Regen for Linux and Windows

[kode54]

What's the current list of sound problems right now? Anyone keeping track of these? I'm aware of sound problems with Sonic 3/Sonic & Knuckles.

Try Bubba 'n' Stix sound test BGM #5 (Spaceport), which uses lots of SSG-EG envelopes. Sounds like the envelopes are retriggering too fast.

[Gary_Oak]

Hi,

By the way, does the Sega Menacer emulation work on Regen? I tried using it on Terminator 2 - The Arcade Game but I had no luck.

Yes it does. But its not very good right now. Menacer works in Terminator 2. You have to connect Menacer to port 2 (from Redefine Keys dialog box) and a normal controller to port 1. But as I said, Menacer support is not very good right now so don't expect it to work like in Kega right now. The only game it works correctly in is Menacer 6-in-1. That said, I am working on fixing it .

I suppose it would be best to wait a little longer then. Thanks!

Regarding my researches, I discovered today that there's absolutely no sound in Eliminate Down (both BGM and SE), I tested the game with and without SuperHQ.

There's also a sound issue in Batman Forever, when we select "Play the game" the Riddler should say "If the bat wants to play, we'll play!" but instead, he just says "If the bat wants to play,".

[AamirM]

Hi,

Try Bubba 'n' Stix sound test BGM #5 (Spaceport), which uses lots of SSG-EG envelopes. Sounds like the envelopes are retriggering too fast.

I had this track running almost perfectly in a previous beta I posted here (I think it was Regen 0.91). But that was before Nemesis' research. I had to rewrite SSG-EG after which this track got broken.

Regarding my researches, I discovered today that there's absolutely no sound in Eliminate Down (both BGM and SE), I tested the game with and without SuperHQ.

There's also a sound issue in Batman Forever, when we select "Play the game" the Riddler should say "If the bat wants to play, we'll play!" but instead, he just says "If the bat wants to play,".

Fixed and fixed . Thanks for the reports again.

stay safe,

AamirM

[King Of Chaos]

Wow, sound issues fixed fast, I like that. I'll do some sound testing in a bit for a couple games. That basically leaves Sonic 3/S&K overall. I know a couple good ones to test, including X-Men.

Speaking of which, I just tested X-Men (U) [!] and the intro sounds kinda funny compared to Kega, which gets right in this case.

[kode54]

Hi,

Try Bubba 'n' Stix sound test BGM #5 (Spaceport), which uses lots of SSG-EG envelopes. Sounds like the envelopes are retriggering too fast.

I had this track running almost perfectly in a previous beta I posted here (I think it was Regen 0.91). But that was before Nemesis' research. I had to rewrite SSG-EG after which this track got broken.

Some other things got broken with the MAME core I'm using in foo_gep when I integrated the latest version, but not so much with SSG-EG. More to do with some envelopes not sounding right, for instance the first sounds in that Spaceport track, and attacks being a bit too slow in a case posted here. Something fishy going on, or I copied and pasted something wrong.

[Gary_Oak]

Only one finding today. In Mega Turrican (USA), the Data East voice sounds a little acute in comparison to KEGA Fusion, the same applies to the Factor 5 sound effect. Tested with and without SuperHQ.

[King Of Chaos]

Data East? Might want to test Dashin' Desperadoes and Captain America And The Avengers, since they're both Data East games too.

[AamirM]

Hi,

Some other things got broken with the MAME core I'm using in foo_gep when I integrated the latest version, but not so much with SSG-EG. More to do with some envelopes not sounding right, for instance the first sounds in that Spaceport track, and attacks being a bit too slow in a case posted here. Something fishy going on, or I copied and pasted something wrong.

MAME's latest FM core will be in the latest MESS. If Alisia's Dragon sounds wrong there too then there is definitely something wrong with SSG-EG changes otherwise you copy pasted something wrong .

Only one finding today. In Mega Turrican (USA), the Data East voice sounds a little acute in comparison to KEGA Fusion, the same applies to the Factor 5 sound effect. Tested with and without SuperHQ.

Fixed again . Turned out to be a timing problem with 68k and not the YM core itself.

Speaking of which, I just tested X-Men (U) [!] and the intro sounds kinda funny compared to Kega, which gets right in this case.

I was again unable to detect any difference. But that maybe because my latest changes may have fixed it and Sonic 3 and Knuckles as well. But can't be sure since I don't know what the problem was in the first place .

stay safe,

AamirM

[King Of Chaos]

Ooooh, do I sense another WIP beta release?

[neo_bahamut1985]

Ooooh, do I sense another WIP beta release?

That's what it sounds like me! Keep up the good work, AamirM!

[AamirM]

Hi,

Ooooh, do I sense another WIP beta release?

I finished adding true fullscreen support and a small cheat editor. Fullscreen support is working very awesomely. Video is now as smooth as Vida Guerra's butt. I am now adding quite comprehensive aspect correction options. So if I can finish that, then I'll release a beta tommorrow.

stay safe,

AamirM

[King Of Chaos]

Video is now as smooth as Vida Guerra's butt.

That made me laugh. Oooooh, cheat editor? Will a future beta include the quick feature of auto-loading cheat files, if they're named the same as the ROM file?

[AamirM]

Hi,

Will a future beta include the quick feature of auto-loading cheat files, if they're named the same as the ROM file?

Yes, I already did it. Along with updated NTSC filter plugin which allows control over Hue, Brightness, Sharpness etc.. I forgot to mention these.

stay safe,

AamirM

[Gary_Oak]

Found a lot of things today, most of them are sound related:

Sound:

Revenge of Shinobi: I hear a "clip" when I use the thunder ninjitsu, is this supposed to be normal or is it just my imagination?

Mickey Mania: Mickey's voice is a little more acute in comparison to KEGA Fusion (eg: when he says "sorry").

Lion King: Just like in Mickey Mania but with Timon's voice when he says "It starts.".

Graphics:

Out of this World: The bottom of the screen flickers a lot in some places (eg: password screen).

Emulator:

1 - Sometimes, the emulator's sound stops working after loading another ROM.

2 - Pressing Alt+Enter while in fullscreen causes a problem with the visibility of the mouse cursor when pressing escape to revert to windowed mode (also, the window becomes maximized when doing so).

That about covers it all, anyone has suggestions on what could I try next with Regen? It's because I'm running out of leads and I can't think of any particular games where I could test Regen's sound component and I really wanted to keep tracking bugs within the emulator. Finding bugs means making fixes and making fixes means better results (hopefully) .

By the way AamirM, what exactly do you mean with "True Fullscreen"? As far as I'm aware, the fullscreen we can activate isn't a maximized window but an actual fullscreen, did you mean changing fullscreen resolutions?

[AamirM]

Hi,

Sound:

Revenge of Shinobi: I hear a "clip" when I use the thunder ninjitsu, is this supposed to be normal or is it just my imagination?

Mickey Mania: Mickey's voice is a little more acute in comparison to KEGA Fusion (eg: when he says "sorry").

Lion King: Just like in Mickey Mania but with Timon's voice when he says "It starts.".

These all should be fixed now .

Out of this World: The bottom of the screen flickers a lot in some places (eg: password screen).

Yes, you are right. This a VDP timing problem. I have worked a lot on VDP recently and I am a bit tired right now on working on it again so until then this bug will be there . I am pretty sure I can fix this but prehaps I will fix it in 0.95 or something . Hopefully this isn't big issue for anybody. Thanks for the report though.

By the way AamirM, what exactly do you mean with "True Fullscreen"? As far as I'm aware, the fullscreen we can activate isn't a maximized window but an actual fullscreen, did you mean changing fullscreen resolutions?

Yes it is. I mean, right now fullscreen is nothing but normal Regen window being maximized and making it borderless. It seems like fullscreen but it isn't . Things like tripple buffering is not possible like this. So by "true fullscreen", I mean now we really change the display mode, enable triple buffering (if available), and go into that mode. There isn't any window now. All (full) the screen is in my control now .

Btw, just finished adding aspect ratio correction feature someone requested here before. I can't believe its working flawlessly on the first go. But I am sure you ppl will find bugs in it so I guess we'll see .

stay safe,

AamirM

[King Of Chaos]

Btw, just finished adding aspect ratio correction feature someone requested here before. I can't believe its working flawlessly on the first go. But I am sure you ppl will find bugs in it so I guess we'll see .

If we do, it'll be to make the emulator more perfect. You mentioned a cheat searcher too, is it ready for some testing?

[King Of Chaos]

Ok, I've done some more sound related testing with X-Men (U) [!], and I want to bring something to your attention.

In the second level part way with the music change (Shi'ar Empire) the music with the 'chorus' sounds different in Regen and Kega. Here's a couple savestates to check out which can be downloaded here. As far as I can remember (and I can remember the tune well), Kega gets it right and you can't hear some of the instruments during this period.

Also, found a couple of possible bugs dealing with savestates.

-When you save state as into another directory, it saves it without an extension.
-When you load a savestate, it messes up the music until it recycles.

I'll be resuming my sound testing after the next beta, which I'll test X-Men, X-Men 2, Vectorman, Spider-Man Vs. The Kingpin, Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Sonic 2, Sonic 3/Sonic & Knuckles and The Adventures Of Batman & Robin in addition to a couple more games.

[Gary_Oak]

Hi,

Sound:

Revenge of Shinobi: I hear a "clip" when I use the thunder ninjitsu, is this supposed to be normal or is it just my imagination?

Mickey Mania: Mickey's voice is a little more acute in comparison to KEGA Fusion (eg: when he says "sorry").

Lion King: Just like in Mickey Mania but with Timon's voice when he says "It starts.".

These all should be fixed now .

Out of this World: The bottom of the screen flickers a lot in some places (eg: password screen).

Yes, you are right. This a VDP timing problem. I have worked a lot on VDP recently and I am a bit tired right now on working on it again so until then this bug will be there . I am pretty sure I can fix this but prehaps I will fix it in 0.95 or something . Hopefully this isn't big issue for anybody. Thanks for the report though.

By the way AamirM, what exactly do you mean with "True Fullscreen"? As far as I'm aware, the fullscreen we can activate isn't a maximized window but an actual fullscreen, did you mean changing fullscreen resolutions?

Yes it is. I mean, right now fullscreen is nothing but normal Regen window being maximized and making it borderless. It seems like fullscreen but it isn't . Things like tripple buffering is not possible like this. So by "true fullscreen", I mean now we really change the display mode, enable triple buffering (if available), and go into that mode. There isn't any window now. All (full) the screen is in my control now .

Btw, just finished adding aspect ratio correction feature someone requested here before. I can't believe its working flawlessly on the first go. But I am sure you ppl will find bugs in it so I guess we'll see .

stay safe,

AamirM

Sounds awesome ! I'll be glad to fully test those features to see if there are any problems that can be fixed. By the way, how's the auto-IPS patching (soft-patching) feature coming along? I know there's an auto-UPS patcher in Regen already, but I could never test it because I don't know how to get or make UPS files, besides, many people still seem to prefer IPS files rather than UPS (IMHO), are there any advantages in using UPS instead of IPS?.

[King Of Chaos]

Eh, it shouldn't be hard to convert IPS patches over to UPS. UPS is superior compared to IPS. If you want more information why, read this topic.

[DancemasterGlenn]

Will the fullscreen and aspect-ratio changes eventually roll over into the linux build? That's some stuff I still don't have in gens, so I'm always playing in windowed mode...

[AamirM]

Hi,

If we do, it'll be to make the emulator more perfect. Very Happy You mentioned a cheat searcher too, is it ready for some testing? Smile

It is there but I am not enabling it because its too damn slow. I'll be rewriting this again. But it should be there in the 0.93 release.

Ok, I've done some more sound related testing with X-Men (U) [!], and I want to bring something to your attention.

In the second level part way with the music change (Shi'ar Empire) the music with the 'chorus' sounds different in Regen and Kega. Here's a couple savestates to check out which can be downloaded here. As far as I can remember (and I can remember the tune well), Kega gets it right and you can't hear some of the instruments during this period.

Also, found a couple of possible bugs dealing with savestates.

-When you save state as into another directory, it saves it without an extension.
-When you load a savestate, it messes up the music until it recycles.

I'll be resuming my sound testing after the next beta, which I'll test X-Men, X-Men 2, Vectorman, Spider-Man Vs. The Kingpin, Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Sonic 2, Sonic 3/Sonic & Knuckles and The Adventures Of Batman & Robin in addition to a couple more games.

Thanks for the report. I'll look into them. Although I am unable to download the savestates (download limit exceeded??).

Sounds awesome Very Happy ! I'll be glad to fully test those features to see if there are any problems that can be fixed. By the way, how's the auto-IPS patching (soft-patching) feature coming along? I know there's an auto-UPS patcher in Regen already, but I could never test it because I don't know how to get or make UPS files, besides, many people still seem to prefer IPS files rather than UPS (IMHO), are there any advantages in using UPS instead of IPS?.

UPS patching is already in there but its not complete yet so it won't work yet. About IPS, well, I don't think I am going to add it now because its twisted . UPS is easier and works well. Byuu has a UPS patch creator availabe from his page.

Will the fullscreen and aspect-ratio changes eventually roll over into the linux build? That's some stuff I still don't have in gens, so I'm always playing in windowed mode...

If I see a way to do it in linux then it will be added. Right now GUI is the priority for me in linux along with getting OGL and Xvideo working because SDL is slow. Now I understand why people cursed SDL .

stay safe,

AamirM

[AamirM]

Hi,

Okay, the new beta is ready. I want the fullscreen support tested for any bugs. Also test out the new aspect correction option. Many sound related fixes were made so check them out as well. Download from here. Comments, bugs (except VDP related ), suggestion etc.. are welcomed.

stay safe,

AamirM

[Gary_Oak]

I tried setting the fullscreen resolution to 1280x1024 but the emulator won't let me (my computer's resolution is even set to 1280x1024) and the maximum I can use is 1280x768, am I doing something wrong?

[King Of Chaos]

Ok, been playing with the new beta for a little bit...

Fullscreen works damn nicely! The new NTSC plugin is working like a dream too! And I like the little nifty cheat editor (oh, and the auto-cheat load function has more or less ended the bug where when you go to open a ROM, it'll load the cheat directory). Oh, but so you're aware, going into fullscreen and back kills the Regen window icon and the Show FPS feature (possibly others too).

But I'd like to point out Turbo Mode doesn't work when VSync is enabled.

Sound has improved dramatically in this version. A couple things to point out though so far...

Sonic 3 & Knuckles - The Sega sound sounds a little muffled (and it pops big time), and the issue with the plane in Angel Island Zone Act 2 still exists with popping and muffling. The good news is, the other music sounds more or less like Kega's. I also turned off SuperHQ and set it to 44100Mz and took a listen to the music compared to Kega's and when it's off and downsampled like that, it sounds better.

Spider-Man Vs. The Kingpin - Still has pops here and there, and the high pitched sound in the warehouse level still exist (which it does crackle).

Overall sound wise, I hear pops and crackles at various times in games I don't remember hearing. But I think Adam from the SpritesMind forums might be on to something. It's kinda hard to listen for differences when Kega doesn't sample to 48000 in HQ mode like Regen does. Well, unless somebody knows a trick on how to do that in Kega of course. Either way, if it was possible to match both up, I could get WAV dumps and do some comparisons.

I'll be doing more testing throughout the day and will post anything I may find. Good work as always man! I'll probably upload the Regen bundle pack a little later, along with an updated History file, Readme file and the new NTSC plugin.

[King Of Chaos]

Found another possible issue (sound skip).

For the heck of it, I loaded up Michael Jackson's Moonwalker (REV00) [!] and went into the sound test and listened to the music, and the song Billie Jean when it plays at certain points, the sound seems to skip.

And in Robocop Vs. The Terminator, the sound of the flame thrower (in game) doesn't sound right. If needed, I can provide save states for Regen and Kega.