Pocketsnes 6.4.4 Beta

[galious]

Headoverheels have released a new beta version of pocketsnes with some fixes and optimizations. You can get it from the spanish forum http://www.gp32spain.com/foros/showthread.php?t=59236 and report bugs.

 

[slaanesh]

Any extra detail on what has changed?

 

[galious]

It's a beta version with some fixes and optimizations in the rendering code and ppu emulation and fixes sound volume problem with f200 and firmware 4.1.1. It's faster than previous versions but it can be more unstable.

 

[juanvvc]

Actually, it is not a beta of the complete emulator but an enhacement of the 'fast' version. It includes a couple of enhacements from PC emulator snes9x, solves the sound limitation problem in the F200 and improves the tile drawing and ppu code (whatever that means). My tests show that this version increases FPS up to 25%, but it does not support as many games as the normal version.

 

[Manjuu]

Wow! Nice to see an update... it's been a while. :lol:

Going to immediately try this when I get back home.

As always, excellent work and thank you very much, HeadOverHeels.

 

[grahf]

If you're reading this, thanks for your continued work. :gp2x

 

[paradroid]

Any news about pocketsnes 6.4.4 stable?
I have tested this beta and with several games works fine with a considerable increses of speed.
Also the fix sound volume for f200 works perfectly :lol:

 

[headoverheels]

Hi everybody!
This is the first time I write in this forum, but i have been reading you for some time. My native language is Spanish so excuse my poor English .
I've fixed emulator lock up with some games (lamborghini, super mario all stars, ...) and compiled the normal and fast versions.

You can download it from http://www.megaupload.com/es/?d=36UR0QDF
Enjoy it

 

[paradroid]

You are god!
Thank you very much for your work!
This new release is perfect, let us to play snes full sped with almost all games!

 

[Manjuu]

Excellent work, HeadOverHeels.

Tested a couple of games at 200MHz CPU speed and 16KHz stereo sound with RAM timing, MMU hack, and audio performance hack turned on.

Here were the results:

Format:
[Game Name]
FPS: 6.4.4 fast, 6.4.3 fast, 6.4.4 normal, 6.4.3 normal; Transparency On/Off

Aladdin
42, 34, 36, 29

Castlevania - Dracula X
19/28, 16/23, 15/25, 14/20

F-ZERO
10/16, 10/16, 7/12, 6/11

Killer Instinct*
22/33, 19/25, 20/31, 17/23

Mega Man X 2
13/43, 12/34, 12/37, 9/28

Mickey to Donald - Magical Adventure 3
41, 34, 37, 30

Sky Blazer*
32, 27, 28, 23

Super Bomberman*
17/40, 17/32, 14/35, 14/28

Super Mario Kart
8/10, 8/10, 6/7, 6/7

Super Mario World
33/55, 28/44, 31/51, 26/40

Super Metroid
19/46, 18/38, 17/42, 16/34

Tetris Attack
8/10, 7/9, 6/7, 6/6

*Audio performance hack was turned off

Nice speed increases, especially for the fast version, although Mode 7 games don't seem to benefit much or at all. Even the normal version is comparable to or even faster than the previous fast version with the exception for games with Mode 7 rendering and/or heavy transparencies.

Thanks again, and hope to see more improvements. :lol:

 

[fusion_power]

Super Metroid
19/46, 18/38, 17/42, 16/34

Ouch! This is still far away fom good playable. Problem with Super Metroid is, you often need transparencies on and to play the game in a good way (special moves, fast reaction, Move-combos...) you need much FPS and less Frameskip but this FPS drop when transparency comes into play is just insane. I wonder how much MHz this game need to run Full speed without Frameskip and WITH Alpha-effects ON...I'm sure it's much more, tha GP2X can give.

 

[Manjuu]

Super Metroid
19/46, 18/38, 17/42, 16/34

Ouch! This is still far away fom good playable. Problem with Super Metroid is, you often need transparencies on and to play the game in a good way (special moves, fast reaction, Move-combos...) you need much FPS and less Frameskip but this FPS drop when transparency comes into play is just insane. I wonder how much MHz this game need to run Full speed without Frameskip and WITH Alpha-effects ON...I'm sure it's much more, tha GP2X can give.

I've been playing Super Metroid (at 200MHz and with transparencies on) ever since I got this new version, and I'm around 3/4 of the game. The animation is noticeably choppy, but I find it playable. Wall jumping and a bit of the grappling hooks are tricky; the lack of frames makes it harder to properly see and time the execution. Considering I'm not doing a speed run, I'm doing pretty well and enjoying the game.

I do agree with you though, this is definitely a demanding game, and it would take more what the GP2X can give to get this to run completely full speed.

 

[paradroid]

Maybe, someone (headoverheels) can do the same exploit as notaz picodrive.
Why not process game graphics with first processor and sound with second processor?
I'm not a coders but maybe this solution can increse speed a lot. :rolleyes:

 

[headoverheels]

Maybe, someone (headoverheels) can do the same exploit as notaz picodrive.
Why not process game graphics with first processor and sound with second processor?
I'm not a coders but maybe this solution can increse speed a lot. :rolleyes:

But that would take a lot of work and it is possible that the results were not as good as in picodrive due to the complexity of the hardware of the SNES. The pandora and the wiz are just around the corner and much of the scene will move toward one or the other, and this changes will not be useful for any of them.
And ... well Notaz is a genius and has done an incredible job with his picodrive, the best GP2X emulator

 

[DaveC]

Thanks for the great work on this. The speedups are appreciated.

Someone mentioned compatibility. Are these versions as compatible as the year old ones? The reason I ask is so I can nix the old versions and just use the current ones. Are there games that won't work with these versions that did before?

 

[Manjuu]

Thanks for the great work on this. The speedups are appreciated.

Someone mentioned compatibility. Are these versions as compatible as the year old ones? The reason I ask is so I can nix the old versions and just use the current ones. Are there games that won't work with these versions that did before?

There was a problem with the previous beta builds where some games lock up and no longer work, but HeadOverHeels already fixed it with the current build. Now the compatibility should be back to how it previously was; meaning, any game that worked in the previous version should still work, and those that didn't still won't.

EDIT: Also, only the fast version, which is less compatible, was available on the previous builds. The normal version is now included in the current build.

 

[paradroid]

Maybe, someone (headoverheels) can do the same exploit as notaz picodrive.
Why not process game graphics with first processor and sound with second processor?
I'm not a coders but maybe this solution can increse speed a lot. :rolleyes:

But that would take a lot of work and it is possible that the results were not as good as in picodrive due to the complexity of the hardware of the SNES. The pandora and the wiz are just around the corner and much of the scene will move toward one or the other, and this changes will not be useful for any of them.
And ... well Notaz is a genius and has done an incredible job with his picodrive, the best GP2X emulator


Thank you for replay, your work is very impressive at all.