FMV Skip on PS1
4 years ago
Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Since nobody came up with a way to disable FMVs on PS1 executables, I decided to try some hacking and found a way to mimic the behavior how FMVs are disabled on the PC version on executables that don't have a disable FMV option.

If you have a single "tr2.bin" "tr2.cue" pair disc image of the game, you can go ahead and strip the error correction data of the .bin file by running "bin2ecm tr2.bin" from the ecm-tools package from https://github.com/alucryd/ecm-tools and delete the "tr2.bin" file after. This will create a "tr2.bin.ecm" file.

Next you can replace all occurences of "FMV;" with "FMW;" in the "tr2.bin.ecm" file to rename the FMV files with the help of a hex editor.

Then you can convert back to .bin with "ecm2bin tr2.bin.ecm", adding the error correction data into a modified "tr2.bin" file. There will be a checksum error because the ecm format has an intrinsic checksum but it'll work anyway.

Burn to disc and play on a modded console, covert to an EBOOT and put it on PS3/PSP/PSVita/PSTV with a custom firmware or fire up an emulator.

Haven't tested the time save for a full run yet, but it could be up to 5-10s as they don't have to be skipped manually anymore and the FMV play functionality may fatally error out early as it doesn't find the file in the lookup table and skip a somewhat long file seek operation that would move the laser on a physical console.

Glad I could help reducing the PS1 RTA further with some modifications. Happy Speedrunning!

Edited by the author 4 years ago
England

Not too sure why you would want to skip FMV's on PS1, is there a reason why?

FMV's are skipped on PC UKBox due to compatibility issues (resolution changes, windows placements moving, crashes and endless user specific issues) I would not recommend modding your game just for time save reasons as PS1 does not suffer from any of these problems. The run will most likley be rejected as a result.

TheTobiGuy likes this
Baden-Württemberg, Germany

To save time just like when modding the PC version in the "RTA w/ mods" category.

The rules are still very unclear, what's up with this double standard? The game versions that can't skip FMVs on PC are all disc only, so where exactly is the difference here? How come this time saving modification is PC only, yet PS1 runs are publicly hated upon for being so slow for loading the FMVs coupled with the level loads when comparing the RTA w/ mods and loads.

The vibes when the vote for this was held were definitely for convenience purposes mostly by botched privilege runners (you as well) who were used to have a "disable fmv option" on the botched game version. Can tell because sort of every botched version runner voted for removing FMVs with no time penalty.

There are no issues I know of using a windower tool for TR2 on PC.

Still baffled by the in this clueless community's rules.

Can disable FMV on executable that doesn't have option The run will most likley be rejected as a result ???

Considering to submit future runs to Speed Demos Archive as they seem to have avoided the degeneracy influx and kept their clear rules. Also being timed by sing-e-segment IGT where all this RTA-reducing modding would be obsolete anyway.

Keep on modding!

Edited by the author 4 years ago
England

Well you wouldn't need to directly mod the game, you can use something like "Import Player" which IIRC has a "disable FMV" function you can enable before booting your game.

England

PS is a completely different category, FMVs have no issues on the PS version. There are many issues with PC FMVs and yes there are issues getting a windower tool working properly for everyone. This is done to allow 90% of people to actually play the game in a workable way. Time difference if FMVs are working properly is low, 2 frames in this run -

I suggest brushing up your knowledge on this game before making silly accusations

Edited by the author 4 years ago
TheTobiGuy likes this
United States

This thread has now re-opened. Please review the new rules and the version swapper resource's documentation before continuing discussions.