Learn how to shrink GTA:LCS.iso to 231MB!!!!!

0VVL and guano's Tutorial on how to shrink GTA:LCS down to 231MB:
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UPDATE: DO NOT shrink to 231MB. I wrote this when I was in my experimental stage of ultimate shrinkage power. I realise now that the game DOES NOT play well if you compress it. Just shrink it down to 480MB and call it a day. It'll be perfect then. But, if you too are experimental and wanted to push the limits, try it. You won't like it, but feel free...

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To begin, you should have a copy of GTA:LCS in ISO format. This should be a legally backed up copy, as I do not condone or advocate piracy.

I assume you already know how to make an ISO. So I am not going to tell you how to make one. (Except for the fact that you want the padding off when you use UMDGEN). Rather, I am simply going to show you how to make GTA:LCS into an ISO that weighs in at 231MB. If you don't know how to make an ISO, look here -
http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/329866

WARNING: You don't need to read this is you haven't beaten the game yet, as this method of shrinking will remove all movies and music. However, it does keep the sound effects. (If you try to do a mission, the game will crash.) This is for all the people like me who like to just roam around, cause trouble, run from the cops and look for hidden packages.

You'll only need two tools:
YAUIS v0.3a:
http://pspsaves.info/request.php?103 (Yet Another UMD ISO Shrinker) - Make sure it's v0.3a
DAXZISO Loader:
http://dax.psp-tuts.net

And I'm sure by this point, you know you need MPHGAMELOADER to do this. If you didn't know that, go sell your PSP and buy a dog or something.

First, open up YAUIS v0.3a and drop the ISO file of GTA:LCS inside the program screen. (For the n00bs, double click the executable file, then YAUIS will populate. Drop the file in that screen.)

Then, click on the right tab "File Editor". (This is the exciting part, because this is where we begin stripping the file.)

Double click "ISO File" and go into "PSP_GAME\SYSDIR\UPDATE" folder. Right click on "DATA.BIN" and select "Delete File(s)".
Repeat this process for "EBOOT.BIN" and "PARAM.SFO".

NOTE: By right clicking and selecting "Delete File(s)", this will create a "dummy" file to show the PSP those files are still there. When deleting, you are actually replacing the selected file with a file of the same name, only with 0kb. (If the files weren't there at all, the game would crash. By the way, throughout this tutorial, I will refer to this process of creating dummy files simply as "Deleting".) Now double click on the "SYSDIR" folder again to close that file tree.

Double click on "USRDIR" and go into "ANIM". Delete "CUTS.IMG" DO NOT DELETE "CUTS.DIR", as that file is needed. Double click "ANIM" again to close; you're done here.

Double click "CUTSCENE" and delete all the files in this directory. Double click to close when done.

Double click "MUSIC" and delete all the files in this directory. Double click to close when done. NOTE: When you finally get to play the game, you will hear clicking noises. That is the music trying to play, but since there are no music files, you will have to go into the menu and shut the audio completely off. That will stop the clicking noise altogether.

I like the sound effects in the game, so I left in Sets 0-6, located directly under "CUTSCENE" and "MUSIC". If you wish to shrink the file even smaller than 231MB, feel free to delete these files as well.

Now, go all the way down to "MOVIES". Delete "LOGO.PMF" and "TITLES.PMF" This will obviously shrink the ISO file even more, but what's better than that, by doing this, you will not even see the intro screens from the time you load the ISO. You'll be brought directly to the screen that shows "Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories" in red with all the white text below it, and then it will show the loading status bar. Double click "MOVIES" to close when done.

ANYWAY, continuing on...

Double click on "TEXT" and Delete whichever languages you don't speak. Double click to close when done.

Double click on "TXD" and delete the following ONLY: (The below are alternate language load screens)
PSP_GAME\USRDIR\TXD\SCEELEGALE.CHK
PSP_GAME\USRDIR\TXD\SCEELEGALF.CHK
PSP_GAME\USRDIR\TXD\SCEELEGALG.CHK
PSP_GAME\USRDIR\TXD\SCEELEGALI.CHK
PSP_GAME\USRDIR\TXD\SCEELEGALS.CHK

Are we there yet? Fortunately... You're done with stripping the ISO now. Easier than you thought, huh? Now, just hit "Shrink" and let YAUIS do it's thing. Go get a soda or something; this will take a minute.

Now... This should've left you with an ISO that weighs in at almost exactly 460MB.

Now get out your DAXZISO compression tool.

Double click on "DAX Creator 0.3", then double click on "DAX Creator". Load your new 460MB ISO and create your iso.dax with a compression setting of 1. I have tried it with every compression setting all the way from 9 and they all lag. I haven't tried zero compression, so feel free. With that exception, I find that compression setting 1 has the least amount of lag. Almost not noticeable. Now hit "start" and let Dax run its course.

You'll probably wanna run to the store and get some lunch or something. Maybe do some laundry... Dax takes even longer than YAUIS.

Of course you want to have already installed "DAXZISO" and "DAXZISO%" on your MS. And you want to put your .iso.dax file in your "ISO" folder on ms0.

The best settings to load GTA:LCS through DAXZISO Loader are the following:

CPU/BUS Speed: 333/166 MHz
Emulation Mode: MPHGL System
Disctype ISO: game
Disctype UMD: game
Updater Icon: remove
Use boot.bin: on
Regioncode override: off
Regioncode game: regionfree
Regioncode video: regionfree
Regioncode audio: regionfree
Flash0 emulation: on
Flash1 emulation: on
Allocate tables RAM: off

It's funny - I have heard many people complain about the DAXZISO Loader, talking about audio problems and what not. I've never had a problem and thanks to this great program, I have five ISOs on my 2GB MS along with Beats of Rage, 5 Mods for it, and 100+ Homebrew. Unbelieveable.

PROPS GO OUT TO

Everybody in the homebrew scene who has contributed something - anything. From the smallest application to the sickest game. Whatever. I love Homebrew and I'm never upgrading. All the devs have made the time I play games on my PSP so much more fun than what is offered by Sony with their games.

Thanks to zander, for a little help in shrinking GTA down to like 480MB.

Thanks to Dark_AleX, author of DAXZISO, for finishing the job and making it possible to get GTA:LCS down to 231MB!!

If anyone can get this ISO smaller without compromising the integrity at all, let me know. I'm interested.

I hope this helped you GTA lovers out there.

Peace,
0VVL and guano

 

this is a good tut actually for ppl who beat the game, and want to keep it on their mem card w/o compromising a lot of space. and nice move on not taking 100% credit and giving props to your resources.

-Joeva-

 

I actually tried making a rip kit for GTA, b/c there isn't one on the net anywhere, but I failed. So I had to do this, instead.

 

improv is never bad dude.

 

does anyone think this is worthy of being a sticky?

 

i got one problem, i use exact same settings for dax laoder as you it emulates well however then i use mphgameloader to load it (nothing wrong iwth this right?) then it shows loading screen memory stick busy... when its fully loaded it just does nothing anymore i can still exit through hitting home button.

any clues?

 

1st, you want to make sure you are using MPHGAMELOADER 1.0.0, not 1.1.0. Secondly, you don't need to load through the MPHGAMELOADER. You just click on the updater icon. (The pic of the game as you would with a UMD in the drive). I hope that helps; it works like a champ here. Lemme know if you are still experiencing difficulty.

 

i got 1.1 but the problem with normally launching it is that my psps keeps saying region code is not correct blablabla, even if i have region code override on

i'll try 1.0 mph


btw: using spider man 2 umd (dunno if that matters)

EDIT: still hangs after full red bar

 

oh - where do you have your flash folders? Are they in ms0:\MPHGameloader?

or are they in ms0:\DAXZISO?

You should have it set up to where both flash folders are in ms0:\DAXZISO, b/c the mphgameloader.prx included in Daxziso builds 0.55, 0.61 is modified to work with the ms0:\DAXZISO folder and not the ms0:\MPHGameloader folder while still keeping the properties of ms0:\PSP\GAME\MPHGAMELOADER and loading v2.00 games.

Hope that helps.

 

Also use the latest version of DAXISO Loader (v0.61)
Download it from here: http://www.psp-hacks.com/file/486

 

i had daxziso 0.55 mph 1.0 in both i've put the 2.00 firmware flash folders (flash0 + flash1) i'll try the newest daxziso and see if that works

 

still hangs , i think its because i use the mph game loader but i cant load it other way because it says wrong region code blabla

EDIT: This disc cannot be started. The Regiocode is not correct.
doenst matter on what i put it :/

EDIT2: using mphgl direct does the same if i mphgl system and then go to mphgl and run it just hangs on full bar

EDIT3: tried removing mphgameloader 1.0 itself didnt work either (-> mphgl direct)

 

When the region code thing comes up dont worry, it still loaded the game onto the memory.
To things can happen here you can press O and then run mph like normal should work.
If you press O and nothing happens eg still have region code stuff, then you should still be able to see the icons underneath the region code stuff just scroll to your mph or dax it should still run.

 

and thats where the game loads only freezes when the red loading bar is full.

EDIT: do i need a x folder in my ms's root?

 

no, you don't need an x folder. That's only if you're going to use the Modified version of UMDEmu w/ the RunUMD core, (which you'd have to have a hacked version of the x folder) or if you are using RunUMD or G3N3S1S. RunUMD and G3N3S1S load UMDs only tho, but they've figured out a way to incorporate RunUMD into the core of UMDEmulator using that hacked x folder. I really can't figure out your problem tho. I am going to go home and look at my files and settings again tonight and if someone can't help you in the meantime, I'll make another post to try and help you further. But I am at work now, so I can't check my files yet. I'll get back to you.

EDIT: In the meantime, go back through the tutorial and make sure you did EVERYTHING correctly. If you have any doubts, do it ALL OVER AGAIN. You've got all day, don't you? lol Try it out, lemme know.

 

i tryed that today, i actually obtained the iso again and went through the tutorial and double checked twice, the only thing i havent tried yet is formatting my ms and then doing your tut but i doubt thats the problem. you dont need a certain amount of free space on the ms do you?

 

as long as the ISO fits, you're good to go. With the PSP, if you're only transferring one file, (no matter how large) it won't even begin the transfer if there isn't enough room. However, sometimes w/ songs, the PSP can't tell ahead of time all the songs won't fit b/c it's not one file, you know? Don't format your MS though. That's a waste of time. I wish I could figure out a way to send you my ISO. Here's a way to check your files:

Open up YAUIS v0.3a and click on the second tab. (I can't remember what it's called) go back through my tutorial and go through YAUIS simply looking at all the files; you don't have to edit anything, but YAUIS will let you look at all the files to make sure you've deleted all the right files and created those dummy files in their places. Look through all directories. Take your time with this... Look through ALL directories and if there's anything that says 0kb and it wasn't in the tutorial to remove, you need to make another ISO. If all looks good after that, don't do anything more with YAUIS. Just close it out. Don't save changes, don't try to shrink again, it will only be a waste of time. maybe this will help.

Lastly, I'm sure you've done this, but go back through your settings again. Take your time and double, even triple check it.

 

4. Wait just a litle, it hasn't crashed or hunged up, it just takes some time to load up the game.

i just read this lemme check if i just didnt wait long enough

EDIT: after 5 mins still nothing

 

the load hangs the most at the last little part of the bar. Just like when you're loading from UMD... obviously loading from ISO is faster, but it still hangs at the same point even from the ISO. I hope it works for you, dude. That'll save you a lot of room.

I was shocked when I was able to fit 5 ISOs on my 2GB MS, along with 100+ Homebrews and Beats of Rage and like 3 mods for that and I still have like 200+MB free! Thank God for Daxziso!!!

 

All right, here's what I need you to do -

Send me a COMPLETE list of EVERY SINGLE FILE and the SIZE of the file in a PM. Sorry to have to ask, but I am going to compare it to mine and see what we've got.