Joined: 4/25/2004
Posts: 498
Yay! ^_^ *downloads zealously* *builds a shrine to blip*
Editor, Active player (297)
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Location: Arzareth
Hmm... I found a problem. I don't know how this version decides how much sound to output, but I found that if the machine has heavy load for a moment, the sound starts breaking and the emulator may even completely forget to produce sound. I mean, I just ran Shatterhand in the emulator, and started a "make clean" in other console, and the emulator went mute. No sound data was generated anymore. (Not a mixer problem, but really no data was generated to the sound output). Removing the C3 byte fixed the problem. Therefore - the famtasia24060.zip has been updated again.
Joined: 4/25/2004
Posts: 615
Location: The Netherlands
it seems to me like famtasia has a few running problems, at least in xp pro the mouse is, i think, emulated by the program, rather then letting windows do it (it wont do middle button mouse click). it will accept and process keystrokes, even if the window is not the active window. i also downloaded the .exe posted earlier here, for the 60 fps patch, but that one sucked hard. the mentioned adjusting time i have no problem with, but it continously tries to adjust speed, and acts very oddly and unresponsive... i discarded it and reverted back to the old version. also it kinda sux that you cant bind speed changes to a key :) i rather run some unavoidable cutscenes at 150% then 50% or 75%... ohwell btw is that project still being worked on? i noticed the last release was 2003'ish... oh right, i dont hate everything ;) i like that quicksave saves the recordpoint while recording, and the bind to restart from the last saved record point :)
qfox.nl
Editor, Active player (297)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
qFox wrote:
btw is that project still being worked on? i noticed the last release was 2003'ish...
Which project? Famtasia is not developed. The author lost the source code. We are not affiliated with the Famtasia author. Blip is just a hacker genius :)
Joined: 4/25/2004
Posts: 615
Location: The Netherlands
he lost the source, ouch that sucks i know you werent, but i was just curious if we were to expect any fixes/updates for the problems idea's i mentioned above... but i guess not, unless the debugger gives you that much power (which i doubt :p) ohwell
qfox.nl
Active player (411)
Joined: 3/16/2004
Posts: 2623
Location: America, Québec
Hmm Famtasia isn't perfect but i don't have these problems.
Former player
Joined: 3/19/2004
Posts: 710
Location: USA
Ill just wait until a final version comes out. The one currently out does not work for me. When I load the game, it goes VERY slow, and I can barely move the mouse. When I put it on 999% it just crashes, even though I have a very good machine. Oh well.
Joined: 4/11/2004
Posts: 155
Location: Fairfax, VA, USA
For those curious, here's the source code I used to compile the patch. Compiled using NASM for windows:
        bits    32

return_from_patch       equ     0x428866
exit_from_timer         equ     0x428db5
execution_speed         equ     0x46dcd4
frame_skip              equ     0x46dcd8
last_tick               equ     0x46dd04
timer_id                equ     0x467a78
timer_interval          equ     0x46da98
timer_interval_2        equ     0x467c14
timer_type              equ     0x46e584
exit_flag               equ     0x4489d0
timer_proc              equ     0x428820
settimer_ptr            equ     0x4412bc
sound_freq              equ     0x472350
sound_interval          equ     0x470eb8
sound_ptr               equ     0x472340
sound_buffer_size       equ     0x4722c0

ms_fraction             equ     0x473b34
previous_divisor        equ     0x473b38
keep_tick               equ     0x473b3c
sound_fraction          equ     0x473b40
sound_deficit           equ     0x473b44

        org     0x428bbc
        jmp     0x428d8c
patch_entry:
        mov     al, [timer_type]
        test    al, al
        je      .skip_clear_timer_id
        xor     ebx, ebx
        mov     [timer_id], ebx
.skip_clear_timer_id:
        mov     ah, [exit_flag]
        test    ah, ah
        jne     near exit_from_timer
        test    al, al
        je      near return_from_patch

        push    edx

        ; init variables when execution speed changes
        mov     eax, [execution_speed]
        cmp     eax, [previous_divisor]
        je      .skip_set_divisor
        xor     edx, edx
        mov     [ms_fraction], edx
        mov     [sound_fraction], edx
        mov     [sound_deficit], edx
        mov     [previous_divisor], eax
        call    esi
        mov     [keep_tick], eax
.skip_set_divisor:

        ; compute tick interval
compute_tick_interval:
        mov     ebx, [execution_speed]
        mov     eax, 0x683
        imul    dword [frame_skip]
        div     ebx
        test    edx, edx
        jz      .skip_fraction
        add     edx, [ms_fraction]
        cmp     edx, ebx
        jl      .skip_inc
        inc     eax
        sub     edx, ebx
.skip_inc:
        mov     [ms_fraction], edx
.skip_fraction:
        mov     [timer_interval], eax
        mov     [timer_interval_2], eax
        push    eax                     ; save time_interval

        ; compute timer delta
compute_timer_delta:
        add     eax, [keep_tick]
        mov     [keep_tick], eax
        push    eax                     ; save next_tick
        call    esi
        mov     edx, eax
        pop     eax                     ; restore next_tick
        sub     eax, edx
        jg      .positive_interval
        mov     eax, 1
.positive_interval:

        ; set timer
        push    byte 0
        push    byte 0
        push    dword timer_proc
        push    byte 0
        push    eax
        call    [settimer_ptr]
        mov     [timer_id], eax

        ; compute sound interval
compute_sound_interval:
        pop     eax                     ; restore time_interval
        imul    dword [sound_freq]
        mov     ebx, 0x7d0
        div     ebx
        test    edx, edx
        jz      .skip_fraction
        add     edx, [sound_fraction]
        cmp     edx, ebx
        jl      .skip_inc
        inc     eax
        sub     edx, ebx
.skip_inc:
        mov     [sound_fraction], edx
.skip_fraction:
        add     eax, [sound_deficit]    ; take into account frame-skipping
        cdq
        div     dword [frame_skip]
        mov     [sound_deficit], edx
        add     eax,eax                 ; sound intervals have a 2-byte resolution
        mov     edx, [sound_buffer_size]
        cmp     eax, edx
        jle     .sound_interval_ok
        mov     eax, edx
.sound_interval_ok:
        mov     [sound_interval], eax
        mov     word [sound_ptr], 0

        pop     edx
        jmp     return_from_patch
Joined: 4/11/2004
Posts: 155
Location: Fairfax, VA, USA
Bisqwit wrote:
I mean, I just ran Shatterhand in the emulator, and started a "make clean" in other console, and the emulator went mute. No sound data was generated anymore.
Sound has been behind a *lot* of the observed problems. Famtasia has this nasty habit of locking up until a sound buffer has been freed. Therefore it must be very careful to output the exact number of samples per second required, or else it will either glitch (not enough samples written), or lock up (too many samples written). The C3 byte at $30010 disables the routine that Famtasia uses to wait for a free sound buffer, which will avoid lockups but allow sound glitches. To make matters worse, I think different machines behave different ways when sound glitches happen. For example, I can't reproduce your problem on my machine. This particular problem might be related to this:
        sub     eax, edx
        jg      .positive_interval
        mov     eax, 1
.positive_interval: 
Basically, if the timer misses its target, set sets the next timer 1 millisecond away in an attempt to "catch up". Unfortunately, this can cause problems with the sound (too many samples per second).
Bisqwit wrote:
it also includes my patch which should remove the heaviness-problem of 240 scanlines.
I don't think you've mentioned this before... I'm curious; what is it?
Editor, Active player (297)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
blip wrote:
Bisqwit wrote:
it also includes my patch which should remove the heaviness-problem of 240 scanlines.
I don't think you've mentioned this before... I'm curious; what is it?
It's in the 240 scanlines -thread.
Active player (411)
Joined: 3/16/2004
Posts: 2623
Location: America, Québec
No problem with sound.
Joined: 4/11/2004
Posts: 155
Location: Fairfax, VA, USA
It seems to me the problem is something like this: On Windows machines, if the c3 byte is not at $30010, then Famtasia is prone to locking up sometimes (for example, trying to run at 999% ExecSpeed with Occupation=1). On Linux machines, if the c3 byte *is* at $30010, then Famtasia sometimes becomes mute and doesn't recover (for example, if the CPU is too busy). After thinking about it for a bit, I think this is a solution:
// disable the routine that polls for a free sound buffer
		{ 0x30010,    1, "\xc3" },
// check that the sound buffer is free before attempting to play sound
		{ 0x2ff6e, 0x16, "\
\x8b\x0d\x3c\x23\x47\x00\x8b\x04\x8d\x40\x24\x47\x00\xb2\x01\x84\x50\x10\x74\x7f\xeb\x1f" },
Bisqwit, would you mind testing this as seeing if it works for you? Like I said, I couldn't reproduce the problem on my machine.
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Joined: 3/16/2004
Posts: 2623
Location: America, Québec
So it should have 2 versions one for Windows and one for wine.
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Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
blip wrote:
After thinking about it for a bit, I think this is a solution:
// disable the routine that polls for a free sound buffer
		{ 0x30010,    1, "\xc3" },
// check that the sound buffer is free before attempting to play sound
		{ 0x2ff6e, 0x16, "\
\x8b\x0d\x3c\x23\x47\x00\x8b\x04\x8d\x40\x24\x47\x00\xb2\x01\x84\x50\x10\x74\x7f\xeb\x1f" },
Bisqwit, would you mind testing this as seeing if it works for you? Like I said, I couldn't reproduce the problem on my machine.
I'll test it when I have time.
Editor, Active player (297)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
blip wrote:
On Windows machines, if the c3 byte is not at $30010, then Famtasia is prone to locking up sometimes (for example, trying to run at 999% ExecSpeed with Occupation=1).
I see what you mean. I used a C3-less patch and had mingw compiling on background and tried to run Rockman at 200% speed (occupation=1, 230 MHz laptop). The emulation halted. So either way, something is screwed. I'll test the newest solution.
Joined: 4/30/2004
Posts: 95
Location: Asatru Heaven
Bisqwit wrote:
Famtasia is not developed. The author lost the source code.
:( I agree with foxy, that is a saddening day for nesvideo freaks! I will say though this (seemingly) random byte-patching is a wonderful way to tweak your favorite emu.
Bisqwit wrote:
We are not affiliated with the Famtasia author. Blip is just a hacker genius :)
I concur, Blip is a hero for us all. :) I'm trying to get ahold of an original Famtasia 5.1 EXE without success. Also, I'm trying to compile the various hacks and I can't seem to make them patch on winXP. can it be done using the GUI, or does it have to be command-line? I know some byte-patching needs to be done in the latter. Oh, I forgot... three cheers for Blip.
Editor, Active player (297)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
blip wrote:
After thinking about it for a bit, I think this is a solution:
// disable the routine that polls for a free sound buffer
		{ 0x30010,    1, "\xc3" },
// check that the sound buffer is free before attempting to play sound
		{ 0x2ff6e, 0x16, "\
\x8b\x0d\x3c\x23\x47\x00\x8b\x04\x8d\x40\x24\x47\x00\xb2\x01\x84\x50\x10\x74\x7f\xeb\x1f" },
This one seems to do nothing but crash if I check the "max speed" checkbox and run the game.
Unhandled exception: page fault on write access to 0x8080808c in 32-bit code (0x40218507).
In 32-bit mode.
Register dump:
 CS:0073 SS:007b DS:007b ES:007b FS:0033 GS:0007
 EIP:40218507 ESP:406af128 EBP:406af14c EFLAGS:00010206(  R- 00  I   - -P1 )
 EAX:80808080 EBX:40242ba0 ECX:41af5518 EDX:80808080
 ESI:41af5518 EDI:00001000
Stack dump:
0x406af128 (KERNEL32.DLL.VerSetConditionMask+0x12c2ea):  41ac0000 00001000 406af13c 00000001
0x406af138 (KERNEL32.DLL.VerSetConditionMask+0x12c2fa):  41ac0000 41ac0000 0044c0f8 00001000
0x406af148 (KERNEL32.DLL.VerSetConditionMask+0x12c30a):  00000000 00000090 00432586 41ac0000
0x406af158 (KERNEL32.DLL.VerSetConditionMask+0x12c31a):  00000003 00001000 00001000 00432523
0x406af168 (KERNEL32.DLL.VerSetConditionMask+0x12c32a):  00001000 406af1e4 0044c0f8 004324f0
0x406af178 (KERNEL32.DLL.VerSetConditionMask+0x12c33a):  00001000 00000000 00439fb5 00001000
0x406af188 (KERNEL32.DLL.VerSetConditionMask+0x12c34a): 

Backtrace:
=>0 0x40218507 (NTDLL.DLL.RtlAllocateHeap+0x87 in NTDLL.DLL) (ebp=406af14c)
  1 0x00432586 (FAMBLIP.EXE..text+0x31586 in FAMBLIP.EXE) (ebp=00000090)

0x40218507 (NTDLL.DLL.RtlAllocateHeap+0x87 in NTDLL.DLL): movl  %eax,0xc(%edx)
Modules:
Address                 Module  Name
0x00400000-00489000     (PE)    H:\nes\fam\FAMBLIP.EXE
0x40200000-4024a000     (PE)    C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\NTDLL.DLL
0x404c0000-40597000     (PE)    C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\KERNEL32.DLL
0x406d0000-407e9000     (PE)    C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\USER32.DLL
0x40800000-40866000     (PE)    C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\GDI32.DLL
0x40870000-40898000     (PE)    C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\ADVAPI32.DLL
0x408b0000-40919000     (PE)    C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\COMDLG32.DLL
0x40940000-4098f000     (PE)    C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SHELL32.DLL
0x409b0000-40a04000     (PE)    C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\OLE32.DLL
0x40a20000-40a4b000     (PE)    C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\RPCRT4.DLL
0x40a60000-40a9b000     (PE)    C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SHLWAPI.DLL
0x40ab0000-40b44000     (PE)    C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\COMCTL32.DLL
0x40b50000-40b65000     (PE)    C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WINSPOOL.DRV
0x40b70000-40bd6000     (PE)    C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WINMM.DLL
0x40cc0000-40d22000     (PE)    C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\X11DRV.DLL
0x41730000-41748000     (PE)    C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\IMM32.DLL
0x41880000-41897000     (PE)    C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WINEALSA.DRV
0x41960000-4196c000     (PE)    C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MSACM.DRV
0x41970000-4198e000     (PE)    C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MSACM32.DLL
0x41ab0000-41ab5000     (PE)    C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MIDIMAP.DRV
0x421e0000-421f2000     (PE)    C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\JOYSTICK.DRV
0x424c0000-42502000     (PE)    C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\DDRAW.DLL
Threads:
process  tid      prio
0000000c (D) H:\nes\fam\FAMBLIP.EXE
        0000000f    0
        0000000e    0
        0000000d    0 <==
WineDbg terminated on pid c
I've been using the C3-less patch now for a long time without problems. I use DrawFrame=1, Occupation=1, AutoFrame=0, Benchmark=0, FullSpeed=0 and vary the ExecSpeed between 5..900 very successfully - no problems. People at Mkakikomitai (Morimoto's BBS) are apparently complaining of some problems with the patch I use, but I don't understand what problems they are having.
Joined: 4/25/2004
Posts: 615
Location: The Netherlands
i'm thinking about creating a whole new emulator with 60fps recording capabilities and better/preciser record and replay options... but its not possible to add support for fmv if i would, is there? i read something about emulators not being compatible with eachother... i'm missing options like stepping frame by frame and adding a keypress/release per frame, while playing. i believe this would be quite helpfull for speedrunners like on this forum, to make perfect runs. also some better support with playback (not having to run the whole video if you want to continue at the end when restarting the client for instance.) but anyways, can i make it compatible with fam? these binary hacks are kind of unreliable without the source... imo (and i mean unreliable in function, not virii or anything)
qfox.nl
Former player
Joined: 3/21/2004
Posts: 32
Location: the Netherlands
qFox wrote:
i'm thinking about creating a whole new emulator with 60fps recording capabilities and better/preciser record and replay options... but its not possible to add support for fmv if i would, is there? i read something about emulators not being compatible with eachother...
Well, that's not because they are inherently incompatible. It's just that the authors didn't implement compatibility. If you're going to write your own emu, you can support the format (assuming the format is either straight-forward ,well documented or investigated by blip ;-), though it may require some serious hacking (hence the blip remark ;-). Writing a proper emulator is one of my short-termish dreams, but I'm still just a beginning programmer and I've only just started learning some assembly (which is rather useful for writing an emu). It's not easy and takes a lot of time, but if you're up to it and actually do it, I'm sure many people here will be more then happy to help you in some way or another.
Editor, Active player (297)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
Creating a movie-compatible emulator requires that you know exactly how the emulator emulates the system. This means things like number of cycles per screen refresh, number of scanlines, vblanks etc. I don't know all details but I know they're many and debated. The actual movie format is insignificant. Famtasia movie format looks like this: 144 bytes of header; data Header has: FMV^Z at 0, flags (32 bits) at 4, rerecord count (32 bits) at 8, emulator name (64 bytes) at 16, movie name (64 bytes) at 80. Data is: 1 byte per frame. Byte has 8 bits corresponding to the states of 8 buttons: R,L,U,D,B,A,SE,ST, starting from least significant bit. No savestates, no screenshots, no end tags. I don't know the flags format or how FDS commands are expressed. FDS commands (if applicable) and second controller (if applicable) are probably interleaved somehow.
Joined: 4/11/2004
Posts: 155
Location: Fairfax, VA, USA
Bisqwit wrote:
This one seems to do nothing but crash if I check the "max speed" checkbox and run the game.
Then I like Phil's idea of having separate Windows and Linux binaries. The Windows version should have the C3 byte at $30010... I'd like to fix it the "right" way, but I don't have a Linux box available to test against. Edit: The most I can understand from the Morimoto BBS is that people are complaining about the CPU lock-up on Windows. The C3 byte should fix that.
Joined: 4/11/2004
Posts: 155
Location: Fairfax, VA, USA
qFox wrote:
but anyways, can i make it compatible with fam?
Bisqwit is totally right about the timing needing to be precise. Check my post here. I found that for some games (like Batman), the difference in emulation causes a desync between movies made in Famtasia and VirtuaNES. Your emulator could have a "Famtasia compatability" mode, where it would copy the emulation used by Famtasia exactly. It would be tough, but you might be able to rip the emulator core directly out of the Famtasia binary and use it as-is.
Joined: 4/25/2004
Posts: 615
Location: The Netherlands
well i looked around (google is your friend), and there is ALOT of high detailed information on the NES. take this site for example: http://nesdev.parodius.com/ i was thinking of creating a nes cpu emulator (its a modified 6502) and a frontend GUI. then simply running the code on it as it is in the roms. sounds very easy when i put it like that, but thats basicly what i had in mind. oh, the project, would it ever start, would be opensource, but i would focus on a windows-release. anyone can port if he or she desires and i'll give the help i can, but i dont plan on doing double releases myself. let me make clear that i dont know when i'll start, or if ever at all. i have a ton of work to do already, but i think this community is missing an emulator that allows you easy and precise keypress editing. oh and btw... my platform would be Forth (thats Forth, not Fortrain!). well Forth and assembly if i need it.
qfox.nl
Editor, Active player (297)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
Good luck. You can have a look at FCE-Ultra - it's a free NES emulator (free in the rights sense, you can use its source code and modify it).
Post subject: Occupation slider fix
Joined: 4/11/2004
Posts: 155
Location: Fairfax, VA, USA
It seems Famtasia does have separate resources for the Japanese and English versions. The following patch should fix both versions:
		/* occupation slider fix */
		{ 0x5268f, 1, "\x50" },
		{ 0x57a7f, 1, "\x50" },