Release SNES9X4P hardware scaled

[ivanovic]

I prefer the 4:3 setting simply because it has (due to being a HW scaling mode) the lowest CPU usage. Just an example (for one of the non trival games) is Secret of Mana. There you get about 70% CPU usage using one of the hardware scaling modes while it is 90% CPU usage in plain 2x2 software scaling mode. I tested this while logged into my pandora with ssh parallel to having the emulator opened. The pandora was clocked at 600MHz.


Okay, my main reason for 4:3 is that this is basically what you had on your TV as end result. Several games (eg ports from arcade machines) were made with the difference of "internal aspect ratio" to "displayed aspect ratio" in mind. So the characters are actually too slim when using the 2x2 modes and, of course, too fat when using 3x2. Besides the good old TV displays were never 100% sharp either...

 

[ivanovic]

Ivanovic: Here is your reminder to look into what the "Reset Game" button does, maybe relocate it on the new layout and add a warning, thanks

Okay, I checked the code and what happens is basically the same as hitting the reset button on the real console. So all saves stay intact (if they were really written!) and the savestates are still there, too. I am not 100% sure when the sram (aka "in rom saves") is written. It might be that this is only the case upon exiting the emulator. I am adding storing of the sram right before resetting now. So what should happen now when selecting "Reset Game":


1) Save the current SRAM into a file.


2) Reset SNES9X as if it was just started with this rom.


Any other issues? More feedback on the changed menu? What about the number of savestates (currently there are 4, state 0 to 3) or additional hotkeys?


EDIT:


Even in my tests there was no issues like lost saves without having the explicit "save the current sram" listed. No idea what problem you really had, foxblock. Would be nice to know some more details. I'll leave the extra "save just to be sure" in though.

 

[ivanovic]

Just to keep you posted on the changes implemented so far (but not in a binary in the repo yet):


* Added a "toggle turbo mode" key and mapped it to 't' on the keyboard.


* Increased the number of savestate slots to 10 (instead of 4).


* Updated preview pics.


Besides I made sure that the sram is saved when resetting the rom and also added really *all* the shortcuts that should be available at this time into the readme (which is available via the documentation option in the various menus of the Pandora itself.

 

[foxblock]

Hmm, strange, I had a problem with "Chrono Trigger", I accidentally pressed "Space" to open up the menu (did not even know about it beforehand) and then failed to see a way to exit it again (pressing Space again failed and there also was no "Resume" button), that still is a bit annoying, even now that I know one has to press X...


Anyway, I had just saved my game, so I thought resetting the game (just as you described the "Reset Game" button should work) would be the best way to quickly get back to it. I pressed the button and when the intro sequence went my internal save game were lost (I was presented with the initial "Chose your combat type" dialogue instead).


I never used savestates, btw.


Alright... spent an hour to get to the first savepoint again and tried "Reset game" again... this time no loss of data, oh well maybe just bad luck then (or my savegame still actually is somewhere, I will need to take a look).


Thanks for looking into it anyway.

 

[NeoG]

* Added a "toggle turbo mode" key and mapped it to 't' on the keyboard.

¿Can someone explain what this feature is? I have no idea.

 

[milkshake]

when you press the turbo button your pandora goes into overdrive mode, you will know this because the sound of mario collectiong the mushroom and growing will come from the pandora and the pandora logo will glow a burning amber colour, and all the GPU power in known existance will come to the pandora's aid and power your snes emulator to perfection.

 

[ivanovic]

* Added a "toggle turbo mode" key and mapped it to 't' on the keyboard.

¿Can someone explain what this feature is? I have no idea.

Turbo mode means that a *really* high frameskip is used to accelerate the game that currently runs. This is eg nice to speed up lengthy dialogs or other waiting times that can occur in some games. Basically a "fast forward" button.

 

[NeoG]

* Added a "toggle turbo mode" key and mapped it to 't' on the keyboard.

¿Can someone explain what this feature is? I have no idea.

Turbo mode means that a *really* high frameskip is used to accelerate the game that currently runs. This is eg nice to speed up lengthy dialogs or other waiting times that can occur in some games. Basically a "fast forward" button.

Thanks for explaining, its a very clever idea, you guys think of everything.

 

[WizardStan]

I could have sworn there was a fast forward button before... or maybe I just hacked one in myself or would regularly go to the menu and set frameskip 9 everytime there was an annoying cutscene.


Anywho, I just updated last night and the first thing I noticed was that I can no longer kill the application by holding down the Pandora button for 4 seconds. If I quit, the dialog box is there but SNES9x is not minimized so you don't see it. Is this a side effect of using the new SDL library? If so, a work around needs to be found.

 

[mcobit]

Yes, it is, as it displays on an overlay.

 

[ivanovic]

Since the emulator was about to disappear from the top10 of the latest updated progs:


I just uploaded a new build into the repo.


Changes in "1.39ff.20111215.1" compared to "1.39ff.20111213.1":


* Added a "toggle turbo mode" key and mapped it to 't' on the keyboard.


* Added a battery level indicator in the menu.


* Increased the number of savestate slots to 10 (instead of 4).


* Updated preview pics.

 

[skeezix]

WizStan -- historically you can exit snes9x4p with 'q' though there was some recent discussion of removing that (booo!); maybe its ESCape now?


I've not had time to try the latest build yet


jeff

 

[WizardStan]

It is escape now, too many accidental 'q' presses I guess.


I don't want a program controlled exit though. This is a necessary feature, maybe not so much for snes9x4p since it has traditionally been so stable, but perhaps as other programs start using the new SDL library it will be. What happens if they lock up outside of the key handling code? Hard resets are not fun.


I was also kind of using it as a "get to the desktop so I can look something up and then return back to where I was" kludge. I can't do that anymore... <_<

 

[DaMummy]

Hmm, strange, I had a problem with "Chrono Trigger", I accidentally pressed "Space" to open up the menu (did not even know about it beforehand) and then failed to see a way to exit it again (pressing Space again failed and there also was no "Resume" button), that still is a bit annoying, even now that I know one has to press X...

while its no ideal, it works to just save the game to get back to your game since theres no resume game option

 

[WizardStan]

The X button is the resume game option you are looking for. Next time you find yourself in the menu with no way to get out remember: B is accept, X is return to game.


edit: err... nevermind me, just being a durr...

 

[ivanovic]

The X button is the resume game option you are looking for. Next time you find yourself in the menu with no way to get out remember: B is accept, X is return to game.

You can also crosscheck this in the latest documentation. With todays release it also includes the button mapping in the menu as well as the mapping in picklelauncher.

 

[Mr Rob]

Since Ivanovic is a king at pushing out new things, would it be possible to see the battery percentage and system time in the emulator menu? I know PCSX-ReARMed does this, would be spiffy to have....

 

[milkshake]

if you check the recent change log the battery percentage is already in the new build

 

[Mr Rob]

Awesome. Also, disregard me.

 

[skeezix]

Wiz .. not a bad idea; we coudl put in a libSDL some sort of push-4-buttons-at-once-force-kill thing.


Or we could put somethign into the evmapperd conf that handles it, but I don't like putting too much in there, for fear of having it watch too much and eat up a tiny slice of cpu, but might be the best place (systemwide.)


jeff