Multiloader Guide - Revision history

Butter100fly at 09:57, 30 April 2024

2024-04-30T09:57:02Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 09:57, 30 April 2024
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	</ul>		</ul>

	Its worth putting up with these things. ~~Every~~ frontend needs virtual drive software.....		Its worth putting up with these things. At the time of writing this: every frontend needs virtual drive software.....

	== How to setup Daemon Tools Lite ==		== How to setup Daemon Tools Lite ==

Butter100fly: /* Daemon Tools and SCSI/IDE Drivers */

2019-10-13T09:27:07Z

Daemon Tools and SCSI/IDE Drivers

← Older revision		Revision as of 09:27, 13 October 2019
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	Whenever you load Daemon Tools with an emu, you need daemon tools and the emu you're using to agree which drive to load from - so now you need to look in the emu's config for where to set which drive the emu looks to, and set it to K:		Whenever you load Daemon Tools with an emu, you need daemon tools and the emu you're using to agree which drive to load from - so now you need to look in the emu's config for where to set which drive the emu looks to, and set it to K:

	== Daemon Tools and SCSI/IDE ~~Drivers~~ ==		== Daemon Tools and SCSI/IDE Drives ==
	A recent thing to think about is that Spectre mitigation changes to the Windows Kernel has made it very difficult for projects like Daemon Tools to do IDE and SCSI emulation, some old emulators (for instance EPSXE) do need a SCSI drive emulated. Some options you have:		A recent thing to think about is that Spectre mitigation changes to the Windows Kernel has made it very difficult for projects like Daemon Tools to do IDE and SCSI emulation, some old emulators (for instance EPSXE) do need a SCSI drive emulated. Some options you have:
	<ol>		<ol>

Butter100fly: /* Daemon Tools and SCSI/IDE Drivers */

2019-10-13T09:26:44Z

Daemon Tools and SCSI/IDE Drivers

← Older revision		Revision as of 09:26, 13 October 2019
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	A recent thing to think about is that Spectre mitigation changes to the Windows Kernel has made it very difficult for projects like Daemon Tools to do IDE and SCSI emulation, some old emulators (for instance EPSXE) do need a SCSI drive emulated. Some options you have:		A recent thing to think about is that Spectre mitigation changes to the Windows Kernel has made it very difficult for projects like Daemon Tools to do IDE and SCSI emulation, some old emulators (for instance EPSXE) do need a SCSI drive emulated. Some options you have:
	<ol>		<ol>
			<li>update: https://daemon-help.com/installation/windows_1903/ - the registry changes here will fix this for now and your SCSI and IDE drives will be creatable in DT again (eventually SCSI and IDE drives will be phased out of DT he says, but that might take a while)</li>
			<li>change the Multiloader to pass directly to the Emu and not try to mount in DT (change 0 to 1 as the last call the Multiloader emulators makes (that's the 'pass directly to emulator' flag))</li>
	<li> don't use those emulators</li>		<li> don't use those emulators</li>
	~~<li>change the Multiloader to pass directly to the Emu and not mount (change 0 to 1 as the last call the Multiloader emulators makes (that's the 'pass directly to emulator' flag)</li>~~
	<li>use DTs native DT drive type and see if your emulator accepts that</li>		<li>use DTs native DT drive type and see if your emulator accepts that</li>
	<li>update: https://daemon-help.com/installation/windows_1903/ - the registry changes here will fix this for now and your SCSI and IDE drives will be creatable in DT again (eventually SCSI and IDE drives will be phased out of DT he says, but that might take a while)</li>
	</ol>		</ol>

Butter100fly: /* Daemon Tools and SCSI/IDE Drivers */

2019-10-13T09:25:53Z

Daemon Tools and SCSI/IDE Drivers

← Older revision		Revision as of 09:25, 13 October 2019
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	<li>change the Multiloader to pass directly to the Emu and not mount (change 0 to 1 as the last call the Multiloader emulators makes (that's the 'pass directly to emulator' flag)</li>		<li>change the Multiloader to pass directly to the Emu and not mount (change 0 to 1 as the last call the Multiloader emulators makes (that's the 'pass directly to emulator' flag)</li>
	<li>use DTs native DT drive type and see if your emulator accepts that</li>		<li>use DTs native DT drive type and see if your emulator accepts that</li>
	<li>update: https://daemon-help.com/installation/windows_1903/ - the registry changes here will fix this for now and your SCSI and IDE drives will be creatable in DT again (eventually SCSI and IDE drives will be phased out of DT he says, but that might take a while)</ul>		<li>update: https://daemon-help.com/installation/windows_1903/ - the registry changes here will fix this for now and your SCSI and IDE drives will be creatable in DT again (eventually SCSI and IDE drives will be phased out of DT he says, but that might take a while)</li>
	</ol>		</ol>

Butter100fly: /* How to setup Daemon Tools Lite */

2019-10-13T09:25:22Z

How to setup Daemon Tools Lite

← Older revision		Revision as of 09:25, 13 October 2019
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	You will need to setup a default drive in Daemon Tools (see screenshot) for QuickPlay to use when loading games. If K:/ isn’t a suitable drive letter for this drive for you, then you’ll have to change to a more suitable drive in: qp/tools/Multiloader/Multiloader.ini (i.e.: open that file in notepad and look for the drive letter assignment to K and change it to whatever you like). You also need to then change that in the config files of any emulator that needs to know the drive letter its loading from.		You will need to setup a default drive in Daemon Tools (see screenshot) for QuickPlay to use when loading games. If K:/ isn’t a suitable drive letter for this drive for you, then you’ll have to change to a more suitable drive in: qp/tools/Multiloader/Multiloader.ini (i.e.: open that file in notepad and look for the drive letter assignment to K and change it to whatever you like). You also need to then change that in the config files of any emulator that needs to know the drive letter its loading from.

	Its important for many emulators that you keep the same drive letter for the daemon tools virtual drive, and important for ~~many games to work~~ that it is a SCSI drive. So we need to create a SCSI drive (installing the driver as necessary) and tick all options to persistently mount the drive as the same drive letter. So, in order to use DT’s drive in QuickPlay, please setup a drive in DT just like this screenshot. <b>You get to that 'add drive' dialog by right clicking in the lower third bar (where it says 'quick mount' and selecting 'add drive')</b>		Its important for many emulators that you keep the same drive letter for the daemon tools virtual drive, and important for some emulators that it is a SCSI drive. So we need to create a SCSI drive (installing the driver as necessary) and tick all options to persistently mount the drive as the same drive letter. So, in order to use DT’s drive in QuickPlay, please setup a drive in DT just like this screenshot. <b>You get to that 'add drive' dialog by right clicking in the lower third bar (where it says 'quick mount' and selecting 'add drive')</b>

	[[File:DaemonTools1.PNG\|500px]]		[[File:DaemonTools1.PNG\|500px]]

	Whenever you load Daemon Tools with an emu, you need daemon tools and the emu you're using to agree which drive to load from - so now you need to look in the emu's config for where to set which drive the emu looks to, and set it to K:		Whenever you load Daemon Tools with an emu, you need daemon tools and the emu you're using to agree which drive to load from - so now you need to look in the emu's config for where to set which drive the emu looks to, and set it to K:

			== Daemon Tools and SCSI/IDE Drivers ==
			A recent thing to think about is that Spectre mitigation changes to the Windows Kernel has made it very difficult for projects like Daemon Tools to do IDE and SCSI emulation, some old emulators (for instance EPSXE) do need a SCSI drive emulated. Some options you have:
			<ol>
			<li> don't use those emulators</li>
			<li>change the Multiloader to pass directly to the Emu and not mount (change 0 to 1 as the last call the Multiloader emulators makes (that's the 'pass directly to emulator' flag)</li>
			<li>use DTs native DT drive type and see if your emulator accepts that</li>
			<li>update: https://daemon-help.com/installation/windows_1903/ - the registry changes here will fix this for now and your SCSI and IDE drives will be creatable in DT again (eventually SCSI and IDE drives will be phased out of DT he says, but that might take a while)</ul>
			</ol>

	== Tell me more about how the Multiloader works? ==		== Tell me more about how the Multiloader works? ==

Butter100fly: /* How can I play CD/DVD Games with QuickPlay? */

2019-10-13T09:16:15Z

How can I play CD/DVD Games with QuickPlay?

← Older revision		Revision as of 09:16, 13 October 2019
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	But often you've got your disc game as an image file in some format (.iso, .cue/.bin and many many more...). Lets say you just have a .bin/.cue file locally, the image file is unzipped, and you want to just pass the runnable file i.e.: .cue, .iso, .gcz to your emulator (check outside of QuickPlay that this works in the emulator to your satisfaction). In this case, you can choose the .cue file as the game when you scan for roms in QuickPlay, and you can just choose the standard emulator for that system in QuickPlay (i.e.: you don't need to choose the 'MultiLoader' version of that Emulator, though it will work if you do, the Multiloader handles all cases....)		But often you've got your disc game as an image file in some format (.iso, .cue/.bin and many many more...). Lets say you just have a .bin/.cue file locally, the image file is unzipped, and you want to just pass the runnable file i.e.: .cue, .iso, .gcz to your emulator (check outside of QuickPlay that this works in the emulator to your satisfaction). In this case, you can choose the .cue file as the game when you scan for roms in QuickPlay, and you can just choose the standard emulator for that system in QuickPlay (i.e.: you don't need to choose the 'MultiLoader' version of that Emulator, though it will work if you do, the Multiloader handles all cases....)

	But it often gets more complicated: although many emulators will directly play many image formats for disc systems, some still don't, some image types don't work with some emulators, and some games don't work right (in subtle ways like losing game audio). In addition, most emulators don't let you load images directly from a zip file. And if your disk image is not physically on the pc you're on (often the case with larger DVD images) even if you do get the emulator loading the game, something is going to have to cache the disk image on your local pc: reading the disc over the network is not going to make a fun gaming experience. Some emulators have a function for loading the whole image at once, most don't.		But it often gets more complicated: although many emulators will directly play many image formats for disc systems, some still don't, some image types don't work with some emulators, and some games don't work right (in subtle ways like losing game audio). In addition, most emulators don't let you load images directly from a zip file.

	So even though you can easily set up QuickPlay to pass a .iso to an emulator using just the normal commands for adding roms, the QuickPlay MultiLoader was made to be a single thing to point disc files to in order to get them played with any emulator, given any combination of these problem situations. You don't need to 'set' anything against any individual game or emulator to cope with these situations, as you do with other frontends, you just select the 'Multiloader' emulator for that system.		So even though you can easily set up QuickPlay to pass a .iso to an emulator using just the normal commands for adding roms, the QuickPlay MultiLoader was made to be a single thing to point disc files to in order to get them played with any emulator, given any combination of these problem situations. You don't need to 'set' anything against any individual game or emulator to cope with these situations, as you do with other frontends, you just select the 'Multiloader' emulator for that system.
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	<ol>		<ol>
	<li> Accesses almost all types of CD/DVD image formats, whether or not the image has been compressed as .7z, .zip, .rar, or proprietary formats such as those used by dolphin or psp emulators</li>		<li> Accesses almost all types of CD/DVD image formats, whether or not the image has been compressed as .7z, .zip, .rar, or proprietary formats such as those used by dolphin or psp emulators</li>
	~~<li> Determines whether you want to process the file from its current location, or whether you're trying to use a remote image</li>~~
	<li> Unzips if necessary, checking the file unzips ok where it can</li>		<li> Unzips if necessary, checking the file unzips ok where it can</li>
	<li> Works out the runnable file in the image</li>		<li> Works out the runnable file in the image</li>
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	OR		OR
	<li>Passes the runnable file to your emulator</li>		<li>Passes the runnable file to your emulator</li>
	~~THEN If you downloaded the game from your NAS, the next time you run it with QuickPlay:~~
	~~<li> Checks your local copies of archives with 7zip and recopy if they got interrupted/corrupted (Useful for if you didn't quite get time to finish the download before you had to leave)</li>~~
	</ol>		</ol>

	QuickPlay will automatically configure the MultiLoader for many emulators when you run an Efind. When you use the EFind that comes with QuickPlay it will setup emulators load from CD/DVD (the emulators say "MultiLoader" at the end). For instance, if QuickPlay sees you have RetroArch installed, it will setup a MultiLoader for RetroArch's Saturn emulator (as well as many others). Or, If you have a CD/DVD-based emulator that isn't found via QuickPlay's existing EFinds, you can also set it up as an emulator from within QuickPlay yourself, and save it as an EFind so you can search for it again in future		QuickPlay will automatically configure the MultiLoader for many emulators when you run an Efind. When you use the EFind that comes with QuickPlay it will setup emulators load from CD/DVD (the emulators say "MultiLoader" at the end). For instance, if QuickPlay sees you have RetroArch installed, it will setup a MultiLoader for RetroArch's Saturn emulator (as well as many others). Or, If you have a CD/DVD-based emulator that isn't found via QuickPlay's existing EFinds, you can also set it up as an emulator from within QuickPlay yourself, and save it as an EFind so you can search for it again in future

			The Multiloader works just fine with Synctool in QuickPlay: if your compressed game is on remote storage, you don't really want to run it from there, even those emulators (like some RetroArch ones) that can download the whole image first (so you don't get caching issues whilst playing) are just going to pull the whole image each time you play. Instead, enable Synctool in quickplay and you'll pull the image to your machine and it will stay there, and Multiloader will load it

	== How to setup your PC so the MultiLoader works ==		== How to setup your PC so the MultiLoader works ==

Butter100fly at 21:52, 25 January 2019

2019-01-25T21:52:11Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:52, 25 January 2019
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	[[File:7zip_app.PNG\|300px]]		[[File:7zip_app.PNG\|300px]]

	If you want to mount images or zips to pass to an emulator, you need the latest [https://www.daemon-tools.cc/products/dtLite Daemon Tools Lite] installed (10.8 when I was writing this). Daemon Tools change their command line often, so make sure you have the latest version		If you want to mount images or zips to pass to an emulator, you need the latest [https://www.daemon-tools.cc/products/dtLite Daemon Tools Lite] installed (10.10 when I was writing this). Daemon Tools change their command line often, so make sure you have the latest version

	[[File:DaemonToolsWebSite.PNG\|300px]]		[[File:DaemonToolsWebSite.PNG\|300px]]
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	<span id="dttext">Currently Supported Version of Deamon Tools Lite:</span> <span href="https://www.~~techadvisor.co.uk/download/system-desktop~~-tools/~~daemon-tools-lite-1080-3249028~~/" id="dtver">[https://www.~~techadvisor.co.uk/download/system-desktop~~-tools/~~daemon-tools-lite-1080-3249028~~/ 10.8]</span>		<span id="dttext">Currently Supported Version of Deamon Tools Lite:</span> <span href="https://www.daemon-tools.cc/products/dtLite" id="dtver">[https://www.daemon-tools.cc/products/dtLite 10.10]</span>

Butter100fly at 21:17, 22 May 2018

2018-05-22T21:17:45Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:17, 22 May 2018
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	* remember that 7zip and Deamon tools need to be at the default install locations ie: C:\Program Files\7zip\7zip.exe - the functions that use the progs won't work unless they are		* remember that 7zip and Deamon tools need to be at the default install locations ie: C:\Program Files\7zip\7zip.exe - the functions that use the progs won't work unless they are
	* If you want to use an earlier version of Daemon Tools Lite than we support here, earlier versions of QuickPlay probably used it in Tools/Multiloader.bat~~, you can go look in earlier versions~~, or just ask Daemon Tools what its command lines are and alter yourself the three variables in the Multiloader.bat (they are very clearly labelled)		* If you want to use an earlier version of Daemon Tools Lite than we support here, earlier versions of QuickPlay probably used it, you can download them and look in Tools/Multiloader.bat, or just ask Daemon Tools what its command lines are and alter yourself the three variables in the Multiloader.bat (they are very clearly labelled).
	* some of the more "exotic" game names you might want to select "use short name (8:3) for exe's" in QP and/or call "shortrom" - this just makes the command line shorter as over a certain character limit it will refuse to work or error. This only applies to a very few systems' games		* some of the more "exotic" game names you might want to select "use short name (8:3) for exe's" in QP and/or call "shortrom" - this just makes the command line shorter as over a certain character limit it will refuse to work or error. This only applies to a very few systems' games
	* And advantage is you can change the multiloader code yourself (mostly useful because daemon tools love changing their command line every minor revision) - open tools/multiolader_imp.bat		* And advantage is you can change the multiloader code yourself (mostly useful because daemon tools love changing their command line every minor revision) - open tools/multiolader_imp.bat

Butter100fly at 21:16, 22 May 2018

2018-05-22T21:16:28Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:16, 22 May 2018
Line 108:		Line 108:

	* remember that 7zip and Deamon tools need to be at the default install locations ie: C:\Program Files\7zip\7zip.exe - the functions that use the progs won't work unless they are		* remember that 7zip and Deamon tools need to be at the default install locations ie: C:\Program Files\7zip\7zip.exe - the functions that use the progs won't work unless they are
			* If you want to use an earlier version of Daemon Tools Lite than we support here, earlier versions of QuickPlay probably used it in Tools/Multiloader.bat, you can go look in earlier versions, or just ask Daemon Tools what its command lines are and alter yourself the three variables in the Multiloader.bat (they are very clearly labelled)
	* some of the more "exotic" game names you might want to select "use short name (8:3) for exe's" in QP and/or call "shortrom" - this just makes the command line shorter as over a certain character limit it will refuse to work or error. This only applies to a very few systems' games		* some of the more "exotic" game names you might want to select "use short name (8:3) for exe's" in QP and/or call "shortrom" - this just makes the command line shorter as over a certain character limit it will refuse to work or error. This only applies to a very few systems' games
	* And advantage is you can change the multiloader code yourself (mostly useful because daemon tools love changing their command line every minor revision) - open tools/multiolader_imp.bat		* And advantage is you can change the multiloader code yourself (mostly useful because daemon tools love changing their command line every minor revision) - open tools/multiolader_imp.bat

Butter100fly at 20:43, 22 May 2018

2018-05-22T20:43:11Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:43, 22 May 2018
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	<span id="dttext">Currently Supported Version of Deamon Tools:</span> <span href="https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/download/system-desktop-tools/daemon-tools-lite-1080-3249028/" id="dtver">[https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/download/system-desktop-tools/daemon-tools-lite-1080-3249028/ 10.8]</span>

			<span id="dttext">Currently Supported Version of Deamon Tools Lite:</span> <span href="https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/download/system-desktop-tools/daemon-tools-lite-1080-3249028/" id="dtver">[https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/download/system-desktop-tools/daemon-tools-lite-1080-3249028/ 10.8]</span>