Posted: 9/26/2008 6:38 PM
Post subject: Myst Freezing
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Apo123
Joined: 5/17/2008
Posts: 212
Location: Virginia
Well, I was planning to do a TAS of Myst, but unfortunately it freezes when I click on the first image in the book. If needed, I can post images of all my settings in PCSX. I'm using the new rerecording version (0.0.3), and the rom is: Myst [U] [SCUS-94602]. Basically what I want to know is what is causing this freezing? Is it some sort of copy protection, or an emulation error, or just an error on my part in the emulator settings? Thank you for your time.
adelikat wrote:
It started off fairly tame, but as more balls entered the picture it sure got a lot more entertaining.
Posted: 9/26/2008 8:42 PM
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alden
Player (121)
Joined: 2/11/2007
Posts: 1522
Whoah, I had no idea there was a PSX version ... that should be amusing should you ever get it to work. Can't you basically skip the whole game? Sorry to not post an actually helpful reply :S
I make a comic with no image files and you should read it. While there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free. -Eugene Debs
Posted: 9/26/2008 8:45 PM
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Apo123
Joined: 5/17/2008
Posts: 212
Location: Virginia
Yeah, that's why I planned to TAS it. The current record is like 3 minutes I believe, with instantaneous screen loading I should be able to get under 3 minutes (10 screen movements a second or so). I'm guessing... 2 minutes 30 seconds or so.
adelikat wrote:
It started off fairly tame, but as more balls entered the picture it sure got a lot more entertaining.
Posted: 9/26/2008 9:26 PM
(Edited: 9/26/2008 9:30 PM)
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mz
Emulator Coder, Player (79)
Joined: 10/26/2007
Posts: 693
I don't have this game, but you could try some different things and see if any of them work: -Change the SPU plugin (Eternal SPU 1.50 seems to have the higher compatibility here). -Activate "SPU IRQ always enabled" on the CPU configuration. -Activate "SIO IRQ always enabled" on the CPU configuration when the game freezes. -Use subchannel reading on the CDR plugin (only if your game is from Europe or Japan). -Enable "Interpreter CPU" on the CPU configuration.
You're just fucking stupid, everyone hates you, sorry to tell you the truth. no one likes you, you're someone pretentious and TASes only to be on speed game, but don't have any hope, you won't get there.
Posted: 9/26/2008 9:29 PM
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blahmoomoo
Joined: 2/1/2008
Posts: 347
If you are not using one, you need to use an actual PSX BIOS (use 1001 [NTSC], not 9XXX [PAL]), not the HLE BIOS. Someone else had troubles playing games with a fake BIOS. If you already are using a real BIOS... well, :(
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
Posted: 9/26/2008 9:47 PM
Quote
Apo123
Joined: 5/17/2008
Posts: 212
Location: Virginia
mz wrote:
I don't have this game, but you could try some different things and see if any of them work: -Change the SPU plugin (Eternal SPU 1.50 seems to have the higher compatibility here). -Activate "SPU IRQ always enabled" on the CPU configuration. -Activate "SIO IRQ always enabled" on the CPU configuration when the game freezes. -Use subchannel reading on the CDR plugin (only if your game is from Europe or Japan). -Enable "Interpreter CPU" on the CPU configuration.
Sorry, but what's the SPU plugin? :S SPU IRQ always enabled - Game fails to emulate. Black screen with no frame counter or anything. SIO IRQ always enabled - Game doesn't respond to input. Interpreter CPU enabled - Game still freezes, and PSCX freezes along with it. (Escape doesn't bring it back to the no game state, so I had to kill the process via task manager). Subchannel reading - No difference at all, still freezes. And blahblahmoomoo, I'm using the BIOS plugin suggested by the readme: SCPH1001.bin I should mention: I'm using a downloaded copy mounted on a virtual CD drive. FF8 works, but I haven't tested anything outside these 2 games. If I need the actual CD in the drive, I'll have to grab it from home next time I visit.
adelikat wrote:
It started off fairly tame, but as more balls entered the picture it sure got a lot more entertaining.
Posted: 9/26/2008 9:50 PM
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blahmoomoo
Joined: 2/1/2008
Posts: 347
SPU = sound plug-in (probably stands for Sound Processor Unit). EDIT: what software are you using to mount the image? If it is not Daemon Tools, you probably want to get that instead (it always works for me in ePSXe).
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
Posted: 9/26/2008 10:01 PM
(Edited: 9/27/2008 5:45 PM)
Quote
Apo123
Joined: 5/17/2008
Posts: 212
Location: Virginia
Eternal SPU 1.5, 1.41, and 1.41 Lite all freeze :( As for software, MagicISO Virtual CD/DVD Manager. I'll try Daemon Tools. Edit: No luck with Daemon Tools, same result.
adelikat wrote:
It started off fairly tame, but as more balls entered the picture it sure got a lot more entertaining.
Posted: 9/26/2008 10:12 PM
Quote
mz
Emulator Coder, Player (79)
Joined: 10/26/2007
Posts: 693
Apo123 wrote:
SIO IRQ always enabled - Game doesn't respond to input.
You have to wait for the game to freeze before enabling this (I mean, enable it when the game is already locked). Anyway, I'll try to get this game and see if it works for me. Also, there doesn't seem to be people reporting problems with this game on the PCSX forums.
You're just fucking stupid, everyone hates you, sorry to tell you the truth. no one likes you, you're someone pretentious and TASes only to be on speed game, but don't have any hope, you won't get there.
Posted: 9/27/2008 2:36 AM
Quote
Apo123
Joined: 5/17/2008
Posts: 212
Location: Virginia
mz wrote:
You have to wait for the game to freeze before enabling this (I mean, enable it when the game is already locked).
Game loads a black screen, the frame counter resets to 0 with all frames counted being lag. The frame counter turns red, and matches the lag counter below it. Gets to about 120 frames, then freezes.
adelikat wrote:
It started off fairly tame, but as more balls entered the picture it sure got a lot more entertaining.
Posted: 9/28/2008 8:23 AM
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alden
Player (121)
Joined: 2/11/2007
Posts: 1522
I'm having the same problem here too. Not sure if this means anything, but frame advance works fine up until the cursor shows up, at that point can't frame advance or pause the emulator.
I make a comic with no image files and you should read it. While there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free. -Eugene Debs
Posted: 9/28/2008 4:53 PM
Quote
Apo123
Joined: 5/17/2008
Posts: 212
Location: Virginia
I've tried Riven (the sequel), and I think there may be a few emulation problems (or maybe it's just my settings...). When I launch the game, I have to jam on the frame advance button so it'll stop before it hits about 800 frames in (counting 400 of them as lag). When I finally do get to pause, it either allows me to do a single frame of input before freezing up, or it just freezes up entirely. After about 30 seconds, the counter then jumps about 30 to 50 frames, and allows me just one more frame of input. Normally, there's a logo in the background (which is what I'm trying to skip through). It doesn't show up, the screen is entirely black like nothing's being drawn at all. Even worse, I know when the game's title screen is supposed to show up with no input. I frame advance to there, and there's still nothing being drawn. There's just a black screen. I've found a small workaround to this, in that if you unpause-pause unpause-pause (unpause then quickly repause twice), the screen gets drawn to and everything appears like normal. If you run the game unpaused, it all appears like normal. I've tried the compatability suggestions above, and the problem still persists. I've also tried some of the debug options in graphics, like the ignore black brightness color. No changes at all. Alden appears to have the same problem as me on Myst (note that I haven't tried frame advancing through it yet, I need to play through in realtime several times before I even begin to TAS it). Alden, try doing the unpause-pause thing, and it should let you frame advance again. Sorry for introducing all these issues, mz. I'm going to screenshot all my settings and post em here, because maybe it'll turn out that I'm just a moron who can't configure the emulator properly :P http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/807/pcsxsettingsax5.png
adelikat wrote:
It started off fairly tame, but as more balls entered the picture it sure got a lot more entertaining.
Posted: 9/28/2008 5:56 PM
Quote
mz
Emulator Coder, Player (79)
Joined: 10/26/2007
Posts: 693
Well, I just tried the two English versions of Myst (PAL/European and NTSC/American) and they both present the same issue you described on the original post. I haven't found a workaround yet... Regarding the pause/frame-advance not working properly (and all of its related bugs), that's because this game uses movies for almost everything. Pause and frame-advance wait until the next call to GPU_dmaChain(), but FMVs do never call that function, so PCSX have to wait until the movies end or something. Anyway, it looks like we won't be able to TAS these games with PCSX, unless someone else fixes these bugs on the official emulator (which haven't been updated for ~5 years :P).
You're just fucking stupid, everyone hates you, sorry to tell you the truth. no one likes you, you're someone pretentious and TASes only to be on speed game, but don't have any hope, you won't get there.
Posted: 9/28/2008 6:12 PM
Quote
Apo123
Joined: 5/17/2008
Posts: 212
Location: Virginia
Aww... I've noticed, though, that it still counts the frames between frame advances on the frame counter. Would there be any way to emulate that call to GPU_dmaChain() every other frame, even in FMVs? I know it may not accept any input at that time, but it might force a draw to the screen. Also, I'm going to get to the "freezing" point and let it sit for a couple of hours and see if anything changes. There may just be a long-ass video after the "click" (I haven't played this game in a couple years), and it might redraw after it's done (if one exists). Anyways, back to my SOTE test run. EDIT: A note... I don't know much about programming, so sorry if the first paragraph is retarded :P
adelikat wrote:
It started off fairly tame, but as more balls entered the picture it sure got a lot more entertaining.
Posted: 9/28/2008 6:25 PM
Quote
mz
Emulator Coder, Player (79)
Joined: 10/26/2007
Posts: 693
Er... If I understand correctly, this WIP version should do what you ask for; but I think it won't help anyway...
You're just fucking stupid, everyone hates you, sorry to tell you the truth. no one likes you, you're someone pretentious and TASes only to be on speed game, but don't have any hope, you won't get there.
Posted: 9/28/2008 6:34 PM
Quote
Apo123
Joined: 5/17/2008
Posts: 212
Location: Virginia
Very nice name choice for 0.0.4 WIP 2 :P I'll edit this after I test it. Edit: Yeah, same results :(
adelikat wrote:
It started off fairly tame, but as more balls entered the picture it sure got a lot more entertaining.