Fgen32 Video Sonic 1 With Sound!

[GiG]

SNES contains more complex hardware to emulate.

 

[Efompor]

Rlyeh needs to add auto-frameskip. That's all I care about, it sucks having to try and guess the clockspeed that it will run best at, and to guess the Frameskip as well

 

[Azure]

I don't get why all of his emulators get the 4 screen split bug. It must be something common in his code so would it b possible to correct it? Its happened to me in doom as well. Its cool u can just go into the menu to clear it so easily tho B).

Try reading the readme that's included with the emulator(s). There's an easy fix for it.

 

[Twinbee]

:blink:

So the Z80 core has been implemented? Woo!

Thunderforce IV might work now. I believe the problem with that was it freezing whenever you picked up an item due to no z80.

 

[kotd]

Not slow at all. Thats how fast sonic one is. Its running at about 95%. The only thing is the music slows down but not the gameplay thats why theres the illusion of slowdown.

 

[craigix]

No I don't think the Z80 has been added at all, a lot of games (sonic included) will run with sound without the Z80.

-Craig

www.gbax.com

 

[Efompor]

No I don't think the Z80 has been added at all, a lot of games (sonic included) will run with sound without the Z80.

-Craig

www.gbax.com

here is what fdave said about the Z80, I would assume he would be more knowledgable than us about the matter as he's actually coding an emu for it

since the last non-public betas, I can say (apart from some graphic glitches) that fGen is a better emu than Giga's : )

Nowadays, the Z80 is turned off, so you won't get any sfx, just music. And it slow down too much the game. So we must just wait to optimize fGen so that sound can be on, but.... maybe Z80 off.... :_(

fGen will be by definition - it's a port of a complete Genesis/Megadrive emulator!
(Whereas Giga isn't... yet Plus it has nice quick graphics rendering (which might possibly be tile based - not sure...). It's a nice little emulator for sure


Just to clarify the sound of the Megadrive, it typically works like this:

The 68000 uploads a sound program to the Z80, and then starts the Z80 running.

The Z80 then talks to two sound chips, a 6-channel YM2612 (like an old Casio synth) and a 4-channel primitive SN76496 (more like a beeper). There is also a DAC for writing sample data (think WAVs, MODs and XMs).

Some games (but not many) talk to the YM2612 and SN76496 directly. Pretty much all of them all of them however use the Z80 to output Drum or other sample sound effects to the DAC.

So it depends on the game. Some need the Z80 (or Z80 faking ) to even start up, because they are waiting for the Z80 to acknowledge (e.g. Alien 3)
95% need the z80 for sound. and all of them need the sound chips for sound (naturally!)

So I certainly HOPE that the Z80 is going to be implemented, if 90% of the games wont have sound without it anyway...

 

[craigix]

Several games have sound without the Z80, they just go direct to the sound hardware.

I have recently tried rlyehs betas, no z80, sound works in various games (sonic, shinobi etc.)

Edit: just had a thought - to see what games don't use the Z80 for sound, try an emu which allows you to disable the z80.

-Craig

www.gbax.com

 

[Efompor]

Several games have sound without the Z80, they just go direct to the sound hardware.

I have recently tried rlyehs betas, no z80, sound works in various games (sonic, shinobi etc.)

Edit: just had a thought - to see what games don't use the Z80 for sound, try an emu which allows you to disable the z80.

-Craig

www.gbax.com

Are you saying that you are playing one of his brand new sound-enabled betas? Did you just disable the Z80 or is it not included alltogether?

 

[karadan]

The video its 166 mhz, Frameskip2. NO z80 activated. U cant hear the drums in the Green Hill melody. (In spanish: No se escucha la bateria de fondo en la cancion de Green Hill).

 

[rlyeh]

btw is anyone else not receiving betas through Rlyeh's mailing list?

i've sent a new beta to mailing list bot, but it seems the bot is inactive.
i'm trying to contact skeezix to fix it since its his bot

greetings

 

[CU_AMiGA]

Don't want to look stupid or anything but how would one access Rlyeh's mailing list?

 

[EvilDragon]

btw is anyone else not receiving betas through Rlyeh's mailing list?

i've sent a new beta to mailing list bot, but it seems the bot is inactive.
i'm trying to contact skeezix to fix it since its his bot

greetings

Ahh, that's why I didn't receive ANY messages in the mailing list for ages...
I was already beginning to wonder...

 

[Enslaved]

Why don't the 2 work together? I know they share the core which really doesn't make them competition since the enemy is suppling the other so they should make a super emulator using both of their coding skills into one other than 2!

 

[pip]

Why don't the 2 work together? I know they share the core which really doesn't make them competition since the enemy is suppling the other so they should make a super emulator using both of their coding skills into one other than 2!

It is not that much you can work together when programming, at least not from my experience. When I do something one part is always totally depended on the code from another part, so someone else helping would not be helpful at all. We have to keep in mind that gigadrive is an emulator written from scratch whilst fGen is a port.

 

[fdave]

No I don't think the Z80 has been added at all, a lot of games (sonic included) will run with sound without the Z80.

-Craig

www.gbax.com

here is what fdave said about the Z80, I would assume he would be more knowledgable than us about the matter as he's actually coding an emu for it

What I said was true, however Sonic 1 is one of the games which plays sound without a z80. It uses the 68000 to write sound and music, and only uses the Z80 to play drums.

Sonic 2 is different though, it uses the Z80

In fact... I've got a list somewhere from ages ago when I was thinking about a static recompiler...


Here you go - some games which don't need the Z80 for sound:

RAMcode hangs without Z80 without Z80 (if not no sound)
Decapattack no no full sound?!
Revenge of Shinobi (374k) no no sound but no samples
Rolling Thunder 2 no no some PSG
Sonic1 no no sound but no samples
Streets of Rage (378k) no no sound but no samples
Toe Jam and Earl no no music

 

[fdave]

Why don't the 2 work together? I know they share the core which really doesn't make them competition since the enemy is suppling the other so they should make a super emulator using both of their coding skills into one other than 2!

It is not that much you can work together when programming, at least not from my experience. When I do something one part is always totally depended on the code from another part, so someone else helping would not be helpful at all. We have to keep in mind that gigadrive is an emulator written from scratch whilst fGen is a port.

Don't think of it in terms of enemy supplying code(!), none of us are enemies, however there is a (healthy imho) competition within emu programmers. However we always try to share info and code.

If you put yourself in the position of a programmer, it's easy to why people are more comfortable doing what they do. Coding styles may be different, systems may be different. Bare in mind, their aim is not to please you but rather to have fun coding.

For example say two people are coding the same emulator, it might be more convenient for you that they pool efforts, however it may be more unlikely they will find it fun, and they'll soon lose interest.

Also it's harder to work together when you live in different countries and have to communicate via e-mail. To be honest I think the situation is pretty ideal right now with fGen32 and GigaDrive... I'm concentrating on fast 68000 and ryleh is concentrating on getting sound in, and every now and again I post a 68000 update and he post me back a fGen32 - I'm pretty confortable with that!

And after the 68000 is done, I may move on to faster sound for the Megadrive... not sure yet.

 

[fdave]

No offense to Rlyeh, but at this point, I'm honestly more excited about a new version of GigaDrive with sound. That emulator has been kicking ass so far and already has auto-frameskip, which is fantastic.

I'd actually like to get the 68000 perfect first since that will open up much more possibility for others using Cyclone (Amiga, Atart ST, System 16, CPS1/2, X68000, Konami... the list goes on and on)

 

[frolik]

it's pretty impressive coding this from scratch, have you coded any other emulators before? got a site we can wander though?

 

[guysolo]

nerver heard about final burn ? The very first cps2 emulator !!
Aaaaaahhhh I remember the day I discover it, so much fun, hours of arcade (capcom at least) play at home....
see fdave's homepage