Hacking System wide X and O button swap

[konamicode89]

The Japanese PlayStation consoles had the circle button to confirm and the X button to cancel, the PS3 was able to change this setting via CFW(i.e. rebug). I would like to know how to set this up for the PS4.

The button customization settings in the accessibility menu don’t really get the job done like I would like it to, and I’m not sure if I’m overlooking something in the debug menu settings or not, please help!

 

[FAST6191]

Never really found the Japanese-rest of world confirm-cancel differences that infuriating but has cropped up before.

Don't know what goes for software these days for the PS4, or what random adapters you might buy. What I am more here to say is such a thing is not that bad of a hardware approach (which has the added benefit of being able to go to a friend's house/unhacked machine and still have it).

The sorts of things people do for rapid fire and automated input you would then get to do here, possibly slicing some traces as well.
The general idea is buttons are usually little more than switches -- press it and it either pulls high or pulls low a pin on a chip and eventually that gets sent back to the mothership. Change either the pins it goes to or the traces along the way leading into the switch and you have your remap. Bit harder to have another little switch on there to set them back to "normal" but still doable enough (not sure what is out there for crossover switches of the microswitch variety, though for just two buttons being swapped then you could create it with a DPDT I guess)

 

[godreborn]

this is something I've had to accept. I own a Japanese ps4 as well, but it's really no different than Nintendo consoles, which I play a lot of. the button config settings I think caused issues in games from what I remember, so I reverted it back. I hate how all three consoles are different with confirm and cancel being the opposite on American playstation consoles. while xbox has the same button config as the American playstation, the B and A are swapped from their location on a Nintendo controller, so the whole thing is confusing.

 

[konamicode89]

I’ve recently read from a old thread that the debug menu had an option to swap the functions but they were on PS4s running older firmwares like 1.7x. As I said before PS3s running cfw had this option and I really enjoy using the Japanese button config. Also, it’s just not practical to use the accessibility settings because of the hassle of it affecting other games and what it’s really doing is just switching the button inputs directly off the controller and not just changing the system preferences.

 

[godreborn]

the ps3's is part of the xregistry.sys and the vita's is part of the system.dreg. both can be changed manually even without the option in debug/henkaku settings. it's very easy to do. I'm sure the ps4's registry has the option somewhere, but I haven't really looked into it. you could probably fix it. the xregistry has an editor to do it manually, the system.dreg requires fixing the registry with fixreg, and looking in hex and changing the value of 1 or 0 for system input or whatever it's called (have a tutorial on it, but it's been years). I did that originally back on 3.20. it's not hard, so I'm sure the ps4 has something like that that doesn't necessarily need an option. you may have to fix the registry if such an app exists for the ps4.

 

[KiiWii]

You could try change your region to “Asia” as, apparently, since 6.50 they have system wide X/O swap.

I know the firmware files are identical across the globe, so there must be a way to enable it.... unless it detects the hardware region at a factory level.

 

[godreborn]

You could try change your region to “Asia” as, apparently, since 6.50 they have system wide X/O swap.

I know the firmware files are identical across the globe, so there must be a way to enable it.... unless it detects the hardware region at a factory level.

I don't know how it automatically selects the right one for the region. that's one thing I've never understood, on any of those systems. imo, sony should've left it the same as nintendo, because I'm sure a lot of Americans had trouble getting used to it after playing Nintendo systems for years.

 

[KiiWii]

I don't know how it automatically selects the right one for the region. that's one thing I've never understood, on any of those systems. imo, sony should've left it the same as nintendo, because I'm sure a lot of Americans had trouble getting used to it after playing Nintendo systems for years.

I imagine like toDex, toKratos or whatever there are region bytes we could swap, but it wouldn’t be perma...

 

[konamicode89]

You could try change your region to “Asia” as, apparently, since 6.50 they have system wide X/O swap.

I know the firmware files are identical across the globe, so there must be a way to enable it.... unless it detects the hardware region at a factory level.

This would mean wiping the whole system clean and reinitializing the console?

 

[KiiWii]

This would mean wiping the whole system clean and reinitializing the console?

Probably. But idk if that would work. Needs a guinea pig. More likely the system needs patching to enable region firmware oddities. I’ll check devwiki.......

 

[godreborn]

if you can change the buttons in the registry, you probably won't have to wipe the system. I know you don't on the vita. the only time it forced a format is when I changed the cma id, which is actually the little endian of the account id I believe, and I think it takes the account id from the id.dat. I changed it to all 0s. it worked (it made the folder on my pc with qcma), but it forced me to format. changing buttons didn't though.

 

[KiiWii]

Seems it’s in the NVS:

https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps4/Non_Volatile_Storage



idk if this is editable.....

 

[godreborn]

it's probably easier than changing the region, which may or may not work. I'd look for the registry file, wherever that is. iirc, the registry is in vd0 on the vita and dev_flash 2 on the ps3, but dev_flash 2 is on the hdd for NOR systems, so there's a good chance the registry is on the hdd.

 

[KiiWii]

http://oct0xor.github.io/2018/02/07/ps4_registry/

 

[godreborn]

we do have access to system_data via ftp. I think that partition is where the app.db and whatnot are stored in system_data/priv/mms from what I remember. next time I ftp, I'll look for those files. that ps4 registry editor sounds interesting, and possibly the way to do it.

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btw, the registries for ps3 and the vita are not affected by installing firmware, and I think they work even without a full hack of some sort. I think they stick, so you probably won't have to redo it.

 

[KiiWii]

we do have access to system_data via ftp. I think that partition is where the app.db and whatnot are stored in system_data/priv/mms from what I remember. next time I ftp, I'll look for those files. that ps4 registry editor sounds interesting, and possibly the way to do it.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

btw, the registries for ps3 and the vita are not affected by installing firmware, and I think they work even without a full hack of some sort. I think they stick, so you probably won't have to redo it.

I noticed IDU and UART are controlled from NVS, and we can toggle those flags, so it could be possible. But I think it will require a kernel level payload to effect it (even perma), not just reg edits.

 

[godreborn]

it's under button assign on the vita (fourth byte from the left). the 00 as per mine is circle as confirm. looks like henkaku settings doesn't change the system.dreg directly, so it must be in memory, because mine was/is changed, but I changed it back with henkaku settings. it looks like the tutorial isn't on here, but it's on psx place.

 

[konamicode89]

Seeing that you two are very well versed in this stuff whereas I am not, and I have more or less and understanding what you guys are talking about. I’m going to reinitialize my PS4 tomorrow morning and share my findings as my contribution. I would ask for you guys to explain it to me in layman’s terms but I don’t see myself digging into the HDD to edit said files anytime soon

 

[godreborn]

initializing will wipe the hdd.

 

[tech3475]

I don't know how it automatically selects the right one for the region. that's one thing I've never understood, on any of those systems. imo, sony should've left it the same as nintendo, because I'm sure a lot of Americans had trouble getting used to it after playing Nintendo systems for years.

Probably because X is more often used than O in the west e.g. ‘x marks the spot’, voting (at least where I live), etc.

Sony were also trying to reach different demographics, so they likely didn’t care as much about muscle memory as general acceptance.

Although ironically, as I had a PS1 before an SNES, I’ve had the inverse problem.