Old Regen pages

AamirM · Post by **AamirM** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 3:15 pm

Hi,

Okay, the beta is ready for testing. This mainly includes the sound fixes including the fixes to PSG (which is now more accurate) and cycle accurate sample support which makes sound very accurate and clean (and handles fast DAC writes efficiently

). Another thing which is included is ROM/RAM switching which fixes SRAM issues in Sonic 3 and Knuckles.

Download from here. It includes all the minimal things needed to run. Changelog is in there as well.

stay safe,

AamirM

tomaitheous · Post by **tomaitheous** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 4:16 pm

@AamirM: Any chance you're going to improve the debugger soon?

King Of Chaos · Post by **King Of Chaos** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 4:58 pm

Ok, done some testing comparing to Kega, my ears and my memory on a couple things.

1) TmEE's music player ROM sounds perfectly (love the Symphony Of Destruction cover BTW).

2) Robocop Vs. The Terminator - Still has sound FX off by a bit. Using the flame thrower in game as a comparison, it sounds too high pitched compared to Kega and what I remember from the real hardware.

3) Spider-Man Vs. The Kingpin - Sounds good except that high pitched noise during the warehouse level (that happens at random). Personally, I'd like to know what exactly this noise is and what it's for.

4) Sonic 3 & Knuckles - SRAM works fine for it now, and some of the sounds seem a little better. The Super Sonic theme for example still sounds slightly echoed, and the special stage music sounds sightly different. In the sound test sound 22 and sound 24 (Desert Palace and Endless Mine) sound way off from the real hardware and Kega. Oh yes, the issue with the sound of the plane with the falling bombs is still there, just in case anyone wondered.

Eke · Post by **Eke** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 5:25 pm

strange, I got it working once but now Regen is taking 100% CPU and won't start any game

about the sound issue in Sonic 3, i remember getting something similar before (not at the same place though): it was related to Z80 interrupt, the interrupt period is 16ms (each frame) and the duration should be 64 us (one full line)

King Of Chaos · Post by **King Of Chaos** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 5:30 pm

Eke wrote:strange, I got it working once but now Regen is taking 100% CPU and won't start any game

I'd try deleting the config file and start anew. If needed, I can create and upload a RAR version of the latest beta with the needed stuff to run it. Also Aamir, take a look at this topic if you get a chance, as you might find it interesting.

AamirM · Post by **AamirM** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 6:03 pm

Hi,

Eke wrote:strange, I got it working once but now Regen is taking 100% CPU and won't start any game

about the sound issue in Sonic 3, i remember getting something similar before (not at the same place though): it was related to Z80 interrupt, the interrupt period is 16ms (each frame) and the duration should be 64 us (one full line)

Setting to high priority? Did you got this same executable working once? Deleting the config file is probably a good idea.

And I have Z80 interrupts just like you describe. Though I may have missed something.

tomaitheous wrote:@AamirM: Any chance you're going to improve the debugger soon?

Yes

. But after the 0.93 release. I'll be adding GensTracer (which HardWareMan posted on here) features.

@ King of Chaos:

Thanks for testing. I'll see whats the problem with those games.

stay safe,

AamirM

TmEE co.(TM) · Post by **TmEE co.(TM)** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 10:51 pm

PCM is correct now

PSG seems a bit off compared to FM, higher pitch (don't know how much).

tomaitheous · Post by **tomaitheous** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 3:15 am

Yes Smile . But after the 0.93 release. I'll be adding GensTracer (which HardWareMan posted on here) features.

A logger is cool, but it doesn't compare to using a real debugger.

Stuff like:

-break on reads
-break on writes
-break on PC address (via value input and/or manually marking)
-break on vram read/writes
-break on opcode (no need for the operand part)
-run until break (of course)
-memory viewer (in words or bytes for *all* memory including vram, cram, and z80 stuff)
-the ability to edit values in the memory viewer
-break on register read/write
-scrollable disassemble window (arrow and page up/down keys) and allow to input address to jump to
-putting the mouse pointer over a tile/sprite in the viewer would show the vram address
-being able to export and import data into the memory viewer (guess that would make it a editor

)
-editable registers including both cpus, their flags, VDP, PSG, and 2612.
-show current scanline
-show current timer states/clock for 2612
-show current master clock

Nemesis · Post by **Nemesis** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 3:56 am

Something like this?

tomaitheous · Post by **tomaitheous** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 4:22 am

Holy crap!

Hmm... Nemesis....Nemesis. Wait, that sounds familiar. Didn't you post a while back about creating a genesis emulator with a decent/real debugger in another forum? And another discussion with byuu or RedComet by chance?

Two things: When will it be available and do you have a donation system setup?

Nemesis · Post by **Nemesis** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 4:40 am

Yep, I had a chat with byuu about it a year or so back IIRC. I've been working on it pretty steadily since December 2006 actually. It's not ready yet. I don't think it'll be ready this year, but I'm hoping early next year. I'll let everyone know when it's getting close. If you want a debugger, watch this space.... oh, and I hope you have a fast computer. Like, really fast.

Don't worry about donations. I'm not short on cash, just short on time.

Nemesis · Post by **Nemesis** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 4:48 am

....and now I feel like I'm derailing Aamir's thread. Sorry. When someone mentiones debugging, I just can't help but talk about it. I still get a stupid ass grin on my face every time I use a breakpoint.

AamirM · Post by **AamirM** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 7:23 am

Hi,

These are the debuggers I am working on (read: trying to port in Regen from Gens). But it will take some time. So be patient. I'll make a debug only version of Regen because inserting debug hooks into code makes it very slower and its not suitable for the playing games. But all that after the 0.93 release

.

Not as cool as Nemesis' but I think its what most people need.

Nemesis wrote:....and now I feel like I'm derailing Aamir's thread. Sorry. When someone mentiones debugging, I just can't help but talk about it. I still get a stupid ass grin on my face every time I use a breakpoint.

No problem at all. Its good to know that more people are working on debuggers now. I actually use your debugger sometimes

. Its really cool.

stay safe,

AamirM

Eke · Post by **Eke** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 8:18 am

deleting the config file does not solve the issue, rebooting the computer did it

I hate to do this but need to point some issue with your VDP timings (DMA/FIFO/HBLANK) again:

.Outrunners: corrupted graphics
.Out of this World: stuttering line at the bottom of the password screen
.Doucle Clutch: flickering text on intro screen
.Kawasaki Superbike Challenge (same should happen with Formula One as they use a similar program): graphic garbage at the bottom of the in-game screen , works fine with PAL timings though

most of these are games that break as soon as you fix another one until you find the perfect timing scheme, so good luck

Also, we share a common issue with Micro Machines 2 (I thought I fixed it but didn't): on the level selection screen (once you have picked a character), the image you get is wrong (you get a BIG Micro Machines logo instead of the usual vehicule picture ).
Strangely, this does not happen if you return 0 on all EEPROM reads (which this game use) or if you don't emulate the J-CART so I suspect it has something to do with code timing, looks like VRAM is not correcly updated for some reasons... It's a pain to debug so, if you find the solution, let me know

AamirM · Post by **AamirM** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 9:55 am

Hi,

deleting the config file does not solve the issue, rebooting the computer did it

That is strange. Does it behaves like that everytime?

I hate to do this but need to point some issue with your VDP timings (DMA/FIFO/HBLANK) again:

Acutally, I appreciate it. Don't hate to point bugs

.

most of these are games that break as soon as you fix another one until you find the perfect timing scheme, so good luck

I think its the FIFO and DMA timings that is breaking most of these games. I'll work on them again. But a bit later now.

Also, we share a common issue with Micro Machines 2 (I thought I fixed it but didn't): on the level selection screen (once you have picked a character), the image you get is wrong (you get a BIG Micro Machines logo instead of the usual vehicule picture ).
Strangely, this does not happen if you return 0 on all EEPROM reads (which this game use) or if you don't emulate the J-CART so I suspect it has something to do with code timing, looks like VRAM is not correcly updated for some reasons... It's a pain to debug so, if you find the solution, let me know

That game ran correctly uptil version 0.77 and it had both EEPROM and J-Cart emulation. I remember I made some changes to EEPROM code in 0.85 after which this game got broken. Hopefully I will be able to backtrace the problem. I will look at this problem soon and get back with the results. Also the problem gets fixed if you don't emulate EEPROM at all. Thats the sad part in emulation

. A game works if ten things are broken and doesn't when just one thing is broken.

stay safe,

AamirM