Release Ginge

[DaveC]

all my homebrew/ports are working fine using Ginge ! (chess, mancala, go game and all emulators ...)

With the fact that they are working on Ginge, as a developer would that discourage you from making native ports of your software?

I will have more time to focus on ports that haven't been made for gp2x

Well that is't totally a good idea for computer emulators. Using vitrual keyboards where you need to pause the game, go to the keyboard enter command, go back to game and on and on is kind of a PITA. The Pandora has a keyboard, not using it would be a bad idea.

I do agree that Ginge is a double edged sword. On one hand it is great to have stuff that was never ported run on the Pandora. On the other hand it may actually insure that some of the GP2X stuff WONT be ported. A dev just might say "fuck it, why bother porting, just run under Ginge". The drawbacks are that it won't then take advantage of any Pandora features like keyboard (some GP2X stuff had emus that needed more buttons than the GP2X had), nubs, faster CPU, WiFi, higher resolution (many systems had "high res" modes ex: Rtype on TurboGrafx, Secret of Mana SNES) etc. Corners that are cut to get running on slower hardware like the GP2X may effect framerate, compatibility, sound quality etc. It is also not as convenient to have to go through two GUIs to get to your desired app. These things could have been eliminated by a native Pandora port.

It is a great feat though. It is something GPH should have done (but obviously don't have the skills) to make their hardware mostly backward compatible. Thanks a bunch Notaz.


Notaz:

Could you add an option to shut off that bi-linear blurr filter? It is making everything blurry like it is out of focus, It honestly looks awful. Nothing is sharp anymore and the contrast is gone. Thanks.

 

[notaz]

trying to get W and W puzzle battles to work .... Is there any particular place I need to place these files for it to work. I get knocked back to the Mini Menu whenever I start up a GPE file.

You need HF4 if you want W&W, for got to mention this on first post.

Could you add an option to shut off that bi-linear blurr filter? It is making everything blurry like it is out of focus, It honestly looks awful. Nothing is sharp anymore and the contrast is gone. Thanks.

I knew you would post that, and be the first and likely the last to ask for this. And it's not bi-linear filter at all.
To answer your question, yes it's planned but kinda low priority.

 

[DaveC]

Could you add an option to shut off that bi-linear blurr filter? It is making everything blurry like it is out of focus, It honestly looks awful. Nothing is sharp anymore and the contrast is gone. Thanks.

I knew you would post that, and be the first and likely the last to ask for this. And it's not bi-linear filter at all.
To answer your question, yes it's planned but kinda low priority.

Is it hard to implement?

I am not sure why people like blurry graphics so much that it is the default. I can kind of see it if you are fractional stretching but with 2X it doesn't make much sense. The problem is that detail that is only 1 pixel wide (especially text) almost disappears with what ever this filter is (not bilinear ok but the result is just as blurred). Then there are game/emus that have their own filter (GPSP etc) so now you are filtering on top of a filter and it is just a fuzzy mess.

I am glad a clean no filter option is planned though, hopefully it won't be too long before it is implemented.

 

[.Gogeta§§J4BR.]

Could you add an option to shut off that bi-linear blurr filter? It is making everything blurry like it is out of focus, It honestly looks awful. Nothing is sharp anymore and the contrast is gone. Thanks.

I knew you would post that, and be the first and likely the last to ask for this. And it's not bi-linear filter at all.
To answer your question, yes it's planned but kinda low priority.

Is it hard to implement?

I am not sure why people like blurry graphics so much that it is the default. I can't believe I am the only one who likes sharper higher contrast graphics. The problem is that detail that is only 1 pixel wide (especially text) almost disappears with what ever this filter is (not bilinear ok but the result is just as bad). Then there are game/emus that have their own filter so now you are filtering a filter and it is just a fuzzy mess.

I am glad a clean no filter option is planned though, hopefully it won't be too long before it is implemented.

who else but davec
meh

 

[b._.o._.b]

Okay, you can send my Pandora now Ed!

 

[coevin]

ok i must be really stupid, but how do you get this running?

 

[Mjlink]

^
Install it like any other PND file, it will show up under emulators. Once Ginge is selected, it takes you to a GP2X default menu. From here you find and run your emulator file or game file for the WIZ or GP2X that should be installed in its own folder on your SD card.

If the game works, it works, if it doesn't you'll end up back at the GP2X menu.

Hope this helps,

Peace & Pandora,

Link

 

[greendots]

Thanks a lot Notaz, I'm finally able to play cave story on my pandora

I have some requests (one I posted previously in another thread):
-Allow ginge to run .gpe files directly from command line.
-Changing of key layout
-Change scaling/stretch mode from the keyboard (maybe just one key that toggles between the 3 settings. I assume it can be done at anytime while running a .gpe)

Really great work though

 

[coevin]

mmmm strange ive been doing that but it doesnt show up on my emulator list and when i try to click the icon it just wont work.

 

[coevin]

ok cool got it was being stupid i downloaded the wrong file. thanks

 

[DaveC]

Thanks a lot Notaz, I'm finally able to play cave story on my pandora

I have some requests (one I posted previously in another thread):
-Allow ginge to run .gpe files directly from command line.
-Changing of key layout
-Change scaling/stretch mode from the keyboard (maybe just one key that toggles between the 3 settings. I assume it can be done at anytime while running a .gpe)

Really great work though

Also it would be nice to map the volume keys and start/select from the GP2X/ Wiz To ANY key on the keyboard (you could still have select stay where it is but have the keyboard key of choice *also* do that function). Why? because allot of emus, especially MAME used the volume keys and start/select on the GP2X and Wiz as game buttons. MAME in vertical mode is a good example. Right now using the select key On the Pandora for a fire button is not the best.

It would be nice to have GPE files show in minimenu too only when run they automatically call up Ginge and run through there. I don't know if it is possible without a minimenu revision though.

 

[greendots]

...
It would be nice to have GPE files show in minimenu too only when run they automatically call up Ginge and run through there. I don't know if it is possible without a minimenu revision though.

I think an ideal solution would be something like: ginge becomes part of the firmware. Someone could make a simple gui to pack .gpe files as .pnd. That way it shows up like any other program. A script would be run inside the pnd with the line: "ginge --location /location/of/file.gpe --defaults /location/of/file.xml". Defaults would be an xml file with keymapping and other settings.

Just my opinion anyway...

 

[sebt3]

It would be nice to have GPE files show in minimenu too only when run they automatically call up Ginge and run through there. I don't know if it is possible without a minimenu revision though.

File-association and using a filemanager would do ?

 

[.Gogeta§§J4BR.]

...
It would be nice to have GPE files show in minimenu too only when run they automatically call up Ginge and run through there. I don't know if it is possible without a minimenu revision though.

I think an ideal solution would be something like: ginge becomes part of the firmware. Someone could make a simple gui to pack .gpe files as .pnd. That way it shows up like any other program. A script would be run inside the pnd with the line: "ginge --location /location/of/file.gpe --defaults /location/of/file.xml". Defaults would be an xml file with keymapping and other settings.

Just my opinion anyway...

this would be great
maybe too much work right now for it to become priority, but definitely a nice feature!

 

[naples39]

So far so good with mame4allwiz, gpsp, and I tried gpfce and pocketsnes just because. I guess the only reason to use the latter two would be software scaling modes for 4:3 resolution.

No luck with fba2x, cps2emu (crash on launching from capex) and temper (black screen on launch). Anybody try those? Or do they use the second gp2x core and therefore definitely won't work?

 

[Tobriand]

I'd just like to throw my voice into the crowd of thank yous for this one... I've just finished playing a bit of W&W for the first time since I put a screwdriver through my GP2x's screen. I never thought I'd see it on Pandora! So THANK YOU NOTAZ!

Also, I'll echo the problems with GPsp: either crashes to GP2x menu (Prince of Persia, Yoshi's Island) or black screens (Wario 4) this is using the option "Unscaled 3:2" with filtering turned off, sound set not to play, frameskip disabled, and CPU speed inside GPsp set to 333MHz. Crashes may be happening as a result of selector too - the pre-GPsp menu for adjusting LCD and CPU settings just acts as though down is pressed continually on my Pandora (probably broken left nub has something to do with it)...

Finally, I'd like to echo DaveC's request for an unfiltered version. W&W looks MUCH fuzzier than it need do, given how nice it looked on the 2x screen. It may be low down the list of things to do, but it'll make me happy when it turns up

 

[skeezix]

I can't speak for our man Exo, but I imagie we'll have Temper native one of these days; further, gpsp native will be along one of these days too.

How well does mame4all run in ginge? Its sick by the way, but a great stopgap until we get things tweaked. (native mame is a full mame build, so superior in a lot of ways, but we need to get a frontend on that

jeff

 

[Mjlink]

How well does mame4all run in ginge? Its sick by the way, but a great stopgap until we get things tweaked. (native mame is a full mame build, so superior in a lot of ways, but we need to get a frontend on that

jeff

I haven't run a lot yet, what I have ran well (Gauntlet, Crazy Kong (Orca)),Front Line, sound is off, works sometimes, sometimes nastily. Can you elaborate on native mame? How does that differ from .106 or the MAME4All set?

Sounds yummy.

Peace & Pandora,

Link

Edit: stoned, added what ran well.

 

[DaveC]

Finally, I'd like to echo DaveC's request for an unfiltered version. W&W looks MUCH fuzzier than it need do, given how nice it looked on the 2x screen. It may be low down the list of things to do, but it'll make me happy when it turns up

See I am not the ONLY one who dislikes the blur filter.

Temper DOES work, you need to use the Wiz version

 

[Mjlink]

Is FinalBurn also working?

Peace & Pandora,

Link