Posted: 4/17/2018 8:15 PM
Post subject: GBAHawk
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Alyosha
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GBA TASer of 2023 Homebrew TAS of 2023 Gameboy TASer of 2022 NES TASer of 2015
I've had fun working on the GB/C cores recently, so I've decided to start working on the next step in Nintendo handhelds the GBA. I've wanted to start looking at more modern systems for a while and GBA seems like a good place to start in that respect as well. Based on the performance of the GBC core and the increased demands of the GBA, I likely don't have enough head room to make the core run at full speed using my current approach, so I'm hoping this venture will also force me to learn more about optimizing my code. Whether or not this core makes it into releases will depend mainly on how performant I can make it. But at the same time I won't be sacrificing accuracy, and as with my other cores my goal is single cycle execution. Having said all that, feel free to post suggestions, or if you are also interested in GBA and maybe want to try contributing. There's plenty of work on this one for division of labor, and a lot to learn along the way.
Posted: 4/17/2018 8:43 PM
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phoenix1291
Joined: 7/17/2012
Posts: 530
Location: Switzerland
Excellent news, and I have no doubt once again of your future success with this core! However, what do you plan to bring more than mGBA for example?
My Citra 3DS rerecording movie files test repositery: https://cutt.ly/vdM0jzl Youtube playlist "Citra Tests": https://cutt.ly/AdM0wg9 http://www.youtube.com/user/phoenix1291
Posted: 4/18/2018 1:21 AM
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ruadath
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Very excited to hear this!
Posted: 4/18/2018 1:38 AM
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Fortranm
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Good luck! BTW, do you have plans to edit the DualGB mode so that it can use GBHawk? Or maybe even make it support more than 2 games at the same time?
Posted: 4/18/2018 1:45 AM
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Challenger
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Accurracy is the main reason why I prefer (and like) this BizHawk emulator ; ) You are great with these cores! Good job.
My homepage --Currently not much motived for TASing as before...-- But I'm still working.
Posted: 4/18/2018 4:17 AM
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MarbleousDave
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It's possible to have 4-way play. Remember NO$GBA and VBAlink?
Posted: 4/18/2018 4:18 AM
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Sonia
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Joined: 12/6/2013
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Awesome! The more cores the merrier. :) For now I'm only really hoping GBAHawk's audio will turn out better than mGBA's. The latter's has some serious problems.
Posted: 4/18/2018 12:48 PM
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Alyosha
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phoenix1291 wrote:
However, what do you plan to bring more than mGBA for example?
Nothing in particular (although hopefully audio as Sonia mentioned.) Really it's just to have an in house core that is exapandable. Maybe for things like Yoshi's Topsy Turvy (similar to how GBHawk helped for Kirby Tilt n Tumble.)
Fortranm wrote:
Good luck! BTW, do you have plans to edit the DualGB mode so that it can use GBHawk? Or maybe even make it support more than 2 games at the same time?
At this time GB/CHawk is paused until some new test ROMs come up to help fix things that I know for sure are wrong. The fixes should be pretty simple, but I need to make sure everything fits together just right.
Posted: 4/18/2018 3:03 PM
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phoenix1291
Joined: 7/17/2012
Posts: 530
Location: Switzerland
Alyosha wrote:
(although hopefully audio as Sonia mentioned.) Maybe for things like Yoshi's Topsy Turvy (similar to how GBHawk helped for Kirby Tilt n Tumble.)
Good news :)
My Citra 3DS rerecording movie files test repositery: https://cutt.ly/vdM0jzl Youtube playlist "Citra Tests": https://cutt.ly/AdM0wg9 http://www.youtube.com/user/phoenix1291
Posted: 4/18/2018 5:51 PM
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MUGG
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Good luck with this project. However, I don't see the point since mgba already aims for accuracy. Can you elaborate what you mean by "for things like Yoshi Topsy Turvy"? Because I already started a WIP on the mGBA core which worked out fine (although a luascript is required to make tilting work). Link to the Yoshi Topsy Turvy thread
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Posted: 4/18/2018 9:00 PM
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Alyosha
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MUGG wrote:
Good luck with this project. However, I don't see the point since mgba already aims for accuracy. Can you elaborate what you mean by "for things like Yoshi Topsy Turvy"? Because I already started a WIP on the mGBA core which worked out fine (although a luascript is required to make tilting work). Link to the Yoshi Topsy Turvy thread
I didn't know you could do that. 0_0 Geez, seems I'm always two steps behind. :/ Oh well, I'm doing it anyway! Maybe it will have some unforeseen benefit somewhere down the road.
Posted: 4/18/2018 10:10 PM
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endrift
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I'm not sure why writing a new emulator is required to get the peripherals that mGBA already supports working in BizHawk. Wouldn't it make more sense to fix up the mGBA integration and hack on the already fairly mature mGBA?
Posted: 4/18/2018 10:36 PM
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Alyosha
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endrift wrote:
I'm not sure why writing a new emulator is required to get the peripherals that mGBA already supports working in BizHawk. Wouldn't it make more sense to fix up the mGBA integration and hack on the already fairly mature mGBA?
Yeah, but I wouldn't have any fun or learn anything doing that. Even if it doesn't prove useful enough to make it into BizHawk main branch I'd still like to have a go at making it anyway.
Posted: 4/18/2018 11:59 PM
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endrift
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I suppose that's fair. I can't exactly say doing it to learn is a bad idea, otherwise I'd be being hypocritical about it and VBA.
Posted: 4/19/2018 12:09 AM
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natt
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Joined: 5/11/2011
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Location: Murka
Hold the phone. There's code in Bizhawk to hook up the tilt sensor and the vampire sensor to the mgba core. Is that not working? If so, it's probably a 5 minute fix for me. Did someone report this? I don't see anything on the issue tracker with "tilt" in it.
Posted: 4/19/2018 7:36 PM
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Alyosha
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natt wrote:
Hold the phone. There's code in Bizhawk to hook up the tilt sensor and the vampire sensor to the mgba core. Is that not working? If so, it's probably a 5 minute fix for me. Did someone report this? I don't see anything on the issue tracker with "tilt" in it.
I just tried it now, and when I bind tilt controls to the mouse for example, then try to record inputs in TAStudio, I get the error: 
oops
System.FormatException
.
.
.
in BizHawk.Client.Common.Bk2ControllerAdapter.SetControllersAsMnemoic
So yeah, some kind of controller definition problem I guess.
Posted: 7/3/2018 1:07 PM
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Alyosha
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Update: This project is dead. I don't have the time anymore to focus on it, and there are still plenty of bugs to fix in the other cores that use most of my attention. It probably would have been too slow anyway so no real loss. At least tilt controls in GBA got fixed as a kind of side effect!
Posted: 7/4/2018 3:26 PM
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Dwedit
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Bizhawk can run LibRetro cores, including GBA cores, but that doesn't help with TASing at all.
Posted: 7/4/2018 3:41 PM
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Noxxa
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Dwedit wrote:
Bizhawk can run LibRetro cores, including GBA cores, but that doesn't help with TASing at all.
It can also run mGBA and VBA-Next (lol) cores which do support TAS tools, so there is no particular need for more help with TASing for GBA.
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa <dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects. <Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits <adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.