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

[SWAT]

(01.04.2023 18:56)fafadou писал(а):  Thank you very much, please don't forget to share the beta that run neo4all


A new victory for @Swat and 0.8 loaders :

Skies of arcadia :
DMA sync 16, 0x8C004000, no cdda, no irq, OS auto, loader auto, fast boot

Intro run until the end !!!

There are probably other good presets, don't lost hope the good preset for your favorite game is still hidden probably.

Strange issue with this game, because its works fine for me with default settings, intro not freezing.
Seems it depends on IDE device speed. Also maybe Starlancer too, because its works well for me too.

[pcwzrd13]

(02.04.2023 06:13)SWAT писал(а):  

(02.04.2023 00:28)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  @SWAT Do screenshots work with games that don't support VGA? I tried it with Airforce Delta but the files seemed to be corrupted. I just got an error when I tried to view them on my PC.

I have not tried, and can't do that because have no display with composite input. Seems they frame buffer format is not supported yet.
Give me screenshot file plz.

Sure, here they are:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/6srecdcjm...s.zip/file

[pcwzrd13]

Oh and I tested out the screenshot feature in PSO yesterday. Taking screenshots worked fine but it caused the game to crash while loading the dragon boss. Kind of expected as PSO doesn't like you messing with it. Haha.

Screenshots came out great thought! https://twitter.com/pcwzrd13/status/1642287660948496386

[SWAT]

(02.04.2023 17:05)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  

(02.04.2023 06:13)SWAT писал(а):  

(02.04.2023 00:28)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  @SWAT Do screenshots work with games that don't support VGA? I tried it with Airforce Delta but the files seemed to be corrupted. I just got an error when I tried to view them on my PC.

I have not tried, and can't do that because have no display with composite input. Seems they frame buffer format is not supported yet.
Give me screenshot file plz.

Sure, here they are:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/6srecdcjm...s.zip/file

Hmm, you can see half of image if change "640 480" to "320 240" in image header by hex editor. The header is static yet, need to improve it.
But does the game really use such a low resolution? Since the picture is not the whole.

(02.04.2023 22:37)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  Oh and I tested out the screenshot feature in PSO yesterday. Taking screenshots worked fine but it caused the game to crash while loading the dragon boss. Kind of expected as PSO doesn't like you messing with it. Haha.

Screenshots came out great thought! https://twitter.com/pcwzrd13/status/1642287660948496386

Screenshot uses extra memory (512*3 bytes) for buffer. So it's maybe damage something. Need shift the heap a bit in this case I guess.

[pcwzrd13]

(03.04.2023 09:37)SWAT писал(а):  Hmm, you can see half of image if change "640 480" to "320 240" in image header by hex editor. The header is static yet, need to improve it.
But does the game really use such a low resolution? Since the picture is not the whole.

Interesting. It certainly doesn't look like the game is 320x240 so I don't think that's the case. I'll have to try taking screenshots with some other non-VGA games and see if I get the same result.

Edit: I took some screenshots in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and got a similar result: https://www.mediafire.com/file/gq4t3mve6...o.zip/file

Although it's also really badly interlaced for some reason. I should note that it doesn't display correctly on the screen when I play it. It only displays half the screen and it's stretched downwards.

[fafadou]

@pcwrd13 : do you have still your issue with UT ? My last try was good for me.


I put the 0.6.11_se loader in the last DS RC5 folder version :
I'll be able to boot floigan brother, ooga booga (with echelon hack didn't try the standard version), tomjam and earl 3 and skies of arcadia with full intro.
It's impossible for me with my hdd ssd and last 0.8.23 loader even in low level (the low level is helpful only with wince games).

Sega rally 2 boots and run well with low level, without cdda, I tried the same config than 0.6 loader and same issue than default settings :
With 0.6 sega rally boot with dma sync 16 memory 0x8Cf80000 cdda no IRQ I guess and true dma tmu2, strangely if we removed IRQ the game doesn't boot with 0.8.23 loader.
I try to use 0.6 gcc 7.1 but Black screen, I guess it's not possible to use it with RC5 and cdda.

Last 0.8.23 improvements :
Spec ops 2 : ok we can shoot now, just select cdda and tmu1 my bad :
True dma, 0x8C000100 | no IRQ | boot Direct or not | DMA TMU1 | CDDA

skies of arcadia :
run with low memory but I must choose the sync 16 instead of true dma in order to be able to play the full intro.
You may right the speed of the device is important, perhaps is also because I used the japanese_cake vga patch PAL version.

Sturmwind :
Intro run well with cdda, must do not have any save in the vmu, still disc error when we start a game.

The flinstones :
run well with 0.8.20 loader :
true dma, memory 0x8CFE8000, no IRQ, CDDA TMU1
but not with 0.8.23 loader. It freezes after langage selection... Don't have tried with 0.8.21 and 0.8.22 yet. Maybe a bad memory with the last loader.

Else 0.8.23 is the best result for cdda and wince games

[SWAT]

(03.04.2023 18:06)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  

(03.04.2023 09:37)SWAT писал(а):  Hmm, you can see half of image if change "640 480" to "320 240" in image header by hex editor. The header is static yet, need to improve it.
But does the game really use such a low resolution? Since the picture is not the whole.

Interesting. It certainly doesn't look like the game is 320x240 so I don't think that's the case. I'll have to try taking screenshots with some other non-VGA games and see if I get the same result.

Edit: I took some screenshots in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and got a similar result: https://www.mediafire.com/file/gq4t3mve6...o.zip/file

Although it's also really badly interlaced for some reason. I should note that it doesn't display correctly on the screen when I play it. It only displays half the screen and it's stretched downwards.

Seems games uses double frame buffer for interlaced images. Need improve screenshot feature to support it.

[SWAT]

New build: https://github.com/DC-SWAT/DreamShell/re...0.0RC5-T24

- Updated KallistiOS to latest. I had to make a lot of fixes in the modular system.
- Improved CDDA channels restore algorithm. It's works better, but I found another issue with the timer out of sync at random time, which starts to evenly distort the sound. Until I figured out how to detect it to fix playback.
- Improved CDDA for SQ modes (UT, Milenium Soldier)
- Fixed Play2 syscall for Guilty Gear X (maybe some other too?). But playback still bad.

I also has an idea how to replace the timer with a performance counter that games don't use. To be continued.

[fafadou]

Do you know how much great you are ?

I'm building a xenociders dreamshell version, if it works, I'll share it.

[pcwzrd13]

Thanks SWAT! I'll do some testing a bit later.

(04.04.2023 03:30)fafadou писал(а):  @pcwrd13 : do you have still your issue with UT ? My last try was good for me.

It works but has issues with texture popping.

[pcwzrd13]

Did some testing. Settings and results here.

I got about the same results as the last build for most games I tried but looping seems broken in a couple games and I got some slightly different results for others:

4 Wheel Thunder music doesn't loop anymore.

Guilty Gear X freezes at the start of a match. Tried all CDDA settings with the same result.

Super Runabout seems a bit better with this build. The music doesn't skip anymore but there's still a lot of distortion sometimes.

The music skipping issue has been fixed with Monaco Grand Prix Online but there is some really bad occasional distortion and looping no longer works.

I also tested online play with Monaco a couple days ago and unfortunately the game will disconnect at the start of a race if CDDA is enabled. I'm guessing it's the same issue as POD. Maybe CDDA is interfering with the modem?

[luizroz]

(04.04.2023 19:58)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  Did some testing. Settings and results here.

I got about the same results as the last build for most games I tried but looping seems broken in a couple games and I got some slightly different results for others:

4 Wheel Thunder music doesn't loop anymore.

Guilty Gear X freezes at the start of a match. Tried all CDDA settings with the same result.

Super Runabout seems a bit better with this build. The music doesn't skip anymore but there's still a lot of distortion sometimes.

The music skipping issue has been fixed with Monaco Grand Prix Online but there is some really bad occasional distortion and looping no longer works.

Could you add SPACE CHANNEL 5 to your tests? Currently on the HDD it doesn't work very well (too many LAGS in gameplay).
SPACE CHANNEL 5 Part 2 works very well.

[megavolt85]

(04.04.2023 19:58)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  Maybe CDDA is interfering with the modem?

yes, CDDA emulation occupies the G2 bus

[pcwzrd13]

(04.04.2023 20:04)luizroz писал(а):  Could you add SPACE CHANNEL 5 to your tests? Currently on the HDD it doesn't work very well (too many LAGS in gameplay).

Seems to work fine for me but I use a CF card.

(04.04.2023 23:04)megavolt85 писал(а):  

(04.04.2023 19:58)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  Maybe CDDA is interfering with the modem?

yes, CDDA emulation occupies the G2 bus

Yeah, I thought you had mentioned that before. I guess there's no way around this?

[megavolt85]

(04.04.2023 23:16)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  I guess there's no way around this?

only make a hardware CDDA player

[fafadou]

Millenium soldier expendables : the texture issue is less present but still here unfortunately
UT : Now I understand the glitches that @pcwrd13 talk about I see them but don't know if there are less present or not...
Anyway there is improvement for SQ games

Toy commander : works like a charm, some distorsion but very low.

xeno crisis and homebrews : run perfectly
sturmwind : you know what ? No able to start a game
Neo4 all : don't try

kao : a freeze but this game was always a quite unstable, so same as before

spec ops 2 : still able to shoot

wince
sega rally 2, I can reach the end of the first race but freeze during loading and same glitch on the first level loading...
can't boot sega rally 2 PAL

Virtua cop 2 : still textures issue on third level (the hardest one).

Maybe a little improvement with new KOS, it's no more bad anyway.

the flinstones : freeze after langage selection, happen since beta 21. Ok with beta 20.

[aldair]

Now Neo Geo CD on Dreamshell SD card with music.

[SWAT]

(04.04.2023 19:58)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  4 Wheel Thunder music doesn't loop anymore.

Hmm, I will check what happened to the loops again.

(04.04.2023 19:58)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  Super Runabout seems a bit better with this build. The music doesn't skip anymore but there's still a lot of distortion sometimes.

The music skipping issue has been fixed with Monaco Grand Prix Online but there is some really bad occasional distortion and looping no longer works.

This is probably what I was talking about. Timer out of sync with channels position sometimes.
Perhaps when I replace the timers with performance counters, I can fix this.

(04.04.2023 23:16)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  

(04.04.2023 23:04)megavolt85 писал(а):  

(04.04.2023 19:58)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  Maybe CDDA is interfering with the modem?

yes, CDDA emulation occupies the G2 bus

Yeah, I thought you had mentioned that before. I guess there's no way around this?

Try use SQ mode. It's not async as DMA, so maybe it help.

(05.04.2023 02:40)fafadou писал(а):  kao : a freeze but this game was always a quite unstable, so same as before

KAO has a lot of IDE DMA errors, I think better use SQ for it.

(05.04.2023 02:40)fafadou писал(а):  Maybe a little improvement with new KOS, it's no more bad anyway.

KOS does not affect the ISO Loaders firmwares, only the core, modules, apps and bootloader.


BTW, I should test not only these games. For example I'm constantly checking with Extreme Sports and others that have distortions.
These changes are complex, it can get better in one game and worse in another, so I have to check with different ones. But I can't always check everything.
I try to make a universal/auto solution, with a minimum number of settings, but it's not easy because games very different in hardware usage.

[fafadou]

(05.04.2023 07:34)SWAT писал(а):  

(04.04.2023 19:58)pcwzrd13 писал(а):  4 Wheel Thunder music doesn't loop anymore.

Hmm, I will check what happened to the loops again.

No issue for me in PIO sync 16, music dma tmu2, no IRQ.

(05.04.2023 07:34)SWAT писал(а):  

(05.04.2023 02:40)fafadou писал(а):  Maybe a little improvement with new KOS, it's no more bad anyway.

KOS does not affect the ISO Loaders firmwares, only the core, modules, apps and bootloader.

Thanks for explain

(05.04.2023 07:34)SWAT писал(а):  BTW, need test not only these games.

I'm sorry, I have a lack of imagination ok let's go.

[fafadou]

If someone want to try here my version of sturmwind :
https://mega.nz/file/17Jx0RgY#-1J0RQdTEc...3UxidYhNYo


magforce racing
default settings seems to be ok

Ooga booga
Original version doesn't boot

Dee dee planet
ok with default preset

Kao
OK with SQ, no freeze and the feeling that the game can freeze anytime is gone, I know it's strange ^^

Kiss psycho circus
Black screen / wince game ok with 0.6. gcc7.1

Looney toons
black screen

Msr
Freeze at warning screen

Nba 2K2
Freeze after intro

Pen pen tri icelon
Works well, no dma/PIO sync 16

Sega GT
Works fine, no dma/PIO sync 16

Trickstyle
Works fine : true dma, cdda tmu2 no IRQ, lower memory preset

Worms armagedon
Black screen wince game, works well with 0.6.0