Mupen64Plus

[ari64]

Thank you very much your work is awesome. Any speed or compatibility improvements in this release?

It includes the register allocation fix which was the cause of crashes in Super Smash Bros. The other major fix was to ensure that things are deallocated in the proper order when freeing memory, as removing pointers in the wrong order led to crashes due to not detecting self-modifying code. This should hopefully solve the random crashes that people have been reporting.

I also fixed some TLB issues that crashed a few games if you disabled the memory expansion.

Moving the register loads outside of loops made a very small speed improvement, generally no more than 1%. There isn't much left to optimize that hasn't already been done.

The only remaining issue with the dynarec is to fix some inaccuracies in the floating point emulation, which affect a very small number of games.

Addressing the other compatibility issues will require fixing gles2n64 or possibly porting one of the newer graphics plugins.

 

[Jumpman]

Thanks Ari64, you and everyone involved in this project.

Playing Mario 64 fullspeed with sound is beyond awesome on the Pandora. N64 games just look awesome on the screen, and the controls are the next best thing to the original controllers. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this emu is 6 months from now. Truly one of the best selling points of the Pandora.

Chris

 

[john4p]

Moving the register loads outside of loops made a very small speed improvement, generally no more than 1%. There isn't much left to optimize that hasn't already been done.

Damn. Ocarina of Time is almost fullspeed at my Pandora's current max stable speed of 875MHz - but only almost.
This might make me overvolt it someday.

 

[fusion_power]

Moving the register loads outside of loops made a very small speed improvement, generally no more than 1%. There isn't much left to optimize that hasn't already been done.

Damn. Ocarina of Time is almost fullspeed at my Pandora's current max stable speed of 875MHz - but only almost.
This might make me overvolt it someday.

Instead of toasting the CPU, you also could use Frameskip.

 

[john4p]

Well, I do - I use frameskip "2" (which in fact means frameskip 1). Any higher frameskip isn't fun.


Btw., it's still very enjoyable the way it is now - I'm already at the 2nd dungeon.

 

[jdbye]

Well, I do - I use frameskip "2" (which in fact means frameskip 1). Any higher frameskip isn't fun.


Btw., it's still very enjoyable the way it is now - I'm already at the 2nd dungeon.

I can't play OoT at all. It just black screens or throws a SIGSEGV error. Are you using an older version of mupen64plus? (Aren't the older versions slower?)

 

[john4p]

Yes, I use the slightly older beta 2 with notaz' sound-plugin. I don't see a speed difference to beta 3.

 

[jdbye]

Yes, I use the slightly older beta 2 with notaz' sound-plugin. I don't see a speed difference to beta 3.

I tried that, but it was much slower for me (Mario 64 wouldn't run fullspeed without frameskip anymore IIRC)

 

[john4p]

Just tried Beta 3 (with fixed sound): http://notaz.gp2x.de/releases/misc/mupen64plus-r1b3-fixed-snd.pnd

Ocarina of Time works fine with that here. It's a tad faster than with Beta 2 - great.

The OoT version is Legend of Zelda, The - Ocarina of Time (U) (V1.0) [!].

 

[DaMummy]

ari, where is your donate button?

 

[Jumpman]

Just tried Beta 3 (with fixed sound): http://notaz.gp2x.de/releases/misc/mupen64plus-r1b3-fixed-snd.pnd

Ocarina of Time works fine with that here. It's a tad faster than with Beta 2 - great.

The OoT version is Legend of Zelda, The - Ocarina of Time (U) (V1.0) [!].

I use that rom file, and it carshes for me after you select a game file. I know it's a good rom because it worked in an earlier version of mupen.

Chris

 

[EvilDragon]

Just tried Beta 3 (with fixed sound): http://notaz.gp2x.de/releases/misc/mupen64plus-r1b3-fixed-snd.pnd

Ocarina of Time works fine with that here. It's a tad faster than with Beta 2 - great.

The OoT version is Legend of Zelda, The - Ocarina of Time (U) (V1.0) [!].

I use that rom file, and it carshes for me after you select a game file. I know it's a good rom because it worked in an earlier version of mupen.

Chris

Maybe it just crashes with the intro of a new game?
If john4p has a later savegame, it might work

 

[john4p]

That could be it. Of course I just loaded my progress from Beta 2 and didn't start a new game.

 

[jdbye]

That could be it. Of course I just loaded my progress from Beta 2 and didn't start a new game.

I just tested this by making a savefile in Project64 first. You're right, it works! YAY, I can play OoT now

 

[ari64]

The issue with Zelda (and Kirby) is a known regression in gles2n64, previously discussed here.

I haven't tried to track down exactly which change broke it. (I was hoping Adventus would...)

 

[ari64]

http://bunnitude.com/ari64/mupen64plus-arm-20100929.tar.gz


Changes since 20100819:

- Optimized floating point code

- Save state / load state

- Improved constant propagation

- Properly detect self-modifying code in virtual memory

 

[EvilDragon]

Wow, and this happens when I don't have my Pandora with me... bummer!

Thanks a lot for the update

- Optimized floating point code

Bugfixes or also speed increases?

Hmm... according to cpasjuste, we lose quite a few FPS in 3D by using X.
Need to test out how much this affects Mupen64.

If it does do a speed increase, I could create a bootable SD image for faster N64 gaming

 

[Pickle]

Hmm... according to cpasjuste, we lose quite a few FPS in 3D by using X.
Need to test out how much this affects Mupen64.

If it does do a speed increase, I could create a bootable SD image for faster N64 gaming

Thats was true with the driver before the currently used driver, the latest improved it quite a bit.

 

[ari64]

- Optimized floating point code

Bugfixes or also speed increases?

It now generates VFP instructions properly, which is around 5-10% faster. Also fixed issue 333.

 

[EvilDragon]

Hmm... according to cpasjuste, we lose quite a few FPS in 3D by using X.
Need to test out how much this affects Mupen64.
If it does do a speed increase, I could create a bootable SD image for faster N64 gaming

Thats was true with the driver before the currently used driver, the latest improved it quite a bit.

Well, cpasjuste tested pmenu with the current image... and there still was a 6fps difference with / without X.
It's not as bad as before, but it's still there.

It now generates VFP instructions properly, which is around 5-10% faster. Also fixed issue 333.

Wow, that sounds great!
Can't wait for a compiled version Thanks a lot for updating this!