Emulators on the xbox *UPDATED FIRST POST PICS*

[Damion]

Ok for those expecting disc's from me i have everything almost ready and i'll most likely be sending them out on Monday. Maybe Fri.

So please everyone who's PMed me from this thread about the discs get me you're addy's.

Thanks.

And Rob your's take precidence so i'll be sending them out first.

I can't wait to see what those disc's have on them. It's awsome seeing first hand what the box can do modded.

Now I'm at the point where I want to try running Samba and get things streaming. so any pointers on that would be great.

Are you familiar with Linux? If not, then don't use Samba, which is an open source implementation of Windows file sharing that runs on Linux, BSD, etc. You can simply use Windows. Share a directory that has movies, music, and ROMs in it. Then you have to configure the apps that wish to use that stuff, by giving them the "//myserver/myshare/mydir" path to your shared files. Keep things organized, with music, movies, and games in their own subdirectories under the shared folder.

Note that if you use wifi, there will be more delay in streaming. It doesn't matter much for classic games, but for movies, it means there will be a few seconds of delay before the movie starts playing because it has to be buffered.

Really it's that simple? I'll have to see what I can do with it then and at the moment it's on a Lan so no issue with lag at the moment. thanks I'm going to give that a shot as soon as I get home.

[Damion]

Ok, So I've got everything I want shared at the moment (on the home network) and XBMC is doing great at locating the shared files. but whenever I run the emus and try to run (the only option as far as I can see) SMB it dosen't locate anything. not even the shared folders.

now is this because I'm running the emus through evoX's dash? or are the emus looking for something that my PC isn't providing?

This is pretty much the last hurdle for me. If I can get the Xbox on a shared network then I am set.

[Jagasian]

Ok, So I've got everything I want shared at the moment (on the home network) and XBMC is doing great at locating the shared files. but whenever I run the emus and try to run (the only option as far as I can see) SMB it dosen't locate anything. not even the shared folders.

now is this because I'm running the emus through evoX's dash? or are the emus looking for something that my PC isn't providing?

This is pretty much the last hurdle for me. If I can get the Xbox on a shared network then I am set.

Why are you running the emulators through EvoX? You should clean up your Xbox so that it directly boots into XBMC. Then under programs, you should create a list of shortcuts to launch each of your emulators. The drive scanning might be easier to setup at first, but it looks allot cleaner when you make custom shortcuts. Then you will have to configure each emulator to know where to look, exactly, for the ROMs. So you will have to edit their configuration file to include the shared rom directory's path. You should keep everything organized, so that each category can be hardcoded into XBMC and each emulator. So you should have directories that look like:

//myshare/mysharedfolder/movies/
//myshare/mysharedfolder/music/
//myshare/mysharedfolder/games/
//myshare/mysharedfolder/games/nes
//myshare/mysharedfolder/games/gameboy
//myshare/mysharedfolder/games/arcade
...

In XBMC you hard link movies to the movies directory, music to the music directory, and programs contains a bunch of shortcuts each hardcoded to link to an emulator on your Xbox. Then each emulator's ROM directory is hardcoded to link to one of the games subdirectories that matches the system it emulates.

Remember, it is a console and not a computer, so you want it to be clean, simple, organized, and polished. This means that you will have to manually tweak many settings, especially the shared directory settings.

I suggest getting a 400GB Linkstation, which is basically a hard drive that connects directly to your network and is accessible via FTP and Windows File Sharing (aka Samba). A Linkstation can also be used as a print server. Just plug your printer in and its shared. The benefit is that it is really small and easy to leave on 24 hours a day. It is easier than hardware modding your Xbox, and it allows both your PC and your Xbox to use the drive.

[Damion]

*Updated first post with pics and some narration*


Now I have one last question.

in the xbmc XML Document how would I place a shortcut to my *Cough*backups*cough* in there so when I go to games under XBMC it would know where to look. also the backups have to be extracted right?

thankys for everything. if everyones ok with it I'd like to put up a running tutorial on everything I've done so far and will do. I noticed that alot of stuff isn't really covered for novices and I'm sure I could reduce some fears about softmodding with it.

Also I would like to note that upgradiing to a bigger harddrive on a softmod is down right crazygonuts and I heartly don't recommend it. unless someone knows something I don't about a good autoinstaller and how to do it.

[omnedon]

Jagasian said:

Why? The latest soft-mod, the Krayzie Ndure Installer, mods your Xbox via software to be able to do everything that a mod-chipped Xbox can do. It is also cheaper than a Mod-chip, easier to install, and easier to uninstall. In fact, you can uninstall this soft-mod so cleanly that your Xbox is exactly like it was when you bought it. Mod-chipping permenantly physically alters the Xbox.

Because on board BIOS eeproms can fail on the Xbox. My local business sees at least one per week that has spontaneously failed (never been modded soft or otherwise)

A hardware solution, when installed properly, is a dual BIOS hardware solution for your Xbox. I always shoot for maximum reliability with OSG services, and IMO chips have softmods beat hands down.

The larger HDD is very useful for more than rom storage. The number one failure in Xboxes is DVDrom drive failure. Play your Xbox games from the HDD, and this problem is put off for years and years, as the DVDrom drive only sees occasional use, as opposed to constant, drive destroying use.

That said, soft mods have made strides. But not enough to beat out hard mods for reliability IMO.

[Damion]

Jagasian said:

Why? The latest soft-mod, the Krayzie Ndure Installer, mods your Xbox via software to be able to do everything that a mod-chipped Xbox can do. It is also cheaper than a Mod-chip, easier to install, and easier to uninstall. In fact, you can uninstall this soft-mod so cleanly that your Xbox is exactly like it was when you bought it. Mod-chipping permenantly physically alters the Xbox.

Because on board BIOS eeproms can fail on the Xbox. My local business sees at least one per week that has spontaneously failed (never been modded soft or otherwise)

A hardware solution, when installed properly, is a dual BIOS hardware solution for your Xbox. I always shoot for maximum reliability with OSG services, and IMO chips have softmods beat hands down.

The larger HDD is very useful for more than rom storage. The number one failure in Xboxes is DVDrom drive failure. Play your Xbox games from the HDD, and this problem is put off for years and years, as the DVDrom drive only sees occasional use, as opposed to constant, drive destroying use.

That said, soft mods have made strides. But not enough to beat out hard mods for reliability IMO.

I'd also like to add that with a mod chip upgrading your hard drive is a breeze. Unlike the soft mod method on Xboxscene where you have to do all sorts of stuff including resectoring the drive.

course that is only from what I've read so far. though I haven't seen a diffrent solution other then that one.