Release PFBA


ptitSeb

ptitSeb

Serial Porter
Joined
Aug 15, 2012
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Location
France, near Lyon
Here is PFBA: the Portable FBA.
preview1.png

This version of FBA is maintained by Cpasjuste, and is multiplatform (Vita, RPi, Linux...), with optimisations for ARM devices.
This Pandora version has been compiled with SDL2 and use OpenGL (yeah, gl4es again).

Key configuration is adapted to Pandora, so all 4 buttons are mapped to Arcade buttons (5th and 6th buttons are letters O and P).
Insert Coins is mapped to "Select"
Start is mapped to "Start".

While in the Rom selection menu, "Esc" quit the emulator, "Select" show Options Screen for the current Rom, and "SPACE" shows the global options.
While in-game, press "SPACE" to have Option menu (you can quit only with this menu).
There are other shortcut:
Select + Start => Dip switches
Select + {A} => P1P2Switches
Select + Up/Down => Change scaler
Select + Left/Right => Change Shader (inactive here)
Select + O => Save state

While PFBA may not be as advanced, in term of GUI, as CAPEX, it's still very usable and already is feature rich (you can add previews and title pack, png does work).

By default, pfba looks for roms in appdata/pfba/roms but you can add alternative path: after 1st start, edit pfba/pfba.cfg to select alternate roms path.

History log
=========
Build 06
-----------
  • Using latest sources
  • Version is completly new
  • Using gl4es and gles2 backend
Build 05
-----------
  • Never released
Build 04
-----------
  • Compile with LTO to get back to build02 level of performances
  • Audio frequency can be selected now in Emulation option (44,22 and 11kHz)
  • Fixed QuickBrowse key issues
Build 03
-----------
  • Fixed sound for the 1st game
  • Fixed audio lag
  • Fixed analog control (using left nub)
  • Menu is now SPACE
  • Added QuickBrowse in roms browser (so pressing 0..9 A..Z do something).
  • Some games are not compatible with ASM m68k core, so it's disabled for them
Build 02
-----------
  • Repackaged
Build 01
-----------
  • Initial build
  • Pandora port use SDL2/GL
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the port. Unfortunately when I run it I get a missing library error relating to sdl2.lib (plus a version number; I can dig out the exact message if needed).
 
A shortcut was missing... I repackaged and it does run now.

But, while I tested on my CC to be sure it works this time, I noticed that on thta CC model, with default driver, the GUI is all messed up. It will works fine if you switch to the 4.04 driver.
I had no issue on my Gigahertz during my testing (using 4.10 SGX driver).

Build 02
-----------
  • Repackaged
 
PtitSeb you made a miracle with this, i made a quick try with Street Fighter 3 Third Strike and it played fullspeed on my Rebirth with a bit of overclock. This is AMAZING!
 
@mamemaniac : glad you like that build :)

I have done some quick testing on my Gigahertz model (default speed of 1Ghz, SGX driver 4.10), with fps shown:
SFIII is doing a bit a frameskip, but less then 1 (I get 45~55 fps)
System16 games seems fullspeed
RType (IRem M72 IIRC) is mostly fullspeed (around 55 fps).
RType II seems pretty fast too
RType Leo was too slow, with huge frameskip (around 6~8 fps).
1942 was fullspeed (even when compiling at the same time :) ).

On my CC at 800Mhz, RType was having some frameskip. It seem playable but more choppy then on my Gigahertz.

Also, note that the sound is 44100Hz (stereo, 16bits).

And, for games that runs à 50Hz or 59.94Hz, LCD Speed should be changed accordingly (all other refresh rates are using 60Hz LCD refresh).
 
It seems the FPS counter is not very accurate, with SF3TS i get around 45 FPS but the game feels absolutely fullspeed to me with 0 slowdowns. I noticed sometimes the sound stop plays for about 0,5 secs (i am using SGX 4.10 BTW) and at times the emulator quit to XFCE when larger roms are loaded (like SF3TS which is around 60 MB in size).
 
mamemaniac said:
It seems the FPS counter is not very accurate, with SF3TS i get around 45 FPS but the game feels absolutely fullspeed to me with 0 slowdowns. I noticed sometimes the sound stop plays for about 0,5 secs (i am using SGX 4.10 BTW) and at times the emulator quit to XFCE when larger roms are loaded (like SF3TS which is around 60 MB in size).
Click to expand...
45fps doesn't means there is slow down, it means there are is few frameskip: the games still go 100% of speed, but will drop a frame from time to time. It's mostly fullspeed indeed, and feel pretty smooth.
 
ptitSeb said:
45fps doesn't means there is slow down, it means there are is few frameskip: the games still go 100% of speed, but will drop a frame from time to time. It's mostly fullspeed indeed, and feel pretty smooth.
Click to expand...

Well, i tried the same SF3 rom in old FBA Capex and Retroarch FBA and i can confirm the performance in PFBA is vastly improved, i'll test later other arcade games and report back.
 
Wow! Amazingly. Thanks a lot! It's long time for me want to get a new fba version.
 
mamemaniac said:
@ptitSeb: i make some more tests and i found some bugs:

1) audio lag in all games: this was fixed on the Vita port (https://gbatemp.net/threads/release...ha-official-thread.458445/page-5#post-7053805)
2) emulator quit to XFCE if the first loaded rom is very large in size (CPS3 games for example)
3) i was not able to steer in Chase HQ, so press left or right on the D-pad do nothing
Click to expand...
1. Audio lag: yeah, I increased the buffer size to be sure it's created with a reasonnable size. I can try to reduce it, but it may have some side effect. I need to test.
2. I don't reproduce that on my Gigahertz, but I use a swapfile all the time (it's my dev. Pandora). Not sure I can do something for this one (and not sure why it would crash if loaded 1st but not crash if loaded 2nd).
3. I'll check that. I guess Chase HQ require analog control (steering wheel and gas/brake pedal IIRC) and a digital control substitute is not there?
 
Hi all :)

@ptitSeb : thanks for porting this one to the Pandora, it's really appreciated !

I just tried to play Metal Slug 1 (Neo Geo MVS) but that game failed to launch. I tried both MAME and Neo Geo roms by the way.

Does PFBA need external BIOS files, like other emulators do ?

And do you guys know whether PFBA is compatible with UniBIOS ?

http://unibios.free.fr/

EDIT : looks like it is, at least with version 3.2...

Cheers, Magic Sam
 
Last edited:
New build on the repo, with quite some changes...

Build 03
-----------
  • Fixed sound for the 1st game
  • Fixed audio lag
  • Fixed analog control (using left nub)
  • Menu is now SPACE
  • Added QuickBrowse in roms browser (so pressing 0..9 A..Z do something).
  • Some games are not compatible with ASM m68k core, so it's disabled for them

Also, I added the diff of the Pandora version in the 1st post.
 
Thanks for your great work!
When I press any key in the keyboard the emulation slow down and the screen flick :( Why?
I can't play Street Fighter if i cant press "o" and "p" keys.

Thank you very much and sorry for my poor english :)
 
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