Cps2emu Test Version 6 And Capex Beta 2 Released

[slaanesh]

Just downloaded Beta 3 of Capex... looking good!

 

[imhotep]

Thanks, slaanesh. I didn't realise it was out.

 

[DaveC]

For games which require a large cache, --fullcache will allocate a 16MB buffer. On the PSP, with it's smaller RAM, 16MB was the absolute maximum that could be allocated, often this would be a lot less depending on the ROM.

For example, ddsom would only allocate an 8MB cache whereas with --fullcache this will be 16MB.

What are the advantages or disadvantages of using fullcache? Is this just there to eliminate any loading pauses? Does it increase compatibility? Is there any reason for not just using fullcache always?

 

[slaanesh]

For games which require a large cache, --fullcache will allocate a 16MB buffer. On the PSP, with it's smaller RAM, 16MB was the absolute maximum that could be allocated, often this would be a lot less depending on the ROM.

For example, ddsom would only allocate an 8MB cache whereas with --fullcache this will be 16MB.

What are the advantages or disadvantages of using fullcache? Is this just there to eliminate any loading pauses? Does it increase compatibility? Is there any reason for not just using fullcache always?

There are no disadvantages to using fullcache. the old version may be there just for compatibility.

 

[rygar73]

Hi, I've updated capex in file archive but need to wait the validation

Maybe I have discovered a bug, try this: run an emulator (I have tried with mamegp2x) then quit and run capex, choice a game then start it... on my gp2x will appear the old mame screen... the game seems to start (I can ear the sound) but on screen remain old mame picture.
Standard cps2emu selector does not have this problem.
Sorry for my bad english

 

[JyCet]

Maybe I have discovered a bug, try this: run an emulator (I have tried with mamegp2x) then quit and run capex, choice a game then start it... on my gp2x will appear the old mame screen... the game seems to start (I can ear the sound) but on screen remain old mame picture.
Standard cps2emu selector does not have this problem.
Sorry for my bad english

Your bug is very strange because I havent seen it yet, I've just tested with mamegp2x but no pb

 

[JyCet]

I added yesterday ram boost timing option in CAPEX with pepone help and now I've around 10FPS more @233MHz with 1944.
I've tested to add hardware gamma correction option but cps2emu force the normal gamma.

To be continued ...

 

[fusion_power]

Why Gamma? Image looks bright enough I think.

QUESTION to the lucky guys with GP2X TV cable and 16:9 TV:
Is the unscaled CPS2 Screen completely shown on the widescreen TV? Would be cool

 

[johnz1]

Why Gamma? Image looks bright enough I think.

QUESTION to the lucky guys with GP2X TV cable and 16:9 TV:
Is the unscaled CPS2 Screen completely shown on the widescreen TV? Would be cool

I dont have a 16:9 monitor, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that the entire screen would definitely not be shown. What you see on the 2X screen is what will be outputted to the TV: No widescreen output

 

[craigix]

From what I remember you can output a range of resolutions, i'm pretty sure you could get the whole screen onto the TV, if you could hack a widescreen output from the hardware is another matter. Rlyeh knows more about the tv out resolutions.

 

[fusion_power]

I think the Question is, do the GP2X calculate the whole unscaled screen and only because of the 4:3 LCD we don't see more.
For Example the 16:9 TV of my parents can handle and switch between various screen scalings and I think it doesn't care, what the GP2X shows on his LCD IF he renders the whole unscaled CPS2 screen, the TV should shown, what the GP2X outputs when he output what is rendered...I hope.
Sadly, I have no TV Cable for GP2X

 

[slaanesh]

The entire screen is in memory rendered - the end result is copied and accordingly scaled to fit the screen.

I've also been testing my hiscore saving code and it seems to work fine. I will try to release this on Sunday.

@ Jycet - If you are going to create a new release with RAM timing code we should probably co-ordinate a single release with all new source code etc, what do you think?

I have made the hiscore saving a command line option. By default it is switched on. There are two additional switches --hi-score and --no-hi-score.

I also suggest that the RAM timing code have a command line option.

 

[DaveC]

I think the Question is, do the GP2X calculate the whole unscaled screen and only because of the 4:3 LCD we don't see more.
For Example the 16:9 TV of my parents can handle and switch between various screen scalings and I think it doesn't care, what the GP2X shows on his LCD IF he renders the whole unscaled CPS2 screen, the TV should shown, what the GP2X outputs when he output what is rendered...I hope.
Sadly, I have no TV Cable for GP2X

Actually the CPS2 is NOT widescreen. It is truly 4:3 aspect ratio in the arcades. The reason it looks widescreen on emus is because the pixels are rendered square on LCDs and PCs. In the arcade the scan rate of the CRT was set so the pixels were actually taller than they were wide. CPS2 pixels are not square. You can see the effects when you display at 1:1 on a PC or LCD screen that circles are elliptical. If you play some shooters the tanks on the ground will look longer when going left to right but squished when oriented vertical. The best would be to set the emu on GP2X to scale horizontal only. The S-video out is fuzzy enough on a TV that you won't be able to see the missing pixels very well.

I don't know why but many systems did this. Some examples of systems not using square pixels are SNES, NES, Coleco, CPS2/CPS1, PC-Engine and more. This was a dumb thing as when you draw a sprite you had to draw different versions depending on the orientation to keep the same shape in all directions. You couldn't just rotate the same image 90 deg. This caused many of pixel artists to pull their hair out.

 

[slaanesh]

Actually the CPS2 is NOT widescreen. It is truly 4:3 aspect ratio in the arcades.

So on a device with square pixels, emulating something with rectangle pixels means you need to scale it somewhere if you want to maintain the correct aspect ratio.

This is the emu that got me playing my PSP again, yet I find the GP2X version nicer. It's all I've played pretty much on my GP2X!

 

[DaveC]

Actually the CPS2 is NOT widescreen. It is truly 4:3 aspect ratio in the arcades.

So on a device with square pixels, emulating something with rectangle pixels means you need to scale it somewhere if you want to maintain the correct aspect ratio.

This is the emu that got me playing my PSP again, yet I find the GP2X version nicer. It's all I've played pretty much on my GP2X!

Yes you have to choose between correct aspect and scaling artifacts, or no artifacts but a slightly compressed image on either PSP or GP2X. To me the slight horizontal scaling on the GP2X looks nicer than the stretching and filtering on the PSP. I also find the 1:1 looks good on the GP2X but then you loose some of the sides and it is a bit squashed. In the case of this emu it is a toss up for me. It then becomes preference.

Megadrive and NeoGeo are pretty much square pixels so you can have 1:1, and the correct aspect ratio on GP2X.

 

[fusion_power]

I think the Question is, do the GP2X calculate the whole unscaled screen and only because of the 4:3 LCD we don't see more.
For Example the 16:9 TV of my parents can handle and switch between various screen scalings and I think it doesn't care, what the GP2X shows on his LCD IF he renders the whole unscaled CPS2 screen, the TV should shown, what the GP2X outputs when he output what is rendered...I hope.
Sadly, I have no TV Cable for GP2X

Actually the CPS2 is NOT widescreen. It is truly 4:3 aspect ratio in the arcades. The reason it looks widescreen on emus is because the pixels are rendered square on LCDs and PCs. In the arcade the scan rate of the CRT was set so the pixels were actually taller than they were wide. CPS2 pixels are not square. You can see the effects when you display at 1:1 on a PC or LCD screen that circles are elliptical. If you play some shooters the tanks on the ground will look longer when going left to right but squished when oriented vertical. The best would be to set the emu on GP2X to scale horizontal only. The S-video out is fuzzy enough on a TV that you won't be able to see the missing pixels very well.

I don't know why but many systems did this. Some examples of systems not using square pixels are SNES, NES, Coleco, CPS2/CPS1, PC-Engine and more. This was a dumb thing as when you draw a sprite you had to draw different versions depending on the orientation to keep the same shape in all directions. You couldn't just rotate the same image 90 deg. This caused many of pixel artists to pull their hair out.

Yes, I know. I had noticced that, when I played Marvel vs. Capcom. The unscaled "widescreen" Image had the wrong aspect ratio (squeezed globe in the background image) and the scaled image had the better aspect ratio. On PC-Mame I played CPS2 Games like every game always in 4:3 and everything was fine.
And yes, the only solution for this problem was the wrong "size" of the pixels itself.

So we have to use a rescale to have an unscaled pic - funny. :lol:

Oh, I hope, the Emulator will have an FPS display even in the hardware scaling modes in near future. I really want to compare the FPS between software and Hardware-scaling (and RAM-Timings and so on) ^^
Has anyone an Idea, how much more FPS gives the HW-scalings and the faster Ram-Timings for CPS2 Emu?

 

[JyCet]

@slaanesh
sure me I can wait it work for me
but is your command line will be added in ell version or yours only ?
or do you work ell ?
i dont have any contact with him so i dont know if new command line appear (from his version) or not. I discover every news at same time everybody.


@fusion_power
It's not because you dont need one option everybody dont need it
For hard-scaling I dont know how much more give aggresive ram-timings.

 

[abyss]

I keep getting an error when I try to load some games, marvel vs capcom is one. The error message comes up after the 'fill cache data........complete' message, it then says 'ERROR:file not found or CRC32 not correct "CPU1" '
any ideas whats wrong?

Edit: it`s ok i`ve sorted it