DreamShell v4.0.0 Release

[chth96]

I tried most of japanese Aero Dancing games in Dreamshell v4.0 loader and It seems that Aero Dancing F(Also Known as Aerowings 2) has serious bug.
When I select Fighter pilot missions and select any step it displayed only black screen and It is not able to continue game..
(DMA true,0x8cfe8000,IP.BIN,heap behind the loader)
I also tried Aerowings2 in Dreamshell V4.0 But It has the same symptoms with Aero Dancing F.(displaying only black screen,After select Fighter pilot missions.)

[Elgor4uk]

(30.05.2024 05:31)chth96 писал(а):  I tried most of japanese Aero Dancing games in Dreamshell v4.0 loader and It seems that Aero Dancing F(Also Known as Aerowings 2) has serious bug.
When I select Fighter pilot missions and select any step it displayed only black screen and It is not able to continue game..
(DMA true,0x8cfe8000,IP.BIN,heap behind the loader)
I also tried Aerowings2 in Dreamshell V4.0 But It has the same symptoms with Aero Dancing F.(displaying only black screen,After select Fighter pilot missions.)

I also encountered the same problem. The solution helped:
1. On the main screen START GAME, select the game mode - Advanced and play in this mode.
2. Then go to the main screen (A+B+X+Y+START) and select the game mode - Normal.
3. Works only Advanced + Normal mode in the game Aerowings 2 PAL region. Does not work in the game Aero Dancing F in the Japanese region.

[chth96]

(30.05.2024 13:28)Elgor4uk писал(а):  I also encountered the same problem. The solution helped:
1. On the main screen START GAME, select the game mode - Advanced and play in this mode.
2. Then go to the main screen (A+B+X+Y+START) and select the game mode - Normal.
3. Works only Advanced + Normal mode in the game Aerowings 2 PAL region. Does not work in the game Aero Dancing F in the Japanese region.

Thank you very much for reply!
I tried your solution of pressing A+B+X+Y+START as soon as I select Fighter pilot missions and any step,and It return to main screen and now It is able to play any step in Fighter pilot missions.
It is possible to play most of Japanese Aero Dancing game with default preset in Dreamshell 4.0 (DMA true,0x8cf04000,default,heap behind the loader)
But It seems that Aero Dancing F is not able to play flawlessly without your solution.

[Ro Magnus Larsson]

(29.05.2024 07:52)SWAT писал(а):  

(28.05.2024 17:15)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  

(28.05.2024 12:41)SWAT писал(а):  

(26.05.2024 21:15)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  I found a weird issue with DS. I was trying to replace some of the desktop game shortcut icons with custom ones and it seems to only be able to load a few of them. They're all identical 128x128 PNGs. If I try and replace too many of them, nothing loads at all. I also noticed the date and time at the bottom are just 0s when this happens. Any idea what the problem is @SWAT?

Look at how many KB the image has and try to optimize it if your image icon is heavier with online optimizator like IlovePNG or other massive optimizators

The file system may have been damaged. Try formatting.

It's not that. I tried replacing the covers on a completely different CF card and the same thing happened. If I try and replace more than 3 or so, it fails to load any game icons and the date and time change to 0s. The default covers work fine but the custom ones don't.

Well, I need to research this.

(28.05.2024 17:15)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  On a related note, is it just me or do the Visual Concepts games not have any cover art on the disc?

You can mount image and look for 0GDTEX.PVR

[pcwzrd13]

I may have found a major bug with the screenshot feature. I tried taking a screenshot in the Agartha E3 Demo yesterday and the game just froze. I waited about a minute just to be sure but it was just completely frozen. I then shut off the Dreamcast and put my CF card in my PC to see if it took the screenshot anyway but I noticed the card was showing up as "RAW" and unformatted. I tried a bunch of stuff to repair it but had no luck. Then I tried formatting it and it wouldn't even do that. It's apparently completely dead. I don't know how that could have possibly happened but it seems to have been caused by trying to take that screenshot. Any ideas @SWAT? Luckily it's a Sandisk card with a lifetime warranty so I'm getting a replacement but you might want to look into this. I've never had an issue taking screenshots before but I haven't tried since the 4.0 final release.

I'm going to test the same scenario with a cheap CF card I have and see what happens. I'll update with the results.

Edit: So I tried the same thing with another Sandisk card and couldn't replicate the issue. I first swapped out my GD-ROM drive IDE mod for a different one just to rule out any hardware issues and tried taking a screenshot in Agartha three times. The game still froze but didn't cause any issues with the CF card. Then I put the original mod back in and did another three tests and again, no issues. Very strange. Maybe it was just a coincidence that the card died while taking a screenshot. I can't explain it. lol

[SWAT]

(22.06.2024 17:21)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  I may have found a major bug with the screenshot feature. I tried taking a screenshot in the Agartha E3 Demo yesterday and the game just froze. I waited about a minute just to be sure but it was just completely frozen. I then shut off the Dreamcast and put my CF card in my PC to see if it took the screenshot anyway but I noticed the card was showing up as "RAW" and unformatted. I tried a bunch of stuff to repair it but had no luck. Then I tried formatting it and it wouldn't even do that. It's apparently completely dead. I don't know how that could have possibly happened but it seems to have been caused by trying to take that screenshot. Any ideas @SWAT? Luckily it's a Sandisk card with a lifetime warranty so I'm getting a replacement but you might want to look into this. I've never had an issue taking screenshots before but I haven't tried since the 4.0 final release.

I'm going to test the same scenario with a cheap CF card I have and see what happens. I'll update with the results.

Edit: So I tried the same thing with another Sandisk card and couldn't replicate the issue. I first swapped out my GD-ROM drive IDE mod for a different one just to rule out any hardware issues and tried taking a screenshot in Agartha three times. The game still froze but didn't cause any issues with the CF card. Then I put the original mod back in and did another three tests and again, no issues. Very strange. Maybe it was just a coincidence that the card died while taking a screenshot. I can't explain it. lol

Apparently, your card simply died at the moment the screenshot was saved. To simplify, at the time of writing to card. The reason for this was hardware issues.
It is impossible to kill a hardware device programmatically, except for overheating, for which you still need to try very hard.

[fafadou]

Just have seen, there is a new gcc 14 now ! With a surprising short video of sonic mania for dreamcast.
Do you think it could improve the loaders of the great dreamshell v4 or the dreamshell itself dear @SWAT ?

[SWAT]

(04.07.2024 20:16)fafadou писал(а):  Just have seen, there is a new gcc 14 now ! With a surprising short video of sonic mania for dreamcast.
Do you think it could improve the loaders of the great dreamshell v4 or the dreamshell itself dear @SWAT ?

I've already checked, the size of the loaders is increasing, so I'll stay on 13.2 for now.

[fafadou]

Thank you for having a look

[pcwzrd13]

@SWAT Any chance you could add support for the "#" symbol in folder names for the ISO Loader? I have my games in alphabetized folders A-Z but I also have games that start with a number in a "#" folder. The folder just shows up as blank so I'm guessing the font doesn't have that character?

[megavolt85]

Yep, problem in front, need replace font or add symbol # to current

[SWAT]

(09.07.2024 00:47)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  @SWAT Any chance you could add support for the "#" symbol in folder names for the ISO Loader? I have my games in alphabetized folders A-Z but I also have games that start with a number in a "#" folder. The folder just shows up as blank so I'm guessing the font doesn't have that character?

This font is custom, there is no way to fix it because the sources have only Superdefault who started making this application along ago.
I only can replace it with a regular one.

[chth96]

I tested Star Gladiator 2 ,It seems that Although,It happened very rarely lagged frame,I think that It is quite playable.
You can try it with below preset of DreamShell v4.0.0.
(DMA none, 0x8c000100,IRQ handling,CDDA,auto address selection for Heap,DMA,DMA,TMU2,Fixed)

[fafadou]

Normally, all games should working with dma now ?

[SWAT]

(18.07.2024 09:48)fafadou писал(а):  Normally, all games should working with dma now ?

Yes.

[tanchik]

Огромное спасибо за столь колоссальный вклад в Dreamcast комьюнити и за 20 лет трудов. И вы потратили столько времени не зря, я считаю, что вы, без преувеличений, вошли в историю.
Если в 2022 году, впервые открыв для себя Dreamshell, я всячески топил за GDEMU, то сейчас, спустя 2 года, я даже не хочу смотреть в сторону GDEMU.
Низкий вам поклон.

[sergey2007]

(24.07.2024 12:55)tanchik писал(а):  Огромное спасибо за столь колоссальный вклад в Dreamcast комьюнити и за 20 лет трудов. И вы потратили столько времени не зря, я считаю, что вы, без преувеличений, вошли в историю.
Если в 2022 году, впервые открыв для себя Dreamshell, я всячески топил за GDEMU, то сейчас, спустя 2 года, я даже не хочу смотреть в сторону GDEMU.
Низкий вам поклон.

Почему Вы изменили свою точку зрения?

[tanchik]

(24.07.2024 19:22)sergey2007 писал(а):  Почему Вы изменили свою точку зрения?

Функционал гораздо лучше. Например, можно изменить регион консоли. GDEMU - это просто лаунчер игр, пусть и с 99% совместимостью.
Совместимость в ISO Loader так же очень сильно допилили за эти 2 года. Если в 2022 году я ловил множество багов в играх, то сейчас большая их часть устранена.
Кому нужен сугубо лаунчер игр и есть деньги лишние, то да, GDEMU в плане совместимости лучший вариант. Но если важен функционал, то Dreamshell выше GDEMU на голову.

[fafadou]

(24.07.2024 19:22)sergey2007 писал(а):  

(24.07.2024 12:55)tanchik писал(а):  Огромное спасибо за столь колоссальный вклад в Dreamcast комьюнити и за 20 лет трудов. И вы потратили столько времени не зря, я считаю, что вы, без преувеличений, вошли в историю.
Если в 2022 году, впервые открыв для себя Dreamshell, я всячески топил за GDEMU, то сейчас, спустя 2 года, я даже не хочу смотреть в сторону GDEMU.
Низкий вам поклон.

Почему Вы изменили свою точку зрения?

(25.07.2024 10:20)tanchik писал(а):  Функционал гораздо лучше. Например, можно изменить регион консоли. GDEMU - это просто лаунчер игр, пусть и с 99% совместимостью.
Совместимость в ISO Loader так же очень сильно допилили за эти 2 года. Если в 2022 году я ловил множество багов в играх, то сейчас большая их часть устранена.
Кому нужен сугубо лаунчер игр и есть деньги лишние, то да, GDEMU в плане совместимости лучший вариант. Но если важен функционал, то Dreamshell выше GDEMU на голову.

I want to say, I'm totally agree with all of that.

[sergey2007]

Почему Dreamshell, запускаемый с CD диска переключается на загрузку с HDD если на нем также установлен DreamShell? Зачем тогда отдельный загрузочный CD диск DreamShell?