Best Genesis/Mega Drive emulator for DC?

[DcSteve]

extract the warmtoe sbi using sbi inducer and then replace the bin and use bootdreams.

[johnson]

Just tried this release:


Save does work. The sound glitch is gone, but alas a new glitch has surfaced. During emulation of a game the sound has a ticking throughout the entire sound emulation. It is a fast tick tick tick tick type of sound. Almost like an old movie real sound.

Here is a list of titles that don't work or have oddities that I have seen BlackAura:

Games with missing graphics or marred:

Raiden Trad
Fire Shark
Phelios
Dragon's Fury
Zero Wing
Hellfire
Grindstormer
Bio Hazard Battle

Midnight Resistance has no music
Altered Beast, Beyond Oasis,Double Dragon 2, Gargoyles,Super Street Fighter 2 and MUSHA don't work at all.

Anyways, I might get around to posting on the compatibility forum later. Just thought i'd make you aware of some things that are bugged.

[alb3530]

extract the warmtoe sbi using sbi inducer and then replace the bin and use bootdreams.

Do u mean extracting the sbi Warmtoe posted in his first post http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ian_edward ... 090406.sbi , and then replace the bin file with that from BlackAura release?


By the way, when you arrive from work, please test Ghouls n Ghosts and let me know if the time indicator works perfectly.If i'm not wrong, in PVR3 the time came back to start after the first 10 seconds.Test also Super Street Fighter 2, and Sonic 2 in two player mode, to see if the split screen now is displayed correctly.

Sorry if i'm asking too much

[DcSteve]

i noticed that sound bug as well, but it only occurs if I have the volume up very loud. You can not hear the ticking if you keep the volume low.

[johnson]

Super Street Fighter does not work, however, Street Fighter 2 CE does.


Sonic 2 with 2 players does not work in either FAME or C68 hardware. Software it runs in C68, but slow due to software emulation and has missing graphics.

[BlackAura]

I've not noticed any ticking.

Split screen stuff just doesn't work. It needs special handling in the renderer, and there isn't any at the moment. Same for the high-res mode in Sonic 2's two player mode - that's why the graphics seem totally corrupted. It also needs a few hacks for mid-frame palette changing support, per-column V-scrolling (although I only know of one game - Rocket Knight Adventures - that needs it), per-line H-scrolling (which is used in a lot of newer games, but might slow things down too much), and a few other bits.

Basically, I know about most of the rendering bugs.

Can you stick a source delta out somewhere? I'm saying nothing about GPLs or anything - just want to play with it some more.

Sure. Would have done that already, had I not needed to get some sleep.

gpdc-src-20060726.zip

[alb3530]

Thanks, johnson.What about time indicator in Ghouls n Ghosts?Does it work fine after 10 seconds?

[Coagulus]

Sonic 2 two players uses interlace doesn't it? There aren't many games that use that. There are a few PC emulators that can't do this properly either.

[Dreamcast4life]

ok..ok.. I got it to work properly (finally) and I am shocked on how fast this emulator is.Thanks BA and WT for making this possible and I'd like to give another thank you to Fackue to pointing me in the right direction. the only complaint I have is making the rom list. Other than that. I am happy with how this runs. I beat SOR 1 and 2 it ran as good as the genesis. Thanks guys and if you happen to fix more stuff during this on going array of genesis updates, I say BRING UP. *feels spoiled*

[Quzar]

Is there any way to manually use malloc to get memory from a certain set of addresses? IIRC there is a block of pvr memory that is faster to access than the rest that reaper used to go on and on about. Oh, maybe that was in normal memory... either way it could speed up sw rendering I guess?

[alb3530]

Sonic 2 two players uses interlace doesn't it? There aren't many games that use that. There are a few PC emulators that can't do this properly either.

In PicoDriveN for Symbian UIQ mobiles, Sonic 2 split screen mode works nice.Of course, eventhough Dreamcast hardware is far better than any mobile, it doesn't mean it's easier to develop for this.I remember once BlackAura told Sonic 2's 2p vs probably will never work in Genesis plus


What about racing games like Super Monaco GP 2, and Out Run?Are they working fine now on this new build?

[Christuserloeser]

Streets of Rage II suffers from the 'sprite flickering bug' (as in PVR3).

What when you hit a enemy?Is the score indicator alright, or it's still jumping to 9999999 like in PVR3?

there isnt anything wrong with SoR2. Use C68K core and it runs perfect. PERFECT!

Yeah, that's true. The report you've quoted, alb3530, was based on the initial built. The lastest builts have fixed about 95% of all problems with the first - That means about 99,9% of all problems with the video emulation in previous releases have been fixed


BlackAura - Allow me to thank you for all your work on the HW renderer !

And I think setting FM_LFO_SUPPORT to 0 is fm.h might work.

It seems to continue to sound alright - but the code with that set seems far simpler - I'm probably missing something obvious (like having that option set to 0 is wrong in the extreme) but...

It'll work for most games, because most games don't use the LFO. For those games that do use the LFO, it'll make them sound weird. It's mostly used for vibrato / tremolo effects, I think.

I've not really traced through the FM code enough to know what effects the LFO emulation has on performance. I'm not sure that it does the LFO calculations if the game isn't using the LFO, but it may still have a performance impact. There has to be a reason that switch is in there, after all.

Would it be an option to check if the game uses the LFO and then just enable it on demand ?

Is there any way to manually use malloc to get memory from a certain set of addresses? IIRC there is a block of pvr memory that is faster to access than the rest that reaper used to go on and on about. Oh, maybe that was in normal memory... either way it could speed up sw rendering I guess?

That would be great! Can't be wrong to have the SW renderer as an alternative - though I really think that the HW renderer is already more compatible than Charles MacDonald's original SW renderer for GenesisPlus

on my wishlist:
[...]

I got one too... ^^

1) Optional 24khz sound (I wouldn't mind if it'd just be mono, but of course stereo would be nice too). The original MD/G had 22khz sound IIRC.

2) 4 player support (for Bomberman & Double Dribble)

3) .gen support (haven't tried if it really works with .gen, but I assume they're identical to .bin).

If you guys need any help in terms of non-technical UI design I'd love to help, I have professional experience in the field.

The GUI is beeing discussed here:
http://www.dcemulation.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=62701

I got the gpwt plain files and put about 50 or so roms in the ROMS folder and followed the directions on using the list compiler (changing extension to .TXT, replacing : with a space, etc.). I used Boot Dreams .61 and it boots up fine. I can use the buttons to change the settings on the emu, and the list of roms looks good, but when i select any rom and press start, nothing happens.

Keep the actual file names short.

About roms.txt, i personally did have to rename them one by one otherwise they wont appear in the menu.

I guess it would be great to have a little app that renames the ROMs and ZIPs them (as it seems the .BINs/.GENs need to have short names too (not just the .ZIPs) - Maybe something that removes the [!] [c] and maybe even everything behind a "," (or uses the capitals in each game's name to shorten them) but keeps the country flags, zips them and creates the ROMS.TXT based on the original names (before the renaming).

Isn't it just to download the last file BA posted and the thing is ready to go?Can someone assist me with it, please?

Will have a look into compiling a new SBI and a plain files version tomorrow.

What about racing games like Super Monaco GP 2, and Out Run?Are they working fine now on this new build?

Only the ones using polygons (e.g. Formula One) I guess. Road Rash and Monaco GP, etc. won't run. Same for Panorama Cotton btw.

OK, so I just tried the latest version with the C68k CZ80 Optimization. THIS VERSION IS FAR BETTER. Many games run much much smoother. This last build should be newsposted for its accomplishments. THANK YOU BA AND WARMTOE. Ive been waiting years for this build. Also, thank you quzar for your information contribution.

Allow me to second that: Thank you guys for your awesome work! Did I already mention that I really am completely blown away by how fantastic the HW renderer works now ?

[JohnnyB]

Incase you miss the thread over at dcemu.co.uk ...

I've made a default save icon that you're free to use.



I don't know if you need to use a certain background colour for transparency or what so it's just white right now.

edit: Are you guys planning on using the romlist.txt system from now on? I prefer a simple file browser personally, maybe something that only recognizes .bin/.gen/.smd/.zip files and hides the extension for a nice clean look. Just putting it out there.

[alb3530]

Thanks, Christuserloeser.I'll wait for your compilation.

JohnnyB, probably the rom list system is being used just cause the latest releases are for testing purposes only, for the developers to have a clue what games work and what don't.I believe the final release will have a very friendly file browser.

[Darksaviour69]

btw
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=30255
JohnnyB

I've made a default save icon that you're free to use.



I don't know if you need to use a certain background colour for transparency or what so it's just white right now.

[alb3530]

Another game i wish could be playable and that's been a big problem is International Super Star Soccer Deluxe.Has some one tried this game already to see if it works?

[Juan]

.gen support (haven't tried if it really works with .gen, but I assume they're identical to .bin).

They are, it's just a diff extension, and they work (at least zipped).

ISS Deluxe hangs after pressing start in the title.

[Pyrite]

At what resolution does this version run?

[johnson]

Blackaura:

I noticed that setting the Dreamcast to mono gives a more complete sound, but oddly Warmtoes release has better sound in stereo than your version in either stereo(which is oddly bad) or mono. It seems that songs break or sounds break when in stereo on DC with your version of GP. I studied this against each other side by side and was wondering if maybe the fix you stated might not be a fix but maybe a possible break. I am NOT criticizing you, just curious as to why the sound has been downgraded with the timing fix you made. Like I said tho, the sound seems more complete in mono :/

[jessman]

Has anyone gotten the weird video glitch in Ghouls N' Ghosts? The game is insanely fast and blue. BLUE!!!!!