byuu says:
This release adds support for game libraries, and substantially improves
Game Boy and Game Boy Color emulation with cycle-based renderers. Many
other changes are also present.
It's very important to note that this release now defaults to optimal
drivers rather than safe drivers. This is particularly important if you
do not have strong OpenGL 3.2 drivers. If performance is bad, go to
Settings -> Configuration -> Advanced, change the video driver, and
restart higan. In the rare case that you have trouble opening higan, you
can edit settings.bml directly and change the setting there. The Windows
safe driver is Direct3D, and the Linux safe driver is XShm.
Also note that although display emulation shaders are now supported,
they have not been included in this release as they are not ready yet.
The support has been built-in anyway, so that they can be tested by
everyone. Once refined, future releases of higan will come with built-in
shaders for each emulated system that simulates the unique display
characteristics of each.
Changelog (since v093):
- sfc: added SA-1 MDR support (fixes SD Gundam G-Next bug)
- sfc: remove random/ and config/, merge to system/ with better
randomization
- gb: improved color emulation palette contrast
- gbc: do not sort sprites by X-priority
- gbc: allow transparency on BG priority pixels
- gbc: VRAM DMA timing and register fixes
- gbc: block invalid VRAM DMA transfer source and target addresses
- gba: added LCD color emulation (without it, colors are grossly
over-saturated)
- gba: removed internal frame blending (use shaders to simulate motion
blur if desired)
- gba: added Game Boy Player support (adds joypad rumble support to
supported games)
- gba: SOUND_CTL_H is readable
- gb/gbc: PPU renderer is now cycle-based (major accuracy improvement)
- gb/gbc: OAM DMA runs in parallel with the CPU
- gb/gbc: only HRAM can be accessed during OAM DMA
- gb/gbc: fixed serialization of games with SRAM
- gb/gbc: disallow up+down or left+right at the same time
- gb/gbc: added weak hipass filter to remove DC bias
- gb/gbc: STAT OAM+Hblank IRQs only trigger during active display
- gb/gbc: fixed underflow in window clamping
- gb/gbc/gba: audio mixes internally at 2MHz now instead of 4MHz (does
not affect accuracy)
- gb/gbc/gba: audio volume reduced for consistency with other systems
- fc/sfc/gb/gbc/gba: cheat codes are now stored in universal, decrypted
format
- ethos: replaced file loader with a proper game library
- ethos: added display emulation shader support
- ethos: added color emulation option to video settings
- ethos: program icon upgraded from 48x48 to 512x512
- ethos: settings and tools windows now use tab frames (less wasted
screen space)
- ethos: default to optimal (video, audio, input) drivers instead of
safest drivers
- ethos: input mapping system completely rewritten to support
hotplugging and unique device mappings
- ruby: added fixes for OpenGL 3.2 on AMD graphics cards
- ruby: quark shaders now support user settings inside of manifest
- ruby: quark shaders can use integral textures (allows display
emulation shaders to work with raw colors)
- ruby: add joypad rumble support
- ruby: XInput (Xbox 360) controllers now support hotplugging
- ruby: added Linux udev joypad driver with hotplug support
- phoenix: fixed a rare null pointer dereference issue on Windows
- port: target -std=c++11 instead of -std=gnu++11 (do not rely on GNU
C++ extensions)
- port: added out-of-the-box compilation support for BSD/Clang 3.3+
- port: applied a few Debian upstream patches
- cheats: updated to mightymo's 2014-01-02 release; decrypted all Game
Genie codes
byuu says:
This WIP removes nall/input.hpp entirely, and implements the new
universal cheat format for FC/SFC/GB/GBC/SGB.
GBA is going to be tricky since there's some consternation around
byte/word/dword overrides.
It's also not immediately obvious to me how to implement the code search
in logarithmic time, due to the optional compare value.
Lastly, the cheat values inside cheats.bml seem to be broken for the
SFC. Likely there's a bug somewhere in the conversion process. Obviously
I'll have to fix that before v094.
I received no feedback on the universal cheat format. If nobody adds
anything before v094, then I don't want to hear any complaining about
the formatting :P
byuu says:
Not an official WIP (a WIP WIP? A meta-WIP?), just throwing in the new
fullscreen code, and I noticed that OpenGL colors in 30-bit mode are all
fucked up now for some strange reason. So I'm just using this snapshot
to debug the issue.
byuu says:
I've completely redone the ethos InputManager and ruby to work on
HID::Device objects instead of one giant scancode pool.
Currently only the udev driver supports the changes to ruby, so only
Linux users will be able to compile and run this WIP build.
The nice thing about the new system is that it's now possible to
uniquely identify controllers, so if you swap out gamepads, you won't
end up with it working but with all the mappings all screwed up. Since
higan lets you map multiple physical inputs to one emulated input, you
can now configure your keyboard and multiple gamepads to the same
emulated input, and then just use whatever controller you want.
Because USB gamepad makers failed to provide unique serial#s with each
controller, we have to limit the mapping to specific USB ports.
Otherwise, we couldn't distinguish two otherwise identical gamepads. So
basically your computer USB ports act like real game console input port
numbers. Which is kind of neat, I guess.
And the really nice thing about the new system is that we now have the
capability to support hotplugging input devices. I haven't yet added
this to any drivers, but I'm definitely going to add it to udev for v094
official.
Finally, with the device ID (vendor ID + product ID) exposed, we gain
one last really cool feature that we may be able to develop more in the
future. Say we created a joypad.bml file to include with higan. In it,
we'd store the Xbox 360 controller, and pre-defined button mappings for
each emulated system. So if higan detects you have an Xbox 360
controller, you can just plug it in and use it. Even better, we can
clearly specify the difference between triggers and analog axes, and
name each individual input. So you'd see "Xbox 360 Gamepad #1: Left
Trigger" instead of higan v093's "JP0::Axis2.Hi"
Note: for right now, ethos' input manager isn't filtering the device IDs
to look pretty. So you're going to see a 64-bit hex value for a device
ID right now instead of something like Joypad#N for now.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- GBA: SOUND_CTL_H is readable, fixes sound effects in Mario&Luigi
Superstar Saga [Cydrak] (note: game is still unplayable due to other
bugs)
- phoenix/Windows: workaround for Win32 API ListView bug, fixes slot
loading behavior
- ruby: added udev driver for Linux with rumble support, and added
rumble support to existing RawInput driver for XInput and DirectInput
- ethos: added new "Rumble" mapping to GBA input assignment, use it to
tell higan which controller to rumble (clear it to disable rumble)
- GBA: Game Boy Player rumble is now fully emulated
- core: added new normalized raw-color palette mode for Display
Emulation shaders
The way rumble was added to ethos was somewhat hackish. The support
doesn't really exist in nall.
I need to redesign the entire input system, but that's not a change
I want to make so close to a release.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- Game Boy (Color): STAT OAM+HBlank IRQs only trigger during LY=0-143
with display enabled
- fixes backgrounds and text in Wacky Races
- Game Boy (Color): fixed underflow in window clamping
- fixes Wacky Races, Prehistorik Man, Alleyway, etc
- Game Boy (Color): LCD OAM DMA was running too slow
- fixes Shin Megami Tensei - Devichil - Kuro no Sho
- Game Boy Advance: removed built-in frame blending; display emulation
shaders will handle this going forward
- Game Boy Advance: added Game Boy Player emulation
- currently the screen is tinted red during rumble, no actual gamepad
rumble support yet
- this is going to be slow, as we have to hash the frame to detect the
GBP logo, it'll be optional later on
- Emulator::Interface::Palette can now output a raw palette (for Display
Emulation shaders only)
- color channels are not yet split up, it's just the raw packed value
byuu says:
Changelog:
- GB/C OAM DMA now runs in parallel with the CPU
- CPU can only access HRAM during OAM DMA
- fixed SGB mode again
- brand new config files will default to the optimal drivers now
(OpenGL, etc) instead of the safest
- hopefully fixed remaining Windows UI issues
byuu says:
Changelog:
- Game Boy and Game Boy Color now have a weak hipass filter to remove DC
bias (or whatever)
- Game Boy and Game Boy Color now have cycle-based PPU renderers instead
of scanline-based renderers
- improved Game Boy color emulation palette contrast
- fixed GTK+ ListView selection bug
- fixed a typo when saving states (should say "Saved to slot N", not
"Save to slot N")
byuu says:
Changelog:
- importing a game won't show message box on success
- importing a game will select the game that was imported in the list
- caveat: GTK+ port doesn't seem to be removing focus from item 0 even
though the selection is on item 2
- Game Boy audio reduced in volume by 50%
- Game Boy Advance audio reduced in volume by 50%
- Game Boy internally mixes audio at 2MHz now
- Game Boy Advance's Game Boy audio hardware internally mixes audio at
2MHz now
- Game Boy Color doesn't sort sprites by X-coordinate
- Game Boy Color allows transparency on BGpriority pixels
- caveat: this seems to allow sprites to appear on top of windows
- Game Boy Color VRAM DMA transfers 16 bytes in 8 clocks (or 16 clocks
in double speed mode)
- Game Boy Color VRAM DMA masks low 4-bits of source and destination
address
- Game Boy Color VRAM DMA only allows reads from ROM or RAM
- Game Boy Color VRAM DMA only allows writes to VRAM
- fixed a bug in dereferencing a nullptr from pObject::find(), should
fix crash when pressing enter key on blank windows
- fixed Windows RadioItem selection
- Game Boy Advance color emulation code added
byuu says:
Changelog:
- Windows port should compile out-of-the-box
- InputManager::scancode[] initialized at startup
- Library menu shows item for each bootable media type (notably Game Boy
Color)
- Display Emulation menu selection fix
- LibraryManager load button works now
- Added hotkey to show library manager (defaults to L)
- Added color emulation to video settings (missing on GBA for now)
- SFC loading SGB without GB cartridge no longer segfaults
- GB/GBC system.load() after cartridge.load()
- GB/GBC BG-over-OAM fix
- GB/GBC disallow up+down and left+right
byuu says:
Updated to support latest phoenix changes.
Converted Settings and Tools to TabFrame views.
Errata:
- phoenix/Windows ComboButton wasn't calling parent
pWidget::setGeometry() [fixed locally]
- TRACKBAR_CLASS draws COLOR_3DFACE for the background even when its
parent is a WC_TABCONTROL
byuu says:
Changelog:
- nall: fixed major memory leak in string class
- ruby: video shaders support #define-based settings now
- phoenix/GTK+: support > 256x256 icons for window / task bar / alt-tab
- sfc: remove random/ and config/, merge into system/
- ethos: delete higan.png (48x48), replace with higan512.png (512x512)
as new higan.png
- ethos: default gamma to 100% (no color adjustment)
- ethos: use "Video Shaders/Display Emulation/" instead of "Video
Shaders/Emulation/"
- use g++ instead of g++-4.7 (g++ -v must be >= 4.7)
- use -std=c++11 instead of -std=gnu++11
- applied a few patches from Debian upstream to make their packaging job
easier
So because colors are normalized in GLSL, I won't be able to offer video
shaders absolute color literals. We will have to perform basic color
conversion inside the core.
As such, the current plan is to create some sort of Emulator::Settings
interface. With that, I'll connect an option for color correction, which
will be on by default. For FC/SFC, that will mean gamma correction
(darker / stronger colors), and for GB/GBC/GBA, it will mean simulating
the weird brightness levels of the displays. I am undecided on whether
to use pea soup green for the GB or not. By not doing so, it'll be
easier for the display emulation shader to do it.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- added SA-1 MDR; fixes bug in SD Gundam G-Next where the main
battleship was unable to fire
- added out-of-the-box support for any BSD running Clang 3.3+ (FreeBSD
10+, notably)
- added new video shader, "Display Emulation", which changes the shader
based on the emulated system
- fixed the home button to go to your default library path
- phoenix: Windows port won't send onActivate unless an item is selected
(prevents crashing on pressing enter in file dialog)
- ruby: removed vec4 position from out Vertex {} (helps AMD cards)
- shaders: updated all shaders to use texture() instead of texture2D()
(helps AMD cards)
The "Display Emulation" option works like this: when selected, it tries
to load "<path>/Video Shaders/Emulation/<systemName>.shader/"; otherwise
it falls back to the blur shader. <path> is the usual (next to binary,
then in <config>/higan, then in /usr/share/higan, etc); and <systemName>
is "Famicom", "Super Famicom", "Game Boy", "Game Boy Color", "Game Boy
Advance"
To support BSD, I had to modify the $(platform) variable to
differentiate between Linux and BSD.
As such, the new $(platform) values are:
win -> windows
osx -> macosx
x -> linux or bsd
I am also checking uname -s instead of uname -a now. No reason to
potentially match the hostname to the wrong OS type.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- added Cocoa target: higan can now be compiled for OS X Lion
[Cydrak, byuu]
- SNES/accuracy profile hires color blending improvements - fixes
Marvelous text [AWJ]
- fixed a slight bug in SNES/SA-1 VBR support caused by a typo
- added support for multi-pass shaders that can load external textures
(requires OpenGL 3.2+)
- added game library path (used by ananke->Import Game) to
Settings->Advanced
- system profiles, shaders and cheats database can be stored in "all
users" shared folders now (eg /usr/share on Linux)
- all configuration files are in BML format now, instead of XML (much
easier to read and edit this way)
- main window supports drag-and-drop of game folders (but not game files
/ ZIP archives)
- audio buffer clears when entering a modal loop on Windows (prevents
audio repetition with DirectSound driver)
- a substantial amount of code clean-up (probably the biggest
refactoring to date)
One highly desired target for this release was to default to the optimal
drivers instead of the safest drivers, but because AMD drivers don't
seem to like my OpenGL 3.2 driver, I've decided to postpone that. AMD
has too big a market share. Hopefully with v093 officially released, we
can get some public input on what AMD doesn't like.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- you can now drop game folders (not game files, sorry) onto higan's
main window to load them
- audio buffer will clear on Windows when entering modal loop (entering
menu, moving or resizing window)
- this prevents DirectSound driver's audio repetition
- ruby defaults to the optimal driver for each platform, rather than the
safest driver, now
- added Cydrak's gl_Position.zw change to ruby
- added fixes for all the changes to nall, ruby, phoenix over the past
three months
byuu says:
This will be another massive diff from the previous version.
All of higan was updated to use the new foo& bar syntax, and I also
updated switch statements to be consistent as well (but not in the
disassemblers, was starting to get an RSI just from what I already did.)
phoenix/{windows, cocoa, qt} need to be updated to use "string foo"
instead of "const string& foo", and after that, the major diffs should
be finished.
This archive is the first time I'm posting my copy-on-write,
size+capacity nall::string class, so any feedback on that is welcome as
well.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- fixed cartridge load window focus on Windows
- lots of updates to nall, ruby and phoenix
- ethos and Emulator::Interface updated from "foo &bar" to "foo& bar"
syntax (work-in-progress)
Before I had mixed the two ways to declare variables/arguments all over
the place, so the goal is to unify them all for consistency. So the
changelog for this release will be massive (750KB >.>) due to the syntax
change. Yeah, that's what I spent the last three days working on ...
byuu says:
- OpenGL should work on OS X now; it uses VAOs and VBOs, and is fully
OpenGL 3.2 core compliant
- all configuration files are now stored in BML format, instead of CFG
format (half the size, much more readable)
- some old nall libraries that were never used have been removed
- make install works with or without root now (copies core files to
/usr/share/higan [non-configurable])
- make install also works on OS X (copies to /Library/Application
Support/higan)
byuu says:
Changelog:
- added support for ruby shader folders (place in "Video Shaders/")
- higan now also looks in your shared folder for configuration files and
system media folders
- added CFBundleExecutable key to OS X Info.plist
Shared folder locations:
- Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\higan
- Windows 7: C:\ProgramData\higan
- OS X: /Library/Application Support/higan
- Linux: /etc/higan
Evaluation order:
- look for item in binary folder: if found, use this folder
- look for item in user folder: if found, use this folder
- look for item in shared folder: if found, use this folder
- create item in user folder
For people repackaging higan for other distros: you should chmod 777
/etc/higan. Failure to do so could result in higan breaking. No, I will
not copy the files from the shared path to the user path.
byuu says:
This release should be polished enough for a general release.
This release should be polished enough for a general release.
Anyone with a real, clean Mac up for posting compiled binaries?
Preferably compile with "make profile=balanced" In fact, I'd like it if
someone were willing to host a "higan for Mac" page, with binaries of
each of the latest releases. Only really needed for major official
releases, but it'd be preferable to have the builds updated as soon as
possible after I post new builds.
Changelog:
- no more keyboard chimes when pressing keys
- status bar added, fully functional
- Label::minimumSize() takes frame into account (but note a few places
hard-code raw Font::size(), so a few text labels are still clipped)
- resizing the main window looks smooth regardless of whether a game is
running or not
- currently, resizing the window pauses the emulation. Allowing it to
run the main loop was lagging out the window resize process too much
to be worth it
Additional OS X integration enhancements:
- closing the main window unloads the current game, but does not quit
the application (quit via the main menu or the dock menu)
- clicking the icon in the dock will (re)display the main menu
byuu says:
This is the first release with full support for OS X, although it's
certainly still very buggy.
Known issues:
- window status bars are still unsupported (they just don't show up)
- you get the bad keypress chime when you use the keyboard
- window geometry and font metrics aren't perfect (bit of clipping here
and there)
- list view headers that aren't auto-sized are sometimes too short (file
browser)
- input assignment is really rough (assigning a key also moves around in
the list or beeps at you)
Custom OS X integration support so far:
- 512x512 ICNS application icon: will look razor-sharp even on a retina
display
- basic Info.plist added to application bundle
- program menu about, preferences, quit all connected
- Settings->Configuration removed (use higan->Preferences instead)
- global menubar
To compile and use this, you'll need:
- Xz Utils (to extract .tar.xz)
- Xcode 4.6
- Lion 10.7.4 or newer
mkdir higan_v092r04
tar -xJf higan_v092r04.tar.xz -C higan_v092r04
cd higan_v092r04
make -j 2
ananke is missing, and I haven't updated purify yet, so you'll have to
move game folders from Windows or Linux over, or make them by hand (a
not so enjoyable experience, to say the least.)
byuu says:
This release adds the phoenix/Cocoa port, and rewrites a lot of the
higan user interface to work with all of the new changes (like blocking
in the main run loop and in modal windows.)
It doesn't yet modify the compilation flags to actually build on OS
X yet, and even then, we don't really have ruby drivers, so there'd be
no video, audio or input.
Two months between a single WIP point release ... for the first six
years, I never went more than a month without a full official release.
I guess I should be happy that it's become so refined, but I sure do
miss those halcyon days of exciting progress.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- merged AWJ's hires color blending improvements (most notably: fixes
Marvelous' text)
- created sfc/base/ to store base unit (expansion port device) emulation
- synchronized the markup of Satellaview and Sufami Turbo cartridge
slots in the board markup
- fixed "Initializing ..." typo in timing settings
If at all possible, I'd really like to have heavy testing of games that
use hires graphics to check for any regressions.
I trust AWJ's code, and all of the test ROMs I have thrown at it all
appear to work great. But better safe than sorry. Same deal for any core
changes, it's a lot better to catch it now than after v093 is released.
byuu says:
higan changelog:
- compiler is set to g++-4.7, subst(cc,++) rule is gone, C files compile
with $(compiler) -x c
- make throws an error when you specify an invalid profile or compile on
an unsupported platform (instead of hanging forever)
- added unverified.png to resources (causes too big of a speed hit to
actually check for folder/unverified file ... so disabled for now)
- fixed default browser paths for Game Boy, Sufami Turbo and BS-X
Satellaview (have to delete paths.cfg to see this)
- browser home button seeks to configpath()/higan/library.cfg
- settings->driver is now settings->advanced, and it adds game library
path setting and profile information
- emulation cores now load manifest files internally, manifest.bml is
not required for a game folder to be recognized by higan as such
- BS-X Satellaview and Sufami Turbo slot cartridge handling moved out of
sfc/chip and into sfc/slot
- Video::StartFullScreen only sets fullscreen when a game is specified
on the command-line
purify and ananke changelog:
- library output path shown in purify window
- added button to change library path
- squelch firmware warning windows to prevent multi-threading crash, but
only via purify (they show up in higan still)
byuu says:
This release has an updated version of ananke. If you replace the higan
v092 ananke.dll with this new one, it will fix the SGB+TG3000+ToP+DKJM2
loading issues.
This version fixes a problem where ananke would leave out the
'information' section (that is, the game name) when converting a game to
a game folder, resulting in a folder named " (!)".
It also includes the latest version of nall.
Because byuu's Win32 compiler does not yet support the C++11 std::thread
API, he wrote his own portable wrapper library, so now the new purify
works on Windows too.
byuu says:
purify has been rewritten. It now resembles the older snespurify, and
lets you import multiple game files+archives and regenerate manifests
for multiple game folders. It is also recursive.
So you can now import all of your games for all systems at once, or you
can update all of your bsnes v091 game folders to the new higan v092
format at once.
Caveats:
First, I am now using std::thread, so that the GUI doesn't freeze.
Instead, you get a nice progress bar. Unfortunately, I was mislead and
TDM/GCC 4.7 still does not have std::thread support. So ... sorry, but
I can't compile purify for Windows. I am sick and tired of not being
able to write multi-threaded code, so fuck it. If anyone can get it to
build on Windows, whether that be by using Windows threads, hacking in
std::thread support, skipping threading all together, whatever ...
that'll be great. Otherwise, sorry, purify is Linux only until MinGW can
get its god damned shit together and offers threading support.
Second, there's no way to regenerate Famicom (NES) manifests, because we
discard the iNES header. We are going to need a database for that. So,
all I can suggest is that if you use bsnes/higan, keep all your iNES
images around to re-import as new releases come out.
Third, when you purify game folders, it will back up the ROM and RAM
files only. Your save states, cheat codes, debug logs, etc will be wiped
out. There's a whole lot of reasons for this, the most pertinent is that
it's meant to clean up the folder to a pristine state. It also fixes the
game folder name, etc. So ... sorry, but this is how it works. New
releases rarely if ever allow old save states to work anyway.
Lastly, I am not going to have purify contain infinite backward
compatibility for updating manifests. You will want to keep up with
purifying the collection, otherwise you'll have to grab older purify
copies and convert your way along. Although hopefully the format won't
be so volatile and this won't be necessary very often.
byuu says:
For higan:
- I fixed the data ROM/RAM initialization for the Cx4, which would
periodically cause a crash.
- I also moved the Satellaview MaskROM vs FlashROM detection into the
Satellaview manifests, so Same Game - Character Data works now.
- I also re-added the driver filter to the video shaders, so the D3D
driver won't show OGL shaders and vice versa.
For ananke:
- You can now generate the other SGB images by putting sgb.rom in the
same folder as the BIOS images.
- I fixed the markup in the database and via heuristics for 5MB+ games
(DKJM2, ToP)
- Sufami Turbo and BS-X Satellaview generate BML now instead of XML when
using heuristics.
In the release thread, byuu says:
The first official release of higan has been posted. higan is the
new name for bsnes, and it continues with the latter's version
numbering.
Note that as of now, bsnes still exists. It's a module distributed
inside of higan. bsnes is now specific to my SNES emulator.
Due to last minute changes to the emulator interface, and missing
support in ananke, I wasn't able to include Cydrak's Nintendo DS
emulator dasShiny in this build, but I hope to do so in the next
release.
http://code.google.com/p/higan/downloads/list
For both new and experienced users, please read the higan user guide
first:
http://byuu.org/higan/user-guide
In the v091 WIP thread, byuu says:
r15->r16:
- BS-X MaskROM handling (partial ... need to split bsx/flash away
from sfc/chip, restructure code - it requires tagging the base
cart markup for now, but it needs to parse the slotted cart
markup)
- phoenixflags / phoenixlink += -m32
- nall/sort stability
- if(input.poll(scancode[activeScancode]) == false) return;
- MSU1 / USART need to use interface->path(1)
- MSU1 needs to use Markup::Document, not XML::Document
- case-insensitive folder listings
- remove nall/emulation/system.hpp files (move to ananke)
- remove rom/ram id= checks with indexing
X have cores ask for manifest.bml (skipped for v092's release, too
big a change)
- rename compatibility profile to balanced (so people don't assume
it has better compatibility than accuracy)
byuu says:
Changelog:
- all media types always show base name in the title now (eg Super Game
Boy + Mega Man II)
- Game Boy loading via ananke has been fixed
- phoenix is dynamically linked on Windows now (needed for ananke)
- Linux port shows the higan program icon (once you install the program
to get the bitmap into /usr/local/share/pixmaps)
- paths.cfg defaults to "userpath()/Emulation/System Name/" when it is
created from scratch
[Later, after the v092 release, byuu posted this additional changelog:
- new compilation rules for win32
- OS::setName
- default to ~/Emulation/media.name for paths.cfg
]
byuu says:
higan changelog:
- generates title displayed in emulator window by asking the core
- core builds title solely from "information/title" ... if it's not
there, you don't get a title at all
- sub-system load menu is gone ... since there are multiple revisions of
the SGB, this never really worked well anyway
- to load an SGB, BS-X or ST cartridge, load the base cartridge first
- "File->Load Game" moved to "Load->Import Game" ... may cause a bit of
confusion to new users, but I don't like having a single-item menu,
we'll just have to explain it to new users
- browser window redone to look like ananke
- home button here goes to ~/Emulation rather than just ~ like ananke,
since this is the home of game folders
- game folder icon is now the executable icon for the Tango theme
(orange diamond), meant to represent a complete game rather than
a game file or archive
ananke changelog:
- outputs GBC games to "Game Boy Color/" instead of "Game Boy/"
- adds the file basename to "information/title"
Known issues:
- using ananke to load a GB game trips the Super Famicom SGB mode and
fails (need to make the full-path auto-detection ignore non-bootable
systems)
- need to dump and test some BS-X media before releasing
- ananke lacks BS-X Satellaview cartridge support
- v092 isn't going to let you retarget the ananke/higan game folder path
of ~/Emulation, you will have to wait for a future version if that
bothers you so greatly
[Later, after the v092 release, byuu posted this additional changelog:
- kill laevateinn
- add title()
- add bootable, remove load
- combine file, library
- combine [][][] paths
- fix SFC subtype handling XML->BML
- update file browser to use buttons
- update file browser keyboard handling
- update system XML->BML
- fix sufami turbo hashing
- remove Cartridge::manifest
]
byuu says:
This should be basically final now.
Works with all media types (nes, sfc, gb, gbc, gba, bs, st), strips
headers, can use internal or external firmware, imports saves on first
run.
Added a custom file dialog. It seems both GTK+ and Windows XP have
(un)intelligent file sorting, which puts eg "ActRaiser 2 (NA)" before
"ActRaiser (NA)". So, screw 'em.
byuu says (about higan):
- dropped release/ root node for individual games (still there in
ananke's database.)
- Memory export uses smarter names (vram.rwm -> video.ram, etc.)
- cheat database moved from XML to BML (3.1MB to 1.9MB file size.)
- cheat codes moved from XML to BML
- resource manifest moved from XML to BML
What can I say, I like consistency. But I'll leave the shaders alone
until I get around to shader folders.
byuu says (about ananke):
Works with higan v091r13. Only does SNES stuff so far.
byuu says:
This release refines HSU1 support as a bidirectional protocol, nests SFC
manifests as "release/cartridge" and "release/information" (but release/
is not guaranteed to be finalized just yet), removes the database
integration, and adds support for ananke.
ananke represents inevitability. It's a library that, when installed,
higan can use to load files from the command-line, and also from a new
File -> Load Game menu option.
I need to change the build rules a bit for it to work on Windows (need
to make phoenix a DLL, basically), but it works now on Linux.
Right now, it only takes *.sfc file names, looks them up in the included
database, converts them to game folders, and returns the game folder
path for higan to load.
The idea is to continue expanding it to support everything we can that
I don't want in the higan core:
- load *.sfc, *.smc, *.swc, *.fig files
- remove SNES copier headers
- split apart merged firmware files
- pull in external firmware files (eg dsp1b.rom - these are staying
merged, just as SPC7110 prg+dat are merged)
- load *.zip and *.7z archives
- prompt for selection on multi-file archives
- generate manifest files based on heuristics
- apply BPS patches
The "Load" menu option has been renamed to "Library", to represent games
in your library. I'm going to add some sort of suffix to indicate
unverified games, and use a different folder icon for those (eg
manifests built on heuristics rather than from the database.)
So basically, to future end users:
File -> Load Game will be how they play games.
Library -> (specific system) can be thought of as an infinitely-sized
recent games list.
purify will likely become a simple stub that invokes ananke's functions.
No reason to duplicate all that code.
[r07 and r08 were not posted to the WIP thread. -Ed.]
byuu says:
I'd appreciate it if you guys wouldn't mind testing out the database
functionality.
Save this file as database.bml (remove the date) inside
~/.config/higan/Super Famicom.sfc/ or %APPDATA%/higan/Super Famicom.sfc/
http://byuu.org/snes/database/database_2012-10-21.bml
Now load any of the 20 games in the database from the file dialog. They
need to be named *.sfc, have no copier header, and have firmware
appended (for Mario Kart only so far.)
If anyone actually does test it, please let me know how it goes for you
and what you think. Note that future versions of higan will have the
database.bml file included with the release.
byuu says:
This release adds initial database support.
The way it works is you can now load game folders as you always have, or
you can load a game file. If you load a game file, it tries to create
a game folder for you by looking up the file's sha256 in a database. If
it can't find it, sorry, the game won't play. I'm not hooking up the
oldschool "make up a manifest" code here. The easiest way to handle this
is to get me every game so I can dump it and add it to the database :D
The database entries are complete entries that can be copied directly.
So it describes the board, the information, file layout, etc. That'll be
what comes with higan releases in the future.
Internally, I'm separating the information and board descriptions, and
will use a tool to merge the two together.
Here's a current database copy, with one game in it. Still hammering out
some details, but it's mostly how it's going to look.
cartridge region=NTSC
board type=1CB5B-20
superfx revision=2
rom name=program.rom size=0x200000
ram name=save.rwm size=0x8000
map id=io address=00-3f,80-bf:3000-32ff
map id=rom address=00-3f:8000-ffff mask=0x8000
map id=rom address=40-5f:0000-ffff
map id=ram address=00-3f,80-bf:6000-7fff size=0x2000
map id=ram address=70-71:0000-ffff
information
name: Super Mario World 2 - Yoshi's Island (SNS) (1.1)
title: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
sha256: bd763c1a56365c244be92e6cffefd318780a2a19eda7d5baf1c6d5bd6c1b3e06
board: SHVC-1CB5B-20
rom: 0x200000
ram: 0x8000
layout
file name=program.rom size=0x200000
[No prior releases were posted to the WIP thread. -Ed.]
byuu says:
Super Famicom mapping system has been reworked as discussed with the
mask= changes. offset becomes base, mode is gone. Also added support for
comma-separated fields in the address fields, to reduce the number of
map lines needed.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<cartridge region="NTSC">
<superfx revision="2">
<rom name="program.rom" size="0x200000"/>
<ram name="save.rwm" size="0x8000"/>
<map id="io" address="00-3f,80-bf:3000-32ff"/>
<map id="rom" address="00-3f:8000-ffff" mask="0x8000"/>
<map id="rom" address="40-5f:0000-ffff"/>
<map id="ram" address="00-3f,80-bf:6000-7fff" size="0x2000"/>
<map id="ram" address="70-71:0000-ffff"/>
</superfx>
</cartridge>
Or in BML:
cartridge region=NTSC
superfx revision=2
rom name=program.rom size=0x200000
ram name=save.rwm size=0x8000
map id=io address=00-3f,80-bf:3000-32ff
map id=rom address=00-3f:8000-ffff mask=0x8000
map id=rom address=40-5f:0000-ffff
map id=ram address=00-3f,80-bf:6000-7fff size=0x2000
map id=ram address=70-71:0000-ffff
As a result of the changes, old mappings will no longer work. The above
XML example will run Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. Otherwise,
you'll have to write your own.
All that's left now is to work some sort of database mapping system in,
so I can start dumping carts en masse.
The NES changes that FitzRoy asked for are mostly in as well.
Also, part of the reason I haven't released a WIP ... but fuck it, I'm
not going to wait forever to post a new WIP.
I've added a skeleton driver to emulate Campus Challenge '92 and
Powerfest '94. There's no actual emulation, except for the stuff I can
glean from looking at the pictures of the board. It has a DSP-1 (so
SR/DR registers), four ROMs that map in and out, RAM, etc.
I've also added preliminary mapping to upload high scores to a website,
but obviously I need the ROMs first.
byuu says:
Basically just a project rename, with s/bsnes/higan and the new icon
from lowkee added in.
It won't compile on Windows because I forgot to update the resource.rc
file, and a path transform command isn't working on Windows.
It was really just meant as a starting point, so that v091 WIPs can flow
starting from .00 with the new name (it overshadows bsnes v091, so
publicly speaking this "shouldn't exist" and will probably be deleted
from Google Code when v092 is ready.)
byuu says:
A few issues crept up in the last release, this should take care of
them.
First, it seems that the 32-bit runtime on 64-bit versions of Windows
have 64-bit time functions; whereas true 32-bit Windows does not. This
was causing a DLL error when attempting to load bsnes v090.
Second, when there were more than 2,000 files in the same folder on
Windows, it was lagging the file browser. With OV2's help, I've fixed
that and it'll now load the list instantly.
Lastly, I've included the missing video shaders this time.
byuu says:
Most notably, this release adds Nintendo DS emulation. The Nintendo DS
module was written entirely by Cydrak, so please give him all of the
credit for it. I for one am extremely grateful to be allowed to use his
module in bsnes.
The Nintendo DS emulator's standalone name is dasShiny. You will need
the Nintendo DS firmware, which I cannot provide, in order to use it. It
also cannot (currently?) detect the save type used by NDS games. As
such, manifest.xml files must be created manually for this purpose. The
long-term plan is to create a database of save types for each game.
Also, you will need an analog input device for the touch screen for now
(joypad axes work well.)
There have also been a lot of changes from my end: a unified
manifest.xml format across all systems, major improvements to SPC7110
emulation, enhancements to RTC emulation, MSU1 enhancements, icons in
the file browser list, improvements to SNES coprocessor memory mapping,
cleanups and improvements in the libraries used to build bsnes, etc.
I've also included kaijuu (which allows launching game folders directly
with bsnes) and purify (which allows opening images that are compressed,
have copier headers, and have wrong extensions); both of which are fully
GUI-based.
This release only loads game folders, not files. Use purify to load ROM
files in bsnes.
Note that this will likely be the last release for a long time, and that
I will probably rename the emulator for the next release, due to how
many additional systems it now supports.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- fixed bsnes to let config files and system folders to be in the same
folder as the executable
- fixed RawInput driver to compile again without linear_vector
- fixed phoenix/Windows to compile again without linear_vector
- fixed old vs new name warnings on MinGW w64 (technically the warnings
were erroneous, but I worked around them anyway)
- added memory export hotkey (SNES driver only; mainly for FEoEZ
translation)
- restored WRAM randomization for v090 stability (we can discuss that
idea for v091+)
- fixed SuperFX / SA-1 "0x" prefix in the header generation (drop it
into the latest purify if you want)
- added nall/Makefile uname support for UnxUtils (was breaking
compilation with full UnxUtils in your path otherwise)
byuu says:
This update uses the latest manifest.xml mappings. It also adds a new
"Update Manifests" button that can be used to quickly regenerate all
manifests (sans Famicom games ... since I strip the iNES header, that
information is gone. We can't support Famicom manifest.xml updates until
we have a database.) This is different than the before wrapping of the
functionality on the convert games button. You can also trigger this on
the command-line with "purify synchronize"
g6672D, great catch. This was fixed, thank you.
[g6672D's bug was: "SA-1 and SuperFX are missing the "0x" for
program.rom/save.rwm size." - Ed.]
byuu says:
This implements the spec from the XML part 3 thread:
http://board.byuu.org/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2998
It's also propagated the changes to nall and purify, so you can test
this one.
This is basically it, after years of effort I feel I finally have
a fully consistent and logical XML board format.
The only things left to change will be: modifications if emulation turns
out to be incorrect (eg we missed some MMIO mirrors, or mirrored too
much), and new additions.
And of course, I'm giving it a bit of time for good arguments against
the format.
Other than that, this release removes linear_vector and pointer_vector,
as vector is better than linear_vector and I've never used
pointer_vector.
vector also gets move(), which is a way to use move-semantics across
types. It lets you steal the underlying memory pool, effectively
destroying the vector without a copy.
This works really nicely with the move for read() functions to return
vector<uint8> instead of taking (uint8_t*&, unsigned&) parameters.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- eliminated <mmio>, <mcu> tags [they are merged to their parent nodes
now]
- added <ram name= size=> tag to EpsonRTC, SharpRTC
- added <firmware> tag to DSP-n, ST-01n, ST-018, Cx4
- interface->path(0) now returns the system folder, which can be used
for storage now
- as a fun proof-of-concept, I've simulated SNES warm power cycles by
saving and loading work RAM (same effect if you instantly swapped
carts)
- long-term, I'm not sure how I want to do this. The power menu option
makes no sense with warm RAM
- I like the idea of decaying RAM based on timestamp from last play;
and power can just force the timestamp to 0 (which will corrupt all
RAM)
- Interface::firmware is gone. The cores now load firmware inside their
boot up routines
- you now get a message on the screen if the emulator can't find
firmware, should help with "I just get a black screen" messages
I'd like to start preparing for a v090 release. I think we're almost
there now. Have to update nall/cartridge and purify to handle XML
changes first.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- SuperFX has its own ROM and RAM
- Cx4 has its own ROM
- SPC7110 has its own ProgramROM, DataROM and RAM
- OBC1 has its own RAM
- BsxCartridge has its own ROM, RAM and PSRAM
- mapping changes to accommodate the above
Tim Allen