Hacking TempGBA4PSP

[Deleted member 319809]

Thanks.

After looking a bit at the core code, it appears that the Japanese person indeed added some things to it which would affect (hopefully by improving) game compatibility. He or she even added more optimisations on top, some of which I made independently in the GCW Zero version.

 

[Deleted member 319809]

I think that was an older release.
The one I found was from October 2013 (That's what's on the archive's name and file access dates inside anyway) http://www2.axfc.net/uploader/so/3057449

Some games, such as Metroid Zero Mission and Mother 3 (from what I've tried), seem to work better on gpSP-J still.
Both have much less audio popping/crackling than on UO gpSP Kai.

So the Japanese person may have taken my version, but then attempted to improved some games, which happened to be at the expense of Metroid Zero Mission and Mother 3. My version doesn't crackle or pop in either, but that's for the DSTwo and GCW Zero.

For the record, what happened with Unofficial gpSP Kai was that Takka took great pain to fix some things in Final Fantasy, Dragonball Z and possibly other games, but this broke some different games. It was a similar thing to what I think happened with gpSP-J and now this TempGBA4PSP.

In TempGBA for the DSTwo and GCW Zero, I mainly optimised and made a single fix that Exophase recommended I make, which dealt with running GBA code previously seen as ARM in Thumb mode or vice versa, something Golden Sun and Golden Sun 2 needed to avoid a crash in certain areas. I know I suck at implementing new fixes, so I would have done worse than Takka. Because I avoided making fixes at the expense of 'other games', the behavior of games should have been identical to gpSP 0.9 under my versions, the JIT compiler was just invoked way less often.

 

[frown]

I only listed those two games specifically because I already had saves for them in resource-heavy spots.
It just seems like whenever there are a lot of sprites on the screen at once, this TempGBA4PSP port bogs down more than gpSP-J.
I don't know how well other games compare yet though. D:
I know yours doesn't crackle and pop; I've used the DSTwo version (a lot ).
I only meant that this PSP port and gpSP-J both in general seem to have clearer audio than gpSP Kai.
Not meaning to sound disrespectful towards anyone's work; it's interesting to see optimized versions coming from various angles.

 

[Deleted member 319809]

I didn't see any disrespect coming from you; it's just that in a sea of different versions, with someone doing optimisations and another doing fixes, the maintainer has to sort out a lot of stuff to make a version with both fixes and optimisations - and the language barrier does not help.

I have this repository made so that people can contribute ports to new MIPS platforms to ReGBA under different directories, but use the same common core (and, if improving the core, improve it for all MIPS platforms). The DSTwo doesn't use MIPS32 Release 2 instructions, but the PSP and the GCW Zero do, so the core can work for both. The Japanese person's changes are indeed on top of my optimisations, but they assume the use of PSP extensions to MIPS32 Release 2, which neither the DSTwo nor the GCW Zero can use (!), and he or she made the changes to the core files directly, not to platform files.

On my own, I can't ask for clarifications on what has been done or ask the Japanese person to contribute to my repository.

I find myself in the same situation Exophase faced with gpSP Kai, but I'm not going to actively pursue the developer in Japanese and ask to stop. Instead, I'm going to acknowledge that there's a language barrier and assume that the Japanese person has good intentions and is also language barriered in English.

I also find myself with lots of respect for the merging work done by the VisualBoyAdvance-Merge project folks.

 

[KongsNutz]

Well I can't run Kai on my E-1000 Street psp, gives video out error and get's stuck.

This TempGba works fine and I haven't noticed any slowdown so far.
I have yet to try gpSP-J yet but I'm happy with Temp so far.

 

[DinohScene]

Been playing Hamtaro Ham Ham Heartbreak for a few hours now on TempGBA4PSP.
GPSP Kai didn't even load it past the char name selection screen.

Hope that more rather unknown games work on this one.

 

[LumInvader]

As someone who owns a PSP and GBA...

Get a real GBA and you'll never look back. Huge boost in compatibility, graphics, and speed. The stretched out emulated graphics look wonky side by side with a real GBA. Also, the original GBA uses AA batteries, which again, is a better option than using a PSP battery.

And they're dirt cheap.

 

[Randqalan]

As someone who owns a PSP and GBA...

Get a real GBA and you'll never look back. Huge boost in compatibility, graphics, and speed. The stretched out emulated graphics look wonky side by side with a real GBA. Also, the original GBA uses AA batteries, which again, is a better option than using a PSP battery.

And they're dirt cheap.

I own an GBA SP I know you are right but on my go model not much difference except compatibility

 

[LumInvader]

I own an GBA SP I know you are right but on my go model not much difference except compatibility

Even with the Go, the PSP is still trying to render a 240x160 GBA game on a 480x272 screen. There's just not enough space to bump the game up to 480x320, and at 240x160, the display is too small. You're going to be stuck somewhere in the middle, which means either adding filter blur or using a wonky filter like the one in gpSP mod, which gets around the blurring at the expense of speed and everything appearing stretched.

 

[Randqalan]

Even with the Go, the PSP is still trying to render a 240x160 GBA game on a 480x272 screen. There's just not enough space to bump the game up to 480x320, and at 240x160, the display is too small. You're going to be stuck somewhere in the middle, which means either adding filter blur or using a wonky filter like the one in gpSP mod, which gets around the blurring at the expense of speed and everything appearing stretched.

Or make it render at defaut that is possible 100% setting without filter

But as I have learned with most things what it was made for always plays better at least to me

 

[LumInvader]

Or make it render at defaut that is possible 100% setting without filter

But as I have learned with most things what it was made for always plays better at least to me

Yes, but as I said, the default GBA resolution (240x160) appears too small on the PSP's 480x272 pixel screen. You can really tell a difference in quality next to a real GBA screen or by playing an emulator like Picodrive, which looks fantastic at 320x224.

 

[Randqalan]

Yes, but as I said, the default GBA resolution (240x160) appears too small on the PSP's 480x272 pixel screen. You can really tell a difference in quality next to a real GBA screen or by playing an emulator like Picodrive, which looks fantastic at 320x224.

I have a mini GBA as well the exact same size on the go model weird that

 

[LumInvader]

This is how I play GBA:

On a modded backlit GBA.

I probably get 8-10 hours using eneloops. Another nice thing is you can replace the plastic screen cover with a glass one, which lets you buff the screen out with your shirt without having to worry about scratches.

 

[DinohScene]

TempGBA occasionally lets the game hang for me.
It happens when I move from one area to another in Hamtaro Ham Ham Heartbreak.
It's not that big of a deal , just minorly annoying.
Resetting the game works and sometimes a reboot of the emulator fixes the problem for the next hour or so.

Haven't tested it with other games so I think it's just this game which makes it hang.
Same thing happens btw on the PSP from a mate of mine (Also on Hamtaro Ham Ham heartbreak)

PSP I got is a PSP 1000 on 6.39 ME-9.6
PSP of her is PSP 1000 on 6.60 Pro-B (iirc)

 

[DinohScene]

Mario Superstar saga messes up just after the Koopa cruiser picked Luigi up.
Bummer :c

 

[Randqalan]

Mario Superstar saga messes up just after the Koopa cruiser picked Luigi up.
Bummer :c

I do not know why but I got to stardust fields from the beginning so something is wrong with your rom

 

[DinohScene]

I do not know why but I got to stardust fields from the beginning so something is wrong with your rom

Self dumped.
It was fine on Visualboy on me lappy.

 

[Randqalan]

Self dumped.
It was fine on Visualboy on me lappy.

Maybe bad dump or needs some sort of patching

 

[DinohScene]

Hmm, guess I could snatch a copy from the usual places then ;p

Got a ROM name perhaps?

 

[shafty710]

I've been diving into my PSP again. I'll have to check this one out too. I've been trying to get Super Mario Advanced 4 to work on it.