Internal support for ISO

[Windsurf7]

Quick summary

Internal support for reading from iso/rom files is a common necessary feature among all major emulators.

Details

The issue on #205 should not have been closed. Mounting isos is not enough, and requiring a third party tool also isn't ideal. All major emulators support directly using the rom file. Cxbx-Reloaded should also consider supporting reading the game directly from the iso itself. It's also easier to manage games this way, not having to constantly mount and unmount individual isos. For easy of use and proper quality of life features, iso support is necessary.

Please consider. Thank you.

System Configuration:

Not necessary for this issue.

Additional Information (if any):

Not necessary for this issue.

[PatrickvL]

Well, the final comment before it got closed stated: "the devs have internally agreed that CHD support is not going to be implemented". There's been no change of heart since then, so I suspect we'll be closing this repeated request too. However, that doesn't mean pull requests would be rejected, so if you feel up to the task, do try to implement it yourself. I for one would sincerely wish you the best of luck on that.

[Windsurf7]

CHD is a totally different thing, I am talking about ISO.

[PatrickvL]

The quote indeed mentions CHD, but being one of the devs that participated in that discussion, this conclusion really applied to any container format. There's at least 3 reasons it's not going to be considered by the current contributors in the foreseeable future: Lack of developer capacity. Technical difficulty due to how our kernel currently access files. There's already workarounds available. Next to that, this is 'merely' an ease-of-use feature, and there's many more important issues that don't get much attention either.

[Windsurf7]

Well I would recommend keeping the issue open until it's eventually considered someday in the future, because it is in fact a very common feature across major emulators.

What is the workaround you are referring to, the mounting of the iso with the external tool? Don't you think that's too much hassle to perform per every game?

[PatrickvL]

I hear you, but we currently don't intend to use our issue tracker as a list of requests.
As for manually having to mount images, that could be scripted to make it a little less hassle. But someone would have to spend some effort on that too.

[Windsurf7]

It could be done but I would still consider that a hassle, because it relies on external tools. I would say an emulator should support reading of rom files on its own, that would be the proper way.

Well anyways we've talked about it enough and I've pointed out enough why it's a necessary qol feature. You guys can decide what you want to do. I would personally think this is a kind of global issue that should be kept open to be addressed someday.

Thanks for listening and best of luck regarding any aspect of developing the emulator. :)

[RadWolfie]

Internal support for ISO isn't going to happen any time soon until...

1. regressions from upstream is fully resolve,
2. major kernel reworks to enable native xbox objects support for basic xbox file system internally,
3. implement required kernel usages to create a working file system driver,
4. create working file system driver, aka final stage, to work with ISO.

For above tasks, we have a project board, excluding regression part, at Object Manager Planning .