State of the Scherzo address

Strapping Scherzo · Post by **Strapping Scherzo** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 12:49 pm

Hey everyone. I've got some stuff to discuss with you all....

First, by the end of the weekend, I will release a new version of Super Famicast. No, it will not be blazingly faster; not even close to fullspeed. Here's what it WILL have:
- Syncronized sound
- Mouse support
And that's it. Some of you might choose not to burn a new version since there isn't too much different from the last version. I might even give this a subversion number like 1.5.

Second, I want to ask someone to take over the task of speeding it up. The more and more I fool around with the code, the more I realize that maybe the task of writing the CPU core in assembler is in a little over my head being my first assembler project of any kind. I think I could do it, but not with the amount of free time I get. I foresee it taking and LOOOONG time if I do it.

I have made a little progress though. I wrote the main execution loop in assembler. I don't know if it's quality code. I'm not that good at optimizing code where I have little understanding about what it does. I've never written an emulator before. I do know that one of the the biggest bottlenecks is in the frame rendering code. I've gone through gfx.cpp commenting out bits and pieces to see how much faster it would run if it didn't do certain things... like not draw the objs or bgs. It affects performance a great deal. If all rendering is disabled, then it runs at fullspeed without sound.

I don't want to think of this as giving up but more as asking for help. I need someone with a good knowledge of SNES emulation and a knack for writing SH4 assembler. Hard to find. A while back I was talking with yoyofr, the author of openSnes9xGP, to see if he could help me out since he had done a good job of hacking up the graphics code to get speed increases on the GP32. But he started to ignore my IMs and I figured he didn't want to help.

Well, that's where the status of Super Famicast stands. I know I might be disappointing a lot of you. Hell, I want to see full speed SNES emulation on DC as badly as the rest of you, so I'm disappointed as well. I don't have the skills right now and don't have the time needed to really develop them. Yet, that's one reason why I made Super Famicast open source. It doesn't end here. Unlike DreamSNES, you can lend a hand at anytime.

On to other things...

Last night I got the latest version of NesterDC to compile in my dev environment. I plan on making a Special Edition of this emu with added features. The feature that will stand out the most is netplay and will support both the modem and bba. NesterDC will connect to a central server where you can find other people to play with. It will also sport a new interface using the system I developed for Super Famicast.

If anyone here has ideas for new features they would like to see in NesterDC SE (Special Edition, Scherzo Edition

) then post them here.

I will also need testers in the future, especially people with a bba since those are difficult to come by.

I hope you all can understand why I'm moving on. I want to work on something where I can be productive. Thanks.

Mikey242 · Post by **Mikey242** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 1:04 pm

Well im glad to hear a new version is comming out (for both Nester and SFcast). Its a shame you have to stop writng the CPU core but your reasons are perfectly understandable and I for one dont blame you of anything, but I cant say that im not at least a little sad about it. I hope we can find someone to take over this task (at least this emu is opensource)

Good luck with whatever else you do Scherzo.

speud · Post by **speud** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 1:15 pm

The feature that will stand out the most is netplay and will support both the modem and bba

thats excellent news. is it a goal or did you find a way to successfully use the modem for doing something similar already?

Post by **Dr. Zoidberg** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 1:28 pm

Cool, a new NesterDC, nice one scherzo.

jjoepr · Post by **jjoepr** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 1:42 pm

Awesome Scherzo. The only thing would be a fix for Rygar and better light gun support as I'd like to play duck hunt. Other than that I guess maybe more mappers I don't know of anything else that needs to be addressed.

multiverse · Post by **multiverse** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 2:18 pm

Wow, nesterdc with online! thats so awesome! thanks scherzo, were all looking forward to your projects!

Hilltopper · Post by **Hilltopper** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 2:28 pm

Yeah, If it can use the modem, that wil be amazing. And if it can work for NesterDC then think about the possibilities with other emus and homebrew

DaMadFiddler · Post by **DaMadFiddler** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 2:40 pm

That sounds really great, and I'll be very interested to see how this netplay thing works out (although I can't think of all that many multiplayer games for NES off-hand

). It'll also be nice to see a new interface...is there any chance (I know this shouldn't be too hard) to take the Turbofire-toggle off of the L trigger and just make it a menu option? I ALWAYS hit that thing by accident when I'm playing. As far as additional features, the only thing I can think of--and I believe it's been mentioned before--is if you could somehow manage to get the DC lightguns working with the emu as NES Zappers. Duck Hunt rocks :-D

burnerO · Post by **burnerO** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 2:48 pm

scherzo wrote:If anyone here has ideas for new features they would like to see in NesterDC SE (Special Edition, Scherzo Edition ) then post them here.

http://www.dcemulation.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=29152

burnerO wrote:Disable the use of the analog stick for frameskip. There's no need to adjust the frameskip, and often times kid mistake it for the dpad. It's also occasionally bumped on accident, effectingly making the game run four times as fast.

Optimally it could be remapped as a second dpad, but if that's not possible, I'd rather it be disabled altogether.

Disable the left trigger rapid fire. Rapid fire is overrated, and kids are always hitting the back triggers, especially this one. What ends up happening is that the height of mario's jump is cut in half and that he can no longer clear the hurdles he encounters.

Change the right trigger + button commands to right trigger + left trigger + button. Again, the kids always bump the right trigger, bringing up the black NesterDC menu and leaving them dumbfounded as they don't even know how to read. These commands are still vital, and I need them kept intact, but if both triggers had to be depressed for the action to take place, I think it'd be a lot harder to trigger them.

On the first, startup screen, where pressing the A button loads the rom selection screen, allow the Start button to jump there as well.

http://www.dcemulation.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=23420

burnerO wrote:Honestly, I used version 6 intentially.
I have a couple of complaints about version 7:

I have no desire to see the "Detected Controllers" screen every time I boot it. If this is a desirable feature I certainly don't understand it.

It's also lame how it overpowers the themes.

The old reset sequence, L+R+Start+Y no longer works.

And finally, I can't find Game Genie, although I'm sure I'm overlooking it.

XDelusion · Post by **XDelusion** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 3:07 pm

Nester needs VS support.

The Kron · Post by **The Kron** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 4:11 pm

scherzo wrote: If anyone here has ideas for new features they would like to see in NesterDC SE (Special Edition, Scherzo Edition ) then post them here.

Could you try and implement a low resolution mode that is true to the original NES res (no filters either on the low res mode please), It would be perfect via RGB then. I can't remember if v7's have a screen shift but its always useful.

Sorry about the SNES situation scherzo

Hobbes T Tiger · Post by **Hobbes T Tiger** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 4:13 pm

I'm with BurnerO on this (is that an O or a 0, I'm never sure), please please disable the auto frameskip, and if you can, set it to use the analogue stick for control. Although I used a d-pad for everything many years ago I sometimes find that tired thumbs appreciate the odd break on the stick.

Apart from that I'm happy with what you've already featured. So long as the infamous controller bug of the 7.x versions doesn't reappear

jjoepr · Post by **jjoepr** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 4:15 pm

It seems a lot of people are more excited about the New NesterDC release. Yeah I agree the L trigger auto fire sucks and the frame skip on the stick stinks.

kyslug · Post by **kyslug** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 4:17 pm

i can't speak for everyone else, but i feel nester 7.0 would be the best version to implement this update (7.0 has a much higher compatibility than 7.1).

Phantom · Post by **Phantom** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 4:23 pm

Modem support? I thought the Dreamcast modem was essentially a "winmodem", which would mean that getting it to work would be a huge project in itself.

I hope I'm wrong though.

Phantom · Post by **Phantom** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 4:26 pm

kyslug wrote:i can't speak for everyone else, but i feel nester 7.0 would be the best version to implement this update (7.0 has a much higher compatibility than 7.1).

I still wonder whether this 7.1 ChangeLog entry explains it:

* update development environment (gcc-3.2, binutils-2.13.1)

kyslug · Post by **kyslug** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 4:35 pm

also, is it possible that more than 1,023 roms can be added to a single directory? i know extra directories can be added to nester, but can just one dir hold more than this amount of games if modified? just wondering

Post by **Quzar** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 4:39 pm

probably. since gcc is so flakey with sh4 toolchain any change can break stuff...

EDIT: this is to phantom's post.

DcSteve · Post by **DcSteve** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 4:47 pm

I know where you can get help.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dcdev/

All of the dreamcast master devvers frequently post there. Among is Dan potter (KOS author), and Marcus Comsted (1/3 Dsnes Team)

ethoscapade · Post by **ethoscapade** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 5:52 pm

burner0 knows what he's talking about. v7 did some stupid stuff, and if you could get us back on track (even using the CPU of v6 if necessary, as otherwise we miss out on such gems as battletoads), that would be excellent. like burner0, i've defaulted to using v6 despite the tiny slowdown in punchout and the slightly worse sound.

so just listen to burner0.

also, make contra work. how, i'm not sure, but please do it.

my biggest complaint about Nester however has to be the tiny tiny button delay. i'm not sure if anybody else has noticed it, but i'm positive it's there, and it's most noticeable in SMB and punch out - it's a lot harder to make that jump in 8-1 and dodge bald bull's uppercuts in nester as opposed to the NES.

and don't feel bad about sfamicast - i'm honestly more excited about this.

State of the Scherzo address

State of the Scherzo address

Re: State of the Scherzo address

Re: State of the Scherzo address