missyhud.prx

Long time ago, when I was a little kid, I used to play a lot of games on my PSP. In my time at the university I abandoned it in my office drawer. Years later, as part of the Glorious PC Gaming Master Race, a HUD is something always necessary for me. Not long ago, my PSP was reborn from the ashes, and I haven't found a plugin that meets my metric needs. Here it is.

missyhud.prx is a plugin to display a simple HUD.

Features

[!NOTE] Unmarked are W.I.P features.

• Stupidly simple black UI (yes, the best one)
  • Cycle position (START + Analog left/right)
  • UI customization (pinned position, per-indicator toggles)
  • Color customization
• Compatible with VSH, GAME and POPS
• RAM usage indicator
• Power percentage indicator
  • Duration minutes
  • Charging detection
  • No battery detection
• CPU indicators
  • CPU Usage
  • CPU clock speed
  • BUS clock speed
• FPS indicator
  • Exact count from buffer flips
  • Estimate from GE display lists for games that never flip (i.e. GTA: LCS)
  • Support for POPS (PSX eboots)
• Key combination to turn on and off (Hold L + R + Start for 1 second)

Installation

1. Download the latest release missyhud.prx from Assets
2. Copy missyhud.prx to
   • ms0:/seplugins/ for PSP 1000, 2000, 3000 and Street
   • ef0:/seplugins/ for PSP Go
3. Add the plugin to your VSH, GAME and/or POPS environments
   • SEPLUGINS.TXT in ARK systems
     • PSP 1000, 2000, 3000 and Street

     game, ms0:/seplugins/missyhud.prx, on
     vsh, ms0:/seplugins/missyhud.prx, on
     pops, ms0:/seplugins/missyhud.prx, on
     

     • PSP Go

     game, ef0:/seplugins/missyhud.prx, on
     vsh, ef0:/seplugins/missyhud.prx, on
     pops, ef0:/seplugins/missyhud.prx, on
     

   • game.txt, vsh.txt and/or pops.txt in Non-ARK systems
     • PSP 1000, 2000, 3000 and Street

     ms0:/seplugins/missyhud.prx 1
     

     • PSP Go

     ef0:/seplugins/missyhud.prx 1
     

4. Restart your device and enjoy your HUD!

Configuration

Everything works without a config file. To change something, copy missyhud.config.sample to ms0:/seplugins/missyhud.config, or ef0:/seplugins/ on a PSP Go, and edit it.

FG_COLOR=0xFFFFFF
BG_COLOR=0x000000
CPU_INDICATORS=1
POWER_INDICATORS=1
RAM_INDICATORS=1
FPS_INDICATOR=1
#POS_X=0
#POS_Y=0

Colours are 0xRRGGBB. Setting an indicator to 0 hides it and the rows below close up. POS_X and POS_Y are character cells, 7 pixels across and 8 down; setting either pins the HUD there and turns off cycling with START + Analog.

Every line is optional, and a line that cannot be read is skipped rather than discarding the rest of the file. The config is read about a second after boot, because the memory stick is not mounted before that.

Usage

Once the plugin is activated, the HUD will automatically appear in the left corner of the screen. To hide it, hold L + R + Start for 1 second. To show it again, repeat the same.

The FPS indicator says where its number came from:

• FPS: 60, counted from buffer flips, which is one call per frame
• FPS: 30 (ge), estimated from GE display list submissions
• FPS: n/a (find), the system does not export what the hooks need

Known issues and doubts

• According to the PSPSDK documentation, sceKernelTotalFreeMemSize returns a different value than pspSdkTotalFreeUserMemSize
• Some games never change the scanout address, so there are no buffer flips to count. GTA: LCS is one of them. The FPS then comes from counting GE display list submissions and marks itself (ge). Most engines submit one list per frame, so the two usually agree, but a game that renders in several passes per frame reads high. Follow-up on this issue is ongoing.
• In those same games the HUD is drawn into the buffer already on screen rather than the one about to be flipped, so it can flicker.

Why missy?

Missy is the name of my cat.