Gaming [Tut.] ISO's to CSO's

[[M]artin]

Compressing a PSP ISO into a PSP CSO: (Don't let the number of steps scare you, I simply broke it down into greater detail).

1.) Download UMDGen v4.00 from: http://umdgen.ps3news.com/UMDGen_v4.00.rarhttp://umdgen.ps3news.com/UMDGen_v4.00.rarhttp://umdgen.ps3news.com/UMDGen_v4.00.rar

2.) Open UMDGen.

3.) Click the "Open" button from the top menu buttons.

4.) Locate the PSP ISO you want to compress and click "Open".

5.) The info of your PSP ISO should be displayed. On the left-most box, click the "+" icon to collapse the "PSP_GAME" folder into two more folders: "SYSDIR" and "USRDIR".

6.) Click on the "SYSDIR" folder in the left-most box. 3 objects should now be displayed on the right-side box (these are the objects inside of the "SYSDIR" folder).

7.) The three objects should be: A folder named "Update", a file named "EBOOT.BIN", and a file named "BOOT.BIN". We're only concerned with the "Update" folder and "BOOT.BIN" file. DO NOT mess around with the "EBOOT.BIN" file, it is needed to run the game properly.

8.) Right-click the "Update" folder and select "Delete". Do the same to the "BOOT.BIN" file. This will delete the Update folder and BOOT.BIN file, which both take up a significant amount of space, but are not needed at all when running an ISO or CSO. Deleting this folder and file should shave a good deal of MB's off of the final size.

9.) Once the "Update" folder has been deleted, it's time to compress your ISO into a CSO. Click the "Save" button from the top menu buttons.

10.) You should be presented with 3 options: Uncompressed (*.iso), Compressed (*.cso), and Compressed (*.dax). Go ahead and click on Compressed (*.cso) to setup the compressing process.

11.) You will be presented with a "Save As" screen. Choose a location to save your new CSO, enter a name for your CSO (can be anything, doesn't have to be the same name as the ISO), and click "Save".

12.) A new box should now pop up with a drop-down menu asking you to "Please Select a Compression Value:". Set the Compression Value to "9" if it isn't already (ALWAYS, ALWAYS make sure it's set to level 9 so that the maximum amount of space is shaved off during the conversion process). Click "Continue".

13.) A progress bar will pop up. This process will take a while depending on how big your original ISO was. Once it reaches 100%, it will start another progress bar from 0%. Don't freak out, this is normal. The first progress bar tracks the copying of the original ISO files, the second progress bar tracks the compression process.

14.) Once both progress bars are complete and gone, you're done! Close UMDGen, go to the location you chose to save the CSO to earlier, and you should see your shiny new CSO! Note that your custom name is the filename and that the CSO size is significantly smaller than it's previous ISO size.

15.) Simply take your new CSO from it's saved location and copy it over to the "ISO" folder on your PSP. You're good to go!

 

[jelbo]

Nice, though you may want to fix the formatting (line breaks).

 

[[M]artin]

Nice, though you may want to fix the formatting (line breaks).

Thanks for the heads up, fixed.

Hope this tutorial comes in handy for some of ya...

 

[Salamantis]

Great guide! Thanks!

 

[shadowboy]

Good tut.
However, I find it hard to believe that anyone would be unable to figure out how to do it themselves once they found the actual UMDGEN program.

...But then again, at my favorite iso site the top topic in "Game Requests" is
"GTA4?"
"HOW IS POSSIBLE PLY GTA4 ON PSP? THNX!!!!!"

But yeah, nice tut all and all.

 

[myuusmeow]

Something is wrong with the people on PSP ISO sites:

Me: You obviously can't compress God Of War (1.5GB!!!) into 100MB! This is probably just a rip of the demo!

Idiot MODERATOR: "Myuusmeow, what are you talking about?! Lol.

"

 

[jelbo]

artin]

12.) A new box should now pop up with a drop-down menu asking you to "Please Select a Compression Value:". Set the Compression Value to "9" if it isn't already (ALWAYS, ALWAYS make sure it's set to level 9 so that the maximum amount of space is shaved off during the conversion process). Click "Continue".

Aren't there exceptions for so called 'streaming' games which either don't like to be compressed at all or less than maximum? Also, Yacc has some options to leave out certain files to be compressed ('NC' areas, I've seen those in UMDGen too in the compression value window, but they're greyed out) in order to avoud things like video/gameplay stutter/lag.

 

[IBNobody]

artin]

12.) A new box should now pop up with a drop-down menu asking you to "Please Select a Compression Value:". Set the Compression Value to "9" if it isn't already (ALWAYS, ALWAYS make sure it's set to level 9 so that the maximum amount of space is shaved off during the conversion process). Click "Continue".

Aren't there exceptions for so called 'streaming' games which either don't like to be compressed at all or less than maximum? Also, Yacc has some options to leave out certain files to be compressed ('NC' areas, I've seen those in UMDGen too in the compression value window, but they're greyed out) in order to avoud things like video/gameplay stutter/lag.

Someone posted a table on Maxconsole once showing the benefits of each of those settings. I had it bookmarked, but I deleted it. Look over there.

You don't want to have streaming games compressed at all.

Also, to the OP:

Level 9 compression is not worth it. It only nets you 2-3MB over level 1, and it has a slight impact on game performance.

 

[Seccom Masada]

You might want to mention something about removing demo files, though I've only seen them in Lumines 2/Every Extend Extra.

 

[altorn]

file relinking is usually very helpful, especially God Of War or any other 1.50GB games..
It will reduce your ISO by 100mb just by relinking background music of one stage. The quality isnt affected but size will definitely drop.

Tried it with Jeanne D Arc, (1.4gb), after relinking and compressing into CSO, it became 955mb.

 

[linkinkid]

ok so i have this game legend of heroes 3(go ahead laugh)and i believe that it wasn't compressed to the maximum level,what should i do to reduce its size,should i decompresse it and compresse it again,or should i just compresse the .cso file into a level 9 .cso file?

 

[IBNobody]

ok so i have this game legend of heroes 3(go ahead laugh)and i believe that it wasn't compressed to the maximum level,what should i do to reduce its size,should i decompresse it and compresse it again,or should i just compresse the .cso file into a level 9 .cso file?

You do realize that the difference between level 1 and level 9 is like 2MB, right?

 

[Rock Raiyu]

Thanks for the guide. You saved my life with Crisis Core cause I got a 1GB. Again, thanks!

 

[linkinkid]

ok so i have this game legend of heroes 3(go ahead laugh)and i believe that it wasn't compressed to the maximum level,what should i do to reduce its size,should i decompresse it and compresse it again,or should i just compresse the .cso file into a level 9 .cso file?

You do realize that the difference between level 1 and level 9 is like 2MB, right?

.....erm, i wasn't aware of that,so thanks for the info.

 

[solange82200]

IBNobody, you;re saying it's best to choose Level 1 compression over Level 9? Since in YACC is says that 9 is "best", I thought it means that the CSO will turn out better, with less chance of lag, but it will take longer to compress than the lower levels. But if I understand correctly, you are saying that Level 1 is actually better quality, and only a couple megs larger? I'm really worried about CSO quality and lag, so this is a big deal to me! Thanks in advace

 

[Urza]

I haven't touched my PSP in a long while, but there used to be a utility that converted PSP ISOs to CSO and DAX format with one click.

Not sure why something so ridiculously simple is stickied, let alone has a guide for.

 

[jelbo]

Not sure why something so ridiculously simple is stickied, let alone has a guide for.

This time I'm actually glad you say things so directly, as it was exactly my thought when I saw this thread when it first appeared. Really, it's like 'Open', 'click a button' and 'Save as'...

 

[IBNobody]

IBNobody, you;re saying it's best to choose Level 1 compression over Level 9? Since in YACC is says that 9 is "best", I thought it means that the CSO will turn out better, with less chance of lag, but it will take longer to compress than the lower levels. But if I understand correctly, you are saying that Level 1 is actually better quality, and only a couple megs larger? I'm really worried about CSO quality and lag, so this is a big deal to me! Thanks in advace

A more densely compressed archive, be it a ZIP, RAR, or CSO (which is GZIP) will always be slower to unpack and/or be more processor intensive than a loosely compressed archive. In most cases, smaller is better. The PSP is different. When the ISO loader reads data from a CSO, it is actually decompressing part of it on-the-fly. That's why some games lag or have audio problems; the PSP has to decompress the CSO and still keep the rest of the game running.

The 2MB figure I quoted was an average. I ran a test on 10 ISO's. Some had a 1-to-9 difference of 15MB, but most were just 1MB or 2MB.

There just wasn't enough compression to justify any performance hits. Plus, you're not really losing anything. You can't fill up your memory card completely. You always end up with 50MB of empty space or so. Having slightly larger games won't matter.

Urza: If I were a PSP n00b (and I was one about 6 months ago), this tut would have been useful.

 

[solange82200]

Thanks IBNobody, I will start compressing to level 1 now, makes sense to me! And I agree that it's nice to have this guide right there at the top, because many noobs don't even know what program they need to do this. I had to do a hefty search to find alot of this stuff out. I think a lot of super experienced gamers don't realize how foreign and complicated all this stuff is to someone who's new to scene. It's like they were hacking PSP's from the womb

 

[[M]artin]

I haven't touched my PSP in a long while, but there used to be a utility that converted PSP ISOs to CSO and DAX format with one click.

Not sure why something so ridiculously simple is stickied, let alone has a guide for.

Although there are "ridiculously simple" methods of conversion, the steps provided in this guide go beyond the watered down, one click approach.

If you were to actually read the guide, you'll see that removal of the Update folder and several other options are presented. UMDGen has some distinct advantages as well, such as being able to browse the files within a CSO, ISO, or DAX. This can come in handy if you obtain a CSO or UMDRip but don't know what's been removed.