Hacking VBA..

[Madridi]

Hey guys,
I see wiibrew removed emu_kidd's version of vba 1.7.2 and replaced it with Tantric's 1.0.1
Is Tantric's version the one I should be using or am I missing anything?

 

[azeazezar]

Yes, emu_kidd officialy abandoned the project, and Tantric took over.

 

[Madridi]

alright thanks

 

[PKGINGO]

Something worthwhile to note:

Tantric's is VERY pretty, and much more user friendly. The posting where it claims full speed is a lie though. It has frame skip, which is terrible. Games like MOTHER3 are unplayable in battle because of this.

The console version works MUCH smoother.

Furthermore, I took emu_kidid's version along with theinternetftw's modifications and optimized gba.cpp. The result is MUCH better than tantric's but still imperfect speed.

If you need the speed, check my threads ive made for my beta.

 

[Tantric]

I just came across your version just now. I haven't tested it yet, but if indeed you have improved the speed, and/or made other improvements, that's great news. Could you release the source so these improvements can be added to the VBA Google Code site? This is an open source project and all code is under the GPL. I'm sure all players will appreciate your efforts. Also, if you're interested in working with me to improve this emulator, let me know. You can contact me via the Google Code site.

 

[PKGINGO]

The speed increase is very minor but it is enough to help with games like Kirby Nightmare in Dreamland and MOTHER3. I did get caught up in my school work, so I haven't had time to work on it much more, and since my laptop is getting a new screen, you probably wont be seeing the source until I get it back. But I can say the source changes were very modest. In gba.cpp, instead of using the x++ that was used, I changed it to ++x, this eliminates one extra line of code the compiler needs to insert. There was one instance I found using a pointer to an array index instead of taking up the cycles to calculate the index number twice. I also laid the groud work for DVD support, but it was more of a giant hack. Being your frontend is based on the other emulators, it will probably be easier to add DVD to your version than mine. I made the make file alittle more friendly and FINALLY the bigest speed boost comes from using -O3 optimizations. Most of my work on it was studying it to see how it was done. I am still learning how to program for the wii after all

. If you want the optimized GBA.O file, I think I actually have that somewhere online. Someone wanted to try their hand at a version of GBA with the optimized GBA.O and GBA.d file.

Anyway, give my build a shot, you can see that games do run a bit smoother, especially in MOTHER3 battles. I just found my GBA.O if you want it as well. As soon as I get a free chance I will try to contact you directly on Google code, though I've never used it before.

 

[blazingwolf]

Sweet Sweet Collaboration!