Homebrew OPEN_AGB_FIRM discussion thread

[DSoryu]

Well it seems profii200 made his first public release of his own kernel for the project
https://github.com/profi200/open_agb_firm/commit/f028745f52478001f3dbdc884fdbebfa2fb8faa3
This might be big news or inconsequential idk lol

Looks interesting, I don't know what could it mean but a lot of changes were made.

 

[Sono]

Sorry to destroy everyone's hopes, but without looking at the source code I can tell he's most likely just making his own (micro)kernel or thread- and interrupt manager for easier deving and faster response times (which matters a lot due to DMA timings).

The most this can benefit us is that it'll be more stable when using it, and more maintainable so bugfixes and new features will be easier to add.

 

[BETA215]

New OPEN_AGB_FIRM build! There isn't any flashy changes still, but some things were fixed: https://github.com/profi200/open_agb_firm/releases/tag/alpha_2020-09-08

"This is a build from the kernel_experiments branch for the impatient.

• There is no real user facing change in this release except this should fix all possible frame drops including the ones caused by MCU events.

Note:
I got side tracked with this kernel project which i was working on for quite some time. It was always meant to go into this code base and eventually i will split this into open_agb_firm and lib3ds. I will try and get back soon to actually doing real improvements to this project."

 

[AleronIves]

The release description says the scaler used is the default sharp interpolated one. Does that mean OAF is using Nintendo's hidden 1.5x scale function, instead of bilinear now?

*edit*

Ah, the source seems to indicate that it's using the original AGB_FIRM scaling created by Nintendo. It certainly looks much crisper now, but it looks like he implemented a few other scaling options, too. I eagerly await the day that we can configure all these goodies ourselves.

 

[ghjfdtg]

If you look closely you will see it's not exactly the same as AGB_FIRM scaling. It's a slightly improved variant.

 

[AleronIves]

It's a slightly improved variant.

Oh, neat. I've never played GBA games this way before, so I don't know what stock AGB_FIRM scaling looks like.

 

[Rahkeesh]

Like I've said 800px wide would be the ultimate scaling with a perfect 3x horizontal scale that would end all scaling debates, but I don't know how difficult that is to implement.

 

[linuxares]

Sorry to destroy everyone's hopes, but without looking at the source code I can tell he's most likely just making his own (micro)kernel or thread- and interrupt manager for easier deving and faster response times (which matters a lot due to DMA timings).

The most this can benefit us is that it'll be more stable when using it, and more maintainable so bugfixes and new features will be easier to add.

I mean, you got to start somewhere? :3

 

[peteruk]

Not sure if it's a bug or simply me being stupid and not reading fully every single post but I have a minor problem

I am using Fastboot 1.2 and have set up my agbfirm correctly using the menu system and allocated a button for it. When I try to use said button I get a black screen with the blue light on only, if i press a button it powers off.

However if I power on holding start for GodMode9 I am able to launch the agbfirm through GodMode's chainloader.

What am I doing wrong ? It's probably something stupid I'm overlooking.

 

[AleronIves]

It's a problem with Luma, too. You have to have multiple files in the payload folder, or you get a black screen. It seems to be the only workaround right now.

 

[peteruk]

It's a problem with Luma, too. You have to have multiple files in the payload folder, or you get a black screen. It seems to be the only workaround right now.

ok... thanks for that... I'm sure I had at least 2, I'll double check on that now



EDIT- made no difference for me sadly, I added 3 dummy firm files to payloads folder and same behavior Looks broken

 

[Sono]

If y'all are having problems: to my knowledge there is a timing bug which affects some chainloaders. Don't remember if it's in the screeninit part or not, but I have to chainload a fastboot3DS FIRM from fastboot3DS, which then boots open_agb_firm. Yeah...

 

[lemonmaster]

what's the difference between this and gbarunner2?

 

[fmkid]

@peteruk I installed a compiled version of "fastboot3ds" latest commit, and it's working like a charm (loading open_agb_firm.firm directly, without that "screen init" problem)

 

[AleronIves]

what's the difference between this and gbarunner2?

• It takes much less time to launch a game.
• You get to play in full screen 360x240, instead of a small rectangle in the middle of the screen.
• You don't have to boot into DS mode and potentially increase the wear on the DS's flash memory?

I've read in a few places that some people manage to brick the DS mode on the 3DS by writing to the DS mode flash memory so much that it dies, in which case the only way to unbrick DS mode is to replace the physical chip on the board (unless you have N2DS XL, in which case you're SOL because you can't replace the chip). In theory, this means using DS mode only for DS games and doing everything else from 3DS mode (or in this case, GBA mode) is better for the longevity of your system, but hopefully the experts here have more information on that.

 

[peteruk]

@peteruk I installed a compiled version of "fastboot3ds" latest commit, and it's working like a charm (loading open_agb_firm.firm directly, without that "screen init" problem)

That's great news, good job !

Would you be willing to share ?

 

[Deleted member 323844]

That's great news, good job !

Would you be willing to share ?

Here are my compiled binaries:

Release
https://femto.pw/tbsg.2-797be759

Debug
https://femto.pw/ncv6.2-797be759

 

[peteruk]

Here are my compiled binaries:

Release
https://femto.pw/tbsg.2-797be759

Debug
https://femto.pw/ncv6.2-797be759

Thank you very much mate, is that the same version that @fmkid was referring to ?

 

[Deleted member 323844]

Thank you very much mate, is that the same version that @fmkid was referring to ?

Idk. I haven't used this firmware launcher, open_agb_firm is working fine for me.

The compiled binary in the project's GH (https://github.com/derrekr/fastboot3DS/releases) is like one+ year behind the latest commit. Those binaries are from the latest one.

 

[peteruk]

Idk. I haven't used this firmware launcher, open_agb_firm is working fine for me.

The compiled binary in the project's GH (https://github.com/derrekr/fastboot3DS/releases) is like one+ year behind the latest commit. Those binaries are from the latest one.

Much appreciate you sharing with me, thank you