Gp2psx V0.36

[zodttd]

Yay a new release of GP2PSX!

Here's what's new in this release:
- Timings have been vastly improved. Or at least they seem to be. Let me know if compatibility goes down.
I changed the way interrupts are timed in this release. Hopefully it improved performance!
- I added a cache to the CDR component. This allowed for the next improvement, and also gives a slight speed boost.
- Due to the CD cache I was able to run more CPU instructions per loop before running a interrupt. This gave a few more much needed FPS.
- Frameskip is still included in this release but no longer even attempts to work. It will be put back in when Unai's GPU is complete.
- Save states are working now. Though in a premature "state" (no pun intended).

New Button Config:
- In the menu:
B = CHOOSE GAME
LEFT TRIGGER + B = CHOOSE THAT GAMES SAVED SLOT 1
RIGHT TRIGGER + B = CHOOSE THAT GAMES SAVED SLOT 2
- In game
VOL DOWN = Toggle on/off Framecount reporting.
VOL UP = Not used right now (has a crappy frameskipping code in it's place). Will be used for an autoframeskip in the future.
PUSH STICK IN + SELECT = Save state to Slot 1
PUSH STICK IN + START = Save state to Slot 2

So check out this release and see if it's any good.
I just want to know the usual, is compatibility down (or up), and is performance any better. Feel free to post the results on the wiki!

Soon to come:
- Unai is working on the GPU core and results are promising. About a 20% speed increase so far.
- More speed improvements as I learn more about interrupts on the PSX. I was able to learn a lot, enough to compile FPSE for the GP2X, although GP2PSX is faster.
- I haven't tested this release with 1.4.0 firmware, so once I do there may be an update.

Some notes:
- I changed the "framerate" indicator to "framecount". All it's doing is counting the number of frames blitted to the screen per second. It's not really a fair statement to call it framerate, and it only counts screens drawn, instead of all that are rendered.
- The framecount indicator flickers while being drawn to the screen. It's not a priority right now to fix it.
- Frameskip isn't working this release. It's associated to the Vol Up button and is implemented, but doesn't work right yet.
-If you turned off sound before saving a state, make sure you disable sound RIGHT after loading the saved state. This will be fixed soon.

Get GP2PSX v0.36 at:
http://www.friggingames.com/gp2psx036.zip

If I forgot to answer anything, let me know. I'm off to update ZPSX.
-ZodTTD

 

[iignotus]

Yet another great release!!!! I'll be back with some more testing results

 

[soup_nazi]

Alright! ZodTTD you rock!

Tried it on FF7 (clocked @250)and it's definitely speedier. In the shop areas of the game its actually almost full speed! (framecount around 20ish, but looks like full speed).

What's weird though is that loading times have gone way up. now it takes like 3 times the ammount it did previously and sometimes even gets stuck loading within a scene, that didn't happen before.

Another thing is that frameskip seems to work, be it in a weird way. Turning it to 2 makes it jumpy as hell, but also faster (not playble though, for anyone getting their hopes up).

Haven't tested the savestate feature yet, but that'll come in handy as hell.

Anyway, this thing is getting better and better everytime so awesome work ZodTTD, as always this release just makes me hunger for the next one even more...

 

[K0K0NUT_h3lmut]

Yay a new release of GP2PSX!
...
I'm off to update ZPSX.
-ZodTTD

​

Hey, hey!!! Come back!!! There's no need to work on ZPSX

But seriously, I appreciate your hard work for this community

 

[Ando]

you are one badass dude zodttd thanks for the update

 

[mth411]

Cool,
any benchmarks?

I am going to start trying my collection.

 

[Ando]

megamanX4 is kinda messed up. it runs faster up until actual gameplay but then it appears to freeze and the character doesn't move and then he will end up back were he was a couple seconds ago

 

[iignotus]

DOA no longer seems to work. SotN is considerably faster and the music almost doesn't skip, but it has some strange things going on with the framerate.


Progressing very smoothly though, keep 'em coming!

 

[devestation]

Sounds great! I will test as soon as I get my gp2x back from repairs, hopefully soon...

 

[daclassicgamingmaster]

Beautiful! I'll try this release out in the morning.


thanks Zodttd!!!

 

[soup_nazi]

Ok, I've noticed some weird bugs with this release:

1. In the Pal verison of FF7 the game slows to almost a halt in the battle scenes. It draws a new frame around every 3mins, but the framecounter says it's 30. I then tried the ntsc version and the battle scenes worked fine in it. :blink: (framecounter says 24, although it is still very slow)

2. To try and speed up the load times i switched to uncompressed files, but these no longer work. I tried .iso's .img's and .mdf. The first two used to work on the previous versions, not sure about .mdf. I can only get .z compressed files to work.

Anyone else experiencing any of these things?

 

[sand_man]

So far the intro movie on FFVII (PAL) runs a lot nicer, the field is still too slow to play but it is still a lot faster than it was and then the battle scene went to shit even though the "framecount was 22-24".

Good work Z

 

[icurafu]

Zodtt, I can get you some better comparisons if you write out your framecount values to a file such as a CSV.

Every second, you could write a new line with a incremented int and a framecount value seperated by a tab. This way we can easily create graphs with framecount against time. If you make another release after that one, I can write two graphs against each other to find the point that speed up or slow down occurs between releases.

You could activate this via a command line argument so it doesn't bother everyone else.

 

[chris_r]

Hey zodttd looks good but can you clear something up for me? When you say timings do you mean how fast the emulator runs or is this some sort of special emulator term that I don't understand?

 

[ruffnutts]

Nice one zodttd i will try this later

 

[jedeitor]

Hi,

I tested "Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22" and "Silent Hill", as I always do with every new release. Both PAL versions. Oh, and with firmware 1.4.0.

In Silent Hill there is a noticeable slow down in the "logo loads" at the start of the game (the Konami logo takes around 3-4 minutes to fade in and out). The movie looks good (and with sound, I don't remember sound in other releases!). It skips lots of frames, stops for a while sometimes and the sound is choppy, but I think it works better than other releases.

The game itself looks good (no noticeable changes), but speed seems to have been decreased.

Dragon Ball Z seems to load a little faster. Music sounds almost full speed at the character selection menu, but only if everything is still; if you move around to select character, music gets a little jumpy.

The game itself is too slow to be playable, but maybe slightly faster than in past releases. Graphics look perfect.

 

[sand_man]

Hey zodttd looks good but can you clear something up for me? When you say timings do you mean how fast the emulator runs or is this some sort of special emulator term that I don't understand?

​

I'm not exactly sure myself but I think it might be the timings of the different CPU's and whatever so they stay in sync.

 

[icurafu]

I've tried with cpu@267mhz.

Vagrant Story - Does not get loading.

Blade of Darkness - Intro looks good (movie plays at about 10fps), game stalls at startup. Probably would load if I bother ro wait more then 5 minutes.

Breath of Fire 3 - Does not start up.

Final Fantasy Tactics - Plays extreamly well. Sound slows gameplay down to a few frames, but with no sound, game runs at about 8fps.

Silent Hill 1 - does not run for me. Maybe I didn't wait long enough. (I waited about 5 minutes)

Suikoden II - does not load.

I'll edit this post once I try a few more games. I don't know which games are PAL/NTSC.

 

[jedeitor]

Icurafu, I used Silent Hill compressed as a .ZNX file. And it was the PAL version. Maybe that helps.

It took around 30-40 seconds to start loading (and around 6 minutes or more to pass all the intros, logos and all that).

 

[aapje89]

Zodtt, I can get you some better comparisons if you write out your framecount values to a file such as a CSV.

Every second, you could write a new line with a incremented int and a framecount value seperated by a tab. This way we can easily create graphs with framecount against time. If you make another release after that one, I can write two graphs against each other to find the point that speed up or slow down occurs between releases.

You could activate this via a command line argument so it doesn't bother everyone else.

​

thats a very good idea (reminds me of fraps),
and be sure to try with multiple games.