Before You Begin:
- Make sure that your PS2 is capable of playing burned DVDs (modchip/swap disc/etc)
- Make sure that your computer has a DVD drive & DVD burner
- Download the following programs:
- -PCKSuite (includes packer, unpacker, PCK.IDX wrapper)
-Something to convert music files to 48 KHz OGGs
-Something to convert images to .png
-Sony CD/DVD Generator
-IML2ISO
-A DVD burning program/HDLoading program of your choice. (Anything that is capable of burning a .ISO file will do, such as DVD Decrypter)
Ripping Your ITG PS2 Disc:
- Insert your ITG PS2 disc into your DVD drive
- Go into My Computer and right-click on your DVD drive and select explore so that you can see the files on the ITG disc
- Highlight all the items on the disc (ctrl+a) and copy them (ctrl+c)
- Create a folder on your computer somewhere where you will house these files. I use C:\CustomITG
- Paste the files into your newly made folder (ctrl+v)
- Go into the newly pasted PCKS folder and delete the PCK.IDX file
OPTIONAL STEP:
- If you do NOT want to include the ITG1 songs on your disc, go into the PCKS folder and delete all the files that start with the letter "D" except for DA0ADE3A.PCK which you need to keep.
Preparing Your Songs:
The following process needs to be followed with every single song you want to add to your disc.
Music:
- Convert the music file to a 48 KHz OGG vorbis file (.ogg)
- -I personally use a program called dbPowerAmp Music Converter. You can download it using this link: http://www.download3k.com/DownloadLink1-dBpowerAMP-Music-Converter.html
- Using the program is pretty easy, simply open up the music file you want to convert and convert to .ogg. I believe that you will be prompted to download a codec the first time you try to do so, so do download that to make sure you can convert to .ogg files.
- When converting the song, make sure that you select a Frequency of 48 KHz, and select an output folder (anywhere will do at this point. As you can see in the following image, I simply house all my converted music files on my desktop in a folder called "ITG-Ready Converted Songs")
- Hit the Convert button and the program will take a few seconds to convert your song. (When you listen to the converted .ogg song afterwards, it shouldn't sound chipmunky or anything. It should be similar-sounding to the original. Therefore, do not use Audacity to convert to 48 KHz because it will change how the music sounds.)
Images:
- Convert all banner images to .PNG with any sort of image-editing program, and make sure that they are 256x80 pixels in size
- Convert all background images to .PNG, and make sure that they are 320x240 pixels in size
- Make sure that you are using .SM instead of .DWI. (If you do have a .DWI file that you want to use, simply open up that file in Stepmania, go into edit mode to edit it and save the file. Stepmania will automatically save it as a .SM file. Afterwards you can just keep the .SM file and delete the .DWI file.)
- If there are any rolls in the stepchart, you'll need to convert them to holds. Open up the .SM in notepad, hit ctrl+F to open up the find dialog box, and search for the number 4. Replace all the 4s (which denote rolls) in the stepchart with 2s (which are holds).
Movies:
- They don't work!! At all. It doesn't matter if a movie is a .mpg or .avi, ITG will just not recognize it. Should you make a disc with a movie file that goes along with a stepchart, if you play that song, ITG will try to load it, but won't be able to, meaning you'll be playing the entire song against a totally black background.
Summary:
- In the end, each song should have its own folder and inside that folder there need to be four files:
- - Song file (48 KHz .ogg)
- .SM file
- Banner image (.png, 256x80)
- Background image (.png 320x240)
- Before proceeding open up each .SM file with Notepad and make sure that it points to the appropriate banner, background, and song file extensions. For example, if you converted Song.mp3 to Song.ogg, and open up its corresponding .SM file, change Song.mp3 to Song.ogg. The same thing goes for banners and backgrounds. Make sure the extensions are changed to .png). Save and close Notepad.
Packing your ITG-Ready Songs
- Put all your song files into C:\Songs\In the Groove 2
- So, inside the "In the Groove 2" folder every song will have its own folder, and inside those individual folders will be those 4 files (song, .sm, banner and background image) that we just talked about.
- Open up the PCKMagic Packer program.
- Click on "Browse for Source File Folder" and choose C:\, then finally Songs. Click ok. If you did that right you should see all the files listed in the PCK Packer program as "C:\Songs\In The Groove 2\*".
- Now, choose "Datafile" and check "Generate Cache"
- In the "PCK Comment" field put "default test" (without the quotation marks of course)
- Now, click on "Choose Filename & Save" and choose C:/CustomITG/PCKS (that is, inside the PCKS folder with all the other .pck files you ripped originally). Do NOT change the filename that the program automatically generates for you.
- Wait a few seconds-minutes, and then the program should come up with a pop-up saying "Finished all Jobs!". Hit ok, and now you can exit out of the program.
Making the .IDX file
- Open up PCKMagic IDX Wrapper program.
- Click on "Browse for PCK file folder" and navigate to the folder with all of your PCKs in it. (This is C/CustomITG/PCKS)
- Click on "Generate IDX file" and it will create a PCK.IDX for you.
Compiling your ISO
- Open Sony CD/DVD Generator. Select "Create New Project" and "DVD ROM Master Disc" (which is the same as Single Layer DVD). Drag the files from the folder C:/ITGCustom into the CD/DVD Generator in THIS EXACT ORDER:
1. IOPRP300.IMG
2. PCKS folder
3. SLUS 211.77
4. SYSTEM.CNF
5. BOOT.PAK
Now hit the Volume tab and enter the following details EXACTLY AS SHOWN:
Disc Name: SLUS 21177
Producer Name: PLAYSTATION
Copyright Holder: ROXOR GAMES
License Area: America
Volume: IN_THE_GROOVE
Volume Set: 1
Publisher: REDOCTANE
Data Preparer: GLENN MAYNARD
-Then, finally hit File > Export IML File.
(If you receive an error stating that you haven't reached the minimum sector size, then you'll need to add a single large file (400mb or above) by dragging it and dropping it into the program much like how you've added the other ITG files. It should show up below BOOT.pak. Any large file will do - we just need it to take up some space on the DVD. If you've got a movie file such as a .avi or .mpg those are usually large enough.)
- Choose to name the IML file as "ITG" (without the quotations) and export it anywhere you like, such as the desktop.
Converting the IML to ISO:
- Open up IML2ISO.
- Click on the "..." button and select your newly made .iml file
- Hit "Start" to convert the file to an ISO. When the program is finished you should find a "ITG.iso" file in the same location as your "ITG.iml" file
Burning the ISO to a DVD:
- Use any sort of burning program to burn the .ISO that you just generated.
- If you happen to use DVD Decrypter, open it up and select Mode>ISO>Write
- Click on the folder icon and select the .ISO file
- Near the bottom right of the program make sure that your Write Speed is set to 4x. (Speeds higher than this sometimes causes discs not to be read by the PS2, so that's why we're sticking to 4x)
- Make sure that you have a blank DVD-R inside your DVD drive
- Click on the start button in the lower left side of the program
- Now, wait for a few minutes (this process usually takes 15-20 minutes) and when the burning is finished you're all done
- Put the disc in your PS2 and play! (If you're using SwapMagic make sure to boot your swap disc first.)
I hope that this guide helped out. Let me know if you need anything clarified.
