it with that emu, the CD images need to be in the same directory as PCSX.EXE.  I've let them know about the problem so let's hope they do something about it.