Dreamcast 3.0 status.

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[SX]

No that still won't be fixed until I move the video over from SDL to kos pvr.  But on the bright side..... 8 bit 320x240 was never 90 fps and it usually doesn't dip below 60 fps unlike previous version where it stood around 55~45 fps...

[SX]

Oops do not burn that binary.  I forgot to put it back to dreamcast mode.  I was using that one with nulldc emulator.  I will post another binary that will work for dreamcast.

P.S.
Neils loading screen is no longer used.....   It would require a bit of work to make it compatible with SDL or kos pvr because it was an image that was formatted for vram direct writes which we no longer do.


Anyways here is the new dreamcast compatible binary.

[CE]

Did a quick test burn and it works great! - Will do some more testings tonite when I got some free time.

Neils loading screen is no longer used.....   It would require a bit of work to make it compatible with SDL or kos pvr because it was an image that was formatted for vram direct writes which we no longer do.

Okay, then. No biggie. I love that it displays /bgs/loading.gif instead!

but I would propose to allow the modder to define their own image upon start up. Something like /bgs/startup.gif (or simply use title.gif if no startup.gif / loading.gif is found).

This was something I meant to propose for quite a while anyway.

Here is another build.  This one no longer uses SDL for audio handling and uses KOS's snd_stream library instead.

Do you think it's worth it to compare this to Neill Corlett's implementation in the original Dreamcast port ? - I remember that regarding sound playback he specifically mentioned in his release documentation that he was capable of what he called "AICA kung fu"  

Now, I am really not sure what he meant with that, but it sure sounds like something special.

[CE]

Here is another build.  This one no longer uses SDL for audio handling and uses KOS's snd_stream library instead.  I don't see a performance difference but to be honest I'm testing it against nullDC Emulator which isn't the fastest even on a dual core duo.....

Some differences in comparision to the proof of concept build that I noticed:

• 90-100 fps
• faster loading (?!)
• less sound hickups during loading

This build has less echoing in sound in general: Occurs maybe once in a level in my test mod. I didn't notice it in the last build at first, but it's there and in this build there is definitely less echoing, but there is still some. It seems to be related to sound effects, but I am not sure. - Like I wrote in my previous post: maybe it's possible to check Neill Corlett's source to see what he did to get sound working as flawless as it used to be.

[CE]

BlackAura posted a tutorial on Paletted Textures @ DCEmulation: http://dcemulation.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=99166

It confirms what was previously only assumed: The Dreamcast's PVR renders everything at 32-bit internally!

[SX]

Needed some time off from OpenBOR, but I think this weekend I should be able to wrap up the Dreamcast with PVR support and proper video mode supported.  Then I believe I'm done and Dreamcast is fully up to date.

[CE]

Needed some time off from OpenBOR, but I think this weekend I should be able to wrap up the Dreamcast with PVR support and proper video mode supported.  Then I believe I'm done and Dreamcast is fully up to date.

I think that's it, yeah. There are minor! audio issues in the last two builds (when switching from Neill Corlett's ADPCM implementation to the unified code with stereo support), but it's rarely ever noticalbe so I would focus in the video acceleration first.


Here are the relevant links I posted on this topic:

Some helpful links & tutorials on setting up the video modes via KOS:

• BlackAura's 2D tutorial - http://dcemulation.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=37161
  
• Uploading a texture to the PVR - http://dcemulation.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=98310
  

BTW: BlackAura posted a tutorial on Paletted Textures @ DCEmulation: http://dcemulation.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=99166

- Looking forward to help with testing. 

[CE]

Regarding widescreen:

There recently was a thread about this at DCEmulation: http://dcemulation.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=1008998#p1008998



- Do you think it's possible to implement a video mode that squashes a 16:9 screen into 4:3 so a modern HDTV could stretch it out to 16:9 ?

I did this myself with a video I encoded in the Dreamcast's Sofdec format: The source was a 16:9 video in 720x576 which I encoded in 4:3 at 640x480. I insert the CD into the Dreamcast and set the TV to VGA and then the display to 16:9 and the video plays at its original aspect ratio.

[CE]

News from the Paletted Textures thread @ dcemulation.org:

http://dcemulation.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=99166

Just for reference if anybody can't get the PT list to work is because mostly likely you initialized default PVR settings (ie. pvr_init_defaults( ); ). So what you need to do is create your own PVR init settings like so:

Code:

pvr_init_params_t params = {
/* Enable opaque, translucent polygons and punch thru with size 16 */
{ PVR_BINSIZE_16, PVR_BINSIZE_0, PVR_BINSIZE_16, PVR_BINSIZE_0, PVR_BINSIZE_16 },

/* Vertex buffer size 512K */
512*1024
};

^ put that above[/u] your main function and in your main function call:

Code:

/* Init PVR API */
if (pvr_init(&params) < 0)
return -1;

Reference (BlackAura Post)

[SX]

I'm going to resume my work and try to finish up Dreamcast port.  I have been uber busy at work.... but things are starting to slow down where I'm not working 55+ hours a week.  So, If I remember correctly....   Need to implement alternative video modes, but prior to that we need to step away from SDL because its not optimized for this Console.  That being the case I will now implement PVR blitting support.  Once completed I will introduce alternative video modes then I think I'm complete!

[CE]

Seems Chilly Willy found a problem with 800x600 support in KOS:

http://dcemulation.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=1011447#p1011447

Sorry if this is considered thread necromancy, but I wanted to ask about 800x608 mode... that's disabled in the repo.

Code:

/* 800x608 NTSC 60Hz (VGA) [BROKEN!] */
/* DM_800x608_VGA */
{
DM_800x608,
320, 240,
VID_INTERLACE,
1/*CT_ANY*/, /* This will block the mode from being set. */
0,
262, 857,
164, 24,
21, 82,
141, 843,
24, 264,
0, 1,
{ 0, 0, 0, 0 }
},

Note how the video cable field is used to prevent the mode from being selected. I've verified that in Doom. I have support for 800x608 with the VGA cable in the code, but the mode never worked right, so I looked at the source to see why and discovered the above. Is that going to be fixed at some point? That's the highest mode my 21" TIMM will support, and I'd love to have it available.

PS: as you may have noticed I've split the last few posts to this topic and will lock this thread until SX is back with news.

Admins, Mods and Developers should still be able to reply.

Jennifer (WIP)

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