Homebrew GBARunner2

[Gericom]

Why do we need to compile the emulator, is it due to licensing isues?

You don't have to compile it (tbh, I should update the first post probably). Releases can be found on github.

 

[Fel]

You don't have to compile it (tbh, I should update the first post probably). Releases can be found on github.

Oh okay, that's great! Thanks!

 

[RealYoti]

How to dump GBA BIOS for using with your software? My own hardware is in the signature.

 

[zfreeman]

extract from 3DS VC title:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/obtaining-gba-bios-without-a-gba.520166/#post-8322979

dump with GBA flashcart:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/gba-utility-tools-new-gba-application.353326/

https://gbatemp.net/threads/dumping-gba-bios.390321/#post-5529754

dump with GBA-GC/Wii link cable:
https://github.com/FIX94/gba-link-cable-dumper/releases

 

[Gericom]

I fixed some stuff regarding timers and sound that probably fixes the sound in some games that regressed related to sound since approximately 2019/06/03. Back then it was also not correct, but in such a way that it managed to work xD. This fixes Hot Potato! and probably others.

 

[Deleted User]

I fixed some stuff regarding timers and sound that probably fixes the sound in some games that regressed related to sound since approximately 2019/06/03. Back then it was also not correct, but in such a way that it managed to work xD. This fixes Hot Potato! and probably others.

Sounds like good news to me!

 

[RaymanTheHedgehog]

It's romhacks working? cuz i tried to use a palette hack for Breath of Fire and just crashes after the Capcom logo fades to black.

 

[Deleted User]

I only know about Breath of Fire 2 (E). Breath of Fresh Fire works with the latest build.

 

[RaymanTheHedgehog]

I come with a little feedback of the new release:

1-there's a strange gfx bug in Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance (Maybe also in Tournament Edition, cuz same engine) were the black border goes blue, nothing game breaking.

2-the GBA port of Deflektor has voice clips in normal build, in wramicache not, gfx still glitches too much

3-Eliminator no longer make sound glitches, but stills without sound

 

[Gericom]

I come with a little feedback of the new release:

1-there's a strange gfx bug in Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance (Maybe also in Tournament Edition, cuz same engine) were the black border goes blue, nothing game breaking.

2-the GBA port of Deflektor has voice clips in normal build, in wramicache not, gfx still glitches too much

3-Eliminator no longer make sound glitches, but stills without sound

1. That game probably accidentally writes to the sub screen palette of the ds, and I probably forgot to disable the backdrop color to show outside the masking window.

2. Hmm, that's interesting. May be related to self modifying code or so.

3. Hmm, I might have a look at it soon.

 

[Z0287yyy]

R4 black screen!
Hello, when I use the R4 (2018 SDHC version) to play gbaruuner2, it could be loaded and could select gba rom, but when a rom selected, it display a black screen only, so I have to shut down the NDS .

The R4 flashcard official website is: http://www.r4isdhc.com/

 

[PlayNeth]

any good news about pokemon or super star saga? have you found a fix for them yet?

 

[Gericom]

any good news about pokemon or super star saga? have you found a fix for them yet?

I've not looked into them recently. I've also been on vacation and such, so I had a bit of a break.

 

[Alexander1970]

I've not looked into them recently. I've also been on vacation and such, so I had a bit of a break.

Please make a "THREADMARK" on it.

Thank you and have a good time.

 

[Gericom]

I've implemented the gameboy audio channels 3 and 4 (and fixed some more audio bugs in the process). The noise channel does not yet completely sound like it should though, but it is better than not having noise at all. The only part of the audio that is still missing now is the second direct audio channel (B). Sadly the direct sound also still has quite a big delay, which is even more noticable when a game uses both direct sound and the other audio channels for its music. Reducing the delay is possible, but doing so will make it fail to get the sound data in time more often causing skips and the like.

Latest version: https://github.com/Gericom/GBARunner2/releases/tag/v20190818-142717_6609ad3

 

[Emedrith]

I can hear now attack effects on ff6 or wind music on golden sun, great work! and yes I have noticed the delay in metroid fusion, in the new version the delay sometimes is longer.

 

[Enzo995]

I tried the latest release with Pokémon FireRed (EU version) and I can confirm the sound delay problem since there is a sort of mismatch between the gb sound and gba sound while the soundtrack plays, while the sounds when you open menu/press A/etc. (that is, any gb sound out of the overworld track) are just fine. Despite this flaw, it is a huge improvement over the past release.

I also want to take this chance to thank Gericom and everybody working on GbARunner2 for the amazing job they are making it to make GBA "emulation" possible on the DS

 

[Gericom]

So, I've been thinking about the direct sound latency problem, and I think there are basically 2 solutions.

The first option is basically to adjust the latency of the other audio channels to match the direct sound channel. This could be done via the sound capture feature of the ds. This would at least synchronize the sound, but it doesn't solve the latency.
Edit: After another thought, this is actually less straight forward than I thought, since I cannot directly play captured audio together with the direct audio channels without also passing that to the capture. This would thus require manual mixing which is not very nice.

The second option is basically to patch games to ensure their sound buffers are in main memory (where the arm7 can access them). This would remove the need to fetch the samples via the arm9 and makes it much easier to create reliable low latency audio output. The downside is that this option would most likely never work in general for all games.

A solution could be to have a mix of both, where supported games use option 2 and others option 1.

I also realized that the latest version contains a small bug where it doesn't fill in gaps when audio blocks are dropped, which causes more desynchronization when it happens often (shouldn't though).

If the direct sound channel uses a rate of 15kHz, the latency is about 4 frames atm. I think I might be able to reduce that a bit more, but it would still be a noticable difference.

 

[PlayNeth]

by the way, i dunno if this is gbarunner2's fault or it's my screen about to commit seppuku, but one game causes temporarily image retention in my top DSi's top screen, the game is F-Zero Gp legends, when you get in game and the mini map loads, after a while it gets "burned" into the screen for some seconds and then disappears

 

[Gericom]

by the way, i dunno if this is gbarunner2's fault or it's my screen about to commit seppuku, but one game causes temporarily image retention in my top DSi's top screen, the game is F-Zero Gp legends, when you get in game and the mini map loads, after a while it gets "burned" into the screen for some seconds and then disappears

The dsi screen seems to be very sensitive to flickering graphics. F-Zero applies 50% blending to it's minimap by showing it only every second frame, so that's likely what causes it. It should never be permanent though.