Hacking [RELEASE] PFBA: Portable Final Burn Alpha - official thread

[Columbo2811]

Hello would it be possible to show the game list for only the current games?, instead of showing the whole game list even if the game rom is not found on the rom folder...

There's an option for that in the menu

 

[rsn8887]

start select and x is not really sane as it's awkward and unbalanced
Maybe L and start select.

As for retro archs key sequence I tend to use L R d and Y

I meant you press start select to go into the menu and inside the menu you press x to accept

 

[javys]

There's an option for that in the menu

Thanks, I did not notice it...

 

[cpasjuste]

Thanks again to Cpasjuste for another great emulator and fascinating codebase. The code is very clean. I could quickly add the 4:3 FIT option. I made a quick "unofficial mod" release of the changes, and a pull request to Cpasjuste's repo. The FIT 4:3 works best with sharp shader, or sharp-scan shader AND simultaneously turning "linear" filtering on to eliminate pixelwobble.

I also made some changes to SDL2 Vita to add support for multiple controllers. It might already work I am not sure.

www.github.com/rsn8887/pfba/releases

Changelog

v1.00

• added "FIT 4:3" and "FIT 3:4" options to force the typical Arcade TV aspect ratio. Many Capcom games have strange resolutions but were designed to fill a 4:3 TV aspect ratio image. Strider and Final Fight are two examples. Without forcing 4:3 aspect these games will look stretched with too much widescreen.

Btw, Here's what I love most about PFBA compared to Retroarch so far:
- I can rotate the game and controls are automatically rotated in portrait mode.
- Shader support
- A sane menu. It takes a split second to remap controls or change a game's rotation. In Retroarch it takes like twenty clicks through a confusing menu, and half the time I cannot remember which sub-menu I am in and how to get to an option and how to get back to the game (it takes another twenty clicks to go back).
- A sane menu hotkey (start + select, x to accept) instead of insane hotkey like retroarch (L + R + Start + Select, circle to accept).

Thanks once again @rsn8887, i did merge all that. I did take a long time to try to make it as portable as possible and easy to implement new platforms/options. I'm still not where i want to go (simplify a few things) but i guess it's in a good shape.

 

[lincruste]

Hello again. Portrait mode is incredible !
One technical question from an ignorant point of view: Some games are slow (ie Vendetta, 10/60 fps, the Simpsons, and even older games) while some much more recent gamesrun perfectly (AES-MVS ones). Can the annoucement from xerpi's gpu lib in any way improve the actual performance of FBA ?
Thanks again for PFBA, it's already great as is.

 

[cpasjuste]

Hello again. Portrait mode is incredible !
One technical question from an ignorant point of view: Some games are slow (ie Vendetta, 10/60 fps, the Simpsons, and even older games) while some much more recent gamesrun perfectly (AES-MVS ones). Can the annoucement from xerpi's gpu lib in any way improve the actual performance of FBA ?
Thanks again for PFBA, it's already great as is.

Hi,

As there's no 3d emulation in FBA, there is no advantage/possibility to use 3d GPU rendering (pfba already use GPU for 2d rendering and shaders/scaling by the way). Some older hardware may not be as fast as more recent/demanding hardware because they are either too difficult to emulate or no one took the time to perfect them (and I do not have the knowledge to do so ).

 

[lincruste]

Understood, thanks for your answer !
Best regards.

 

[rsn8887]

Ok I tested the code so far for multiplayer Vita TV support. And it is currently not working. It is all fine with a single controller, but when a second controller is connected before starting up PFBA, then the menu becomes very unresponsive.

I will try to fix it. I think it has to do with SDL events, it will probably require a few days of debugging.

 

[Kerbangman]

I meant you press start select to go into the menu and inside the menu you press x to accept

Ah Ok

 

[cpasjuste]

Ok I tested the code so far for multiplayer Vita TV support. And it is currently not working. It is all fine with a single controller, but when a second controller is connected before starting up PFBA, then the menu becomes very unresponsive.

I will try to fix it. I think it has to do with SDL events, it will probably require a few days of debugging.

Hi,

I guess you did notice you can debug most things on Linux, then just finalize the test on the vita (you would need multiple USB joys connected to the computer of course).

 

[MKKhanzo]

N00b question: Can the Vita itself do multiplayer on the emulators just as the PSP did? If so, why no other emulator have featured this?

PROPS for this FBA release!

 

[ArugulaZ]

One other thing... when you add the option to turn off one of the analog thumbsticks, could you please put that in the config file? I don't think I could shut it off on my Vita because I can't actually select anything. I suppose I could pop the card into my PSTV to make the adjustment there, if it's necessary.

 

[Lord M]

I simply love the menu designs and previews (both for games and savestates)
There's no news about control stick use? Fighting games are unplayable with directional buttons, and maybe for a future features to assign more buttons to one? (eg: X = fire1+fire3. And maybe add this features for right analog stick. Four directions mean four button combos: right stick up= fire1+fire2+fire4 and so on xD)

 

[rsn8887]

Multiplayer on Vita TV works now. Pull request made. It was just SDL2 that was the problem. Release vpk is here:

www.github.com/rsn8887/pfba/releases

Changelog

1.01

• support for multiplayer/multiple controllers on Vita TV. Controllers have to be paired before PFBA is started

1.00

• added "FIT 4:3" and "FIT 3:4" options to force the typical Arcade TV aspect ratio. Many Capcom games have strange resolutions but were designed to fill a 4:3 TV aspect ratio image. Strider and Final Fight are two examples. Without forcing 4:3 aspect these games will look stretched with too much widescreen.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I simply love the menu designs and previews (both for games and savestates)
There's no news about control stick use? Fighting games are unplayable with directional buttons, and maybe for a future features to assign more buttons to one? (eg: X = fire1+fire3. And maybe add this features for right analog stick. Four directions mean four button combos: right stick up= fire1+fire2+fire4 and so on xD)

Analog sticks already work there's even a dead zone setting.

 

[cpasjuste]

I simply love the menu designs and previews (both for games and savestates)
There's no news about control stick use? Fighting games are unplayable with directional buttons, and maybe for a future features to assign more buttons to one? (eg: X = fire1+fire3. And maybe add this features for right analog stick. Four directions mean four button combos: right stick up= fire1+fire2+fire4 and so on xD)

Hi,
You need to install the official vpk in first post for analog sticks to work.

Else thanks again @rsn8887

 

[Lord M]

Hi,
You need to install the official vpk in first post for analog sticks to work.

Else thanks again @rsn8887

Ok thanks.
And about button combo assignment and right stick added for this? You think you could add these functions in future releases?

 

[Crazy2k4]

Ok thanks.
And about button combo assignment and right stick added for this? You think you could add these functions in future releases?

the best combo for enter to menu is front touch,left and right down corners

 

[Lord M]

the best combo for enter to menu is front touch,left and right down corners

not for the menu i ask, but in game buttons, would be useful expecially for fighting games that require more than 2 buttons for a certain moves or attack (like Akuma i-not-remember-the-name semi-teleport move)

 

[MUDD_BR]

Yes, multiple controller support will be added in the future !
Unfortunately midmay is not supported yet and not sure it will. I uploaded the supported gamelist here : http://files.mydedibox.fr/files/Dev/psp2/pfba/gamelist.txt (all games may not work on this list, but should).

Please, do you have this list in .xls format?

Nevermind, I found it at: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...xCSDQXILo81Ls1mHK6czKGAtM/edit#gid=1671511927

 

[cpasjuste]

Please, do you have this list in .xls format?

Nevermind, I found it at: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...xCSDQXILo81Ls1mHK6czKGAtM/edit#gid=1671511927

Well, this is for retropie