GCW Zero is demoing at PAX Prime and other news.

[FAST6191]

The folks working on the GCW Zero, a very promising open source handheld device we have previously covered quite a bit of around here, sent us some more news about their continued work and the work of some others on the subject.
First we should mention that the device is being demoed at the presently happening PAX Prime which has already stated but goes on for another couple of days. This is fairly new in the smaller handheld device market which tends to be "devices made somewhere in Asia and only glimpsed outside it". There is more on the link below but if you are going to Pax then why not take a swing by booth #6206 to get some hands on time.

GCW Zero PAX info site

In other news they have the TV out support getting to a more advanced stage and the video below covers it

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Another piece of interesting news and likely of interest to a lot of GBAtemp's readers is there is to be a new GBA emulator being worked on, still in alpha but if the stalling of the K101 and the continued difficulty of finding a GBA flash cart is getting to you then this might be worth a look. That it is being worked on Nebuleon and others of equally high skill is surely just icing on the cake.

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Finally the software repo has had a public unveiling which you can see on the link below

Annoucement thread
Repo preview

 

[NfoMonster]

intresting indeed !

 

[BORTZ]

Golden Sun 1, fine, but Id rather see a demo of the far buggier and bane of all GBA emulators, The Lost Age.

 

[Deleted member 319809]

Golden Sun 1, fine, but Id rather see a demo of the far buggier and bane of all GBA emulators, The Lost Age.

If you have a Supercard DSTwo for the Nintendo DS already (sorry, I don't know if you do), you can see exactly what to expect from Golden Sun 2: The Lost Age via the GBA emulator for it, TempGBA.

Except that the GCW Zero can output at 60 FPS with vertical sync because it has a 3 times faster processor and a direct connection to its LCD panel. The faster processor also means it can run one of Paul Cercueil's full-screen scalers, AND run Golden Sun 2: The Lost Age, all with ~45% CPU usage.

In the current alpha, audio is not exactly the best, but we're working on the synchronisation.

 

[BORTZ]

If you have a Supercard DSTwo for the Nintendo DS already (sorry, I don't know if you do), you can see exactly what to expect from Golden Sun 2: The Lost Age via the GBA emulator for it, TempGBA.

Except that the GCW Zero can output at 60 FPS with vertical sync because it has a 3 times faster processor and a direct connection to its LCD panel. The faster processor also means it can run one of Paul Cercueil's full-screen scalers, AND run Golden Sun 2: The Lost Age, all with ~45% CPU usage.

In the current alpha, audio is not exactly the best, but we're working on the synchronisation.

I do have a dstwo and temp gba but i haven't tested it very hard. Excuse my ignorance, (mostly because I misplaced the bios file for the gba and havent been assed to replace it). So can tempgba do lost age?

 

[Deleted member 319809]

I do have a dstwo and temp gba but i haven't tested it very hard. Excuse my ignorance, (mostly because I misplaced the bios file for the gba and havent been assed to replace it). So can tempgba do lost age?

Yeah, it can run Lost Age at 30 FPS almost everywhere.

 

[Hop2089]

I would like to test out that GBA emulator for myself since I own a KS zero.

 

[Surkow]

I would like to test out that GBA emulator for myself since I own a KS zero.

It's not exactly ready for release. They are working on audio related issues right now.

 

[RupeeClock]

If you have a Supercard DSTwo for the Nintendo DS already (sorry, I don't know if you do), you can see exactly what to expect from Golden Sun 2: The Lost Age via the GBA emulator for it, TempGBA.

Except that the GCW Zero can output at 60 FPS with vertical sync because it has a 3 times faster processor and a direct connection to its LCD panel. The faster processor also means it can run one of Paul Cercueil's full-screen scalers, AND run Golden Sun 2: The Lost Age, all with ~45% CPU usage.

In the current alpha, audio is not exactly the best, but we're working on the synchronisation.

I'm actually quite thrilled by the fact that instead of porting gpSP to another device yet again, you're working on developing a new GBA emulator for the GCW Zero.
Of course TempGBA was based on NDSGBA, which was based on gpSP to start with, but you've done such remarkable stuff with an emulator on paltry resources, that on something with ample resources should be downright brilliant.

Just one question about Pcercuei's full-screen scalers, will there be an option to upscale whilst maintaining aspect ratio? The 240x160 GBA resolution can only upscale 1.33x on a 320x240 display, to 320x213 or such. Stretching the image to 320x240 makes the image too narrow.

 

[Deleted member 319809]

I'm actually quite thrilled by the fact that instead of porting gpSP to another device yet again, you're working on developing a new GBA emulator for the GCW Zero.
a) Of course TempGBA was based on NDSGBA, which was based on gpSP to start with, but you've done such remarkable stuff with an emulator on paltry resources, that on something with ample resources should be downright brilliant.

b) Just one question about Pcercuei's full-screen scalers, will there be an option to upscale whilst maintaining aspect ratio? The 240x160 GBA resolution can only upscale 1.33x on a 320x240 display, to 320x213 or such. Stretching the image to 320x240 makes the image too narrow.

a) Yeah, and even more brilliant optimisations, given more RAM and a better processor to work with! I already did two of such optimisations, see here:
commit 03712e7: memory.c, others: Add #define GAMEPAK_FITS_IN_RAM, which is for platforms on which the entire largest Game Pak can be loaded without needing to load on demand.
commit 952e7e2: Overhaul the MIPS stub and emitter so that they can be compiled with or without load delays, as well as with MIPS32 r1 or r2 instructions.

b) Each of pcercuei's scalers is custom coded for the job, being fully optimised with bit operations. Even a small change to the dimensions involved requires changing almost all of the algorithm. You would have to ask him for one that does the aspect ratio correctly.

The current one is a 1.33 horizontal and 1.50 vertical scaler. Here it is, in all of its glory:
commit d6548ad: Updated scaler by Paul Cercueil.

 

[Surkow]

Another video from Qbertaddict

 

[Prior22]

I havent really followed the open source gaming scene that closely but havent there been a decent amount of devices in this category that lose support after a short period of time (when another device comes out with superior specs). Whats to stop this from happening with GCW? Also whats the max upside with emulation? Is high quality N64 possible?

 

[pasc]

stalling of K101 ? What do you mean by that ?

 

[Surkow]

I havent really followed the open source gaming scene that closely but havent there been a decent amount of devices in this category that lose support after a short period of time (when another device comes out with superior specs). Whats to stop this from happening with GCW? Also whats the max upside with emulation? Is high quality N64 possible?

This device has been developed exactly because of the lack of continued support from companies after throwing device after device on the market. It is a device developed by the community and supported by most developers in the homebrew scene. N64 emulation is possible, yes. But you'll need someone to port Mupen64plus or Daedalusx64 to the device. This means writing a new MIPS based dynarec for Mupen64plus. Deadalusx64 should be easier to port, but has lower compatibility.

 

[FAST6191]

stalling of K101 ? What do you mean by that ?

I do not know if we can officially call the K101 abandoned yet but we have certainly seen healthier/more active projects and it bears all the signs of a project that will not really be updated any more. I hope it is not the case as I hold the clone and hardware world has a lot of promise and this would prove to be a bad earlier example but I have to call it as I see it.

 

[pasc]

yeah well except for ww twisted, topsy turvy etc. most games (Even Payback and KH:CoM) work.

Where should they improve again ?

 

[RupeeClock]

yeah well except for ww twisted, topsy turvy etc. most games (Even Payback and KH:CoM) work.

Where should they improve again ?

Now that you mention Wario Ware Twisted, I'm pretty sure that ReGBA has a shot at emulating the tilt controlled GBA games, thanks to the Accelerometer/G-Sensor in the GCW Zero.
That is, if the Accelerometer is capable of full 360 degree rotations, since WW Twisted did a ton of it.

 

[FAST6191]

I was under the impression there were still a handful of hardware issues, some save issues and some sound issues and maybe a handful of other more minor troubles.