Implement VMC for Neutrino

[KyleSanderson]

Beyond thankful to sync-on-luma and the contributors to that Wiki VMC grouping page.

Tested with Dark Cloud (admittedly not grouped) - works great. If updates are made in the future it shouldn't destroy existing card groupings. I don't know if there's a better place to glue this into PSBBN like the POPS stuff is.

Please feel free to make adjustments, the style here is new. If we're OK with it, I'd like to add forcing the resolution and similar.

[CosmicScale]

Thanks! I like this a lot. I've got a few ideas on how I'd like to see this work:

1. Remove the option from the extras menu. Just like the PS1 HDTV Fix option, we could just have a "Would you like to use VMCs for PS2 games?" question in the game installer.
2. No need to update version.txt with the preference. If the VMC folder is empty, ask the question, if there's already VMCs in the folder, assume they want to use VMCs so don't ask.
3. I've noticed that every card created is 8 MB. I know sync-on-luma has it creating cards of various sizes, depending on the size of the group. Could this be implemented?
4. I would like to see this working for OPL too. Currently, you need to launch every game directly from OPL for it to create the initial VMC, it would be good if the script creates them.

I'll be releasing a big update in a few days, at which point this PR will not merge. If you want to wait for the update to be released, then look into the things I mentioned above, I'd be very happy to merge.

[KyleSanderson]

I've noticed that every card created is 8 MB. I know sync-on-luma has it creating cards of various sizes, depending on the size of the group.

Sony only ever released 8MB cards (internet citation, I don't know if it is really true) which was the spec to the studios. Anything greater than that may have faked magic gate, and a number of games do not support addressing more than this (silently failing, corrupting data, etc.).

Could this be implemented?

The answer is obviously yes, however without knowing which games to deny this capability to, it feels a bit dangerous. I've only played a couple hours of Dark Cloud and I already backed my VMC up, I can't imagine what someone playing Burnout would do after a couple days. I don't know the right mix here, because a single game in the group could have the bug, and it would corrupt the saves of the other games.

Currently, you need to launch every game directly from OPL for it to create the initial VMC, it would be good if the script creates them.

Gross.

I would like to see this working for OPL too.

Yes, this can be included.

I'll be releasing a big update in a few days, at which point this PR will not merge. If you want to wait for the update to be released, then look into the things I mentioned above, I'd be very happy to merge.

Should just be a couple hours of labour, if you remember can you ping me once the merge lands and I'll kick this off again.

[CosmicScale]

The answer is obviously yes, however without knowing which games to deny this capability to, it feels a bit dangerous. I've only played a couple hours of Dark Cloud and I already backed my VMC up, I can't imagine what someone playing Burnout would do after a couple days. I don't know the right mix here, because a single game in the group could have the bug, and it would corrupt the saves of the other games.

It currently works that way on that way on sync-on-luma's XEB+ neutrino Launcher Plugin, and the latest pre-releases of OPL that support the group memory card feature. Some of the groups are simply too big to fit on a 8 MB memory card.

[CosmicScale]

From ps2_vmc_groups.list:

# NOTE: Groups 24 and 40 contain many games whose combined save data may
# exceed 8MB.  Consider using a 32MB image for those groups if needed.

It's only two groups that actually need bigger cards so very easy to implement. I thought it would be more tbh. Like I said, his is currently how it works on other projects.

[KyleSanderson]

@CosmicScale is it safe to start hacking on this again.

[CosmicScale]

Yep, all good to proceed!