Regen 0.93 Beta 4 + new Debuggers

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AamirM
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Regen 0.93 Beta 4 + new Debuggers

Post by AamirM » Sun Sep 21, 2008 1:16 pm

Hi,

I've made and uploaded a slightly new beta 4 with some bugs fixed and with the new debuggers. Change list is given too with changes listed in very random order (sorry :) ).

The behaviour of the 68000 debugger is a bit different than from the one in Gens tracer. When a breakpoint is hit, the debugger window is opened automatically instead of the instructions just getting logged in a file like in Gens tracer. This debugger is missing a few bits (Single stepping, frame stepping) which I will add in the future (hopefully :) ).

Also, 68k space read/writes by z80 banking does not trigger a breakpoint.

I've tried to make it as fast as possible so it should only be slightly slower than the one without the debuggers (only ~1-5% slower in my own testing).

The ultimate goal is to add many of the debugging features Nemesis has in his emulator, which is like the most coolest debugging features I've seen in any emulator.

Download from here. It is the executable only with the required fonts folder. You should delete your existing regen.ini file because some shortcuts were changed which may cause conflictions.

Thanks to Yakovlev Victor.

stay safe and enjoy,

AamirM

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Post by TmEE co.(TM) » Sun Sep 21, 2008 2:19 pm

Your emulator will have lot of edge over Nemesis' one, as yours can be ran on "stone age" PCs aswell. I'm glad you have optimized your emulator (I can get full frame rate on my work PC :P).
Mida sa loed ? Nagunii aru ei saa ;)
http://www.tmeeco.eu
Files of all broken links and images of mine are found here : http://www.tmeeco.eu/FileDen

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Post by King Of Chaos » Sun Sep 21, 2008 3:45 pm

Well, Nemesis' emulator isn't really for general gameplay, it's more for development/hacking purposes really. I wouldn't expect it to be too fast with some games. :P

Good work on the debugging tools! :) I'm going to have a lot of fun with those. ;) All that's really left is bugfixes, right? One thing I know isn't emulated yet is the 448 lines in interlaced mode for Sonic 2's 2P mode.

I'll be doing some testing throughout the day, and I'll post anything I find. :)

Good work!

EDIT: Hmmmm, in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, I swear I hear a static pop every once in awhile in the right channel whenever I pick up rings at times (kinda like the sound that happened when you hit a bumper). Seems to happen randomly. Will try to WAV dump and compare. :)

EDIT 2: Looking in regen.ini, I notice the following...

Code: Select all

LastROM=è÷©ê
Shouldn't that be the full path to the last ROM instead? Also, might be a neat idea to add the last opened ROM's file name in the Open ROM dialog in the file name path, like Kega has it. :)

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Post by King Of Chaos » Sun Sep 21, 2008 5:48 pm

Right, got some time to make a new Regen package for the Beta 4 release with the debuggers. :) Of course this package will include everything you'll need to run Regen right off the bat.

Stuff included in this package are;

-Latest Regen test executable (v0.93 Beta 4, with the debuggers).
-Required Fonts folder and makefile executable, to prevent crashes and to allow you to customize the fonts.
-Updated Readme and History files (which are updated for v0.93 Beta 4).
-Updated Cheats files, for those whom could use them.
-All working rendering plugins 2X and below.

Notable changes are;

-Added Regen v0.93 Beta 4 executable.

Download: Regen v0.93 Beta 4 (With Debuggers)

AamirM
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Post by AamirM » Sun Sep 21, 2008 6:55 pm

Hi,

Just finished adding new cheat searching support and this:

Image

Hopefully VDP debugging things will be in there too soon.

stay safe,

AamirM

King Of Chaos
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Post by King Of Chaos » Sun Sep 21, 2008 7:15 pm

Oh, that I like. :D Any screenies of the cheat searcher? :)

About the sound issues I might of found earlier, it seems to happen when there's a lot of sound effects being used at the time, in addition to the music. An example of this would be running through a line of rings in S3K. As far as I can tell, it doesn't happen in Kega or even Gens. To me it sounds like a pop or static when picking up rings. It seems to be like the bumper issues in all three Sonic games. This is also noticeable in Sonic 2.

EDIT: Some issues found.

-Savestates created via "Save State As" are not saved with the .gsx extension. To use it you have to manually add the extension.
-Saving a savestate, then loading it in Kega works fine. But if you save the state in Kega and try to load it in Regen, the game will freeze. Tested with X-Men.

This basically means loading of savestates from Regen to Kega works fine. But if you load a savestate saved by Kega into Regen, it can freeze when you move Nightcrawler forward.

Here's how you reproduce it...

1. Load up the Kega savestate in Regen with X-Men (U) [!] running.
2. Walk forward and the game will freeze.

Try loading the Regen saved one in both Kega and Regen, and it'll work fine. ;) Also, the Kega savestate will work fine in Kega too, no game freezes, but in Regen the game will lockup if you move forward.

Download: X-Men Savestates

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Post by SmartOne » Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:49 pm

King Of Chaos wrote:About the sound issues I might of found earlier, it seems to happen when there's a lot of sound effects being used at the time, in addition to the music. An example of this would be running through a line of rings in S3K. As far as I can tell, it doesn't happen in Kega or even Gens. To me it sounds like a pop or static when picking up rings. It seems to be like the bumper issues in all three Sonic games. This is also noticeable in Sonic 2.
If you remember back to the ZSNES thread, I mentioned a problem about sounds "cutting-out." I think what I meant is more what you described.

EDIT: Yes, the Rings definitely crackle. Try a Sonic and Knuckles Special Stage and collect a bunch. You'll have to listen closely.

Also, Quick Save State in Sonic and Knuckles created a save but closed the emulator. When I tried loading it, Regen said something about the state being bad. It showed some corrupted graphics and then reset the game.

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Post by AamirM » Tue Sep 23, 2008 12:50 pm

Hi,
Any screenies of the cheat searcher?
Its the same I added some time ago only this time its faster unlike previously where it took ages to load up.

All other bugs noted.

EDIT:

@SmartOne:
I couldn't reproduce your quick savestate problem. Are you still getting this problem?

stay safe,

AamirM

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Post by SmartOne » Wed Sep 24, 2008 10:53 pm

I'm trying to figure out what that huge "7" means in the about window. :P

Quick Save State works! Yay! However, there's no checkmark by Slot 0 by default.

Save State As still saves a state with no extension instead of GSX.

Power Off disables all sound in subsequent loaded games.


Question about Genesis video modes: About the one that Regen displays with vertical black bars on the left and right (aka Sparkster title screen): Wouldn't a TV stretch the image horizontally? So shouldn't "Correct Aspect Ratio" alter the video output so all Genesis video modes are essentially the same looking?

I've read through discussions about this in the past and how Steve Snake "does it right" in Kega. If so, why is Kega's video in fullscreen smaller than Regen's? But then TV's had rectangular pixels or something. This confuses me.

EDIT: Does Correct Aspect Ratio + Stretch = like a TV?

What's limiting the filters to only 2x? I would love to use Normal2x up to Normal5x (or more!) :D

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Post by King Of Chaos » Thu Sep 25, 2008 12:39 am

SmartOne wrote:I'm trying to figure out what that huge "7" means in the about window. :P
Same here. If AamirM wants a nice little Regen logo the exact same size, I can make one. ;)
SmartOne wrote:However, there's no checkmark by Slot 0 by default.

Save State As still saves a state with no extension instead of GSX.

Power Off disables all sound in subsequent loaded games.
1. Confirmed.
2. Double confirmed.
3. Triple confirmed.

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Post by SmartOne » Thu Sep 25, 2008 3:04 am

Sound issue: Phantasy Star II

Listen to the overworld map song (outside the city.) A ways into the song, an instrument makes a few "waAWP" sounds. Sort of squeaky-like. This used to happen in old GYM emulators and even the original in_vgm.dll. Not supposed to be there (unless that's how it's supposed to sound when it's SUPER DUPER HYPER ACCURATE. :P )

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Post by King Of Chaos » Thu Sep 25, 2008 3:08 am

How does it sound in Kega?

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Post by SmartOne » Thu Sep 25, 2008 3:18 am

I thought we weren't really supposed to compare to Kega, but I will.

Sound issue: Zombies Ate My Neighbors

Konami Screen is really crackly. Similar to the crackliness of CV: Bloodlines BGM 26.

EDIT: Phantasy Star II overworld map song in Kega: If you listen carefully, you can barely hear little woppies in the background. They occur more frequently than Regen but are much harder to hear. Regen has just a few towards the end of the song, and they are quite audible.

Zombies Konami Screen sounds really interesting (and good!) in Kega. Have a good ol' fashioned listen.

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Post by King Of Chaos » Thu Sep 25, 2008 3:45 am

Typically, I think it's pretty safe to compare sound wise to Kega, or even better the real hardware.

Yes, and I can hear what you mean too. Hmmm.

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Post by SmartOne » Thu Sep 25, 2008 4:13 am

Someone had mentioned the difference in video clarity between Kega and Regen at supposedly equivalent video settings. Kega is clearer. I decided to investigate.

Please download and take a look: http://www.sendspace.com/file/2bnkfv


Regen(Normal2x).bmp: Regen "filtered" screenshot (the Normal2x "filter" captured.)

RegenTrue.bmp: PrintScreen of Regen with same settings as above. Notice the slight blur. This is how Regen really looks. The "filtered" screenshot lies.

Kega(Normal(2x)).bmp: Kega's screenshot "Normal" video setting, which supposedly = Normal2x. Notice the few extra pixels of width compared to Regen.

KegaTrue.bmp: PrintScreen of Kega. Kega's screenshots don't lie, because it looks the same as above.

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