To curb hacking the PSVita via the Trinity Exploit, Sony surprisingly released FW 3.71 about a month ago (or 2.5 months after the TheFlow released the Trinity Exploit chain which can be used to hack FW 3.69/3.70). As a result, the latest PSVita firmware is unhackable and for those stuck there, CBPS Team have come up with a solution letting you play PSP games called Chovy Sign. Other than that, we’ll also be looking at the efforts done by Reddit user ‘JimiHeff’ to port MorrowindUnity to the device!

Chovy Sign Public Beta released – You can play PSP ISOs (backups) on PSVita FW 3.71 if you can figure out how

As Sony decided to bundle the PSP’s GPU and CPU inside the PSVita’s motherboard, it can emulate every PSP game out there perfectly but since it can’t accept UMDs, only PSP games available on PSN are officially playable.

Chovy Sign lets you play any PSP backup on FW 3.71 but make sure to check out the linked video to use it as it comes with no instructions!

However, through hacks, you can play any PSP game you want on your PSVita provided you have an ISO and even use XMB/plugins/themes if the ePSP solution you’re using provides such features. On firmwares below FW 3.71, the best piece of software to use for PSP emulation is TheFlow’s Adrenaline which not only lets you play PSP games but also lets you run homebrew that requires 64MB RAM, do savestates and use screen filters among other things.

However, as mentioned above, FW 3.71 doesn’t have the luxury of a native hack so CBPS Team decided to release Chovy Sign (which is the first release in Project Chovy, a toolkit for PSP stuff on the Vita), to allow folks with a PSVita on FW 3.71 some PSP action! From its somewhat poorly written README and release page, all you need is the following to run any PSP game on FW 3.71:

• Any working PSP game installed from PSN, even demos such as “LocoRoco Midnight Carnival” and “Petz Saddle Club” work if you don’t want to spend a dime
  • Apparently, Chovy Sign works by exploiting the PSP bubble cloning issue which means that if you delete the base game, the “license.rif” (required for PSP games to function on the PSVita) used by clone bubbles is erased and you have to reinstall the base game again
• A good quality ISO dump of the PSP game you want to play since poor dumps may not work properly
• A Windows computer to use the tools provided below
• As there are no properly written instructions on what to do, it’s highly recommended you follow this video by Nagato which details the process in a step-by-step fashion.

To grab the binaries and check out its release page, check out this link. Main credits go to Dots_tb, SilicaAndPina and Motoharu with various individuals including Knofbath, Julio Sueiras and NanospeedGamer helping with testing.

MorrowUnity (TESUnity) being ported to the PSVita

Eventually, you might be able to enjoy Morrowind’s map on the PSVita but don’t expect the full Morrowind experience as TESUnity is a map viewer not a game engine!

While Chovy Sign is pretty exciting for those stuck on FW 3.71, those who aren’t are probably more interested in native homebrew developments for the console with the latest news being a potential port of MorrowindUnity to the Vita. News about it emerged a few hours ago on Reddit when user ‘JimiHeff’ shared a YouTube video of a partially functional port of MorrowindUnity (TES Unity) running on the PSVita which doesn’t get past the initial screen. MorrowindUnity/TESUnity isn’t an engine for Elder Scrolls: Morrowind but it’s a world viewer so with it, you’ll be able to explore Morrowind’s world but don’t expect to be able to enjoy the game in its full capacity.

From the video, it seems that the application can’t access the data folder being passed on to it and refuses to continue further with an error reading ‘The path is not valid’. Now, the scene member behind the port has promised to ask around on the VitaNuova (Rinnegatamante’s community for PSVita homebrew development and bounty creation) Discord for help which may mean that you’ll eventually be able to explore Morrowind’s world on the PSVita!

Conclusion

Obviously, it’s no use to be able to play PSP games on your PSVita without knowing what to play so if you want some recommendations, check out this article about some great PSP titles to play. On the other hand, if you’re interested in more Unity stuff on the PSVita, you should check out this Reddit thread about Unity’s Adventure Demo being ported to it.

The post PSVita News: You can now play PSP ISOs (games) on FW 3.71 with Chovy Sign and MorrowindUnity (TESUnity) being ported to the console! appeared first on Wololo.net.

Without a doubt, the thing that makes it worthwhile to hack consoles is the slew of mods/tools/homebrew available for them and almost every day, something interesting is released. In this article, we’ll be looking at the second public beta of Chovy Sign (a hack letting you play PSP backups on Vita FW 3.71), more 60FPS mods for the Switch and BStone Vita 0.3!

PSVita: Chovy Sign Public Beta 2 & BStone Vita 0.3 Released

A few days ago, CBPS Team released Chovy Sign which is a hacking tool that allows you to run any PSP backup of your choice on PSVita FW 3.71.

If you’re an unlucky soul with a PSVita on FW 3.71, you’ll be pleased to know that you can play any PSP game you want on it with Chovy Sign!

This release, which is part of Project Chovy, was pretty significant as this firmware has no native hacks available for it (i.e HENkaku) since it fully patched TheFlow’s Trinity Exploit chain. Using it isn’t too difficult provided you follow a guide (such as this one) but it requires you to have a functional Windows PC with QCMA installed so make sure you get stuff ready before loading on a bunch of PSP games on your FW 3.71 PSVita or PSTV!

Now, it has been updated to Pubic Beta 2 and this comes with the following changes:

• The binaries now work on 32-bit installations of Windows so if your only Windows PC is pretty ancient, you’re in luck!
• ISOs for Minis now show the Minis bootscreen
• Improved exception handling (i.e less crashes and a more robust application overall)

To grab Chovy Sign Public Beta 2, check out this link and grab the latest ZIP file.

On other news, the PSVita’s port of the Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold engine (BStone Vita) has received a pretty beefy update which fixes a long list of minor yet noticeable issues. If you don’t know what Blake Stone is, it’s a FPS game released in 1993 based on Wolfenstein 3D’s engine with some enhancements like interactive map elements and textured floors/ceilings.

If you’re a fan of Wolfenstein 3D then Blake Stone: Aliens Of Gold is a title you should probably check out even more so that the Vita port received an update full of fixes and extra polish!

In it, you play as a British intelligence agent that’s trying to stop Dr. Pyrus Goldfire from taking over the world using genetically-engineered aliens, humans and mutants.

The aforementioned beefy update, with version number 0.3, brings about the following:

• Functionality to choose between previous/next weapon was added and could be triggered by touching the touchscreen’s top area and hitting ‘O’ (circle button)
• Joystick sensitivity can now be adjusted in-game
• The X/O buttons now function as expected in menus and the sound volume menu got a cosmetic fix
• Some crashes and out of memory errors were fixed
• Fadein tearing no longer occurs and the game’s engine was updated to version 1.1.13 (the upstream version of BStone)
• The save format changed so previous saves aren’t compatible!

To download BStone 0.3, follow this link to download the VPK or wait till it’s uploaded to VitaDB. You need to supply your own game files to “ux0:/data/bstone” as instructed by the README

Switch News: Masagrator releases 4 more 60FPS mods for commercial Switch games

As discussed in this article, some games on the Nintendo Switch are locked to render at a framerate lower than that which the Switch can achieve either due to thermals/battery life reasons or because overclocking the Switch’s CPU is needed to achieve a constant 60FPS.

Thanks to Masagrator’s work, you can play the just-released demo of Dragon Quest XI S at 60FPS if you don’t mind overclocking your Switch to the max (Source)

Due to this, Masagrator decided to create a bunch of 60FPS mods so that people who don’t care much about thermals/battery life can enjoy games looking as best they can on their Switch. Now, he and his colleague ‘Kirby567fan‘ released 4 more mods for retail Switch games which include:

• Lost Sphear – Compatible with version 1.3.1
• I am Setsuna – Compatible with version 1.1.0
• Fe – Compatible with base game (i.e won’t work if you install any updates)
• American Fugitive – Compatible with version 1.0.5
• The demo of Dragon Quest XI S (it’s a guide on how to patch it yourself as its config files haven’t been unpacked as of now)
• For best results, make sure you follow the overclocking profiles described in the links above as all 5 games require a slight/moderate overclock to maintain a constant 60FPS

Other than the above releases, there’s also some good news for these 60FPS mods as it’s been discovered how to get 60FPS in Unity games (American Fugitive is one of them) which took masagrator a few weeks to figure out. If the games you want to play aren’t in that list, there’s still hope as masagrator promised that he’ll release more patches next Friday (30th August)!

Conclusion

The last few days also saw the release of a port of Pingo (by Grzybojad) for Windows, Linux, macOS and Android thanks to Nikita Krapivin’s GMS2 port of the game so make sure to check that out if you like cool puzzle games to kill a bit of time!

The post News: Chovy Sign (PSP backups on Vita FW 3.71) Public Beta 2 Released With 32-Bit Windows Support + Bug Fixes, 4 new 60FPS patches for the Switch and BStone Vita updated to version 0.3 with numerous fixes! appeared first on Wololo.net.

IMPORTANT: TheFlow has just tweeted out that downgrading with Modoru results in a softbrick! Refrain from downgrading for now! h-encore² also works on the just-released FW 3.72

When TheFlow released his Trinity Exploit for FW 3.69/3.70, he made it clear that it was probably going to be his last release for the PlayStation Vita. However, TheFlow seems to have a “Never Gonna Give You Up” policy when it comes to PSVita hacking and now, he’s released h-encore², a native hack supporting the previously-unhackable FW 3.71!

h-encore² – What is it and what should I know about it?

As its name suggests, h-encore² (squared presumably because it comes with the power of h-encore to the power of 2) is a native hack for PlayStation Vita and PlayStation TV consoles running firmware 3.65 to 3.71 meaning that the latest firmware for the PSVita is now natively hackable! By hacking your PSVita, you can run homebrew/plugins on it and make use of every other great feature that comes with HENkaku/taiHEN including easy save data backups, overclocking and more.

h-encore² uses Bitter Smile as it’s entry point so you don’t need to have a PSP game installed!

This is a summary of some important points regarding the hack:

• Unlike the Trinity exploit chain, you don’t need a PSP game in order to run this hack since it exploits a native game!
• If your PSVita is an OLED (Phat) model, you must have a Vita memory card in order to use the hack since it requires to install a game demo to run the exploit
  • PSVita Slim models and the PlayStation TV have 1GB internal storage and don’t require you to have a Vita memory card installed
• The success rate of the exploit is around 25% which means that you may have to try running a few times before it works
  • While this isn’t a great success rate, it doesn’t really matter since you can always downgrade to FW 3.60/3.65 with modoru to get HENkaku Enso and not have to run an exploit yourself ever again
• Like h-encore and Trinity, the hack needs to be reapplied every cold reboot if you’re running it on FW 3.67+ since these firmwares don’t support HENkaku Enso
• Your PSVita needs to be linked to a PSN account (not activated) to make use of this exploit
• As usual, some plugins/homebrew may not work on FW 3.71 since they might contain firmware-specific offsets
• A pretty interesting piece of trivia is that h-encore² makes use of kernel vulnerabilities discovered by TheFlow more than a year ago and the base game is the same because Sony didn’t bother patching the Bitter Smile save data exploit!

The folks behind it are TheFlow (main developer) and Freakler (finding the crash in the demo and designing the h-encore² icon); other credits can be found in the GitHub link below.

How do I install it?

QCMA backup hacking is required for this one so if you want to take the lazy way out, wait a few hours for an update to an h-encore installer like auto-h-encore!

Like every other exploit since the original HENkaku for FW 3.60, h-encore² requires you to do some game backup hacking via QCMA so you should follow the guide below. As the process is pretty similar to that of installing h-encore, it’ll probably be only a matter of time a tool like auto-h-encore is released to make the process much quicker and mostly automated. If you simply can’t wait for a quick installer, you’ll need the following at your disposal in order to get it on your device:

• A computer capable of running QCMA (i.e any computer running a still-supported version of Windows, macOS or Linux)
• A PSVita running FW 3.65-3.71 linked to a PSN account
  • If your PSVita is running FW 3.60, use HENkaku and if it’s running FW 3.65-3.68, you should probably use regular h-encore as it has a better success rate
• Around 30 minutes-1 hour of your time especially if you’ve never dabbled with PSVita hacking before
• A Vita memory card if you have a Phat PSVita model as it has no user-accessible internal storage
• The installation guide linked below

Conclusion

To grab h-encore² and break your PSVita/PSTV out of Sony’s jail, check out the link below and make sure you read the README as it contains the installation guide. You may also donate to TheFlow on Patreon (link below) or via PayPal/BitCoin (links in README).

In conclusion, I personally recommend downgrading to FW 3.60/3.65 using modoru so that you don’t have to reapply the hack every reboot and get the best possible homebrew compatibility on your device!

h-encore² README (more information + installation guide + PayPal link + BitCoin address): https://github.com/TheOfficialFloW/h-encore-2

h-encore² GitHub Release Page: https://github.com/TheOfficialFloW/h-encore-2/releases

TheFlow’s Patreon (donating): https://www.patreon.com/TheOfficialFloW

If you’re unsure whether you need to use this hack or not, follow this flowchart by Reddit user lilracerboi (Link)

The post PSVita News: TheFlow releases h-encore² with support for FW 3.71 – You can now hack the latest PSVita firmware again and run your favourite homebrew on every Vita/PSTV! appeared first on Wololo.net.

UPDATE: Apparently, reports that Firmware 3.72 patches h-encore² were fake and everybody, including TheFlow, fell for it. h-encore² still works on FW 3.72 so it’s unclear what the update brings!

As said in previous articles about new PSVita firmware updates, Sony certainly never ceases to amaze us as it keeps on releasing PSVita firmware updates with nothing but exploit fixes. This time around, Sony has released firmware 3.72 which patches the just-released h-encore² by blacklisting Bitter Smile’s demo which is its userland entry point.

Sony releases FW 3.72 – What does it bring along? Should I update?

Apparently, Sony has been sitting on a patch for h-encore² for quite a while so it’s anybody guess why they didn’t release the update earlier (Tweet)

To the surprise of many, Sony has apparently broken out of their exploit patching slumber and released an update to break the h-encore² mere hours after its release – this is unlike what happened with FW 3.69/3.71 which were released around 2.5 months after the previous firmware had been hacked. Interestingly enough, the FW 3.72 PUP file (i.e install file) was last modified on August 15 which is 12 days ago meaning that Sony had a patch ready to break any new PSVita hack as soon as it came out.

Unlike other occasions on which Sony releases a new PSVita firmware, this time there seems to be no official changelog on their website confirming the suspicion that FW 3.72 probably brings nothing except a F00D block for Bitter Smile’s demo. Thankfully, this means that the underlying vulnerabilities are probably still there which means that all that’s needed now is another save game exploit for FW 3.72 to be hacked!

Obviously, you should not update to FW 3.72 under any circumstances if you want to hack your PSVita. However, if you want to update for some reason, there’s a bit of good news as Chovy Sign (a hack letting you run dumped PSP games on FW 3.71) still works there as confirmed by SilicaAndPina.

TheFlow currently asking for help in finding a new savedata exploit to be used as a starting point for launching h-encore²

If you want to see FW 3.72 hacked soon and get your name in the credits, TheFlow is currently looking for help in finding another savedata exploit

As Sony apparently did nothing more than just patch h-encore²’s userland exploit, a new savegame exploit is needed for FW 3.72 to get a native hack. In light of this, TheFlow is asking tech-savvy PSVita community members to help out in finding a new userland exploit and has provided an easy-to-follow guide on how this can be achieved.

In a nutshell, the process revolves around installing a DRM Free game/demo/app on your PSVita from this list, checking if it’s statically linked and then fuzzing the savedata by loading junk into it and seeing what happens. If the game crashes, then you have to look into the crashdump and look for specific values that signify whether you found a new user entry point or not. This process is to be done a PSVita that’s already hacked so don’t update your PSVita if you want to embark on some save data exploit hunting!

Conclusion

Like other times when Sony releases a new PSVita firmware, you’ll have to update your spoofing settings in ‘Settings->HENkaku Settings’ to spoof version “3.72” if you want to access PSN from your hacked PSVita.

The post PSVita: Sony releases Firmware 3.72 patching h-encore² by blacklisting user entry point (Bitter Smile game demo) OR NOT – TheFlow now asking for help from the community in finding new save data exploit! appeared first on Wololo.net.

The last 2 days have been quite a roller coaster ride for the PSVita hacking scene thanks to a new hack and some fake news. Yesterday, FW 3.71 got hacked with h-encore² then Sony released FW 3.72 and everybody thought the firmware update patched h-encore² by blacklisting Bitter Smile’s demo (i.e its user land entry point) presumably based on this video but apparently, it didn’t and many fell for it including TheFlow himself!

What happened? Can I hack FW 3.72 with h-encore²?

As mentioned in the introduction, almost everybody in the PSVita scene thought that FW 3.72 patched h-encore² thus rendering the latest PSVita firmware without a native hack.

Fake news has no boundaries and it even managed to heavily troll the PSVita’s community! Thankfully, it means that PSVita FW 3.72 is hackable!

However, that doesn’t seem to be the case and apparently, the first report confirming this came from this Spanish-language video by NanospeedGamer demonstrating the hack working perfectly on FW 3.72. A few hours later, TheFlow confirmed that FW 3.72 did not blacklist Bitter Smile via F00D and it can be hacked by h-encore² as the exploit chain stayed fully intact!

According to kood from a tweet by dots_tb, the FW 3.72 update was probably released in order to fix an issue with some PSP games such as Genso Suikoden I & II not being able to launch on FW 3.71 which saw an overhaul to the PSVita’s PSP emulator in order to fix TheFlow’s Trinity exploit chain and introduced some other issues along the way.

TheFlow updates h-encore²’s binaries; releases VitaShell 2.00 with FW 3.72 compatibility – Final h-encore updated with h-encore² support

h-encore2’s binaries have been updated and now, they work with FW 3.72. VitaShell 2.00 has also been released to complement the good news

In light of the above news, TheFlow updated h-encore²’s binaries to work properly with FW 3.72 and has advised people to reinstall h-encore² on their PSVita. Furthermore, he’s also released an updated version of VitaShell bringing about FW 3.72 support and bumping up the version number to 2.00. However, modoru has not been updated with support for FW 3.71/3.72 and downgrading with it still results in a softbrick so refrain from downgrading to FW 3.60/3.65 for now!

Moving to another area about the same subject, Final h-encore 1.9 has now been released with support for h-encore² which means that you can easily install h-encore² with a few clicks without having to follow TheFlow’s 13-point installation guide. To get it, check out this link.

Conclusion

Without a doubt, this whole ordeal will serve as a lesson to developers, reporters and regular end-users alike that a new firmware update may not always patch a recently released hack even if someone claims it does. All in all, it seems that hacked PSVitas are so precious to their owners that a whole day had to pass before somebody decided to take the plunge and verify whether FW 3.72 had really patched h-encore² Below you can see a gallery of websites and people that fell for it!

h-encore² README (more information + installation guide + TheFlow’s PayPal link + TheFlow’s BitCoin address): https://github.com/TheOfficialFloW/h-encore-2

h-encore² GitHub Release Page: https://github.com/TheOfficialFloW/h-encore-2/releases

TheFlow’s Patreon (donating): https://www.patreon.com/TheOfficialFloW

Freakler, who’s in h-encore2’s credits also fell for it!

Scene websites, such as GBATemp and Kotaku, also fell for the fake news! We also fell for it

Exchange on Discord between TheFlow and others about FW 3.72 not really patching his hack! (by LightningMods on Twitter)

The post PSVita News: FW 3.72 DOES NOT patch h-encore² and the news about Bitter Smile being blocked via F00D was fake – TheFlow updates h-encore² binaries and VitaShell with FW 3.72 compatibility appeared first on Wololo.net.

This week was pretty hectic with the release of h-encore², PSVita FW 3.72 and PS3 FW 4.85 but other stuff got released as well. In this article, we’ll be looking at some noteworthy homebrew/tools released in the last few days which includes SEN Enabler 6.2.3, StepMania for the Switch and Chovy GM!

PS3 Release: SEN Enabler 6.2.3 with FW 4.85 spoofing support

SEN Enabler is back again with support for spoofing OFW 4.85 this time!

As the PlayStation 3’s online gaming servers are still up and running, one of the first orders of business when a new firmware is out is an update to SEN Enabler. SEN Enabler is a homebrew utility for hacked PlayStation 3 consoles running a CFW that lets you spoof your firmware version, disable CFW syscalls and patch your MAC address among other things.

Following FW 4.85’s release a few days ago, SEN Enabler 6.2.3 got released and it comes with the following features:

• Ability to set the spoofed version to 4.85
• Support for Cobra 4.85 CEX
• Spoof and hash fix support for 4.85 CFW Cobra CEX

As usual, it’s important to note that using SEN Enabler will not reduce your chance of getting banned to 0% but it can drastically reduce the chances of it happening if used properly.

To grab SEN Enabler 6.2.3, check out this link and choose your preferred mirror.

Switch & PSP Releases: StepMania port for the Switch and Chovy GM for the PSP

The Nintendo Switch is no stranger to rhythm games and has quite a few official titles ranging from Just Dance 2019 to VOEZ but it also has some homebrew entries including McOsu NX (OSU! port) and now, it gained a StepMania 5.1 port!

StepMania is a pretty popular rhythm game that just found its way on the Switch! (Image Source)

As suggested by the above, StepMania is a pretty popular rhythm game that’s open-source. It’s available on a wide range of platforms including Windows, Mac, Linux, PSP and Nintendo DS and one can easily create dance patterns for MP3/OGG tracks.

Now, it’s also been ported to the Switch thanks to developer p-sam, who’s created a Super Mario War port for the console, and this port is to be run via hbmenu using hbl. Furthermore, according to natinusala (a veteran developer in the Switch scene), USB pads can also be used so you can have a more authentic rhythm gaming experience especially if you flip out your Switch’s kickstand to play in tabletop mode!

To grab StepMania for the Switch, check out this link and consult the README for an overview of the control scheme.

With Chovy GM, you can try forcing some GameMaker games on your PSP but do note that the runner is considered to be experimental (Image Source)

In other news, the PSP (and PSVita, by extension) also saw some love a few hours ago as Chovy GM got released which is a tool letting you port over GameMaker 8.1/8/7 games to the PSP by simply specifying a StandAlone Executable file and building an ISO. According to its GitHub release page, it makes use of the GameMaker Runner found in Karoshi’s PSP port which is a highly experimental build never released to the general public for standard development.

To download Chovy GM and give some old GameMaker projects a go on the PSP, download Chovy GM from this link but do keep in mind the PSP’s limited hardware and small amount of RAM!

Conclusion

While the last few days saw quite a few homebrew releases, interesting stuff was also going on in the emulation scene as the unreleased GameBoy Printer Color got reverse engineered, 3 Japan-only rare Famicom games by Konami were dumped and RetroArch 1.7.8 was released with some cool features like the RetroArch AI service which includes text-to-speech functionality for on-screen text and the ability to translate on-screen text to another language (Japanese to English for example) using online/local services.

The post PS3/Switch/PSP News: SEN Enabler 6.2.3 released with FW 4.85 spoofing, StepMania ported to the Switch and Chovy-GM is out letting you run GameMaker 8.1 games on the PSP appeared first on Wololo.net.

When TheFlow released h-encore² a few days ago, the fist instinct of many people was to downgrade their console from FW 3.71/3.72 to FW 3.65/3.60 in order to get HENkaku Enso and better homebrew/plugin compatibility. However, many were immediately disappointed as it turned out that modoru doesn’t work on these firmwares and leads to a softbrick but now, SKGleba has released dsll-mdr72 to fix this issue and let FW 3.71/2 users downgrade their console!

What changed in FW 3.71/3.72 to break modoru? What is dsll-mdr72?

A somewhat accurate representation of what SKGleba was able to achieve (Image Source)

Contrary to popular belief, FW 3.71 brought a bit more than fixes to PSPEMU and the rest of the system to patch TheFlow’s Trinity exploit chain since it also changed some stuff in lv0. According to SKGleba in this Reddit thread, Sony added some checks in lv0 preventing modoru from working correctly and in order to get around them, one has to load an older ‘update_sm’ module that doesn’t have the checks included. In order to achieve this, SKGleba released dsll-mdr72 which lets you load a less secure version of the ‘update_sm’ module on FW 3.71/3.72 thereby getting past the checks Sony introduced and allowing modoru to work correctly!

Apparently, creating dsll-mdr72 was no easy feat as SKGleba ended up not sleeping in 34 hours in order to deliver a functional and tested product for the PSVita community to enjoy.

How do I downgrade from FW 3.71/2 to FW 3.65?

In order to downgrade your FW 3.71/3.72 PSVita or PSTV, you have to follow these steps as outlined in this PasteBin guide:

1. First, you need to download a few files (links included in PasteBin guide) in order to get you started which include:
   • The FW 3.65 and FW 3.72 PUP files

     Downgrading from FW 3.71/3.72 is pretty easy and only requires you to do a little work in order to make modoru work properly!

   • Modoru
   • dsll-mdr72
   • A decrypted version of FW 3.65’s ‘update_sm’ lv0 module
2. Make sure you’ve run h-encore² to enable homebrew loading
3. Copy the FW 3.65 PUP file to ‘ux0:app/MODORU000/PSP2UPDAT.PUP’ and the FW 3.72 PUP file to ‘ux0:data/PSP2/UPDATE/PSP2UPDAT.PUP’
4. Place the decrypted ‘update_sm’ module you downloaded in ‘ux0:data/update_sm.bin’
5. Install Modoru’s and dsll-mdr72’s VPK on your PSVita via VitaShell
6. Restart your PSVita and run h-encore² to re-enable homebrew
7. Open the ‘decsecldr[LITE]’ bubble (i.e dsll-mdr72), wait until it says ‘Module Loaded’ and then press ‘START’ to exit
   • As the application’s success rate is around 25%, the application may crash or hang, if these happen do a force restart by holding the power button after 30 seconds of nothing happening
8. After the above step is successful, it’s recommended to make sure that the module loading was stable by opening some apps such as the ‘Settings’ and ‘Welcome Park’ apps
9. Open modoru and downgrade as normal
   • If you get a long floating bubble before Modoru starts , reboot your device and repeat from step 7
   • If the downgrade process crashes, reboot to safe mode by pressing ‘PS (PS button) +RT (Right Trigger)+POWER’ and navigate to ‘update system firmware->update from vita memory card’ in order to reinstall FW 3.72 and try again
10. Enjoy your FW 3.65 PSVita and remember to install HENkaku Ensō!

While the guide is specific to FW 3.65, you can easily use it to downgrade to another FW by substituting the FW 3.65 PUP file with another one like FW 3.60’s PUP file for example. A full list of PUP files can be found here – make sure to download the ones in the ‘Complete Official Firmwares’ section!

Conclusion

If text guides aren’t your jam and you understand Spanish, you can follow NanoSpeedGamer’s video tutorial on how to downgrade your console. However, if you don’t know Spanish, no video guides seem to exist at the moment so make sure you read the installation guide twice and take it slow as it’s a pretty easy guide to follow!

The post PSVita News & Tutorial: You can now downgrade your FW 3.71/3.72 PSVita or PSTV to a lower firmware thanks to SKGleba’s dsll-mdr72! – Step-By-Step guide included appeared first on Wololo.net.

2 days ago, SKGleba shared a method to make modoru work on FW 3.71/3.72 by loading a decrypted lv0 module into memory. However, doing it that way required one to follow a short guide before being able to downgrade but now, he’s found a way to do it without f00d code execution and released Modoru 2.0 to make downgrading as straightforward as possible!

What is Modoru?

Modoru is a utility for hacked PSVita consoles that allows you to downgrade them to a lower firmware of your choice.

The latest official version of Modoru doesn’t work out of the box due to Sony adding some checks but thanks to SKGleba’s efforts, FW 3.71/3.72 can downgrade quite easily!

Developed by TheFlow, this utility is mostly used by individuals who hack a PSVita/PSTV running FW 3.67+ and want to downgrade it to FW 3.60/3.65 to get HENkaku Enso (untethered hack that needn’t be reapplied every reboot) and optimal homebrew compatibility.

Up till the release of h-encore², everything was working fine but upon FW 3.71 getting a public native hack, it was noticed that downgrading with modoru results in a softbrick that requires you to restore your system with a PUP file from safe mode. Obviously, this disappointed many people on the latest PSVita firmware since h-encore²’s exploit has a low success rate and some plugins/homebrew aren’t updated for FW 3.71/3.72 but SKGleba has saved the day by making modoru work on these firmwares!

What does SKGleba’s Modoru 2.0 bring along?

SKGleba’s unofficial Modoru 2.0 was released following his recent success in enabling modoru to work on FW 3.71/3.72, first through code execution in F00D and now using a more reliable method!

SKGleba’s Modoru 2.0 makes downgrading from FW 3.71/3.72 stupidly easy so everybody on these firmwares should probably do it since PSN can be accessed on lower firmwares through spoofing!

According to its changelog, his unofficial version of Modoru brings along:

• Support for firmware 3.71/3.72
  • This means that you don’t need to use dsll-mdr72 and go through the process of loading an older system module in order to use modoru. All you need to do is just copy the target PUP file to ‘ux0:app/MODORU000/PSP2UPDAT.PUP’
• The current and minimum FW versions are now shown before battery/PUP checks
• SKGleba forgot to change the version information in the LiveArea and as a result, it still shows version 1.0. A commit fixing this change has been pushed so an updated VPK should come soon.

Obviously, you need to grab a PUP file in order to downgrade your PSVita and to do that you can check out this page by Darthsternie. Unless you have a special PSVita model, you have to download a file from the ‘Complete Official Firmwares’ section – it’s generally recommended to downgrade to either FW 3.60 (what I personally use) or FW 3.65 as anything below 3.60 has limited native hack support and anything above FW 3.65 doesn’t support HENkaku Enso.

Conclusion

To grab SKGleba’s version of Modoru, check out the link below and report issues to the ‘Issues’ tab. According to SKGleba, TheFlow wants to add FW 3.71/3.72 compatibility without exploiting F00D so it’s unlikely that SKGleba’s changes will be officially implemented into Modoru anytime soon but an official update by TheFlow may land eventually.

SKGleba’s Unofficial Modoru 2.0 download link: https://github.com/SKGleba/modoru/releases/

The post PSVita News: SKGleba releases Modoru 2.0 with support for FW 3.71/3.72 – Downgrading your recently hacked PSVita is as simple as it gets! appeared first on Wololo.net.

From time to time, the PlayStation Classic sees some homebrew releases mostly to improve its emulation capabilities while adding some new features and this time, we have BleemSync 1.2.0 which comes with an updated version of RetroArch and some other goodies. Other than that, the PSVita and Switch scene have also received some love in the with EDuke32 Vita 1.6 and 3 new 60FPS mods being released respectively!

PlayStation Classic: BleemSync 1.2.0 released with RetroArch 1.7.8, network support, folders & more

If you’re not in the loop when it comes to PSC hacking, BleemSync is the earliest and most well-known comprehensive hacking solution for the mini-console.

With BleemSync, you can unleash the power of your PlayStation Classic and turn it into the ultimate cheap emulation machine! (Image Source)

Compared to other hacking solutions like AutoBleem and RetroBoot, its main aim is to provide a feature packed experience that lets you make use of everything that the PlayStation Classic has to offer including the ability to play its built-in games, add your own games, use emulators and network support among others.

Other than a large amount of features, it also receives updates every few months and now, BleemSync 1.2.0 has landed with the following new stuff:

• The built-in version of RetroArch has been updated to version 1.7.8 which was released last week
  • This update comes with lots of features such as an AI service that enables text-to-speech and translation among other things. More about the RA update can be read here.
• Folders, which are managed on-console with an application created specifically for that purpose
  • Both stock and external games can be put in folders
• Network support has been added which lets you update RetroArch cores/assets, play certain multiplayer games online and more
  • There doesn’t seem to be a list containing all supported WiFi/Ethernet adapters but it’s been confirmed that the TP-Link WN725, ASUS AC-53 NANO, Insignia Gigabit Ethernet are supported. Included network modules can be found here.
• An on-console game manager allowing you to edit game entries and remove them without having to use a PC
• Various improvements and fixes such as better serial identification in the Transfer Tool, a better game database and a fix for issues relating to launching multi-disc games with the built-in emulators

To grab BleemSync 1.2.0 and make the most out of your PlayStation Classic, check out this link which contains both the download links and the instructions required to set up BleemSync. The folks behind BleemSync (ModMyClassic) can be donated to via Patreon or PayPal (link above).

PSVita and Switch Releases: EDuke32 Vita 1.6 & 3 new 60FPS game mods!

Did you get tired of Duke Nukem and want to play Duke 3D as Doomguy? Well, you can with the Doom Weapons Mod and eDuke32!

On the PSVita front, we have an update to EDuke32 Vita which is a port of the popular Duke3D engine EDuke32 which comes with various features such as support for rendering at higher resolutions and great mod support. Now, Rinnegatamante has updated the PSVita’s port to version 1.6 which brings along:

• BAT scripts can now be used which let you easily define custom launching parameters
• Support for GRP files in SSI format has been added
• Support for internal MID tracks has been added
• Overwriting savefiles now works
• Minor improvements including improved engine time accuracy, a better cache size detector and minor fixes to prevent memory corruption

To grab EDuke32 Vita 1.6, you can either get it via VHBB (Vita Homebrew Browser) or by downloading the VPK directly from here. Rinnegatamante can be donated to via Patreon.

Thanks to Masagrator, you can play many Switch games at 60FPS provided you don’t mind overclocking your console (Image depicts Risk Of Rain 2)

Going over to the Switch front, masagrator has released another round of 60FPS mods for commercial games and this time around, mods for the following games have landed:

• Fire Emblem: Three Houses – Works with version 1.0.0 and 1.0.1
• Risk Of Rain 2 – Only works with version 1.0.0
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2 – Masagrator warns that the Switch’s memory bandwith doesn’t handle the full 60FPS but says that it might be possible to lessen the load on memory bandwith by modifying graphical settings by tweaking the game with his mods

Conclusion

For more news about console hacking, you might be interested in checking out an update to Pingo (PSVita homebrew game) which brings about swipe navigation, a clear leak that FW 9.0.0 for the Switch is coming soon, TwilightMenu++ 9.3.0 and ioQuake3DS 1.1.0 for the 3DS

The post Homebrew Releases: BleemSync 1.2.0 for the PlayStation Classic with RetroArch 1.7.8 and folder/network support, EDuke32 Vita 1.6 with improved GRP file support and 3 more 60FPS mods for Switch games! appeared first on Wololo.net.

The GameBoy Advance is a console that has a great deal of fun 2D games and doesn’t have overly powerful internals making it pretty popular in emulation circles. One of the more popular GBA emulators is mGBA and now that’s been updated to version 0.7.3. Furthermore, we’ll also be looking at improved Dreamcast emulation prospects on the Switch thanks to Flycast!

mGBA 0.7.3 released with numerous bug fixes, improved Cheat UI and updated libnx in Switch port

mGBA, by endrift, is an open-source GameBoy, GameBoy Colour and GameBoy Advance emulator that’s available on a variety of platforms including Windows, Linux, macOS, the Switch and PSVita among others.

Like mGBA 0.7.2, mGBA 0.7.3 is yet another minor update but more exciting are slated for mGBA 0.8 including official support for hi-res mode, XQ audio emulation and Lua scripting among others

The main focus of the emulator is that of speed and accuracy in order to provide a good experience on lower-end systems and consoles but it also has some features that are a tad demanding such as 3D resolution upscaling (Hi-Res Mode) which is currently only available in nightly builds.

Now, mGBA 0.7.3 has been released which brings along:

• Save data initilisation now works properly when emulating original GameBoy games
• A fix for sprites that are broken at the top of the screen
• The emulator no longer crashes when exiting a game with cheats loaded
• On desktop ports, the cheat view’s UX has been improved and some other minor fixes have been applied to the GUI
• The Switch port is now compiled with libnx 2.5.0 which makes it fully compatible with FW 9.0.0 removing the dependancy on Atmosphere’s ‘hid-mitm’ module that’ll eventually be removed

To grab mGBA 0.7.3, check out this link and select the download for your selected platform. Nightly builds contain more features if you feel like trying stuff out!

Flycast emulator gets its Windows CE branch integrated into the main core and work being done on a Switch port

Other than GBA emulation, Dreamcast emulation also received some love and this comes in the form of some positive developments relating to Flycast. Developed by flyinghead, this emulator is the only open-source Dreamcast emulator capable of running Windows CE-based games and Naomi arcade titles making it pretty noteworthy especially to those interested in creating ports for other platforms.

The Switch is a pretty capable portable and with efforts from the homebrew community, it can do even more such as better Dreamcast emulation!

According to a post on the libretro blog, the emulator saw some significant developments recently including:

• The Windows CE variant of the emulator got merged into the master branch
  • This wasn’t done before because the MMU codepath required by Windows CE hurt performance in non-Windows CE titles
• Much better performance with an average improvement of around 30% thanks to SSA optimisations
• AICA (the Dreamcast’s sound processor) emulation is now much better and considered to be feature complete thanks to the addition of low-pass-filter and pitch LFO
• Fixes to rendering on AMD GPUs namely in relation to per-pixel alpha sorting
• Some RetroArch core-specific improvements

Other than the above good news, a Flycast RetroArch core is coming to the Switch thanks to work by Datamats allowing for even better Dreamcast emulation on the console. Furthermore, m4xw is working on an ARM64 JIT for the emulator to allow for good performance on the Nintendo Switch.

If you wish to play some Dreamcast games on your Switch now, you can use its port of Reicast which allows you to play select titles pretty well including Crazy Taxi.

Conclusion

In addition to mGBA and Flycast, RetroArch also got another update and it’s in the form of another re-release of version 1.7.8. It brings a couple minor updates with the most significant one being compatibility with iOS 13.

On another note, ‘Neebix’ on Reddit has shared a guide on how to get Minecraft 1.14.4 textures alongside some lighting tweaks on the PSVita’s version of Minecraft which recently lost official support.

The post Emulation News: mGBA 0.7.3 with many fixes and better Cheat View UI; Flycast (Dreamcast Emulator) coming to the Switch with JIT thanks to m4xw! appeared first on Wololo.net.

In early July and August, two bounties shook the PSVita hacking scene and attracted a great deal of interest which shot up their combined value to $2000. In this article, we’ll be looking at some recent progress updates about these two and at another bounty that we haven’t covered on this website!

GPU Acceleration in RetroArch & Native Resolution PSP Games Bounties: A look at recent updates

Native GPU accelerated Nintendo 64 emulation on the PSVita won’t come tomorrow but at least frangar is still working on a project to make it a reality one day in the future!

Starting off with the first-published of two, the GPU Acceleration in RetroArch bounty has been around since June 24 and it managed to reach $1300 as of writing this article. With frangar working on it, this bounty is split in two phases which include one for creating a GXM driver for RetroArch to allow for a better menu experience & shaders and another for creating GPU accelerated cores for systems that need them such as the PlayStation 1 and Nintendo 64. Currently, the first phase is still being worked upon and frangar managed to get runtime shader compilation working back in July allowing shader compilation on the device itself without depending on ‘psp2cgc’ which is a closed-source Vita shader compiler.

Recent Status Update: Around a week ago, frangar was asked on GitHub if there was any news and he said that he found a problem with threads while looking at CPU video filters. This means that work is still going on in relation to the bounty and we’ll hopefully see phase one being fully finished in the future!

The PSVita has been a PSP on steroids ever since HENkaku launched with dual analoague stick patches, native resolutions mods for GTA games, save states and more but if all PSP games can be played at native resolution then it would truly take the experience to a new level!

Moving on to the second bounty, we have the native resolution for PSP games bounty which as its title suggests aims to render all PSP games at 960×544 when run on the PSVita similar to what PPSSPP does. As the PSVita isn’t powerful enough to emulate the PSP solely through its native ARM hardware, a hybrid solution that leverages the PSP CPU/GPU found inside the PSVita’s hardware along with its own ARM hardware must be used and GitHub user ‘robots’ is currently working on making it a reality.

Recent Status Update: A few days ago, robots was asked on GitHub about any recent progress and he gave a fair bit of information in this regard. This information includes:

• robots has tackled:
  • Creating a patch for the sceGe module – Code from uOFW, a project that aims to provide an open-source alternative to the PSP’s kernel, helped out in making this
  • Defining the interface between the PSVita and its PSP hardware
  • Now, he’s working on porting the GPU statemachine and drawing from PPSSPP to the PSVita
• A GitHub repository will be opened when more progress is done to make it easier for other developers to help out
• Progress might be a bit slow in the immediate future as robots apparently has a ‘busy month ahead’

A quick look at a bounty for native resolution video output on the PSTV

While the PSTV didn’t do too well on launch, it attracted a decent following after HENkaku got released thanks to the PSVita’s great homebrew library and enhanced PSP emulation capabilities

Other than the aforementioned major bounties, another smaller bounty that’s PSTV-specific got published last month. This bounty was published on August 10th by ‘ScHlAuChii’ and aims to get native resolution video output from the PlayStation TV (960×544) or a 720p picture with a letterboxed 960×544 image if this isn’t possible. Need for this arose because it outputs at 480p, 720p or 1080i which leads to either upscaling or downscaling and as a result, pixel-perfect games may look odd especially if one’s playing games while sitting closer to their television/monitor.

As of right now, the bounty has raised $100 from a sole backer who is its creator and xerpi has done some research in relation to it which may help anybody willing to take it on. Like the other two bounties mentioned above, this bounty is also part of Rinnegatamante’s VitaNuova community.

Conclusion

While the PSVita homebrew scene has slowed down, the Switch scene is still seeing a good deal of releases and in the past few days, many tools including Lockpick_RCM, Goldleaf and NS-USBloader received substantial updates which may be worth checking out.

Disclaimer: Neither I or Wololo.net are affiliated with the bounty or BountySource. As a result, we bear no responsibility as to what happens to the bounty’s money.

The post PSVita News: A look at recent progress relating to the GPU acceleration in RetroArch and native resolution for all PSP games bounties + a quick look at a bounty for 960×544 output on the PSTV to eliminate upscaling/downscaling for a better image! appeared first on Wololo.net.

This weekend has been pretty fruitful when it comes to homebrew releases for the PSVita and Switch as they both received some stuff worth checking out. In this article, we’ll be looking at the release of vitaQuake 4.0, Atmosphere Updater 0.4/.1, 4 new 60FPS mods for the Switch and an English translation for a Japan-only game on the Vita.

PSVita Releases: vitaQuake 4.0 and English translation for Date-A-Live Twin Edition: Rio Reincarnation

vitaQuake works marvelously on the PSVita and now, version 4.0 brings even better mod support and makes the game more customisable than ever!

vitaQuake, by Rinnegatamante, is a port of Quake I for hacked PSVitas and one of the earliest HENkaku-compatible native homebrew being ported a single day after the release of HENkaku on July 30, 2016 as it was originally created for use with the Rejuvenate hack. Ever since then, Rinnegatamante has updated it numerous times with version 2.5 being one of the most significant versions as it brought support for GPU acceleration.

Now, vitaQuake 4.0 has been released with the following features/improvements:

• Improved mod support with support for:
  • More DarkPlaces extensions
  • Custom crosshairs
  • Half Life BSP and BSP2
  • Transparent surfaces
  • EF_BLUE, EF_RED and EF_NODRAW effects
  • External textures in TGA format
• Supersampling anti-aliasing (SSAA) support
• The Options menu has been reordered and Graphics settings have their own menu
• Mods can now be used with shareware Quake files and various limits, such as that for static entities, have been removed or increased
• More QuakeC commands are supported and it’s now possible to specify custom arguments at launch time
• The code received a significant cleanup, float arithmetic operations have been sped up with the use of NEON ARM instructions and the vitaGL library has been updated to the latest commit for better performance
• Other minor improvements and fixes which can be found in the full change log
  • You can download vitaQuake 4.0 directly from your PSVita via VHBB or grab the VPK from this link
  • Rinnegatamante can be donated to on Patreon for his excellent work

    If Japanese visual novels are your cup of tea but you can’t be bothered to learn Japanese, then another one is available for your enjoyment on the PSVita

Other than vitaQuake 4.0, the PSVita also received an English translation for Date-A-Live Twin Edition: Rio Reincarnation by froid_san who has created numerous English translations for the PSVita. This game, which is a visual novel, was released in Japan in 2015 as a PSVita exclusive and never got translated to English until PC and PS4 ports were released earlier this year. Now, froid_san has made the PSVita version accessible to English-speaking audiences and the English patch he just released includes:

• All text and images have been translated to English
• Vocal-less videos from the PC version have been merged with the video data of the PSVita’s version

As a result, the game is fully playable on the PSVita and the only minor things that didn’t get translated are trophies (PSN wouldn’t take too kindly to unknown trophies being synced), the game’s title on its save data and the digital manual.

To download this English translation patch, check out this link and make sure you have a Windows PC at your disposal as it’s required to create modded game files.

Switch Releases: Atmosphere Updater 0.4(.1) with Hekate support & 4 new 60FPS game mods

As its name suggests, Atmosphere Updater is a homebrew utility by ‘TotalJustice’ that allows you to update Atmosphere and now Hekate directly from your hacked Nintendo Switch meaning that you needn’t have access to a PC in order to get the latest release of the CFW up and running.

Who needs a PC to update Atmosphere when you can do it on-device? (Image Source)

Furthermore, it doesn’t mess with existing configuration files unlike Kosmos which has earned it good reputation in the Switch community. Over the past few days, it received two updates with the latest version being 0.4.1 and these brought about:

• Support for updating Hekate (0.4)
  • When updating Hekate, an option to overwrite Atmosphere’s INI files has been added (0.4.1)
• The hekate payload is now copied to “/bootloader/update.bin” for better compatibility with modchips and RCM injectors (0.4.1)
• fusee-primary.bin is copied to “/bootloader/payloads” when selecting to update both Hekate and Atmosphere (0.4.1)
• A better looking UI and Switch font buttons are loaded from memory (0.4 & 0.4.1)
• Code cleanups and error messages for when things go wrong (0.4 with further improvements in 0.4.1)

To grab Atmosphere Updater 0.4.1, check out this link and download the NRO file to install on your Switch. TotalJustice can be donated to on Patreon

Crash Bandicoot is fun and all but being able to play it at a smooth 60FPS makes it even better! (Image Source)

Finally, 4 new 60FPS mods for commercial Switch games have been released during this week thanks to work by Kirby567fan and Masagrator. The titles that received 60FPS mods include:

• Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy
• Rain World
• The Caligula Effect: Overdose
• GRID Autosport

It’s important to note that these mods are intended for use in handheld mode so if you want to use them in docked mode, you have to use ReverseNX with the handheld flag enabled. Furthermore, Masagrator started a new job that will have him traveling throughout Europe on a regular basis so these mods will be released at a slower pace for now.

Conclusion

Other than these 4 releases, the last few days also saw the release of ldn_mitm 1.2.6 for the Switch and tear-downs of the Nintendo Switch Lite which might be interesting to watch.

The post PSVita & Switch News: vitaQuake 4.0 and English translation for Date-A-Live Twin Edition: Rio Reincarnation released; Atmosphere Updater gets Hekate support and 4 new 60FPS game mods out for the Switch appeared first on Wololo.net.

PlayStation Vita homebrew releases have significantly slowed in the last few months but some developers are still creating useful stuff for the system. This time, we have VideoDebug which is a plugin that finally makes the native video application useful!

What is VideoDebug?

When Sony released the PSVita, one of the biggest gripes about it was how locked down it was compared to the PSP and one of the areas where Sony decided to over-lock things was the Videos application.

Thanks to VideoDebug, you can make the Videos application on the PSVita actually useful!

This application was locked down by forcing users to import videos via QCMA rather than copy them directly to the system which added unnecessary overhead especially if one wants to copy media from a PC they don’t normally use. To rectify this, Arkanite released Vita Media Center which allowed videos to be played directly from internal memory although this homebrew utility didn’t see much development past its initial release meaning that it isn’t highly polished.

Now, VideoDebug has been released which is a kernel plugin by SilicaAndPina, with help from u/AltCtrlGraphene, that puts the Videos application in debug mode. By putting the Videos application in debug mode, it can play videos directly from ux0:/data without having them imported via QCMA which makes it possible to easily copy videos over to the PSVita over FTP from a mobile device if you so desire making life much easier.

Installing the plugin is pretty easy and can be done by following these steps:

1. Grab the SKPRX file (kernel plugin) from this link
2. Copy it to ux0:/tai or ur0:/tai
3. Add “ux0:tai/videoDebug.skprx” or “ur0:tai/videoDebug.skprx” under the *KERNEL section of your config.txt file (it’s either in ux0:tai or ur0:tai)
4. Reboot your system and enjoy!
   • To get a video on your PSVita, just copy it to ux0:/videos and select the ‘TestFolder’ menu option in the Videos app
   • The ux0:/videos directory may be hidden on your PC so you may need to manually navigate to it or enable hidden folders

Which video formats are supported?

The highly common H264 video format should work just fine but the PSVita’s video player isn’t the best out there so before copying a whole season of a show, it may be a good idea to test a single episode first!

The video formats supported when the VideoDebug plugin is used are the same ones that the PSVita natively supports which are:

• MPEG-4 Simple Profile Level 6, Maximum 1280 ｘ 720 pixels, AAC
• H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Baseline/Main/High Profile Level 4.0, Maximum 1920 ｘ 1080p, AAC
• Both the video and audio format must be compatible for videos to work

From some limited testing of my own on FW 3.60, I was able to play:

• ‘Just Dance’ by Lady Gaga @ 640×360 (360p) 24FPS
• This video by ashens @ 1280×720 (720p) 25FPS
• An episode of Koutetsujou No Kabaneri @ 1280×720 (720p) 24FPS which has a file size of around 500MB
• Videos without an audio track didn’t want to play on my device. All videos tested use the H.264 codec

Conclusion

In the last 2 days, some more stuff got released including ScummVM 2.1.0 (multi-platform software letting you play some DOS-era point-and-click titles also available for the PSVita) and an easy-to-use tool for downgrading Apple A7 devices to iOS 10.3.3 without blobs or a jailbreak!

The post PSVita Release: VideoDebug released which allows the Videos App to play videos directly from ux0:/data – QCMA is no longer needed to play videos in the native app! appeared first on Wololo.net.

Until a short while ago, it seemed that the PlayStation Vita scene had descended into a quasi-hibernation state but these last few days reminded us that some developers are still working on creating worthwhile stuff for the console. In this article, we’ll be looking at two plugins for the PSVita and a mod for TLZ: Link’s Awakening on the Switch.

PSVita Releases: CBS-Manager 3.0 & NoPowerLimits Released

Custom Boot Splash and CBS-Manager let you have a custom boot screen on your PSVita which can look pretty nice!

CBS-Manager, by SKGleba, is an evolution of “Princess Of Sleeping“‘s Custom Boot Splash plugin. Contrary to ‘Custom Boot Splash’, CBS-Manager is effectively made out of three parts namely an updated version of the Custom Boot Splash plugin, an easy installer and settings menu for the plugin built-in to the native Settings app. Now, CBS-Manager 3.0 has been released, which comes with pre-compiled binaries (version 2.0 had pre-compiled binaries but they were taken down), and it brings along:

• Better boot animation support – This was achieved by:
  • RAM preloading for small animations
  • Some memory jobs were optimised
  • SlowMode was added to get rid of artifacting
• LiveBoot mode was added
• Menus for managing the plugin have been added to the native Settings app
• Some installer bugs were fixed

As CBS-Manager runs a plugin pretty early in the booting-up stage of the PSVita, only FW 3.60/5 are supported since the plugin needs HENkaku Enso. Before using the plugin, it’s important to check out the README as it has some important information for enso_ex and update365 users.

To grab CBS-Manager 3.0 and get animated boot logos on your PSVita, check out this link. For pre-made boot animations, head over to this Reddit thread by ‘MrAnvil935’ or you can make your own with PSP2-CBAnim.

If you want full brightness on all games and don’t mind your PSVita getting hotter, NoPowerLimits might come in handy if you don’t already use VitaBright. (Image Source)

Onto the second PSVita plugin, Electry released NoPowerLimits this weekend which is a plugin aimed at circumventing some power-related limits that Sony put in place potentially to prevent overheating. This plugin, which has functionality similar to the VitaBright plugin, has the following features:

• The 77% brightness limit in games that use 166/222MHz for the GPU and WiFi has been removed
• Wi-Fi is no longer disabled when games require 166/222MHz for the GPU and full brightness – an example is God Of War Collection

To grab NoPowerLimits and get past Sony’s limitations, follow this link and install the SKPRX file you download under the *KERNEL section of your taiHEN config.txt file.

Switch Release: No DOF Blur mod for TLZ: Link’s Awakening Released

If you’ve seen screenshots of TLZ: Link’s Awakening, then you probably noticed the Distant Blur effect present in the game when roaming around outside. On the internet, opinions about the blur vary wildly with some people loving it and others hating it but thanks to the Switch hacking scene, the blur can be turned off with a recently released mod!

Do you like Nintendo’s remake but dislike the blur? If so, SleepingMelons has just created the perfect mod for you! (Image Source)

This mod, which is called ‘No DOF Blur’ and was developed by MelonSpeedruns, fully removes the distant blur effect present in the game while leaving everything in its original state therefore making individuals who dislike the blur happy. To make use of this mod, you have to:

• Download it from here
• Extract the ZIP file you downloaded and place the ‘atmosphere’ folder on the root of your SDCard
  • You obviously need a hacked Switch running Atmosphere to use this mod
  • If you’re emulating the game on Yuzu, rename the ‘01006BB00C6F0000’ folder found in the ZIP file to ‘No DOF’ and place it in “C:\Users\{Your Username}\AppData\Roaming\yuzu\load\01006BB00C6F0000\”
• Reboot your console or re-open Yuzu
• Enjoy TLZ: Link’s Awakening without the blur!
• Unfortunately, users have reported that the mod doesn’t alleviate any of the game’s performance issues so don’t install this mod with the sole intention of improving your frame rate

Conclusion

For more information about the homebrew/emulation scenes, you might be interested in reading RPCS3’s August 2019 progress report which was published a few days ago or check out this mod for enhanced Witcher 3 settings on the Switch.

The post PSVita & Switch News: CBS-Manager 3.0 for the Vita released with better animated boot logo support, Electry releases NoPowerLimits; No Blur Mod for TLZ: Link’s Awakening on the Switch released appeared first on Wololo.net.

Sony has been rolling out Vita firmware update 3.73 today.

Unsurprisingly, the official changelog touts the usual “performance improvement”, which can mean anything from “fixed something that made a game crash” to “we patched some security vulnerability”.

The previous system update, 3.72, was released back in August. It raised waves of panic across the scene when it was initially reported to patch h-encore2. This turned out to be a false alarm.

This time again, the scene has been frenetically checking right after the release if this latest firmware update patches H-Encore2, or if it’s still possible to hack the Vita on this latest firmware. Early reports seem to indicate that 3.73 is still hackable, but that a few things might have been patched. Scene veteran NanospeedGamer in particular reports that h-encore2 still works, however downgrading tool Modoru is apparently not operational anymore.

Actualización PSVita 3.73 – se confirma que #Hencore2 funcióna perfectamente!!! Pero modoru NO. https://t.co/K5E78n2Zql

— NanospeedGamer (@NanospeedGamer) October 16, 2019

Whether Modoru can be fixed to accommodate this latest firmware update, or if Sony patched some critical parts of the tool, remains to be confirmed.

In the meantime, as always, we recommend you don’t update unless you have significant reasons to.

Source: Official Playstation site via literally everyone on twitter

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Vita firmware 3.73 “blocking” Modoru was only temporary after all, and basically a false alarm.

Developer SKGleba has released an update to the popular downgrading tool (originally developed by TheFlow), allowing it to support the latest PS Vita firmware.

The developer adds that this latest Vita firmware only seems to change something related to webkit (this might be a vulnerability patch, but not one that’s used in h-encore2).

With h-encore2 and Modoru both confirmed to work with Vita 3.73, it now feels safe to upgrade to that firmware if you were already on 3.7x. Users of former firmwares, running on the trinity or h-encore exploits might consider staying there.

Download Modoru 2.1 (supports PS Vita 3.73 and below)

You can download Modoru 2.1 from the developer’s github here.

Source: SKGleba

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Following the recent uptick in releases for hacked consoles, the PlayStation 3 and Vita just received updates to two significant pieces of software related to the process of hacking them. In this article, we’ll look at PS3HEN 3.0.0 and Final H-Encore 1.92 which are both popular software in their respective hacking community!

PS3 News: PS3HEN 3.0.0 released with fixes for freezing and issues with incompatible models + removal of FW 4.82 support

If you haven’t been following PS3 news for the last few months, PS3HEN is hack for nonCFW PlayStation 3 consoles which include all the Super Slim models and Slim models whose minimum firmware version is 3.60 or greater.

PS3HEN 3.0.0 is a bug fix release but it irons out some pretty annoying issues so updating is highly recommended

This hack, which was released in April, allows these consoles to get some CFW capabilities such as the ability to run homebrew, use backup managers and more which has prompted many people to hack their PS3 in order to get a piece of the action.

Thanks to the work of various individuals, especially Jason Borowski (@esc0rtd3w), PS3HEN is still seeing updates to this day in order to iron out all issues that may arise while using it and now, version 3.0.0 has been released. Version 3.0.0, which succeeds version 2.4.0, comes with some major fixes and its change log includes:

• Fixes for freezing issues on all PS3 models thanks to work by habib
  • Both freezing issues in the payload itself and the HEN plugin were fixed including a freeze that occurred when you had a DVD/CD in your PS3’s optical drive and enabled HEN.
• Issues with some PS3 models being incompatible were fixed
• Sanity checks in the payload were improved
• An error message is now shown if the reply from the HEN server is too short
• Support for FW 4.82 has been dropped as maintaining support was too much work for the main branch
  • This means that only HFW 4.84 and 4.85 are supported by PS3HEN

To get PS3HEN 3.0.0 on your console, you can simply you use the HEN Updater on your console. If you don’t have PS3HEN installed, follow this link for installation instructions.

PSVita News: Final h-encore 1.92 released with FW 3.73 support

Soarqin didn’t take long to update Final h-encore and now, it’s fully compatible with FW 3.73!

A few days ago, Sony took us by surprise again and decided to release FW 3.73 for the PlayStation Vita. According to reports online, this firmware update only modified two text messages related to PlayStation parties and didn’t patch out h-encore² meaning that this firmware was hackable upon release. However, even small firmware updates manage to disrupt a thing or two and one of the things that FW 3.73 disrupted was Final h-encore which is a tool allowing for easy installation of h-encore/h-encore².

Now, Final h-encore 1.92 has been released and it comes with one major change namely:

• Support for FW 3.73 thanks to an updated version of h-encore²
• Data files from Final H-Encore 1.91 should be used as nothing else changed with this update

To grab Final h-encore 1.92 and easily liberate your FW 3.73 PSVita or PSTV, follow this link. After liberating your console, it’s generally recommended to downgrade to FW 3.60/3.65 with Modoru in order to get an untethered hack with HENkaku Enso!

Conclusion

On a concluding note, DooM Vita 1.0.1 has been released which is a DOOM-like shooter made with Unity by Gambikules – it can be downloaded via VHBB since it’s on VitaDB. On the other side of the pond over at the Switch’s homebrew scene, some noteworthy developments relating to the Android port were made and Switch Media Host 2.0.0 got released which can be useful if you want to access your Switch’s filesystem over a LAN.

The post PS3 & PSVita News: PS3HEN 3.0.0 released with fixes for freezing issues and incompatible models; Final h-encore 1.92 is out with support for PSVita FW 3.73! appeared first on Wololo.net.

It’s no secret that the PlayStation Vita is an excellent console for retro console emulation and RetroArch is an excellent all-in-one solution for doing just that. However, only installing the VPK will give you a pretty ugly interface which might give you the wrong idea about RetroArch so in this article, we’ll be looking at the proper way to do things!

Part I: Downloading files & getting them onto your PSVita

Before you start doing anything, you need to download some files namely:

• The RetroArch VPK (link)
  • This comes in at around 170MB and contains all cores (RetroArch-speak for emulators) available for the PSVita which range from NES to Genesis to NeoGeo and much more
  • For a full list of cores, check out this GBATemp thread
  • A two part article series about what the Vita can emulate can be accessed from these links (part i, part ii)
• RetroArch’s data files [RetroArch_data.7z] (link – the link is specific to RetroArch 1.7.9 which is the latest version as of writing this article but you can find links for newer versions easily when they’re available)

  If you just install RetroArch’s VPK without the data files and the configuration below, it won’t look pretty

  • This contains the stuff that will make RetroArch look great including fonts, menu icons, themes, audio/video filters and much more
• Optional – A wallpaper of your choice to make the interface look even better. I personally think that ‘minimalist’ wallpapers look the best

After you download the above, you can grab your PSVita and do the following in order to install what you just downloaded:

• Obviously, your PSVita must be in hacked mode so run HENkaku/h-encore/Trinity before you start unless you use HENkaku Enso
• Open VitaShell and connect your PSVita via USB (you can do it via FTP but copying the data files might take 20-30 minutes as they’re composed of a lot of small files)
• Copy RetroArch’s VPK (RetroArch.vpk) to any directory you please
• Extract ‘RetroArch_data.7z’ and copy the ‘retroarch’ folder into ux0:/data [as a result, you’ll now have a ux0:/data/retroarch folder]
  • This step might take a while
  • If you want a custom wallpaper, the instructions are below
• Disconnect the Vita from your PC and install RetroArch’s VPK which you just copied
• Congrats, you’ve successfully installed RetroArch on your PSVita and can now proceed to setting it up
  • Up till now, you have menu icons and RetroArch looks better but you’re not quite done yet!

Part II: Setting up RetroArch on your PSVita

Now, open RetroArch on your device and start setting it up by following these steps:

• If you’re accustomed to having X for confirm and O for back, head over to Settings -> Input -> Swap OK & Cancel Buttons and toggle it
  • There are some options for touch controls but they don’t seem to work
  • You can also change the combination to get the option menu while in-game which I recommend doing if you’re using a Phat PSVita (Vita 1K)
• Now, go to Settings -> User Interface -> Appearance to make RetroArch look great

  The difference between this image and the above image is night-and-day

  • Fonts: Navigate to Menu Font and from here go to ux0:/data/retroarch/assets/glui/font.tff
  • Different Menu Icons: Navigate to Menu Icon Theme and see what you prefer (I personally prefer Systematic)
  • Menu Color Theme: Navigate to Menu Color Theme and figure out which style you prefer (I personally prefer Undersea)
  • Icon Shadows: Navigate to Icon Shadows and toggle it (I personally think RA looks better with shadows on but this is a matter of taste)
  • Menu Layout: You can toggle it between handheld and console with the former providing a bigger interface and the latter providing the default UI (I personally go with Console)
  • You can also change some stuff like the background’s opacity, font colour
  • After doing the above, RetroArch looks pretty decent and using it is much more pleasant!
• For a custom wallpaper in RetroArch’s menu, you have to follow these steps since Settings -> User Interface -> Appearance -> Background doesn’t seem to detect PNG/JPG files on the Vita
  • Go to ux0:/data/retroarch/assets/xmb/(theme you chose)/png
  • Name the image you want as a background to ‘bg.png’ and copy it to the above directory
    • It’s recommended you use a 960×540/960×544 image
  • You may need to change the background’s opacity in Settings -> User Interface -> Appearance to make your wallpaper look nicer

Part III: Other things you can do with RetroArch

If the XMB UI isn’t your thing, you can use Ozone for a Switch-like experience. You’ll need to add data files to ux0:/data/retoarch/assets/ozone from a PC installation of RA and make sure you remove ‘cursor_border.png’ or else, it won’t work well

If you properly followed Part I and Part II, you’ll get a decent looking RetroArch that uses around 200MB of your device’s storage. However, if you want to customise your experience even more, you can:

• Set up Dynamic Wallpapers which change as per the core you’re using (guide)
• Create your own playlists and introduce thumbnails for your games into the mix (guide)
  • Thumbnail files (i.e. game front covers) come in packs which include all games for the system so downloading them might take a while
• Use a different menu driver such as Ozone which gives you the Nintendo Switch UI
  • This can be done by going to Settings -> Drivers -> Menu
• Customise a lot more stuff which you can learn about by checking out RetroArch’s documentation

Conclusion

While the PSVita was hacked over 3 years ago, development relating to emulation is still on-going and as of right now, there are two major bounties going on to take emulation on the console to the next level. One bounty is for a GXM (hardware accelerated) video driver for RetroArch and its cores and the other is for native resolution PSP games; this article sheds light on recent progress relating to the bounties.

With a bit of work, you can make RetroArch on your Vita look awesome

The post Tutorial: Correctly setting up RetroArch on your PSVita and making it look great! appeared first on Wololo.net.

Thanks to Nintendo’s consoles being hacked more easily and getting emulated quicker, a lot of homebrew/emulation development going on has something to do with them. In this article, we’ll be looking at the release of mGBA 0.8 beta 1, a GB(C)/GBA emulator, and SysDVR for the Nintendo Switch!

Emulation Release: mGBA 0.8 beta 1 released with OpenGL-accelerated renderer for upscaled GBA graphics and more

For quite some time, mGBA has been one of the more popular GameBoy/GameBoy Advance emulators out there and it’s the only one still receiving a somewhat steady stream of new features. This emulator, by endrift, aims to provide accurate GBA emulation, good performance on lower-end devices, a complete arsenal of features and ports for numerous platforms including the PSVita, Wii, Switch and 3DS together with the 3 major desktop operating systems.

Now, mGBA 0.8 beta 1 has been released which finally implements most features that Nightly builds of the emulator received over the last few months. In its changelog, we find mention of:

• The addition of a hardware-accelerated high-resolution renderer allowing 3D sprites in games such as F-Zero Maximum Velocity to be rendered at resolutions up to 3840×2560!
  • This feature isn’t available on all ports of the emulator including the PSVita port
• Support for Discord Rich Presence allowing it to broadcast the title of the game you’re playing

  With mGBA, you can make 3D games on the GBA look much better in a way similar to how HD Mode 7 works in SNES emulation!

• Emulation of BattleChip Gate devices which is an accessory intended for use with Mega Man Battle Network 4
  • More information about it can be found here
• GameBoy Colour palettes have been added to original GameBoy games
• Experimental XQ audio support which provides higher quality audio in games using the GBA’s standard sound engine (Sappy) – more info at bottom of this page
• Better debugging tools including a frame inspector
• The ability to use the Switch’s internal brightness sensor for a game titled Boktai
• Ability to load RetroArch-style cheat files in CHT format
• The unlicensed Wisdom Tree Game Boy mapper is now supported
• L2/R2 and L3/R3 can now be mapped on the PSTV
• Dynamic display resizing is now supported on the Switch
• A whole slew of fixes which can be viewed in the emulator’s changelog

To grab mGBA 0.8 beta, follow this link and download it for the platform of your choice under the section titled ‘Preview Downloads’.

Switch Release: SysDVR system module released allowing for streaming games to PC

With SysDVR, you can stream gameplay on your Switch to a PC provided you don’t mind the 1 second latency gap too much (Image Source)

Thanks to the Switch being fully hacked early in its life, it received a ton of interest from the homebrew community and this time, we have SysDVR by Exelix11.

As its name suggests, this is a system module (similar to a plugin in PSP/Vita jargon) that allows you to stream your Switch’s screen to a PC allowing for gameplay recording without a capture card!

As of right now, there are two versions of the system module with one allowing for streaming via USB and the other via a network (TCP) although for best results the former should be used. From its README, these are some important points relating to SysDVR:

• It can only record the screen at 720p30 with H264 compression (this is a hardware limit)
  • Audio is also streamed in 16bit PCM format @ 48kHz stereo
• It requires FW 6.0.0 and only works in games that have video recording enabled
• Unlike udcd_uvc, a PC streaming plugin for the PSVita, this plugin doesn’t allow you to stream the System UI, home menu or homebrews running as an applet
• There’s around a 1 second delay for now so don’t expect to be able to play Switch games perfectly on your laptop’s screen when you’re on the go
• USB streaming only works in handheld mode

To grab SysDVR and get cheap capture card functionality for free, follow this link and make sure you read the instructions found in the README!

Conclusion

For more stuff related to Switch hacking, SkyMM-NX has been released which lets you manage your Skyrim mods. On the other hand, if you don’t have a Switch (yet), the emulation scene has more to offer with the release of bsnes v112 and Mystery of Time and Space, a popular Flash game released in 2001, now becoming playable in its entirety with Flashpoint. Finally, a mod allowing for stackable items in the PSVita port of Darkest Dungeon has been released which might be of interest to some.

The post Releases: mGBA 0.8 Beta 1 is out with hardware renderer for upscaling graphics, Discord Rich Presence and tons of fixes; SysDVR gets released for the Switch allowing for streaming games to PC! appeared first on Wololo.net.

Lately, things in the PlayStation Vita homebrew scene have been picking up again and this time, even the PSP got something! In this article, we’ll be looking at a Diablo I port for the Vita and an update to DaedalusX64 which is the only way to play N64 games on the device.

Diablo I ported to the Vita with DevilutionX

As many of us know, the PSVita didn’t get an entry in many major game series and the Diablo series is one of these. Up till now, the only way to play a Diablo game on the console was by emulating the PlayStation 1 port via Adrenaline but that’s just changed thanks to the work of developer ‘gokuhs‘ and his port of DevilutionX

Diablo I can now be played natively on the PSVita provided you can live with kinda awkward controls (Image Source)

DevilutionX is a open-source port of the Diablo I game engine that supports a wide variety of platforms including Windows, Linux, macOS and the Switch while also having some added features of its own such as upscaling and modding support.

The PSVita port is still in beta stage and from user reports on Reddit + its changelog, it’s at the current state:

• Overall, performance is pretty decent with the game hovering around the 40FPS mark in the city and the 20FPS mark in dungeons
• Controlling the game is a tad awkward because it uses the rear touchpad and most buttons are unassigned
  • Hopefully, gokuhs can take some cues in the controls department from Diablo NX which is a DevilutionX port for the Switch by MVG
•  There are a few minor issues such as tapping on the rear touchpad not working all the time and the mouse in menus being mapped incorrectly

To play some Diablo I natively on your PSVita, check out this link to grab DevilutionX’s VPK; viewing the README is also important to get the game running. You must provide Diablo I’s game files [diabdat.mpq] in ux0:/data/DVLX00001/data so you must own the game to play it legally; it can be bought for a few bucks off GOG (not affiliated).

DaedalusX64 1.1.8 released with performance improvements

Despite the Nintendo 64 being released in 1996, emulating it on lower-powered devices is still pretty difficult and the PSVita has no native emulator for it so DaedalusX64 is the only option to play some N64 games on the device!

Other than the Diablo I port, the PSVita and PSP have received an update to their only Nintendo 64 emulator which is DaedalusX64.

This emulator has been around for a pretty long time and it only exists because the PSP shares the same architecture as the Nintendo 64 (MIPS) and some developers had a tad too much on their hands. Up till mid-2018, the latest release was r1909 and it was thought that it would be the final version of the emulator but then z2442, with the help of others including TheMrIron2, decided to keep on updating and improving the emulator releasing multiple updated versions as a result.

Now, version 1.1.8 has been released and this brings along:

• Updates to the Asynchronous Audio function so that it now uses the PSP’s Media Engine to provide a more stable experience
• Performance improvements through a new speed hack and updates to the PSP’s Media Engine PRX
• Working PSVita detection
• The code now conforms to the C++ 11 standard
• Many other changes accumulated over the last 7 months which can be viewed in the commit history

To get DaedalusX64 1.1.8, check out this link

Conclusion

For more PSVita stuff, you might be interested in the release of mGBA 0.8 beta 1 which brings about many new features and a recent tutorial on how to get RetroArch running and looking nice on the console. This recently initiated bounty for HW context support to the GL1 driver in RetroArch might also be of note for owners of the 3DS, PSP and PSVita who frequently emulate stuff. Finally, somebody on r/vitahacks seems to have dug a post by Exophase (DraStic’s creator) stating that DraStic will become open-source in 2020 so the implications of that will be pretty interesting from a DS emulation on PSVita point of view!

The post PSVita News: Diablo I port making use of DevilutionX released and DaedalusX64 1.1.8 (N64 emulator) is out with performance improvements appeared first on Wololo.net.