New GTA exploit tools by LostJared!!

[Kaiser]

LostJared Has released Masterpiece v2.6 and developed an add-on to help coders develop for PSPs version 2.01+ using the GTA exploit. This is great news because the easier it is to code for GTA's exploit the more homebrew all PSP users can enjoy here's what he had to say:



http://www.lostsidedead.biz/software/mpgta_2.jpg

This is a library that Ive been writing to aid me in Developing for the GTA Expliot it is based off the orignal GTADevkit..
It allows you to compile and test on windows before you test it on your PSP.
This speeds up the development proccess (atleast for me)

What this package contains:
Source code for Cross GTA and 4 example programs + 2 tools
Updated version of MasterPiece for GTA Expliot:
* Score menu
Knights Tour
Hello World with MasterX Fonts
Random Pixels Demo
......

You can also check the original release forum for the add-on here (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=17464)
...and the release thread for Masterpiece - 2.6 here (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=17466)

[wraggster]

thanks for the newspost :)

[LostJared]

:)

[Kaiser]

thanks for the newspost :)

I thought you might need some help updating the news posts you got to many sites to update by yourself. Do coders have the power to update the news forum themselves? Or do they have to post in the submit news forum every time they have a release?

[LostJared]

It would be cool if someone ported it to dreamcast.. I used to LOVE my dreamcast until it stopped reading the disc's :(

[wraggster]

Thanks for the News Kaiser and if you are a staff member or indeed a PSP coder you can post in the News Forum. The only thing to note on the website is the size of graphics cant be wider than 470 but to be honest most of the time i upload to the forum and let people click the comments, and thats the same way for downloads (we have a limit of 10mb for uploads and i always say download via comments)

I can tidy up any newspost so its no biggie :)

But thanks for helping, More Open newsposting is good for the scene in the long run ;)

[LostJared]

I agree...

[LostJared]

Heres what he said:


Here's a quick tutorial to get Cross GTA set up and running from scratch.

1. Install Cygwin

Follow the excellent instructions at: http://scriptscribbler.com/psp/tutorials/lesson01.htm

At the point where you select the packages to install, also select Editors->vim and click "Default" next to it once so that it changes to the version number that will be installed.

Also, make sure you grab the psptoolchain-20060120.tgz referred to in the instructions.


2. Install SDL

Download the SDL libraries source from http://www.libsdl.org/release/SDL-1.2.9.zip

Use WinRAR to extract the SDL library directory to your Cygwin /home/<username> directory. E.g. C:\cygwin\home\damian

Run Cygwin.

cd into the SDL directory

Compile by typing:


./configure && make && make install


3. Download Cross GTA pack

Grab it from http://dl.*******/dl.php?fid=816

Extract it to your Cygwin /home/<username> directory


4. Test

Run Cygwin and...


cd CrossGTA-0.2_FOR_**********

cd Examples

cd mptga

make clean

rm masterpiece.exe

make pc

If all goes well, masterpiece.exe will be created. If you run it, the Windows version of Masterpiece will launch.


5. Start hacking

You can start writing your own games and apps by looking at LostJared's examples.

He has even provided some utilities to import fonts and bitmaps. These can then be imported into header (.h) files for use in your own app.

WORD OF WARNING: Use VIM to edit .h files inside Cygwin. Editing files from Windows CAN CRASH YOUR PC. That is because some of the font and bitmap files (the big one's) do not have Windows end-of-file characters in them and Notepad or any other editor will try to open the entire contents of your hard disk. You have been warned!!!

You can compile and test your apps on Windows using:


make clean

make pc

and then run the compiled .exe

To compile for PSP:

i. Connect your PSP in USB Mode to your PC.
Observe what disk drive letter it is assigned.

ii. Change the drive letter to N:

In XP: Start->Settings-Control Panel->Administrative Settings->Computer Management->Storage->Disk Management

Select the removable drive letter, right-click and select Change Drive Letters And Paths->Change

Then, change the letter to N:

iii. Compile the app with:


make clean

make

The app will be copied on to your PSP ready to run [LJ - is that in Slot 5??]

Alternatively, just compile and copy the Tetris.bin into one of your existing GTA exploit savegame slots.


6. Converting Windows Fonts for use in Cross GTA projects

In the Tools directory, there are some Windows programs to help you with fonts and bitmaps.

To grab a particular font to use in your apps, run MXFONT.EXE

i. Select Edit->Convert Font
Choose a font, size, style and colour

ii. You can edit any character to alter the font if you wish - use the dropdown on the bottom right to change character.

iii. When you are happy, File ->Save As
Save as an mxf file.

iv. From a Windows Command Prompt, run the following:


mxf2c <your mxf file> <your variable name>

e.g. mxf2c arial.mxf arial12pt

This will generate a .h file

UPDATE: lostjared has kindly changed the mxf2c program to automatically generate your own variable names. You can grab it here (http://www.lostsidedead.biz/software/mxf2c_fix.rar). The old version used default variable names that caused a compile error.

iv. Copy the .h file to your application's source code directory

v. Run Cygwin and edit the .h file in vim

vi. Use the variable names in your app, e.g.arial12pt_array (font array), arial12pt_font_w (width), arial12pt_font_h (height) and arial12pt_font_t (type - unused?).



That's all for now folks.

100% Respect to lostjared, Fanjita and Edison Carter.

Hope it helps,

[shiftybill]

Hopefully the kids with 2.01+ firmware will finally stop whinging, hopefully.