Hacking TempGBA: NDSGBA revival

[Aeter]

''HOWEVER, with frame skipping 0, some games just crash if they're unable to render all frames!''
Does this mean that a game can randomly crash when paying at frameskip 0? like playing for 1 hour straight and then suddenly a crash kicks in?

I wonder if this only counts for the heavier games that won't play well at frame skip 0, because then there would be no reason to set it to frame skip 0 anyway.

 

[LolGuyX]

i'd like to play mario at frameskip 0
just somewhat smoother since it is a light game

 

[Deleted member 319809]

''HOWEVER, with frame skipping 0, some games just crash if they're unable to render all frames!''
Does this mean that a game can randomly crash when paying at frameskip 0? like playing for 1 hour straight and then suddenly a crash kicks in?

Yes.

I refer you to TempGBA issue 3 on GitHub.

 

[Prof. 9]

I finally got a DSTWO yesterday and I have to say amazing job. I've just tried beta 11 and it fixes all audio problems I saw in my brief experience with beta 10. Metroid and Boktai run great at 30fps now, MMBN runs at a buttery smooth 60 fps with minor hiccups (on the overworld when a lot of sprites are on-screen).

I also don't see any RTC problems with Boktai (using my own Solar Sensor patch that doesn't touch the RTC code), but I haven't advanced to the point where I can grow foods yet.

 

[Deleted member 319809]

Whew, glad to see progress hasn't stopped.

Me too. I was about to throw in the towel, but then managed to make some recompiled GBA code finally not crash. Progress will be much slower from now on, though, because I get to redo some recompiler stuff; see the attachment for the (very technical) details.

Care to try out the Wario Land 4 stuff and Golden Sun battles in beta 11?

 

[Deleted member 319809]

I finally got a DSTWO yesterday and I have to say amazing job. I've just tried beta 11 and it fixes all audio problems I saw in my brief experience with beta 10. Metroid and Boktai run great at 30fps now, MMBN runs at a buttery smooth 60 fps with minor hiccups (on the overworld when a lot of sprites are on-screen).

I also don't see any RTC problems with Boktai (using my own Solar Sensor patch that doesn't touch the RTC code), but I haven't advanced to the point where I can grow foods yet.

Firstly, welcome to the DSTwo crowd (And when you say amazing job, do you mean compared to beta 10 or to NDSGBA 1.21?)

Secondly, I think the GBA RTC is implemented correctly in the TempGBA betas. In gpSP 0.9, from which this emulator is ultimately based, it was implemented using the PSP's time function. Then the Supercard Team kept it implemented in NDSGBA 1.21 but returning Zeroary 0, 0 AD 00:00:00, and I fixed that by calling the "get the RTC from your DS" function. So even the un-RTC-patched version may work.

Finally, I'm glad to hear beta 11 is a good version for audio, but beware the crasher: https://github.com/Nebuleon/TempGBA/issues/3

 

[LolGuyX]

''HOWEVER, with frame skipping 0, some games just crash if they're unable to render all frames!''
Does this mean that a game can randomly crash when paying at frameskip 0? like playing for 1 hour straight and then suddenly a crash kicks in?

Yes.

I refer you to TempGBA issue 3 on GitHub.

A few more questions then..
- Is every game affected by this crashing? or only the heavier games? Will a light game like mario have a chance to crash?

- If i save in game, and the game crashes, will my progress be saved? I can remember the NDSGBA not saving when you do not exit the emulator the right way.

- will features like cheats, rewinding, remapping increase the chance of a crash to occur?

- is there a possibility for it to crash when playing at frameskip 0 with sound off?


Also i tested the golden sun games on beta 11, and it is amazing! really, well done.
Golden sun 2 was totally unplayable on NDSGBA but now its okay, even the fast forewarding with sound on works really well.

Golden sun 1 got improved a lot too. thanks! I always loved those games.


Is it a problem to ask the questions here? or should I move to github?

 

[Deleted member 319809]

A few more questions then..
a) - Is every game affected by this crashing? or only the heavier games? Will a light game like mario, or a medium game like pokemon have a chance to crash?

b) - If i save in game, and the game crashes, will my progress be saved? I can remember the NDSGBA not saving when you do not exit the emulator the right way.

c) - will features like cheats, rewinding, remapping increase the chance of a crash to occur?

d) - is there a possibility for it to crash when playing at frameskip 0 with sound off?


e) Also i tested the golden sun games on beta 11, and it is amazing! really, well done.
Golden sun 2 was totally unplayable on NDSGBA but now its okay, even the fast forewarding with sound on works really well.

Golden sun 1 got improved a lot too. thanks! I always loved those games.

a) Every game is potentially affected, if you set the frameskip to 0 (or 1, if you use /Options/CPU frequency = [0] 240 MHz). If you hear the sound crackle, a crash is likely at any moment after. You can avert that crash by quickly going into the menu and setting the frameskip to auto.

b) TempGBA saves to microSD 10 frames (1/6 second) after the game has finished saving itself. It will have preserved your .sav at that time.

c) Cheats are untested, because I can't find a cheat pack. It was on cheats.gbatemp.net, which is now down. Rewinding may affect things, but not button remapping.

d) Don't know, but if it's sound-related, it should still crash. When muted, it still emits sound, but that sound consists of silence. (gpSP uses the sound buffers as a timing reference.)

e) Great! I notice that Jenna's Theme in a battle in Golden Sun 2 still sounds crackly, but the emulated FPS doesn't go to 35 anymore, it stays around 50.

 

[Aeter]

c) Cheats are untested, because I can't find a cheat pack. It was on cheats.gbatemp.net, which is now down. Rewinding may affect things, but not button remapping.

Found the original GBA Cheat Database from cheats.gbatemp.net re-uploaded to filetrip.
http://filetrip.net/gba-downloads/o...eats-databases-4-27-09-with-names-f31444.html

 

[Prof. 9]

Firstly, welcome to the DSTwo crowd (And when you say amazing job, do you mean compared to beta 10 or to NDSGBA 1.21?)

I haven't tried NDSGBA, I meant in general. Heck, I think Boktai runs smoother on this than on the PSP gpSP.

Secondly, I think the GBA RTC is implemented correctly in the TempGBA betas. In gpSP 0.9, from which this emulator is ultimately based, it was implemented using the PSP's time function. Then the Supercard Team kept it implemented in NDSGBA 1.21 but returning Zeroary 0, 0 AD 00:00:00, and I fixed that by calling the "get the RTC from your DS" function. So even the un-RTC-patched version may work.

Some of the scene-released solar sensor patches/cracks for Boktai 1 botched the RTC code to include a time change hotkey (since GBA flashcards usually did not have an RTC). Like I said, I didn't see anything wrong using my own patch (which leaves the RTC code untouched), but the compatibility list says there are RTC issues, so they might have been caused by using one of those old solar sensor patches.

 

[Rydian]

http://www.mediafire.com/?5oz1u5i1g2bw9lt

That's the collection of cheat files I made for use on the PSP, I did those files by hand, Googling for codes a while back. I've confirmed at least a few of them working on TempGBA, problem-games like Mother 3 that didn't accept cheats on gpSP don't work here either. Like I said earlier, there's multiple cheat types, and only PAR_V3 (most common) appears to be supported, so right now some things like Megaman Zero 4 do nothing (as all of those are GS codes, not PAR).

ANYWAYS I assume I should test the same three games and toss up the recordings again?

 

[Deleted member 319809]

[...]

a) That's the collection of cheat files I made for use on the PSP, I did those files by hand, Googling for codes a while back. I've confirmed at least a few of them working on TempGBA, problem-games like Mother 3 that didn't accept cheats on gpSP don't work here either. Like I said earlier, there's multiple cheat types, and only PAR_V3 (most common) appears to be supported, so right now some things like Megaman Zero 4 do nothing (as all of those are GS codes, not PAR).

b) ANYWAYS I assume I should test the same three games and toss up the recordings again?

a) So things are mostly equal right now, then... With those cheat packs (thanks Rydian and Aeter ) I might try to make more cheats work when I'm done with the core. I'd like an issue on GitHub so I don't forget, and any problems with cheats for specific games should go into that issue so everyone knows which game(s) to test. Naturally, if a pattern emerges (like "all 32 MiB games suck at cheats") then that should become a separate issue.

b) If you want, I'll take a new recording of Golden Sun (1 and 2) battles, with Isaac's Theme and Jenna's Theme. Pokémon Emerald and Mortal Kombat won't be needed, I think.

 

[Rydian]

Anybody mind tossing me a save before those themes?

 

[Deleted member 319809]

Anybody mind tossing me a save before those themes?

Attached below.
* Rename the files to "ROMNAME_N.rts" as appropriate, in /TEMPGBA/SAVES. _1 will correspond to saved-state slot #1 in the emulator.
* For Golden Sun The Original, the save is in a blue hall in Sol Sanctum. Move left and right and eventually you'll get a random encounter, which starts Isaac's Theme.
* For Golden Sun The Lost Age, the save is next to a cavern. Move to the cavern; you'll get intercepted while trying to enter. After a bit of dialogue, a battle will start Jenna's Theme.

 

[Rydian]

Sure that was the right save for 2? I woke up on an island, and after 10 minutes of talking, no cave. A tsunami though.

 

[Deleted member 319809]

Sure that was the right save for 2? I woke up on an island, and after 10 minutes of talking, no cave. A tsunami though.

Whoops, you're right.

Attached is the correct save, for saved-state slot #2.

 

[Rydian]

http://rydian.net/gbatemp/tempgba_recordings/

 

[granville]

That actually sounds really good! I have yet to get my DSTWO out and test the GBA emulator progress that Nebuleon has made. I'm still using the old official GBA emulator (1.21?). From Rydian's recordings of the Golden Sun games, looks like it's high time I test out the new and apparently improved emulator!

The Golden Sun games, especially the second one, have always been a bitch to get running on non-PC emulators for me. I even had issues finding a GBA emulator on Android phones that could run both properly for quite a long time. Either the sound was all screwed up or the games will freeze all the time. I'm not expecting perfect speed without frameskipping here or anything (dunno what improvements have been made speed wise yet), but are the games now completely playable on DSTWO with Nebuleon's alterations?

 

[Rydian]

In both recordings, you can hear that after letting the music play for a bit, I actually did the battle. While previous versions would stutter a bit during the hit particles, I didn't notice anything so drastic this time in 1. Not the same story for 2 though, it's still got the hitspark lag.

Also you can probably see I had to run these games at 3 clicks below max, the audio on these games isn't mixed very conservatively and any clipping would cause noticeable defects. Compare them to the Final Fantasy 6 recordings. XD

EDIT: Grammar.

 

[Deleted member 319809]

I'm impressed, I didn't even hear the slight crackles of beta 9 in the Golden Sun (Original) battle in your recording of beta 11. I'll alter the FAQ to mention this.