Homebrew app Emulator [RELEASE] UniPCemu

[superfury1]

I just get a black screen, im sure its because I'm doing something wrong. Without an easy guide this looks like it's going to be hard to set up

I've uploaded an update to the Switch version with some slight improvements for SDL2. Does the new version run correctly (no black screen only)?

 

[M7L7NK7]

Still black screen, but chances are it's me not knowing what options to set or my img

 

[superfury1]

Still black screen, but chances are it's me not knowing what options to set or my img

Does it display text at the top and/or bottom-right of the screen? Or does it display nothing at all? In the settings menu there is an option to display the CPU speed. If it displays a green outlined percentage in the top-left when it's enabled, the CPU is running, although perhaps slowly.
In that case, you can lower the CPU cycle setting to make it go faster.
Also check the logs directory of the app. If there is an emu.log file in there, it may explain why it isn't booting.
If nothing is displayed at all(no text at the bottom-right corner of the screen), a SDL issue might be the cause.
Anyways, if something goes wrong other than SDL2 display issues themselves, something should be logged in the logs directory.
It should be present on the memory card, folder Superfury/UniPCemu/logs.

Could you perhaps post a screen capture if the screen displays anything at all?

 

[M7L7NK7]

Do i mount my img as first hdd?
Cpu speed is 4% if I set cycles to 1000 and overclock the switch
There's a Soundservice.log that says:
Unable to open audio record device

 

[superfury1]

Do i mount my img as first hdd?
Cpu speed is 4% if I set cycles to 1000 and overlcock the switch
There's a Soundservice.log that says:
Unable to open audio record device

OK. Then it is running properly.
The record device isn't an issue. It just means that audio recording won't produce any input to the app(always silence).
It shouldn't matter if you choose the first or second hard disk slot. If you choose the second(primary slave) without the first(primary master), UniPCemu will automatically move it to the primary master in the emulated machine when it starts up.
Since it's reporting 4%, it's definitely running, only slowly. Eventually the POST should begin.
Also, does it display yellow text when starting up the emulator? It should display that, as it's the process that loads and starts the BIOS ROMs properly.

 

[M7L7NK7]

Only yellow text is press select to bring out the options menu

Can you use the emulators bios option or do you have to provide your own

 

[superfury1]

Only yellow text is press select to bring out the options menu

Can you use the emulators bios option or do you gave to provide your own

OK. Then it's running properly. Do note that it will only allow changing some settings when the settings menu is opened while the yellow text is displayed. When the yellow text disappears, the actual BIOS ROM is loaded and the emulator is fully started, which means some settings like mounted hard drives and various hardware can't be changed unless you restart the emulator and open the settings menu using the yellow text (by tapping the yellow text or tapping the "Set" button at the lower right when it's displaying the yellow text. Another option is to simply use the - button on the switch to open it at that time). When the emulator is running already, it can be launched straight into the main menu that's given as an option during the yellow text by choosing the option "Restart emulator and enter settings menu", which essentially taps/clicks the option automatically upon restarting the emulator.
You can easily see if the emulation has already started by observing differences in main menu settings when the emulator isn't started yet (thus all options are unlocked). If all options are unlocked and it's in the boot menu of the emulator, the option "Load Setting defaults" will be visible. If the emulator is already running and the options are locked down, said option won't be visible (it only allows to load default settings when the emulator isn't running).

You can use the internal BIOS ROM when running a simple XT. But anything that requires a 80286 or newer requires a BIOS ROM to be installed for the emulated system and/or hardware (if the hardware requires a ROM).

 

[M7L7NK7]

So what bios would my windows 95 img need?

 

[superfury1]

It depends on the configured motherboard and hardware. What setup are you using?

Edit: The bare minimum for 95 itself would be 4MB of RAM, 80386, VGA-compatible. Thus a Compaq Deskpro 386/i430fx/i440fx architecture with it's BIOS ROM. Then you'll also need a VGA or Tseng video card and it's BIOS ROM.

Of course proper BIOS functioning might be required, so BIOS setup would need to be properly configured. For the Compaq Deskpro 386, a XT-IDE BIOS is probably required. i430fx/i440fx does require that at least the primary HDD is set to Auto(detect).

An ET4000/W32 would be the best to use with Windows 95, if you want better performance.
i430fx is required when you want more than 16MB RAM, i440fx for more than 128MB.
All Tseng video cards support the various DACs UniPCemu supports. The default DAC supports 8-bit color, but the better DAC would be the SC15025, which supports advanced functionality and up to 24-bit color.

 

[M7L7NK7]

I'd love to get this to run but it's just too much lol

 

[superfury1]

It's pretty simple to setup, really.
- Find an i430fx BIOS ROM and put it in ROM/BIOSROM.i430fx.BIN
- Find an ET4000/W32 BIOS ROM and put it in ROM/ET4000_W32.BIN

Then start the emulator, tap the yellow text(or tap the Sel button or press the - button on the switch while it displays). Go to the advanced menu, into the CPU menu and set the architecture to i430fx. Then return to the main menu, choose to "Restart emulator and enter settings menu (save changes)" and then, after returning, go to the advanced menu, video settings. Set the VGA mode to "Tseng ET4000", the ET4000 extensions to "ET4000/W32" and the SVGA DAC mode to "Sierra SC15025".
Then save the settings and reboot to make it start running.

You will need to configure the hard disk for it first, so press Del to enter the BIOS menu while it's counting memory(although probably F1 the first time might work as well when it warns about the CMOS).
Then in the disks menu, choose the primary master and set it to Auto. Set the secondary master and slave to CD-ROM (Auto might work, though).

Then just press escape until you're back at the main menu and it asks if to save or discard. Choose save and let it reboot into your OS.

 

[M7L7NK7]

Thanks for the guide, I'll look for the bios and give it a try later

 

[M7L7NK7]

Did everything you said, though the ET4000 extension only let me choose ET4000AX

Then just a blackscreen with FPS/Cpu speed etc then eventually crashed

 

[superfury1]

Did everything you said, though the ET4000 extension only let me choose ET4000AX

Then just a blackscreen with FPS/Cpu speed etc then eventually crashed

If it won't let you choose the ET4000/W32 extension, did you enter the settings menu while the yellow text is displaying? It will show the option to load the BIOS defaults if done correctly (otherwise, various options, including that one, are locked down).
Do check that you're not changing the video card itself, but the extensions for that (So the "VGA mode" is set to "Tseng ET4000" and "ET4000 extensions" is set to "ET4000/W32").

 

[M7L7NK7]

The only yellow text it shows is press select to bring out the options menu, never shows any other text.. even going to settings straight away still has it locked to AX

 

[superfury1]

The only yellow text it shows is press select to bring out the options menu, never shows any other text.. even going to settings straight away still has it locked to AX

What do you mean with it being locked?
Do you mean the setting selection with "ET4000 extensions" appearing below "i430fx" below "UniPCemu Settings"? If that shows itself at the top of the screen, it's at least trying to let you change the setting. You use up/down to select a different setting for that, confirm with the A button (or use the OSK to press Enter).

The OSK can be brought up by tapping the NCS O button at the lower right corner of the screen.

It's changed with the Dpad (+) buttons btw, not analog sticks. Labeled 4 in this diagram.

Does it show the Load settings Defaults option?

 

[M7L7NK7]

Oh the other options used left and right, yeah up and down changed it

Still freezes then crashes though

 

[superfury1]

Wel

Oh the other options used left and right, yeah up and down changed it

Still freezes then crashes though

Well, left and right only switches between menus(same as L2/R2) and performs fast scrolling multiple items. Up and down moves x1 item, for number inputs left/right x10, also for number inputs L2 modifies x100, and also for number inputs R2 modifies x1000 (arrows, L2 and R2 stack, getting x10000, etc.) items. But in text-based (file/list-style, basically handled the same using constant filename lists) inputs, left/right moves to the next sorted item instead(the next/previous change in the first character of the filename, sorting alphabetically) and Y performs unmounting or defaults, depending on the setting.

Still, freezing/crashing isn't supposed to happen. Is anything logged?

 

[M7L7NK7]

Nothing logged, could it be my img? I haven't even been able to access the bios menu, it'll freeze just after the options menu

 

[M7L7NK7]

Have you tried on switch with an img?