Beta Snes9X4D4P - Another New Build, Now With Hi Res And New Rom Picker

[Exophase]

DaveC, waiting for vsync during auto frameskip is going to make your framerate even worse.

 

[DaveC]

DaveC, waiting for vsync during auto frameskip is going to make your framerate even worse.

Ok.

What could be done then? I am no coder so I don't know. It seemed to work for other things. Would double buffering work? Or would that slow things down?

 

[neko]

Most games run fullspeed for me at 650MHz.
Even Yoshis Island runs perfect at 750MHz.

What games are you trying that don't run fullspeed with FS0 at 800MHz?

I forgot to turn off the wireless. After doing that, it seems to be working fine at 800MHz with no frameskip.

BTW Switching resolutions doesn't quite work right in this version. The dialogue boxes in Seiken Densetsu 3 leave some garbage on the screen.

 

[jonlad1]

Ok, my thoughts...

- speed seems good at 700 mhz, maybe seems not quite as fast as the last release. This isnt really an issue for me as speed will be spot one when ASM is implemented.
- sound is A LOT better with interpolation, can hear sound effects which arent garbled. I am hearing popping/crackling which I never heard previously. I tried Batman Returns and Adams Family (the first one) when I heard this. Axley still sounds like shite though (we seems to be using this one for reference )
- rom picker looks awesome, love the background . I'm sure you're on this but button timings need looking at. left/right for page up/down would make life a lot easier. Also, can the text in the picker be made any bigger? It looks a little small but thats just my opinion.
- I know this is a minor issue but when you hit space for the menu, it causes the in game music to hang, can this be cut off at some point?

This is getting better everyday!

Post card away!

 

[ivanovic]

Okay, gave the snes9x4d4p_20100723_2.pnd some testing, here are the results (I checked Legend of Zelda - A Ling to the Past (german) as well as Secret of Mana and Secret of Mana 2 (aka Seiken Densetsu 3)):

1) Normal saving as supposed when using a real console (aka "sram") does work nicely.

2) Saving or Loading a "Save State" does create a segfault. Here is a sample of how the pndrun log output for Secret of Mana looks like when trying to save a save state:

Spoiler

$ cat /var/tmp/pndrunsnes9x.skeezix.alpha.out
in fork!
PND ++ /media/16GB-MAINmA/pandora/desktop//snes9x4d4p_20100723_2.pnd
mountpoint: /media/16GB-MAINmA
Basename: snes9x.skeezix.alpha
mkdir -p /mnt/pnd/snes9x.skeezix.alpha
/mnt/utmp/snes9x.skeezix.alpha
/usr/pandora/scripts/pnd_run.sh: line 124: [: !: integer expression expected
not mounted on loop yet, doing so
Usage: grep [OPTION]... PATTERN [FILE]...
Try `grep --help' for more information.
Usage: grep [OPTION]... PATTERN [FILE]...
Try `grep --help' for more information.
LoopMountedon:
losetup: Could not find any loop device. Maybe this kernel does not know
about the loop device? (If so, recompile or `modprobe loop'.)

usedminor
freeminor 1
Filetype is ISO
sudo mount /dev/loop1
mounting union!
Filesystem is vfat
PWD at top /mnt/utmp/snes9x.skeezix.alpha
Found stored dirpath ./..//..//..//..//media//..//media//16GB-MAINmA//roms//snes/../../roms//snes//..//snes
ROM filename is ./..//..//..//..//media//..//media//16GB-MAINmA//roms//snes/../../roms//snes//..//snes/secret_of_mana_(g).zip
PWD pre-run /mnt/utmp/snes9x.skeezix.alpha
cat: args.txt: No such file or directory
Found ROM file header (and ignored it).
"Secret of MANA" [checksum ok] HiROM, 16Mbits, Type: ROM+RAM+BAT, Mode: 21, TV: PAL, S-RAM: 8Kb, ROMId: ? Company: ?

Switching to 50hz LCD
Switching to 50hz LCD
Switching to 50hz LCD
Switching to 50hz LCD
Switching to 50hz LCD
Switching to 50hz LCD
Switching to 50hz LCD
Switching to 50hz LCD
Switching to 50hz LCD
Switching to 50hz LCD
Attempt to snapshot to './.snes96_snapshots/secret_of_mana_(g).000'
Switching to 50hz LCD
././runsnes9x.sh: line 60: 3291 Segmentation fault ./snes9x $ARGS "$FILENAME"
app exited
rmdir: failed to remove `/mnt/utmp/snes9x.skeezix.alpha': Device or resource busy
rm: cannot remove `/mnt/utmp/snes9x.skeezix.alpha': Is a directory
rmdir: failed to remove `/media/16GB-MAINmA/pandora/appdata/snes9x.skeezix.alpha/.wh..wh.plnk': No such file or directory
rmdir: failed to remove `/media/16GB-MAINmA/pandora/appdata/snes9x.skeezix.alpha/.wh..wh..tmp': No such file or directory
rmdir: failed to remove `/media/16GB-MAINmA/pandora/appdata/snes9x.skeezix.alpha/': Directory not empty
cleanup done

3) Had some problems with crackling sound. That is: when starting Zelda the first time sound was cracking extremely badly (as not doing so in the ancient version from June, continued from an existing savegame at the cathedral). Afterwards I created an args.txt file with -sq5 -is as content. Interestingly this is also listed as ARGS inside runsnes9x.sh in the pnd. With this args.txt file, sound in zelda was fine. Afterwards I removed the file and sound still stayed fine. I observed exactly the same phenomenon with Secret of Mana. Something strange seems to be going on here...

4) Secret of Mana 2 has some graphics issues. Could it be that "Hi Mode" is not detected correctly? Here is some output for the three games I tested today (I also got one with correct checksum for Secret of Mana 2, makes no difference):

Spoiler

"Secret of MANA" [checksum ok] HiROM, 16Mbits, Type: ROM+RAM+BAT, Mode: 21, TV: PAL, S-RAM: 8Kb, ROMId: ? Company: ?
"SeikenDensetsu3e" [bad checksum] HiROM, 32Mbits, Type: ROM+RAM+BAT, Mode: 21, TV: NTSC, S-RAM: 8Kb, ROMId: A3DJ Company: C3
"THE LEGEND OF ZELDA" [checksum ok] LoROM, 8Mbits, Type: ROM+RAM+BAT, Mode: 20, TV: PAL, S-RAM: 8Kb, ROMId: ???? Company: ??

So far the emulator looks really good! I have done all my tests on the stock clockrate and what I saw appeared to be perfectly fluent without frameskip.

 

[craigix]

DaveC, waiting for vsync during auto frameskip is going to make your framerate even worse.

Ok.

What could be done then? I am no coder so I don't know. It seemed to work for other things. Would double buffering work? Or would that slow things down?

Just getting the ASM cores for CPU and Sound working would speed it up the most. I think the sound one needs to be optional though as I remember people reporting some games didn't work with it on the GP2x.

 

[skeezix]

Sounds like we need the menu to support .. Vsync on/off, interpolated sound on/off
If vsync is on (like it is now), then you basicly need fs0 as well
If the game is struggling then maybe want interpolate sound off

Ill keep tweaking the rom picker; it could be used instead of zenity for apps, a drop in replacement. Can specify fonts. Size, colour, wallpaper etc as options to it.

Another build in a few days.. Tied up till wed and need to get new minimenu configure UI read for hotfix #4

Jeffphone

ED .. Minimenu maybe thursday for hf.. We'll see, but tight for a few days..

 

[PokeParadox]

and 7zipped roms need investigating... I get a blackscreen trying to load if they are 7-zipped.

 

[HackModford]

Most games run fullspeed for me at 650MHz.
Even Yoshis Island runs perfect at 750MHz.

What games are you trying that don't run fullspeed with FS0 at 800MHz?

I forgot to turn off the wireless. After doing that, it seems to be working fine at 800MHz with no frameskip.

BTW Switching resolutions doesn't quite work right in this version. The dialogue boxes in Seiken Densetsu 3 leave some garbage on the screen.

Okay I unzipped super mario all star set the cpu to 799 (just incase 800 was a bad speed for me) I'm getting 30-34 fps...

I'm gonna test the wifi issue, I'm also going to move a rom to a different SD card maybe it's my card?

 

[naples39]

I'll stick with the 6/1 version until save states are fixed, but the speed on this release seems ok to me.

I tried Pilotwings, Mario Kart and Contra 3 (3 relatively demanding games) at 700 mhz with 3:2 scaling and zero frameskip, and none of them ever dropped below 60 fps.

Rom picker's a good first step, though it is a little tough to read and a fast scroll or jump to letter option is probably necessary. And is it possible to pick a new rom without quitting and restarting the emu?

 

[skeezix]

Yeah not sure whats up with Hackmodford; i run about 650+ and virtually never a slowdown, but i dont play much ill check into 7z and increase font sizes etc etc when i get time again

7z is actually just in the sh-script that runs the emu, so an odd one.

Jeffphone

 

[EvilDragon]

ALL games I tried which don't use a special chip run perfectly fine fullspeed without frameskipping (1/60), sound on and VSYNC for perfectly smooth scrolling.
If scrolling isn't smooth, you either have frameskip set to auto, use a clockrate of 500 or have something else running that eats CPU.

 

[MDave]

ALL games I tried which don't use a special chip run perfectly fine fullspeed without frameskipping (1/60), sound on and VSYNC for perfectly smooth scrolling.
If scrolling isn't smooth, you either have frameskip set to auto, use a clockrate of 500 or have something else running that eats CPU.

Don't forget to mention the bogus 650MHz setting!

 

[HackModford]

ALL games I tried which don't use a special chip run perfectly fine fullspeed without frameskipping (1/60), sound on and VSYNC for perfectly smooth scrolling.
If scrolling isn't smooth, you either have frameskip set to auto, use a clockrate of 500 or have something else running that eats CPU.

I got it to work perfectly by using minimenu and background killer. Kinda weird this only seemed to affect NES and SNES emulation. All other emulators seemed to run fullspeed. So there's something running in the background that only affects this and the nes emulator?

 

[skeezix]

Hack .. And only you it appears you added something troublesome? Or perhaps some oddball xfce setting? I wonder if we have 'top' in firmware so you can see whats eating you up..

Or which games did you try?

Jeffphone

 

[EvilDragon]

ALL games I tried which don't use a special chip run perfectly fine fullspeed without frameskipping (1/60), sound on and VSYNC for perfectly smooth scrolling.
If scrolling isn't smooth, you either have frameskip set to auto, use a clockrate of 500 or have something else running that eats CPU.

Don't forget to mention the bogus 650MHz setting!

Oh... yeah, fixed on my unit, but you should set it to 651 MHz

 

[EvilDragon]

ALL games I tried which don't use a special chip run perfectly fine fullspeed without frameskipping (1/60), sound on and VSYNC for perfectly smooth scrolling.
If scrolling isn't smooth, you either have frameskip set to auto, use a clockrate of 500 or have something else running that eats CPU.

I got it to work perfectly by using minimenu and background killer. Kinda weird this only seemed to affect NES and SNES emulation. All other emulators seemed to run fullspeed. So there's something running in the background that only affects this and the nes emulator?

Most probably WiFi?

What services do you have running?
I don't have to use the background killer, I have most services disabled (you can do so in the Startup-Manager since Hotfix 3)

 

[HackModford]

How do I tell what services I have running?

 

[1magus]

ALL games I tried which don't use a special chip run perfectly fine fullspeed without frameskipping (1/60), sound on and VSYNC for perfectly smooth scrolling.
If scrolling isn't smooth, you either have frameskip set to auto, use a clockrate of 500 or have something else running that eats CPU.

Some of the best games on the SNES use the special chips, I hope Yoshi's Island, Mario RPG, and Kirby Super Star get better compatibility in the future .

 

[God Ginrai]

ALL games I tried which don't use a special chip run perfectly fine fullspeed without frameskipping (1/60), sound on and VSYNC for perfectly smooth scrolling.
If scrolling isn't smooth, you either have frameskip set to auto, use a clockrate of 500 or have something else running that eats CPU.

Some of the best games on the SNES use the special chips, I hope Yoshi's Island, Mario RPG, and Kirby Super Star get better compadability in the future .

There is no problem with Compatibility. All of those games play.

-God Ginrai