VBA-M

mudlord · Post by **mudlord** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 5:41 am

EDIT: Ah nevermind...

Anyway, here's the Mac OSX port of VBA-M. As its so new, some things may not be added, but they will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

Post by **Nach** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 11:26 am

DataPath wrote: I dunno - is 4.1 older? I think that's what Feisty Fawn used. I'm on gutsy now, but haven't tried compiling it lately.

GCC is at 4.2, and those of us who follow GCC development know that the 4.2 branch can't compile complex files with optimization. Case in point, GBA.cpp

http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=30052

Que · Post by **Que** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 3:47 pm

I hope this emulator gets ironed out and underway code wise. Very promising.

OmegaX · Post by **OmegaX** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 3:01 am

Hi, I want to thank Nach for porting vba-m to Linux so quickly. I downloaded the source code with this:

Code: Select all

svn checkout http://svn.bountysource.com/vbam/trunk vba-m

Revision 89 was checked out from svn and I run "make", it created the vba executable on the vba-m folder and it works at good speed and everything.
My question is if there is a way to install it (make install didn't work) and also where I can find the VisualBoyAdvance.cfg to configure it so I can use my joystick, filter, etc.
Also, is there a way to tell the emulator to use OpenGL? is it using it already? I ask this because in sourceforge code there was a patch for OpenGL support and you had to run vba with an option to activate it via command line or configure it in the cfg file.
Thanks in advance and thanks again for all your effort

Panzer88 · Post by **Panzer88** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 9:04 am

yay for the return, the GBA scene has been pretty bleak, the only one I've been following is no cash, and while a totally killer emu, not exactly feature rich.

mudlord · Post by **mudlord** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 9:55 pm

Also, is there a way to tell the emulator to use OpenGL? is it using it already?

In SDL it just seems to be using the standard SDL driver for Linux, no OpenGL in use.

I hope this emulator gets ironed out and underway code wise. Very promising.

Thanks for the support.

mudlord · Post by **mudlord** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 12:45 am

Added support for Kega Fusion video filters.

Note that the filters will only work in 16-bit color modes. Since this is consistent with VBASmooth behavior, I will not use 32-bit color hacks to rectify display corruption in 32-bit color mode.

DancemasterGlenn · Post by **DancemasterGlenn** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 8:50 am

This is one of the lazier posts I'll hopefully ever make, and feel free to tell me to just download the damn thing and find out for myself, but I just figured I'd ask from looking at the screencap, Nach... does the linux version have a gui at the moment? If not, is one planned?

mudlord · Post by **mudlord** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 11:04 am

There are plans for a Qt GUI in the future...

DancemasterGlenn · Post by **DancemasterGlenn** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 12:03 am

mudlord wrote:There are plans for a Qt GUI in the future...

Sweet, thanks for letting me know! The very idea of this project is epic in scale... a dream team reviving an amazing project. I'm looking forward to an eventual gui on top of that... you guys are doing an awesome job! Thanks for bringing VBA back.

DEFIANT · Post by **DEFIANT** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 12:36 am

I'm just looking forward to using only ONE VBA emulator...=]

mudlord · Post by **mudlord** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 7:23 am

The very idea of this project is epic in scale... a dream team reviving an amazing project. I'm looking forward to an eventual gui on top of that... you guys are doing an awesome job! Thanks for bringing VBA back.

No prob. We still have a long way to go, we have yet to add re-recording support and the extra hacking support found in VBA-H and other forks.

I'm just looking forward to using only ONE VBA emulator...=]

Thats mainly the whole point of this project. Its a attempt to accumulate all the good things about the other builds so that constant switching is not needed.

kick · Post by **kick** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 7:25 am

Just tried the latest SVN build (93) and ran into a few bugs:

- VBA-M always uses 100% CPU (when a rom is loaded and running) regardless of configuration or game loaded.

- "Motion Configure" doesn't assign gamepad analog axes correctly.

- VBA doesn't remember the last opened directory.

- When using VBA-M with FSkip=0 and CPU-intensive filters,if the requirements are high so the PC cannot keep running at 100% speed,VBA always skips frames instead of lowering the emulation speed below 100% as normal.

- Is there a way to use fast forward without skipping frames (like a throttle switch?)

- The DMG palette editor needs an upgrade to support all layers a la BGB/Gambatte.

mudlord · Post by **mudlord** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 7:37 am

- VBA-M always uses 100% CPU regardless of configuration or game loaded.

That is odd. On here, it usually operates around 1% CPU and fluctuates.

- "Motion Configure" doesn't assign joypad analog axes correctly.

I'll let DJRobX know this, since he was working on inproving the input code. You could also submit this list of bugs to the bug tracker too.

The OpenGL renderer always crashes VBA.

Very strange. The renderer works here, but for me key input won't work.

VBA doesn't remember the last opened directory.

Yeah, I know about this particular issue. It will be dealt with.

Is there a way to use 'turbo' (fast forward) without skipping frames (like a throttle switch?)

DJRobX expressed interest in adding this, so this is likely to be added.

The DMG palette editor needs an upgrade to support all layers a la BGB/Gambatte.

Ah alright.

BTW,what's the difference between the regular builds and the 'ACID' build?

That build was one of my own creation. It is a proof of concept of colour cycling effects in OpenGL. I was trying to emulate the view in which a person might be the influence of heavy drugs. Its a novelty build, and I'll most likely move it to a seperate directory since its clearly a novelty build and shall not be used for general use.

kick · Post by **kick** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 7:41 am

[EDIT]

Strangely,the ACID build's OpenGL renderer is working great here (no crashes) It's just the input that's broken in OpenGL mode.

LOL,I had *a lot* of fun with that build.
The psychedelic filter ain't bad at all.It's just missing a simple "wobble" effect for a complete experience

There was one little bug,however.The colors didn't reset to normal after disabling the psycho filters.

[EDIT]

mudlord · Post by **mudlord** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 7:49 am

There was just one little bug.The colors didn't reset to normal when disabling the psycho filters.

Yep, I know, I forgot to add the clearing commands to clear the colour buffer and render as normal. This is a simple fix. I'm working on other effects too, though all of them don't use shaders.

EDIT: Do earlier SVN builds exhibit the problem?

kick · Post by **kick** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 8:20 am

Unlike the normal builds,the ACID build slows down normally (<100%) on a relatively slow PC when CPU-heavy filters such as HQ4x are applied.

[[you can also simulate this on a fast PC by using the slow-ass GDI renderer]]

With build 93 there's a bug: speed still stays at 100%,but the graphics become really choppy.

Does the ACID build use the plain C or ASM-optimized HQXx filters?

[EDIT] Testing the earlier builds now.

mudlord · Post by **mudlord** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 8:35 am

The ACID build uses optimized assembler HQXx filters

kick · Post by **kick** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 8:47 am

This is really weird.OpenGL in Build 93 works now after I deleted the .ini and switched to OpenGL renderer before loading anything.
CPU usage is still at 100% and video becomes choppy instead of a speed decrease with CPU-heavy filters.

Same with earlier builds.

Post by **Agozer** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 10:14 am

Please add the ACID filters in the general build also.

mudlord · Post by **mudlord** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:24 am

With build 93 there's a bug: it still stays at 100%,but the graphics become choppy.

With that revision, DJRobX made some fixes for x64 building. Main changes were with the main filter file, DirectSound, joypad emulation, and the config options.

Please add the ACID filters in the general build also.

If the public wants these, will do.

Post by **Nach** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 12:28 am

Wanted to say that the SDL port compiles fine on both Mac OS X and Windows.

To build for windows, append PLATFORM=win or PLATFORM=win-cross if you're using a cross compile enviroment.

If you're using Mac OS X, I think you need SDL from Mac Ports or Fink or something. However Krade tells me he got it to build without issue.

Krade · Post by **Krade** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 12:45 am

It builds just fine if you installed SDL through MacPorts or fink, which will leave you with all the usual Unix libs and binaries like sdl-config.

You can't really distribute a Mac binary with MacPorts/fink dependencies, though, so if you want to link against SDL.framework instead, you'll have to hack your own sdl-config to link against the framework and the sdlmain stuff.

Some roms seem to white screen right after starting (Pokemon Ruby/Leafgreen), other work fine. Also, hitting cross to close the emulator window will write "Shutting down" to stdout and hang the emulator. Pressing ESC instead will exit nicely.

Post by **Nach** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 6:01 pm

HQ3x and HQ4x added to the SDL port. If you're using x86-32 and want assembly optimized varients, compile with USEASM=yes passed to make.

kick · Post by **kick** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 7:55 am

mudlord,how about including the amazing HQXxS and XxPM filters?
HQXxS (filters sprites as well) is the best-looking filter for low-res GBA graphics,while XxPM is similar to HQxX,but a lot faster.

Fullscreen refresh rate selection would be good to have as well.

Looks like the 100% CPU munch problem might have something to do with the broken triple buffer/VSync code.
I remember earlier kode54 builds also had this problem,so he did a couple of fixes/workarounds to get rid of those issues.One of those fixes was exclusively for ATI cards.

The choppy / frameskipping video at 100% emulation speed (with CPU-intensive filters) w/o frameskip might be connected to the new sound buffering/frameskip code.

Also,what's the point of having the same filters twice in VBA-M?
There are currently two ways of selecting the filters: via the 'magnification' menu and with the 'Select Filter' option.
Is there any difference between those filters? (hardware vs. software based?)
Choosing the 'Select Filter' and then enabling it gives me a corrupt (discolored,zoomed-in half-length) image in 16bit and 32bit mode,while the normal 'magnification' ones don't have this problem.

I've tested all builds up to b104.

P.S. Nice job with the BountySource tracker.