Homebrew Snes9x GX 4.4.0 Beta - Feedback requested

[Bladeoner]

Hi there,

I did another attempt to update the Snes9x GX core to 1.60 and as far I could test it works good.

I've tested:
Yoshi's Island
Mega Man X (with MSU1)
Super Mario World (with MSU1)
Tengai Makyou Zero (to test the RTC)
Earthworm Jim 2
Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius
Kirby Super Star

Changelog:

• Updated core to version 1.60
• Get SuperFX Overclock working with core 1.60
• Get APU Hacks working with core 1.60 to fix Earthworm Jim 2
• Adjusted SA1 settings to fix Super Mario RPG slowdowns with core 1.60
• SA1 hack for Kirby Super Star intro
• Backported all changes from Snes9x

 

[Bladeoner]

Nightly builds can now be downloaded from the following website (you need to create a Github account and login):
https://github.com/dborth/snes9xgx
- Click on "Snes9x GX Build - passing" under Nightly builds, direct link:
https://github.com/dborth/snes9xgx/actions
- Click on the desired build commit text for example "revert git ignore"
- Click on "Snes9xGX" (or Snes9xGX-GameCube for the GameCube build) under Artifacts and download the file.
- Extract the Snes9xGX (or Snes9xGX-GameCube for the GameCube build) file and copy the apps folder to your SD card or HDD.

The files are attached below.

Contains Snes9x GX 4.5.2 with commits until:
Snes9x - Revert "LoROM: Don't map SRAM if size is 0."

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

does it have wii u gamepad support?

 

[Bladeoner]

does it have wii u gamepad support?

Yes it has Wii U Gamepad support, but that is already in the latest stable, version 4.3.9.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Just checking

 

[the_randomizer]

Following thread

 

[fmhugo]

Top Gear 3000 plz. My SD card reader broken :/

 

[Edu64]

Hi! Thanks for this version of the emulator.

I have tested this version with some key games and the results are the following:

- Yoshi island is doing very well, with the option of the fx chip at 40mhz.
- Super mario rpg has problems in the first town, does not go smoothly, in the official version, with the nucleus 1.52 goes ok.
- Earthworm jim 2 stops at the beginning, however, you can exit the game.
- I loaded a saved status of megaman x2 with an ips patch and the emulator stops working, the only option is to press the power button for several seconds to turn off.
- Top gear 3000 has the same problems as the last official version, maybe it is because it is the only game so it occupies the "dsp4" chip.

EDIT:
Years ago, the problem of "super mario rpg" happened and was solved because of this:
"Reverted zones' changes to IRQ and SA-1 - these caused a performance hit"
They are notes of version 4.2.7

 

[Bladeoner]

Hi! Thanks for this version of the emulator.

I have tested this version with some key games and the results are the following:

- Yoshi island is doing very well, with the option of the fx chip at 40mhz.
- Super mario rpg has problems in the first town, does not go smoothly, in the official version, with the nucleus 1.52 goes ok.
- Earthworm jim 2 stops at the beginning, however, you can exit the game.
- I loaded a saved status of megaman x2 with an ips patch and the emulator stops working, the only option is to press the power button for several seconds to turn off.
- Top gear 3000 has the same problems as the last official version, maybe it is because it is the only game so it occupies the "dsp4" chip.

Thank you for your feedback, with Yoshi Island working well I had my hope high that core 1.56.2 could work.

What I did is use the cpu core settings of core 1.52, thats why Yoshi's Island is running well.

Conclusion is that the hardware of the Wii is not sufficient to run core 1.56.2, so we are stuck with 1.52.

I will change the cpu settings to default and upload it, as a last attempt. Could you please test the same games when its available?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Edu64]

Thank you for your feedback, with Yoshi Island working well I had my hope high that core 1.56.2 could work.

What I did is use the cpu core settings of core 1.52, thats why Yoshi's Island is running well.

Conclusion is that the hardware of the Wii is not sufficient to run core 1.56.2, so we are stuck with 1.52.

I will change the cpu settings to default and upload it, as a last attempt. Could you please test the same games when its available?

Thanks in advance.

No problem, I can do the tests.
Any idea of the "top gear 3000" problem? In version 4.3.8 it worked ok.

 

[the_randomizer]

Thank you for your feedback, with Yoshi Island working well I had my hope high that core 1.56.2 could work.

What I did is use the cpu core settings of core 1.52, thats why Yoshi's Island is running well.

Conclusion is that the hardware of the Wii is not sufficient to run core 1.56.2, so we are stuck with 1.52.

I will change the cpu settings to default and upload it, as a last attempt. Could you please test the same games when its available?

Thanks in advance.

What about 1.53, 1.54 or 1.55? Is it enough to run those?

 

[Bladeoner]

No problem, I can do the tests.
Any idea of the "top gear 3000" problem? In version 4.3.8 it worked ok.

I just uploaded a new file in my second post 'Snes9x.GX.4.4.0_core_1.56.2_Beta_2.zip' which is the new version.

Yes the Top Gear 3000 problem lays within the DSP4 chip, because it's really complex to emulate it and it needs the necessary resources.
Maybe in 4.3.8 it was working because the code used was partly 1.52 and partly 1.56.2.

I tested Yoshi's Island it's working really good also without 40 Mhz overclock.
Earthworm Jim 2 you can skip testing that, it didn't work.
Just tested Top Gear 3000 I see a lot of artifacts with the other cars is that the issue you have also?

 

[Bladeoner]

What about 1.53, 1.54 or 1.55? Is it enough to run those?

We call it version 1.52 but if you ask me it's a heavily modifed version of core 1.52 in snes9x gx.
A lot of parts are already backported from versions 1.53, 1.54, 1.55 and 1.56.x but to update the core itself it requires almost all files to contain the complete code which causes a more heavy load on the hardware when used. And actually core 1.52/1.53 which we are using is better designed for less heavy hardware.
The higher versions are more designed for heavier hardware, thats where the hardware limitations come in place.

Yesterday I was reading an interesting article about what I mean, it contains 3 pages if you're interested:
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011...-3ghz-quest-to-build-a-perfect-snes-emulator/

Another thing is that we tried to update the core to 1.56.2 and have to deal with the hardware limitations even without the SMP module (audio processor) which is implemented in core 1.54 and rewritten by Byuu. The SMP module is more accurate but needs more power on top of updating the core, so you can imagine how difficult it is to update the core.

 

[Edu64]

I just uploaded a new file in my second post 'Snes9x.GX.4.4.0_core_1.56.2_Beta_2.zip' which is the new version.

Yes the Top Gear 3000 problem lays within the DSP4 chip, because it's really complex to emulate it and it needs the necessary resources.
Maybe in 4.3.8 it was working because the code used was partly 1.52 and partly 1.56.2.

I tested Yoshi's Island it's working really good also without 40 Mhz overclock.
Earthworm Jim 2 you can skip testing that, it didn't work.
Just tested Top Gear 3000 I see a lot of artifacts with the other cars is that the issue you have also?

I have tested beta 2, with the same games as before, and the result was identical.
The problem of top gear 3000 does not happen in 4.3.7, before I said it was e 4.3.8 but I had a confusion in the number of the version.
The problem with this game is a graphic distortion in the race, in the cars as well as in the sets on the side of the track.
Thanks for your efforts!

 

[Bladeoner]

I have tested beta 2, with the same games as before, and the result was identical.
The problem of top gear 3000 does not happen in 4.3.7, before I said it was e 4.3.8 but I had a confusion in the number of the version.
The problem with this game is a graphic distortion in the race, in the cars as well as in the sets on the side of the track.
Thanks for your efforts!

Thank you for testing.

 

[the_randomizer]

We call it version 1.52 but if you ask me it's a heavily modifed version of core 1.52 in snes9x gx.
A lot of parts are already backported from versions 1.53, 1.54, 1.55 and 1.56.x but to update the core itself it requires almost all files to contain the complete code which causes a more heavy load on the hardware when used. And actually core 1.52/1.53 which we are using is better designed for less heavy hardware.
The higher versions are more designed for heavier hardware, thats where the hardware limitations come in place.

Yesterday I was reading an interesting article about what I mean, it contains 3 pages if you're interested:
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011...-3ghz-quest-to-build-a-perfect-snes-emulator/

Another thing is that we tried to update the core to 1.56.2 and have to deal with the hardware limitations even without the SMP module (audio processor) which is implemented in core 1.54 and rewritten by Byuu. The SMP module is more accurate but needs more power on top of updating the core, so you can imagine how difficult it is to update the core.

Unfortunately, if the S-SMP core was removed and used with the older one, sure, you would get faster speeds, but would trade off with horrible Zsnes audio. I don't know what other options the Wii has, in all honesty. If Snes9xGx could somehow be ported to Wii U or use the vWii overclock like Not64 can use, then maybe? But I'd imagine that'd be a helluva nightmare too *sigh* I'm sorry I even suggested that, I don't know how much more the Wii's 729 MHz PPC CPU and 64 MB RAM can be squeezed.

Fix94 could maybe give some insight on forcing vWii mode to do the overclock, but Wii owners would be out of luck, again, I'm sorry -_-

 

[Bladeoner]

Unfortunately, if the S-SMP core was removed and used with the older one, sure, you would get faster speeds, but would trade off with horrible Zsnes audio. I don't know what other options the Wii has, in all honesty. If Snes9xGx could somehow be ported to Wii U or use the vWii overclock like Not64 can use, then maybe? But I'd imagine that'd be a helluva nightmare too *sigh* I'm sorry I even suggested that, I don't know how much more the Wii's 729 MHz PPC CPU and 64 MB RAM can be squeezed.

Fix94 could maybe give some insight on forcing vWii mode to do the overclock, but Wii owners would be out of luck, again, I'm sorry -_-

Sorry I think I didn't explain correct.
In the current version of snes9x gx version 4.3.9 we are not using S-SMP, so we are already using the old one. S-SMP has never been backported in snes9x gx. I looked several times at it but it seems you need to backport a big part of the core with it.

So to implement the new s-smp and update the core to a higher version seems impossible for the Wii. I don't know how snes9x gx is performing on the Wii U, I don't own one to test. I think better yesterday I looked up the specs and for the higher core you need at least 1 Ghz of cpu power.

 

[Turme]

Yes it has Wii U Gamepad support, but that is already in the latest stable, version 4.3.9.

The Wiiugamepad does not work

 

[Brawl345]

The Wiiugamepad does not work

It's not in the latest stable, it will be in the next version. It was added on 6th september. This version here should have it if it uses the latest master.

 

[Bladeoner]

It's not in the latest stable, it will be in the next version. It was added on 6th september. This version here should have it if it uses the latest master.

This build uses the latest master + extra's.

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

I am still looking if there is a way we can go to core 1.56.2 and have best of both world, but I need some help testing, I just uploaded a new version with a small change for Super Mario RPG:
Snes9x.GX.4.4.0_core_1.56.2_Beta_3.zip (see my second post)

If game by game we can fix the issues that are there we might get a stable 1.56.2 with parts of the older core or settings adjusted for the Wii hardware.

I have tested beta 2, with the same games as before, and the result was identical.
The problem of top gear 3000 does not happen in 4.3.7, before I said it was e 4.3.8 but I had a confusion in the number of the version.
The problem with this game is a graphic distortion in the race, in the cars as well as in the sets on the side of the track.
Thanks for your efforts!

@Edu64 could you please test Super Mario RPG and see if it goes better, the other games you don't need to test, I only changed something for the SA1 coprocessor which Super Mario RPG uses.