Sega GG + Nintendo GameBoy emulator for SP beta test

[Guest Zigmund]

why must there be black bars?

think of it like a widescreen movie on a square tv. keeping aspect ratio means the picture looks the way it was intended, at the sacrifice of the black bars. making it fit the screen either stretches the image or crops it.

version 0.21 fixes the settings boxes.

audio still an issue on the blackjack - lots of pops and clicks at any rate.

also have to o/c it to get it to play normal speed.

[Guest mikeeey]

no

but Fit2Win* looked good, it was Fit2Win that was stretched more...read wat bitbank said

[Guest mikeeey]

think of it like a widescreen movie on a square tv. keeping aspect ratio means the picture looks the way it was intended, at the sacrifice of the black bars. making it fit the screen either stretches the image or crops it.

version 0.21 fixes the settings boxes.

audio still an issue on the blackjack - lots of pops and clicks at any rate.

also have to o/c it to get it to play normal speed.

yes same with me, exactly what u just said... o/c'ing and pops and clicks.

but the point of fitting the image on the screen is so we're able to see all of it, its no different if it was cut off if thers just gonna be black bars blocking it anyway.

for example masteralls emulator picodrive, everything is fit on the screen and it's a 240x240 resolution, and it really doesnt look bad at all. it looks pretty good if i do say so myself.

Edited February 15, 2007 by mikeeey

[Guest ninjaw]

but Fit2Win* looked good, it was Fit2Win that was stretched more...read wat bitbank said

That's yur opinion , i read everything and that changed nothing in the fact that GBC non landscape QVGA240*320 stretched is ugly as hell even with the *

[Guest ninjaw]

A big pic is better than lots of chat

[Guest bitbank]

Well done ninjaw :)

The point of offering the video options is so that you can find the best way to display each game on different phones. The 150% routine looks good because it does pixel averaging with very optimized ARM asm code. I also have a 75% pixel average routine which I will re-enable for viewing Genesis/NES/SMS on a small display. The problem is when it comes to doing pixel averaging for an arbitrary scale. Photoshop has good code to do this, but it is very slow. To scale the image to an arbitrary size with pixel averaging (smoothing) would be too slow to do on the phone. I've provided a compromise that balances performance and image quality. I'm open to suggestions if anyone has better ideas.

This release definitely performs worse than my older code because of the new common display code. I will be working on performance and an installer for the next release, so hopefully we'll be back to having stuff run full speed on the 195Mhz OMAP phones (no sound glitches).

L.B.

[Guest]

Helou.

I have the following problems:

- I am using DKC.gbc with a size of 4MB uncompressed, the sound is bad and sometimes appear black lines, anything else is perfect.

Some suggestions/asks:

- Smooth the image.

- File Association with autoinstaller.

- Preview of the rom? (for the plus edition :) )

I never find the load, save function, are hotkeys?

RESUME: IS EXCELENT THIS PROGRAM WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE SOUND AND THE TIME LIMIT.

chao

[Guest mikeeey]

Helou.

I have the following problems:

- I am using DKC.gbc with a size of 4MB uncompressed, the sound is bad and sometimes appear black lines, anything else is perfect.

Some suggestions/asks:

- Smooth the image.

- File Association with autoinstaller.

- Preview of the rom? (for the plus edition :) )

I never find the load, save function, are hotkeys?

RESUME: IS EXCELENT THIS PROGRAM WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE SOUND AND THE TIME LIMIT.

chao

if you read up above he said he will fix the sound problem.

and the menu which includes save isnt avaible yet.

Edited February 16, 2007 by mikeeey

[Guest cdogg2000]

Here's what I got...

imate sp5

Fresh hard reset (no customizations at all)

SmartGear version .21 from 2/12/07

I've noticed the problems with the ugly stretching and it's extremely slow NES in comparison to the older releases. I've noticed a slight problem with Dr. Mario after hitting the select key at the main screen, no other issues though. Any more info you need from me on the slow issue?

[Guest TdW]

I accidentally pressed the reset button after a couple hours of playing pokemon, now I lost my save game, is there a way to restore it?

[Guest Jamma14]

Hey Larry,

Nice to see you working on this again! :)

Yeah I'd just say so far definitely needs a clear simple saving system.

--Don't worry about auto load/save as it is just is annoying, people will know and remember when they want to load and save.

--Don't make reset actually delete the save file as users might lose hours of hard work (pokemon for example! :D), just make it reset the ROM to its default state and they can reload the save if they choose.

--Just have a save option and a load option in the menu - saving state like that is simpler and easier for everyone.

--And having "Load/Save" mapped to one button???? What is up with that??? Just two separate options in the menu would make things a lot easier.

--Also a couple of options in settings can be changed (by pressing left and right) but it is not visible (I'll post a screenshot later).

--The menu I think generally needs a bit of work - have a look at pocketnesterplus for a clean simple ui.

All constructive criticism :D, I've said it before it really is a great emulator and I'm really pleased your working on it again.

I'll give you some more feedback when I've looked at it in more detail.

James

Edited February 16, 2007 by Jamma14

[Guest bitbank]

Just a quick status update:

I've finally got the installer working nicely and the next release will definitely have both the PC and CE versions installed together.

I'm working on the performance of everything and it will be a dramatic improvement. I'm recoding the Z80 ARM code which will make GG/SMS go incredibly fast and have a noticeable impact on the Genesis emulator.

I will clean up the menus and load/save/pause procedures to be more functional.

Stay tuned for more updates...

L.B.

[Guest cdogg2000]

To note on the issue of fit2win and fit2win* looking so terrible, have you looked into how PocketSNES handles smooth stretching? It's interesting how much CPU time this app takes up but yet smooth stretching hardly takes up any more speed. Is there anyway to use that kind of smooth stretching with smartgear? Would you like screenshots of what I'm seeing?

[Guest bitbank]

To note on the issue of fit2win and fit2win* looking so terrible, have you looked into how PocketSNES handles smooth stretching? It's interesting how much CPU time this app takes up but yet smooth stretching hardly takes up any more speed. Is there anyway to use that kind of smooth stretching with smartgear? Would you like screenshots of what I'm seeing?

Please provide some screen shots.

I've written ARM code to stretch 150% and shrink 75% with smoothing and both look good without taking up too much time. The problem comes with variable stretch or shrink values. Maybe PocketSNES is using fixed values for their stretch/shrink as well.

L.B.

[Guest mikeeey]

Just a quick status update:

I've finally got the installer working nicely and the next release will definitely have both the PC and CE versions installed together.

I'm working on the performance of everything and it will be a dramatic improvement. I'm recoding the Z80 ARM code which will make GG/SMS go incredibly fast and have a noticeable impact on the Genesis emulator.

I will clean up the menus and load/save/pause procedures to be more functional.

Stay tuned for more updates...

L.B.

cool! ;) what about the select button being used as a C button? will that be fixed?

[Guest cdogg2000]

Here you are...

sshot001.bmp

sshot002.bmp

[Guest bitbank]

Here you are...

Thanks cdogg2000 - I'll look into better stretch/shrink code.

I've optimized the code a bit and now the GG/SMS, GBC and NES modules are running at incredible speed.

Now I'm concentrating on Genesis. It's running pretty well, but it can be much better if I do some game-specific hacks. Many games use some inelegant methods to waste time at the end of each frame and these make the overall emulation run much slower. If I detect which game is running, I can patch the 68K and Z80 code to not waste so much time and the emulator will run much quicker.

Please list your favorite Genesis games and I'll optimize them first.

L.B.

[Guest ninjaw]

Please list your favorite Genesis games and I'll optimize them first.

Bubble_and_squeak_GEN.zip

Chuck Rock 2 (U) [!].zip

Garfield - Caught in the Act © [!].zip

micro machines (e) [a1][c][!].zip

micro machines 2 - turbo tournament (jue) [c][!].zip

Rainbow Islands - The Story of Bubble Bobble 2 (JU) [x].zip

Simpsons, The - Virtual Bart (JUE) [!].zip

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (U) [!].zip

Wonderboy 3 - Monster Lair (JUE) [c][!].zip

Wonderboy 5 (MonsterWorld 3) (UE) [!].zip

Wonderboy 6 (MonsterWorld 4) (J) [!].zip

[Guest mikeeey]

Thanks cdogg2000 - I'll look into better stretch/shrink code.

I've optimized the code a bit and now the GG/SMS, GBC and NES modules are running at incredible speed.

Now I'm concentrating on Genesis. It's running pretty well, but it can be much better if I do some game-specific hacks. Many games use some inelegant methods to waste time at the end of each frame and these make the overall emulation run much slower. If I detect which game is running, I can patch the 68K and Z80 code to not waste so much time and the emulator will run much quicker.

Please list your favorite Genesis games and I'll optimize them first.

L.B.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles

Gunstar Heros

Earthworm Jim

Earthworm Jim 2

il probably have more later

when will u be releasing this newest version?

Edited February 28, 2007 by mikeeey

[Guest dario69]

Please list your favorite Genesis games and I'll optimize them first.

L.B.

Toejam and Earl

Zombies Ate My Neighbors

Alien3

Cannon Fodder

Devil's Crash

Dynamite Headdy

Gunstar Heroes

NHL Hockey 91

Mortal Kombat 3

Jungle Strike

Thanks Larry.

[Guest dosmoney]

ive got a Q and would be willing to beta for ya

[Guest bitbank]

The new version of SmartGear is coming along nicely. The GUI is getting a major overhaul and performance is looking good. I've now got the Samsung Blackjack working correctly. It has both the GAPI and RAWFRAMEBUFFER info wrong ;) , so it took a little workaround to make it work.

Not sure when I will have a release, but hopefully by tonight.

Check out my blog for more info: bitbank.wordpress.com

L.B.

[Guest cdogg2000]

I'm having alot of trouble with saving and loading states. How is this done?

[Guest bitbank]

The new version (0.22) is ready. This includes many many improvements (especially in the area of loading/saving) that you will appreciate. Look at the readme for all of the changes.

L.B.

smartgear.zip

[Guest ninjaw]

The new version (0.22) is ready. This includes many many improvements (especially in the area of loading/saving) that you will appreciate. Look at the readme for all of the changes.

Is there a way to quit the key settings ? and actually use them.

Screen options on pause menu would be cool

I got lots of probs when starting GG ou SMS games, needed reset, Micromachine 1 GG even crashed before reset, and have tons of bad visuals

SMD is still slow with sound and clocked to the max