Beta Psx4Pandora 1.0B5

[zodttd]

Hi all,

I recently got a message from EvilDragon kindly asking for an updated psx4pandora. So today I present a new build, psx4pandora 1.0b5. This is a preview release as I did this very quickly and I'm not sure how well it will be received.

Download the PND here: http://www.zodttd.com/downloads/psx4pandora10b5.pnd

Installation and preparing of files such as the BIOS is the same as psx4pandora 1.0b4.

There's a lot that is new in this release internally. Many bug fixes such as Final Fantasy 7's Submarine bug, Gran Turismo graphic issues, Vandal Hearts game fixes, Parasite Eve game fixes, and more. Performance should be higher and the frame limiting should work a bit better. Sound quality should be improved greatly but still not perfect.

Overall it should be a better release but here's some possible issues:
- Save states from earlier psx4pandora versions may cause performance issues within this build. I haven't tested this yet but it is possible for it to happen. If you think this occurs, load the save state, get to a in-game save point and save to memory card, start the game over by loading it as a new game in psx4pandora, use the in-game save and make a new save state.
- I really need to clean up this user interface and make it save options on a game specific and global basis.
- I haven't added the CDDA audio code yet.

Try it out, let me know what can be done. If this preview build is horrid I will fix it up as required.

Thanks,
ZodTTD

 

[Magic Sam]

Hi,

Thanks

I will test it ASAP (tonight) and report here !

I hope I'll be able to play Colin McRae Rally 2 and Ridge Racer Type 4 with a little less overclocking...

Just a quick question: does psx4pandora use the DSP and / or OpenGL ES 2.0, or does it rely on raw CPU power only ?

Bye and thanks again, Magic Sam

 

[metalhammer]

Great news Zodttd !

Really appreciated and please keep up with the good job

Cheers !

 

[Yod4z]

Just a quick question: does psx4pandora use the DSP and / or OpenGL ES 2.0, or does it rely on raw CPU power only ?

Actually none of the Pandora sofware use the DSP
OpenGL ES 2.0 will come with the hard work done from Tinnus in the gfx plugin. It not available in this time

 

[Pleng]

A quick test if the games I've tried - all at 990Mhz:

Ridge Racer Type 4: No change - still slow
Ridge Racer: No change - full speed in some places but slightly slower in most
Tekken 2: No change - still have all the long limbs issues
Road Rash: No longer crashes (I do, though!) and works full speed, with slightly glitchy audio
Micro Machines 3: Now loads, allows you to get all the way to the screen showing all the players taking part in race 1, then seems to stop accepting user input (hasn't crashed, as the background voiceovers still keep playing)
F1 2000: Now gets as far as the menu screen, then hangs
Monkey Hero: No change, still hangs after pressing start at the title screen.

 

[zodttd]

Hi!

I'll look into Ridge Racer Type 4 slowdown. I wonder if you use the Root Counter Fix in the Game Fixes options if it helps or changes performance any.

Also interested in getting Tekken 2 up and running.

Road Rash is a great game! I was happy when this one started working.

Micro Machines 3 should be possible to fix in an update.

Thanks!

 

[Prometheus]

Thanks for this, Zod! I won't have much time to try it out until later, but I'm very much looking forward to doing so. Here's hoping it fixes the minor issues I'd encountered with some of the Mega Man games (they're mostly audio-related, so I'm hopeful, given what you said about improved sound quality ).

 

[zodttd]

No problem Prometheus! I hope so too!

 

[Bosbeetle]

nice to see an update, will try it later

 

[Jumpman]

This is why I love this community! I just wake up, and I'm doing daily task, and I flip by the boards, and BAM.....A new update to one of the lost treasures of the Pandora.

Thanks Zod, it's good to see you back in action. Doesn't look like a major improvement over the last performance wise, but any work on this is greatly appreciated. Was an email from Ed all it took? We should have thought of that months ago. :lol:

Well, with the still small amounts of units out there, I can understand not really spending a lot of time with your current build. Hopefully Franxis will release his source code in this lifetime, and then a really great emu can be produced with the best of both worlds.

Keep the updates coming Zod!

Chris

 

[Pleng]

Hi!

I'll look into Ridge Racer Type 4 slowdown. I wonder if you use the Root Counter Fix in the Game Fixes options if it helps or changes performance any.

Yes it changes performance - brings the game to a crawl, I'm afraid!

Road Rash is a great game! I was happy when this one started working.

Yup I had it on the Saturn back in the day but never really got a chance to play it. I had a quick race this morning and it seemed pretty fun - the jusry is still out as to wether it's as good as Road Rash II on the Megadrive, however!

Micro Machines 3 should be possible to fix in an update.

Thanks!

Awesome. Thanks

 

[HackModford]

I've only tested this new build with Lunar 2 and it seems to have hindered performance. I overclock to 800 and the game would run very smoothly (I think around 60fps) but now it seems very jittery and the sound is messed up. Like the charectors battle cries are high pitched. Sometimes certain instruments in the soundtrack carry on for too long, and so the music will sound muddled.

Before it was working great...

But I'm glad you're back Zod!

 

[Prometheus]

^ Have you tried it at 700MHz, instead? I find that psx4pandora becomes unstable and/or behaves strangely if I go above that with it, even though my machine can do 850MHz stably.

Also, while I'm here, I've had a chance to try it out a bit. I noticed a few things of note in the games I had time to try, so I guess I'll bore you all with them[/b] share them.

1: Mega Man 8, PAL version, runs damn near perfectly for the most part at 700MHz, now (Frameskip: 17/18, Full-screen Scale: Off). The speed of the music, and occasionally the game, is still a bit variable (the compatibility list thread in the Emulation section has my full write-up on the issues the game has/had with psx4pandora), but it's not anywhere near as bad. Very happy with this one.

2: Rockman 8: Metal Heroes (NTSC-J), runs much as before - the speed is very variable, and it is a bit too slow.

3: Crash Bandicoot (PAL) runs a lot better - like Mega Man 8 (PAL), the wild fluctuation in the game and music speed is considerably better, and nowhere near as bad as it once was.

4: Croc: Legend of the Gobbos works again! Alas, its cutscenes still can't be played (they just get skipped over, though you hear a snippet of audio from them as they try, and fail, to start - it's traditional behaviour, and it reminds me of the state of PSX emulation for this game way, way back between 1999 and 2003), regardless of which options I set in the selection of game-fixes. The game and its music speeds up and slows down quite a lot, too, although it's not quite as bad as it was in the earlier psx4pandora build in which it last worked (it was either the second or third one).

5: Spyro the Dragon works the same as before (it's juddery and a bit slow), but now it freaks out and flickers a screen full of blank colour (for example, blue in the intro, and green in the Artisans' Home) every few seconds. It's probably not good for you to view this for too long. :lol:

I also noticed that the speeding up and slowing down in FMVs is still present in NTSC titles (it seems to be about the same as before), and that FMVs in PAL titles go slightly out of sync with their audio quite quickly (I don't recall observing this before).

Audio quality all round is definitely better - it's a LOT less juddery in all of the games I've tried. The only thing it still does is the speed fluctuation stuff I've gone over previously.

Very good work, Zod - thanks very muchly, again.

 

[HackModford]

^ Have you tried it at 700MHz, instead? I find that psx4pandora becomes unstable and/or behaves strangely if I go above that with it, even though my machine can do 850MHz stably.

Same thing unfortunatley

 

[Magic Sam]

I can't try this new build, the download is corrupted (weights less than 100kb)
Tried with both Midori and latest Chromium...
What's going on ?
Bye, Magic Sam

 

[HackModford]

Works fine for me...

 

[Dead1nside]

Hi all,

I recently got a message from EvilDragon kindly asking for an updated psx4pandora. So today I present a new build, psx4pandora 1.0b5. This is a preview release as I did this very quickly and I'm not sure how well it will be received.

Download the PND here: http://www.zodttd.com/downloads/psx4pandora10b5.pnd

That is awesome and unexpected, thanks a lot for your work, I'm glad the Pandora has not been forgotten because there's a lot of people here who really appreciate and look forward to your work.

 

[Magic Sam]

I managed to download the file with Firefox
Played Colin McRae Rally 2: saves from the previous beta DO work ! No big changes speed wise, it's really playable and fun @ 800MHz with FS 2/3, the game look maybe a little more ugly, some textures look worst than before IMHO. Shadows are still weird too. The voice presenting the new rally (intro video) plays too quickly, and so is the background music in some menus. Voila, I hope it helps !
Bye and thanks, Magic Sam

 

[SNESFAN]

how do the final fantasies (7,8,9) run on this?

sound/speed etc?

what are your mhz, frameskip settings?

 

[DaveC]

Hi all,

I recently got a message from EvilDragon kindly asking for an updated psx4pandora. So today I present a new build, psx4pandora 1.0b5. This is a preview release as I did this very quickly and I'm not sure how well it will be received.

Thanks,
ZodTTD

Cool thanks for the good work again.

I will suggest the few minor things from before to improve as it has been awhile: Allow the shoulder buttons to be re-mapped as the way they are set now makes strafing in FPS games virtually impossible (option to flip the keyboard keys and actual Pandora shoulder buttons). another option to be able to set the resolution to a straight 2X. A good way to do this would be to have an option called "doubled" for 2X, and "Auto" to do what you do now. Then another option "filter on", "filter off". The latest firmware has easy access to the FIR filter so that should be easy. When the per game config is implemented then these options could be set to the resolution that looks best per game.

Thanks again for everything.