Hacking TempGBA: NDSGBA revival

[Rydian]

I can't get Alpha 3 to load (stuck on the GBA image loading screen at the bottom and black on top), so this feedback is for Alpha 2.

• Fast forward performance/smoothness seems improved from Alpha 1. It's definitely improved from gpSP-J/Kai, which seemed to only unlock the limit, not induce frameskip.
  • Would it be feasible to dampen/soften the start and end of the sound bits that are rendered when fast-forwarding so the audio isn't ear-grinding?
  
  
• The background layers in the game seem to jump a pixel or two and then snap back into place when you bring up the menu while they're moving. Noticed in Mother 3, Castlevania: Aria Of Sorrow, Castlevania: Circle Of The Moon, Zelda: Minish Cap, and I assume everywhere else.
  
  
• Could the back icon, when selected, have a border or something around it (like the text options do now) to make it stand out? Would make it more apparent that the "cursor" jumped up there instead of vanishing into oblivion.
  
  
• The rewind time setting is resetting to 10 seconds upon loading a new ROM, as is the CPU setting (back to 3).
  
  
• When viewing the cheat list to see which file to load, every time I change files the upper text that lists the current directory flashes back to nothing, then after a second to the proper directory, as if it's re-reading the value every time the cursor moves (opposed to when actually moving folders).

 

[nl255]

What is a hypervisor? And whats the difference.

A hypervisor runs the code as natively as possible only patching incompatible instructions (ring 0 in the case of x86) while an emulator actually translates all the CPU instructions. Ever wonder how the PSP can handle PS1 games so easily? It's because the PSP is a MIPS R4000 CPU and the PS1 is a MIPS R3000A which means the PSP doesn't actually have to emulate the PS1's CPU. Compare how fast Virtualbox (with hardware virtualization extensions disabled) runs Windows 3.1 compared to Dosbox (which is a full x86 emulator which makes it more compatible with DOS games, especially tricky ones like Ultima 7 which uses the 32 bit real mode trick/bug).

 

[Deleted member 319809]

Alpha 3 includes new text strings in TEMPGBA/system/language.msg. Make sure you copy that file to your card.

* Fast-forward: Faster than gpSP-J? Good. About the sound, I'll try to make it less ear-grating, but I don't guarantee anything. gpSP is rather finnicky about audio synchronisation.
* Pixel jumping: That's a workaround for a crash/hang bug; the emulator just flips the double-buffered frames two times, showing the previous frame then the current one.
* Back icon: I'll see what I can do. The icon itself isn't very visible, but a pure black border should do well.
* Per-game settings are preserved correctly in alpha 3. Try putting alpha 3's language file on your card and see if it launches.
* The path does flash away, then back in, in the ROM and cheat file selectors; I'll have to look into that.

 

[Rydian]

Was the same with A1->A2, so I've just been deleting the system folder, game_config, and version files each time (for replacing along with the tempGBA plugin/binary), but A3 just won't load.

 

[Deleted member 319809]

Was the same with A1->A2, so I've just been deleting the system folder, game_config, and version files each time (for replacing along with the tempGBA plugin/binary), but A3 just won't load.

Did you also delete TEMPGBA/ndsgba.cfg? If you did, I don't know what could have happened... I just tried to extract the latest release to my card and it loaded just fine.

 

[Rydian]

There is no such file?

EDIT: A redownload fixed it. Something must have gotten cut off, though 7-zip didn't report anything wrong. Time to test.

EDIT2: And it started doing it again. Tested other plugins and playing of DS games and it all worked fine, so then I tried to see if there was some sort of filesystem corruption.

Interesting.

EDIT3: Even after fixing the filesystem it won't boot TempGBA naturally, though other DSTwo stuff works. I can get it to start working repeatedly if I delete the TEMPGBA folder (after backing up my files) and then replace it with the new one from the download (and put my files back in). So either there's some bug with how it's reading/handling the filesystem and associated metadata... or my MicroSD's got some issues. Going with the MicroSD troubleshooting route right now, naturally.

EDIT4: Panasonic SD formatter to the rescue. Seems to boot just fine now.

 

[DiabloStorm]

Will saves created in 1.30 work in 1.21?

Also, props to your dedication Nebuleon, you're going at this like a maniac.

 

[LeonardoFM]

oh... Nice news... I wonder if they'll ever release the NDSSFC code someday...

 

[DiabloStorm]

oh... Nice news... I wonder if they'll ever release the NDSSFC code someday...

They did, that's why there's a CATSFC
Also: http://gbatemp.net/threads/ndssfc-catsfc-revival.339600/

 

[Deleted member 319809]

Will saves created in 1.30 work in 1.21?

Also, props to your dedication Nebuleon, you're going at this like a maniac.

.sav files will work, but saved states will not. So if you want to load your saved states from NDSGBA, you will need to save in-game to create .sav files, then you can load TempGBA and create future-proof saved states.

I think that NDSGBA 1.21 saved states didn't work in 1.30 either.

 

[Deleted member 319809]

[...]

EDIT4: Panasonic SD formatter to the rescue. Seems to boot just fine now.

Ouch. Well, I compile with BassAceGold's SDK modifications applied, and the corruption is bad news, but maybe the formatted partition was badly aligned and it wrote garbage everywhere. Props for figuring it out, because I was seriously out of ideas but still trying to find something to fix this. The Panasonic SD formatter with the 1 MiB size adjustment should have done the trick.

 

[Boriar]

Here is my updated translation for TempGBA.
Will be that file common for TempGBA / CATSFC? (Please, yes )

I want your opinion about the format in Game button mappings, and in New game menu the changes of "..." to indicate a new menu. If you like it i will change all "...", if not revert it before next update.
Please, check it running the program, not only in .msg file.

Also, I have found one problem, when i go to screenshots slideshow with no screenshots at all and push to left (previous image) the program frozen. I try same on CATSFC with identical results.

 

[Deleted member 319809]

Fast forward performance/smoothness seems improved from Alpha 1. It's definitely improved from gpSP-J/Kai, which seemed to only unlock the limit, not induce frameskip.

• • Would it be feasible to dampen/soften the start and end of the sound bits that are rendered when fast-forwarding so the audio isn't ear-grinding?

About this, I'm not sure if I can have decent sound and still fast-forward. gpSP does some funky audio synchronisation stuff, and I do fast-forwarded sound rendering by discarding samples over AUDIO_LEN until an audio buffer becomes free again. I'll try some more stuff. Just having audio during fast-forwarding is already a pretty big step

 

[Deleted member 319809]

a) Here is my updated translation for TempGBA.
b) Will be that file common for TempGBA / CATSFC? (Please, yes )

c) I want your opinion about the format in Game button mappings, and in New game menu the changes of "..." to indicate a new menu. If you like it i will change all "...", if not revert it before next update.
Please, check it running the program, not only in .msg file.

d) Also, I have found one problem, when i go to screenshots slideshow with no screenshots at all and push to left (previous image) the program frozen. I try same on CATSFC with identical results.

a) Thanks Even though I hadn't put out a call for translators yet, you still put yourself forward.

b) No. The reason for this is that the two repositories are separate, and some TempGBA text isn't needed in CATSFC (mainly the text about rewinding and all of that yummy button remapping). I hate software bloat If ever the two emulators merge, though, I will make them have a common skin and language file.

c) I like the >> in the menu entries that go to submenus, but consider that the "enter this submenu" text is also used for the top of the screen you get to, so the "Recently played >>" menu looks like this:

[gba]    Jugados recientemente  >>    <-|

The ellipsis looks good in both, but >> looks bad at the top once you're in the menu.

I don't like the way the button mapping text looks when there is no button to speak of. For example, the rapid-fire A button is optional as both global and game buttons, so it looks like this by default:

Disparo rápido (A)        NDS

I will take the text, of course, and I see you modified some text that's also used in CATSFC so I'll apply it to CATSFC too.

d) Meh, does anyone use that slideshow feature when they have no screenshots?

 

[Boriar]

a) Thanks Even though I hadn't put out a call for translators yet, you still put yourself forward.
I will search for news all days

b) No. The reason for this is that the two repositories are separate, and some TempGBA text isn't needed in CATSFC (mainly the text about rewinding and all of that yummy button remapping). I hate software bloat If ever the two emulators merge, though, I will make them have a common skin and language file.
Ok! It's a very good reason.

c) I like the >> in the menu entries that go to submenus, but consider that the "enter this submenu" text is also used for the top of the screen you get to, so the "Recently played >>" menu looks like this:

[gba]    Jugados recientemente  >>    <-|

The ellipsis looks good in both, but >> looks bad at the top once you're in the menu.
I forgot this! And something like "[Recently played]"? That's seems look good in both places

I don't like the way the button mapping text looks when there is no button to speak of. For example, the rapid-fire A button is optional as both global and game buttons, so it looks like this by default:

Disparo rápido (A)        NDS

I think about that and may be put something like "-", "<none>" or something else when there isn't any button mapped to it.

I will take the text, of course, and I see you modified some text that's also used in CATSFC so I'll apply it to CATSFC too.

d) Meh, does anyone use that slideshow feature when they have no screenshots?
Well, it was a luck(?) when i was trying the new translation , but it force me to reset nds so i decided to comment you.

Also note that minutes is "min" in the International System and not "mn".
Is the miss of number in cheats deliberately?

 

[Deleted member 319809]

TempGBA alpha 4 is available here: http://filetrip.net/dl?ecbZcCffvg
* Fix a memory allocation error that prevented the basic initialisation (system directory, GUI images, font, language pack) from showing any errors it encountered onto a console.
* Boriar's Spanish text.
* Smoother sound during fast-forward. Rydian, this one's for you; test at your leisure.

Also note that minutes is "min" in the International System and not "mn".
Is the miss of number in cheats deliberately?

Whoops. I've adjusted that to min, I thought it was mn... don't know why.

Cheats are not really working that well, and I need to take a serious look at them sometime, but not now. The format for cheat displaying is subject to change massively.

I like [] for menus, but not <none> for keys. I'll look at the interface more when the emulator is out of alpha; for now, my focus is on saving files correctly, not corrupting memory or files on the card, and on basic functionality like working with the correct filenames, keys etc. everywhere.

 

[Deleted member 319809]

A bug persists in alpha 4. If you save and load a certain state (say #1, but I think it may be a #0 bug again) multiple times for a certain game, at some point the emulator will delete your state and be unable to save states at all until you load another ROM or shut it down. It says "OK!" if you try, but it really didn't create a saved state, and the cell stays unfilled in the GUI.

I'm investigating this bug very closely and will release alpha 5 when I've isolated the bug.

 

[Deleted member 319809]

TempGBA alpha 5 is available: http://filetrip.net/dl?fn5Uk4cFhg
* Double the volume! TempGBA, because I'm worth it. Except this time, it's not eyelashes, it's audio volume. gpSP didn't get the maximum volume that could be output in 16-bit samples.
* Fixes the bug with saved state corruption and deletion mentioned above. After 16 load-state commands during an emulator run, a "Too many open files" error was raised upon accessing any file, which deleted any file opened for writing instead of creating it.

 

[Rydian]

• Going into some menus sets the cursor to the back button, while going into other menus sets the cursor to the first item in the list, providing inconsistency in the placement as well in the face that when it starts on the back button you need to hit B twice to back out, whereas if it starts on a normal menu item you only need to hit B once to back out.
  
  
• In Castlevania: Circle Of The Moon, pressing Select to bring up the map causes graphical issues during the transitions in and out. I took some screenshots... but the screenshots I took during the graphical issue all came out blank! The ones showing the screen before I accessed the map, and the map itself came out fine.
  
  
  
• The audio does sound a bit better when fast-forwarding, the poppiness isn't ear-killing, but if it's going to be a hassle for you or the system I can just turn the volume down when fast-forwarding to avoid it.
  
  
• Frameskip... how does "Keep up with the game" judge things? It seems to consistently set it to 1-in-3, whereas most games seem to run fine at 1-in-2 (judging on the lack of audio skipping/popping). Is 1-in-3 just default to avoid the whole invisible-while-flashing thing that 1-in-2 creates?
  
  
• In Wario Land 4, when you hit the frog switch in each level, everything gets terrible slowdown and lag, almost to the point where the game is unplayable. I recorded a video at frameskip 0 on purpose just to show the speed difference before and after hitting the switch in a level. This is the intro level where you only need to deal with the effect for a few seconds, but in some levels you need to play upwards of 3/4ths of the level with the effect going.
  
  
  
  
• Could some FPS counter option be added?
  Displayed / Rendered / Real
  Or
  Displayed
  Rendered
  Real

Ouch. Well, I compile with BassAceGold's SDK modifications applied, and the corruption is bad news, but maybe the formatted partition was badly aligned and it wrote garbage everywhere. Props for figuring it out, because I was seriously out of ideas but still trying to find something to fix this. The Panasonic SD formatter with the 1 MiB size adjustment should have done the trick.

I did the size adjustment and full/overwrite just to be safe, since I had been using the same 8GB card since back when I started with an AK2i IIRC. Filesystem corruption wasn't my first guess because CATSFC and TempGBA were the only things showing issue.

 

[DiabloStorm]

• In Castlevania: Circle Of The Moon, pressing Select to bring up the map causes graphical issues during the transitions in and out. I took some screenshots... but the screenshots I took during the graphical issue all came out blank! The ones showing the screen before I accessed the map, and the map itself came out fine.
  

I was actually playing this the other day on 1.30 but I stopped to come back here and ask the question I asked (about saves...so I wasn't wasting my time playing ) It should be noted that the example you showed exists in 1.30 as well.

I'm not sure if it's the game or ndsgba version 1.30 but does your resolution seem like it's smaller than it's supposed to be? (I cant really tell in the video) Does 1.21 stretch it to fit the screen in DS mode?