Help setting up modded HostFS PS2 Game *Solved*

[joelwhokillz]

EDIT: OK so I've actually finally solved this issue myself, and since I couldn't find anything about this issue anywhere I wanna share my solution here on the off chance somebody else needs it or makes use of it. 

So this Topic on the forums directed me earlier to running the PCSX2 as an application with parameters defined in the command under it. While it wasn't working running both the elf and iso, what I realized is that because you can set up for it to use a game specific ini folder, you can run the game in PCSX2, set whatever up, and then close it. You then copy the contents of the ini folder in your PCSX2 to a new folder, I chose '(Gamename)inis'. The reason for this, is that in the PCSX2_ui.ini file, I noticed the argument used to 'load' the last used iso was saved in plain text. As this automatically changes every time you boot a game and exit, creating a seperate ini folder only used by the game in question will never change the iso in the .ini file. 

The easiest way for me to set this up was actually creating a shortcut to PCSX2, editing the command arguments into the shortcut itself, in my case it was:

 "D:\PS2EMUPATH\pcsx2.exe" --elf="H:\gamedirectory\(modded game elf)" --fullscreen  --cfgpath="D:\PS2EMUPATH\(Game Specific ini Folder)"

And then running that shortcut as the application in launchbox for the game. I spent many hours looking up this solution before I finally gave up and started trying every thing I could possibly think of, so I hope this helps someone save time in the future!

Original post here;

So the TL:DR Is that I have a game, which I have using mods that utilize HostFS, that is, it loads the iso into PCSX2 but then you 'Run > Elf' instead of loading the iso. 

I'm trying to figure out how exactly to set Launchbox up to pair the iso with PCSX2 but then run the Elf, rather then the iso. The closest I've gotten to getting the modded version to run was by changing the game from emulation to application, and running PCSX2 directly with a command line argument. 

However.... This doesn't seem to be working when any other game has been loaded from PS2, as it overwrites the default ISO selection. The best idea I had was maybe making a soft launch game version that i just exit and then run the modded application parameter after, but that would be kinda tacky. I've spent some good money getting all this awesome launchbox/emuvideo stuff set up so I really was hoping to keep it as clean as possible. 

Anyone have any experience setting something like this up? I think the issue is that PCSX2 can't run both the elf and the iso from the parameter because they clash, it just gives an error.  

Edited June 16, 2020 by joelwhokillz
Solved issue.

[Cypher]

Old bump, but it's currently relevant.

Which game did you mod? I'm currently try to mod Persona 3, and I can't get anything to work completely for the life of me by either launching the game through Steam or Launchbox. If I go with the method you outlined, things refuse to launch. If I leave P3 as being managed by the emulator but add the elf stuff to the command line, it'll force close on boot.

The only way I got things to actually function was through Steam and directly launching the ELF, but going that route robs me of my ability to use the config files.

 

edit: Ended up getting it to work; still don't have a clear idea on what my solution was. I'm going to try to reverse engineer what I did to see if it matches the OP.

Edited January 2, 2021 by Cypher
status update