SurreaL64 dvd Guide?

patch

Hi Guys,
I've been trying to burn the emulator and roms to a dvd with no succes.
I'm extracting the emulator from the rar file to a folder, then putting a folder called ROMS in this folder also. ie, extracted and rom folder are at root of disc.
The config file points to D for media and roms, I tried changing this to A with no success.
I've tried burning the contents using nero in UHF and xbox mode, I've also tried converting the contents to an xiso and burning it with Alcohol.

The best I've gotten is it starts as a dvd but freezes straight away...(BAED starts this way but continues straight on to the menus)

No doubt I'm doing something stupid here, any ideas?

I've gotten the BAED dvd's running fine so I suspect its something simple.

Cheers,

Pat.

silverlining

Hey dude, just saw your post. If you've burnt stuff successfully before then the reason it freezes is probably due to the DVD not being an xiso. What program are you uising to create the xiso? qwix is the easiest but if the disc image is not very big (less than 300mb say) then you should add a large dummy file to the xiso to fill out the DVD and make it more compatible with the xbox drive (or just use a CD-RW)

If you have a particular type of softmod that uses nkpatcher then you could transfer the iso image to the xbox (just the file not a burnt disc) and use driveimageutils to mount the image as a virtual DVD, which would help you to decide wether the problem is a burning/media problem or a file structure/xiso problem.

patch

Thanks for that Bud, I had given up on getting a reply!
I had also given up on the dvd after creating 5 or so coasters.
I'm gonna pick up a couple of cd-rws to experiment again with.
It was xiso I used to create the image.
I had given up in the belief that surreal doesn't like soft mods...

I'll post back if and when I get it working.
Actually, can you confirm that the latest version of surreal works with a recently purchased and softmodded xbox?

I'd prefer to get it working on a disc as I can pass it on to a couple of mates with ease.

Cheers!

silverlining

I presume you've tried surreal from the HD? and yes it will work with softmods.

There are 3 main versions of surreal now,
original surreal (basic but runs mario kart and mario 64 well but doesnt like a lot of other games)

surreal XXX: runs more games and looks better

surreal FDB: has some fancy graphic filters to make the games look better, it will play some games better than surreal XXX.

So it's a good idea to use all three and point them all at one Rom folder.

patch

Actually no, I'm just using dvd-r's at the minute. I have a crossover cable but didn't try hooking it up yet.

I managed to find a dvd image of surreal and burn it. This booted and gave me SOME games working, but its from '04 with us roms so not ideal.

Heartened by the fact I actually got surreal going in some form I used c-xbox tool to create an image (placed program files of surrealxxx and rom media folders at root, roms in rom folder, aimed c-xbox at folder containing all these) and burned with alcohol.

Did nothing. Squat. Xbox came up with the green logo like it might load as a dvd movie but then just sat there.

This is beginning to try my patience.

silverlining

What dashboard are you using? unleashx,evox,xbmc?
Few things to try:
unleashx and xbmc have file browsers so if you let whichever one them you have load first then put in the disc and check if the file browser can read the disc. If you have evox then try and boot xbmc from there first. If you cant read the disc then that means the dvdr media you have is incompatible with your xbox drive.

If you can read it in one the file browsers then if you have unleashx then use the savegame manager to delete the surreal64 savegame as it can become corrupted. (get back to me if you dont know what I'm on about)

Try the CDRW method instead of DVD, just make sure the size doesnt go above about 650MBs and it will burn fine.

It's much easier to boot the apps from the HD. You should experiment with the crossover cable and ftping (ultrafxp is a good ftp client), it's really not that hard (after a bit of practice) and you'll learn a small bit about computer networking.

get back to me with your dashboard info and I'll be able to help you better. You'll get there soon.

Jerichoholic

Can you post some links to this "softmodding". I've never heard of it before, I take it its a way to mod the xbox without breaking it in several places?