xmb_gamecache changelog

The cache file is now capped in absolute size, scaled to your card: 0.5% of capacity, clamped to 8–48 MB. Previously only dead bytes counted against the ~48 MB rebuild trigger, so a library that kept growing could grow the cache without limit — the cap now covers the whole file.

What's new

• Card-scaled size budget — about 10 MB on a 2 GB card, 20 MB on 4 GB, the full 48 MB on anything 10 GB+; derived from the free-space snapshot the plugin already keeps (never an extra slow FAT count)
• Graceful reclamation instead of wipe-and-rebuild. When the cap is reached, cheapest step first: trim free space at the end of the file → evict bulky media (animated icons, backgrounds, menu music) from the least recently played games — every game keeps its title and icon, so the list stays instant → compact the survivors into a fresh file. Nothing goes cold and no ISO is re-scanned; the old discard-everything path remains only as a fallback if compaction itself fails
• While over budget mid-session, reads stream straight from the ISO instead of growing the file

Crash-safe by ordering: the index is deleted before the data-file swap, so an interruption at any point lands on the normal rebuild path, never on corruption.

Install / upgrade

1. Copy xmb_gamecache.prx (below) over the old one in ms0:/SEPLUGINS/
2. If installing fresh, add to ms0:/SEPLUGINS/PLUGINS.TXT: vsh, ms0:/SEPLUGINS/xmb_gamecache.prx, on
3. Reboot. Your existing cache is kept — no rebuild needed when upgrading from v1.7

See the README for details and the CHANGELOG for the full history.

Tested on

PSP-1000 (32 MB) + ARK-4 + 128 GB card. Designed to fail safe (goes inert) everywhere else, but other models, ARK-4 versions, and PSP Go internal storage are unverified — testers welcome, please open an issue with your results.

First public release of xmb_gamecache, a VSH kernel plugin for PSPs running ARK-4 CFW that makes the XMB Game menu load near-instantly on big memory cards.

Features

• Persistent game cache for an unlimited number of ISOs (ARK's built-in cache caps at 32) — near-instant Game menu on every boot after the first
• Recently-played games sort to the top of the game list
• Instant Memory Stick free-space display (the stock firmware re-counts the whole FAT every time — several seconds on a big card)
• Game list reopens in about a second after waking from sleep (RAM mirror)

Install

1. Copy xmb_gamecache.prx (below) to ms0:/SEPLUGINS/
2. Add to ms0:/SEPLUGINS/PLUGINS.TXT: vsh, ms0:/SEPLUGINS/xmb_gamecache.prx, on
3. Reboot, open the Game menu once to build the cache (the first visit is slow — let it finish)

See the README for PSP Go paths, troubleshooting, and how it works.

Tested on

PSP-1000 (32 MB) + ARK-4 + 128 GB card. Designed to fail safe (goes inert) everywhere else, but other models, ARK-4 versions, and PSP Go internal storage are unverified — testers welcome, please open an issue with your results.