USB Guitar Plugin: Use a PS2 Guitar in Rock Band 4 on PS4

Made by CoronaSend | Join the Discord

A GoldHEN plugin that lets a PS2 guitar on a generic PS2-to-USB adapter work in Rock Band 4 on a jailbroken PS4.

Tested with a generic adapter (USB ID 2563:0575) on a jailbroken PS4 with GoldHEN and Rock Band 4 version 02.21, USA (CUSA02084), together with RB4DX.

Start here: download Guitar_Plugin_Release.zip from the Releases page, extract it, and double-click GuitarTool.exe (see READ_ME_FIRST.txt). One program installs the plugin on your PS4 and maps any guitar that does not work out of the box. Rebuild it with tools\build_tool.ps1.

Support status

• 2563:0575: verified on real hardware.
• 0810:0001 and 0810:0003 (other generic PS2 adapters): untested. They use the same button layout as the verified adapter. If your buttons come out wrong, your adapter's report differs. tools\read_raw_report.ps1 prints the raw bytes, so you can report them.
• Only Rock Band 4 version 02.21 is supported. The plugin hooks fixed addresses in that build and does nothing on other versions.
• Not tested without RB4DX.

What does this do?

Rock Band 4 on PS4 only accepts official PS4 instruments (plus some PS3-era ones). An old PS2 guitar on a cheap PS2-to-USB adapter is not recognized, so the game ignores it.

This plugin loads into Rock Band 4 through GoldHEN and sits between the game and the PS4's USB stack. When it sees the adapter, it:

1. Makes the game think the adapter is a PS3 Rock Band guitar.
2. Reads the adapter's raw button data and translates it into the format a PS3 Rock Band guitar sends (frets, strum, whammy, Start/Options).

You then play with your PS2 guitar as if it were a supported guitar. Nothing on the PS4 is permanently changed, and removing the plugin restores normal behavior.

Requirements

• Jailbroken PS4 running GoldHEN (2.3.0 or newer) with the plugin loader enabled
• Rock Band 4 version 02.21 (in-game 2.3.7). The plugin refuses to run on any other version.
• A PS2 guitar and a PS2-to-USB adapter that shows up as USB ID 2563:0575 (see "Using a different adapter" below if yours is different)

Install

1. Back up your PS4's /data/GoldHEN/plugins/OrbisInstrumentalizer.prx first if it already exists.

2. Copy OrbisInstrumentalizer.prx from this folder to /data/GoldHEN/plugins/ on the PS4 (FTP, for example ftp://<PS4-IP>:2121).

3. Open /data/GoldHEN/plugins.ini on the PS4, or create it if it doesn't exist.

4. Under the [CUSA02084] heading, add this line, keeping any plugins that are already listed:

   [CUSA02084]
   /data/GoldHEN/plugins/OrbisInstrumentalizer.prx
   

   If you also use RB4DX, both lines go under the same heading:

   [CUSA02084]
   /data/GoldHEN/plugins/RB4DX-Plugin.prx
   /data/GoldHEN/plugins/OrbisInstrumentalizer.prx
   

   For the PAL version of the game, use [CUSA02901] instead. The PAL version has not been tested.

   Don't replace an existing plugins.ini with the sample one in this folder. It exists only to show the format.

5. Plug the guitar adapter into the PS4 before launching the game.

6. Launch Rock Band 4. A "USB Guitar Plugin - Made by CoronaSend - Discord: @CoronaSend" notification means the plugin loaded.

Uninstall

Delete the OrbisInstrumentalizer.prx line from plugins.ini, and delete the .prx file (or restore your backup).

Default controls

Guitar	Rock Band 4
Green, Red, Yellow, Blue, Orange	Same color fret
Strum up / down	Strum up / down
Whammy bar	Whammy
Start	Options / Start
Select	Back, which activates star power in a song (tested)
Tilt	Not working: the adapter reports a tilt bit, but the game ignored it in tests. Use Select for star power.

Remapping

The mapping is in source/usbd_hooks_rb4.c, in the function ParsePS2Callback. Rebuilding takes a few minutes (see "Rebuilding").

What the adapter sends (raw report bytes)

Byte	Meaning
0, bit 0 (0x01)	Yellow
0, bit 1 (0x02)	Red
0, bit 2 (0x04)	Blue
0, bit 3 (0x08)	Orange
0, bit 7 (0x80)	Green
0, bit 6 (0x40)	Flickers randomly: ignore it
1, bit 0 (0x01)	Select
1, bit 1 (0x02)	Start
2	Strum hat: 6 idle, 5 strum down, 7 strum up
4	Whammy: 0x7F at rest, down to 0x00 fully pressed

What Rock Band 4 expects (output bits)

These were found by testing in-game:

Output	Meaning
BIT(0)	Red
BIT(1)	Green
BIT(2)	Blue
BIT(3)	Orange
BIT(4)	Yellow
BIT(8)	Back
BIT(9)	Start / Options
hat 0x00 / 0x04 / 0x08	Strum up / strum down / idle

Example: swap two frets

If your game shows Red and Blue the wrong way round, find these lines in ParsePS2Callback and swap the output bits:

if ((raw[0] & 0x02) != 0) parsed_report.buttons |= BIT(0); // red
if ((raw[0] & 0x04) != 0) parsed_report.buttons |= BIT(2); // blue

After any change, rebuild, copy the new .prx to the PS4, and fully restart the game (plugins only load at game launch).

Different guitar or adapter: the mapping tool (no coding)

If the game detects your guitar but buttons do nothing, or you use another adapter, make a map file:

1. Plug the adapter into a Windows PC and double-click tools\RUN_ME.bat.
2. Follow the prompts: press Enter, then hold each button for 3 seconds. Keep the guitar still while it records the idle state.
3. It saves guitar_map.ini (and guitar_capture.txt) to your Desktop.
4. Copy guitar_map.ini to /data/GoldHEN/ on the PS4 (next to plugins.ini) and fully restart the game.

The klog shows Mapping file loaded (id VVVV:PPPP) when it is used. With no map file, the built-in layout for the verified 2563:0575 adapter and guitar is used. Map file format is one key=byte,mask,value per line (hex); a button is pressed when (report[byte] & mask) == value. Keys: green red yellow blue orange start select strum_up strum_down, plus whammy=byte,rest,full and id=VID,PID.

Tested: the generated layout for the 2563:0575 adapter and our guitar loads and works on a real PS4, including Select as star power. Other adapters and guitars are untested. Tilt does not work (see above), and the plugin still only supports Rock Band 4 version 02.21.

Using a different adapter (manual)

1. Plug the adapter into a Windows PC, then run tools\read_raw_report.ps1:

   .\tools\read_raw_report.ps1 -VendorId XXXX -ProductId YYYY
   

   Find the IDs in Device Manager > the device > Properties > Details > Hardware Ids (VID_xxxx&PID_yyyy).

2. Run it once with nothing pressed (idle), then once while holding each button. Compare the bytes to find which ones change. This gives you a table like the "What the adapter sends" one above.

3. In source/usbd_hooks_rb4.c, change PS2_ADAPTER_VID and PS2_ADAPTER_PID to your adapter's IDs, then edit ParsePS2Callback to match your bytes.

4. Rebuild.

This only works if the PS4 can see the adapter as a USB device at all. Adapters that need a driver on Windows may not work.

Rebuilding

You need a Windows PC with:

• LLVM: winget install LLVM.LLVM
• The OpenOrbis PS4 Toolchain release, extracted
• The GoldHEN Plugins SDK, cloned

Then in PowerShell, from this folder (the bypass flag is needed if script execution is disabled):

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\build.ps1 -Toolchain "C:\path\to\OpenOrbis\PS4Toolchain" -GoldHenSdk "C:\path\to\GoldHEN_Plugins_SDK"

The result is bin\OrbisInstrumentalizer.prx.

Troubleshooting

• No notification: check that the plugins.ini heading matches your game's title ID, and that the game is version 02.21.
• RB4DX stopped loading: a new plugins.ini replaces GoldHEN's defaults. List every plugin you use under the heading, including RB4DX-Plugin.prx.
• Guitar not detected: unplug the adapter, plug it into the PS4 before starting the game, and restart the game.
• A fret is the wrong color or a button does nothing: see "Remapping".
• Menus can't be navigated with the guitar: use a normal controller for menus. Start works for Options only, and Select is Back.

Credits and license

This is a modified version of OrbisInstrumentalizer by InvoxiPlayGames, which does the USB hooking for Xbox 360 and Wii instruments. PS2 adapter support, the remapping and the notification text were added by CoronaSend.

Licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1 or later. See LICENSE.txt. The full source is included in source/ and include/, as the license requires.

This is for use on consoles you own. Use at your own risk.