CloneXB 2.3 released on 19-07-04 uses XDVDFSTools v2.0 as base to perform its new functions, and as CloneXB 2.3 is in very very beta stage here is some info for those of you which want to use the XDVDFSTools updated by clonexb (the coder) to perform the same optimizations.

You can download the lastest complete package from the "usual places" or from this site (without Xbox part)  and includes extensive documentation about each supported command in a pdf file, so I´ll center in the basic file layout dumping and iso making from an original disc.

You´ll need two files from the package:

- Rename LayoutDumper.xbe to default.xbe and transfer it to your Xbox

- Insert a game disc, and load the new Xbox app you sent from your dashboard

- Now you should see a basic interface, (A) to dump and ( B ) to back, we´ll it´s pretty obvious what you want to do here. Push the (A) button and wait for the dvd drive to stop reading.

- The layout file will be saved at the folder where dumper´s xbe is.

- Push ( B ) to back to your dashboard.

- Make a temporary folder on your pc´s hard disk. Let say C:\XBOX, and also another folder inside this one where the game files will be transfered: C:\XBOX\GAME

- Copy xdvdfs_maker.exe and yout newly created .lyt file to C:\XBOX

- Transfer all the game disc files to C:\XBOX\GAME via FTP (at this point maybe is a good idea to remove media checks)

- Now open a command line console (Start -> Run -> CMD.EXE), and change your dir to C:\XBOX\

- Type:

(change yourorder.lyt by the name of your file, use "" if the filename has spaces: Ninja Gaiden.lyt -> "Ninja Gaiden.lyt", or just delete those spaces)

(using -opt2 instead could be better if there is only a few big files on layer 1)

- Push enter twice.

- Now wait for the iso to be completed, be sure you have enought space, as will fill a entire dvd-r, 4483 mb.

Finally you´ll have a 4.3 gb XBOX.ISO file on C:\XBOX ready to be burnt whith your usual burning software.

Remember you wont get any significative improvement if the disc you want to backup is not original, as probably lost any original optimization when was built for backup purposes. In this case you´ll only benefit from padding the files, so the overall read speed could be a bit better. If the disc you are trying to optimize is a backup and you still want to get some improvement, either ask somebody with the original disc to dump the layout for you, look for it at this site or manually edit the layout in a more logic way thant the standart order by filename. (also, notice not every Xbox original game was layout optimized by their developers. Panzer Dragoon is one of them, so manually editing the layout could improve the times and head movement).

Also, results may vary depending on what media you burn, and which DVD-Reader your Xbox has. A DVD-R would never be so fast as a pressed original, but using this method (replicating order, and padding the disc) we can get better times than with the standart way we always used till now. Btw deleting unused files (xbox dash updates, xbox live installers, non desired languages, demos, etc...) will provide us with more space to pad, so we could force files to go outer in the disc and therefore the read speed will be greater.