Drmd V5 Beta 2 Released

[bacteria]

Excellent emulator, and a very good update (beta 2).

The menu doesn't have that annoying flicker anymore (Firmware 2.0).

I haven't played many things on it yet, or tested it fully, but I have played Psycho Pinball (Megadrive), it now plays at 60fps if overclocked at 250Mhz - with 22050 sound selected, against about 45fps on version DrMD 4.3. One of my favourite games of all time.

Fantastic work Reesy.

 

[SunSpire]

Are you going to add 44.100HZ support back to the MD menu? I've seen it before but you seem to have removed it The SMS emulator still needs the support for full screen stretching, but otherwise is pretty much flawless.

I just got an idea, there used to be a SMS emulator for the PC who was playing back the music through a midi device rather than using the SMS's native sound output, creating an overall improvement in sound quality. Couldn't something be done with the timidity library that is also used for Duke3D to play midi on the gp2x? That way you could add a sound enhancement option to the emulator ... I bet it would be hard to do but thought I'd suggest it anyway!

"SunSpire"

 

[nubie]

a tv is never 640*480 or 320*240...
ntsc is 486 (visible) lines and pal 576

That is interesting, my nVidia display drivers give me a 512x384 display option, I am assuming that it is for displaying 1:1 without scaling.

I have adjusted my TV for no overscan, is that what you mean by "visible"?

 

[shiffy]

I just got an idea, there used to be a SMS emulator for the PC who was playing back the music through a midi device rather than using the SMS's native sound output, creating an overall improvement in sound quality. Couldn't something be done with the timidity library that is also used for Duke3D to play midi on the gp2x? That way you could add a sound enhancement option to the emulator ... I bet it would be hard to do but thought I'd suggest it anyway!

"SunSpire"

The Japanese version of the Master System (the Sega Mark 3) had a built in FM synth chip, thus making some of the games sound better. A couple of games that I know use this FM chip are Outrun & Wonderboy In Monster Land. A few of the PC Master System emulators do emulate the FM chip. Here's a link to a tiny bit of info on it

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=S...Master%20System


It would be fantastic if this Master System FM chip emulation could be incorperated into DrMD. In my opinion, that would be the icing on the cake for this amazing emulator!

 

[White Demon]

a tv is never 640*480 or 320*240...
ntsc is 486 (visible) lines and pal 576

That is interesting, my nVidia display drivers give me a 512x384 display option, I am assuming that it is for displaying 1:1 without scaling.

I have adjusted my TV for no overscan, is that what you mean by "visible"?

There are 625 lines (PAL) and 525 (NTSC) in total but only the numbers above are actually what's visible on the screen.

As for what your TV can display, it depends on the signal it receives from the source. My Nvidia card (FX5200) gives me the option of displaying from 640x480 to 1024x768 on my TV (PAL) with no problems. When I step up to 1152x864 (my defualt res on my PC), the TV display scrolls the screen.

Back on topic: Reesy, it would be nice if you could at least supply POokeParadox with the details for save states. He's offering to do a converter after all. And I'm sure there are other people (like me) who would like to use this without having to have two different versions on their 2X at once. It's your decision in the end I guess, but it would be nice.

Anyway, great work as always. Well done.

 

[DaveC]

a tv is never 640*480 or 320*240...
ntsc is 486 (visible) lines and pal 576

TVs can do alot of different resolutions depending on overscan etc. They run at 15.75 KHz (NTSC) and there are many resolution combinations that can be done with that. And yes TVs can do 320 x 240 non-interlaced or even 320 x 200 non-interlaced. They can do 640 x 480 interlaced as well. The Amiga used to output to a TV in the 320 x 200 non-interlaced mode all of the time. Game systems did 320 x 220, 256 x 192 etc. etc. non-interlaced as well. What you talk about is broadcast resolutions which is just another combination that can be done.

 

[GeminiDomino]

Reesy,

Is it normal that DrMDx (both the last stable and the current betas) run like arse under FW 2.0?

The last stable ran like a dream under 1.2, but after the upgrade it slowed down insanely (we're talking 2 fps in Alladin and Chakan, which used to run as close to Fullspeed as I could have wanted).

I also get no sound. *boggle*

Hints?

 

[garethp1745]

Mine worked like a dream with the last version now it just hangs on the GP2x screen that it boots up with gutted as DrMD and Mame are the best emulators out for the GP2x.

 

[iignotus]

Reesy,

Is it normal that DrMDx (both the last stable and the current betas) run like arse under FW 2.0?

The last stable ran like a dream under 1.2, but after the upgrade it slowed down insanely (we're talking 2 fps in Alladin and Chakan, which used to run as close to Fullspeed as I could have wanted).

I also get no sound. *boggle*

Hints?

No, it works just as well under 2.0 as any other firmware. Or at least, that's me. There must be somethng terribly wrong with your gp2x

 

[Reesy]

Mine worked like a dream with the last version now it just hangs on the GP2x screen that it boots up with gutted as DrMD and Mame are the best emulators out for the GP2x.

Okay you really need to give more information ( and this goes for everyone else as well ), as we are all aware not all GP2X's are the same. There are loads of different firmwares now, so you really need to tell us what firmware you are using (should be displayed on your GP2X boot screen). This way anybody else that is using the same firmware can confirm if they are having the same problems. Soon we are going to have the added problem of v2 GP2Xs which hopefully should be compatible with the existing software but lets face it how many times has it all gone tits up before.

@GeminiDomino: Do other applications work correctly, squidgesnes etc?

 

[GeminiDomino]

Mine worked like a dream with the last version now it just hangs on the GP2x screen that it boots up with gutted as DrMD and Mame are the best emulators out for the GP2x.

Okay you really need to give more information ( and this goes for everyone else as well ), as we are all aware not all GP2X's are the same. There are loads of different firmwares now, so you really need to tell us what firmware you are using (should be displayed on your GP2X boot screen). This way anybody else that is using the same firmware can confirm if they are having the same problems. Soon we are going to have the added problem of v2 GP2Xs which hopefully should be compatible with the existing software but lets face it how many times has it all gone tits up before.

@GeminiDomino: Do other applications work correctly, squidgesnes etc?

Mostly. Squidgesnes works ok, SMSplus won't even start. I'm very confused now. Now it runs fine. It was only the first time that it failed. ??

 

[Reesy]

I've just re-read your original post and something occured to me. DrMD uses the audio rendering to create a timer, it then uses this timer to keep the emulator in sync. If you are not getting any audio, then I guess the audio device is not working correctly, this is causing the timer to inaccurate, which in turn causes the emulator to have problems and run at 2fps.

My code is pretty weak in the audio setup area at the moment. I don't check to see if the audio device has set the sound formats correctly, I just assume it has and continue. I'll add some extra code to confirm that everything is okay and bring up an error if something is wrong.

 

[GeminiDomino]

I've just re-read your original post and something occured to me. DrMD uses the audio rendering to create a timer, it then uses this timer to keep the emulator in sync. If you are not getting any audio, then I guess the audio device is not working correctly, this is causing the timer to inaccurate, which in turn causes the emulator to have problems and run at 2fps.

My code is pretty weak in the audio setup area at the moment. I don't check to see if the audio device has set the sound formats correctly, I just assume it has and continue. I'll add some extra code to confirm that everything is okay and bring up an error if something is wrong.

Does it do it every time, or just on the first run. The thought occurs to me that since it apparently makes some dirs on first run (if they don't already exist), maybe one of those files/dirs is a conf file? Restarting worked and now it runs just as sweet as ever.

 

[garethp1745]

Mine worked like a dream with the last version now it just hangs on the GP2x screen that it boots up with gutted as DrMD and Mame are the best emulators out for the GP2x.

Okay you really need to give more information ( and this goes for everyone else as well ), as we are all aware not all GP2X's are the same. There are loads of different firmwares now, so you really need to tell us what firmware you are using (should be displayed on your GP2X boot screen). This way anybody else that is using the same firmware can confirm if they are having the same problems. Soon we are going to have the added problem of v2 GP2Xs which hopefully should be compatible with the existing software but lets face it how many times has it all gone tits up before.

@GeminiDomino: Do other applications work correctly, squidgesnes etc?

Doh! Sorry firmware version 1.4. Going to upgrade to 2.0 soon as I've got the balls to do it. Mame works as does my speccy emulator. Should have known to give a bit more info how embarrasing!

 

[GeminiDomino]

Hey, Reesy, any issues with the GG support? I put them in /mnt/sd/roms/sms (and thus can only select them from the Master System menu, not the Game Gear one) but all 4 of the ones I try (Phantasy Star Adventure, Phantasy Star Gaiden, and Shining Force II and III) vary from corrupted graphics (PS) to crashing outright(SF).

Am I doing something wrong? I checked the README and the old thread, so I thought I was doing it right, but...

 

[Kensupen]

Reesy stated in v5b1 that he was giving us that to play with while he implemented GG support. v5b2 was just a quick patch to make megadrive/sms work right.

-Kensupen

 

[sausage dog]

I have been trying to gget the Master Systems games to work full frame but they are still windowed.

Anyone have any ideas as it does seem to be an option?

 

[Reesy]

I have been trying to gget the Master Systems games to work full frame but they are still windowed.

Anyone have any ideas as it does seem to be an option?

Not implemented yet, then menu option is there basically because I forgot to disable until I add the code to scale the screen using the GP2X hardware, sorry about the confusion. Hopefully it will be in the next version.

 

[garethp1745]

Upgraded to Firmware 2.0 and now this emulator works. Great Work Reesey I'll certainly be donating soon as a lot of hard work has gone into this. Just to let you know Sonic and Knucles doesn't work.

 

[iignotus]

ust to let you know Sonic and Knucles doesn't work.

Yes it does. It works very well. Try again, or with a different copy.