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Thanks to Fiskbit and Lidnariq from NesDev, I was able to implement some new findings related to DMC DMA. Now some DMC runs are starting to work for the first time. For example this is the first time ever I have gotten past the third level of Tiny Toons on console:
I'm going to try to get a full game run of Tiny Toons working next, then probably Ninja Turtles if that works.
This isn't quite the last step for DMC games, as Time Lord still needs some edge cases worked out, but should be getting really close now.
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http://johnsarcade.com/nintendo_vs_ppu_info.php
I think this is the most complete resource available for dip switches and their effects.
Implementing what you described would be a lot of work, since the name of each switch would have to vary by game, but most of the information seems to be there.
Maybe just compiling all the info into a one document reference would be a good start? I'm personally not interested, but such a thing would be nice to have.
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After some more research, I have updated the power up state of NESHawk again.
With this new state, now all available APU tests pass at the same time. This was not the case with the previous state, in particular count_errors_fast gave a result that I never saw on console.
Fortunately, the new state also has high compatibility. Most of the previous timing sensitive games work with only minor tweaking of inputs, including Battletoads and Nightshade. Some games will require new movies, Roger Rabbit doesn't work anymore (but that's ok since it was slower anyway by a wide margin.) Excite Bike also doesn't work, but I probably just need to put some more time into that one.
I am in the process of updating movie files and .r08 files and will be replacing them in the repo when I get a chance.
I did some test runs with Tiny Toons in with the new state, but it desynced at the same point (but in a different way.) So, I still need the last few DMC edge cases working, but at least now everything is consistent.
I have reverted the above changes pending further testing, as that state seems to have very low probability and doesn't work with one of the tiny Toons DMC test runs I use.
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Some interesting new quirks are being discovered in the NES by the folks at NesDev.
In particular, OAM DMA will read data from the external bus whenever the cpu is accessing the external bus. One implication of this is that there are 0x20 bytes at 0x4000 that OAM DMA can read but the CPU cannot (because the CPU will always access registers there.) It works in the other direction too, OAM DMA will access registers if cpu is executing from register space. (Setting this up is very non-trivial, the test ROM Fiskbit came up with is a pretty good emulator test just to get the setup right.)
I just implemented this into NESHawk:
This doesn't really mean anything for TASing, I just think it's cool to see new things still being discovered.
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NLeseul wrote:
Very exciting! I've been using the TAS features in openMSX to develop RNG manipulations for the speedrun of Dragon Slayer IV (MSX1), and it will be really nice to one day have access to TAStudio and other BizHawk features for MSX.
I just added support for ascii 8kb mapped games, so now Dragon Slayer IV (and many other games that use that mapper) work now.
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MSXHawk is an MSX1 emulator. It currently has nearly complete support for games 64kb and under. I just added support for basic Konami games with larger sizes, so ex. penguin adventure and knightmare II now work.
I don't really plan to put too much time into this core, but since it's nearly done (at least for MSX1) I figured I'd make a thread for it so it doesn't just go to waste. I'll most likely be setting this core to 'released' in the next release of BizHawk.
I'll slowly try to add more mapper compatibility, but for the most part I'll only work on things if someone specifically wants to make a TAS for a particular game.
(Also, if anyone wants to develop the core further themselves I'd be happy to answer any questions.)
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Nice improvement, great work and yes vote.
The previous run actually relied on a emulation issue that has since been fixed, so it's nice to have a consistent run for this category. (The previous run could still be console verified since the emulation error (MMC3 IRQ timing) could coincidentally be cancelled out by the variability of NES power up state.)
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feos wrote:
So I guess resyncing in this game is not really a thing with this amount of changing lag?
In past iterations, level 5 has worked out ok, but level 4 will probably need a lot of work.
I haven't had a chance to look at this yet, and might not for a while, I'll gladly add a co-author if someone can fix it up with feos' improved fight.
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Seems to be just bad nametable mirroring in the header (the black box appears when it's backwards from what it should be.)
I committed a fix.
whatever the header says, the prg rom should have this hash:
headerless rom hash: sha1:77241A57CB0B40D9ECAC451F86198ABBACBC717C
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feos wrote:
Why is the Baxter fight 18 frames longer?
Not sure (I just assumed bosses were always hit on the first frame possible and never bothered checking.)
Probably lag, but this is already the best fight I could get while trying to hit all the projectiles to reduce lag,
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When you open the ROM you have for this game in NESHawk with the log window open, what does it show?
I got a copy and opened it up and the pcb says it's hvc-unrom--03. I dumped it with 128k PRG ROm and 0 CHR ORM and it runs just fine. (this is pretty standard.)
EDIT: Also the hash i get matches that on no-intro.
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CasualPokePlayer wrote:
Alyosha wrote:
What is the status with console verifying this?
Currently not possible it appears. The TAS desyncs right at the title screen, console taking less time with the picture spam compared to Gambatte for some reason. We don't know why it does, after extensive testing of the camera (using a GBC + flashcart + GB Camera cartswap setup) we couldn't find any major timing inaccuracies. Currently our best bet is just the GBA behaves differently with timing for some reason (although that doesn't make sense, that would mean that the PHI, a direct representation of the GB's clock, is faster on the GBA).
So GBC also takes less time then Gambatte, or just GBA?
Is the amount of time enough that the reset you mentioned would be faster on console?
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What is the status with console verifying this?
It's probably not worth considering how this compares to the previous run on GBHawk, it's way behind in terms of accurate emulation of the inner workings of the camera.
I'm going to try to get a full game run of Tiny Toons working next, then probably Ninja Turtles if that works.
This isn't quite the last step for DMC games, as Time Lord still needs some edge cases worked out, but should be getting really close now.
This doesn't really mean anything for TASing, I just think it's cool to see new things still being discovered.