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

[Freudi93]

Today my IDE to CF Card Adapter arrived. I test this with my va0 and i also getbsame cracking sound on CDDA Games. So there must be something different between va1 and va0, but what is the question

[SWAT]

Ding-ding, new release: https://github.com/DC-SWAT/DreamShell/re...0.0RC5-T31

- Improved accuracy for G2 bus access for CDDA.
- Fixed CDDA channel restore algorithm.
- Minor fixes and improvements for CDDA.

SOF plays CDDA, but if you chose TMU2 the game will be very slow and show LAN cable connection icon haha If change to TMU1 it's fine, but music in gameplay hangs.
Fixed one bug for Guilty Gear X, but due to hardware conflicts it's seems impossible to fix from ISO loader side. Looks like the game cleanup sound memory every time.
I've run a number of tests and it seems like stability has improved and there's slightly less distortion. It should be better during online play as well but I'm not tested.

[fafadou]

Great @Swat, I tried these this evening

Hope you have time to check start.lua and removed the start disc rotation too.

The only strange thing is Soldier of fortune, for me it doesn't have cdda, and in dragoncity's list is mentioned with no cdda and run with NO DMA sync 0x8cfe8000. I'll check this game from my side.

[SWAT]

(27.10.2023 05:47)CrisMod писал(а):  @SWAT, I wanted to ask you 4 simple and friendly questions:

1. In your latest version of Dreamshell/ IsoLoader 8.30 (I haven't had a chance to read the logs yet), have you by any chance improved the UI experience? Because I'm not sure if it's just my perception, but I've noticed that the UI feels smoother in DreamShell.

(24.10.2023 14:08)SWAT писал(а):  Also I update KOS and use new function for transfer DS screen texture to PVR memory, it's x5 faster that old, so UI should be a bit faster too.

(27.10.2023 05:47)CrisMod писал(а):  2. I've also noticed the addition of the 'OGG' folder in your latest version, which contains some music. Does DreamShell use these OGG music files somewhere?

It's my test asset for testing PCM. I'm just forgot remove it.

(27.10.2023 05:47)CrisMod писал(а):  3. If I want to test ISOs, do I have to do it exclusively through RETRODREAM? When I try to select an ISO file with the pointer in IsoLoader, it triggers an error with a full Terminal screen and a series of process-related messages in the background and doesn't allows me to continue for settings and so on... Why can't IsoLoader handle ISOs the way it does with other GDI/OPT & CDI images, and am I forced to use RETRODREAM for testing the ISOs?

ISO doesn't works?? It's news.

(27.10.2023 05:47)CrisMod писал(а):  4. Why doesn't your GitHub page (for example) have a folder with the entire history of the firmware versions that IsoLoader has used and is using? From the earliest versions you created to the most recent 8.30 (today's release). Even if you consider them unnecessary, for someone entering this world for the first time (or for someone like me that like to test the stuff), they have to rely on extensive searching and find them (fortunately) on websites like Dragoncity, which has collected various loaders that can be used in case of problems with the latest ones. This is especially crucial because if the latest firmware loader doesn't work with some games, those who aren't proficient in tweaking these things might mistakenly believe that DreamShell doesn't work with all games, which can discourage newcomers.

I'm trying to make a universal iso loader, and not create a bunch of different ones. Someone is collecting them.

[SWAT]

(27.10.2023 14:36)fafadou писал(а):  Great @Swat, I tried these this evening

Hope you have time to check start.lua and removed the start disc rotation too.

Should be fine now.

(27.10.2023 14:36)fafadou писал(а):  The only strange thing is Soldier of fortune, for me it doesn't have cdda, and in dragoncity's list is mentioned with no cdda and run with NO DMA sync 0x8cfe8000. I'll check this game from my side.

I run it with all DMA. Just need change a timer if you don't like get network icon in slowmo ) This game plays CDDA track only in main menu.

[CrisMod]

Цитата:ISO doesn't works?? It's news.

Thank you to reply all questions , well noted .
And if you need the Video of what I tried to explain about ISOs, please let me know that I will do to show you....

[SWAT]

(27.10.2023 14:46)CrisMod писал(а):  

Цитата:ISO doesn't works?? It's news.

Thank you to reply all questions , well noted .
And if you need the Video of what I tried to explain about ISOs, please let me know that I will do to show you....

I clicked on few track03.iso and it's fine.

[CrisMod]

(27.10.2023 14:50)SWAT писал(а):  

(27.10.2023 14:46)CrisMod писал(а):  

Цитата:ISO doesn't works?? It's news.

Thank you to reply all questions , well noted .
And if you need the Video of what I tried to explain about ISOs, please let me know that I will do to show you....

I clicked on few track03.iso and it's fine.

You should try the entire image single ISO game, not the tracks from the GDI....

[Freudi93]

@SWAT is in this Release something i should Test on va0 Dreamcast?

[fafadou]

(27.10.2023 14:41)SWAT писал(а):  I'm trying to make a universal iso loader, and not create a bunch of different ones. Someone is collecting them.

I know him because, it's me

(27.10.2023 14:45)SWAT писал(а):  

(27.10.2023 14:36)fafadou писал(а):  Great @Swat, I tried these this evening

Hope you have time to check start.lua and removed the start disc rotation too.

Should be fine now.

(27.10.2023 14:36)fafadou писал(а):  The only strange thing is Soldier of fortune, for me it doesn't have cdda, and in dragoncity's list is mentioned with no cdda and run with NO DMA sync 0x8cfe8000. I'll check this game from my side.

I run it with all DMA. Just need change a timer if you don't like get network icon in slowmo ) This game plays CDDA track only in main menu.

thank you very much again for explain, I'll try it this evening.

[SWAT]

(27.10.2023 14:58)Freudi93 писал(а):  @SWAT is in this Release something i should Test on va0 Dreamcast?

Yeah why not, it can be affected.

[pcwzrd13]

Did quite a bit of testing with build 31. Didn't really see any major change in most games but Dave Mira Freestyle BMX works now! Although I hadn't tested that one since build 25 so I don't know which build fixed it. Before it wouldn't boot at all though, even with CDDA disabled. Now it boots and works great!

[fafadou]

(27.10.2023 14:12)SWAT писал(а):  Ding-ding, new release: https://github.com/DC-SWAT/DreamShell/re...0.0RC5-T31

- Improved accuracy for G2 bus access for CDDA.
- Fixed CDDA channel restore algorithm.
- Minor fixes and improvements for CDDA.

SOF plays CDDA, but if you chose TMU2 the game will be very slow and show LAN cable connection icon haha If change to TMU1 it's fine, but music in gameplay hangs.

This game shows how loaders are improved now, using 0.6 loaders, it was impossible to run it with DMA enable, and with cdda. Now we have TMU1, and DMA run with this game
I notice too the same LAN picture with TMU2, this game is quite strange, I'm not sure but it is compatible with second thumbstick and it's not a wince game.

with tmu1, musics have issues with DMA enable, without dma for datas, no musics and voices are not good.
Not playable with IRQ too.

Same thing with "behind the loader option" enable.

It's perfectly playable in low level mode, but this mode doesn't check the langage in the bios, it's always in english... It's probably one of the reason why the low mode is so efficient. Do you think it's patchable ?

(27.10.2023 14:12)SWAT писал(а):  Fixed one bug for Guilty Gear X, but due to hardware conflicts it's seems impossible to fix from ISO loader side. Looks like the game cleanup sound memory every time.
I've run a number of tests and it seems like stability has improved and there's slightly less distortion. It should be better during online play as well but I'm not tested.

I heard the same shotgun sound with shenmue 2 with cdda, it's probably the same cdda management. But like guilty gear, it's more stable and better cdda quality

Others tests :
kao the kangaroo : still freeze with DMA TMU1.
Zia : not boot with with dma TMU1 enabled. Else run well in SQ. Still distorsion (looks the distorsion is less present with DMA tmu1 than SQ TMU1)
deep fighter : no boot
Virtua cop 2 : boot again with cdda (no boot since 0.8.28) but still rainbow glitches.
Sega rally 2 jap same as before freeze during loading of race 2.

Now the navigation through dreamshell and isoloader is totally perfect !

Just ideas in my noob mind :

(25.10.2023 14:40)SWAT писал(а):  Also I have some idea to improve PCM loading a bit more if the file is defragmented... Perhaps this will give something. Or not, I should check it.
Lots of ideas but not enough time in the day.

Probably I misunderstanding and mix by mistake PCM and data transfert but I'm afraid it would be necessary to avoid rainbow glitches with wince game without low level ?

It's still a good idea to made it, but do you think heap features are still necessary ? Now with all your improvements, we don't use them anymore.
If we can reach the boot of sync 0x8c004800 games, for me it deserves a try to remove it.

You can save 4 bytes removing "beta", in the loader text

[pcwzrd13]

Did some more testing today. Again, no big changes in most of the games that have issues but there are a couple changes:
 
First the bad news: Bang Gunship Elite doesn't work anymore. The game will freeze randomly, usually right after starting a game. It worked fine last time I tested it with build 25.

Good news: The music doesn't skip during loading screens anymore with Striker Pro 2000.

@SWAT Maybe you can look into more general loader optimizations for the next build? There are a few games that won't boot at all including Deep Fighter, KISS Psycho Circus, Spirit of Speed, and Bust-A-Move 4. The last two will boot but only with low-level. I'm sure you have some ideas to optimize the code even more.

[SWAT]

(28.10.2023 05:57)fafadou писал(а):  Probably I misunderstanding and mix by mistake PCM and data transfert but I'm afraid it would be necessary to avoid rainbow glitches with wince game without low level ?

There have been no changes affecting WinCE for a long time.

(28.10.2023 05:57)fafadou писал(а):  It's still a good idea to made it, but do you think heap features are still necessary ? Now with all your improvements, we don't use them anymore.
If we can reach the boot of sync 0x8c004800 games, for me it deserves a try to remove it.

The heap uses all the time. It just works well in automatic mode so you don't notice. But in some cases this needs to be changed.

(28.10.2023 05:57)fafadou писал(а):  You can save 4 bytes removing "beta", in the loader text

Too little to worry about And this will be removed in release.

(28.10.2023 19:08)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  @SWAT Maybe you can look into more general loader optimizations for the next build? There are a few games that won't boot at all including Deep Fighter, KISS Psycho Circus, Spirit of Speed, and Bust-A-Move 4. The last two will boot but only with low-level. I'm sure you have some ideas to optimize the code even more.

I'll try to take a look.

[Freudi93]

Tried all new settings in all combos on VA0 Dreamcasts with Re-Volt with same result of crashing Sound. What i noticed is that in Tmu1 Game hange after 3 secounds.

[fafadou]

Magforce racing true DMA, low memory, IRQ cdda tmu1, run well, music crash a little.
With TMU1, DMA sound crash, distorsion with SQ.
Now homebrews run TMU1 with DMA without freezing now.

edit : Are you able to boot dolphin blue with RC5 ?
I can't...

[pcwzrd13]

(31.10.2023 02:28)fafadou писал(а):  Are you able to boot dolphin blue with RC5 ?
I can't...

Nope, I just get a black screen. If I choose "low-level", it will show the Atomiswave logo but just freezes there.

[fafadou]

Same issue for me with faster than speed, I tried dolphin blue and faster than speed with 0.6.11_se loader too and same thing black screen...
Really strange, the preset is not the same maybe.

[CrisMod]

Folks if you are interested of the Glitch error on VA0 JAP that I got in some game and I solved it!!!!!

Here it's the story and problem solving of that: `http://www.dc-swat.ru/forum/thread-4041.html`.