How can I make GDEMU Menu spacers/titles?

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timesplitterx
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How can I make GDEMU Menu spacers/titles?

Post by timesplitterx »

Hey everyone,
I just made a childdream come true a few weeks ago and bought myself a Dreamcast.
I already setup gdemu and everything and am ready to go.
BUT
I saw in a photo showing the GDEMU Menu, that the person used "spacers" or better said titles to categorize their menu a bit.
He said he used dummy cdis, but how could one make a dummy cdi file?

So my main idea is to do something like this: https://i.imgur.com/0cD1Spz.png
Adding some category titels to the GDEMU Menu, to help find homebrew and other stuff in the menu faster.

Could I also use the GDEMU menu files to do that?
Is it possible to put multiple folders of the gdemu menu as spacers?
As the menu files are also only about 2mb in size and I wouldn't care if clicking on "category titles" launches the gdemu menu again.

Everytime I try searching for "cdi", "dummy file" and/or gdemu, I end up getting information about cropping GDroms or sth similar and thats not what I am searching for.

So if "How to make GDEMU Menu spacers" is common knowledge and often asked, then I am sorry, but still I did not find any good information is the last day.
Does someone have a quick idea or maybe a link or could tell me which program to use (and at least how to use it to make dummy cdis) please?
I did see that GDEMU_SD has a feature to add folders, but I was not able to rename the "EMPTY FOLDER" spacer.

Im new to this forum, so if links in general are a NO NO, just tell me and I will remove the image link.
Thanks a lot already!
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Xiden
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Re: How can I make GDEMU Menu spacers/titles?

Post by Xiden »

So with usb gdrom mnemo made a dummy file that when you load just boots to the dashboard since its an invalid dreamcsst file. You might try this

https://archive.org/details/usb-gdrom
timesplitterx
Fancy Pants Admin
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2022 8:46 pm

Re: How can I make GDEMU Menu spacers/titles?

Post by timesplitterx »

i will do so.
as openmenu is still stated as alpha I got a bit scared to use it.
I do come more from the ps2 modding scene where alpha mostly ment unstable and buggy.

EDIT
After a bit of searching in google and youtube, I think openmenu is a good alternative, but I will still look forward in some dummy files for using as a spacer in the listed theme of openmenu then. :lol:
timesplitterx
Fancy Pants Admin
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2022 8:46 pm

Re: How can I make GDEMU Menu spacers/titles?

Post by timesplitterx »

UPDATE1:
I ended up using a dummy creator I found online to create a 1 byte dummy file and then used a program called "Bootdreams" to make a bootable disk out of it.
AND badabing badabong: 2mb dummy cdi with a dummy and an ip.bin.
I will see what happens if I'd press it by mistake in the GDmenu, but if nothing happens, nice, then it does what it should, help categorize the menu a bit and not breaking GDmenu.
If it freezes the DC, well then I have to maybe take a small hb app or sth like that instead to prevent the console from freezeing.

UPDATE2:
So it looks like the Dreamcast will simply "reboot" twice after accidentally clicking on a dummy cdi.
(Probably the disk booting, and exiting directly after and forcing to boot into gdmenu again.)
I'd assume this is nooooo big deal and won't hurt the console, but I don't intend on always clicking the category titles.
It would count this as a success.

Now lets have fun with cdi cover art integration on these dummy files. :D :geek:

Thanks for your quick replies and thanks to Ian Michael for pointing out openmenu.
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