More info on XGD3/LT 2.0/LT MAX etc

[Inferno.]

-RELEASE.NOTES

Playable Regions: ALL (REGION-FREE

SplitVid, SSv2, and verified with abgx360

RRoD is proud to bring you the very first official XGD3 0800 ISO
releases made with c4eva's new 0800 v3.0 ripping fw for BenQ VAD6038
and Lite-On DG-16D2S

These ISOs are fully compatible with the new LT v2.0 for Phats and
Slims, are burnable to regular DVDR DL discs, include full & correct
AP2.5 data, and are verified in the abgx360 database. Please refer to
the status table on http://c4evaspeaks.com for a breakdown of which
drives support LT v2.0

The LT v2.0 release for Phat models is imminent, and it was
requested that we release these in advance in order to give everyone
time to have them downloaded and ready to play for once the fw goes
public

Our thanks and congratulations to c4eva, Team Xecuter/k3rn3l, the
JungleFlasher team, Redline99 for Xbox Backup Creator, Seacrest for
abgx360, the core testing team, and all the other individuals
involved who came together to make this possible

XGD3 BACKUPS OVERVIEW

To end the confusion once and for all, yes, original XGD3 discs
have a higher linear/track density and therefore a higher physical
capacity than XGD2 and regular DVDR DL media. As a result, XGD3 ISO
backups are larger as well

For XGD3 backup support, c4eva has introduced in LT v2.0 the LT-MAX
feature, which allows for XGD3 backups to use the maximum possible
layerbreak for regular DVDR DL media, and therefore all of the
available space (8,547,991,552 bytes) of a regular DVDR DL disc

Since there is still not enough space on a regular DVDR DL disc to
hold the entire XGD3 game partition, not to mention the Layer 1
Video partition, this is not at all recommended as being "safe" for
Xbox LIVE

XGD3 backups will still boot and play fine on LT v2.0 as long as the
last approximately 1.7% of the game partition does not contain any of
the actual game assets, which it usually won't because the end of the
game partition is near the inner edge of the disc, and developers
will try to keep their game data near the outer edge (middle of the
game partition) to maximize read performance

Another necessary condition to booting and playing XGD3 backups on
regular DVDR DL media is that the kernel or game code itself must
not perform any CIV (Content Integrity Verification) checks on any
part of this last approximately 1.7% of the game partition (or at
least it must not take any action after CIV failures). Even if there
are no actual game assets in this area, there is still pseudo-random
padding data which can be checked through CIV, and such checks can
even be added later to the game code through title updates, or to the
kernel through system updates

Just like XGD2, XGD3 backups still require the correct dashboard
version-specific AP2.5 replay data. As they've done previously, MS
has the ability to change the DAE.bin by way of a system update,
meaning you may need to re-patch/re-burn at some point. The abgx360
application and database will be updated accordingly to support XGD3

BEST PRACTICES AND SETTINGS

The P2P XGD3 ISO rips that were floating around before this point are
for ODDEs and are not compatible as-is with LT v2.0. Their PFI, DMI
and SS sectors are in the wrong PSN (Physical Sector Number
locations and they are missing the critical AP2.5 replay sector and
SS replay table. If you intend to play XGD3 backups on a firmware
flashed 360, it's up to you to make sure you're using proper ISOs
made with 0800 v3.0, and to double-check by running them through
abgx360 before burning

Keep in mind that this is the first of several potential disc-based
backup solutions for XGD3. As such, it's recommened that all
subsequent releases maintain the full ISO size and associated
layerbreak (2133520) in the .dvd, which will help to ensure that they
will be forward-compatible should any media manufacturers step up
with new larger-capacity discs (which will be necessary in order to
make XGD3 backups as safe as possible on Xbox LIVE

The actual layerbreak for XGD3 ISOs is 2133520. However, when burning
XGD3 ISOs to regular DVDR DL, ImgBurn will automatically reposition
limit the layerbreak to 2086912 in accordance with the disc's maximum
Layer 0 data zone capacity (2,086,912 LBA: 0 - 2086911). The LT-MAX
feature in LT v2.0 will compensate for this and allow you to play
XGD3 backups with this wrong layerbreak, and therefore wrong game
partition data PSN locations

In the case of growisofs as instructed below, in order to avoid
errors when burning XGD3 to regular DVDR DL, you may choose to first
truncate the ISO to 8,547,991,552 bytes, and burn using a reduced
associated layerbreak of 2086912. This should give you exactly the
same end result as if you followed the instructions below for ImgBurn
on Windows

INSTRUCTIONS FOR BURNING XGD3 BACKUPS WITH IMGBURN

We recommended that you use the latest version of ImgBurn (v2.5.5.0
at the time of writing, downloadable at
http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download). Older versions may
handle this process differently and/or give a different set of
errors

Although it is set by default in ImgBurn, please ensure that under
Tools Settings Write, you have "Layer Break (For DL Media)" set
to "Calculate Optimal

Please ensure that the layerbreak is set as 2133520 in the .dvd file
If you already have the XGD2 (or other) layerbreak value set in
ImgBurn, the .dvd of the XGD3 ISO will override that setting and use
the proper layerbreak

As mentioned above, ImgBurn will automatically reposition/limit the
layerbreak to 2086912 when burning to regular DVDR DL discs

Please see the included imgburn-xgd3-errors.png image for screenshots
of the errors you'll encounter in ImgBurn and what to click on in
each dialog that pops up

Step by Step

1. Choose "Write image file to disc", and after loading the .dvd
file, click "Write

2. ImgBurn will pop up a notice saying that there is not enough
space on the disc to burn the image, and asks if you would like to
continue anyway. Click "Yes

3. Another message might pop up saying that optimal layerbreak
position exceeds L0 capacity. Click "Yes

4. An error will then pop up noting that "Set L0 Data Zone
Capacity Failed". Click "Continue

5. The image will begin writing to the disc

6. Nearing the end of the write process, ImgBurn will pop up an
error at around 97% or 98% (this is what we want -- it's
intentional). Click "Cancel

7. A notice will then pop up asking if you would like ImgBurn to
try and perform the "'Close Track/Session/Disc' functions". Click
"Yes

8. Let the disc finalize, and you're done

INSTRUCTION FOR BURNING XGD3 BACKUPS WITH GROWISOFS

truncate --size=8547991552 xgd3game.iso

growisofs -use-the-force-luke=dao -use-the-force-luke=break:2086912
-dvd-compat -speed=4 -Z /dev/dvd=xgd3game.iso

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