Initial release; fork of **higan** v110.
- the project and core library is now called **ares**
- the simplified user interface is now called **lucia**
- the advanced user interface is now called **luna**
- the game analyzer is now called **mia**
- removed the database editor **genius** from the project
- PC Engine: adjusted rendering viewport for the scanline renderer
from Y=18 to Y=21
byuu says:
These WIPs are gonna be unstable for a bit, sorry. Large amounts of
changes. Right now, higan+bsnes compile, but only with cores="sfc gb".
There's a new nall::Settings class, which I really dislike the design
of, but as long as the classes that use it remain stable, then ... I'll
have to live with it for now.
Interface loses both the old get/set/cap interface, plus the
configuration interface. It now returns either properties() or
options(). Both return a Settings& object. There's also helpers for
accessing individual properties and options by string lookup.
Properties are immutable traits of the hardware itself: CPU version, PPU
VRAM size, boot ROM information, etc.
Options are mutable traits that users may change.
The idea with nall/settings is to build out a kind of extremely complex
configuration object that'll do everything we'd ever want:
- allow recursive children settings similar to Markup::Node
- access values directly without dynamic_cast (type erasure) or
string conversion (Markup::Node style)
- serialize to and unserialize from BML
- support valid values to guarantee that the settings are never in an
invalid state
- support latching of values to cache reads without another separate
variable (so the GUI can modify any variables at any time safely)
Todo:
- allow binding callback functions on assignment, so that eg changing
video/colorEmulation will regenerate the video palette
- provide a hint on whether an option can be changed dynamically at
run-time, or only statically at first load
- provide descriptions for each setting
And then once the class is fully fleshed out, I want to build a tool
that will generate a fancy modal hiro Window from a Settings& object.
Once that is complete, we'll then have System → Options to configure
per-emulator settings (like bsnes PPU stuff) that otherwise doesn't fit
into higan's GUI. We will be exposing the extended Super Famicom options
to the bsnes GUI, of course. That's the emulator tab there.
Next up, higan's systems tab will need to generate blank default
property files for each system, and let you configure system properties
from this screen. That's going to mean that, by allowing the same system
to appear multiple times, that each entry gets its own options file,
which will have to be stored somewhere.
And to do all of that, we really need to work out how to handle regions
first. It may have to be something radical like FitzRoy's idea, or it
may be that we can come up with something a little less drastic. But I
have no idea right now ...
What I'd really like to do is start trying to get bsnes v107 out
already. The two things holding it up are: fixing the desync between the
settings.bml GUI settings and options.bml SNES properties (I know what's
wrong, I just have to fix it), and getting XAudio2 DRC working (I copied
BearOso's implementation details, but it just doesn't work for me ...).
Then I also have to install Windows, set up a dev environment with
msys2, and build it all.
Lots and lots of work ...
byuu says:
First 32 instructions implemented in the TLCS900H disassembler. Only 992
to go!
I removed the use of anonymous namespaces in nall. It was something I
rarely used, because it rarely did what I wanted.
I updated all nested namespaces to use C++17-style namespace Foo::Bar {}
syntax instead of classic C++-style namespace Foo { namespace Bar {}}.
I updated ruby::Video::acquire() to return a struct, so we can use C++17
structured bindings. Long term, I want to get away from all functions
that take references for output only. Even though C++ botched structured
bindings by not allowing you to bind to existing variables, it's even
worse to have function calls that take arguments by reference and then
write to them. From the caller side, you can't tell the value is being
written, nor that the value passed in doesn't matter, which is terrible.
byuu says:
I've implemented a lot more TLCS900H instructions. There are currently
20 missing spots, all of which are unique instructions (well, MINC and
MDEC could be considered pairs of 3 each), from a map of 1024 slots.
After that, I have to write the disassembler. Then the memory bus. Then
I get to start the fun process of debugging this monstrosity.
Also new is nall/inline-if.hpp. Note that this file is technically a war
crime, so be careful when opening it. This replaces ternary() from the
previous WIP.
byuu says:
So this turned out to be a rather unproductive ten-hour rabbit hole, but
...
I reworked nall/primitives.hpp a lot. And because the changes are
massive, testing of this WIP for regressions is critically important. I
really can't stress that enough, we're almost certainly going to have
some hidden regressions here ...
We now have a nall/primitives/ subfolder that splits up the classes into
manageable components. The bit-field support is now shared between both
Natural and Integer. All of the assignment operator overloads are now
templated and take references instead of values. Things like the
GSU::Register class are non-copyable on account of the function<>
object inside of it, and previously only operator= would work with
classes like that.
The big change is nall/primitives/operators.hpp, which is a really
elaborate system to compute the minimum number of bits needed for any
operation, and to return a Natural<T> or Integer<T> when one or both of
the arguments are such a type.
Unfortunately, it doesn't really work yet ... Kirby's Dream Land 3
breaks if we include operators.hpp. Zelda 3 runs fine with this, but I
had to make a huge amount of core changes, including introducing a new
ternary(bool, lhs, rhs) function to nall/algorithm to get past
Natural<X> and Natural<Y> not being equivalent (is_integral types get a
special exemption to ternary ?: type equivalence, yet it's impossible to
simulate with our own classes, which is bullshit.) The horrifying part
is that ternary() will evaluate both lhs and rhs, unlike ?:
I converted some of the functions to test ? uint(x) : uint(y), and
others to ternary(test, x, y) ... I don't have a strong preference
either way yet.
But the part where things may have gotten broken is in the changes to
where ternary() was placed. Some cases like in the GBA PPU renderer, it
was rather unclear the order of evaluations, so I may have made a
mistake somewhere.
So again, please please test this if you can. Or even better, look over
the diff.
Longer-term, I'd really like the enable nall/primitives/operators.hpp,
but right now I'm not sure why Kirby's Dream Land 3 is breaking. Help
would be appreciated, but ... it's gonna be really complex and difficult
to debug, so I'm probably gonna be on my own here ... sigh.
byuu says:
New update. Most of the work today went into eliminating hiro::Image
from all objects in all ports, replacing with nall::image. That took an
eternity.
Changelog:
- fixed crashing bug when loading games [thanks endrift!!]
- toggling "show status bar" option adjusts window geometry (not
supposed to recenter the window, though)
- button sizes improved; icon-only button icons no longer being cut off
byuu says:
This will easily be the biggest diff in the history of higan. And not in
a good way.
* target-higan and target-loki have been blown away completely
* nall and ruby massively updated
* phoenix replaced with hiro (pretty near a total rewrite)
* target-higan restarted using hiro (just a window for now)
* all emulation cores updated to compile again
* installation changed to not require root privileges (installs locally)
For the foreseeable future (maybe even permanently?), the new higan UI
will only build under Linux/BSD with GTK+ 2.20+. Probably the most
likely route for Windows/OS X will be to try and figure out how to build
hiro/GTK on those platforms, as awful as that would be. The other
alternative would be to produce new UIs for those platforms ... which
would actually be a good opportunity to make something much more user
friendly.
Being that I just started on this a few hours ago, that means that for
at least a few weeks, don't expect to be able to actually play any
games. Right now, you can pretty much just compile the binary and that's
it. It's quite possible that some nall changes didn't produce
compilation errors, but will produce runtime errors. So until the UI can
actually load games, we won't know if anything is broken. But we should
mostly be okay. It was mostly just trim<1> -> trim changes, moving to
Hash::SHA256 (much cleaner), and patching some reckless memory copy
functions enough to compile.
Progress isn't going to be like it was before: I'm now dividing my time
much thinner between studying and other hobbies.
My aim this time is not to produce a binary for everyone to play games
on. Rather, it's to keep the emulator alive. I want to be able to apply
critical patches again. And I would also like the base of the emulator
to live on, for use in other emulator frontends that utilize higan.
byuu says:
Changelog:
- added Cocoa target: higan can now be compiled for OS X Lion
[Cydrak, byuu]
- SNES/accuracy profile hires color blending improvements - fixes
Marvelous text [AWJ]
- fixed a slight bug in SNES/SA-1 VBR support caused by a typo
- added support for multi-pass shaders that can load external textures
(requires OpenGL 3.2+)
- added game library path (used by ananke->Import Game) to
Settings->Advanced
- system profiles, shaders and cheats database can be stored in "all
users" shared folders now (eg /usr/share on Linux)
- all configuration files are in BML format now, instead of XML (much
easier to read and edit this way)
- main window supports drag-and-drop of game folders (but not game files
/ ZIP archives)
- audio buffer clears when entering a modal loop on Windows (prevents
audio repetition with DirectSound driver)
- a substantial amount of code clean-up (probably the biggest
refactoring to date)
One highly desired target for this release was to default to the optimal
drivers instead of the safest drivers, but because AMD drivers don't
seem to like my OpenGL 3.2 driver, I've decided to postpone that. AMD
has too big a market share. Hopefully with v093 officially released, we
can get some public input on what AMD doesn't like.
byuu describes the changes since v067:
This release officially introduces the accuracy and performance cores,
alongside the previously-existing compatibility core. The accuracy core
allows the most accurate SNES emulation ever seen, with every last
processor running at the lowest possible clock synchronization level.
The performance core allows slower computers the chance to finally use
bsnes. It is capable of attaining 60fps in standard games even on an
entry-level Intel Atom processor, commonly found in netbooks.
The accuracy core is absolutely not meant for casual gaming at all. It
is meant solely for getting as close to 100% perfection as possible, no
matter the cost to speed. It should only be used for testing,
development or debugging.
The compatibility core is identical to bsnes v067 and earlier, but is
now roughly 10% faster. This is the default and recommended core for
casual gaming.
The performance core contains an entirely new S-CPU core, with
range-tested IRQs; and uses blargg's heavily-optimized S-DSP core
directly. Although there are very minor accuracy tradeoffs to increase
speed, I am confident that the performance core is still more accurate
and compatible than any other SNES emulator. The S-CPU, S-SMP, S-DSP,
SuperFX and SA-1 processors are all clock-based, just as in the accuracy
and compatibility cores; and as always, there are zero game-specific
hacks. Its compatibility is still well above 99%, running even the most
challenging games flawlessly.
If you have held off from using bsnes in the past due to its system
requirements, please give the performance core a try. I think you will
be impressed. I'm also not finished: I believe performance can be
increased even further.
I would also strongly suggest Windows Vista and Windows 7 users to take
advantage of the new XAudio2 driver by OV2. Not only does it give you
a performance boost, it also lowers latency and provides better sound by
way of skipping an API emulation layer.
Changelog:
- Split core into three profiles: accuracy, compatibility and
performance
- Accuracy core now takes advantage of variable-bitlength integers (eg
uint24_t)
- Performance core uses a new S-CPU core, written from scratch for speed
- Performance core uses blargg's snes_dsp library for S-DSP emulation
- Binaries are now compiled using GCC 4.5
- Added a workaround in the SA-1 core for a bug in GCC 4.5+
- The clock-based S-PPU renderer has greatly improved OAM emulation;
fixing Winter Gold and Megalomania rendering issues
- Corrected pseudo-hires color math in the clock-based S-PPU renderer;
fixing Super Buster Bros backgrounds
- Fixed a clamping bug in the Cx4 16-bit triangle operation [Jonas
Quinn]; fixing Mega Man X2 "gained weapon" star background effect
- Updated video renderer to properly handle mixed-resolution screens
with interlace enabled; fixing Air Strike Patrol level briefing screen
- Added mightymo's 2010-08-19 cheat code pack
- Windows port: added XAudio2 output support [OV2]
- Source: major code restructuring; virtual base classes for processor
- cores removed, build system heavily modified, etc.
invertego