Release Pcsx-Rearmed

[notaz]

EDIT: starting from r10 new releases are announced at boards.openpandora.org, see "software news" section. In either case latest version should be available in the repo:
http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=package.pcsx_rearmed.notaz

PCSX-ReARMed is yet another PCSX fork, based on PCSX-Reloaded. It has no relation to psx4all/psx4pandora or pcsx4all (other than being PCSX derived), is (almost) drama free* and has the source available now. The main feature it has is Ari64's dynarec, modified to suit PCSX. There is a bit of NEON for color space conversion too. The compatibility should be close to the PC version.

Performance is close to psx4all and heavily depends on game in question, as it uses P.E.Op.S. GPU and SPU code (slower than psx4all), but uses much superior Ari64's dynarec. The frontend should also be much more pleasant to use than psx4all one though. It uses HLE emulation and does not need BIOS (does not even support it yet but will do in future for compatibility reasons).

Edit: BIOS is supported from r4 and pcsx4all GPU code is now available as optional plugin.

download:
http://notaz.gp2x.de/releases/pcsxr/pcsx_rearmed_r9.pnd

source (GIT):
git://notaz.gp2x.de/~notaz/pcsx_rearmed.git
(gitweb)
old versions:
r8 r7 r6 r5 r4 r3 r2 r1
compatibility list (user maintained):
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0ArSWWAWRjErldHZVZlFxY0tBVnRRNXM5U3ZqWFNuN0E&hl=en#gid=0

* even though I have no physical or legal means to enforce it, I'd like to state that Zodttd is not welcome to use any of my code from this project (including Ari64's dynarec modifications) due to personal reasons.

 

[notaz]

Backstory

I was rather unhappy with the state of PSX (PSOne if you like) emulation on pandora and wanted to play some games, so I've started planning on doing psx emulator around 2 months ago. First I thought about doing ARM oriented emulator from scratch; I used to play some games back in the day and am quite interested in the hardware. However after thinking about it a bit it became obvious that I don't have enough time to finish such project in reasonable amount of time, and doing a recompiler that could reach or surpass Ari64's level would need a lot of effort that could be considered wasted as we already have such a thing (although it's under rather restrictive GPL license).

So I decided to go for combining Ari64's recompiler with PCSX and ended up with this build of PCSX-ReARMed that you can try now. Something like 95% of the time was spent on integrating the recompiler and fixing various related issues that arose from this work. No matter how good it is for recompiling, it's *very* difficult and frustrating to work with due to code quality issues. Code duplication (usually 3-4 times), most variables given 1 to 3 letter long names, globals all over the place, magic constants and some hardcoded N64 logic made it a really tough job (no offense Ari64, I'm really pleased on how it works now, at least until new major bug pops up B) ).

Right now I'm looking forward to squeezing some more performance from GPU and SPU code, then maybe doing some NEON on GTE (doing it's flags with NEON might be an issue). We'll see how this turns out, meanwhile I hope you enjoy this release

 

[tyke]

Wow notaz thanks for the Christmas present! I've been keeping my fingers crossed for something special pandora related today

Thanks again!

 

[PokeParadox]

Awesome... I basically have to get testing this right now! Thanks for your hard work! Only could be better if Tinnus had the GLES renderer out at the same time and it was released with this emulator but Thanks Notaz, you rock!

 

[Yod4z]

Happy Christmas Notaz! Thank you for this present and thank you for the hard work it take you to do this

Now we have open-source PSX for ARM.

Tomorrow i do some test

 

[Pickle]

I demand...err....ugh....you... release....sour...oh!

Looking forward to trying this, i was wondering the new psx emu was coming from.
Notaz thanks for this gem, pandora and the other handhelds would really be worse off without the neat work youve contributed now and before. Thanks.

 

[b._.o._.b]

Amazing stuff! Just tried one game of Pepsi-man http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdqW9PAv5_M and it played almost flawless (only a small stutter in sound in the beginning and not during gameplay)
UI is what we are used to from Notaz, excellent! Overall feel of the emulator is very polished and all kind of settings you might need. Also save state functionality.

I always agree with Notaz regarding source release issues and his complaint that some devs are charging for beta-releases. Software that is released under GPL should not be charged for. To support devs you can always donate for accomplishments. And this release is certainly one of them

Merry PSXmas to all and thanks for the superb release Notaz!

BTW, currently downloading some PSX imgs that I will test (Driver almost ready)

 

[Caine]

Software that is released under GPL should not be charged for.

Sorry, I don't want to start an off-topic flame war or anything, but this is bullshit. The GPL is about enforcing freedom not about enforcing a zero price (free speech vs free beer). Any software released under GPL (also paid for software) should provide source and the GPL allows you (the buyer) to fork it and/or give it away for free, but it doesn't state that the initial author cannot charge for it.

I have no idea what the specific drama is all about between Notaz and Zodttd nor do I really care. Choice is good and while having multiple versions requires more work to track compatibility and is slightly less convenient for end-users it might also ensure that in total more games are playable. Thanks for this work Notaz.

 

[b._.o._.b]

Sorry, I don't want to start an off-topic flame war or anything, but this is bullshit.

I should probably rephrase the sentence. As far as I know the main issue is not releasing the source and only letting people download a binary after "donating".

On topic: Driver didn't work. Intro and menu works, after "press start" the game crashes.

[Edit] Also tested Wipeout 2097. Seems to work fine. FPS during game between 40-50.

 

[Jumpman]

WOW, thanks Notaz!

You are the MUTHERFUCKIN' MAN!

I will send you another donation once I get my funds straight, as my money is tight due to the end of the year family duties and what not. Your version is already looking top shelf, and several games run a lot better already(I dont need to overclock as much). I can see how this will be a superb emu once you do your normal tweaks and improvements. Please keep working on this one, as the community really needs to see some improvements in this area.

I'm sorry to hear you and Zod are on the outs, as I would love to see you guys pull your brain power and make a super swell emu that everone could enjoy! Oh well, you are one of the reasons I fell in love with open source community(Pico drive is just about my all time portable fav), so please keep em coming, as I don't care who brings the best choices to the Pandora, just as long as someone brings them to the table!

Now, was this the PSX emu that ED hinted at a few weeks back? I was hoping it was the one that Zod had been working on, and that we all might hear something on, or around Christmas as a suprise for the community. I was just getting ready for bed after a very long day, and I see this. I didn't really get anything for Christmas until now. Thanks Notaz, you just made my day! :lol:

Chris

 

[DaveC]

Wow great Notaz, thanks for the great work! The menu is great and I like the ability to set scaling, parameters, etc on a per game basis. I wanted to wipe The "other" PSX emu from my card. I almost can but there are a few minor "bugs".

First I found in Disruptor to start a new game I need to "format memory card" If you try that it fails and you can't start a game. I tried a "practice mode" as I figured you can start without formatting but when I do it crashes the emu. Einhander doesn't work, it freezes on the WAIT... screen, Raystorm locks the emu in the intro. These games worked in the other PSX emu. The speed and sound on this is much better but the compatibility seems worse, at least on the games I tested. Stuff that crashed in PSX4all still crash here (Crime crackers, Motor Toon, Medievil) 3 of the games worked as on the other emu but ran smoother/better with yours, 3 that ran on the "other emu" (above)crash with your emu.

The other small thing is with custom scaling resolution if you stretch the screen past like 460 high the game screen starts to cover that number text so I can't read it (I got around it by moving the screen away with R+d-pad got the number I wanted, then moved back). Maybe that resolution number text should always stay on top of the resize rectangle, not go behind it. Also I think the custom resolution should have a per game save option as different games with different weird resolutions may be set differently.

The Key binding thing is a bit weird too. I accidentally assigned the wrong button to the A button while messing around now I can't get the standard PSX config back. If I try to bind circle to "B" as it should be it also switches Square to B as well. I Don't know why it did that, I wasn't binding Square, why did it change that too? So now if I try to change Square back to A like it should be, it also changes Circle to A again! What the hell? I can't get it back and it keeps binding two PSX buttons to the same Pandora button no matter what. Must be a bug? I tried to find the file where this was saved as maybe I could hack the config file for the controls but I don't know where it is hidden.

Also the controls config only has a global config save. A per game save on this would be nice too as some games have different control schemes (especially for the shoulder buttons) that are better one way or the other.

Thanks again PSX was needed on the Pandora and this is shaping up to be great, Thanks and Merry Xmas, happy new year

 

[Lobo]

Thank you very much!

 

[Farox]

Thank you Notaz
A happy psx-mas to all.

 

[Jaylink]

Big Thank Notaz, Super nice present for all of us.
I Wish you a awesome X-mass

 

[Wolfsclaw]

Thanks indeed! What a great xmas present!
Happy xmas!

 

[Trip]

Can't test it myself yet as I'm still without Pandora but this sounds very promising.
Thanks for all the work you put into your emulators Notaz. They really do stand out as being top of the list for downloading every time and thanks for all the work on the Pandoras firmware etc. too.

Hope you all have a top xmas and here's to the new year seeing the release of many more Pandoras to the wild

 

[Unfathomable Depths]

This is excellent! Thank you Notaz

Just tried Wipeout XL - works flawlessly and has the music, the other psx emu didn't have the music.
RidgeRacer Type 4 - works well. Enable frame skip and disable music (sound fx work fine).

This has to be the best thing on the Pandora.

 

[Mutilator]

Thank's Notaz, I've tried a variety of games and most seem to run better than PSX4ALL imo

 

[b._.o._.b]

Also installed PCSX on my Ubuntu Desktop and tried 2 games that didn't work on the Pandora. Those games are Driver and Gran Turismo. In both cases they do work on my desktop. I guess that is good news, and this are bugs in Notaz' version that hopefully can be solved.

I couldn't find any log file that might be helpful. If there are or I can do any other test to help let me know. Thanks!

 

[Pickle]

First I found in Disruptor to start a new game I need to "format memory card" If you try that it fails and you can't start a game. I tried a "practice mode" as I figured you can start without formatting but when I do it crashes the emu. Einhander doesn't work, it freezes on the WAIT... screen, Raystorm locks the emu in the intro. These games worked in the other PSX emu. The speed and sound on this is much better but the compatibility seems worse, at least on the games I tested. Stuff that crashed in PSX4all still crash here (Crime crackers, Motor Toon, Medievil) 3 of the games worked as on the other emu but ran smoother/better with yours, 3 that ran on the "other emu" (above)crash with your emu.

did you create the memcards folder in the appdata folder? Check the /tmp logfile. I had some issues with memory cards until I created the folder, then the memcard files showed up.

Ive come across a couple bugs medal of honor appears to have a dynarec bug starting the actual game.
gta2 has texture issues