ISO Loader 0.8.x Beta + preview of DreamShell v4.0 RC 5

[CrisMod]

(07.10.2023 12:02)Freudi93 писал(а):  Yes, toy Commander, toy Racer have same Problem with cdda audio. All games with cdda audio make the same Strange Problem.

You can hear the Problem in start menu in the Game ans so on.

If i Took the Drive in a other va1 dreamcast all works perfect.
Also dragoncity has the same Problem....

I also think va0 is not auch a rare console because you can find it on eBay and also many of the Special Editions are va0

Ok I will test, I will try to record the sound as proof (if for some reason goes smoothly the sound), in mean time if you have some specific settings that I should test them , please let me know...

[CrisMod]

@Freudi93,

below are my settings and here are the audios of the games (Revolt, Toy Commander, Toy Racer): https://www.mediafire.com/folder/2zc876m...+Dreamcast

The audio was captured by my phone close to the TV where it also the Dreamcast, but the audio to me are fine, please listen and let me know if it's the same as your or not.

The unique thing, it's that with my settings that i have (I didn't test others please if you have other settings let me know exactly wich to use) in Revolt when I navigate to the main menu before start the race it seems that i don't have any background music (as you) but the selction sounds in menu and in game sounds effects, or what so ever it works everything without problems so no shutterings audios and so on. So the unique thing, it seems the Background Music on Menu selections, but maybe i need to change some settings (let me know yours pleace). Also my Revolt it's PAL version.

EDIT 1: My Revolt game it's fragmented because I added it in second time with other games to test, so not sure if i will defragment it will differ the resaults. On 11 > isoldr_v0.6.10_beta, the sound it's cracking because seems ASYNC and it's more fast that should be, this it create shuttering music background . Now I'm testing different things, so I cannot defragment the entire SSD to be sure with those resaults.

[Freudi93]

Yes i added a audio Sample above from the latest dreamshell.there you can hear a really ugly cracking sound.

[SWAT]

New build: https://github.com/DC-SWAT/DreamShell/re...0.0RC5-T28

I wanted to provide only switching of CDDA channels mode, but in the end I decided to make more flexible settings for all CDDA parameters so that you could combine them.
I also left the old ones so that you can clearly understand what they changed.
The adaptive channels mode does not work well everywhere, so I had to add it to the settings, since I could not do it universally and well for all games. This mode appeared a dozen builds ago.

Now you can fully combine old DMA/PIO/SQ/TMU params and new one the Channels mode.


I also made some improvements for SQ mode. I'm not sure if this will affect the work.
Need test presets and shortcut's too.

P.S.
Am I the only one who thinks it’s time to write a book about ISO Loader parameters? Haha.
I really want to get rid of them, at least most of them. But so far I can only produce them
In release I can remove the old style CDDA settings and leave only the extended ones. Or save it?

[CrisMod]

(09.10.2023 12:39)SWAT писал(а):  New build: https://github.com/DC-SWAT/DreamShell/re...0.0RC5-T28

I wanted to provide only switching of CDDA channels mode, but in the end I decided to make more flexible settings for all CDDA parameters so that you could combine them.
I also left the old ones so that you can clearly understand what they changed.
The adaptive channels mode does not work well everywhere, so I had to add it to the settings, since I could not do it universally and well for all games. This mode appeared a dozen builds ago.

Now you can fully combine old DMA/PIO/SQ/TMU params and new one the Channels mode.


I also made some improvements for SQ mode. I'm not sure if this will affect the work.
Need test presets and shortcut's too.

P.S.
Am I the only one who thinks it’s time to write a book about ISO Loader parameters? Haha.
I really want to get rid of them, at least most of them. But so far I can only produce them
In release I can remove the old style CDDA settings and leave only the extended ones. Or save it?

Swat, I defragmented my SSD just today, I can't keep up with you with the updates .....
Now, seriously, you are amazing thanks for this new and interesting build, I love to see many choices!!!

[Freudi93]

Amazing Work. I will Test it on va0 with ReVolt

[fafadou]

@dragoncity : let's go !

[dragoncity]

I tested quickly (I unfortunately too much work...!) and for the moment same problem.

[fafadou]

I'm not at home unfortunately (and my dreamcast still have reboot issue for now)

@Swat Are you still opposed to the idea to build two small loaders optimized for homebrew and wince games with cdda ?

Without low level, vmu, screenshot, no SQ and no PIO etc, only DMA for datas and dma tmu1 for homebrews
DMA for datas and dma tmu2 for wince ?
Just in order to see the difference, no need to build them for each version, not necessary to add them to the three you already built every-time.

Anyway this new design and improvement are very nice to optimized the preset, with all those features you made
Well done again dear @Swat.

"
Am I the only one who thinks it’s time to write a book about ISO Loader parameters? Haha.
I really want to get rid of them, at least most of them. But so far I can only produce them Big Grin
"

For sure dreamshell and loaders deserve an adventure book too


"In release I can remove the old style CDDA settings and leave only the extended ones. Or save it?"

The new style is truly better, you can remove the old one for me.
The 0.8.0 previous loaders are compatible with this isoloader version ?

[megavolt85]

(12.10.2023 00:23)fafadou писал(а):  Without low level, vmu, screenshot, no SQ and no PIO etc, only DMA for datas and dma tmu1 for homebrews

all homebrew use PIO for read data.
only one game (Hydra Castle Labyrinth) use DMA for stream music

[SWAT]

(12.10.2023 00:23)fafadou писал(а):  @Swat Are you still opposed to the idea to build two small loaders optimized for homebrew and wince games with cdda ?

Without low level, vmu, screenshot, no SQ and no PIO etc, only DMA for datas and dma tmu1 for homebrews
DMA for datas and dma tmu2 for wince ?
Just in order to see the difference, no need to build them for each version, not necessary to add them to the three you already built every-time.

For homebrew any loader works identically. No need reduce memory usage for it, because in low memory we have full 64 KB. So the extended loader (with CDDA but without additional features) is the best choice for CDDA games, or any loader for non-CDDA games. All the same and for WinCE.
The main problem in memory is for KATANA only. The main problem for WinCE is data flow. If I fix it somewhere, I'll fix it in all current loaders automatically.
The low-level mode is a completely different mode, it cannot be combined with CDDA so easily.
This will only be possible in a fundamentally new version of the iso loader, which I have in my minds, but it has a lot of work.
BTW, I figured out how to get rid of the buffer for CDDA in SQ mode, this will be exactly what is needed for such a new version. But I haven't implemented this yet, I'll have to take the time to add this capability to the current loaders first to test it.

(12.10.2023 00:23)fafadou писал(а):  The 0.8.0 previous loaders are compatible with this isoloader version ?

No, old builds of loaders can't handle Extended CDDA mode, only old-style mode.

[Freudi93]

Testes in va0 with Same cracking sound issued

Va1 works perfect so far and the New Option works nice.

Nur sad for me that va0 makes such Problems

[SWAT]

(12.10.2023 23:15)Freudi93 писал(а):  Testes in va0 with Same cracking sound issued

Va1 works perfect so far and the New Option works nice.

Nur sad for me that va0 makes such Problems

I didn't do anything to fix VA0. Until I have such a console, I’m unlikely to be able to fix anything.

[CrisMod]

(13.10.2023 06:38)SWAT писал(а):  

(12.10.2023 23:15)Freudi93 писал(а):  Testes in va0 with Same cracking sound issued

Va1 works perfect so far and the New Option works nice.

Nur sad for me that va0 makes such Problems

I didn't do anything to fix VA0. Until I have such a console, I’m unlikely to be able to fix anything.

SWAT, I need to test from my side with the new Loader 28, but if after all the test I will face the same Audio problem I may help you if I will attach the Debug of the game?

[Freudi93]

@SWAT would you Like to own one va0 Console? If yes i would Like to spend you some money dir buying one

[SWAT]

(13.10.2023 16:32)Freudi93 писал(а):  @SWAT would you Like to own one va0 Console? If yes i would Like to spend you some money dir buying one

It is not needed for personal use, but for testing it would be nice to get it along with mods.

[CrisMod]

@SWAT I need you help!!!!

I'm currently in the process of testing all the games of Dreamcast library, and I've encountered a puzzling issue with the game Looney Tunes Space Race. It's the only game that's giving me trouble when using Dreamshell/RetroDream. Essentially, after the ISOLoader text, the screen remains black, and the Datas Mod LED stays solid.

I'm running Dreamshell & RetroDream, the latest versions. I believe I've tried nearly every setting available, both my own and those that I found in internet by "pcwzrd13" and "dragoncity," but none seem to get the game running.

I've tested various optimized .gdi images of Looney Tunes Space Race, including:

- Looney Tunes Space Race USA (by megavolt85, here in the forum).
- Looney Tunes Space Race PAL.
- Looney Tunes Space Race Prototype.

All of them yield the same results. Do you have an image that you're certain works with your settings, I'd greatly appreciate it if you could share it with me. I have this issue only with this game, which leads me to suspect that there may be some compatibility problems with the images I have in conjunction with Dreamshell.

OR, do the GDI image files require an extra fix, similar to what was needed for the Atomiswave game 'Knights of Valour: The Seven Spirits'?
Because I encountered the same issue with the unique Atomiswave Knights of Valour: The Seven Spirits game when I found various images online (even from megavolt85), but none of them seemed to boot. After doing some research on the Dreamcast-Talk forum, I learned that only this title Atomiswave 'Knights of Valour: The Seven Spirits' required an additional fix to be applied to the Track04 file and different settings form others Atomiswave in order to work with Dreamshell.
Otherwise without this fix, the game wouldn't start. Is there a similar fix needed for 'Looney Tunes Space Race'?

[SWAT]

New build: https://github.com/DC-SWAT/DreamShell/re...0.0RC5-T29
Just need to check that nothing is broken and that it worked as before.

- New optimized algorithm for separating PCM channels (2x faster).
- New optimized algorithm for SQ mode with separating PCM channels in one process (also saves half of RAM for CDDA buffer).
- Updated KallistiOS to latest.

Now memory usage for CDDA looks like this:
- No IRQ and AICA DMA: 32KB CPU RAM and 32KB SPU RAM.
- No IRQ and SQ: 16KB CPU RAM and 32KB SPU RAM.
- IRQ and AICA DMA: 16KB CPU RAM and 16KB SPU RAM.
- IRQ and SQ: 8KB CPU RAM and 16KB SPU RAM.

For better perfomance should use DMA for both IDE and AICA SPU RAM. Because SQ as a PIO mode wastes CPU time.
But for some games we need to use SQ. And now SQ mode not only wastes CPU time, but also saves memory.
I came close to adding CDDA support to low-level mode. The new PCM splitting algorithm with SQ can be combined with PIO reading and completely eliminate the buffer in the CPU RAM. This will not be very optimal in terms of performance and will not work everywhere, but the main thing is that it will help games such as Looney Tunes.
But to do this, I really still need to fit the CDDA emulation code into the remaining approx 4 kilobytes in low-level mode. I'll leave this challenge for later )

@CrisMod
Looney Tunes works only from 8c004800 address with loader without CDDA.
For this game no free memory for CDDA emulation at all.
At least for current version of the loader.

[Freudi93]

(16.10.2023 14:08)SWAT писал(а):  

(13.10.2023 16:32)Freudi93 писал(а):  @SWAT would you Like to own one va0 Console? If yes i would Like to spend you some money dir buying one

It is not needed for personal use, but for testing it would be nice to get it along with mods.

Do you get one in your country? How can i spend you some money?

[fafadou]

Oh Swat well done, my dreamcast came back to life just few minutes ago, I'll try all of this tomorrow !
I changed my power supply and all it's ok now.
Just trying super runaboot with CF and like with my ssd, impossible to start a race, someone could share the good preset please ?
I say again it's with a previous version.

Something strange With RC4, I can use my SH4 overclocking and it doesn't work with RC5, dreamshell crash... Not a big deal, it's just an information.

I have a jap mother board, is it possible to know if it's a VA0 only with a photo ? edit : it's written, it's a VA1

Edit 2 : I finally did some quick tests :
Sega rally 2 same as before PAL not boot, jap freeze during the race 2 loading.
Sturmwind : read error since the boot, since 0.8.13 no better issue
Millenium soldier run now perfectly ! Congrats @Swat

Need more tests and I have to understand the new options we have like extended mode and channels adaptative and fixe.

Combined the low level with cdda if it's possible should give outsanding results too