Homebrew blargSnes -- SNES emulator for the 3DS (WIP)

[MarkDarkness]

Any sound would be a massive plus, never realised how weird it was playing SMW without sound

Do notice that you can kind of fill the blanks in your head as you play... when you step on a shell or twirl with the cape, your brain kind of makes the sound for you. It's pretty weird.

 

[RowanDDR]

Any sound would be a massive plus, never realised how weird it was playing SMW without sound

After sight, I'd say sound is my next favourite sense.

 

[Link999123]

Does this have 3d layering if not is it planned?

 

[hippy dave]

No, maybe.

 

[Link999123]

I sure hope it does...

 

[cracker]

No it doesn't have 3D.

 

[the_randomizer]

No it doesn't have 3D.

It's very low priority, there are more important things that need to be implement, like, sound. I wish people would stop asking about 3D.

 

[Criznittle]

how could 3d even be implemented? wouldn't the roms need to be tailored for this

definitely just need sound to reach perfect status

 

[DiscostewSM]

how could 3d even be implemented? wouldn't the roms need to be tailored for this

Nope. It would just require that you designate depth based on layer ordering. A layer above another would be manipulated during the render phase to look like it is closer, and a layer behind will look farther away. It does two renders to generate the effect, so all that's required is shifting the layers left/right however much is needed. It won't work for all games, but many can take on the appearance like 3D classics do.

 

[cracker]

It was discussed a bit earlier in this thread about the ways it could be done, the feasibility of it on the 3DS' hardware, and the drawbacks of the different approaches.

 

[sj33]

There's some speculation that the recent DevMenu leak and subsequent ability to install .cia files would help with sound in homebrew. This doesn't make much sense to me, surely the only difference is the install method. Is it true?

Only asking out of pure curiosity.

 

[kyogre123]

There's some speculation that the recent DevMenu leak and subsequent ability to install .cia files would help with sound in homebrew. This doesn't make much sense to me, surely the only difference is the install method. Is it true?

Only asking out of pure curiosity.

It's irrelevant now since GW unblocked all the services.

I emailed like one month ago asking them to allow this SNCD services for homebrew and the person that replied said that he/she would forward my request to the tech team.

I guess this is why they mentioned the homebrew part when they updated their launcher to allow the DevMenu.

 

[Arisotura]

Hello thread, long time no news...

Oh, a screenshot that looks like those of pre-1.0 blargSNES. What's so special about it?

That layer you see there is rendered by the hardware renderer. It's in the works, there are still some oddball issues, but it's getting there.

Speed is promising, too. It takes roughly 0.5 ms to render one layer, which is pretty good compared to the software renderer. Of course, not everything is in so the final version will be slower, but it should still be fast enough to give fullspeed with no frameskip in most cases

 

[hippy dave]

Nice, keep it up!

 

[alexenochs]

sounds like in the next month or 2 staple butter will have fullspeed w/sound =P maybe he could go for game compatability next? i hope so lol cheers staplebutter im really liking the progress

 

[Arisotura]

A lot closer to a finished product... even if still far.

All layers and sprites are in.

I added the subscreen and plugged all that into the hardware color math system that was already used by the software renderer. Obviously, there are still issues with the color math shit, as you can tell from the funky sprite blending.

So, what remains to be done:
* support more video modes
* support some shit like 'disable sub screen layers' etc
* support disabling layers and some other things per-scanline
* windows
* fix black screen in Super Metroid anything that isn't SMW >_<
* fix THE AMAZING TOTALLY RANDOM FREEZE >_<
* someday, mosaic (we don't even support that shit in software so blarg)

 

[the_randomizer]

Dayum that looks amazing though

 

[DiscostewSM]

Excellent work, and all with hardware rendering? How long does it take for rendering in hardware vs software?

If I'm not mistaken, the mosaic effect can only affect background layers (unlike the GBA which can do both)), so you won't have to mess with sprites. Register $2106, 4 bits for enabling/disabling layers, and latter 4 bits for strength. Because it takes pixels, and makes them into 2,3,4,etc pixel blocks, would doing something like scaling it down (the appropriate layers), then resizing it back up in hardware be an effective approach?

 

[Arisotura]

Most of it is done in hardware, yeah. As for times, I haven't measured again. I have yet to fix some issues (like the random-ass freeze- I guess the GPU doesn't like gratuitous configuration changes so I'll try to avoid them, and there may also be something with sprites).

Might check for other zero-sized array cases, the GPU doesn't like that at all (renders garbage). Although I think I have fixed them all.

I observed that DKC seemed to take some frameskip. But there's a reason for that. The game enables all layers on both mainscreen and subscreen, but disables subscreen layers via $2130. This part isn't implemented so I end up drawing more than needed.

Same shit happened with the software renderer. Game was slow as shit. Then I implemented that bit from $2130, and it became much faster.


DiscostewSM the idea I have in mind is exactly that. But right now, I'd rather get shit working

 

[DiscostewSM]

Most of it is done in hardware, yeah. As for times, I haven't measured again. I have yet to fix some issues (like the random-ass freeze- I guess the GPU doesn't like gratuitous configuration changes so I'll try to avoid them, and there may also be something with sprites).

Might check for other zero-sized array cases, the GPU doesn't like that at all (renders garbage). Although I think I have fixed them all.

I observed that DKC seemed to take some frameskip. But there's a reason for that. The game enables all layers on both mainscreen and subscreen, but disables subscreen layers via $2130. This part isn't implemented so I end up drawing more than needed.

Same shit happened with the software renderer. Game was slow as shit. Then I implemented that bit from $2130, and it became much faster.


DiscostewSM the idea I have in mind is exactly that. But right now, I'd rather get shit working

Of course. Games before features (unless it absolutely needs something to make the game playable)