Got a chance to test it in my Windows 7 x64 laptop. It runs, but trying to record output crashes the emulator (I was trying to record an AVI). One time QtGui5.dll was the culprit, the other time, ntdll.dll was the culprit (according to Event Viewer). Both were Access Violation crashes (exception code: 0xc0000005). Switching ROMs also causes an Access Violation (and thus, a crash) to occur (it was in ntdll.dll for me).
Anyway, I tested with Super Mario Advance 4, and it shows incorrect behaviour. Basically, when you first start it up, it's supposed to format the save data, then jump to the intro (like in VBA-M and on console). However, mGBA first displays "Reading...", then after a while, "Saved data is corrupted." (it also takes longer to get to the intro). This also happens on older versions of VBA, for the record.
Here are some comparison screenshots:
Other than that, good job so far.
The record output bug is likely a known issue where the emulator crashes if you don't use the right extension. If you were using the right extension, I'm not sure what the issue was. I'll take a closer look, but what were the codecs you were using, and not just the container?
As for Super Mario Advance 4, I saw that bug earlier in dev and thought I fixed it. I'll take another look at it right now.
The record output bug is likely a known issue where the emulator crashes if you don't use the right extension. If you were using the right extension, I'm not sure what the issue was. I'll take a closer look, but what were the codecs you were using, and not just the container?
My first attempt was without advanced settings checked, but seeing it produced an AVI with a gigantic filesize (I think it was 100+ MB for ~2 seconds of footage, mind you) before it crashed makes me believe it was uncompressed video and audio. On my second attempt, I used the FFV1 codec and uncompressed PCM audio (I also used the right extension), but it crashed right away.
Weird. Recording is working fine on OS X for me, I'll investigate Windows when I get a chance.
As for the SMA4 issue, the issue was that I wasn't initializing the second bank of the flash chip to 0xFF. I was only initializing the first bank, it seems. This is fixed in 830511472a3d3e9854b94216fc4e74e35d8d3081 and will be in 0.1.1.
E] Given the rather quick pace in which I patch things, and given that I don't plan to release a new feature version until March or so (a bugfix-only release will come sometime in January), would anyone be interested in nightlies, with the knowledge that they may be pretty broken? It wouldn't be too hard to set up, but I want to make sure that people would use them before I set them up. (Windows only though, since I lack infrastructure for continuous integration on OS X, and I don't provide Linux or FreeBSD builds as it stands.)
Tried out your emulator with any random rom i had on my HDD.
Found an emulator bug for The Legend of Zelda: the Minish cap. It doesn't let you roll around. What follows is screenshot proof
Standing
Grab Action (not grabbing anything)
Proves my mapped R button is indeed impacting the game state
Walking
Notice that "Roll" doesn't appear on the UI. Also Rolling with R doesn't work.
Walking next to an NPC shows "Speak" on the UI
And works as expected
I can't speak to that bug, as it seems to work fine for me. However, I did just fix another bug in Minish Cap. I ended up making nightlies available on the downloads page, so you might try downloading a nightly to see if it still happens. (The bug fix mentioned will not be in the current nightly until midnight UTC, so 4 PM PST or 7 PM EST, but that was only a graphics bug.)
Hello endrift, thanks for your work. Noticed the incoming 0.2.0 change - Support for games using the Solar Sensor in github; I tried the latest nightly build with Boktai 1 & Boktai 2 on OSX 10.10.1, but the game wouldn't run completely. No error messages shown, no logs, no recent opened roms appended on the menu, nothing happened. Have no idea what was going on...
Rom tried:
1161 - Boktai - The Sun is in Your Hand (U).gba
1719 - Boktai 2 - Solar Boy Django (U).gba
I also tried Boktai3 ( only J ver avaliable ). The game runs, but adjusting light level doesn't work ( I tried Tools -> Game Pak Overrides -> Light -> Brightness ). Nothing changed in game when I edited the value.
Rom tried:
2069 - Shin Bokura no Taiyou Gyakushuu no Sabata.gba
Other games like Megaman BN and Castlevania Aos works fine.
Was I doing anything wrong?
That probably means the emulator thought it wasn't a valid game. I had neglected to add a "failed to load" dialog. I added one just now, so try the next nightly to find out if that's the issue. It's not a particularly stringent check, though, so something must have really gone wrong for it to think that it's not a valid game.
As for Boktai 3, that's because I forgot to add Boktai 3 to the list of games that use the solar sensor. I just added this and tested it, so that should be good in the next nightly.
I'm planning on releasing 0.1.1 very soon. It's just fixes, though, so it's really only for people who aren't downloading the nightlies. It won't have any new features.
That probably means the emulator thought it wasn't a valid game. I had neglected to add a "failed to load" dialog. I added one just now, so try the next nightly to find out if that's the issue. It's not a particularly stringent check, though, so something must have really gone wrong for it to think that it's not a valid game.
As for Boktai 3, that's because I forgot to add Boktai 3 to the list of games that use the solar sensor. I just added this and tested it, so that should be good in the next nightly.
I'm planning on releasing 0.1.1 very soon. It's just fixes, though, so it's really only for people who aren't downloading the nightlies. It won't have any new features.
I tried today's nightly build just now. Still nothing happened like before
Well, never mind. I found that the rom I had used is hacked -_-!! Found another rom and it works fine now
The new nightly build as mentioned won't be up for another 11 hours or so. They're built at 00:00 UTC every day. There hasn't been a nightly since I posted the changes a few hours ago.
The new nightly build as mentioned won't be up for another 11 hours or so. They're built at 00:00 UTC every day. There hasn't been a nightly since I posted the changes a few hours ago.
Thanks, but I found I used a hacked rom before. Now it works fine.
I wonder that if there are some hotkeys to adjust the light level. It's painful to adjust it using the mouse every time.
For those disinclined to try nightlies, I've just released 0.1.1, which should fix a huge number of issues. It doesn't have all of the fixes, or the new features that are in the nightlies, but it contains a huge glut of the fixes. Again, let me know if any issues come up and I'll try to fix them quickly.
The CHN version of Metroid Fusion doesn't run.
Here is the dump report from Bizhawk:
Miteluode Ronghe (China)
SHA1:315B94C66B8D5130006B4852B9D875B00BE4943D
MD5:0DC8A17AF87706F54DB5B78F02C5AD12
AVI dumping doesn't seem to work properly in 0.2.0 on Windows 7 x64. It creates a zero-frame file (per VirtualDub) that's 9.67 KB big. I used FFV1 as video codec and uncompressed as audio codec. A game was already running before I started the dump.
Same thing happens in the latest nightly build (from April 3rd).
Well, at least it's not crashing anymore. I'll take a closer look tomorrow. For some reason, the forums didn't email me when you replied, despite the fact that I told it to email me when this thread gets replies…
It's fixed in git, and the fix will be in tomorrow's nightly and 0.2.1 when I release that within a month. It was a regression from a refactor I did :( Thanks for finding this.
I updated the readme. mGBA is written in C99, which afaik is still not properly supported in Visual Studio, potentially even in 2015. I've been told that it may be able to be made to compile, but I don't plan to purchase a copy of Visual Studio just for this purpose, and trying to do it by proxy can be difficult.
E] I did not realize there is a free version of Visual Studio. I may take a look at that when 2015 comes out proper.
Indeed. I was about to let you know of Visual Studio 2013 Community and Visual Studio 2015 CTP, with the latter being suggested because of this, by Stephan T. Lavavej - MSFT:
Regarding C99/C11 features: the compiler and library teams will consider them on a case-by-case basis, but our main priority is C++ conformance. For example, since C++11/14 incorporate the C99 Standard Library by reference, 2015 Preview fully supports the C99 Standard Library (with the only omissions being tgmath.h, which requires C compiler magic and is not relevant to C++ which has overloading, and CX_LIMITED_RANGE/FP_CONTRACT which also require compiler support).
I am not sure if mGBA uses tgmath.h, but if it does not, then VS 2015 CTP could be useful.
----------------------------------------
I have been reading through the past posts, and have compiled my own feature requests that I feel it is useful for the TAS community. These are just feature requests that mGBA 0.3 or beyond might have, and not specifically be in 0.2.X.
1. Allow inputs be recorded through keyboard keys. It is the same scenario where when recording a movie and you hold down a button on a gamepad and then you frame advance, that held button input event will be recorded to that frame. (I am pretty sure that this may be backlogged in your feature suggestion list, but I can't seem to find it.)
2. Show a counter in this format (Again, not sure if it's backlogged already.):
[Current frame] / [Total count of frames emulated/created] / [Dropped frames count due to lag]
3. Being able to set a new hotkey to bind the action of frame rewinding, 1 frame at a time, and not call it "Rewind", like other emulators would call it. (Just pedantic about the labeling.)
That's all.
Have you drafted and finalized the file format mGBA is going to be using? Or you are referencing other file formats, such as the BK2 format and implement to support them for the TAS features?
The reason I asked is mainly due to a thought that just popped into my head. Would future TAS emulators supporting already working and existing movie file formats for compatibility among different emulators be viable in the long run?
Indeed. I was about to let you know of Visual Studio 2013 Community and Visual Studio 2015 CTP, with the latter being suggested because of this, by Stephan T. Lavavej - MSFT:
Regarding C99/C11 features: the compiler and library teams will consider them on a case-by-case basis, but our main priority is C++ conformance. For example, since C++11/14 incorporate the C99 Standard Library by reference, 2015 Preview fully supports the C99 Standard Library (with the only omissions being tgmath.h, which requires C compiler magic and is not relevant to C++ which has overloading, and CX_LIMITED_RANGE/FP_CONTRACT which also require compiler support).
I am not sure if mGBA uses tgmath.h, but if it does not, then VS 2015 CTP could be useful.
Turns out the biggest problem was with VS 2015's macro support, but I should probably be using auto-generated code instead of the macro madness I am using.
tom_mai78101 wrote:
I have been reading through the past posts, and have compiled my own feature requests that I feel it is useful for the TAS community. These are just feature requests that mGBA 0.3 or beyond might have, and not specifically be in 0.2.X.
1. Allow inputs be recorded through keyboard keys. It is the same scenario where when recording a movie and you hold down a button on a gamepad and then you frame advance, that held button input event will be recorded to that frame. (I am pretty sure that this may be backlogged in your feature suggestion list, but I can't seem to find it.)
2. Show a counter in this format (Again, not sure if it's backlogged already.):
[Current frame] / [Total count of frames emulated/created] / [Dropped frames count due to lag]
3. Being able to set a new hotkey to bind the action of frame rewinding, 1 frame at a time, and not call it "Rewind", like other emulators would call it. (Just pedantic about the labeling.)
That's all.
I'm not really sure what 1 is about, seeing as that seems to be pretty standard? If it's what I think it is, it's been implemented for a while. 2 is backlogged on when I can make a HUD. I've been having trouble with that for a while now. I added a "Step Back" function that steps back one rewind increment, but there are some syncing issues with it. Moreover, rewind is disabled with RR at the moment due to how it would work with savestates. It would leave a huge mess of files on the drive at the moment.
tom_mai78101 wrote:
Have you drafted and finalized the file format mGBA is going to be using? Or you are referencing other file formats, such as the BK2 format and implement to support them for the TAS features?
The reason I asked is mainly due to a thought that just popped into my head. Would future TAS emulators supporting already working and existing movie file formats for compatibility among different emulators be viable in the long run?
I did not reference other formats in the process of designing the MGM format, and as a result it is VERY different. It is a tagged format, so each frame is delimited by tags with one or more inputs per frame, and various more tags can be added. Moreover, movies are separated out over multiple files while recording to allow a sort of git-like branching system. I haven't implemented any way to garbage collect or compile these though, so it's rather limited at the moment. I'm guessing almost no other emulators would be interested in a similar file format, given what I've since observed.
Turns out the biggest problem was with VS 2015's macro support, but I should probably be using auto-generated code instead of the macro madness I am using.
Other than that, good job so far.
Grab Action (not grabbing anything)
Proves my mapped R button is indeed impacting the game state
Walking
Notice that "Roll" doesn't appear on the UI. Also Rolling with R doesn't work.
Walking next to an NPC shows "Speak" on the UI
And works as expected
