Homebrew Snes9x GX 4.3.8 Release

Tantric

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2007
Messages
249
Trophies
1
XP
876
Country
Canada
Let me know if the crashes still happen on this beta. Also let me know how the sound is.
 

Attachments

  • snes9x-lockup-fix-beta.zip
    2.5 MB · Views: 295
  • Like
Reactions: Hozu

Edu64

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2015
Messages
124
Trophies
0
Age
39
XP
1,289
Country
Cote d'Ivoire
Let me know if the crashes still happen on this beta. Also let me know how the sound is.

Hi!

I did a test with zelda alttp and the console was locked at about 3 minutes on the file selection screen, on that screen it was about 1 minute listening to the music and the problems of small distortions in the sound continue.

They are really small, but constant, every 10 to 15 seconds approximately.
I play with high volume, maybe some users use little volume or do not pay attention to that.

The console was blocked with the static image of the game and with a permanent beep, there was no more way to press the power button permanently to turn off.

Thanks for your efforts!
 

Hozu

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Aug 25, 2010
Messages
322
Trophies
1
XP
679
Country
Canada
I got a crash with the latest beta. :/

Hi!

I did a test with zelda alttp and the console was locked at about 3 minutes on the file selection screen, on that screen it was about 1 minute listening to the music and the problems of small distortions in the sound continue.

They are really small, but constant, every 10 to 15 seconds approximately.
I play with high volume, maybe some users use little volume or do not pay attention to that.

The console was blocked with the static image of the game and with a permanent beep, there was no more way to press the power button permanently to turn off.

Thanks for your efforts!

I'm wondering, has there been a version of Snes9x GX that hasn't had that particular sound issue? Or perhaps, does it also exist on other ports of Snes9x that are using this less accurate Blaarg's sound core?

Actually, does Snes9x GX run at exactly 60 FPS or does it run at console speed, which is slightly faster at ~60.09 FPS? Something weird happening every ~10s sounds like an issue could stem from that difference, somewhere... whether it's the display the console is hooked up to, or who knows what else.
 

Tantric

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2007
Messages
249
Trophies
1
XP
876
Country
Canada
The sound crackling issue is a part of snes9x itself, it's present in their newest builds as well as the older ones.

See the mention of crackling in the porting guide: https://github.com/snes9xgit/snes9x/blob/master/docs/porting.html

And various posts, for example:

http://www.snes9x.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5289

Synchronizing sound, video, and input, while avoiding lag, and preventing screen tearing or sound pops is the very problem emulation and emulator ports deals with. It's not a trivial problem.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Edu64 and Hozu

marmalade

Well-Known Member
Newcomer
Joined
Sep 2, 2016
Messages
48
Trophies
0
Age
34
XP
435
Country
United States
I played through the latest of both FCEUGX and SNESGX and this is what I discovered:

In Settings in FCEUGX the "Go Back" button is highlighted by default and when leaving a sub-menu, whereas in other menus and SNESGX the first sub-folder is highlighted by default - FCEUGX should be like SNESGX Settings here

In SNESGX SNES Mouse isnt able to move across the entire screen when controlled by the GameCube controller, it is restricted whereas the Superscope and Justifier can move across the entire screen and have no problem
In FCEUGX the Zapper is a bit too sensitive with GameCube controller and hard to control compared to SNESGX Superscope and Justifier

Lastly in SNESGX when speedup key is pressed the audio cuts off and doesnt return or returns sporadically, I think it would be better to be consistent with FCEUGX speedup and just continue to play audio
 

Edu64

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2015
Messages
124
Trophies
0
Age
39
XP
1,289
Country
Cote d'Ivoire
I got a crash with the latest beta. :/



I'm wondering, has there been a version of Snes9x GX that hasn't had that particular sound issue? Or perhaps, does it also exist on other ports of Snes9x that are using this less accurate Blaarg's sound core?

Actually, does Snes9x GX run at exactly 60 FPS or does it run at console speed, which is slightly faster at ~60.09 FPS? Something weird happening every ~10s sounds like an issue could stem from that difference, somewhere... whether it's the display the console is hooked up to, or who knows what else.

As the Tantric Master says, the problem of sound comes from previous versions and has been improved over time.

I remember that before version 4.2.5 the problem of sound was more serious, then it was solved to the state of version 4.3.7, but after version 4.2.9 until version 4.3.6 appeared the problem was more serious that version 4.3.7.

Now, the problem of sound can be divided into 2 cases, this as a personal experience, nothing technical.

- Random sound problems during the game, this was solved to some extent in version 4.3.8, they still persist, but they are less noticeable and more distant in time than in version 4.3.7.
However in the last 2 betas the time interval in which this happens is very small compared to the official version 4.3.8 (every 15 seconds approx)
These tests were performed with "zelda alttp" game sensitive to this problem

- Specific cases that occur in certain parts of the game, this point according to my tests was solved in the betas and in the official version 4.3.8.
Examples are when entering the "chrono trigger" and "super mario rpg" menu
 

Cyan

GBATemp's lurking knight
Former Staff
Joined
Oct 27, 2002
Messages
23,749
Trophies
4
Age
45
Location
Engine room, learning
XP
15,646
Country
France
it's nice to see you are still there and releasing new revision :)
You'll work on your other GX emulators too?
Good luck on keeping these emulators up to date.


you said it's hard to synchronize everything while avoiding lag, I don't know if you followed the WiiU a little, there's a way to launch vWii mode homebrew using WiiU CPU speed. WiiSX and N64 emulators work a lot better with this new CPU access, without the need to make a WiiU homebrew version.
of course, it'll be only a bonus for users with a WiiU, what's important is to make the Wii homebrew version work fine on Wii hardware.
 

Flo_o

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2017
Messages
165
Trophies
0
Age
37
XP
498
Country
Tantric emulators are always the best, for every Wii fan here, it's a bless to see Tantric's updates. Said it before, i also hope that VBAGX will get some extra attention too, implementing the most recent GBA core for example.
 

PsychoSync

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Aug 22, 2018
Messages
1
Trophies
0
Age
44
XP
53
Country
Canada
I also get the occasional Wii console freeze. It seems to be related to game saving in my case.

I have been playing Dragon Quest V with DeJap translation for a good 30+ hours now and the console totally froze 3 times at least. When it does, the sound loops infinitely and i cannot do anything else than forcing the console to shut off.

The first time it happened i was fighting a big boss and right in the middle of the fight it froze for no reason whatsoever.

Second time was right after saving normally in-game.

I absolutely love the emulators Tantric makes for the Wii, nothing does the job better if you want to play on an old crt. So i am really not complaining there but just wondering, why don't the saving feature of the emulator simply not a save-state? For me everytime i load a save it just resets the game and loads a different in-game sram file.
 

Tantric

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2007
Messages
249
Trophies
1
XP
876
Country
Canada
So I found if the sound sync option is turned off the crashes stop. I also found that the real culprit was the way the audio was written, using LWP threads and mutexes. So I've rewritten the audio code to not use the threads or mutexes. It seems to be behaving pretty well and turbo mode works again and sound sync can be turned on.

So:
- no more audio blips
- no more crashes
- dynamic rate control seems to be keeping the number of unplayed samples to sensible amounts
- turbo mode works

The only thing that isn't solved is a big one: if the buffer being filled happens to be the same buffer being played, the audio becomes terrible. This generally doesn't happen but if it does, you either have to wait a minute for the two to stop colliding, or going back to the menu for a second or using the turbo stick will fix it. You can also force this collision to happen by using the turbo stick and if you're "unlucky" enough you'll have synced up the read buffer number with the write buffer number...which is what we want to avoid.

I'm not sure how best to solve this programatically. Basically it's a variant of a ringbuffer. It would be nice if there were other developers who could take a look and either code a fix or suggest a fix.

Anyway here's the beta for anyone interested.

… and a quick and dirty attempt to prevent the buffer collisions. I think this is the best you're going to get from me.
 

Attachments

  • snes9xgx-new-sound-beta.zip
    2.5 MB · Views: 209
  • snes9xgx-sound-anti-collision.zip
    2.5 MB · Views: 232
Last edited by Tantric,

Flo_o

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2017
Messages
165
Trophies
0
Age
37
XP
498
Country
Awesome job Tantric, i realy appreciate the hard work you are doing and did in the last couple of years. I wish i could help you with looking into the code to think about a solution (but unfortunatelly i'm not a coder and don't know where to start to get into it) to perfection SNES9XGX because the Wii deserves a flawless snes emulator, it's such a classic and timeless console, for me the emulation on the Wii is the only kind of emulation that feels right for me, especially with the 4 GC ports and endless controller adapter upgrades.
 

Edu64

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2015
Messages
124
Trophies
0
Age
39
XP
1,289
Country
Cote d'Ivoire
So I found if the sound sync option is turned off the crashes stop. I also found that the real culprit was the way the audio was written, using LWP threads and mutexes. So I've rewritten the audio code to not use the threads or mutexes. It seems to be behaving pretty well and turbo mode works again and sound sync can be turned on.

So:
- no more audio blips
- no more crashes
- dynamic rate control seems to be keeping the number of unplayed samples to sensible amounts
- turbo mode works

The only thing that isn't solved is a big one: if the buffer being filled happens to be the same buffer being played, the audio becomes terrible. This generally doesn't happen but if it does, you either have to wait a minute for the two to stop colliding, or going back to the menu for a second or using the turbo stick will fix it. You can also force this collision to happen by using the turbo stick and if you're "unlucky" enough you'll have synced up the read buffer number with the write buffer number...which is what we want to avoid.

I'm not sure how best to solve this programatically. Basically it's a variant of a ringbuffer. It would be nice if there were other developers who could take a look and either code a fix or suggest a fix.

Anyway here's the beta for anyone interested.

… and a quick and dirty attempt to prevent the buffer collisions. I think this is the best you're going to get from me.

Hi!

I have tested the version "snes9xgx-sound-anti-collision" and the results are as follows:

The positive:

- I played 1 hour of "zelda alttp" and the sound is perfect, no distortion and also the console was not locked.

- I tried the turbo mode several times and everything normal.

- Heavy games like yoshi island have the same performance as before.

- When you enter the "chrono trigger" and "super mario rpg" menu everything is heard correctly.

- I tried a MSU-1 game quickly and everything seems to work correctly, I forgot to try the save function however.

The only negative:

- Graphic distortions in "top gear 3000" are still found.

Some suggestions for perfection:

- The subject of the image filter, will there be any way that the pixels with the filtered image are more noticeable?
Maybe the "defliker" theme ...

- Is it possible that there is a 240p video mode with the filtered image? as it happens in vbagx

I really appreciate your work, I noticed a lot of effort in the changes of the emulator, thank you very much! :D
 

Tantric

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2007
Messages
249
Trophies
1
XP
876
Country
Canada
That's good news overall. The slowdowns in Yoshi's Island, those are no worse though, right? It sounds like this is good enough for another release.

Top Gear, no idea what's up there but all of the code has been reverted so if it's still not working then perhaps it's a gcc optimization change that broke snes9x.
 

Edu64

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2015
Messages
124
Trophies
0
Age
39
XP
1,289
Country
Cote d'Ivoire
That's good news overall. The slowdowns in Yoshi's Island, those are no worse though, right? It sounds like this is good enough for another release.

Top Gear, no idea what's up there but all of the code has been reverted so if it's still not working then perhaps it's a gcc optimization change that broke snes9x.

I did the tests with yoshi island in the first level, where the performance falls and I see it at the same level as in 4.3.7, using the option of the fx chip at 40mhz.

It is strange what happens with "top gear 3000", maybe there are more games affected but I still can not find them.

Question, does this feature in what can influence the games ?:
"Disable multi pixel format support for a speed boost"
Will you have any relationship with the problem of "top gear 3000"?

Some games tested that work the same as in version 4.3.7:
-Megaman x
-Megaman x2
-Joe & mac
-Actraiser 2 with IPS patch externally - applies it correctly.
-Super mario rpg performance test in first town - all good

Tomorrow, at this same time, I will do more tests :D
 
Last edited by Edu64,

Tantric

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2007
Messages
249
Trophies
1
XP
876
Country
Canada
Question, does this feature in what can influence the games ?:
"Disable multi pixel format support for a speed boost"
Will you have any relationship with the problem of "top gear 3000"?

Nope. It was just dead code getting compiled in.
 

rafaelsb

Active Member
Newcomer
Joined
Sep 12, 2009
Messages
43
Trophies
1
XP
291
Country
Brazil
The sound and video are freezing/stuttering on MSU1 games now, on version 4.3.9, tested a lot of them.

Thanks for your efforts!
 

Tantric

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2007
Messages
249
Trophies
1
XP
876
Country
Canada
The sound and video are freezing/stuttering on MSU1 games now, on version 4.3.9, tested a lot of them.

Thanks for your efforts!

And it wasn't on older versions, eg: 4.3.8? That's strange.
I've never tried an MSU1 game before.
In any case, I don't think you'll get much more from me, so you're out of luck unless someone else fixes it...or tells me exactly what broke.
 

rafaelsb

Active Member
Newcomer
Joined
Sep 12, 2009
Messages
43
Trophies
1
XP
291
Country
Brazil
And it wasn't on older versions, eg: 4.3.8? That's strange.
I've never tried an MSU1 game before.
In any case, I don't think you'll get much more from me, so you're out of luck unless someone else fixes it...or tells me exactly what broke.

Can't say about 4.3.8, updated from 4.3.7 MSU1 mod and this wasn't happening on that version, if someone can confirm about 4.3.8...
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    We just question @AncientBoi
  • ZeroT21 @ ZeroT21:
    it wasn't a question, it was fact
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    He said he had 3 different doctors apt this week, so he prob there. Something about gerbal extraction, I don't know.
    +1
  • ZeroT21 @ ZeroT21:
    bored, guess i'll spread more democracy
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    @K3Nv2 one more time you say such bs to @BakerMan and I'll smack you across the whole planet
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Make sure you smack my booty daddy
    +1
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    telling him that my partner is luke...does he look like someone with such big ne
    eds?
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    do you really think I could stand living with someone like luke?
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    I suppose luke has "special needs" but he's not my partner, did you just say that to piss me off again?
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    besides I had bigger worries today
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    but what do you know about that, you won't believe me anyways
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    @BigOnYa can answer that
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    BigOnYa already left the chat
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Biginya
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    Auto correct got me, I'm on my tablet, i need to turn that shit off
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    With other tabs open you perv
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    I'm actually in my shed, bout to cut 2-3 acres of grass, my back yard.
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    I use to have a guy for that thanks richard
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    I use my tablet to stream to a bluetooth speaker when in shed. iHeartRadio, FlyNation
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    While the victims are being buried
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Grave shovel
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    Nuh those goto the edge of the property (maybe just on the other side of)
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    On the neighbors side
    +1
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    Yup, by the weird smelly green bushy looking plants.
    BigOnYa @ BigOnYa: Yup, by the weird smelly green bushy looking plants.