Release Visualboyadvance

[fusion_power]

I am no coder but I think integer scaling is pretty cheap as far as CPU. For every game pixel it just turns on 3 Pandora pixels. It is the fractional that probably takes more (looks ugly too) and filtering is the most CPU heavy obviously.

No it isn't that cheap, it's pretty bandwidth heavy, which can be devestating on Pandora. Not saying it'll kill everything but you even a really properly written scaler would probably take at least 1-2ms per frame. Also you meant 9 Pandora pixels, not 3.

OPT sayed, the LCD itself can do Hardware scaling and this don't cost CPU Speed. (At least for simple things like "full screen" etc.) I'm also no coder but I can imagine that the image itself leaves the OMAP 1:1 with small bandwich and only the LCD blows it up to Full Screen (with a fullscreen-flag or whatever).Shouldn't "cost" anything. ^^

 

[Exophase]

OPT sayed, the LCD itself can do Hardware scaling and this don't cost CPU Speed. (At least for simple things like "full screen" etc.) I'm also no coder but I can imagine that the image itself leaves the OMAP 1:1 with small bandwich and only the LCD blows it up to Full Screen (with a fullscreen-flag or whatever).Shouldn't "cost" anything. ^^

Yeah, OP has said this, but I haven't seen any actual information on how the LCD does this. I don't recall seeing such a feature in the datasheet. The OMAP3's DSS can scale, though. So can the SGX, if you have a fast way to update textures (see TI's texture stream extension I guess)

 

[silver]

OPT sayed, the LCD itself can do Hardware scaling and this don't cost CPU Speed. (At least for simple things like "full screen" etc.) I'm also no coder but I can imagine that the image itself leaves the OMAP 1:1 with small bandwich and only the LCD blows it up to Full Screen (with a fullscreen-flag or whatever).Shouldn't "cost" anything. ^^

Yeah, OP has said this, but I haven't seen any actual information on how the LCD does this. I don't recall seeing such a feature in the datasheet. The OMAP3's DSS can scale, though. So can the SGX, if you have a fast way to update textures (see TI's texture stream extension I guess)

I've kind of assumed getting the SGX to scale would be far and away the cheapest way to scale? Or is this a case we are waiting for a suitable SGX binary blob that works with the kernel to get access to this feature set?

 

[fusion_power]

Hm, do we actualy have any access to these Hardware Features? It seems at the moment that everything is just pure SW-Mode, except from Quake-Series maybe. ^^""
I hope in the Future, there will be a more easy way for any kind of HW-Accelerations onto the Pandora. The (Marketing) sheets from Ti promise actualy alot stuff, the OMAP can do (in Theory ).

 

[silver]

Hm, do we actualy have any access to these Hardware Features? It seems at the moment that everything is just pure SW-Mode, except from Quake-Series maybe. ^^""
I hope in the Future, there will be a more easy way for any kind of HW-Accelerations onto the Pandora. The (Marketing) sheets from Ti promise actualy alot stuff, the OMAP can do (in Theory ).

I think everything is being done in SW at the moment. There has been talk of getting quick ASM routines to scale & rotate video, or NEON etc.. (I think Exophase provided some scaling code to Zotdd if I recall).

I've not looked, but presumably sgx driver provides access to sdl/opengl/fb - and I was under the impression (perhaps wrongly) that it's not accelerating anything with the current driver used in the OS. I believe an updated driver is available from TI, but may not work with the current kernel release - I'm sure someone else can clarify/correct me.

 

[MDave]

I am no coder but I think integer scaling is pretty cheap as far as CPU. For every game pixel it just turns on 3 Pandora pixels. It is the fractional that probably takes more (looks ugly too) and filtering is the most CPU heavy obviously.

No it isn't that cheap, it's pretty bandwidth heavy, which can be devestating on Pandora. Not saying it'll kill everything but you even a really properly written scaler would probably take at least 1-2ms per frame. Also you meant 9 Pandora pixels, not 3.

OPT sayed, the LCD itself can do Hardware scaling and this don't cost CPU Speed. (At least for simple things like "full screen" etc.) I'm also no coder but I can imagine that the image itself leaves the OMAP 1:1 with small bandwich and only the LCD blows it up to Full Screen (with a fullscreen-flag or whatever).Shouldn't "cost" anything. ^^

I'm pretty they were talking about the pixel doubling mode the LCD can do for free. I presumed this is what SNES and Picodrive are doing too?

 

[Exophase]

I'm pretty they were talking about the pixel doubling mode the LCD can do for free. I presumed this is what SNES and Picodrive are doing too?

Yeah I don't deny they've talked about this mode, I'm just not certain they weren't confusing it with something else. Nothing out there is using such a mode, Picodrive is probably using DSS2. I don't know what SNES is using.

 

[coevin]

Hi is there a menu for frameskip or savestates etc if so how do you access it? Thanks

 

[sryidc]

how do you savestate? i know how to load them fn+f1-10 but i cant seem to find the button combo to save.

 

[cosam]

Here's an excerpt from the README (not in the current package, I'll see about making a new one).

- F1...F10: load save state 1...10
- Shift+F1...F10: save state 1...10
- Alt+1...4: auto-fire A,B,L,R
- Ctrl+1...8: enable/disable graphical layers (BG0, BG1, BG2, BG3, OBJ, WIN0, WIN1, OBJWIN)
- Ctrl+N: pause on next frame
- Ctrl+R: reset
- Ctrl+P: pause
- Ctrl+B: rewind (if enabled and available)
- F11: enter built-in debugger
- ESC: exit emulator

 

[Bosbeetle]

Well thank you very much! My girlfriend cant stay away from tetris... hmmm Im losing precious pandora and girlfriend time.

 

[naples39]

Here's an excerpt from the README (not in the current package, I'll see about making a new one).

- F1...F10: load save state 1...10
- Shift+F1...F10: save state 1...10
- Alt+1...4: auto-fire A,B,L,R
- Ctrl+1...8: enable/disable graphical layers (BG0, BG1, BG2, BG3, OBJ, WIN0, WIN1, OBJWIN)
- Ctrl+N: pause on next frame
- Ctrl+R: reset
- Ctrl+P: pause
- Ctrl+B: rewind (if enabled and available)
- F11: enter built-in debugger
- ESC: exit emulator

Thanks. All those buttons combos can be hard to discover. Any chance of making those more Pandora friedly, ie fewer button combos (p instead ctrl+p). Or are you focusing on gpsp now instead? I'd probably vote for gpsp port if deciding between the two.

 

[sryidc]

Here's an excerpt from the README (not in the current package, I'll see about making a new one).

- F1...F10: load save state 1...10
- Shift+F1...F10: save state 1...10
- Alt+1...4: auto-fire A,B,L,R
- Ctrl+1...8: enable/disable graphical layers (BG0, BG1, BG2, BG3, OBJ, WIN0, WIN1, OBJWIN)
- Ctrl+N: pause on next frame
- Ctrl+R: reset
- Ctrl+P: pause
- Ctrl+B: rewind (if enabled and available)
- F11: enter built-in debugger
- ESC: exit emulator

i think i've figured out why i have been having so much trouble, i think shift+f1-10 is an imposable button combo on the pandora. to press f1-10 you must hold "fn" but when you hold "fn" shift changes to capslock making it imposable to do a shift+f1 combo. could just change the combo to capslock+f1-10 would be a quick fix but annoying because then you would have to press three buttons. or just make savestates not a button combo just the number keys.

 

[God Ginrai]

Here's an excerpt from the README (not in the current package, I'll see about making a new one).

- F1...F10: load save state 1...10
- Shift+F1...F10: save state 1...10
- Alt+1...4: auto-fire A,B,L,R
- Ctrl+1...8: enable/disable graphical layers (BG0, BG1, BG2, BG3, OBJ, WIN0, WIN1, OBJWIN)
- Ctrl+N: pause on next frame
- Ctrl+R: reset
- Ctrl+P: pause
- Ctrl+B: rewind (if enabled and available)
- F11: enter built-in debugger
- ESC: exit emulator

i think i've figured out why i have been having so much trouble, i think shift+f1-10 is an imposable button combo on the pandora. to press f1-10 you must hold "fn" but when you hold "fn" shift changes to capslock making it imposable to do a shift+f1 combo. could just change the combo to capslock+f1-10 would be a quick fix but annoying because then you would have to press three buttons. or just make savestates not a button combo just the number keys.

Not True. I do Alt+F2 all the time by hitting Fn (Press) + Start (Hold) + 2, and sometimes by doing Alt (Hold) + Fn (Press) + 2. Try either Fn (Press) + Shift (Hold) + 1 or Shift (Hold) + Fn (Press) + 1.

-God Ginrai

 

[sryidc]

HAHA im retarded. God Ginrai is right, hold shift then fn+1-10 works.

 

[shiba77]

Does anyone else have the problem of the l button not working on visual boy advance, I tried playing mario kart but it would not respond, however it works completely fine on other apps like mupen64.

 

[dgame]

The Pandora's L shoulder button is KEY_RIGHTSHIFT.
The default vba.cfg file in the pandora\appdata\cba.cosam.1.7.2.0\ folder references KEY_LEFTSHIFT for the emulated L button
so edit the vba.cfg file and change
Joy0_L=0130
to
Joy0_L=012f
and it should work.



200th post.

 

[shiba77]

The Pandora's L shoulder button is KEY_RIGHTSHIFT.
The default vba.cfg file in the pandora\appdata\cba.cosam.1.7.2.0\ folder references KEY_LEFTSHIFT for the emulated L button
so edit the vba.cfg file and change
Joy0_L=0130
to
Joy0_L=012f
and it should work.



200th post.

Thanks a lot!