Xenosaga 1 Dual Layer DVD info and woes

So after the amazing responses in the other thread about Xenosaga rights, I'd like to discuss things of a more technical nature. I am really fascinated about the efforts the team at Monolith went through to make Xenosaga and so my investigation has led me to wonder about actual structure of all the game data stored on Xenosaga discs.

Before I start discussing my findings thus far, I was wondering if there is a resource on the web that discusses the technical aspects of Xenosaga's disc format, data structure, how it was coded etc. or anything of that nature? Anything of that nature on this site that I may have missed?


So after inspecting the three games, I have discovered that Xenosaga 1, 2 and three have a similar file structure, for now I am focusing on Xenosaga 1 as if I crack that nut, I will most likely understand the structure of games 2 and 3.

Xenosaga 1 has already presented me with some challenges, namely the nature of it's dual layer format.

When accessing the disc from a standard machine (I have tried Windows and Linux) I see the following file structure.


├── [4.0K Dec  9 20:50]  iop
│   ├── [ 12K Nov  5  2001]  atad.irx
│   ├── [ 11K Oct 31  2001]  dev9.irx
│   ├── [ 29K Nov  5  2001]  hdd.irx
│   ├── [253K Dec 13  2001]  ioprp24d.img
│   ├── [ 25K Nov 13  2001]  libsd.irx
│   ├── [ 89K Aug 26  2001]  mcman.irx
│   ├── [7.2K Aug 26  2001]  mcserv.irx
│   ├── [ 44K Sep 25  2001]  padman.irx
│   ├── [ 48K Oct 31  2001]  pfs.irx
│   ├── [ 37K Jan  8  2002]  rssd.irx
│   ├── [6.4K Aug 26  2001]  sio2man.irx
│   ├── [ 16K Oct 31  2001]  smap.irx
│   └── [166K Jan  8  2002]  ssd.irx
├── [415K Nov 23  2002]  ov01.ovl
├── [ 89K Nov 23  2002]  ov02.ovl
├── [383K Nov 23  2002]  ov10.ovl
├── [ 70K Nov 23  2002]  ov11.ovl
├── [432K Nov 23  2002]  ov12.ovl
├── [3.3M Nov 23  2002]  SLUS_204.69
├── [  79 Nov 23  2002]  system.cnf
├── [166K Nov 23  2002]  xenosaga.00
├── [1.0G Nov 23  2002]  xenosaga.01
├── [338M Nov 23  2002]  xenosaga.02
├── [8.0K Nov 23  2002]  xenosaga.10
├── [1.0G Nov 23  2002]  xenosaga.11
├── [1.0G Nov 23  2002]  xenosaga.12
└── [641M Nov 23  2002]  xenosaga.13


The above data totals, ~4.3GB which makes no sense as this game is a dual layer disc. There is NO way Monolith would have commissioned a DL-DVD and inherited all the problems that decision eventually caused just so they could fit 4.3GB of data. I also believe this amount of data can be squeezed on to a single layer disc anyway.

So next, I ripped the disc via raw data and dumped it into a disc image.

This time the file is 8,468,299,776 bytes or 8.5GB  A HA!! Getting somewhere....or am I? Maybe this could be padded zeros? but wait, Playstation 2 discs are not mastered like that are they?, gamecube discs are done that way but not PS2....so it must be the full data?

Opening the disc up in IsoBuster and "analyzing" it leads me down the same path, 4.3GB of data.

If I take the above 8.5GB disc image file and open it up in WinRar, it only sees the 4.3GB of data as well. Where is this other mysterious, 4.2GB of data???

In the mean time, I put that problem aside and try to focus on what I am looking at on the disc.

I notice the xenosaga.XX files are exhibiting a pattern,

xenosaga.00 is 166K
xenosaga.01 is 1.0GB

and again...

xenosaga.10 is 8.0K
xenosaga.11 is 1.0GB
xenosaga.12 is 1.0GB

In actuality the files that are 1.0GB are all exactly 1,073,741,824 bytes...this cannot be a coincidence. After digging around Playstation 2 technical documents found at PS2DEV, I have discovered that this is a filesystem limit of Playstation 2 discs. No single file can be greater than 1,073,741,824 bytes.

So what are these files?

Turns out they are pretty much the whole game minus some executables......all 8900+ files...shoved into these few files.

It looks as if that the tiny files(xenosaga.00, xenosaga.10) contain offset information so the ps2 knows exact where to position the laser unit and how far to read to retrieve any file of the disc from these large files. This is sector based reading.  

When decoded, the xenosaga.00 file looks something like this:

00000000|00078240|0000000B|\font1.tex
000EA800|001B0C48|0000001C|\namco.ipu
0029B800|00396366|00000030|\logo_msi.ipu
00632000|00006DD1|00000044|\monologo.jpg
00641800|00005B95|00000055|\title.jpg
00780000|00007C16|00000067|\system.evt
00788000|00003C7D|00000077|\base.evt
0079C800|00011B00|0000008B|\carddata.new
007AE800|00012200|0000009A|\hdd.res
252F3000|00078240|000000AB|\font0.tex
00078800|00040050|000000C3|\endou\cfwin.xtx
007C1000|00000780|000000D4|\endou\mapex.bin
007C1800|00040050|000000E6|\endou\menu01.xtx
00802000|00040050|000000F8|\endou\menu02.xtx
00842800|00000D18|00000109|\endou\new_d.jpg
00843800|00000C98|0000011A|\endou\otr_d.jpg
00844800|00000FAF|0000012B|\endou\brk_d.jpg
00845800|00000C14|0000013C|\endou\n_use.jpg
and so on...

If you combine the xenosaga .01 and xenosaga.02 files into one giant file and then run a tool that slices the large file into tiny files based on the offset,...you are left with all the files of the game.

There was a tool on Psx-Scene site that did just that, and so I now have the following:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1X6yVDxKJuHbDFBOFdEeDVzMms/edit?usp=sharing

So my question regarding this thread is...what happened to the other data?

I have a lot of comments on the data I have gotten so far but I will leave that to another thread.

But for now, does anyone have any suggestions for me to try and get at that other data. I have confirmed that I seem to be missing the other half because I found the game cutscenes in one of the folders but it stops halfway through the game, indicating I dont have all the data.

I was think that ep2 and ep3 have similar structure of files at last. Why? Because of model files. Both of them use .chr file format for models etc, when models in ep1 are scripted by .bin file ( or what I heard), anyway, thanks to that we wasn't able to export any model data from ep1.
Well ep1 was most annoying with doing and exports/hacks/edits then ep2 and ep3 was.

kare_reiko wrote:I was think that ep2 and ep3 have similar structure of files at last. Why? Because of model files.  Both of them use .chr file format for models etc, when models in ep1 are scripted by .bin file ( or what I heard), anyway, thanks to that we wasn't able to export any model data from ep1.
Well ep1 was most annoying with doing and exports/hacks/edits then ep2 and ep3 was.

Hi kare_reiko,

Do you have any experience with extracting the data off Xenosaga 1 Dual Layer DVD disc? I still am wondering why I cannot see the second layer.

No, I don't have much exp with extracting Ep1 files. I only tryed to do it once with some random soft to export movie files and it only rip files from first layer too.
There was 3 softs make by some fan to export files from all 3 Episodes. I'm searching it right now but I can't find it (after moving form my old comp I'm all messed out with things I don't use often.), if you wish I can search for it (if I lost it I will contact old friend from godsibb if he has it).
I only extract files from ep2 and Ep3, first because of model files, second because of voice files. It worked somehow XD

kare_reiko wrote:No, I don't have much exp with extracting Ep1 files. I only tryed to do it once with some random soft to export movie files and it only rip files from first layer too.
There was 3 softs make by some fan to export files from all 3 Episodes. I'm searching it right now but I can't find it (after moving form my old comp I'm all messed out with things I don't use often.), if you wish I can search for it (if I lost it I will contact old friend from godsibb if he has it).
I only extract files from ep2 and Ep3, first because of model files, second because of voice files. It worked somehow XD

Actually I think I have that software already. I found it on the PSX-SCENE website. The software is a bundle that allows you to "uncensor" the censored scenes from the different Xenosaga games. It also allows you to replace the English voice with the Japaneses voice but have English subtitles.

This is how I got the filesystem shown in the Google docs link I provided in my original post.

Thank you for you help though!

Does anyone else have any thoughts? I am sure someone here has examined the disc in the past?

All I can really add to this is that I hope something is discovered. I could hardly get Dolphin to work on my mac. orz

I unfortunately don't have any experience with messing with the files in the game, but I have gone through the nonsense of ripping the game to get it installed on my PS2's hard drive, as well as trying to burn the game onto dual-layer discs.

With the Japanese version, I had to install it over ethernet due to region-locking. Burning the disc resulted in nothing but failure. DVD-DL woes for sure. Discs wasted. Expensive ones at that. The game doesn't boot, and disc checks with the burning programs fail when trying to read the second layer. My optical drive supports DVD-DLs too, which is strange.

I get the same thing you do though regarding the file size of the ISO and everything. It shows the full 8.5GB in Windows and in burning programs, but opening it up in WinRAR and PowerISO (What I use) shows only the first layer as well. If people are able to separate the game's data into 3 working single layer discs, it makes me wonder how we're able to grab all of the data, considering the ISO's files always total up to less than the full amount. My HDD installs for both the English and Japanese versions work perfectly fine as well. So I'm just curious about the difficulty of actually reading the second layer on a PC.

I can't really contribute anything, but I definitely am interested in this thread and hope there are some discoveries.

Thanks for all your comments so far everyone.

I have enlisted the help of the fine folks at PSX-SCENE. If anyone knows about game ripping, it is them.

I will update this thread with what they have to say so we all hopefully figure out why the second layer on the Xenosaga 1 DVD seems to be "invincible".

Maybe I have no choice but to ask a super smart scientist for assistance. Where is Shion when I need her?  

So according to PSX-SCENE, not only do you need software to recognize Dual Layer DVD to rip it, you need software to understand the proper layer gap between layer 0 and layer 1. They have suggested some things that I try which I will try to do tomorrow. I will post my results!

Awesome, hope to hear some positive results.

The part I find strange still though, is that I ripped my ISO using DVD Decrypter, and installed that very same ISO to my PS2's hard drive. Played through the game and everything. So I'm assuming that the program can read and rip from dual layer discs, just I wonder why burning the game to a dual layer disc seems to be an issue. But I do hope that what you were told works out properly. Interesting to learn what the steps and tools used are, as well as seeing the remaining files on the disc.

SUCCESS!!!!

So there is an app available from SksApps called Apache3. It is a image ripper that has intelligence about second layers on a ps2 disc.

It saw the second layer of the disc! See here:



Here is how to use it.

1.Create image of full disc using ImgBurn
2.Open it up in Apache and select Extract all files
3.Apply the other tool earlier to decode the extracted files.

DONE! You now have all the assets from the Xenosaga 1 game!

Final Tally:

The whole Xenosaga 1 disc contains:

7.87GB of data

9,210 files

78 folders

I have already discovered some really odd stuff contained on this disc....is that GUNDAM? naw...it cant be...what is gundam doing on the disc? I will make more postings regarding my findings. I need to sort all this data first and understand what each file extension represents. That will be my next step....

Here is a visual representation of the disc contents: https://i.imgur.com/70Z5ygA.png

Each color represents a file type, the size of the square corresponds to the size of the file relative to the whole disc, the groups of colors represent folders (you see the same colors grouped elsewhere, they represent the same file type but in different folders)

Some interesting fact you can see from the image:

76.7% of all the data are the prerendered videos.

Because filetypes are color coded you can find hidden files that you may normally glance over and miss. Case in point: There are pre-rendered videos hidden in some odd folders such a video of Shion blowing a kiss towards the screen. Does anyone know if this scene is in the game? I don't remember it... It probably is, I doubt Monolith would include hidden stuff on the disc? If they did I seriously doubt it would have been not known about until now lol.

Anyway its gonna take time to uncover all this stuff and I really wish to first decipher each file format first before I start tackling hidden stuff.

I think the kiss was from one of her tech attacks... Queen's Kiss? I think that was the name... Also, if the models can be ripped from episode 1, that would be amazing!!