About ps2 modding

[Noturno]

Hi everyone

A long time ago I decided to give a look at the files of Bully Canis Canem Edit which is the ps2 version of the game. Over time I was realizing that the files are the same, and with that I thought that the modification would also be, which in the case is, but with some limitations. It is very easy and simple to edit the files of the game with HxD, something simple and practical, so I could change the fighting style of Jimmy (something that on the pc is the same thing) not only that as I could modify several other things in the game , such as factions, characters etc ...

I tried to get into luac modding, but I could see that this might be the limitation of the game, because when I made a simple .lua file, when I go in for testing, the game simply crashes. I have seen several videos of people who have managed to use luac in the ps2 version, but for me this is still very difficult. Is there anyone here that is able to modify the version of ps2 (not only it, more of all consoles) or that could give me an aid?

Over time I or release some mods ps2 that I am able to do, simple things, more than a lot of people still do not know

[SimonBestia]

Modding the PS2 is easy, you have some limitations but for the most part, you should be fine.
What were you trying to do with the .lua file?
Knowing this will help identifying what the problem is/what you did wrong.

[Noturno]

I tried to use .lua files that were released over time by members here from bb, files that when compiled in ArcRace1.lur usually work on the PC version, only in the ps2 version as soon as I start the arcade mode, the game simply goes into infinite loading mode 

Does it affect anything inside the game? Do the codes made in .lua work in the same version? Maybe that's my mistake. I hope you understand and can help me 

[c00ld0c26]

That depends what script you are trying to run. Sometimes a script you run is setup incorrectly and can cause infinite loading or you just mess up when compiling it.

[Noturno]

Maybe this is not the error, because I test in both versions, in the PC and in the ps2 emulator. On the PC it works normally, already in the emulator it causes this error

[MadmaN]

The PS2 version of the game uses a slightly different structure to it's lua files. I am hoping to get enough free time to get around to decompiling the PS2 version of the game so the lua sources can be uploaded here for comparison to the PC version. I might also upload the WII version of the scripts too but all this depends on whether or not I can get the proper time to do this in the coming weeks.

Here is a method you can try to see what I mean. Extract the PS2 version of the lur files and make a brand new scripts.img for the PC version using those. Try running the PC version with the PS2 version scripts and you will see that there actually are differences in how the scripts are coded. The functionality for the most part is the same but there are some extra missions and other things the PC version has that the PS2 version doesn't have.

[Noturno]

Well interesting mad, I'll try to do what you told me

[SimonBestia]

The crashing can be due to various reasons, I can't figure out what the cause is if I don't know exactly what the scripts do.

Here's some of the common reasons as to why scripts made on SE crash on the PS2:
People sometimes include a "load all animations" function in their mods, but the PS2 can't handle too many animations loaded at once, so it crashes.
The solution is to unload most, if not all, animations.

Different weapons/vehicles/items IDs.
The solution is to open the .lua file and edit the IDs to match their PS2 counterparts.

You put a big mod (Such as a custom mission, for example The Cure 1 & 2) into the scripts and simply replaced ArcRace1 like you would do on SE, but the scripts.img file can't be too big on the PS2 otherwise it will crash.
The solution is to replace the mod with another big file in the game, like The Big Game.

[Noturno]

Maybe this is my mistake, I always put the load all anim function in the scripts, I'll test to see if that's really the problem. Other things can help me avoid future errors in my mods, thanks SIMONBESTIA 

[MadmaN]

SimonBestia is actually correct in mentioning that trying to load all animations causes problems. I've known about that myself but didn't think of mentioning it though I probably should have.

The PS2 version of the game does also have limitations on size of the img archive plus the archive is a slightly different format too as it is split up into chunks rather than one large file. That is also because the hardware has too many limitations vs a pc.

This is primarily one of the reasons why I never supported console modding of any kind since I personally consider it kinda pointless when you can do that to the pc version and often get far better results.

[Noturno]

I've recently had a breakthrough in ps2 modding, I realized that it's actually possible to moddig the lua in it (having some limits and of course) I'm still going to release some things that I will do in the ps2 version.
Thanks to you Simon and Madman who helped me with this information, it really was of great help.