Forget PPF. Use UPS instead.

http://www.romhacking.net/utils/519/

What happens in PPF Studio when you try to make the patch? I might be able to help if you describe what happened, I've made a few PPF patches for the PSP game I'm working on.

Ok, I'm assuming you're using UMDGen to replace files in the ISO, then saving it as an ISO? What I need to know is if the files that you are replacing are they exactly the same size as the original Japanese ones? or are they slightly larger or slightly smaller than the Japanese ones?

For example, one file in my PSP game that I'm modifiying is BOOT.BIN it's exactly 1,191,620 bytes. What I do is open it up in a Hex editor and change some of the text, then save it. It's still exactly 1,191,620 bytes. Are you doing pretty much the same thing to your files by keeping them all the same size they originally were or have they increased/decreased in size?

Dummying the files will actually make your patch extremely large, I suggest you don't do that.

A patch is a list of hex differences in the ISO. If you dummy files, then it's going to make like a million zeros in the patch.

Can you check the file sizes of one of the files you copy and pasted? Right click on one of the english file and select properties and tell me what the "Size" is. (not the "Size on disk"). Then extract the japanese file equivalent and tell me what "size" for that one is.

Ok I don't know if this is going to work, but it's worth a try. One of the reasons why it didn't wont work in a traditional way is because the english files you are going to insert will make the ISO bigger (In order to make a patch usually the two ISOs/ROMs have to be the exact same size so it can compare the hex differences).

So what we are going to have to do is expand the Japanese ISO so it matches the size of the Translated ISO. We can do this in UMD Gen by adjusting the LBA positions of each file in the Japanese ISO. Follow these steps for me:

1. Start UMDGen and open the Translated ISO.
2. Now we need to export the LBA positions. Go to File -> File List -> Export
3. Save this text file as "Trans LBA pos.txt"
4. Once that's done go ahead and close UMDGen

5. Now open UMDGen again and this time open the Japanese ISO.
6. Now we're going to adjust all the LBA positions with that text file we saved. Go to File -> File List -> Import
7. Select that text file and tell UMDGen to force all the files into their new LBA positions.
8. Now save as a new ISO.




Now check if this new Japanese ISO is the same size as the translated one. If it is, then let's create the PPF patch with PPF Studio:

1. Click on the "PPF File (Output)" button
2. Name it something.ppf (don't forget the .ppf part)
3. Type a patch description
4. No need for a File_ID.diz

5. Click on the "Original File" button
6. Select the Japanese ISO (the one that's the same size as the translated one)
7. Click on the "Patched File" button
8. Select your translated ISO

9. Hit "Create PPF-Patch" button and wait for it to finish
10. Once it's finished click on the "Quit PPF-Studio" button


Tell me if this worked, because in order for other people to apply it to their own Japanese ISO they'll have to follow some special instructions. That I'll explain if creating the patch worked.

I'm curious, Tales of Eternia for PSP was released in Europe in full english so why not just use that ISO? Is there something more favorable in the Japanese ISO? Like extra stuff that didn't get in the Europe version or is it just the Japanese voices that you favor?

No way, UPS isn't designed for space shifted files. As Majutsuko noted, it results in unbelievable patch sizes. I'm shocked that it was over 800MB -- that should technically be impossible. Absolute worst case scenario means the patch will be 3/2 (1.5) times bigger than the biggest file size. And it will compress to < 50% of the biggest file size because 2 of every 3 bytes are completely predictable.

Anyway ...


PPF cannot shift data points, either? Wow ... why do people use it, then? :/

Perhaps try xdelta or bsdiff? If both of those fail, not sure. Maybe it would be best to break apart the ISO and distribute patches for each file. Perhaps with a script to apply all patches in one shot.