D
Homebrew [Discontinued] TWLoader - CTR-mode NDS app
- Thread starter RocketRobz
- Start date
- Views 1,635,536
- Replies 9,252
- Likes 147
- Status
If the red screen has white dots and the top screen is 4:3, then it means the game you're trying to start is incompatible.
Are you using the latest version of bootstrap? If so, try the version that came before it or wait for a new version.
So I've been following your project for a while. I think its great, and actually disappointing that Nintendo didn't allow support for this from the start (if they'd allowed the ARM9 to read the SD card directly they'd have been able to eshop sell us DS games all this time). Something I want to run by you, though...
Background:
I have a legit copy of Pearl, which I've had for years.
Your introduction of Pearl/Diamond support interests me, so I've gone and tested it out with a Diamond backup. Sure, its playable, but compared to the legit copy, the loading times are painfully slow. On an O3DS, it takes about 40+ seconds to load the title screen, and then another 40+ seconds to load into the game world. After that, its occasional 10s waits as new areas load.
I presume this is due to the cache size being low (so it can only cache a small part of the ROM at a time), and limitations on the read speed of the SD Card.
At first, I thought maybe I'd set it up wrong. Maybe had the SD card formatted incorrectly. After checking against youtube videos of other people running that setup, looks like its slow for everyone.
So, onto the question.
The size of the Diamond ROM is 65MB. According to GodMode9, theres 135MB of free space on the TWL NAND.
Assuming the space usage of the TWL NAND isn't something that changes at runtime (I have no idea... is it?), if I found a way to copy the ROM over to the TWL NAND, and found a way to run the ROM from the TWL NAND instead of the SD Card, would that cut down the loading times?
Background:
I have a legit copy of Pearl, which I've had for years.
Your introduction of Pearl/Diamond support interests me, so I've gone and tested it out with a Diamond backup. Sure, its playable, but compared to the legit copy, the loading times are painfully slow. On an O3DS, it takes about 40+ seconds to load the title screen, and then another 40+ seconds to load into the game world. After that, its occasional 10s waits as new areas load.
I presume this is due to the cache size being low (so it can only cache a small part of the ROM at a time), and limitations on the read speed of the SD Card.
At first, I thought maybe I'd set it up wrong. Maybe had the SD card formatted incorrectly. After checking against youtube videos of other people running that setup, looks like its slow for everyone.
So, onto the question.
The size of the Diamond ROM is 65MB. According to GodMode9, theres 135MB of free space on the TWL NAND.
Assuming the space usage of the TWL NAND isn't something that changes at runtime (I have no idea... is it?), if I found a way to copy the ROM over to the TWL NAND, and found a way to run the ROM from the TWL NAND instead of the SD Card, would that cut down the loading times?
Last edited by teelo,
The read speed is slow, because the ARM7 is slower than the ARM9, which has access to the Slot-1 card slot.
This may change, as the DSi New DMA happens to be even faster, and retail DSiWare most likely uses that for reading data.
No.
Last edited by RocketRobz,
I meant cache size being low, not slow.
As for the ARM7... I thought 3DS's didn't have ARM7? At least not according to anything I've looked at.
E: okay, apparently it does. How come none of the other hardware listings mention an ARM7.
As for the ARM7... I thought 3DS's didn't have ARM7? At least not according to anything I've looked at.
E: okay, apparently it does. How come none of the other hardware listings mention an ARM7.
Last edited by teelo,
If the 3DS didn't have an ARM7 it wouldn't work with most DS games nor GBA games.
I don't follow. Most of the documentation says the ARM9 chip is what is used when the 3DS is in DS BC mode?
Are you saying that DS mode uses both an ARM7 and an ARM9 chip? What does each one do and have access to? Can't find any documentation about that.
Are you saying that DS mode uses both an ARM7 and an ARM9 chip? What does each one do and have access to? Can't find any documentation about that.
Both chips have access to the Slot-1 cartridge.
arm7 does sound and touch screen input, while arm9, the main CPU, does graphics and other main things.
The arm7 is mostly a security processor for the DSi.
Ah. So because the ARM7 runs slower, it can't transfer data from the SD Card to the ARM9 fast enough? Stuff the ARM9 would normally pull directly from Slot-1? Sounds like the ARM7 also gets overloaded with more jobs than its normally designed to do. Do I understand correctly?
Does the ARM11 have direct access to the SD Card?
Does the ARM11 have direct access to the SD Card?
Actually the ARM7 reads data into an area in RAM where the ARM9 expects it. The ARM9 tells ARM7 to read data from the ROM, and the ARM9 stops and waits for the ARM7 to finish reading data from the ROM.
No. The ARM7 just does it's job of reading data from the ROM, which is why the sound pauses and touch input stops working.
idk
Ok so the ARM7 just reads data from SD slower than from Slot-1?
According to my extensive research (read: a quick google) it looks like simulating the ARM7 in ARM11 has already been discussed to death so I won't bother.
According to my extensive research (read: a quick google) it looks like simulating the ARM7 in ARM11 has already been discussed to death so I won't bother.
Yes. Actually, even if ARM7 reads from Slot-1, it may still be as slow as reading from SD, but ARM9 doesn't stop in that case.
- Status
Similar threads
