byuu says:
This release provides several major improvements to Mega Drive emulation
which enhances compatibility a good deal. It also includes important
Super Famicom mosaic emulation improvements, plus a much-needed SuperFX
save state issue fix.
Changelog (since v104):
- higan: many improvements to Emulator::Interface to support
forks/frontends
- higan: refreshed program icon
- icarus: new program icon
- Game Boy Advance: slight emulation speedup over v104
- Game Boy Advance: synchronize APU FIFO updates better
- Mega Drive: added automatic region detection [hex_usr]
- Mega Drive: support 8-bit SRAM
- Game Boy Advance: fixed bug when changing to THUMB mode via MSR
[MerryMage]
- Master System: fix bug in backdrop color and background 0 priority
[hex_usr]
- Mega Drive: backgrounds always update output priority bit [Cydrak]
- Mega Drive: emulated interlaced video output
- Mega Drive: emulated shadow/highlight mode [Cydrak]
- Super Famicom: auto joypad polling clears the shift register when
starting
- Super Famicom: added new low-entropy RAM initialization mode to more
closely match hardware
- Game Boy Advance: rumble will now time out after being left on for
500ms
- ruby: improved rumble support in udev input driver [ma_rysia]
- M68K: `move.b (a7)[+/-]` adjust a7 by two
- M68K: illegal/lineA/lineF opcodes do not modify the stack register
- Mega Drive: emulate VIP status bit
- uPD7725: improved emulation of OV1/S1 flags [byuu, AWJ, Lord
Nightmare]
- uPD7725: improved handling of DP, RP updates [Jonas Quinn]
- Super Famicom: improved emulation of mosaic effects in hires,
interlace, and offset-per-tile modes [byuu, Cydrak]
- ruby: improved Direct3D exclusive mode monitor selection [Cydrak]
- Super Famicom: fixed save state bug affecting SuperFX games
[Cydrak]
- Mega Drive: added workaround for Clang compiler bug; allowing this
core to work on macOS [Cydrak, Sintendo]
- higan: hotkeys now also trigger when the main window lacks focus yet
higan is set to allow input on focus loss
- higan: fixed an edge case where `int16_t` ↔ `double` audio
conversion could possibly result in overflows
- higan: fixed a crash on macOS when choosing quit from the
application menu [ncbncb]
Changelog (since the previous WIP):
- higan: restored `make console=true`
- tomoko: if you allow input when main window focus is lost, hotkeys
can now be triggered without focus as well
- hiro/cocoa: fix crash on exit from menu [ncbncb]
- ruby: smarter `double` → `int16_t` conversion to prevent
underflow/overflow
byuu says:
Changelog:
- processor/m68k: fix error in disassembler [Sintendo]
- processor/m68k: work around Clang compiler bug [Cydrak, Sintendo]
This is one of the shortest WIPs I've done, but I'm trying not to change
anything before v105.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- processor/upd96050: always potentially update S1 on ALU ops, sans NOP
- theory by Lord Nightmare. I'm impartial on this one, but may as
well match his design
- sfc: fixed save state hang [reported by FitzRoy; fixed by Cydrak]
- icarus: do not save settings.bml file when in library mode
byuu says:
Changelog:
- processor/huc6280,mos6502,wdc65816: replaced abbreviated opcode
names with descriptive names
- nall: replaced `PLATFORM_MACOSX` define with `PLATFORM_MACOS`
- icarus: added `Icarus::missing() -> string_vector` to list missing
appended firmware files by name
- ruby, hiro: fix macosx→macos references
The processor instruction renaming was really about consistency with the
other processor cores. I may still need to do this for one or two more
processors.
The icarus change should allow a future release of the icarus
application to import games with external SNES coprocessor firmware once
again. It will also allow this to be possible when used in library mode.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- Emulator::Interface::videoResolution() -\> VideoResolution renamed
to videoInformation() -\> VideoInformation
- added double VideoInformation::refreshRate
- higan: added `binary := (application|library)` — set this to
`library` to produce a dynamic link library
- higan: removed `-march=native` for macOS application builds; and for
all library builds
- higan: removed `console` build flag; uncomment `link += -mwindows`
instead
- nall/GNUmakefile: `macosx` platform renamed `macos`
- still need to do this for nall/intrinsics.hpp
- Game Gear: return region=NTSC as the only option, so that the system
frequency is always set correctly
- hiro/cocoa: fixed typo [Sintendo]
- hiro/Windows: removed GetDpiForMonitor, as it's Windows 8+ only; DPI
is no longer per-monitor aware
- icarus: core Icarus class now has virtual functions for
directory::create, <file::exists>, <file::copy>, <file::write>
- icarus: Sufami Turbo can import save RAM files now
- icarus: setting `ICARUS_LIBRARY` define will compile icarus without
main(), GUI components
- ruby/video/Direct3D: choose the current monitor instead of top-left
monitor for fullscreen exclusive [Cydrak]
- ruby/video/Direct3D: do not set `WS_EX_TOPMOST` on fullscreen
exclusive window [Cydrak]
- this isn't necessary for exclusive mode, and it just makes
getting out of the application more difficult
byuu says:
Changelog:
- nall/GNUmakefile: build=release changed to -O2, build=optimize is
now -O3
- hiro: added Monitor::dpi(uint index) → Position [returns logical
DPI for x, y]
- Position is a bad name, but dpi(monitor).(x,y)() make more sense
than .(width,height)()
- hiro: Position, Size, Geometry, Font changed from using signed int
to float
- hiro: Alignment changed from using double to float
- hiro: added skeleton (unused) Application::scale(), setScale()
functions
Errata:
- hiro/cocoa's Monitor::dpi() is untested. Probably will cause issues
with macOS' automatic scaling.
- hiro/gtk lacks a way to get both per-monitor and per-axis (x,y) DPI
scaling
- hiro/qt lacks a way to get per-monitor DPI scaling (Qt 5.x has this,
but I still use Qt 4.x)
- and just to get global DPI, hiro/qt's DPI retrieval has to use
undocumented functions ... fun
The goal with this WIP was basically to prepare hiro for potential
automatic scaling. It'll be extremely difficult, but I'm convinced that
it must be possible if macOS can do it.
By moving from signed integers to floats for coordinates, we can now
scale and unscale without losing precision. That of course isn't the
hard part, though. The hard part is where and how to do the scaling. In
the ideal application, hiro/core and hiro/extension will handle 100% of
this, and the per-platform hiro/(cocoa,gtk,qt,windows) will not be aware
of what's going on, but ... to even make that possible, things will need
to change in every per-platform core, eg the per-platform code will have
to call a core function to change geometry, which will know about the
scaling and unscale the values back down again.
Gonna be a lot of work, but ... it's a start.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- higan: URLs updated to HTTPS
- sfc/ppu/background: use hires/interlace/mosaic-adjusted X/Y
coordinates for offset-per-tile mode
- sfc/ppu/background: hires mosaic seems to advance pixel counter on
subscreen pixels
- tomoko: added “Help→Credits” menu option (currently the page does
not exist; should before v105)
- tomoko: reduced volume slider from {0% - 500%} to {0% - 200%}.
Distortion is too intense above 200%.
- technically, I've encountered distortion at 200% as well in
Prince of Persia for the SNES
- nall/run/invoke: use program path for working directory
- allows you to choose “Library→Import ROMs” from a different
directory on the command-line
I don't know how to assign credit for the mosaic stuff. It's been a
work-in-progress with me, Cydrak, and hex_usr.
The current design should be correct, but very unpleasant. The code
desperately needs to be refactored, but my recent attempt at doing so
ended in spectacular failure.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- sfc/ppu/background: minor code cleanup and simplification
- sfc/ppu/background: $2106 MOSAIC register was implemented
incorrectly
- sfc/ppu/background: fixed mosaic effects in hires mode (temporary
fix)
- sfc/ppu/background: fixed mosaic effects in interlace mode [Cydrak]
Errata:
- sfc/ppu/background/background.cpp:48: should be
`if(!mosaic.enable) {`
Turns out there is only one mosaic size, and the other four bits are
per-BG mosaic enable. This matters a lot for hires/interlace, as
mosaicSize=0 (2x2) is not the same thing as mosaicEnable=false (1x1).
Although I've now implemented this, I really don't like how my mosaic
implementation works right now. I tried to redesign the entire system,
and completely failed. So I started over from v104r10 again and instead
went with a more evolutionary improvement for now. I'll keep trying.
Also, the combination of mosaic + offset-per-tile is still sketchy, as
is mode 6 offset-per-tile. I'll get to those in the future as well.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- processor/upd96050: per manual errata note, SGN always uses SA1;
never SB1 [fixes v104r09 regression]
- processor/upd96050: new OV1/S1 calculation that doesn't require OV0
history buffer [AWJ]
- processor/upd96050: do not update DP in OP if DST=4 [Jonas Quinn]
- processor/upd96050: do not update RP in OP if DST=5 [Jonas Quinn]
- resource: recreated higan+icarus icons, higan logo as 32-bit PNGs
So higan v104r08 and earlier were 930KiB for the source tarball. After
creating new higan and icarus icons, the size jumped to 1090KiB, which
was insane for only adding one additional icon.
After digging into why, I discovered that ImageMagick defaults to
64-bit!! (16-bits per channel) PNG images when converting from SVG.
You know, for all those 16-bit per channel monitors that don't exist.
Sigh. Amazingly, nobody ever noticed this.
The logo went from 78.8KiB to 24.5KiB, which in turn also means the
generated resource.cpp shrank dramatically.
The old higan icon was 32-bit PNG, because it was created before I
installed FreeBSD and switched to ImageMagick. But the new higan icon,
plus the new icarus icon, were both 64-bit as well. And they're now
32-bit.
So the new tarball size, thanks to the logo optimization, dropped to
830KiB.
Cydrak had some really interesting results in converting higan's
resources to 8-bit palletized PNGs with the tRNS extension for alpha
transparency. It reduces the file sizes even more without much visual
fidelity loss. Eg the higan logo uses 778 colors currently, and 256
represents nearly all of it very well to the human eye. It's based off
of only two colors, the rest are all anti-aliasing. Unfortunately,
nall/image doesn't support this yet, and I didn't want to flatten the
higan logo to not have transparency, in case I ever want to change the
about screen background color.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- processor/upd96050: SGN should select between (A,B).S1 flag using
ASL opcode bit
- processor/upd96050: use a temporary to cache new S1, then compute
OV1 using old S1, then assign new S1
- processor/upd96050: add SR.(siack,soack) and connect to relevant
jump instructions (serial not implemented)
- processor/upd96050: initialize SR properly in power() [r08
regression]
- icarus: improve Makefile rules [Screwtape]
- higan: new program icon
- icarus: new program icon
I've generally tried to keep to en_AU spellings rather than en_US spellings
for the sake of my own sanity, but it's difficult when documenting a program
that exclusively uses en_US spellings since I'm quoting the text on
menu-items and in config files.
Strictly speaking, there's no dependency between them, but higan's
install target happens to create the destination bin directory if it
doesn't already exist, so we want to run that install script first.
Sufami Turbo games are in a separate set now, they don't have the "(ST)"
marker in the filename.
Satellaview memory paks may have "(BS)", "(BS SoundLink)" or "(BSROM)"
for various reasons that aren't important to higan, so let's just not mention
them at all.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- processor/upd96050: code cleanups
- processor/upd96050: improved emulation of S1/OV1 flags [thanks to
Cydrak, Lord Nightmare]
- tomoko/settings/audio: reduced the size of the frequency/latency
combo boxes to show longer device driver names
Errata: I need to clear regs.sr in uPD96050::power()
Note: the S1/OV1 emulation is likely not 100% correct yet, but it's a
step in the right direction. No SNES games actually use S1/OV1, so this
shouldn't result in any issues, I'd just like to have this part of the
chip emulated correctly.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- md/vdp: added VIP bit to status register; fixes Cliffhanger
- processor/m68k/disassembler: added modes 7 and 8 to LEA address
disassembly
- processor/m68k/disassembler: enhanced ILLEGAL to display LINEA/LINEF
$xxx variants
- processor/m68k: ILLEGAL/LINEA/LINEF do not modify the stack
register; fixes Caeser no Yabou II
- icarus/sfc: request sgb1.boot.rom and sgb2.boot.rom separately; as
they are different
- icarus/sfc: removed support for external firmware when loading ROM
images
The hack to run Mega Drive Ballz 3D isn't in place, as I don't know if
it's correct, and the graphics were corrupted anyway.
The SGB boot ROM change is going to require updating the icarus database
as well. I will add that in when I start dumping more cartridges here
soon.
Finally ... I explained this already, but I'll do so here as well: I
removed icarus' support for loading SNES coprocessor firmware games with
external firmware files (eg dsp1.program.rom + dsp1.data.rom in the same
path as supermariokart.sfc, for example.)
I realize most are going to see this as an antagonizing/stubborn move
given the recent No-Intro discussion, and I won't deny that said thread
is why this came to the forefront of my mind. But on my word, I honestly
believe this was an ineffective solution for many reasons not related to
our disagreements:
1. No-Intro distributes SNES coprocessor firmware as a merged file, eg
"DSP1 (World).zip/DSP1 (World).bin" -- icarus can't possibly know
about every ROM distribution set's naming conventions for firmware.
(Right now, it appears GoodSNES and NSRT are mostly dead; but there
may be more DATs in the future -- including my own.)
2. Even if the user obtains the firmware and tries to rename it, it
won't work: icarus parses manifests generated by the heuristics
module and sees two ROM files: dsp1.program.rom and dsp1.data.rom.
icarus cannot identify a file named dsp1.rom as containing both
of these sub-files. Users are going to have to know how to split
files, which there is no way to do on stock Windows. Merging files,
however, can be done via `copy /b supermariokart.sfc+dsp1.rom
supermariokartdsp.sfc`; - and dsp1.rom can be named whatever now.
I am not saying this will be easy for the average user, but it's
easier than splitting files.
3. Separate firmware breaks icarus' database lookup. If you have
pilotwings.sfc but without firmware, icarus will not find a match
for it in the database lookup phase. It will then fall back on
heuristics. The heuristics will pick DSP1B for compatibility with
Ballz 3D which requires it. And so it will try to pull in the
wrong firmware, and the game's intro will not work correctly.
Furthermore, the database information will be unavailable, resulting
in inaccurate mirroring.
So for these reasons, I have removed said support. You must now load
SNES coprocessor games into higan in one of two ways: 1) game paks with
split files; or 2) SFC images with merged firmware.
If and when No-Intro deploys a method I can actually use, I give you all
my word I will give it a fair shot and if it's reasonable, I'll support
it in icarus.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- gba,ws: removed Thread::step() override¹
- processor/m68k: move.b (a7)+ and move.b (a7)- adjust a7 by two, not
by one²
- tomoko: created new initialize(Video,Audio,Input)Driver() functions³
- ruby/audio: split Audio::information into
Audio::available(Devices,Frequencies,Latencies,Channels)³
- ws: added Model::(WonderSwan,WonderSwanColor,SwanCrystal)()
functions for consistency with other cores
¹: this should hopefully fix GBA Pokemon Pinball. Thanks to
SuperMikeMan for pointing out the underlying cause.
²: this fixes A Ressaha de Ikou, Mega Bomberman, and probably more
games.
³: this is the big change: so there was a problem with WASAPI where
you might change your device under the audio settings panel. And your
new device may not support the frequency that your old device used. This
would end up not updating the frequency, and the pitch would be
distorted.
The old Audio::information() couldn't tell you what frequencies,
latencies, or channels were available for all devices simultaneously, so
I had to split them up. The new initializeAudioDriver() function
validates you have a correct driver, or it defaults to none. Then it
validates a correct device name, or it defaults to the first entry in
the list. Then it validates a correct frequency, or defaults to the
first in the list. Then finally it validates a correct latency, or
defaults to the first in the list.
In this way ... we have a clear path now with no API changes required to
select default devices, frequencies, latencies, channel counts: they
need to be the first items in their respective lists.
So, what we need to do now is go through and for every audio driver that
enumerates devices, we need to make sure the default device gets added
to the top of the list. I'm ... not really sure how to do this with most
drivers, so this is definitely going to take some time.
Also, when you change a device, initializeAudioDriver() is called again,
so if it's a bad device, it will disable the audio driver instead of
continuing to send samples at it and hoping that the driver blocked
those API calls when it failed to initialize properly.
Now then ... since it was a decently-sized API change, it's possible
I've broken compilation of the Linux drivers, so please report any
compilation errors so that I can fix them.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- emulator/random: new array function with more realistic RAM
initializations
- emulator/random: both low and high entropy register initializations
now use PCG
- gba/player: rumble will time out and disable after being left on for
500ms; fixes Pokemon Pinball issue
- ruby/input/udev: fixed rumble effects [ma\_rysia]
- sfc/system: default to low-entropy randomization of memory
The low-entropy memory randomization is modeled after one of my SHVC
2/1/3 systems. It generates striped patterns in memory, using random
inputs (biased to 0x00/0xff), and has a random chance of corrupting 1-2
bits of random values in the pool of memory (to prevent easy emulator
detection and to match observed results on hardware.)
The reasoning for using PCG on register initializations, is that I don't
believe they're going to have repeating patterns like RAM does anyway.
And register initializations are way more vital.
I want to have the new low-entropy RAM mode tested, so at least for the
next few WIPs, I've set the SNES randomization over to low-entropy.
We'll have to have a long discussion and decide whether we want official
releases to use high-entropy or low-entropy.
Also, I figured out the cause of the Prince of Persia distortion ... I
had the volume under the audio settings tab set to 200%. I didn't
realize there were SNES games that clipped so easily, given how
incredibly weak SNES audio is compared to every other sound source on my
PC. So with no entropy or low-entropy, indeed the game now sounds just
fine.
I can't actually test the udev fixes, so I guess we'll see how that goes
for Screwtape and ma\_rysia.
I made a change to ruby/input/joypad/udev.cpp while diagnosing a problem
with higan's rumble behaviour on Linux, and accidentally committed it
in 15b3dc8b0b as part of a documentation
change.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- higan/emulator: added new Random class with three entropy settings:
none, low, and high
- md/vdp: corrected Vcounter readout in interlace mode [MoD]
- sfc: updated core to use the new Random class; defaults to high
entropy
No entropy essentially returns 0, unless the random.bias(n) function is
called, in which case, it returns n. In this case, n is meant to be the
"logical/ideal" default value that maximizes compatibility with games.
Low entropy is a very simple entropy modeled after RAM initialization
striping patterns (eg 32 0x00s, followed by 32 0xFFs, repeating
throughout.) It doesn't "glitch" like real hardware does on rare
occasions (parts of the pattern being broken from time to time.) It also
only really returns 0 or ~0. So the entropy is indeed extremely low, and
not very useful at all for detecting bugs. Over time, we can try to
improve this, of course.
High entropy is PCG. This replaces the older, lower-entropy and more
predictable, LFSR. PCG should be more than enough for emulator
randomness, while still being quite fast.
Unfortunately, the bad news ... both no entropy and low entropy fix the
Konami logo popping sound in Prince of Persia, but all three entropy
settings still cause the distortion in-game, especially evident at the
title screen. So ... this may be a more serious bug than first
suspected.
The file was originally named `higan-config.md` because the dialog box
it described was called "higan Configuration", which was because the
menu-item to open it was in a menu called "Settings" and it would have
been weird to have a "Settings" item in a "Settings" menu.
Now there are individual menu-items for each tab in the Settings dialog,
none of which are named Settings, so the dialog has been renamed back to
"Settings", and the filename should match.
Tim Allen