Release SNES9X4P hardware scaled

[john4p]

What crosscompiler setup are you using? Maybe it would help if you joined IRC (#openpandora on irc.freenode.net) and we discussed stuff in there. I know for sure that with the crosscompiler setup I created (the script based installer) it does work over here.

I don't use a crosscompiler. I just build directly on Pandora (works perfectly fine for UAE4All).


Okay I'll join that channel soon.

 

[ivanovic]

Issues seem to have been solved using IRC:


Basically john4p made some changes too many to the makefile or used the wrong one which caused building to break directly on the pandora.

 

[NoeleyC]

New PND incoming for us noob types then??


(null)

 

[john4p]

Just need to find some spare time to implement the changes. Should be done by next weekend (and will be released as pnd then, too).

 

[milkshake]

excellent news

 

[zapman]

john4p, you are my hero! First implementing these excellent scalers for the amiga emu and now snes! Thank you very much.


Nnow I will catch up with the snes gaming I postponed because of the 2xscaler-only situation

 

[ivanovic]

Okay, I added the scaler stuff myself now after an afternoon of looking into stuff. The latest version is available in the repo. Yes, this is not yet based on the changes that john4p wants to add. Those would probably add some more things like "add overscan", but this might already be a nice start and it should be a nice basis for john4p to see where he can/should try to edit the stuff in the sources.


What most of you probably want to use will be the "HW: 4:3" mode as well as the "HW: fullscreen" mode. Yes, those should really be fullscreen unless you are running a game that works in HiRes mode (like eg Secret of Mana and some other games). If you observe any problems, please make sure to mention them since there might still be several left. I don't know yet if I will also have a go at enabling hardware scaling for HiRes games, since those might require some different solutions (eg rendering into a 320x240 pane and upscaling that one won't help).


Now to what you are waiting for, the list of changes:


Changes in "1.39ff.20111204.1" compared to "1.39ff.20111010.2":


* Added notaz libsdl and based on this added some hardware scaling capabilities (all using the full height but only work for LowRes Roms (no Secret of Mana):


- fullscreen


- 4:3


- 8:7 (aspect ratio used internally for NTSC)


- 8:7,5 (aspect ratio used internally for PAL)


* Fixed menu to display more nicely when switching through display modes.

 

[NoeleyC]

Will using these hardware acceleration modes increase emulator speed?


(null)

 

[ivanovic]

Will using these hardware acceleration modes increase emulator speed?

In my tests CPU usage went down from ~70% to ~60%. But since those are already below 100% I don't think it will changed the "perceived" speed. No idea if you will be able to see any real difference, but the most problematic games were the "HiRes" games anyway, and those are *not* affected by the change, since those would require some significant extra work.

 

[NoeleyC]

Ill have to try yoshi's island tomorrow, that was one I needed to overclock to get running at full speed!


(null)

 

[ivanovic]

Last night I had an idea how to handle HiRes mode and yeah, it actually works. So I uploaded a new version to the repo.


Now hardware scaling is supported for every game (no matter if HiRes or LowRes) and the default now is to scale to the "real" aspect ratio that you would see on an "old school" TV (meaning 4:3). So yes, the default now is to provide a blurry picture in 640x480. If you want a crisp pic, you'll have to switch to the good, old "2x2 no-AA" mode which was the default before. But since the selected scaler is saved in a config file you only have to do so once. For games you started before you will still get the old scaler you had selected before.


With HiRes games you might see some flickering during gameplay. This eg happens in Secret of Mana 2 while in the game map whenever some dialog is displayed. Normal gameplay is in 256x*, once dialogs are being displayed it switches the display to 512x*, so for this switching it will flicker shortly. Sadly I don't see a way around this with hardware scaling. Luckily this does not occur too often so it should be bearable. Or you could switch to one of the old scalers (2x2 or 2x3) since those don't have this flickering.


Please make sure to test this new version and mention any issues you see.


Changes in "1.39ff.20111205.1" compared to "1.39ff.20111204.1":


* Allow hardware scaling for HiRes Games, too.


* Default to the hardware scaled 4:3 mode when nothing is/was selected yet or an invalid mode is selected.


* Only display scaling modes that are actually supported (limited support of scaling modes for HiRes (no scale2x and smooth)).


* Fixed display of the framecounter when in HW scaling mode.


* Fixed switching through scaling modes using the keyboard key 's' to include all modes.


* VSync should now work correctly again.

 

[mcobit]

Thanks for your continued work on this Ivanovic,


Is there a way to get hw scaling with crisp graphics like in gpSP?

 

[milkshake]

nice

 

[EvilDragon]

Thanks for your continued work on this Ivanovic,


Is there a way to get hw scaling with crisp graphics like in gpSP?

Hmm, any 2x direct scaling mode should have crisp graphics if you configured your LCD Settings to not blur in that case.

 

[mcobit]

Oh, right, I completely forgot, that you can configure the display for this, how was that done again?

 

[milkshake]

it isnt just 2X though ED hes making it full screen (4:3) using hardware scale from notaz's sdl

 

[ivanovic]

Thanks for your continued work on this Ivanovic,


Is there a way to get hw scaling with crisp graphics like in gpSP?

It depends on your Roms, your settings, ...


That is: when using the old 2x2 scaler you still have crisp graphics, the same for 3x2.


With the hardware scalers this is not possible since stuff will be scaled to the full vertical resolution (which is 480px). So yeah, for PAL roms that should still be crisp when in "Aspect PAL", but for anything else it won't be crisp in the hardware scaling modes since the scaler will upscale from 224px (or 448px when using a HiRes Rom) to 480px.

it isnt just 2X though ED hes making it full screen (4:3) using hardware scale from notaz's sdl

There are several solutions possible. Basically there are 4 hardware based scaling systems and each will use the full vertical resolution:


* Scaling to 4:3 (resolution of 640x480)


* Scaling to "fullscreen" (resolution of 800x480)


* Scaling to the aspect ratio used internally by NTSC games (8:7, resolution of 585x480)


* Scaling to the aspect ratio used internally by PAL games (8:~7.5, resolution of 512x480)


Since (LoRes) PAL games (as well as HiRes games during LowRes times) are rendered in 256x239 internally in the SNES using the PAL scaler should basically result in a crisp image when scaling with "HW: Aspect PAL", though even there I am not 100% sure how the hardware based scaling actually works, I just know it does.

 

[ivanovic]

zapman mentioned some problems with the picklelauncher (setup) used which is reason enough for me to at least bump the version of picklelauncher bundled to the latest available. This should at least help people trying to improve the pickelauncher mapping.


As always the latest version is available via the repo.


Changes in "1.39ff.20111205.2" compared to "1.39ff.20111205.1":


* New version of picklelauncher (based on r8 of pickles svn repo).

 

[john4p]

Just tried your new version. Works perfectly - glad I didn't do anything yet.


Now adding cropping (removal of black bars) is all that's left to do. Since most games don't need it anyway this version's already pretty much perfect.

 

[ZXDunny]

Just installed and tried this - and it doesn't appear to remember my screen scaling preferences. I have to hit space and select the correct screen (HW: Fullscreen) for every game. Also, when exiting back to the picklemenu, I have to navigate all the way through my ROM images to get to the back to the game in the list - can you somehow get the launcher to remember which ROM you last chose? It takes forever to get through a list as large as mine!


Edit: The filename is Snes9x4p_20111206.pnd, but the menu (via the space key) itdentifies itself as 20111205 - have I got the right file here?


Second Edit: Deleted everything in appdata and all was well, with the scaling thing. Shame I deleted my savestates too Still doesn't remember which game I was playing last though, which is annoying


D.