Future Drmd Release?

[Billy Lee]

I seem to remember Reesy saying he will work on improving DrMD after putting in the new interface (which he has already done). I think he said he will improve the emulation. Is this true? It would be ace to get 60fps with sound at 166MHz.

 

[Hanz™]

It is being released next Christmas.

 

[bast525]

Or you could just send him a donation and get all the new beta's as he releases them. He's already released four beta's to his testers and donators since the V 1.0 release

Personally, I don't think it will ever happen to have DrMD running 60fps in all games at 166mhz. I know Reesy is looking at making improvements in the emulation and sound cores, but I don't think anything so dramatic as that. He's pushing the limits of the GP as it is. Hell, even the NES emu struggles on some of the later, more graphically intense games, and can't keep up 60fps on some of them.

 

[Reesy]

I think DrMD is as fast as its gonna get, unless the new sound core I'm working on is loads faster ( which I don't think it will be at the moment ).

Most of the work I'm doing on DrMD is improving compatibility by fixing cyclone bugs and improving the genesis emulation.

There's still alot to do before another public release but its getting there. I'm finding this beta testing stage very useful, its helped to squash alot of stupid bugs that would not have spotted until I had released a dodgy version to public.

Anyway there will be another beta today this one fixes a slight problem with the sound core spotted by Drumaster. I made a slight change to the core and made some things INLINE but I made typo, so when the fm emulator should have been calling algo7() it was actually calling algo0().

Reesy

 

[Billy Lee]

Well some games already go at 60fps with sound such as Robocod and Golden Axe runs at 50fps.

 

[c0ncept]

@Reesy:

Have you tested Echo the Dolphin (I can't remeber whether its I or II) because its is displaying some really strange behaviour. For instance if you jump out of the water, echo flys to the verytop of the screen and stays there for a while befoe very slowly floating back to the water, I know this isn't to do with the rom itself because I've used it on multiple emu's. Maybe this could help pinpoint some of the bugs in cyclone?

 

[cozmic]

30fps is more than enough on a lcd screen (blends the frames together)

 

[Billy Lee]

When you turn sound off and it runs at 60 fps, you'll see how fantastic that looks at that frame rate. I'm not complaining though - DrMD is great!

 

[Squiike]

the only thing that i think needs to be improved is the music and saving system

on some games the music goes faar to fast than it shold, like lemmings, chicki chicki boys and other

and there shold be fast buttons on save and load

the only things i still think is cool on gp32_console is gpcinema, os9x and the genesis emulators(scumm too but sam and max hangs up)

i admire your work reesy and all of you other genesis-emu-developers!

 

[Reesy]

All in the latest beta,

Correct timing for Pal games ( fixes Lemmings )
Corrected timer problems in fm emulator
Add quick save/load functions.. but these are still called from the menu, I might add them to a key combination as well L+Start could be quick load and R+Start could be quick save. I'll see what the beta testers think.

 

[gary.mckeown]

i just want it to fix whatever it is thats makin my gp32 restart when loading the spiderman rom, it works with fgen but not drmd. still excellent emu tho just filled my smc with genesis games (64mb)

 

[ralp99]

sounds good reesy's, keep up the good work!!
& thanks again..

looking fwd to the next..

 

[bast525]

Reesy... good idea on letting us map or premapping quick save and load to some key combination or another, another one I was thinking of suggesting to you... the L + Select or Start is straight out of PockeNES on the GBA and is very convenient to have. Can you set it up so that while holding L (or R) that hitting any other button will then not register in the game, but rather only activating the save/load? This way you aren't inadvertently pausing/unpausing or executing some action every time you save/load. Like the bug that I mentioned to you before that occured if you set any of the A-B-C buttons to one of the shoulder buttons.

 

[WhiteFalcon]

Well, Reesy, this emulator of yours is really something, it reorganized my hierarchy of best GP32 software quite much

The speed is already unbelievable, most games run very good at 144MHz, especially without sound. Actually, I am looking forward to the new sound core, as the sound, or shall I say FM (no sound yet), seems to be slowing things down constantly. With the sound on, I often get 40-50 fps.

When I meantioned the cpu speed now...could you tell me why it is so that at many speed levels, mostly above 144MHz, the vertical retracing lines become more visible on the LCD? Its not that visible when you are playing a game, but you can notice it easily when looking for a while at some bigger area of same color. I wouldnt mind it, but I think thats what makes the eyes hurt, sort of unconsious weariness. It is not only in DrMD, I have seen it in other software too, usually it is not apparent at particular cpu speed levels. And maybe its a "feature" common to the LCD...

Anyway, thanks for the great emulator! :rolleyes:

 

[Billy Lee]

By the way, how come the frame rate doesn't go higher when going above 166MHz? There is a noticable difference between 160MHz and 164MHz but isn't any different at 176MHz (or was it 172MHz?)?

 

[Steve-O]

By the way, how come the frame rate doesn't go higher when going above 166MHz? There is a noticable difference between 160MHz and 164MHz but isn't any different at 176MHz (or was it 172MHz?)?

​

There might be a Frame limiter ???

 

[Billy Lee]

By the way, how come the frame rate doesn't go higher when going above 166MHz? There is a noticable difference between 160MHz and 164MHz but isn't any different at 176MHz (or was it 172MHz?)?

​

There might be a Frame limiter ???

​

In which case it might be possible to get a higher frame rate if the frame limiter was taken out? Also, why would he include the option to go above 166MHz if there's a frame limiter there?

 

[johncross85]

Higher clock speed may mean that complicated games (shed loads of sprites or whatever) would keep running at the frame limit when lower clock speeds may slow down or use frameskip. Plus he's still adding stuff in so maybe a higher clock would be beneficial in the future...

J(ohn)

 

[Steve-O]

By the way, how come the frame rate doesn't go higher when going above 166MHz? There is a noticable difference between 160MHz and 164MHz but isn't any different at 176MHz (or was it 172MHz?)?

​

There might be a Frame limiter ???

​

In which case it might be possible to get a higher frame rate if the frame limiter was taken out? Also, why would he include the option to go above 166MHz if there's a frame limiter there?

​

When playing a game, different areas make your framerate change. Like say 5 enemies appeare on the screen at once, your FPS will Drop alot more than what it would if 1 enemy appears...

so say you are running at 166mhz and you are getting 65 FPS and 3 enemies appear or the graphics get a little more complex and your FPS drops to say 35 - 40 FPS... THEN If you run the game at say 256mhz maybe when the 3 enemies appear or when the graphics gets more complex, the game will keep going at around 60 - 65 fps...

You dont want too much FPS ... I turned the Frame Limmiter off on GTA2 and when I hit the accelerator I ended up at the other side of the make in a second or less hehe


--edit---

john got in first hehe

 

[Sponge BoB]

no the answer is the gp32s RAM i believe. Check the clockspeed tester to see if going above 166 gives you a higher framerate in that.

Some of the RAM used in some gp32s is only able to clock to 166, so when the cpu clocks above 166 the ram limits it.

I think thats what i read.

Some gp32s dont have this problem tho....