Starting Project Segapedia, need help.

[leathco]

OK, got a great idea for a Dreamcast project, but I need help. Wondering if the UG family can help.

Recently a great Sega Dreamcast homebrew halloween project was released. It has books, music, and photos on it, all halloween themed. This got me thinking....

I want to create Project Segapedia. A Dreamcast bootable disc detailing a chaptered history of Sega from the beginning to the Sega-Sammy merger, using information from Wikipedia edited for accuracy.

Audio on the disc would be from Sega classic games.

Photos would include pictures of consoles, artwork, and screenshots from games.

Than of course, the main part would be information in ebook form, selectable by chapter, of the history of Sega. This could be a great centerpiece for the Dreamcast homebrew community.

Only one prob: Other than burning precompiled discs, I've never made a Dreamcast disc before. So I'm asking for help from the community here. EVERYONE who helps will be credited on the final disc. We can also make revisions, with the first disc being version 1.0. So who would like to join?

[quzar]

Next time you copy and paste from a warez site, make sure to at least change the name.

I'd be glad to help edit, maybe point you in the right direction with things, but that's about all, and it would have to be open, I'm totally not wanting to join some silly behind closed doors project sillyness.

I suggest you take a look at DCEvolution's DCbook releases for guidance, and maybe consider first trying to simply lay out a comprehensive SEGA history in plaintext (or hypertext).

[leathco]

I posted this on multiple forums. Also, UG is more than a simple warez site, they carry a comprehensive Dreamcast homebrew collection, which is why I'm there. Not to mention their Wikis are quite informative. I've checked the DCbook releases. I already have the Sega info in text, as well as a good photo collection.

As far as I can tell I need to start by finding an SBI inducer. I found one for MP3 and one for a slideshow, but one for text is eluding me. Keep in mind I've never compiled a DC disc, so I'm still working on how exactly to do all this. However, I still say it could be a killer release if done right, and since the DC scene is rather slow right now, perhaps nearing the end, I'll jump in and try to help the best I can.

Oh, and to be clear, this is not a behind closed doors project. I don't plan on making this a UG exclusive, my actual hope is to have it hosted on DC Evolution. That's why I'm thinking of using Wikipedia for a lot of the reference. I'm wondering if it's ok to use photos and music from Sega games as long as it's mentioned on the beginning screen that all music and characters are copyrighted by Sega Enterprises.

The biggest reason why I asked UG for help is that the homebrew scene there is still alove and kicking as well. Plenty of homebrew collections going on there. Just trying to find all the help I can since I've never made a disc from scratch before. It may take time, but the whole Segapedia idea is one that I'd love to see completed.

[Christuserloeser]

I like this idea.

You'll need to learn how to use Dream Inducer (on which SBInducer is based on) if you want a combination of photos and text. It isn't that hard but the downside of using Dream Inducer will be that you won't have music while reading.

DCEvolution's ebook loader is a hack of Cryptic Allusion's DCTonic menu. It's good for displaying text while playing some nice tunes but lacks any option to include more than a very few images.

Btw, we've had similar requests in the past (Link (http://dchelp.net/cgi-bin/dreamzoneboards.com/YaBB.pl?num=1165207646)) but I've yet to hear from DCDayDreamer. It's his and fackue's work so before giving out the tools and tutorials I would want to hear their opinion.

I'll post in our forums and point them in your direction. ;)


PS: If you follow the link above, you'll find some helpful links to Dream Inducer related tutorials. :)

[leathco]

I don't want to tread on anyones toes by using unreleased tools, especially since I am a beginner at this. Not to mention I don't need the pictures integrated with the article sections, they can be their own section divided into sections. Have a photo section for Hardware, another for Software, another for Arcade, another for Screenshots, and finally an Other category. Than the MP3 player could just be its own thing with music from Sega classics. Each photo category, if this is feasible, could play a small sampling of audio, than the MP3 player would have a huge heaping.

I also thought of perhaps having a supplemental disc seperately with game videos, starting with the old arcade games, moving to the Master System and Genesis/Sega CD/32X, their future arcade games and Saturn, the Dreamcast, than finally a few of their post-hardware era games. The supplemental disc should be a simple chore as it's just playing divx videos.

The Scenedicate disc format would work decently IMO. Text is easily readable on a TV. Just wondering what it would take to add a MP3 player and either a photo selector or even set up the photos in a Divx video that plays with background music. I'd rather have photos as the quality would be higher with photos than Divx, but if Divx would be significantly easier to do than I may have to go that route.

[Christuserloeser]

Most of what you've suggested is feasible but you really should go and play around with Dream Inducer and DCDivX to learn how they work and how you could use them.

DCDivX plays AVI videos and MP3/OGGs. With a decent compression you should be able to fit hours of videos and music on 1 single disc. No need for two, really.

And let me repeat that as it is now there is _no_ option available to allow browsing photos/images/screenshots while playing music. Neither the DCTonic menu nor DreamInducer can do that.

The scenedicate #1 menu was and is closed source and none of us does have access to it. The original author was a professional Dreamcast developer (working on HoM&M) and currently is MIA. Dreamcast-Scene.com (which is the original publisher of scenedicate #1) currently is looking for a programmer to develop the interface for scenedicate #2 from scratch.


So back to what we got:

Dream Inducer is basically a menu system to launch binaries but it's also capable to display PNG formatted images in 640x480. Using Dream Inducer you can display pages of text and screenshots but also launch other programs like DCDivX to play DivX videos and MP3/OGG encoded music files, or JPEG Slideshow to freely browse your disc for huuuge JPG files.

You need to understand how Dream Inducer works if you want to do a project like this.

[leathco]

Nothing like taking the first baby steps in an unknown world!

I'm assuming for what I am doing this is the primary tutorial you meant: http://www.dchelp.net/index.php?id=sbindv4

I'm assuming Dream Inducer is part of the SBInducr program I got from your site, as I saw nothing specifically titled Dream Inducer.

I downloaded SBI's of DreamMP3 Player and DcDicx beta 4, and ran the SBI unducer. I see the file structure is in the Inducer folder, however, I'm not sure where to place the TXT files, photos, and videos. I have them organized in folders per era. Will I be able to browse to the files needed on the DC itself?

Sorry, just trying to get the small stuff out of the way before I burn a bunch of discs experimenting how to make stuff work. Organization is key to me in this project, with all files in a top-down basis in order by timeline. I'd like to do the same with the photos and music, categorized by folder and by era. I'm hoping this can be done by simply numbering the files in the particular folders.

Example for txt files would be
1. Early Years
2. Genesis Era
3. Arcade part 1
4. Sega CD and 32X Era
5. Saturn Era
6. Arcade part 2
7. Dreamcast Era
8. Beyond the Dreamcast

Photos and music would be organized the same way, however, they would be organized by folder instead of by filename.

[Christuserloeser]

Dream Inducer is the actual Dreamcast program (1ST_READ.BIN) that allows launching other programs. Selfboot Inducer is just the Win32 app that allows to burn Dream Inducer and a bunch of programs without having to manually edit all the .dxt / .dxi / .dxl files with notepad for each and every program you want to add.

...which is exactly what you'll need to do if you want to use Dream Inducer for your project. Open the files I mentioned to see what they do.

.dxt files are themes. Here's an example, my /cd/Menu/Theme.dxt:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<THEME>
<INFO>
<AUTHOR VALUE="DCEvolution"/>
<TITLE VALUE="S8DEP"/>
</INFO>
<LAYOUT ELEMENTS="2">
<IMAGE X="0" Y="0" Z="8" W="640" H="480" SRC="/cd/Menu/Back.png" MODE="ARGB1555"/>
<SCREENSHOT X="0" Y="0" Z="8" W="640" H="480"/>
</LAYOUT>
</THEME>


As you can see, all I will be doing is displaying a 'BACK.PNG' file with the dimension of 640x480 pix. I also tell DreamInducer my "screenshots" will also be 640x480 but in front of the back by setting z="8".

Sounds probably more complicated than it is.


.dxi files are intro/loading/splash screens. They look like this:

My /cd/Intro.dxi:


<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<INTRO>
<IMAGE SRC="/cd/Menu/Black.png" DELAY='1' NOFADEOUT='1'/>
<IMAGE SRC="/cd/Menu/Intro1.png" DELAY='140'/>
<IMAGE SRC="/cd/Menu/Black.png" DELAY='0' NOFADEOUT='1'/>
<IMAGE SRC="/cd/Menu/Intro2.png" DELAY='140'/>
</INTRO>


At first I want my screen black when DreamInducer starts. Then I want it to display the 'Intro1.png' splash screen. Then black again, then 'Intro2.png'.

All these .png files are 640x480.


.dxl files are the actual menus. You can tell DreamInducer to display screenshots for each selection, launch other submenus (again .dxl files) and other Dreamcast programs = binaries (.bin).

My /cd/MainMenu.dxl


<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<LIST ENTRIES='3' THEME="/cd/Menu/Theme.dxt" MODE="RGB565">
<LINK
SCREENSHOT="/cd/Menu/main1.png"
TARGET="/cd/Menu/select.dxl"/>
<ITEM
SCREENSHOT="/cd/Menu/main2.png"
TARGET="/cd/Menu/read.bin"
PREROLL="/cd/Menu/main2.dxi"/>
<ITEM
SCREENSHOT="/cd/Menu/main3.png"
TARGET="/cd/divx.bin"
PREROLL="/cd/Menu/main3.dxi"/>
</LIST>


Menu entries have to be ITEMs or LINKs. An entry starts with < and ends with />

The first in my example is a LINK to a submenu. The other two are binaries (divx.bin and read.bin is the DCTonic menu / ebook launcher)

TARGET tells it the name and location. PREROLL links to an intro file very similar to my Intro.dxi ...PREROLL is optional.

The files I use as SCREENSHOT are full screen 640x480 screens holding text and graphics. I used Photoshop and Photopaint for these. GIMP is a great free program that could do the same job.


Here's my submenu /cd/Menu/select.dxl. As you can see it's basically the same thing as my /cd/MainMenu.dxl, except that it links to a bunch of emulators:



<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<LIST ENTRIES='3' THEME="/cd/Menu/Theme.dxt" MODE="RGB565">
<ITEM
SCREENSHOT="/cd/Menu/select1.png"
TARGET="/cd/smsplus.bin"
PREROLL="/cd/Menu/Select1.dxi"/>
<ITEM
SCREENSHOT="/cd/Menu/select2.png"
TARGET="/cd/drama.bin"
PREROLL="/cd/Menu/Select2.dxi"/>
<ITEM
SCREENSHOT="/cd/Menu/select3.png"
TARGET="/cd/smeg.bin"
PREROLL="/cd/Menu/Select3.dxi"/>
</LIST>


Well, that's it for now. Good luck figuring this out. It's by far not as complicated as it seems.


PS: Just in case - This is the latest version of SBInducer:
http://sbibuilder.dc-france.com/download/?idsys=2&idcat=15&idfile=115

(Dream Inducer itself hasn't been updated since an eternity so it's always the same 1ST_READ.BIN on the Dreamcast side of things in all versions of SBInducer, but over the years there have been many improvements made to the Windows program. Still, for this project you basically only need notepad.exe and a good graphics program to work on the PNG screens).

[Christuserloeser]

Fixed the quotes.

[quzar]

Plenty of homebrew collections going on there.

Just feel it important to point out, those are collections, all the actual product is made here, dcemulation, dcibera, dc-france, etc. Also, that groundbeef, aside from being banned from a number of sites for being generally a self serving ass (not to defame or demean any asses out there, four legged or two cheeked).

I'll see about tossing up little history segments after thanksgiving break (can grab my VG history books from back home).

[leathco]

Thanks for all the information. I'm gonna try everything you said plus some trial by error stuff and see what I can make. Expect a very very early alpha build in a few weeks if I do OK learning all of this.

Also working on making an IP.bins (I think that's it) file that has a nice lil segapedia logo on it when the dreamcast boots the disc. Seems to be rather easy to make one of those, so I figure thats a good starting point for me to start learning all of this stuff.

[leathco]

quzar if it would help I can send you the files I have so far, lots of pictures (not all converted to PNG yet however) and the Wikipedia article rips, not edited at all as of yet however.

Right now I am searching for some Sega commercials and possibly promotional videos to put on it, as well as getting some gameplay videos from all of the systems.

[leathco]

Having some minor problems creating custom menus. I think I have to manually edit the DXL files, right?

Here's what I have now.



<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<LIST ENTRIES='1' THEME="/cd/Themes/Mainmenu.dxt" MODE="RGB565">
<LINK
TITLE="Apps"
DESCRIPTION="Go to the Dreamcast Music and Movies section."
SCREENSHOT="/cd/Themes/Apps.png"
TARGET="/cd/Themes/Apps.dxl"
PREROLL="/cd/Themes/Loading.dxi"/>
</LIST>


Now, most of that was made just using the SBI inducer with me making just a couple minor edits. However, on this front page, I would like to add the text portion of the encyclopedia so it stands out right in front.

My question is, would a link to the text files plus all the apps text look like this?



<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<LIST ENTRIES='11' THEME="/cd/Themes/Mainmenu.dxt" MODE="RGB565">
<LINK
TITLE="Apps"
DESCRIPTION=""
SCREENSHOT="/cd/Themes/Apps.png"
TARGET="/cd/Themes/Apps.dxl"
PREROLL="/cd/Themes/Loading.dxi"/>
<ITEM
TARGET = "/cd/1. SG-1000.txt">
<ITEM
TARGET = "/cd/2. Master System.txt">
<ITEM
TARGET = "/cd/3. Mega Drive - Genesis.txt">
<ITEM
TARGET = "/cd/4. Game Gear.txt">
<ITEM
TARGET = "/cd/5. SegaCD.txt">
<ITEM
TARGET = "/cd/6. 32X.txt">
<ITEM
TARGET = "/cd/7. Nomad.txt">
<ITEM
TARGET = "/cd/8. Saturn.txt">
<ITEM
TARGET = "/cd/9. Dreamcast.txt">
<ITEM
TARGET = "/cd/10. Sega Corporation.txt">
</LIST>



I'm assuming for now since I'm just starting on the alpha that screenshot can be left blank when pulling up text.

Also, LIST ENTRIES=#, would # equal how many entries I have on the meny including the text files?

Also once again thanks for all the help both you guys have been. I'm definately a new guy at this but definately would like to contribute a little slice to the community. I just got a Dreamcast July this year thanks to a buddy of mine helping me discover the cummunity, and since than just trying to pick up all the homebrew and hardware that I can. I got a full collection of VMUs (I'm pretty sure I got every color made) working on every controller made, and I'm thinking about purchasing a "standard" Dreamcast so I have both the regular one and the Sega Sports edition. Also picked up a fishing controller and light gun this week, and a keyboard/mouse a few weeks back. Just need to get a BBA and I'll have a decent collection. Sorry for going off of the beaten trail there, me and my buddies are just really enjoying this scene we've missed out on for the past decade. Hell, I picked up a GP2X not too long ago.

[leathco]

Crap

Tried to compile an image, getting an error saying bin2boot can't run since I'm in a 64-bit environment.

[Christuserloeser]

Tried to compile an image, getting an error saying bin2boot can't run since I'm in a 64-bit environment.

Download this version of SBInducer:
http://sbibuilder.dc-france.com/download/?idsys=2&idcat=15&idfile=115

[Christuserloeser]

Having some minor problems creating custom menus. I think I have to manually edit the DXL files, right?

Yup. Open them with Notepad.



Now, most of that was made just using the SBI inducer with me making just a couple minor edits.

That's okay. I was about to recommend to start with examining how the original menu works, to do some minor changes and then some tests every now and then.


But, judging by your post: if you really want to start right away I recommend to examine one of releases over at DCEvolution. (see link below)


However, on this front page, I would like to add the text portion of the encyclopedia so it stands out right in front.

My question is, would a link to text look like this?

Well, you can display text as a DESCRIPTION. What I do though is to just use the SCREENSHOTS display.

If you check the Tetris 2 OC release at DCEvolution ( http://dcevolution.net/cgi-bin/download.pl?file=tetris2oc.zip ) then you'll see that DCDayDreamer used DreamInducer for the info / tutorial screens that way. Here's how it looks:

http://dcevolution.net/nfpicturepro/albums/userpics/10001/Controls%20viewed%20from%20te%20menu.jpg

Download the image, burn it and copy the menu to your PC. Examine how he's set up the menu and start by using his .dxl / dxi / dxt files.



I'm assuming for now since I'm just starting on the alpha that screenshot can be left blank when pulling up text.

Yeah it is possible but hard to layout. You could just use the screenshots to display the text as I explained. ;)

Just fire up GIMP / Photoshop / whatever and start with a white page with the resolution of 640x480 pixels.

Copy + Paste in the text and format it so the letters aren't too big but still readable.



Also, LIST ENTRIES=#, would # equal how many entries I have on the meny including the text files?

Yes but you can't link to text files directly. Menu entries have to be LINKs (.dxl) or ITEMs (.bin).

Use the menu entries' SCREENSHOTs to display the 640x480 screens which hold the text.

The user clicks down for the next screen and A for going back to the main menu.

I'll post an example in a minute.

[Christuserloeser]

Updated my previous post to explain some things.

[beetroot bertie]

I was just reading through this thread and wondered about the whole playing slides with music thing.

Would it be possible to do this with a Flash based solution?

I guess it depends if there's an open source flash player for Dreamcast. Only a thought anyway.