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by Nisto at 7:18 AM EDT on April 10, 2015
For posterity's sake I looked into what exactly SsPitchFromNote() uses from the VAB header to calculate the sample rate, and it looks like it's the Pitch Tune value (0x5 in instrument regions) that is used, which indeed appears to be a way for composers to adjust the pitch relative to 22050 Hz (or maybe it's automatically generated somehow; whatever). So I guess getting the true original sample for samples just isn't possible. :/
by Squaresoft74 at 7:47 AM EDT on October 23, 2015
Hello, using the current GenPSF 4.2.1.0 utility, i noticed that when using the "VAB > Split" function, the resulting .vh seems to have incorrect size.

It's smaller than what is reported by Sony's VAB file editor.

Still, merging back extracted .vh and .vb will give proper .vab file
by MarkGrass at 11:56 AM EDT on October 23, 2015
Sony's VAB Tool reports the size of the entire VAB file (VH+VB combined).

The same exact value must be stored in the VH file itself (at offset 0x0C, IIRC).

It's likely that Sony's VAB Tool, which I use often myself, simply reads that value and displays it in the editor.

If not, then Sony's VAB Tool simply calculates the total size by reading the VAG size table located in the VH file.

Either way, it's not a bug, so far as I am aware :)
by Squaresoft74 at 4:37 PM EDT on October 23, 2015
Ok not sure i understood properly or properly explained myself to start with.
Let me try again :

Load VAB_File_104.VAB with Sony's VAB Tool , it will report :
Total (VH+VB) File Size 147904
Header (VH) File Size 9248
VAG (VB) File Size 138 656

Using "GenPSF v02" or "PSF VAB Splitter from VGMToolbox SVN r1004" to split the VAB file will result with :
VAB_File_104.vh 9,03 Kb (9 248 bytes) // Matches with VAB Tool's info
VAB_File_104.vb 135 Kb (138 656 bytes) // Matches with VAB Tool's info
Total 144 Kb (147 904 bytes) // Matches with VAB Tool's info

Using "GenPSF 4.2.1.0" to split the VAB file will result with :
VAB_File_104.vh 8,57 Kb (8 776 bytes) // Doesn't match with VAB Tool's info
VAB_File_104.vb 135 Kb (138 656 bytes) // Matches with VAB Tool's info
Total 143 Kb (147 432 bytes) // Doesn't match with VAB Tool's info

Now if i combine again VAB_File_104.vh with VAB_File_104.vb i will get the correct original VAB_File_104.VAB back.

Is there any reason later tool doesn't extract the .vh to the "expected" size ?
by MarkGrass at 6:43 PM EDT on October 23, 2015
The end of the VH file can be up to 0x200 bytes, reserved for the VAG table size. GenPSF only writes the needed data and doesn't bother bloating the file with unread/unused zero padding.

The zero padding is only required when the VH is combined with the corresponding VB file -- when the data is combined to make a VAB file.

It's not a bug and I've tested it with VAB Tool and even numerous games in hardware consoles a thousand times.

If it really matters that much, here is a newer version that fixes that (I've had this complaint before).
by Squaresoft74 at 9:00 PM EDT on October 23, 2015
Thank you very much for the updated version ! :)

It's been a long while since i last ripped some PSF stuff and from memory i was always referring to Sony's VAB Tool to check if i had my .vh and.vb files extracted properly.

I was manually hex editing files back in time so i'm more than happy to find new tools like yours to help with the job and save a lot of time ! :)
by MarkGrass at 9:55 PM EDT on October 23, 2015
Actually, it should be me thanking you.

Many years ago, I was inspired by your rips to create the generic PSF driver which is commonly used today. I coded it from scratch with minor help from CaitSith2... it was the very first program I ever wrote and compiled. I wrote it specifically because at the time, I had no clue how to read/write MIPS r3000a, but I wanted some PSF sets from games that hadn't been ripped.

Since, I have went on to design and develop many, many more applications, even making some money on the side with it. Suffice to say, GenPSF wouldn't exist otherwise.

...so, thank you for the inspiration!
by Squaresoft74 at 5:25 AM EDT on October 28, 2015
:)
As for testing on the real hardware , I'd be curious to know how to do that , any way to do it without wasting countless discs ?

Is there any homebrew, maybe using your generic driver that would allow to load and play seq/vab files on the real system ?
by MarkGrass at 9:10 PM EDT on October 28, 2015
The many hardware tests I've conducted are varied.

I only run a couple tests when the driver is compiled, in order to ensure that it's worthy of release.

...but I also use GenPSF for video game creation and modification. In both cases, I have to burn to a disc when testing in hardware.

An exploit for the PS2 was discovered a few years ago called "POP Station" -- an official PSone game launcher from Sony. It works by mounting disc images (in Sony's proprietary VCD format) and uses the original PSone hardware located inside each PS2. This is probably the easiest way, but requires your PS2 to be soft-modded.

Other than that, your only other option would be the obvious -- testing in emulators. For the utmost accuracy, I think XEBRA is where it's at.
by Squaresoft74 at 10:22 AM EDT on October 31, 2015
Thanks for the infos, i'll give it a try.

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