NHDDL is a memory card-based launcher that scans FAT/exFAT-formatted BDM devices for ISO files, lists them and boots selected ISO via Neutrino.
It displays visual Game ID to trigger per-game settings on the Pixel FX line of products and writes to memory card history file before launching the title, triggering per-title memory cards on SD2PSX and MemCard PRO 2.
Note that this not an attempt at making a Neutrino-based Open PS2 Loader replacement.
It will not boot ISOs from anything other than BDM devices.
GSM, PADEMU, IGR and other stuff is out-of-scope of this launcher.
- Get the latest Neutrino release
- Get the latest
nhddl.elf
- Unpack Neutrino release
- Copy
nhddl.elf
to Neutrino folder next toneutrino.elf
- Additional step if you need USB, MX4SIO or UDPBD:
Modifynhddl.yaml
accordingly and copy it next tonhddl.elf
- Copy Neutrino folder to your PS2 memory card.
Any folder (e.g.APPS
) will do, it doesn't have to be in the root of your memory card.
Updating nhddl.elf
is as simple as replacing nhddl.elf
with the latest version.
NHDDL reuses Neutrino modules for BDM support and requires them to be present in Neutrino modules
directory.
These files should already be present in Neutrino release ZIP by default.
By default, NHDDL initializes ATA modules and looks for ISOs on internal FAT/exFAT-formatted HDD, devices other than ATA require additional configuration.
See this section for details on nhddl.yml
.
This is the default device mode.
Make sure that Neutrino modules
directory contains the following IRX files:
bdm.irx
isofs.irx
bdmfs_fatfs.irx
dev9_ns.irx
ata_bd.irx
The following files are required for MX4SIO:
bdm.irx
isofs.irx
bdmfs_fatfs.irx
mx4sio_bd_mini.irx
mode: mx4sio
must be present in nhddl.yaml
.
The following files are required for USB:
bdm.irx
isofs.irx
bdmfs_fatfs.irx
usbd_mini.irx
usbmass_bd_mini.irx
mode: usb
must be present in nhddl.yaml
.
The following files are required for UDPBD:
bdm.irx
isofs.irx
bdmfs_fatfs.irx
dev9_ns.irx
smap_udpbd.irx
mode: udpbd
must be present in nhddl.yaml
.
UDPBD module requires PS2 IP address to work.
NHDDL attempts to retrieve PS2 IP address from the following sources:
udpbd_ip
flag innhddl.yml
SYS-CONF/IPCONFIG.DAT
on the memory card (usually created by w/uLaunchELF)
udpbd_ip
flag takes priority over IPCONFIG.DAT
.
ISOs can be stored almost anywhere on the storage device.
Only directories that start with .
, $
and the following directories are ignored:
nhddl
APPS
ART
CFG
CHT
LNG
THM
VMC
XEBPLUS
NHDDL uses the same file naming convention and file format used by OPL.
Just put 140x200 PNG files named <title ID>_COV.png
(e.g. SLUS_200.02_COV.png
) into the ART
directory on the root of your HDD.
If unsure where to get your cover art from, check out the latest version of OPL Manager.
NHDDL uses YAML-like files to load and store its configuration options.
Launcher configuration is read from the nhddl.yaml
file, which must be located in the same directory as nhddl.elf
.
This file is completely optional and must be used only to enable 480p in NHDDL UI or switch NHDDL mode to something other than ata
.
By default, 480p is disabled and the ATA device is used to look for ISO files.
To disable a flag, you can just comment it out with #
.
See this file for an example of a valid nhddl.yaml
file.
NHDDL stores and looks for ISO-related config files in nhddl
directory in the root of your BDM drive.
This file stores the full path of the last launched title and is used to automatically navigate to it each time NHDDL starts up.
This file is created automatically.
Contains title ID cache for all ISOs located during the previous launch, making building ISO list way faster.
This file is also created automatically.
These files store arbitrary arguments that are passed to Neutrino on title launch.
Arguments stored in those files are passed to neutrino.elf
as-is.
For a list of valid arguments, see Neutrino README.
Example of a valid argument file:
# All flags are passed to neutrino as-is for future-proofing, comments are ignored
gc: 2
mc0: mass:/memcard0.bin # all file paths must always start with mass:
$mc1: mass:/memcard1.bin # this argument is disabled
# Arguments that don't have a value
# Empty values are treated as a simple flag
dbc:
logo:
To be able to parse those arguments and allow you to dynamically enable or disable them in UI,
NHDDL uses a dollar sign ($
) to mark arguments as enabled or disabled by default.
Only enabled arguments get passed to Neutrino.
NHDDL supports two kinds of argument files:
Arguments stored in nhddl/global.yaml
are applied to every ISO by default.
Arguments stored in nhddl/<ISO name>.yaml
are applied to every ISO that starts with <ISO name>
.
NHDDL can create this file automatically when title compatibility modes are modified and saved in UI.
ART/ # cover art, optional
|
- SLUS_200.02_COV.png
nhddl/
|
- lastTitle.txt # created automatically
- cache.bin # created automatically
- global.yaml # optional argument file, applies to all ISOs
- Silent Hill 2.yaml # optional argument file, applies only to ISOs that start with "Silent Hill 2"
CD/
|
— Ridge Racer V.iso
DVD/
|
- Silent Hill 2.iso
- TimeSplitters.iso
To switch NHDDL to USB mode, you'll need to create nhddl.yaml
with the following contents:
mode: usb
Copy this file to Neutrino directory next to nhddl.elf
.
To switch NHDDL to MX4SIO mode, you'll need to create nhddl.yaml
with the following contents:
mode: mx4sio
Copy this file to Neutrino directory next to nhddl.elf
.
To switch NHDDL to UDPBD mode, you'll need to create nhddl.yaml
with the following contents:
mode: udpbd
udpbd_ip: <PS2 IP address>
If you've previously set up the network via uLaunchELF and your memory card
has SYS-CONF/IPCONFIG.DAT
file, you don't have to add udpbd_ip
.
Copy this file to the Neutrino directory next to nhddl.elf
.