GP32 Vba32 Sourcecode

[Octavious]

well, here in the summer I would love to sit down while learning to code and go through the code to VBA32 and see what I can do to pimp it out ( if I can learn that much about coding )
I figure If I go through it and look for optimizations and see about making changes based off the source of new VBA releases, maybe I can get a bit more out of this emu
Im not making any promises, and most likely not much will come of this, but I would love to do so just for the experience if nothing else
I played some games on my GP ( albeit slow, but great compatability ) I seen potential here

all the old links I could find on the forum ( all 2 of them ) were broken
so, I have decided to tread in unfamiliar waters, the dev'rs section, to find it

thx for any and all help

~Octavious

 

[Digitalrat]

found this with google:

http://www.zophar.net/consoles/files/GP32_vba32_source.rar

But wouldn't it be better to work on GP Advance? I see much more potential there and it seems to be well documented. (http://gpadvance.sourceforge.net/)

 

[Sonic-NKT]

think so too

 

[Octavious]

well, isnt the Enf65 emulator written only in ASM??
I wont learn ASM for a good while, definatley not in a year or more... I know, its sad
however, I think that I would rather try and up the speed on a capable emulator than try and correct a LOT of compatability problems on a French emulator

then, I could input ASM when I learn it and speed it up even more, and solve the damn 8 meg barrier, cause I know we have more RAM than a GBA, I just have to find out how to not load the whole game into RAM
theres gotta be a way

~Octavious

 

[Torlus]

well, isnt the Enf65 emulator written only in ASM??
I wont learn ASM for a good while, definatley not in a year or more... I know, its sad
however, I think that I would rather try and up the speed on a capable emulator than try and correct a LOT of compatability problems on a French emulator

then, I could input ASM when I learn it and speed it up even more, and solve the damn 8 meg barrier, cause I know we have more RAM than a GBA, I just have to find out how to not load the whole game into RAM
theres gotta be a way

- The emulator isn't written only in ASM, check the source at sourceforge.
- The 8 Meg barrier has been solved.
- Without ASM, I'm afraid you won't be able to optimize much.
- VBA32 emulates an ARM7 processor in software, whereas GPAdvance is based on the fact that GP32's ARM9 is able to run ARM7 code. That's the faster one can ever do, for the CPU part at least.

What slows down GPAdvance is the GPU part. GBA's GPU is rather powerful. If you look at GPAdvance's source code, you will notice a lot of VBA_* files. These are parts of VisualBoyAdvance's source code, in particular the part that emulates the GPU.
So if you want to do something useful, try to optimize these parts... This is just plain VBA source code.

One very early version of GPAdvance was able to do GBA Mode 4 (without sprites) 3 times faster than the GBA itself. But most games use tile modes and sprites with all their features (scaling, zooming, etc...)

 

[FloridaRolf]

why is he getting so much replies?
It's just too obvious that he won't even be able to compile the sourcecode. He can't code a single bit and yet he thinks he could improve code of supreme coders. RIDICULOUS!

 

[Shirohagen]

Anything remotely to do with GBA gets loads of replies on here. Good luck Octavious, can't hurt to try can it? If nothing else, I expect it will teach you a lot so that can't be bad.

®

 

[Dozer]

Perhaps start on pong or something. I've tried to read up on writing an emulator and it's complicated. You need very advanced knowledge of the hardware before you can even start.

 

[Octavious]

well, Im not coding incompitent, I am just not good at all
I have done simple things, like windows apps where you enter in your name, age, etc and it tells you stuff, and some other simple things
I also said I just want to look at it, I dont know enough to do anything, but If I get familiar with the structure and layout, it could make my programming classes go much easier

I already said nothing would be done now, Im still dicking around with my Half Life Quake port, and my modeler dropped out so now I have to become proficient at moddeling as well as mapping etc....

I basicly just want to hold onto the source until II have free time, as it might be harder to find by then

~Octavious

 

[Thraka]

At least he's going to try and improve GBA emulation I would love this probably more than anything else emulated..


Is it possible to make (or convert) some sort of mem stick for the EXT port of the GP32 to increase it's mem compacity?

 

[WhiteFalcon]

Your aim surely is noble, Octavious, but emulators are very difficult. Not only you have to perfectly know the hardware you are writing the emulator for, but also the hardware you are emulating. Moreover, good knowledge of the language (preferably assembler) is needed too. Ask Skeezix, Reesy or Rlyeh what it takes to make an emulator.
Dozer is right, you should start with some simple game or application. Your experience with making small apps for Windows is handy, but a game, let alone an emulator demands much more.
I do not want to deter you from looking into it, just be prepared for everything

 

[Talyz]

GBA's GPU is rather powerful.

​

Huh? Never heard of that. How powerful?

 

[Octavious]

more capable, with lots of options, rather than powerful
but, it is better than the GP casue, we dont have a GPU
I know this prolly wont mean anything, I just wanna get familiar with how things look , so when I learn things in my class, I will have something in my head to referance to ( like, Im in class, I see some lines, and I go " oo, that looks familiar "
maybe it will help )
I only know BASIC right now, and everyone learns differantly
maybe I could rewrite one .c file once I learn all those things in my class and see if any differances

please guys, dont expect anything from this
my overall goal would be to finish my Half Life mod ( Ill release a demo in 2 months or maybe a little less )
and to make a simple 3d fighter jet game like Top Gun 1 on NES, but with simple 3d models

~Octavious