Playing from HDD (using XBR/freeboot) and Title Updates

[p1nky]

there hasn't been much discussion/info about that and I haven't spent too much time with that either, question is: has anyone else and has come to a conclusion?

what I tried was playing MW2 from HDD -> worked
put latest (unmodified) TU in Cache folder -> does not work
extract TU with fluffie, run the 2 xexp files through X360GameHack, build a new container and name it like the original one and put it back in cache folder -> worked

as I had no clue what parameters and options to use for the rebuilt container and MW2 also apparently does not show a version number anywhere I do not know if it worked because the TU had been successfully patched and rebuilt or because the Xbox just completely ignored it and just used the original (non updated) xex.

friend of mine also tried something similar and reports that the game wouldn't launch even after patching and rebuilding (not sure how he rebuilt the TU tho, also he was using a different game).

has anyone done more testing/researching regarding these title updates yet?

does anyone know a game with available title update that does display version information so the above mentioned approach can be properly tested?

for the future it would be nice if there was a tool that could extract/patch/rebuild TUs in one go (if this is a viable approach) and thinking even further into the future versions of XBR/freeboot that ignore the media/region restrictions of a xex completely would be great as I guess then even an unpatched TU should work.

[G0t m4xx 21]

I was having the same issues with Fallout 3 (needs a title update to work with the DLC maps), what I ended up doing was extracting the TU out of cache, applied the patches to the original default.xex with xextool, then removed the media checks, etc. Then put default.xex back in the game folder and it worked fine, loaded the DLC

[effbee]

How about Rock Band 2?
It has the default.xexp and a patch_xbox.hdr and patch_xbox_0.ark in a directory named "gen"
I haven't tried to rebuild the TU yet but patching the .xexp into default.xex gives a dirty disc error and putting the .hdr and .ark into the "gen" directory on the HDD give the same error.

[p1nky]

XexTool has an option -p "patch xex with xexp", maybe this would work?
and then put the patched xex with restrictions removed back in the folder where you launch the game from, also add the files to the respective folder.
or I am talking out of my ass as I have no clue what a xexp is...

actually found a thread in x-s where some people are also talking about this
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=699896

apparently for some games there are other files that also get patched and this is where it gets non trivial as you can't just overwrite them.