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
byuu says:
Changelog:
- NSS emulation improvement (DIP is 8-bits, not 16-bits; can be remapped
via XML now like all the other chips)
- SA-1 memory map improvements (IRAM and BWRAM can be saved; ROM, IRAM
and BWRAM are separate from Cartridge::ROM, RAM; no MCU)
- S-DD1 memory map improvements (ROM, RAM inside mapping; no MCU)
- SPC7110 memory map improvements (ROM, RAM inside mapping; no MCU; not
finished yet [have to handle 8mbit expansion somehow now)
I have tried multiple times now to get the SuperFX core to use internal
ROM and RAM (separate from Cartridge::ROM, RAM) to no avail.
Not sure what the hell is going on there. Trace logs of 430MB are not
enticing ...
So right now: SuperFX, SPC7110 and BS-X cheat by mapping stuff to
Cartridge::ROM, RAM still. They need to not do that.
[also, replace the old purify tool with the new tool by the same name.
There were some previous releases outside the WIP thread, but this is
the first one that actually works with a WIP release. -Ed.]
byuu says:
Fixes up loading issues with recent purify changes, and purify also
works on BS/ST file types now and should be a bit more crash-resistant.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- Game Boy XML uses <cartridge><board type="MBC3"/> instead of
<cartridge mapper="MBC3">
- if you run bsnes with a filename argument, it will invoke "purify
filename" and exit immediately
- this chains: purify will turn the file into a game folder, and then
invoke bsnes with the game folder name
- net result: you can drag a ZIP file onto bsnes or associate SMC
headered ROMs with bsnes and they'll just work
- new nall: unified usage of - vs _ vs nothing on filenames; fancier
lstring; fancier image (constructor for creating from filename or from
memory); etc
- new phoenix: images in ListView, GTK+ merges the check box into the
first column like the other targets do, etc
- browser list now uses icons to differentiate system folders from game
folders (the game folder icon sucks, I'm open to suggestions though,
as long as it's available on Debian Squeeze in /usr/share/icons, no
custom stuff please)
byuu says:
Changelog:
- SPC7110 $480b (and its settings in $4805-6 + $4807) is now fully
emulated
- decompressor restructured and commented accordingly
The final parts remaining for the SPC7110 core, all within the
decompression engine:
- need to detect when 15+ input bytes are read for one output byte and
simulate a crash somehow (don't have to perfectly simulate corrupted
data stream)
- need to emulate time required to decompress data (doesn't have to be
perfect, just something other than instantaneous)
- need to determine what $480c status flags d6-d0 are for, as best we
can anyway
byuu says:
Changelog:
- Cydrak merged all three SPC7110 decompression routines into one, cuts
the size in half
- fixed masking of $4803.d7 and $4813.d7
- data port out of bounds accesses emulated correctly for app SPC7110
boards
- all(?) data port $4810 reload cases now supported
- basic timing for $4805-6 seeking; reworked delay timing to work better
as well
- fixed $480c.d7 flag (1 = ready, not busy)
- AbsoluteInput returns -32768 if presentation window lacks focus and
you don't always allow input
byuu says:
Changelog:
- SPC7110 data port emulation greatly improved
- SPC7110 $480b.d1 emulated (but $4805-4806 does not work right for mode
2 decompression yet)
- MSU1 audio output will be muted when the S-DSP FLG ($6c).d6 (mute)
flag is set
- MSU1 will read filenames from manifest now (defaults to msu1.rom and
track-#.pcm if missing ... for now)
- bugfixes with MSU1 load state and track seek (and $4804 was wrapping
into $4805 to change the track#)
- Link coprocessor removed (it was meant for ST018 HLE, which never
happened)
Notes for things I forgot but need to address:
- $4813 needs to be uint7 for the set_data_offset() to not allow reading
A23 as set ever (or we can mask)
- AbsoluteInput when window doesn't have focus should return -32768, not
0
- need to support input ID lists that aren't linear (0-7), but arbitrary
(0,1,6,7 or whatever)
byuu says:
Changelog:
- Super Game Boy, BS-X Satellaview and Sufami Turbo cartridges all load
manifests that specify their file names, and they all work
- Sufami Turbo can now properly handle carts without RAM, or empty slots
entirely
- Emulator::Interface structures no longer specify any file names, ever
- exposed "capability.(cheats,states)" now. So far, this just means the
GBA doesn't show the cheat editor, since it doesn't support cheat
codes yet
- as such, state manager and cheat editor windows auto-hide (may be
a tiny bit inconvenient, but it makes not having to sync them or deal
with input when no cart is loaded easier)
- added "AbsoluteInput" type, which returns mouse coordinates from
-32767,-32767 (top left) to +32767,+32767 (bottom right) or
-32768,-32768 (offscreen)
AbsoluteInput is just something I'm toying with. Idea is to support eg
Super Scope or Justifier, or possibly some future Famicom controllers
that are absolute-indexed. The coordinates are scaled, so the bigger
your window, the more precise they are. But obviously you can't get more
precise than the emulated system, so 1x scale will behave the same
anyway. I haven't hooked it up yet, need to mess with the idea of custom
cursors via phoenix for that first. Also not sure if it will feel
smoother or not ... if you resize the window, your mouse will seem to
move slower. Still, not having to capture the mouse for SS/JS may be
nicer yet. But we'll see ... just experimenting for now.
byuu says:
Not even purify makes compatible images for this WIP.
Unless you want to figure it out yourself, I'd suggest waiting for an
updated tool before using subsequent WIPs.
Changelog:
- MSU1 initializes data port + audio track to 0
- MSU1 implements audio track error flag on $2000.d3
- manifest.xml now controls file names for cartridge folders ... mostly
Regressions:
- Super Game Boy support is broken
- Sufami Turbo support is broken
So, basically Emulator::Interface() now has:
void load(const string &manifest);
void save();
The first one will analyze the manifest, and call all the ROM + RAM
loadRequest() commands necessary to run the game.
The second one will call saveRequest() commands on all writable and
non-volatile storage (basically if it's a RAM type and has a filename
specified, it gets saved to disk.)
save() shrinks the size of Emulator::Interface() by hiding information
one is unlikely to care about. It also makes it much easier to save.
The core auto-calls this when you unload a game as well. So the only
time you ever have to worry about it is if you want to save RAM files
mid-game (in case you want to do periodic backups in case of a crash.)
[Yes, the release number is re-used. -Ed.]
byuu says:
I had some bugs in r07 that I couldn't track down, DKJM2's clock was
getting all out of sync.
So I just reverted to r05, blew away both RTCs entirely, and wrote them
cleanly from scratch (obviously looking off the old code.) A bit
extreme, but it worked.
I believe I found the error in the process, day and month were resetting
the counter to 0 instead of 1, it wasn't handling leap year, etc.
While I was at it, I fixed the day-of-week calculation. The SharpRTC
epoch is actually 1000-01-01, and not 1900-01-01.
I'm sure you guys will be really happy that if it ever becomes 1000AD
again and you're playing a ROM hack that uses the SharpRTC and relies on
its weekday value that it will show the correct day now ...
Kind of a pain to compute, but nothing compared to the seventh circle of
hell that was my IBM dBase III Julian<>Gregorian conversion functions :/
Also found a few bugs in the Epson code this way. And I moved the round
seconds actions and flag clear to +125us after flag set.
So, if you had the old r06 or r07, please delete those.
Unfortunately, this took all of my energy today, so the file names
inside manifest changes will have to be in the next WIP.
EDIT: ran a diff against old r07 and new r06.
- added if(days == 31) case twice in EpsonRTC::tick_day()
- forgot weekday = 0; in SharpRTC::load()
- need to move the cartridge+cheat objects up in sfc/Makefile again
- System::init() needs assert(interface != nullptr /* not 0 */)
byuu says:
Changelog:
- EpsonRTC emulation improved further (stop/pause blocks IRQs, verified
secondhi >= 3 triggers 30-second adjust (even on invalid BCD),
second-changed flag is mirrored to minute+hour+day+month+weekday,
improved busy timing, etc.)
- SharpRTC rewritten, works like EpsonRTC now in that it has its own
timing thread and ticks with the emulation
- won't attempt to read from an unopen file stream now (I think this is
what was crashing Sufami Turbo without SRAM?)
- added Tools -> Synchronize Time option below load/save state options.
Only appears when you play a game with an emulated RTC chip
Just realized that I used 125ms for the 30-second adjust instead of
125us, so I'll fix that in the next WIP.
Aside from that, this is as good as the emulation is going to get.
There's still a couple of absolutely psychopathic edge cases that are
just too damn difficult to simulate.
So that leaves us with data port control + decompression status
registers to investigate before SPC7110 will be finished.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- renamed SRTC -> SharpRTC
- renamed RTC4513 -> EpsonRTC (consistent with DSP naming schema)
- full emulation of invalid BCD values for EpsonRTC
- fixed EpsonRTC IRQ mask
Remaining SPC7110 tasks:
- RTC: test 30-second adjust with all values from 00-7f
- RTC: hold is supposed to tick the clock one second after being
released?
- RTC: wait times are too long (need to use >32KHz oscillation to
simulate it properly)
- Data Port: test $4818 more thoroughly (not too important)
- Decompression: test $480c more thoroughly (very important)
- Decompression: perform some tests on DMA transferring data, especially
with $4807 set
Write-offs, at least for now:
- Decompression: emulation of the crash/glitch behavior seen on the real
chip when fed invalid data
- Decompression: I can find no use of $4808
- ALU: Booth cycles for MUL/DIV (this could actually be rather important
if the game reads simpler values quickly [some shoddy games did this
with the CPU ALU])
- RTC: delay after hold release for $4841 accesses
- RTC: 125uS delay after 30-second adjust that will screw with registers
in odd ways if your read or write too soon
- RTC: psychotic behavior of reading too early returning port address
- 1
byuu says:
I split the RTC-4513 code from the SPC7110 code (and obviously in the
XML mapping as well), since they are separate chips on the FEoEZ PCB.
In this way, you can use just the RTC-4513 in homebrew now if you want.
It's a bit nicer than the Sharp RTC from Dai Kaijuu Monogatari II.
This was needed anyway, it has an internal oscillator that's not
divisible by the SNES clock used by the SPC7110; and both the RTC and
decompression code need to be running their own threads anyway.
In the process, I rewrote the way variables are stored to use named
integers rather than a block of memory. Makes the code a lot easier on
the eyes, and more importantly, will make emulating bad BCD values
a whole lot easier.
byuu says:
Changelog: (SPC7110)
- emulated $480b.d0 + $4807 deinterleave mode
- cleaned up decompression core (I'd still like to wipe out those static
variables, those are bad for save states.)
- improved emulation of data port ($481a only increments, never reads)
- improved emulation of RTC (block appropriate bits in the hour register
based on 12/24h mode select; $4840 modes != 1 all disable the chip;
added MDR; etc.)
byuu says:
Substantial improvements to SPC7110 emulation. Added all of the findings
from http://byuu.org/temp/spc7110-mmio.txt that I understood.
I also completely rewrote the RTC. We only had about ~40% of the chip
emulated before. Turns out there's cool stuff like spare RAM, calendar
disable, 12-hour mode, IRQs, IRQ masking, duty cycles, etc. So I went
ahead and emulated all of it. The upper bits on hour+ don't work as
nocash described though, not sure what doc he was reading. The Epson
RTC-4513 manual I have doesn't explain any of the registers.
The new RTC core also ticks seconds based on the emulated clock, and not
on the system clock. This is going to suck for people wanting to keep
the in-game clock synced with their computer, who also abuse fast
forward and save states. Fast forward makes the clock run faster, and
save states will jump the clock to the time it was at when you took the
save state. (It will keep track of the number of seconds between
unloading the game and loading it again, so time passes normally there.)
This is required, however, and how I'm going to rearrange all of the
RTCs for all systems. Any other method can be detected by the game, and
is thus not faithful emulation. To help with this, I'll probably make an
RTC time tool so that you can adjust the time when the emulator isn't
running, but I don't intend to bundle that into bsnes.
New state format bit-packs the RTCRAM values, and it also uses a 64-bit
timestamp. So it's 16 bytes now instead of 20 bytes. S-RTC will drop
from 16 to 12 when it's done.
The RTC busy flag timing needs to be refined with more hardware tests,
there's a slim chance of the game hanging on save at the moment.
The SPC7110 ALU delays are emulated now, too. They may not be perfectly
accurate, but they get the basic gist down.
The only hack that needs to be removed now is the decompression busy
flag. That's ... not going to be fun.
I also redid the mouse emulation. I was polling the mouse position
multiple times per latch. So it should be a bit more precise now,
I hope.
I read it regardless of latch state, dunno if that's good or not.
(r01 was not posted to the WIP thread)
byuu says:
r01 changelog:
- major improvements to SPC7110 MCU (memory controller unit)
- revised SPC7110 memory map to reflect aforementioned improvements
- added "Toggle Tracer" hotkey to target-ethos (only works for SFC so
far, I plan to use this as a lightweight laevateinn for FEoEZ)
r02 changelog:
- quick fix: SRAM is mapped to 00-3f|80-bf:6000-7fff
- quick fix: $4830.d7 is SRAM chip enable, not SRAM write enable. Reads
return 0x00 when this bit is clear
byuu says:
Changelog to v089:
- fix SA-1 Mini Yonku Shining Scorpion
- load from command-line
- remove SNES::Cartridge::NVRAM
- fix SGB save RAM
- update cheats.xml
- already mapped inputs cancel input assign
BS-X wasn't broken after all. I forgot that I ran purify on my BS-X
images, and that the BS Zelda ZIP I have has the disable ROM bit set.
Whoops.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- fixed BGnxOFS to not cache when MOSAIC is not in effect [fixes Air
Strike Patrol "Good Luck" text]
- added GameBoy::Interface::Hook for SGB bindings [SGB works again]
- do not create bsnes/ folder unless it is absolutely needed (eg you
create a save state or state manager archive)
- SuperFX works [needed to call system.init() in Interface::Interface()]
Last chance for any bug reports, at this point I pretty much consider
ethos to be finished. It's shipping without BS-X BIOS game loading
support. Sorry, I can't figure that one out.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- default placement of presentation window optimized for 1024x768
displays or larger (sorry if yours is smaller, move the window
yourself.)
- Direct3D waits until a previous Vblank ends before waiting for the
next Vblank to begin (fixes video timing analysis, and ---really---
fast computers.)
- Window::setVisible(false) clears modality, but also fixed in Browser
code as well (fixes loading images on Windows hanging)
- Browser won't consume full CPU resources (but timing analysis will,
I don't want stalls to affect the results.)
- closing settings window while analyzing stops analysis
- you can load the SGB BIOS without a game (why the hell you would want
to ...)
- escape closes the Browser window (it won't close other dialogs, it has
to be hooked up per-window)
- just for fun, joypad hat up/down moves in Browser file list, any
joypad button loads selected game [not very useful, lacks repeat, and
there aren't GUI load file open buttons]
- Super Scope and Justifier crosshairs render correctly (probably
doesn't belong in the core, but it's not something I suspect people
want to do themselves ...)
- you can load GB, SGB, GB, SGB ... without problems (not happy with how
I did this, but I don't want to add an Interface::setInterface()
function yet)
- PAL timing works as I want now (if you want 50fps on a 60hz monitor,
you must not use sync video) [needed to update the DSP frequency when
toggling video/audio sync]
- not going to save input port selection for now (lot of work), but it
will properly keep your port setting across cartridge loads at least
[just goes to controller on emulator restart]
- SFC overscan on and off both work as expected now (off centers image,
on shows entire image)
- laevateinn compiles properly now
- ethos goes to ~/.config/bsnes now that target-ui is dead [honestly,
I recommend deleting the old folder and starting over]
- Emulator::Interface callbacks converted to virtual binding structure
that GUI inherits from (simplifies binding callbacks)
- this breaks Super Game Boy for a bit, I need to rethink
system-specific bindings without direct inheritance
Timing analysis works spectacularly well on Windows, too. You won't get
your 100% perfect rate (unless maybe you leave the analysis running
overnight?), but it'll get really freaking close this way.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- added NSS DIP switch settings window (when loading NSS carts with
appropriate manifest.xml file)
- added video shader selection (they go in ~/.config/bsnes/Video
Shaders/ now)
- added driver selection
- added timing settings (not only allows video/audio settings, also has
code to dynamically compute the values for you ... and it actually
works pretty good!)
- moved "None" controller device to bottom of list (it is the least
likely to be used, after all)
- added Interface::path() to support MSU1, USART, Link
- input and hotkey mappings remember list position after assignment
- and more!
target-ethos now has all of the functionality of target-ui, and more.
Final code size for the port is 101.2KB (ethos) vs 167.6KB (ui).
A ~67% reduction in code size, yet it does even more! And you can add or
remove an entire system with only three lines of code (Makefile include,
header include, interface append.)
The only problem left is that the BS-X BIOS won't load the BS Zelda no
Densetsu file.
I can't figure out why it's not working, would appreciate any
assistance, but otherwise I'm probably just going to leave it broken for
v089, sorry.
So the show stoppers for a new release at this point are:
- fix laevateinn to compile with the new interface changes (shouldn't be
too hard, it'll still use the old, direct interface.)
- clean up Emulator::Interface as much as possible (trim down
Information, mediaRequest should use an alternate struct designed to
load firmware / slots separately)
- enhance purify to strip SNES ROM headers, and it really needs a GUI
interface
- it would be highly desirable to make a launcher that can create
a cartridge folder from an existing ROM set (* ethos will need to
accept command-line arguments for this.)
- probably need to remember which controller was selected in each port
for each system across runs
- need to fix the cursor for Super Scope / Justifier games (move from
19-bit to 32-bit colors broke it)
- have to refactor that cache.(hv)offset thing to fix ASP
byuu says:
Changelog:
- fixed Super Game Boy input
- Sufami Turbo prompts to load second slot now (you can cancel to leave
it empty)
- NEC/Hitachi/ARM DSP firmware is loaded; NEC RAM is saved
- folders are grouped properly: Sufami Turbo save RAM saves to its slot
folder, etc.
- title shows properly (SGB shows GB game name only, BS-X slotted shows
game name and optional slot name, etc.)
- above extends to saving cheats and such in their correct folders
as well
- added cheat editor and cheat database
- and hooked up the requisite SGB mode loads and can use GB cheats,
because that's kinda cool
- added state manager
- input settings, cheat editor and state manager all have erase (one)
and reset (all) buttons now
- lots of cleanup and restructuring on Emulator::Interface; *almost*
finished with it now
Remaining:
- BS-X BIOS won't show the data pack
- need XML mapping information window
- need NSS DIP switch settings window
- need video shaders
- need driver selection
- need to hide controllers that have no inputs from the input mapping
list (tempted to just remove "None" as a controller option ...)
ethos is currently 88KB of code, ui is 167KB. We're missing about 5-10KB
of code in ethos to complete it, so the rewrite nearly cut the GUI code
size in half, while support all of the same functionality and allowing
the easy addition and removal of entire systems.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- all hotkeys from target-ui now exist in target-ethos
- controller port menus now show up when you load a system (hidden if
there are no options to choose from)
- tools menu auto-hides with no game open ... not much point to it then
- since we aren't using RawInput's multi-KB/MS support anyway, input and
hotkey mappings remove KB0:: and turn MS0:: into Mouse::, makes it
a lot easier to read
- added mute audio, sync video, sync audio, mask overscan
- added video settings: saturation, gamma, luminance, overscan
horizontal, overscan vertical
- added audio settings: frequency, latency, resampler, volume
- added input settings: when focus is lost [ ] pause emulator [ ] allow
input
- pausing and autopausing works
- status messages hooked up (show a message in status bar for a few
seconds, then revert to normal status text)
- sub systems (SGB, BSX, ST) sorted below primary systems list
- added geometry settings cache
- Emulator::Interface cleanups and simplifications
- save states go into (cart foldername.extension/bsnes/state-#.bsa) now.
Idea is to put emulator-specific data in their own subfolders
Caveats / Missing:
- SGB input does not work
- Sufami Turbo second slot doesn't work yet
- BS-X BIOS won't show the data pack
- need XML mapping information window
- need cheat editor and cheat database
- need state manager
- need video shaders
- need driver selection
- need NSS DIP switch settings
- need to hide controllers that have no inputs from the input mapping
list
So for video settings, I used to have contrast/brightness/gamma.
Contrast was just a multiplier on intensity of each channel, and
brightness was an addition or subtraction against each channel. They
kind of overlapped and weren't that effective. The new setup has
saturation, gamma and luminance.
Saturation of 100% is normal. If you lower it, color information goes
away. 0% = grayscale. If you raise it, color intensity increases (and
clamps.) This is wonderful for GBA games, since they are oversaturated
to fucking death. Of course we'll want to normalize that inside the
core, so the same sat. value works on all systems, but for now it's
nice. If you raise saturation above 100%, it basically acts like
contrast used to. It's just that lowering it fades to grayscale rather
than black.
Adding doesn't really work well for brightness, it throws off the
relative distance between channels and looks like shit. So now we have
luminance, which takes over the old contrast <100% role, and just fades
the pixels toward black. Obviously, luminance > 100% would be the same
as saturation > 100%, so that isn't allowed, it caps at 100% now.
Gamma's the same old function. Gamma curve on the lower-half of the
color range.
Effects are applied in the order they appear in the GUI: color ->
saturate -> gammify -> luminate -> output.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- phoenix has added Window::setModal(bool modal = true);
- file dialog is now modal. This allows emulation cores to request data
and get it immediately before continuing the loading process
- save data is hooked up for most systems, still need to handle
subsystem slot saves (Sufami Turbo, basically.)
- toggle fullscreen key binding added (Alt+Enter for now. I think F11 is
probably better though, Enter is often mapped to game start button.)
- video scaling is in (center, scale, stretch), works the same in
windowed and fullscreen mode (stretch hides resize window option), all
in the settings menu now
- enough structure to map all saved paths for the browser and to load
BS-X slotted carts, BS-X carts, single Sufami Turbo carts
Caveats / Missing:
- Super Game Boy input doesn't work yet (due to change in callback
binding)
- doesn't load secondary Sufami Turbo slot yet
- BS-X BIOS isn't show the data pack games to load for some reason (ugh,
I hate the shit out of debugging BS-X stuff ...)
- need mute audio, sync audio+video toggle, save/load state menu and
quick keys, XML mapping information window
- need cheat editor and cheat database
- need state manager
- need to sort subsystems below main systems in load menu (basically
just see if media.slot.size() > 0)
- need video shaders (will probably leave off filters for the time being
... due to that 24/30-bit thing)
- need video adjustments (contrast etc, overscan masks)
- need audio adjustments (frequency, latency, resampler, volume,
per-system frequency)
- need driver selection and input focus policy (driver crash detection
would be nice too)
- need NSS DIP switch settings (that one will be really fun)
- need to save and load window geometry settings
- need to hook up controller selection (won't be fun), create a map to
hide controllers with no inputs to reassign
Tim Allen