Hacking NDSSFC/CATSFC revival

[Deleted member 319809]

I think there's a few problems with this version. Mega Man X's sound is too fast, Super Mario All Stars + Super Mario World doesn't let you move Mario, and Street Fighter 2 (The New Challengers I think) freezes when I pause it.

This one is now fixed in 1.14. Can you please test the others?

 

[2ndApex]

Does this mean that (at least for CATSFC) the DSTWO won't drain battery on stand-by mode now?

 

[Deleted member 319809]

Does this mean that (at least for CATSFC) the DSTWO won't drain battery on stand-by mode now?

You'd need to test the battery usage by measuring times. (I haven't )

However, I will state that, when KEY_LID is set, CATSFC 1.14 does the following, and I assume it helps a lot:
* Sets the DSTWO's CPU to its lowest frequency.
* Regular DS sleep mode. Shuts down the ARM7 processor and audio output (but not the Wifi light on a DSi if wireless communications are enabled); turns off both backlights and screen updates.
* Spin-loops to get button states until KEY_LID is unset.

 

[nitendo]

First of all - great work Nebuleon!

The fixes you have implemented for Secret of Mana have effect on some other games as well - namely Seiken Densetsu 3 (Secret of Mana 2) and Treasure of the Rudras.

The remaining problem with the above mentioned games is that the text-boxes for the dialog gets messed up, which makes the text incredible hard to read... BUT from what I can see - the characters comes out correctly!!

If you feel up to it - can you have a go at fixing these games as well, I belive I'm not the only one wishing for this right now.

Keep the momentum going,
dACE

 

[Killermech]

Thanks for the further explanation Nebuleon, although I have to admit I didn't understand anything of the technical part
I guess what I was mainly wondering about regarding that game, was the speed hack aspect. If that somehow would be able to improve it or whatnot. Or if speedhacks would be possible to implement at all for that matter. I remember that's where Shaud left off as it seemed very complicated (or simply not possible) to add it.

Also, for something entirely different. I gave 1.13 a try yesterday and I have no idea if it's just me. But the games ran about 30% slower than BAGSFC (I kept that around from the time I used to compare it to CATSFC). I have both emulators on CPU Freq 5 and one game you can tell a big difference on, is the first level of Aladdin. While on BAGSFC, it runs very fluently, but on CATSFC it stutters. Like if I were to run it on BAGSFC on CPU Freq 2-3.

I use a Sandisk 8GB microsd card formatted with Panasonic's SD Formatter. At first I thought it was card related, so I formatted a Kingston 2GB but there's the same issue.
So I'm pretty stumbled over what the issue might be. If I've forgotten some secret setting or something similar.

 

[Deleted member 319809]

First of all - great work Nebuleon!

The fixes you have implemented for Secret of Mana have effect on some other games as well - namely Seiken Densetsu 3 (Secret of Mana 2) and Treasure of the Rudras.

The remaining problem with the above mentioned games is that the text-boxes for the dialog gets messed up, which makes the text incredible hard to read... BUT from what I can see - the characters comes out correctly!!

If you feel up to it - can you have a go at fixing these games as well, I belive I'm not the only one wishing for this right now.

Keep the momentum going,
dACE

I'm glad to hear that these games are fixed as well! (But I don't own those two games, so if I fix those, it will be after downloading the games' ROMs for research purposes)

Replying inline in bold below:

Thanks for the further explanation Nebuleon, although I have to admit I didn't understand anything of the technical part
Neb: Yeah, sorry, but those technical explanations will be useful to others who wish to pick up where I left off trying to speedhack!

I guess what I was mainly wondering about regarding that game, was the speed hack aspect. If that somehow would be able to improve it or whatnot. Or if speedhacks would be possible to implement at all for that matter. I remember that's where Shaud left off as it seemed very complicated (or simply not possible) to add it.
Neb: I think I see how Snes9x forces itself to stop CPUs for speedhacks, so I could try implementing the 2 SNESAdvance speed hack opcodes.

Also, for something entirely different. I gave 1.13 a try yesterday and I have no idea if it's just me. But the games ran about 30% slower than BAGSFC (I kept that around from the time I used to compare it to CATSFC). I have both emulators on CPU Freq 5 and one game you can tell a big difference on, is the first level of Aladdin. While on BAGSFC, it runs very fluently, but on CATSFC it stutters. Like if I were to run it on BAGSFC on CPU Freq 2-3.
Neb: That may be a side-effect of the controller being more synchronised. Synchronising the controller after every SNES scanline requires more coordination with the DS and slows things down. I have to do this because I can't get the "next frame" indication on the DSTWO. In technical terms that's the vertical-blank interrupt. If I was able to get that indication, I could avoid getting the controller status so often.

I use a Sandisk 8GB microsd card formatted with Panasonic's SD Formatter. At first I thought it was card related, so I formatted a Kingston 2GB but there's the same issue.
So I'm pretty stumbled over what the issue might be. If I've forgotten some secret setting or something similar.
Neb: During emulation, if you're not saving screenshots and saved states from the menu, the card just stays idle - you could even remove the card (but not the DSTWO) and keep playing the game. If anything, the card would have to do with the speed of loading ROMs. As far as I'm aware, all the settings in the emulator are in its menu.

 

[Normmatt]

Just check out http://snes9x-euphoria.googlecode.com/ it already implements the snesadvance speedhacks and its based on snes9x so the code can probably simply be copied across.

 

[Deleted member 319809]

Just check out http://snes9x-euphoria.googlecode.com/ it already implements the snesadvance speedhacks and its based on snes9x so the code can probably simply be copied across.

Thanks. I'm going to try it out with a hardcoded Yoshi's Island patch.

 

[Deleted member 319809]

As of commit efc9e624b4a4a3d965c8fd484a0e0d8c2f17d528, the speed hack opcodes used in SNES Advance are implemented, but they don't seem to work that well. I have verified that they work, by hardcoding 2 patches for Yoshi's Island and Super Mario World, but Yoshi's Island in particular is just as slow as before. The SA-1 chip gets no speedup.

Here's a test build so you can see what I mean: http://filetrip.net/nds-downloads/f...catsfc-114-speedhack-test-build-1-f31386.html

 

[Deleted member 319809]

CATSFC 1.15, the Frame Skipping Edition, is now released. Manual frame skipping, less jittery automatic frame skipping, and PAL timing support are in this version

 

[davy171]

Nebuleon, great work, and thanks for sharing the fruits of your hard working effort with us!!

 

[PJM]

Gonna test this later today. Can't wait!!

 

[the_randomizer]

It's good that this emulator is being kept alive

 

[Deleted member 319809]

CATSFC 1.16, the Timer-Interrupt Audio Edition, is probably my last version unless other bugs or feature requests show up. It fixes what I saw as the most annoying bug of all: the audio output screwed up with every game.

This release raises the FPS by over 50% if using automatic frame skipping, and synchronises controller status perfectly. This makes all platformers (SMW, Metroid, Mega Man...), all puzzle games (Yoshi's Cookie, Tetris & Dr. Mario...), many RPGs (Final Fantasy, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, Legend of Zelda...), action and combat games (all Super Bombermans, Street Fighter 2...) and bullet hell games like Raiden work much better. Yoshi's Island and Kirby Super Star get a small improvement from this as well, running about 15% faster.

Notes in background music also don't jump in length as much as in CATSFC 1.08 - 1.15.

Please test this release thoroughly and give feedback about bugs on the GitHub issue tracker; if you find no bugs, post here to thank me or something . If it passes GBAtemp's inspection, I will post it on the Supercard forum for possible inclusion into the official plugin. The option text for frame skipping will need to be retranslated to Chinese using simplified characters.

Love,
- Nebuleon

 

[The Catboy]

Nice work dude!
I am testing it now

 

[shoyrumaster11]

Thanks Nebuleon! On another note, do you think you could possibly revive the NDS-GBA emulator, too? I have a feeling that that one needs a GIGANTIC update as well!

 

[The Catboy]

Thanks Nebuleon! On another note, do you think you could possibly revive the NDS-GBA emulator, too? I have a feeling that that one needs a GIGANTIC update as well!

NDS-GBA is closed-source for some reason.
I wish it was open-sourced because it seriously needs an update.

Also Yoshi's Island is moving a little faster!

 

[Deleted member 319809]

Thanks Nebuleon! On another note, do you think you could possibly revive the NDS-GBA emulator, too? I have a feeling that that one needs a GIGANTIC update as well!

Unfortunately, DarkChen did not release the source code for NDSGBA.

If he did, I could port many improvements Taelis, ShadauxCat and I made in CATSFC straight into NDSGBA, like the French translation and better skin, faster loading ROMs, fewer delays, the Pictochat font, sleep on lid close, and so on. I bet NDSGBA already uses timer interrupts for sound, though.

As for the cheat support, I'd have to look at the format most often used in GBA emulators and support that anew.

 

[the_randomizer]

I know this is weird, but can homebrew be run on DeSmuME?

 

[Deleted member 319809]

I know this is weird, but can homebrew be run on DeSmuME?

If you're asking in the context of this thread, which is about a DSTWO MIPS processor plugin, the answer is a definite no

But recent Desmume versions can emulate filesystems for an R4 card. Go to Slot 1 emulation options and select your R4 filesystem folder.