Dreamcast 3.0 status.

[SX]

Accomplishments Thus far:

The Good

• Re-implemented the file menu and its working great.
• Implemented 16 and 32 bit modes.
• Widescreen Support in progress.

The Bad

• Painfull loading, not sure why.
• Seems we run out of memory quickly, not sure why.

Once I have worked out these issues, I will release a new build.  I think the slow loading is due to I'm trying to load a mod that is at the beginning of the disk, because when I select another mod that is towards the end of the disk, it loads quickly.  So, I'm still investigating.

[DJGameFreakTheIguana]

Yeah, I Burned my mod for it yesterday and it got stuck on the loading screen, I beleve It's a memory issue cause I have A LOT of stuff on it.

[SX]

I would suggest for you to try this.  Create a dummy file that takes up space so that your mod can be located on the end of the disk.  That should fix your loading time....   But I'm not 100% sure and would hate to see another coaster be created.

[Damon Caskey]

OpenBOR - Serving all of your superfluous coaster needs since 2004!

 

[DJGameFreakTheIguana]

I got about a full case of those

So SX, what you mean is: Burn the disk with multiple mods on it encluding the one I have to name Crisis Evil then burn, taking Enough to almost fill the CD?

and Hopefully I get this working cause I only have about....3-4 CDs left.

[SX]

Hold off then until my next release and i will provide you with all the details.

[DJGameFreakTheIguana]

Coolio. Aight then. BTW does the Log file show how much memory is used up? I could maybe post for yall.

[SX]

Update:

Well it seems I'm correct that its the placement of the mod within the cd.  The farther it is towards the end of the disk the faster it loads.  I reverted to the original filecaching and it made no difference.  So that is a plus!  I have not broken anything thus far in respect to loading speeds.


But I did find that I need some additional logic that was present on Dreamcast for the shared soundmixing library.  Seems there is now less disc access, like it was before with the original dreamcast soundmixing lib.

So far so good.

[CE]

The Bad

• Painfull loading, not sure why.
• Seems we run out of memory quickly, not sure why.

Once I have worked out these issues, I will release a new build.  I think the slow loading is due to I'm trying to load a mod that is at the beginning of the disk, because when I select another mod that is towards the end of the disk, it loads quickly.  So, I'm still investigating.

This sounds awfully familiar, I remember that last time that we had a KOS port with PAK loader these were the same problems.


As for your accomplishments thus far: Great work! I am looking forward to see how 16-bit and 32-bit mods perform


I am  edit: NOW testing the older builds you released that I couldn't get to work previously.



EDIT:

Well it seems I'm correct that its the placement of the mod within the cd.  The farther it is towards the end of the disk the faster it loads.  I reverted to the original filecaching and it made no difference.  So that is a plus!  I have not broken anything thus far in respect to loading speeds.

I thought that you updated all the other platforms with Dreamcast's file caching ? (thus gaining 1Mbyte of RAM of Xbox, GP2X, etc.)

But I did find that I need some additional logic that was present on Dreamcast for the shared soundmixing library.  Seems there is now less disc access, like it was before with the original dreamcast soundmixing lib.

Ah, sweet. That's good news indeed.

[SX]

The Bad

• Painfull loading, not sure why.
• Seems we run out of memory quickly, not sure why.

Once I have worked out these issues, I will release a new build.  I think the slow loading is due to I'm trying to load a mod that is at the beginning of the disk, because when I select another mod that is towards the end of the disk, it loads quickly.  So, I'm still investigating.

This sounds awfully familiar, I remember that last time that we had a KOS port with PAK loader these were the same problems.

I performed these tests without the pak loader.  But you still have a point.  I guess I could try recompiling the code without KOS but then I would loose 16 and 32 bit modes.

[CE]

I remember that you wrote somewhere that the Dreamcast port was in 16-bit/32-bit mode already. (or something like that)

In any way, I would love to have a stable version using the original bare bones toolchain. That would be worth a lot.

[SX]

Problem is that we have to switch videmodes at least twice.  Once for the loading screen that was created by Neill (8Bit) and then switching to 16 or 32 crashes the Dreamcast using the old libs that Neill had used.  Using KOS I'm able to switch back and forth at will without any crashes.

[CE]

Maybe just ditch the loading screen and run all games in 16/32 bit ? (whatever the old default on Dreamcast was)

[SX]

Well I guess I could.  Just initilize to what the mod has configured in video.txt and move on from there.  I Just thought you really wanted to have his loading screen.

[CE]

I used to, but now I think that it should be up to the modder.