vSNES

[creaothceann]

Since there seems to be still some interest...

Btw. do you get a strange delay when saving the INI file? It seems to only affect (some?) NT systems.

Code: Select all

v2.1

GUI: fixed the offsets in the ZST list
GUI: fixed MemViewer's offset not being zero upon program start
GUI: added support for Mode7 BG2, thanks to anomie
GUI: added custom cartridge dialog for loading ROMs & viewing their headers
GUI: added optional current directory in custom file dialogs for faster manual refreshing
GUI: added checkbox in options for keeping sprites disabled when loading a savestate
GUI: added code for updating the dialogs when the application gets focus
GUI: added more code to set lower-/uppercase text depending on un-/used priorities and BGs
GUI: added shortcut for the cart. viewer (F6) and for updating the INI file (F9)
GUI: added 8x and 1/8x magnifications for MemViewer and SceneViewer
GUI: added code for scrolling to OpenDialog's selected directory
GUI: added code for saving the preview bitmap via middle mouse button
GUI: replaced help window with HTML documentation for even more formatting
GUI: replaced some SceneViewer checkboxes with labels
GUI: changed OpenDialog's minimum height to 256 pixels
GUI: removed restore function from the buggy list editor for now
GUI: removed "DefaultExt" from "DlgSave_SNES"
SRC: fixed several bugs in the DMA/HDMA code
SRC: fixed one stupid bug in the ZST-saving code
SRC: fixed S9X DMA info import and export (at least partially)
SRC: added support for zipped ROMs (only first file in archive)
SRC: modified SNES.txt and the INI format
SRC: some other small changes; improved speed a tiny little bit
SRC: removed SNES docs and put them into their own package; added anomie's docs
SRC: removed code for loading resources, and put them back into vSNES.exe
SRC: added "_make" and "_dcu" directories

PS: I changed my name mostly because of another board I used to visit... nothing to do with the ZSNES board.

[adventure_of_link]

what, so you're aka illegal eagle ?

[MisterJones]

So you were always with us?

[Agozer]

Took you this long to figure it out?

Nice way to go undercover.

[MisterJones]

I never paid attention.

[snkcube]

Wow, it was you all this time.

[Starman Ghost]

I was wondering where you went.

[creaothceann]

Yeah.

Anyway...

Code: Select all

v2.2

- GUI: fixed oversight - number of digits in "bit" columns was 4x hex. digits instead of exact value
- GUI: changed SceneViewer to display the exact screen layering (instead of Mode1 layering)
- GUI: disabled "refreshing by cur. directory" by default since "refreshing on receiving focus" is much better
- GUI: adjusted the minimum height of the cartridge viewer
- SRC: fixed rendering of interlaced screens
- SRC: fixed two known memory leaks in Delphi's RTL source and included the fixed units
- SRC: added code to remove the previous cartridge before switching to another savestate
- SRC: added exception-handling to SceneViewer's HDMA code (eg. for Ogre Battle map screens)
- SRC: vSNES will now complain only once per cartridge about a missing ROM file

[kieran_]

Jesus. I had no idea!

[creaothceann]

vSNES22_exec.rar.zip

This is the latest executable, meant to replace the one in 2.2. vSNES will then be able to detect and load SNES9x savestate files with long filenames; my copy of zLib doesn't seem to support them.

I'll try to clean up the source, so there won't be new releases in the near future.

[creaothceann]

A WIP of the next version: vSNES25_exec

The source has been heavily changed; many "shortcuts" have been removed to make maintaining easier. Therefore some parts are much slower (though I plan to optimize the SceneViewer's GUI refreshing), and many bugs have been eridicated.

[Nightcrawler]

Hey, pop on buy http://www.romhacking.net if you can. (Officially opens Dec. 23rd) and make a news update there for VSNES. That's something I think should go on the site.

[creaothceann]

New WIP: Link
Most notable feature is probably the new code for the HDMA table viewer.

Nightcrawler:
It's not finished yet, but I'll check out the site.

[creaothceann]

New WIP: Link

List editor is in, and most of the hex. editor.

[creaothceann]

v2.5 is up, should be soon in the news too.

[creaothceann]

Same with version 2.51 ... this one fixes some issues of 2.5.

EDIT: Whoo, thread got sticky! Thanks!

[creaothceann]

And same with version 2.52. This one will probably be the last update for some time... until I have revamped the rendering engine to display things like Direct Color mode and Interlace correctly.

Link

[creaothceann]

Version 2.6 (beta)

Displays hi-res BGs (SoM1 & 2, Power Drive, RPM Racing etc.) and DirectColor BGs (Actraiser 2 map) correctly.
Screen rendering has still lots of features missing, eg. sprites and hi-res screens.

[creaothceann]

New beta at the same location: link

Low-res screen rendering is quite complete now, with only one sprite quirk missing (changing priority on successive scanlines) that would require true emulation. Mode7 BGs are left out; it probably isn't worth the work since many games change the matrix parameters via HDMA anyway. HDMA effects would be hard to do with the current code.

Next step: Hi-res screens.

[Jipcy]

Even though I don't use your program, I've been to your website and looked at its features and functions. It seems like a very quality piece of software. So I don't want you to get discouraged since you've been the only one posting to thread.

[Nightcrawler]

It IS a quality piece of software. It's by far the most informative and useful SNES savestate related utility there is. Not to mention the author takes great care to make sure it's functionality is as accurate as possible in rendering the savestate image and displaying the hardware state information. In that respect it's information is more useful than some documents sometimes!

It's very useful for more advanced hacking and anyone with some knowledge about the SNES hardware. Hell, even if you don't know anything about the hardware, it's a great learning tool!

It could also be useful for homebrew programming help. You can get a complete picture of what's in all the registers in the system and how things are set up at a particular time. You can't do that kind of thing in a debugger very easily.

I use it here and there in my projects to help me locate what kind of routines I need to look for to locate menu drawing functions etc. It will quickly tell me what background it's using, and what tilemap, tiledata offsets I should be looking for.

You can also edit the savestate and see the results without having to load it up in the emulator. This is also useful for certain kinds of changes. For example, you can edit some VRAM bytes and make sure you made the correct change to the image. Where in the emulator, your change might come and go too quickly to see.

I could go on and on with quite a few obscure and useful things you can do with such a program, but VSNES is severley overlooked and passed over by alot of people. Maybe it's because they don't understand what it is or how it can be helpful.

The only reason I haven't had much feedback for VSNES lately is because I haven't been doing any ROMhacking as of late being so busy with ROMhacking.net, so I haven't used the program in awhile.

I definitely recommend people take a look and see what this utility has to offer.

[creaothceann]

Thanks.

Not to mention the author takes great care to make sure it's functionality is as accurate as possible in rendering the savestate image

Note though that the results don't have to be right - I'm not the best coder.
Btw. sometimes the result depends on when the emulator made the savestate: SNES9x saves at the beginning of the frame, ZSNES at the end (or somewhere between if you're using the debugger).

[pagefault]

vSNES is nice. We are changing the ZST format soon to a packed string format using PSR. No more nasty offsets.

[creaothceann]

vSNES 2.7 has been released at the usual location. Changelog:

Code: Select all

SRC: added support for PNG files and Super Sleuth savestates
SRC: improved rendering (hi-res, mosaic and interlace screens, sprite RTO)
SRC: added support for DirectColor BGs to SceneViewer and MemViewer
GUI: SceneViewer now renders to 512x4?? by default, with soft blurring
GUI: added a bit more functionality to the custom file dialog windows
SRC: fixed detection of some ColorWindow settings
SRC: added code for saving and restoring the Preview window's zoom
SRC: added check for backspace key in CartViewer
SRC: fixed saving bitmaps to clipboard from the SceneViewer
SRC: various smaller fixes and corrections

pagefault:
I hope you don't use a compression that's hard to implement. What does PSR stand for?

[Jipcy]

You've exceeded the bandwidth limit for Geocities.

Any possibility of getting a better host? Seems like there are a few out there that would give you free hosting or something...

Like ROMhacking.net? Except that server's down too....