Launching RPCS3 games archived using 7z

[Gaulent]

I've been playing around this for a couple weeks and wanted to share. I wanted so badly to store the games on my NAS on a single file each, in order to save some space and not having hundreds of file around there.

So, I though about having a zip (or 7z, or whatever) using a fixed structure, the same that RPCS3 uses internally on its HDD so I could just unpack the file right over the RPCS3 folder just before launching the game. This way I can have in a single file the game with every patch/dlc that I want, ready to just unpack and go.

This way, every archive has this basic structure:

\disc
\game
\home\00000001\exdata\ (for the RAPs)

Those are optional if the game don't need it. For example, PSN games doesn't have a "disc", or disc games don't have nothing on game if they are not patched or RAPs if it doesn't have DLCs.

Then, I wrote a batch file to launch this from Launchbox. Something like this: 

@echo off

if %1.==. GOTO standalone

7z l %1 -ba | findstr /r "EBOOT.BIN" > ebootPath.txt
set /p EBOOT=<ebootPath.txt
for /f "tokens=5" %%i in ('echo %EBOOT%') do set EBOOT=%%i

if not exist ..\dev_hdd0\%EBOOT% (
  7zG x %1 -o..\dev_hdd0 -aos
)

if exist ..\dev_hdd0\%EBOOT% (
  ..\rpcs3.exe ..\dev_hdd0\%EBOOT%
)

GOTO:eof

:standalone

..\rpcs3.exe

It is stored and launched from a subfolder called "_launcher" under the RPCS3 directory so I can keep the paths relative.

It finds the EBOOT path in the archive to find if the game is installed and it launches it afterwards. I use 7zG for the extraction so I can have a nice progress bar while unpacking.

Following the same idea I just made another script to delete the files from disc to "uninstall" the games when I don't need them. It's on launchbox like another "emulator" so I can either launch them or uninstall them easily from the UI.

7z l -ba %1 -i!*\* -x!*\*\* -x!home > filesToDelete.txt
for /f "tokens=6" %%i in (filesToDelete.txt) do rmdir /s ..\dev_hdd0\%%i

And that's really it. If any of you know how to improve around this. Maybe with AutoHotKey, or making a plugin... please, let me know.

One thing I would like to do if reflect on the metadata if a game it's indeed installed or not. That would be cool.

Hope this help anyone. Take care.

[neil9000]

Archive Cache Manager - Third-party Apps and Plugins - LaunchBox Community Forums (launchbox-app.com)

 

[Gaulent]

I knew this was not my idea and someone had though about this before  Thanks! I'll try with that.

EDIT: Hmmm after playing around a little, it doesn't really fits the need. This files need to be in a specific folder in RPCS3, and not everything in that folder is a "cache", like savefiles, trophies and stuff. I'll stick to the script shenanigans for now. Thanks for the tip!

Edited May 9, 2021 by Gaulent