Dreamcast-Talk.com

DOWNLOAD:
https://github.com/DerekPascarella/Drea ... ck-Patcher

I put together a quick little utility for applying region-free and VGA patches to Dreamcast GDIs without extracting/rebuilding the disc image.

This is particularly useful for USB-GDROM users, as that ODE doesn't auto-patch the VGA flag.

To use, simply drag a .gdi file onto the executable. It supports BIN and ISO data tracks.



Note that this tool doesn't magically apply special-case VGA patches (https://consolemods.org/wiki/Dreamcast: ... nd_Patches), but merely enables the IP.BIN flag, which is all that's needed 90% or more of cases.

Might it be possible to set the VGA flag without changing the region info?

stuntman wrote: ↑Wed Oct 09, 2024 4:36 am Might it be possible to set the VGA flag without changing the region info?

Do you have a use-case for this? I'm trying to understand where this requirement would come from.

ateam wrote: ↑Wed Oct 09, 2024 6:10 amDo you have a use-case for this? I'm trying to understand where this requirement would come from.

The Gdemu/Dreamshell Collection games are supposed to support VGA, but I notice some games (e.g. South Park Rally or Trickstyle) show "VGA NO" in GDMenu. I assume they do support VGA if it's forced in GDMenu options, but I can't actually test right now because my VGA equipment is in storage. What I'd like is for "VGA YES" to be shown next to those games, just for my own information, or will this break something? I'm currently using RGB SCART.

stuntman wrote: ↑Wed Oct 09, 2024 6:51 amThe Gdemu/Dreamshell Collection games are supposed to support VGA, but I notice some games (e.g. South Park Rally or Trickstyle) show "VGA NO" in GDMenu. I assume they do support VGA if it's forced in GDMenu options, but I can't actually test right now because my VGA equipment is in storage. What I'd like is for "VGA YES" to be shown next to those games, just for my own information, or will this break something? I'm currently using RGB SCART.

Correct, many games do not support VGA in their "vanilla" state. However, you can go to the GDmenu settings menu and turn "Force VGA" on. It will work for all game except those that require special patches, or are yet to be patched (see here: https://consolemods.org/wiki/Dreamcast: ... nd_Patches).

If you patch your GDIs with this utility, they will state "VGA: YES". It will have no affect on RGB functionality.

My question though was regarding why you'd want to forego the automatic region-free patching.

Also, remember that this tool is designed for USB-GDROM users, since that device cannot perform on-the-fly VGA patching. I just threw in region patching for the hell of it. It also makes it easier to test a single game on GDEMU (i.e., just placing it in the 01 folder) and not having to worry about extracting and rebuilding the disc image to add VGA support or patching the region.

ateam wrote: ↑Wed Oct 09, 2024 8:01 amMy question though was regarding why you'd want to forego the automatic region-free patching.

Also, remember that this tool is designed for USB-GDROM users...

Again, showing the region rather than have GDMenu display "R.FREE" would be useful information to me. I appreciate you designed this for USB-GDROM users, and just thought with some tweaking it could be useful to others too.

stuntman wrote: ↑Wed Oct 09, 2024 8:28 amAgain, showing the region rather than have GDMenu display "R.FREE" would be useful information to me. I appreciate you designed this for USB-GDROM users, and just thought with some tweaking it could be useful to others too.

Understood. As a result, I've pushed a v1.1 update. See example usage below.

ateam wrote: ↑Wed Oct 09, 2024 9:45 amUnderstood. As a result, I've pushed a v1.1 update.

That's great. Thanks. I'm glad what I was thinking made sense

Thanks for this helpful app. I'll test it in Linux/Wine in the future.
Just a quick question, if using GDEMU it's not required to patch the games with this app for VGA because GDEMU can patch them on the fly?
Also, I can still use scart and composite even with this patch applied?

peido wrote: ↑Thu Dec 12, 2024 8:12 am Thanks for this helpful app. I'll test it in Linux/Wine in the future.
Just a quick question, if using GDEMU it's not required to patch the games with this app for VGA because GDEMU can patch them on the fly?
Also, I can still use scart and composite even with this patch applied?

If you're using Linux, just run the Perl script directly:
https://github.com/DerekPascarella/Drea ... patcher.pl

./gdi_quick_patcher.pl <path_to_gdi_file>

(Note that you may have to run dos2unix on the .pl file to convert carriage returns first.)

For GDEMU, VGA patching is applied on the fly. The patch applied by GDEMU (when using gdMenu or openMenu) and MODE is just changing one byte in IP.BIN to tell the console "hey, I support VGA!"

As a result, it does not in any way break composite, S-Video, or RGB.

Side note, I have no idea why MNEMO decided to implement region-free but not auto-VGA patching. Strange...

Anyway, the "real" VGA patches (which require actual assembly hacks) do, on the other hand, often break other video output methods.
https://consolemods.org/wiki/Dreamcast: ... nd_Patches