I believe I've found a bug in Final Fantasy Origins.
When you beat Final Fantasy 1, you get two set of credits back to back. The first is for the original staff, the second is for the arranged version staff.
Problem is, the second set doesn't appear. The proper background images are there, but the text doesn't show up.
I haven't used any cheats, and I've tried different dumps of the game just in case, and the result is the same.
Here are save states at the last boss, right after beating the boss and right before the second set of credits start. Hopefully someone can figure out what's going on.
https://www.sendspace.com/file/threm0
It wont be added to the next release, I already did it in another way that more aggressively crops more overscan in more cases and sizes the GUI down along with it. If you're going to be writing a million bugs, you need to learn to make builds from source yourself for testing.
Careful it doesn't remove those native black bars a lot of games have.
I mean, what you implemented sounds good too, but personally I only want native framebuffer screenshots. If those come natively with black bars, then I wouldn't want those gone.
I'll try it once the new version is out, but maybe both options can coexist?
Feos goddamned you. Now it's perfect!!
The "Clip to framebuffer" option is exactly what I was looking for.
I tested all the previous games and now the images come out with the correct resolution, or at least what the framebuffer originally outputs.
It even shows corner garbage (darkstalkers 3) that would otherwise be hidden by the overscan on CRTs. At least I assume that garbage is supposed to be there and not a glitch of your new option.
Hopefully this gets added to the next release.
Thanks again zeromus.
Sorry for all the requests, but I wasn't planning on making any actually. They just come up as I keep using the emulator, next time I'll only make one thread.
I've been wondering if this could be improved about the screenshot file naming routine. I don't know if anyone will bother, but here it goes:
When you take a screenshot, the filename comes out as: Random Game.2015-08-04 23.45.31
The last part is the time. Here's the thing, when you are taking lots of rapid sequential screenshots, the emulator gives you a message for each key press, but the end result is not a screenshot per every key press like it should.
The problem is that since you can't have two files with the same name, then if you take two different screens in the same second, then only one screenshot will be created.
To avoid this I suggest to add an additional millisecond counter, or just number the screens with regular numbers, such as:
Random Game.2015-08-04 - 0001
Random Game.2015-08-04 - 0002
Random Game.2015-08-04 - 0003
Etc.
Whichever is easiest.
Great, thanks for that zeromus!
Hopefully that second one gets approved in the future. All the previous emulators you guys have modified to suit the TAS needs have had great cheat options, and that second request has always been available, if that would help with the decision.
First of all, kudos to whoever did the cheat/ram search/etc. engine. Finally, a decent way to hack N64, PS1, Saturn, and Genesis codes. And maybe Sega CD? Haven't tried that one, but apparently it's very difficult to makes codes for.
Anyway, I have a few improvement requests for the cheat window (the one just titled Cheats in the Tools menu) in case anyone decides to work on it.
1) Stop cheats from moving around on the list.
Let's say you have several cheats on the list, if you edit any of them, the cheat will automatically be sent to the bottom of the list. As a cheat maker, I can have up to 10 or 40 cheats on the list for testing purposes and it's very annoying when every time I modify the name, or value, the cheat moves places (which is pretty much all the time).
2) Allow more than one cheat with the same address.
Some cheats don't work as neatly as an Infinite Energy code, which you just tend keep on all the time.
Sometimes you want to have more than one cheat with the same address, but with different values because it's easier to turn them on/off than to be constantly changing the value to what you want. However, that is currently that is not possible.
The biggest offenders are ASM cheats, which usually stay on permanently (even if you disable or delete the cheat), and the only way to turn them off is to set the value to something else. With other emus you would just have the same address repeated twice, but with different values.
Another big offender are Item Modifiers (for RPGs). When you find an address that controls the the item in a slot, it's very tedious to be changing the value one by one to see each item available. The faster process is to have the same address repeated multiple times, but with different values so you can turn them on/off and see the changes quickly.
Thanks in advance to whoever decides to implement this.
Yeah I know what interlaced is. I just mixed things up and started thinking about games with weird resolutions like 320x480 and thought you were implying something about stretching the screenshot's final form.
Guys I would like to apologize if my comments seemed rude or demanding, it was not my intention.
@feos . I guess the way mednafen handles the graphic display and how it "hardcodes" the overscan makes it difficult to achieve what I would like and what other emulators already do without issues. Sadly other PSX emus are not as robust as Bizhawk.
I tried your patch on more games and unfortunately sometimes the 10+ overscan is 8-2, other times is 7-3, or even 10-0. So it will be unrealistic for me to ask you to keep working on this since every single game will be different.
@zeromus
VRAM tool for PS1? Great, that will be much appreciated :)
Any chance of also adding a Layer disabling option? I know it doesn't work for polygons, but it can work to turn off text boxes and HUDs from the screen.
As for screenshots, I'm strongly in the camp to keep screenshots as pure and native as possible. If the PS1's framebuffer creates a half resolution graphic (like a lot of Namco's title screens), then that's the correct resolution for that screenshot.
I know companies expected that to be stretched/scaled automatically by the TV screen, and I know it was never meant to be seen at half resolution. But the screenshot should never be artificially scaled to full resolution.
I mean, I wouldn't mind the option for people that don't care about native/framebuffer resolutions, but for people that like to take lots of screenshots, or rip sprites, or make maps, or even for historic/documentation purposes; having native screenshots is a must.
And yes, of course I could use other emulators that give me just that (PsxJin, Epsx, PSCX, etc), but like I mentioned before, those emulators lack a lot of great options Bizhawk has added.
I know this is a community mostly focusing on TASing, so screenshots are not really an interest or priority. I understand wanting to display graphics a certain way or certain feel for playing the game or making a TAS. The overscan/stretching/filtering/interlaced stuff is just fine if you're just playing the game, or looking for a CRT feel (or whatever). But for screenshots, they should be left native just like every other emulator does already.
If someone wants to capture a stretched overscanned filtered image, they can use printscreen or fake it with GIMP/Photoshop like Feos mentioned before.
http://rghost.ru/6VJHrrvqW
Patch inside.
Honestly, this can as well be used officially, like when we publish screenshots, we'll have to crop them for the site to accept. Or will we? Anyways, my tweak makes previously clipped show up under unclipped now, and new clipped now is clipping everything extra. Because I think old unclipped mode wasn't needed.
Note: BIOS screen is shifted differently and it still has a few black pixels, but games are probably good.
Thanks!
The BIOS is shifted because that's a high res screen.
From the tests that I've done (3 games so far), for games with 320x240 or 320x480 displays, with the "Clip Horizontal Overscan" option enabled, the displays always have a +10 overscan excess. 8 additional lines on the left and 2 on the right, for a resolution of 330x240
With your patch, for those resolutions, it removes that 10+ excess, but it eats up one vertical graphical line to the right, while leaving a single overscan line to the left.
If you wish I can keep updating you as I test more games with different resolutions. There aren't that many as far as I know: 256x240, 320x240, 320x480, 512x240, and 640x480 for logos and stuff.
OK, since you're never ever going to get a special screenshot mode, what you actually want is another PSX "resolution management" option called "ReyVGM's Undo Mode" which undoes a bunch of hard and cutting edge work mednafen does to emulate a stable television picture. I'll file that under todo: never, mostly because nobody's going to be mangling mednafen sources to the degree required to achieve that any time soon. In the meantime, use imagemagick.
Zeromus, no need for sarcasm. I know Fusoya and Golbez killed your first form, but let bygones be bygones.
Like I've said several times, but everyone seems to be ignoring: the emulator already has an option to clip the very same overscan I'm talking about! The problem is, it doesn't clip 100% of it.
If the option is already there, what's the harm in making it clip the entire overscan instead of just a part of it?
Ok, here's the thing:
I'm not really interested on how games looked on a CRT or if they compensated or adjusted the visuals to "look right" on a CRT. I'm just interested in what the framebuffer outputs (even the native weird resolutions). Which is why I would like to remove the artificial overscan the emulator is adding to the screenshots.
The emu already has an option to do that, but it doesn't remove the overscan completely.
I understand some games have native borders on the top/bottom or left/right, those are fine because those were added intentionally.
But then you have games that are (for example) 320x240, which fill the screen/window nicely, but the emulator is adding additional borders to it. That's what I want to remove.
I've only been messing with Bizhawk for PS1 for a few days, but I'm wondering if there's an option to use memorycards (.mcr), or is .SaveRAM the only available format?
The reason I'm asking is because I have a slew of memory card saves made with other older and less accurate emulators and I would like to be able to use those saves with this emu.
I have memory card saves (.mcr), single memory saves (.psx) and dexdrive saves (.GME). Is there any way to use those with bizhawk, or at least convert them to a format it can recognize?
Or maybe there's some external converter tool to do so?
I don't think anyone will ever do this.
Given that theres so many different differing black bars between various consoles and games,
I understand, but I'm not talking about all consoles, just the PS1. When you load a PS1 game, there's specific emulator option that appears just for that system, it could be included just there.
I think the only way I would ever implement this would be by an 'auto-crop screen shot' function which would scan for continuous bar areas and remove them. This would be annoying in many cases and would default to off.
The ideal would be an option to clip the overscan completely, instead of just 75% of it. Scaning for black bars after the screens have been taken can cause problems since some games have native black bars and I wouldn't want those removed. I'm all for native stuff.
I've never heard of a feature like that before in any emulator.
That's because no emulator takes native (framebuffer) screenshots with overscan added to them :)
Like I said before, I don't mind if the overscan shows while playing, I'm talking about screenshots specifically.
Spikestuff wrote:
ReyVGM wrote:
Games that are supposed to be 320x240 come out as 330x240 due to the black bars (after clipping).
I'm curious on your game choices right now more than anything else. Can you actually list them for curiosity sake.
I tried Megaman X6, because I know it has different resolutions. Cutscenes are 512x240, normal gameplay is 320x240.
But with the overscan stuff, the H-res is artificially bigger.
Derakon wrote:
You could look into IrfanView for batch cropping of your screenshots. I assume you plan to take lots because otherwise it wouldn't be a big deal to crop them manually.
Correct, I plan on taking a lot of images. I wouldn't mind batch cropping, except the overscan stuff is not the same size on both sides, so I can't just side-crop as easily if the black bars were the same size.
feos wrote:
I see, but I'm talking specifically about screenshots. There's already an option to clip (remove) the overscan, but it doesn't remove it completely.
All I'm requesting is an option to remove the overscan 100%, not 75%.
I'm mostly interested in taking screenshots of Playstation games, and I'm wondering how do I remove that Horizontal overscan that the screenshots have?
On the resolution management option, I have selected "Hardcore debug mode", because I can take pixel perfect native resolution screenshots. However, all the screenshots come out with black bars on the side. I checked "Clip Horizontal Overscan" and it reduced the black bars, but they still show a little.
Games that are supposed to be 320x240 come out as 330x240 due to the black bars (after clipping).
Any way to completely remove that or is it possible for the emu author to include an option to remove them?
Just to clarify, I'm talking about screenshots only. If the emu author wants the black bars to be there while playing, I don't mind. But I would like a way to remove the black bars from the screenshots.
Hey guys.
You know that RAM Search option some of the re-recording emulators have (such as FCEUXrr, VBArr, SNES9xrr)?
To me that's one of the best cheat search managers I've used. And it would be great if something like that could be added to Dolphin to replace the inferior cheat search option it has.
Since Dolphin can be modified by anyone, is this something that could be implemented? Could whoever was the one that modified those NES/SNES/GB emulators to add that RAM Search option do the same with Dolphin?
I'm more interested in the TAS stopping when there is no new content (difficulty stops increasing). e.g. if there was a Pac-Man [Arcade] TAS, I would want it to stop at the highest difficulty level rather than at the kill screen.
Which one is it, new content or difficulty stops increasing? They are two different things.
And in this game's case, you do get new content (the symbols) and the difficulty does increase. So you're covered both ways.
Thanks for the screenshot. I assume the game continues after that?
.
Yep.
Here's the complete information from the NES Ending FAQ (by AdamL, from GameFAQs):
URBAN CHAMPION (Nintendo)
-Contrary to popular belief, this game technically has a finish. The FAQ on
Gamefaqs.com says when you finish Round 99 it stays at Round 99 but that's
not the case...and the Round number doesn't even have an affect on how you
"beat" the game. For a very early fighting game released in the NES' history
(1986), this sounds complicated, but it's actually not. To start with, you
can choose between GAME A and GAME B. GAME A is VS. COMPUTER, which is what
you will be playing to beat the game. GAME B is simply competing against
another human player. In GAME A the object of the game is to knock your op-
ponent off the right side of the screen. Do this and you will score a knock-
down. It also says Round 2 when you go to the next screen but that is not
what we are concerned about. Knock your opponent off the next screen and it
will say you are in Round 3. Now knock your opponent off the screen in Round
3 and a girl will appear and shower you with confetti. You will go on to Round
4 but now you will notice you have a little Red Boxing Glove on the bottom
right corner of the screen. When you knock your opponent off the screen 3 more
times you will get another Red Boxing Glove. Keep doing this and when you earn
5 Red Boxing Gloves knock your opponent off the screen 3 more times and now a
Green Flag will replace the 5 Red Boxing Gloves. Now continue on and after you
get 5 Green Flags the next symbol to collect will be a Trophy. Collect 5 Trop-
hies and then it goes to 5 Small Crowns, then 5 Large Crowns, then 5 Crosses,
then 5 Boy Faces, then 5 Girl Faces and the last item you will receive will be
5 Ambulances. So you have to collect 5 of each of these 9 items, making 45
total symbols to collect (meaning 135 knockdowns since you have to knock your
opponent off the screen 3 times just to get 1 symbol). Anyway, after you have
the 5 Ambulances and knock your opponent off the screen 3 more times instead
of getting a new symbol it will actually say CHAMPION in that area of the
screen! By now your Round number is pretty high, but like I mentioned that has
no bearing on "beating" the game. For those of you interested, you can keep
playing and the Round number will keep going up but from this point on it will
just say CHAMPION where the symbols were. Just for curiousity I played through
to Round 99 and when I finished that it said Round A0. It then went through to
Round A9 and then went to Round B0 and so forth through the alphabet (for some
reason the letter Q showed as a blank space for that Round but it did continue
on to Round R0 after beating what was Round Q9). When you finish Round Z9 it
goes to Round =0 through =9 and then you get various symbols for Round numbers
but luckily we have a concrete end goal in getting the word CHAMPION to appear
after going through all the symbols, so consider that difficult task as beat-
ing this game.
Whoa, that's a trip. Do you have a screenshot of the ending?
It's not really an ending, it just says Champion after you get all 45 symbols.
Nach wrote:
If the difficulty never increases, and this is just a never ending game of the same level over and over (despite winning and losses tallies calculated), then this run does complete the game according to our rules.
Well, with this new information uncovered, the point of the game is to reach the Champion rank, and not to reach level 3 and calling it a day as previously thought.
And Level 3 is not even the "final level". Meaning that if you keep going, the levels will be different until level 6. Then the levels repeat.
But then again, that's not even the "point" of the game.
So, while I guess you could make a TAS to see how fast you get to level 3, or level 6 or level 99, a proper TAS should be how fast can you get to the Champion rank, which is the objective of the game.
Bumping with new info.
The game doesn't actually end where the TAS video ends.
The goal of the game is to achieve the rank of champion. Every 3 fights, you get a symbol on the lower right, every 5 symbols you move on to the next set.
After 45 symbols (or 145 fights), you reach the rank of champion.
Just thought I let you all know in case someone wants to make a proper TAS.
Got it.
I've been messing with this SoftGraphics plugin in Mupen64-rr and it look great. No bitmaps cutting off, HUD text looks N64 blurry and not the usual plugin blurriness.
It's a shame that Mupen64-rr doesn't have all the Bizhawk options, and all the options all the other rerecording emus have (FCEUX, SNES9X, etc).
To me that's one of the best cheat search managers I've used. And it would be great if something like that could be added to Dolphin to replace the inferior cheat search option it has.
Since Dolphin can be modified by anyone, is this something that could be implemented? Could whoever was the one that modified those NES/SNES/GB emulators to add that RAM Search option do the same with Dolphin?
