Gens4All Preview Released !

[Christuserloeser]

via DCEmu.co.uk

I am proud to announce the first release of the excellent Gens emulator to the Dreamcast. Chui, Stef and I have been working on this port about a year and a lot of assembly code had been translated into C. It is been a great effort but i really think it is worth it. At last, you can see all our finest in one shot.

The project is intented to bring high quality genesis emulation to the DC, not to mention game compatibility.


At the moment, this alpha version features the following:

- Two SH4 assembly engines especially design for the DC.
* FAME: Very fast M68000 emulation core written 100% in SH-4 assembly code.
* FAZE: Z80 emulation core written 100% in SH-4 assembly code.

- Accurate Genesis VDP emulation:
* DMA transfers with accurates timings
* Window plane
* Sprite plane
* Vertical Interrupt
* Horizontal Interrupt
* All rasters effects
* Highlight/Shadow effects
* Interlaced mode

- Raw binary (.bin) and interleaved (.smd) ROM format support.
- GZip, Zip and 7-Zip compressed file format support.
- YM2612 emulation core by Stef.
- PSG emulation.
- SDL Dreamcast implementation by Chui.
- The sound is being emulated but not output yet, though.
- On-screen menu.


Finally, I would like to thank Chui and Stef for everything they have accomplished to make this a reality.


The sources and binary for the DC can be found here:

http://chui.dcemu.co.uk/releases/gens4a ... rc.tar.bz2
http://chui.dcemu.co.uk/releases/gens4a ... review.rar

Cheers.

[Nico0020]

damnit, im out of CD-R's and out of money for the time being. Hope to check it out soon. Sounds great so far, keep us informed.

[Maturion]

I already got it. What a nice release.

[RMD]

All that optimazation and the sounds disabled by default? Guessing that means one should assume this is no better than anything already released. Which is dissopointing to say the least since chui is the best coder left in the scene.

[Christuserloeser]

Although there were some hints, I have to admit that I was pretty surprised by this release as well. I have also to admit that I was a little bit disappointed too.

However: Fox68k's goals sound great.

What we have here is a C version of Gens! - Remember that Gens was written in x86 ASM. Porting it from C to SH4 now will take a while and won't be easy.

The only "real" optimizations done in this build are the FAME/FAZE core duo in SH4. It kinda proves how fast FAME and FAZE are, and how slow the software renderer is.

To actually compare GenesisPlusDC with this preview of Gens4All, you will have to choose FAME as CPU in GPDC and disable the HW renderer. In Gens4All you'll need to turn "Sonido <On>".

Now run them side by side.


I have yet to do that but I am really interested in the difference.

[Link]

Hi,


To tell the truth with this release we can't even really judge..... I mean think... this is like what, the first release. Technically if you compare the first release of Genesis Plus to this you probably will see a huge difference in speed favoring this one. (I have that release) Compatibility is so high on this one that in truth I look for it to improve in Huge strides, not little ones. Heck let's even compare it to the first release of the Neo Geo CD emulator. It had no sound and was slow, very slow. In my opinion it merely having been the most compatible emulator for the Genesis on PC makes a huge difference. I already would say it's smoother then even the smash pack (Which I own the original disk of). The clock on my screen has reported 60fps on all the games I have tried and it already plays ones Genesis Plus doesn't. If this is the first alpha release, stop and think what this one will be in 6 months. Looking at the PC versions of both emulators I will say that in my opinion Gens on PC is far superior to Genesis Plus on PC. Taking into account the fact that clock speed between a PC and a DC has to be offset to be compared fairly The DC I read once is nearly as fast as about what? 500 mhz in a PC? Very good chance of full speed with sound. My one true hope here though is that they optimize the menu (which crashes a lot) and add saving and 6 button support (with the option of customizing your controls and using a true 6 button DC controller) Little Features I am sure they will think of in the end Either way this one has me Super excited Let's all just give our highest hope to these guys and our undying gratitude (like I already have Black Aura) Thanks for an absolutely awesome first early alpha release to check out guys


Your Friend in the DC emu scene,
Link

[|darc|]

All that optimazation and the sounds disabled by default? Guessing that means one should assume this is no better than anything already released. Which is dissopointing to say the least since chui is the best coder left in the scene.

Don't you ever have anything positive to say?

[Link]

Well I have a hunch the answer you are seeking is yes..... positively negative lol

[law56ker]

All that optimazation and the sounds disabled by default? Guessing that means one should assume this is no better than anything already released. Which is dissopointing to say the least since chui is the best coder left in the scene.

Give me reasons why we should assume this? Even if it doesn't end up being the fastest genesis emu out it really doesn't matter to me. These coders don't owe us anything and I appreciate their efforts.

[RMD]

All that optimazation and the sounds disabled by default? Guessing that means one should assume this is no better than anything already released. Which is dissopointing to say the least since chui is the best coder left in the scene.

Don't you ever have anything positive to say?

Chui is one of if not the best coder left in the scene. Will I have anything positive to say about this? Absolutly not. Coders dont owe us shit but I could give a fuck less about something thats useless and thats what this release is. Call me when its something worth writing home about. Its not dissrespect to chui its just alpha beta's and all these test are pointless shit. If you're not putting out something usefull save it till its more than a tech demo dont hype it and never finsh it. Still love chui for neo4all which has been pretty much good enough for a long time now. Chui is one of the best. This project just isnt worth shit yet.

[Link]

Hi again,


Lets just hope we see another release in the near future *if they fix up the menu it would make it a bit easier to test* So far the only two games I have tested that didn't work right are Gargoyles and Scooby Doo. (Please take note only the very first version of Genesis Plus WAY back when would play Gargoyles.) As far as I can see though......it plays smooth as silk and will play a huge list of games ( I have most of the US romset on my test CD) (only thing that won't seem to work is my T-Z folder lol and that is due to the menu problems) Great Alpha tho Lookin forward to watching it progress.



*Reply to RMD* If everyone held that opinion of Demo releases The DC scene would never have gotten off the ground. "The Journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step." Having been around in the DC scene since Nester DC was version 3.0 I already can see the potential in this release. I must say this opinion of yours reminds me of the whole Atani deal. Either way I would say Patience as well as graciousness is called for here. I would also say if they were nice enough to share their progress at this point you should at least appreciate it. Then again in this case I would say you are pretty lonely in your opinion as most know where Gens being ported will lead. Free world, you don't have to even mess with the thing till it reaches what you expect it to be. Just be warned, if you seek perfection it may be a while before you get that goal. Truth is though with Fox, Chui and Stef D working in tandem.......I am sure we will see very good results in the end.


End of Line,
Link

[law56ker]

Hi again,


Lets just hope we see another release in the near future *if they fix up the menu it would make it a bit easier to test* So far the only two games I have tested that didn't work right are Gargoyles and Scooby Doo. (Please take note only the very first version of Genesis Plus WAY back when would play Gargoyles.) As far as I can see though......it plays smooth as silk and will play a huge list of games ( I have most of the US romset on my test CD) (only thing that won't seem to work is my T-Z folder lol and that is due to the menu problems) Great Alpha tho Lookin forward to watching it progress.



*Reply to RMD* If everyone held that opinion of Demo releases The DC scene would never have gotten off the ground. "The Journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step." Having been around in the DC scene since Nester DC was version 3.0 I already can see the potential in this release. I must say this opinion of yours reminds me of the whole Atani deal. Either way I would say Patience as well as graciousness is called for here. I would also say if they were nice enough to share their progress at this point you should at least appreciate it. Then again in this case I would say you are pretty lonely in your opinion as most know where Gens being ported will lead. Free world, you don't have to even mess with the thing till it reaches what you expect it to be. Just be warned, if you seek perfection it may be a while before you get that goal. Truth is though with Fox, Chui and Stef D working in tandem.......I am sure we will see very good results in the end.


End of Line,
Link

Great post, right on brother!

[Rat King 64]

Homebrew developers have to release alphas's and betas in order to get the community to help them debug the code. No matter how good a coder is, he will always make mistakes. Instead of spending months trying to achieve perfection in a vacuum, Chui throws out an alpha and within a few weeks the scene can uncover most of his mistakes.

Like someone else said, you are free to stay away until the project is final. However, there are others who enjoy taking part in the process by testing the alpha and beta releases. Its people like them that this release is aimed at.

I am happy to see that someone is taking on the task of trying to make a top notch Genesis emulator for the DC. I had a copy of Generator once upon a time, and it worked well, but I would rather see a legit emulator rather than a commercial hack.

[|darc|]

I am happy to see that someone is taking on the task of trying to make a top notch Genesis emulator for the DC. I had a copy of Generator once upon a time, and it worked well, but I would rather see a legit emulator rather than a commercial hack.

Generator was a legit emu, the emulator you're thinking of is the Sega Smash Pack ROM Loader (also known as "SegaGen").

[Link]

Yep, Generator was totally legit.... it was also a very sad story because people hounded Atani so badly he just gave up. They kept comparing it to one that wasn't legal and wasn't really that good of an emulator.



With all that said though I am very optimistic over Gens4all. I so look forward to a full on true Phantasy Star Collection on DC >:) YAR!

[Neoblast]

Damn guys, It's the FIRST RELEASE and he considers it as an alpha.
Besides, he does this by free.
to be the first release is quite good, also... it has less graphic glitches than genesis plus dc