ffc30d25 |
1 | -- porter's foreword --\r |
2 | \r |
3 | This is a Pandora port of Exophase's impressive GBA emulator, gpSP.\r |
4 | Since nobody has released a functional port for more than a year after\r |
5 | pandora's release, and the GINGE'd version doesn't do this emulator\r |
6 | justice, I've decided to take this task. This version also includes\r |
7 | my own tweaks from GP2X/Wiz version. In case anyone wonders, this\r |
8 | release was done with author's consent.\r |
9 | \r |
10 | To use it, you'll first need to copy authentic GBA BIOS to gpSP\r |
11 | appdata directory, which usually is <SD card>/pandora/appdata/gpsp/ .\r |
12 | It must be named gba_bios.bin and should be 16kB in size.\r |
13 | \r |
14 | I've appended the original gpSP GP2X and PSP readme files as they\r |
15 | contain lots of information that is still relevant for this version,\r |
16 | as well as development history of this project.\r |
17 | \r |
18 | - notaz\r |
19 | \r |
20 | Changelog:\r |
21 | \r |
4b135092 |
22 | 0.9-2xb u8\r |
23 | - fixed tv-out\r |
24 | - integrated M-HT's neon scalers\r |
25 | - merged an assorment of calc84maniac's bugfixes\r |
26 | \r |
ffc30d25 |
27 | 0.9-2xb u7\r |
28 | - Pandora port, using hardware scaler for video output.\r |
29 | - Fixed a few portablility issues in ARM asm and sound code.\r |
30 | - Tweaked timing to suit pandora's LCD refresh nicely.\r |
31 | - Maybe fixed GBC/digital sound channel desync over time.\r |
32 | - Some other not-that-relevant cleanups and tweaks.\r |
33 | \r |
34 | Source code should be available at:\r |
35 | http://notaz.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi\r |
36 | \r |
37 | \r |
38 | \r |
39 | -- gameplaySP2X Gameboy Advance emulator for GP2X --\r |
40 | \r |
41 | gpSP2X is a version of my (Exophase)'s emulator originally for Sony PSP.\r |
42 | A large amount of effort has been done to make it more optimized for the\r |
43 | ARM CPU present in the GP2X, however it is still very much a work in\r |
44 | progress.\r |
45 | \r |
46 | See readme.txt for the PSP version readme, which contains a lot of\r |
47 | information relevant to the GP2X version (note that some of it does\r |
48 | not apply however).\r |
49 | \r |
50 | \r |
51 | Changelog:\r |
52 | \r |
53 | 0.9-2xb u6\r |
54 | - Fixed clock and scaling config saving.\r |
55 | - Fixed occasional crash on first ROM load on 1.1 firmware.\r |
56 | - Added LCD timing setup code, which can be controlled through\r |
57 | 'pollux_dpc_set' environment vatiable (see gpsp.gpe wrapper script).\r |
58 | \r |
59 | 0.9-2xb u5\r |
60 | - Added portrait drawing modes. They eliminate tearing but are slightly\r |
61 | slower.\r |
62 | - Added page scrolling in ROM browser with L/R.\r |
63 | - 32MB ROM support fixed.\r |
64 | \r |
65 | 0.9-2xb u4 (unofficial notaz release, done on Exophase's request)\r |
66 | - Wiz port. No emulation related changes.\r |
67 | - Wiz: dropped SDL for video and hitting hardware directly (GPH SDL can't\r |
68 | be trusted, it doesn't do double buffering as of firmware 1.0).\r |
69 | - Added new optimized software scaler with interpolation.\r |
70 | - gpSP is now saving ROM dir on exit. Delete romdir.txt if you don't\r |
71 | want that.\r |
72 | - gpSP now comes with wARM, new kernel module+lib for ARM cache control\r |
73 | (replaces mmuhack).\r |
74 | - gpSP no longer invalidates whole icache after recompilation, might\r |
75 | cause minor speedup.\r |
76 | \r |
77 | 0.9-2xb u3 (unofficial notaz release, released with permission):\r |
78 | - Removed built-in CPU/LCD/RAM-Tweaker.\r |
79 | - Improved usability of volume control.\r |
80 | - Removed PSP-specific GUI options, adjusted help text.\r |
81 | - Overclocking from menu now works, keep it at 200 if you don't want that\r |
82 | (if you want to overclock using launcher, for example).\r |
83 | - Fixed centering-on-first-run problem.\r |
84 | - 3:2 scaled option now does what it says.\r |
85 | \r |
86 | 0.9-2xb u2 (unofficial notaz release):\r |
87 | - Replaced non-working mmuhack.o with proper one, added cache flush calls\r |
88 | to avoid artifacts.\r |
89 | \r |
90 | 0.9-2xb u1 (unofficial notaz release):\r |
91 | - Fixed a problen in thread synchronization which caused deadlock after\r |
92 | some time.\r |
93 | \r |
94 | 0.9-2xb: \r |
95 | -- IMPORTANT-- If you're overwriting an old version, be sure to delete the\r |
96 | gpsp.cfg file first, or be prepared to have a bunch of weird button\r |
97 | settings that would require fixing.\r |
98 | \r |
99 | - Fixed some bugs stunting compatability.\r |
100 | - Optimized alpha blends in renderer.\r |
101 | - Some more optimizations to dynarec output.\r |
102 | - Savestates should work better now.\r |
103 | - Cheat/misc menu won't crash the emulator.\r |
104 | - Main button config window works (not all buttons are in yet)\r |
105 | \r |
106 | 0.9-2Xa: (Exophase release)\r |
107 | - Redid autoframeskip. Should work more reliably.\r |
108 | - Rewrote dynamic recompiler from x86 source (arm_emit.h, arm_stub.S).\r |
109 | Has some more sophisticated behavior than the last version, more is\r |
110 | still to come... Should notice a slight speed improvement over the\r |
111 | last version.\r |
112 | - Tweaked GUI to be a little more useable. Buttons are now mirroring the\r |
113 | PSP version's.\r |
114 | - Code unification + cleanup amongst versions.\r |
115 | \r |
116 | \r |
117 | v9008: (zodttd release)\r |
118 | - Updated the way autoframeskip works. Should be better now. Still has a max\r |
119 | frameskip value.\r |
120 | - Added a slight performance increase to the dynarec.\r |
121 | - Added sync() to make sure files such as savestates and in-game saves are\r |
122 | saved properly to the GP2X.\r |
123 | \r |
124 | v9006: (zodttd release)\r |
125 | - Initial public release\r |
126 | \r |
127 | \r |
128 | Installation:\r |
129 | \r |
130 | 1. Place the "gpsp.gpe" and "game_config.txt" file in a directory on your SD\r |
131 | card used with the GP2X.\r |
132 | \r |
133 | 2. Place your GBA BIOS in the directory from step 1. This file must be named\r |
134 | "gba_bios.bin" in all lowercase as shown, so rename it if needed.\r |
135 | \r |
136 | -- NOTE --\r |
137 | \r |
138 | There are two commonly available BIOSes - one is the correct one used in\r |
139 | production GBA's worldwide and the other is a prototype BIOS. The latter\r |
140 | will not cause some games to not work correctly or crash. If you attempt\r |
141 | to use this BIOS you will be presented with a warning before being\r |
142 | allowed to continue. This screen will give you a checksum of the real\r |
143 | BIOS image (see readme.txt for further information).\r |
144 | \r |
145 | 3. Place your GBA games in the directory from step 1. These files should have\r |
146 | a ".gba" or ".bin" file extension. Zip compressed games should be supported\r |
147 | and are recognized with the ".zip" file extension. Note that 32MB ROMs will\r |
148 | probably not run if zipped. 16MB and smaller should be OK.\r |
149 | \r |
150 | 4. Done. Run gpsp.gpe.\r |
151 | \r |
152 | \r |
153 | Controls:\r |
154 | \r |
155 | How to use gpSP on the GP2X:\r |
156 | Buttons are mapped as follows (GBA/ingame buttons can be changed in the menu):\r |
157 | \r |
158 | GP2X--------------------GBA\r |
159 | X -> A\r |
160 | B -> B\r |
161 | L TRIG -> L TRIG\r |
162 | R TRIG -> R TRIG\r |
163 | START -> START\r |
164 | SELECT -> SELECT\r |
165 | \r |
166 | GP2X--------------------------------gpSP\r |
167 | \r |
168 | -- IN-GAME --\r |
169 | \r |
170 | VOL MIDDLE (UP + DOWN) -> menu\r |
171 | PUSH STICK -> fps display toggle (second number is\r |
172 | frames actually drawn)\r |
173 | \r |
174 | -- IN-MENU --\r |
175 | B -> select option\r |
176 | X -> cancel/exit menu\r |
177 | A -> escape (up one director level in the\r |
178 | file selector)\r |
179 | \r |
180 | When gpSP is started, you are presented with the option to overclock your\r |
181 | GP2X. Use the L/R TRIG to change the CPU clockspeed and press START to\r |
182 | continue. You may also change RAM timings here - experiment with what\r |
183 | works well. Note that going too high on overclocking or low on RAM\r |
184 | timings can cause the game to crash or the GP2X to outright freeze up.\r |
185 | \r |
186 | If you do not want to overclock, press START without using L/R.\r |
187 | You will now be presented with a menu to choose a game. Press the IN-MENU\r |
188 | "SELECT" button shown above to pick a game to load.\r |
189 | \r |
190 | If you would like to test gpSP for the GP2X with a homebrew (free public\r |
191 | domain) game, a game by Russ Prince works very well with gpSP. It is called\r |
192 | Bust-A-Move and is a remake of the classic game it's named after.\r |
193 | \r |
194 | \r |
195 | How to build from source:\r |
196 | \r |
197 | The makefile included in the source is geared towards the Open2x toolchain.\r |
198 | If you use Open2x and installed it in the way recommended then it should\r |
199 | work okay, assuming you also have up to date HW-SDL (and have\r |
200 | arm-linux-sdl-config installed in the right place). The makefile is in the\r |
201 | gp2x directory, so go there first then just type make to build gpsp.gpe.\r |
202 | Might need a little tweaking if your setup is different. If you need help\r |
203 | you can ask me, but I'll probably nag you about why you want to build it in\r |
204 | the first place.\r |
205 | \r |
206 | \r |
207 | GP2X version FAQ:\r |
208 | \r |
209 | Q) Help! This game doesn't work. Am I using a bad version of the ROM?\r |
210 | \r |
211 | A) First, make sure you're using the correct BIOS version. If you aren't\r |
212 | gpSP should tell you. Other than that, there are some games that are\r |
213 | known to not work now (and will probably work later), and perhaps\r |
214 | many more games that I don't know about that don't work. I haven't\r |
215 | launched a full scale compatability test at this version, so it might\r |
216 | take a while before the compatability levels are high.\r |
217 | \r |
218 | \r |
219 | Q) Why is this version slower than the PSP version?\r |
220 | \r |
221 | A) gpSP is still a work in progress. It might be possible to obtain more\r |
222 | speed from both this version and the PSP one too (and others in the\r |
223 | future). With that in mind, know that even a very agressively overclocked\r |
224 | GP2X is still less powerful than a PSP, generally speaking. Still, I\r |
225 | have a lot of ideas. It's unlikely that the GP2X version will ever be as\r |
226 | fast/faster than the PSP version for anyone but anything's possible.\r |
227 | \r |
228 | \r |
229 | Q) How high does my GP2X have to overclock to enjoy gpSP?\r |
230 | \r |
231 | A) That depends on you. Higher overclocking will mean less frames skipped\r |
232 | on autoframeskip, or less frameskip needed if on manual. Or it can\r |
233 | make the difference between whether or not virtual 60fps can be reached.\r |
234 | For some games no GP2X in the world will be able to run them fullspeed,\r |
235 | with any amount of frameskip. A few might run well with no overclocking\r |
236 | and a generous level of frameskip (probably manual). If you don't care\r |
237 | about battery life (or you're plugged into an outlet) you should push\r |
238 | it as high as you can while still maintaining stability, because\r |
239 | chances are high that whatever you play will benefit from it. Right now\r |
240 | you'll probably want 260MHz if you can achieve it, but with a lot of\r |
241 | luck this number will lower slightly in the future (and is just a vague\r |
242 | ballpark figure anyway). I don't want to scare anyone off from using the\r |
243 | emulator, you should give it a try and see how it plays for you\r |
244 | regardless of how high you can overclock. Just note that this is far\r |
245 | from a locked smooth experience for everyone on every game.\r |
246 | \r |
247 | \r |
248 | Q) GBA has an ARM processor, GP2X has an ARM processor. GP2X is more\r |
249 | powerful than GBA. This emulator should run great without overclocking,\r |
250 | so therefore you're doing it wrong.\r |
251 | \r |
252 | A) That's not a question, but I'll field it anyway. Two things: first,\r |
253 | "virtualization", or running the GBA code "natively" on the GP2X is\r |
254 | probably not possible, at least not with the way I want to do things.\r |
255 | For reasons why go read my blog (see below). So yes, you actually\r |
256 | do need more than 16.7MHz of ARM9 power to emulate the GBA's CPU.\r |
257 | Second: there is a whole lot of work behind emulating the pretty 2D\r |
258 | graphics on the GBA, something it can do in hardware a lot better than\r |
259 | this platform can.\r |
260 | End result: GBA emulation on GP2X isn't as easy as you think it is.\r |
261 | \r |
262 | \r |
263 | Q) What are you working on now? When will you release the next version?\r |
264 | \r |
265 | A) See the gpSP development blog:\r |
266 | \r |
267 | http://gpsp-dev.blogspot.com/\r |
268 | \r |
269 | Note that I don't give release dates, ever, unless I'm right on the verge\r |
270 | of releasing. Be grateful that I've decided to be much more open about\r |
271 | the development of the emulator now.\r |
272 | \r |
273 | \r |
274 | Q) Thanks to your blog I heard that you made some improvement. Can I have\r |
275 | a copy of the new code?\r |
276 | \r |
277 | A) No. Builds in transition often have a lot of problems, and I like for\r |
278 | releases to be relatively substantial. I can probably be bribed out of\r |
279 | them with donations though. :P\r |
280 | \r |
281 | \r |
282 | Q) Why do the menu suck so much? Why do half the options not work or not\r |
283 | make any sense?\r |
284 | \r |
285 | A) Sorry, the menu still hasn't been modified very much to fit the GP2X\r |
286 | version instead of the PSP version.. hopefully this will improve in the\r |
287 | future.\r |
288 | \r |
289 | \r |
290 | Q) Who's in charge of the GP2X version anyway?\r |
291 | \r |
292 | A) Originally, zodttd was. I, Exophase, have basically usurped control of it\r |
293 | now to encourage zodttd to work more on his PS1 emulator (that and I'm\r |
294 | possessive of gpSP and get nervous when people work on it too heavily).\r |
295 | zodttd will most likely still be around to work on things though.\r |
296 | \r |
297 | \r |
298 | Q) I'm a super nice person and would like to donate some of my hard earned\r |
299 | money to this one-off GBA emulator. Where do I send my money to?\r |
300 | \r |
301 | A) Exophase: exophase@gmail.com on PayPal\r |
302 | zodttd: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_xclick&business=heirloomer\r |
303 | %40pobox%2ecom&item_number=1&no_shipping=1&no_note=1&tax=0&cy_code=USD&bn=\r |
304 | PP%2dDonationsBF&charset=UTF%2d8\r |
305 | ^ Click there for donating on PayPal (remove whitespace/linebreaks).\r |
306 | \r |
307 | GP2X people have already donated a lot more to me than PSP people have,\r |
308 | even though there's an order of magnitude or two less users. And they've\r |
309 | donated far more to zodttd than they have to me. So I'm not going to ask\r |
310 | people to donate..\r |
311 | \r |
312 | However I won't lie: donating ups the chances of me actually working on the\r |
313 | next version (for which I have a lot of ideas, but not necessarily time to\r |
314 | dedicate to.. that time might need more incentive to be allotted from other\r |
315 | things). This could change depending on my employment situation, but right\r |
316 | now I feel guilty doing anything that doesn't help guarantee that I'll be\r |
317 | able to buy food a year from now.\r |
318 | \r |
319 | \r |
320 | Q) Tell me all of your personal information.\r |
321 | \r |
322 | A) Again not a question, but why not. I'm Exophase, real name: Gilead Kutnick,\r |
323 | male, 23 years old, current residence Bloomington, IN; straight/single/not\r |
324 | actively looking, almost have an MS in Computer Science (do have a BS\r |
325 | underneath it), likes PSP more than GP2X, will not write a Nintendo DS\r |
326 | emulator for either, am currently looking for a job for after I graduate.\r |
327 | \r |
328 | \r |
329 | Q) You said you're looking for a job.\r |
330 | \r |
331 | A) Yes. If you have one or know someone who needs a low level oriented\r |
332 | programmer then I'm up for grabs. And this is my resume:\r |
333 | http://exophase.devzero.co.uk/resume.pdf\r |
334 | \r |
335 | \r |
336 | Credits:\r |
337 | \r |
338 | Original codebase: Exophase (exophase@gmail.com)\r |
339 | Foundation gp2x code: zodttd\r |
340 | GP2X dynarec/stubs + current code maintainance: Exophase\r |
341 | \r |
342 | \r |
343 | \r |
344 | -- gameplaySP Gameboy Advance emulator for Playstation Portable --\r |
345 | \r |
346 | \r |
347 | -- Release log --\r |
348 | \r |
349 | v0.91 (minor cleanup release)\r |
350 | \r |
351 | NOTE: I don't usually do minor releases but I rewrote a ton of\r |
352 | things in gpSP 0.9, much of it during the last few days, and although\r |
353 | I spent a lot of time debugging a few bugs inevitably crept in.\r |
354 | \r |
355 | # Fixed some issues in the new memory handlers that crept up, hopefully\r |
356 | should fix the problems between 0.8 and 0.9.\r |
357 | # Fixed a bug introduced in 0.9 that could cause crashes when selecting\r |
358 | things in the menu (I hope, at least).\r |
359 | # Fixed a bug with a certain invalid opcode causing a jump to be scanned\r |
360 | when there isn't one (fixes Sabre Wulf).\r |
361 | # Removed 2048 option for audio buffer.\r |
362 | \r |
363 | v0.9 (yes, it's still beta)\r |
364 | \r |
365 | NOTE: As some of you may be aware I'm pretty much tired of these\r |
366 | unofficial releases by people (okay, mostly single person) who\r |
367 | don't wish to follow my wishes. I'm in the process of asking this\r |
368 | person to stop, in his own language. However, I want to make\r |
369 | something clear. Look at the last six new features in this\r |
370 | changelog. I added these TODAY. I could have done them at any\r |
371 | time. But I didn't, because I spent many (dozens, quite possibly\r |
372 | hundreds) hours debugging games that people want to play. I have\r |
373 | always believed that this is far more important than spending time\r |
374 | on new features. Frankly, I'm tired of my emulator being hacked on\r |
375 | by other people, and if it doesn't stop I'm going to make this\r |
376 | project closed source.\r |
377 | \r |
378 | Since I know this information is most visible when updated on the\r |
379 | major sites, note that it is the news posters I am especially\r |
380 | talking to. Next time you upload unofficial releases of my\r |
381 | emulator (without even knowing what's changed) bear in mind that\r |
382 | you're only encouraging me to stop working on this. If you want\r |
383 | to pick sides between me and unofficial devs, be my guest. I'll\r |
384 | let you decide by the contents of this release who's doing more\r |
385 | for my emulator.\r |
386 | \r |
387 | Oh, and if you downloaded a version of gpSP that has more than\r |
388 | "gpSP" in its name then you're using one of their versions. Shame\r |
389 | on them for not even removing this threatening message, and shame\r |
390 | on you. Unless you're using a port I endorse (GP2X, Dreamcast, etc),\r |
391 | in which case everything's good.\r |
392 | \r |
393 | \r |
394 | # Fixed stereo output being reversed.\r |
395 | # Fixed a bug causing misaligned errors on 8bit writes to the gbc\r |
396 | audio channel 3 wave data (fixes various Super Robot Wars games)\r |
397 | # Fixed DMA with garbage in their upper 4 bits (fixes a crash in\r |
398 | Zelda: Minish Cap)\r |
399 | # Added double buffering to the rendering, removes line artifacts.\r |
400 | Big thanks to Brunni for the idea.\r |
401 | # Fixed a bug preventing some SRAM based games from saving (fixes\r |
402 | MMBN4-6)\r |
403 | # Fixed a bug causing part of EWRAM to potentially get corrupted if\r |
404 | code segments loaded in EWRAM cross 32KB boundaries (fixes\r |
405 | Phantasy Star 2)\r |
406 | # Fixed a bug causing games using movs pc in user mode (very bad\r |
407 | behavior) to crash. Fixes Colin McRae Rally 2.0.\r |
408 | # Improved timing a bit more. Fixes GTA Advance.\r |
409 | # Fixed a sprite clipping bug (fixes crash in third boss of Zelda:\r |
410 | Minish cap)\r |
411 | # Increased translation buffer size significantly (fixes Donkey Kong:\r |
412 | King of Swing)\r |
413 | # Fixed a dynarec bug causing add pc, reg to not work in Thumb code\r |
414 | (fixes crash in DBZ:LoZ, seems to fix crashes in battle in Golden\r |
415 | Sun, probably fixes other games)\r |
416 | # Made sprites using tiles < 512 not display in modes 3-5 (fixes\r |
417 | a couple minor graphical bugs)\r |
418 | # Removed abort on instruction 0x00000000 hack, was breaking a\r |
419 | certain bugged up game (Scurge)\r |
420 | # Fixed bug in flags generating variable logical shifts (fixes\r |
421 | SD Gundam Force)\r |
422 | # Fixed unaligned 16bit reads (fixes DBZ:LoZ in game)\r |
423 | # Redid contiguous block flag modification checking AGAIN and\r |
424 | hopefully got it right this time (fixes Mario vs. Donkey Kong)\r |
425 | # Redid ldm/stm instructions, fixing some cases (along with the\r |
426 | timing improvements fixes Mario & Luigi)\r |
427 | # Fixed 14bit EEPROM addressing (hopefully fixes saving in a lot\r |
428 | of games)\r |
429 | # Completely redid memory handlers, accurately emulates open and\r |
430 | BIOS reads now. Fixes Zelda: Minish Cap (roll bug, last dungeon),\r |
431 | Rayman, MMBN 1 (last dungeon), probably others.\r |
432 | # Fixed a minor graphical glitch on the edges of the screen\r |
433 | (thanks Brunni and hlide for the help!)\r |
434 | # Fixed crash on loading savestates from files of games not currently\r |
435 | loaded, but be sure you have the exact file you loaded it from or\r |
436 | gpSP will exit.\r |
437 | @ New memory handlers should provide performance boost for games\r |
438 | that access VRAM significantly (ie 3D games)\r |
439 | @ Added dead flag elimination checking for logical shifts, probably\r |
440 | doesn't make a noticeable difference but should have been there\r |
441 | anyway.\r |
442 | + Added rapidfire to the button mappings.\r |
443 | + Added auto frameskip. Removed fractional frameskip (don't think\r |
444 | it's very useful with auto anyway). Select auto in the graphics/\r |
445 | sound menu to activate it; frameskip value will act as the\r |
446 | maximum (auto is by default on). Thanks again to Brunni for some\r |
447 | help with this. Frameskip options are game specific.\r |
448 | + Added vsync to the rendering. Only occurs when frames aren't\r |
449 | skipped. Seems to reduce tearing at least some of the time.\r |
450 | + Added non-filtered video option.\r |
451 | + Cheat support (Gameshark/Pro Action Replay v1-v3 only), still\r |
452 | in early stages, doesn't support everything; codes may cause\r |
453 | the game to crash, haven't determined yet if the codes are bad\r |
454 | or the implementation is. See cheat section for more information.\r |
455 | + Added ability to change audio buffer size. Does not take affect\r |
456 | until you restart the game.\r |
457 | + Added analog config options.\r |
458 | + Added ability to set analog sensitivity and turn off analog.\r |
459 | + Added ability to change the clock speed. This is a game specific\r |
460 | option. Try lower speeds w/auto frameskip to save battery life.\r |
461 | + Fixed savestate speed on crappy Sony sticks.\r |
462 | \r |
463 | (legend: # bug fix, + feature addition, @ optimization)\r |
464 | \r |
465 | v0.8 - ("unlocked" beta)\r |
466 | \r |
467 | NOTE 1: It has come to my attention that there are actually BIOSes\r |
468 | out there that are being used that cause some games to not work.\r |
469 | The BIOS md5sum listed here is for the BIOS actually in GBAs and\r |
470 | is as accurate as you'll get, (if you have a GBA and a flashcart\r |
471 | you can dump it yourself, see http://wiki.pocketheaven.com/GBA_BIOS)\r |
472 | \r |
473 | NOTE 2: Since I know this is as far as a lot of people here I have a\r |
474 | little request. Please, please, (I'd italicize this if I could)\r |
475 | please stop constantly asking me when the next release will be,\r |
476 | what it'll have, etc. And while you're at it, please stop asking me\r |
477 | to implement wi-fi multiplayer, cheat support, or fix all of your\r |
478 | games. Some things will happen in due time, other things might not\r |
479 | ever happen. I devote about as much time as I can to this emulator\r |
480 | and I carefully include as much as I can in releases to try to\r |
481 | minimize the number of people who will nag me next time (erm, I\r |
482 | mean, to make the most people happy), so I don't release every other\r |
483 | day or anything like that. Sorry that I can't release once a week,\r |
484 | but I'm a lot busier now than I was when I was first developing this\r |
485 | emulator. Good thing I got the first version out before that, wasn't\r |
486 | it?\r |
487 | \r |
488 | Congratulations, you made it this far! Now read the rest of the this\r |
489 | thing. *_*\r |
490 | \r |
491 | \r |
492 | # Fixed bug in dead flag elimination, "alt" version no longer needed.\r |
493 | # Fixed EEPROM saves being saved as 32kb instead of 512bytes/8kb\r |
494 | + 32MB ROM support has been added. ROMS are "demand loaded" as\r |
495 | necessary and page swapped out; there might be a small loading lag,\r |
496 | but I have yet to ever really notice anything.\r |
497 | NOTE: 32MB ROM support only works for unzipped ROMs.\r |
498 | + Save states have been added. See the save state menu for save/load\r |
499 | options.\r |
500 | + Support for the real-time clock (RTC) chip in Pokemon cartridegs\r |
501 | and other games. The implementation is based off of VBA's, whatever\r |
502 | notes on gbadev I could find, and some of my own reverse engineering\r |
503 | of what the games do... it might not be totally correct. Also,\r |
504 | setting the time does not work.\r |
505 | + Per-game configuration. Currently this only saves frameskip and\r |
506 | frameskip variation options.\r |
507 | + Removed the flash type option from the menu and instead added it\r |
508 | to game_config.txt. Hopefully got everything - let me know if you\r |
509 | find something that isn't there. It's pretty easy to add them if you\r |
510 | have to.\r |
511 | + Added a display in the upper left-hand corner to indicate when\r |
512 | fast-forward is on.\r |
513 | + Added button bindings for save/load state.\r |
514 | @ Found a fix of StrmnNrmn proportion: far too much unnecessary mutex\r |
515 | synchronization was going on. Removing the two offending lines of\r |
516 | code gave a massive speed boost for free. Enjoy.\r |
517 | \r |
518 | v0.7 - (beta than ever)\r |
519 | \r |
520 | # Fixed a dynarec bug involving flags generating functions in\r |
521 | contiguous conditional blocks. Fixes music in Super Mario\r |
522 | Advance 2-4.\r |
523 | # Fixed a dynarec bug where Thumb mov imm instructions wouldn't\r |
524 | set flags. Fixes Zelda: Minish Cap, Megaman Battle Network,\r |
525 | probably others. Comes at a slight speed cost.\r |
526 | # Fixed a MIPS dynarec bug where some delay slots might not\r |
527 | get filled rarely, causing chaos. Don't know if it improves\r |
528 | any games.\r |
529 | # Improved self-modifying code detection. Makes Golden Sun,\r |
530 | Golden Sun 2, and Madden 2007 sorta work but excrutiatingly\r |
531 | slowly. Looking for a game-specific workaround for this - if you\r |
532 | want to play these games you'll have to wait for now :(\r |
533 | # Fixed a bug causing the interrupt disable flag to go down\r |
534 | when SWIs are entered, causing crashes/resets. Fixes\r |
535 | Super Mario Advance 2-4.\r |
536 | # Fixed menu crashing when strings with certain characters are\r |
537 | printed (for instance going to the menu after loading the\r |
538 | BIOS)\r |
539 | # Accidentally forgot to render win0 + win1 + objwin when all\r |
540 | active at the same time, many weeks ago. Added that, should fix\r |
541 | some parts in games that had frozen screens.\r |
542 | # Fixed some issues with gpsp.cfg needing to be present and\r |
543 | corrupting, hopefully. At the very least sanity checks are\r |
544 | performed on the config file.\r |
545 | # Made it so assigning the frameskip button to something besides\r |
546 | triangle actually worked as expected.\r |
547 | # Fixed ability to restart current game if nothing is loaded\r |
548 | (ie, crash)\r |
549 | # Added interrupt on cpsr modification support to the dynarec\r |
550 | (fixes backgrounds in Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance)\r |
551 | # Added open addressing for ldm/stm instructions (fixes\r |
552 | Super Mario Advance 3)\r |
553 | # Improved cycle accuracy a little. Don't know of anything this\r |
554 | fixes, but games with idle loops will run a little better w/o\r |
555 | idle loop elimination (but should still be added when possible)\r |
556 | # Fixed some bugs causing sound to play sometimes when it shouldn't.\r |
557 | @ Added dead flag elimination for Thumb code. May possibly have\r |
558 | noticeable performance increases (Thumb emited coded size can\r |
559 | have a reduction of 20% or more)\r |
560 | @ Added code generation for divide SWI. May have a small speed\r |
561 | increase in some games.\r |
562 | + Added analog nub support (special thanks to psp298 for the\r |
563 | code)\r |
564 | + Added fractional frameskip. Go below 0 to get them. A frameskip\r |
565 | of 1/2 for instance means render 2 out of every 3 frames, 2/3\r |
566 | means render 3 out of every 4 frames, etc. Possibly useful for\r |
567 | games that are not quite fast enough at fs0 but fullspeed at\r |
568 | fs1...\r |
569 | \r |
570 | v0.6 - (still beta quality, look out for new bugs)\r |
571 | \r |
572 | NOTE: Please include gpsp.cfg with EBOOT.PBP, this shouldn't be\r |
573 | necessary but I think it is right now.\r |
574 | \r |
575 | # Fixed a nasty bug that shouldn't have made it into the initial\r |
576 | release; a lot of games that TECM.. erm.. crash won't anymore.\r |
577 | NOTE: This doesn't mean that no game will ever crash, freeze,\r |
578 | otherwise not work.\r |
579 | # Fixed some crashes in the GUI and the ability to "go up" past\r |
580 | ms0:/PSP. Made the "go up" button square like it was supposed to\r |
581 | be (instead of cross).\r |
582 | + There's now a menu that you can access, by default press right\r |
583 | while holding down triangle for the frameskip bar.\r |
584 | + Menu option: resize screen aspect ratio, the default is now\r |
585 | "scaled 3:2" which makes it look more like a normal GBA. You\r |
586 | can use "fullscreen" (what it was like before) or "unscaled 3:2"\r |
587 | (tiny but pixel for pixel like a GBA)\r |
588 | + Menu option: You can now load new games while the current one\r |
589 | is running.\r |
590 | + Menu option: You can now restart the currently running game.\r |
591 | + Menu option: Frameskip variation - this defaults to "uniform"\r |
592 | whereas it defaulted to "random" last release. Basically, turn\r |
593 | it on random if you find that frameskip causes flickering\r |
594 | animations to make things disappear. Other than that it will\r |
595 | generally look better on uniform.\r |
596 | + GUI and file loading now have "auto repeat" on the buttons so\r |
597 | they're not such a pain to navigate.\r |
598 | + Menu option: Added support for 128KB flash ROM, some games\r |
599 | require it (Pokemon Firered/Leaf Green, Super Mario Advance 4),\r |
600 | turn it on before running the game to make sure it works.\r |
601 | NOTE: There are some versions of these ROMs that have been\r |
602 | hacked to get around their 128KB flash, and may not even work\r |
603 | properly at all. Look out for them, these games should save\r |
604 | 128KB save files after you set the setting to it, IF they use\r |
605 | 128KB flash.\r |
606 | + Menu option: Added ability to make the .sav files only update\r |
607 | when you exit the emulator, use with extreme caution (in other\r |
608 | words, it's not a good idea to use something like this in beta\r |
609 | quality software if you care about your saves). Does NOT update\r |
610 | if you exit through the home button, don't use the home button\r |
611 | if you can help it.\r |
612 | + Zip support thanks to SiberianSTAR. It will load the first file\r |
613 | with the extension .gba or .bin that it finds.\r |
614 | + Menu options are saved to gpsp.cfg. Note that it does not save\r |
615 | frameskip options or flash ROM options because these are very\r |
616 | per game particular.\r |
617 | + The emulator will now try to save backup files to something\r |
618 | more matching the backup size than a fixed 64KB.\r |
619 | @ Loading ROMs and the auto save of the .sav files is MUCH faster\r |
620 | now. Thanks for the heads up on how to improve this from pollux!\r |
621 | @ While coding for the screen resize code I found that SDL just\r |
622 | wasn't cutting it and had to code for the GU myself. Turns out\r |
623 | the new code is faster (but because it is render code any\r |
624 | improvement will be diminished to nothing as frameskip is\r |
625 | increased). Special thanks to Zx-81 for the tips on this one\r |
626 | and for his GU code in the PSPVBA source as an example.\r |
627 | @ Added some games to game_config.txt. Note that not all versions\r |
628 | of these ROMs will work with these options, try to use the USA\r |
629 | version if possible.\r |
630 | \r |
631 | 8-19-2006 v0.5 - Initial release (public beta quality)\r |
632 | \r |
633 | \r |
634 | -- About --\r |
635 | \r |
636 | gameplaySP (gpSP for short) is a GBA emulator written completely from\r |
637 | scratch. It is still pretty young (only having started a 3 months prior\r |
638 | to the first release) and thus rather immature, but it does a decent\r |
639 | job of playing a number of games, and is being improved upon somewhat\r |
640 | regularly. It is currently somewhat minimalistic, in the sourcecode,\r |
641 | presentation, and features. Its number one focus is to deliver a GBA\r |
642 | gaming experience in the most playable way that PSP can manage, with\r |
643 | frills being secondary (although still a consideration, at least for\r |
644 | some of them).\r |
645 | \r |
646 | Having said that, optimization was the important way in achieving this\r |
647 | goal, with overall compatability being a near second. Because of this\r |
648 | some games may not run at the favor of running more games significantly\r |
649 | better. Of course, the compatability will improve with time. The\r |
650 | compatability in the current version (0.8) is perhaps around 80%\r |
651 | (assuming the correct BIOS image is used).\r |
652 | \r |
653 | Many games will run at their best out of the box, but some games will\r |
654 | run very slowly unless idle loops are taken care of. There is a supplied\r |
655 | ROM database, game_config.txt, that gives idle loop targets and other\r |
656 | settings that may help a game to run better (or at all) on a per-game\r |
657 | basis. Currently (as of version 0.8) a few dozen games are on this list,\r |
658 | mostly only USA versions. This list will continue to be updated; there's\r |
659 | no real telling exactly how many of the ~2500 GBA games will need to\r |
660 | appear here.\r |
661 | \r |
662 | gpSP currently requires an authentic GBA BIOS image file to run. It will\r |
663 | make no effort to run without one present; this file is 16kb and should\r |
664 | be called gba_bios.bin and present in the same location as the EBOOT.PBP\r |
665 | file. Please do not ask me where to obtain this, you'll have to look\r |
666 | online or grab it from a GBA. Note that it is not legal to have this file\r |
667 | unless you own a GBA, and even then it's rather gray area.\r |
668 | \r |
669 | \r |
670 | \r |
671 | -- Features --\r |
672 | \r |
673 | gpSP mostly emulates the core Gameboy Advance system. As of right now it\r |
674 | does not emulate any special hardware present on various GBA cartridges.\r |
675 | \r |
676 | \r |
677 | What it emulates:\r |
678 | \r |
679 | GBA CPU: All ARM7TDMI ARM and Thumb mode opcodes except block memory w/\r |
680 | s-bit (probably aren't used in GBA games)\r |
681 | Video: Modes 0, 1, 2 almost completely, basic 3-5 support, sprites,\r |
682 | windows/OBJ windows\r |
683 | Interrupts: HBlank, VBlank, all timers, all DMA channels, keypad\r |
684 | DMA: Immediate, HBlank, VBlank, sound timer triggered\r |
685 | Sound: Both DirectSound channels and all 4 GBC audio channels\r |
686 | Input: Basic GBA input delivered through PSP controls\r |
687 | Cartridges: Currently supports ROMs up to 32MB in size (the maximum for\r |
688 | GBA) with the technique of ROM page swapping to fit within PSP's RAM.\r |
689 | Backup: 32/64kb SRAM, 64/128kb flash, 512bit/8kb EEPROM\r |
690 | RTC: The real-time clock present in cartridges such as most of the\r |
691 | Pokemon games and some others.\r |
692 | \r |
693 | \r |
694 | What it lacks:\r |
695 | \r |
696 | Video: No mosaic, bitmap modes lack color effects (alpha, fades),\r |
697 | there might be some minor inaccuracies in blending...\r |
698 | Cycle accuracy: Very cycle innacurate; CPU is effectively somewhat\r |
699 | overclocked, meaning games with rampant idle loops will probably run\r |
700 | rather poorly. DMA transfers effectively happen for free (0 cycle).\r |
701 | Please do NOT use gpSP as a first source for developing GBA homebrew,\r |
702 | try No$GBA instead.\r |
703 | \r |
704 | \r |
705 | Additional features it has:\r |
706 | - The ability to attempt to run games at faster than GBA speed (sometimes\r |
707 | they can end up a lot faster, other times not so much)\r |
708 | - Savestates: the ability to save a game's state to a file and resume\r |
709 | playing where you left off later.\r |
710 | - Mild cheat support\r |
711 | \r |
712 | \r |
713 | Features that it doesn't have (please don't ask me to implement these!)\r |
714 | - Wi-fi multiplayer\r |
715 | \r |
716 | \r |
717 | -- Controls --\r |
718 | \r |
719 | The default control scheme is very simple. If you don't like it you can\r |
720 | change it in the configuration menu.\r |
721 | \r |
722 | At the ROM selection screen:\r |
723 | \r |
724 | Up/down: navigate current selection window.\r |
725 | Left/right: switch between file window and directory window.\r |
726 | Circle/start: select current entry.\r |
727 | Square: go one directory up.\r |
728 | \r |
729 | In game:\r |
730 | \r |
731 | Up/down/left/right: GBA d-pad\r |
732 | Circle: GBA A button\r |
733 | Cross: GBA B button\r |
734 | Square/start: GBA start button\r |
735 | Select: GBA select button\r |
736 | Left trigger: GBA left trigger\r |
737 | Right trigger: GBA right trigger\r |
738 | Triangle: Adjust frameksip\r |
739 | \r |
740 | In frameskip adjustment:\r |
741 | \r |
742 | Hold down triangle to keep up, press up/down to increase/decrease\r |
743 | frameskip, respectively. Press down at 0 to change to auto, and up\r |
744 | at auto to change to 0.\r |
745 | \r |
746 | In the menu:\r |
747 | \r |
748 | Up/down: navigate current menu.\r |
749 | Left/right: change value in current menu selection (if a value is present)\r |
750 | Circle/start: select current entry (see help for entry to see what this means)\r |
751 | Square: exit the current menu.\r |
752 | \r |
753 | \r |
754 | -- Frameskip --\r |
755 | \r |
756 | The purpose behind frameskip is to cause the emulator to not render every\r |
757 | frame of graphics to make the emulation closer to fullspeed. Many games will\r |
758 | run fullspeed without skipping any frames, however, some (particularly more\r |
759 | graphically demanding ones) will require this.\r |
760 | \r |
761 | Frameskip can be set to two forms, either auto or manual. Auto will attempt\r |
762 | to skip only as many frames as necessary to make the game full speed, and\r |
763 | will not skip more than 4 in a row no matter what speed the game runs at\r |
764 | (at this point the benefits of frameskip yield diminishing returns).\r |
765 | \r |
766 | It is recommended that you keep frameskip on auto, but manual is maintained\r |
767 | as an option if you want it and works as follows:\r |
768 | \r |
769 | Manual frameskip will only render one out of every (n + 1) frames, where n\r |
770 | is the current frameskip value (so 0 will render everything). Increasing\r |
771 | the frameskip can improve speed, especially with very graphically\r |
772 | intensive games.\r |
773 | \r |
774 | \r |
775 | -- Cheats --\r |
776 | \r |
777 | Currently, gpSP supports some functionality of Gameshark/Pro Action Replay\r |
778 | cheat codes. To use these, you must first make a file with the same name\r |
779 | as the ROM you want the cheat code to apply to, but with the extension .cht.\r |
780 | Put this file in the same directory as the ROM. To make it use a normal\r |
781 | text editor like notepad or wordpad if you're on Windows.\r |
782 | \r |
783 | To write a code, write the type of model it is, gameshark_v1, gameshark_v3,\r |
784 | PAR_v1, or PAR_v3. gameshark_v1/PAR_v1 and gameshark_v3/PAR_v3 respectively\r |
785 | are interchangeable, but v1 and v3 are not! So if you don't know which\r |
786 | version it is, try both to see if it'll work.\r |
787 | \r |
788 | Then, after that, put a space and put the name you'd like to give the cheat.\r |
789 | \r |
790 | On the next several lines, put each cheat code pair, which should look like\r |
791 | this:\r |
792 | \r |
793 | AAAAAAAA BBBBBBBB\r |
794 | \r |
795 | Then put a blank line when you're done with that code, and start a new code\r |
796 | immediately after it. Here's an example of what a cheat file should look\r |
797 | like:\r |
798 | \r |
799 | \r |
800 | gameshark_v3 MarioInfHP\r |
801 | 995fa0d9 0c6720d2\r |
802 | \r |
803 | gameshark_v3 MarioMaxHP\r |
804 | 21d58888 c5d0e432\r |
805 | \r |
806 | gameshark_v3 InfHlthBat\r |
807 | 6f4feadb 0581b00e\r |
808 | 79af5dc6 5ce0d2b1\r |
809 | dbbd5995 44b801c9\r |
810 | 65f8924d 2fbcd3c4\r |
811 | \r |
812 | gameshark_v3 StopTimer\r |
813 | 2b399ca4 ec81f071\r |
814 | \r |
815 | \r |
816 | After you have written the .cht file, you have to enable the cheats\r |
817 | individually in the game menu. Go to the Cheats/Misc menu, and you will\r |
818 | see the cheats; turn them on here. You may turn them on and off as you\r |
819 | please, but note that some cheats may still hold after you turn them off,\r |
820 | due to the nature of the system. Restart to completely get rid of them.\r |
821 | \r |
822 | IMPORTANT NOTES:\r |
823 | \r |
824 | This is still very work in progress! I basically added this in only 1.5\r |
825 | or so hours, and I don't have a lot of time right now to work on it\r |
826 | before releasing. So I'll probably improve it later.\r |
827 | \r |
828 | Not all of gameshark's features are supported, especially for v3. Only\r |
829 | basic cheats will work, more or less.\r |
830 | \r |
831 | Cheats may be unstable and may crash your game. If you're having problems\r |
832 | turn the cheats off.\r |
833 | \r |
834 | Really, there's no guarantee that ANY cheats will work; I tried a few and\r |
835 | some seem to work, others are questionable. Try for yourself, but don't\r |
836 | expect anything to actually work right now. Do expect this feature to\r |
837 | improve in future versions.\r |
838 | \r |
839 | \r |
840 | \r |
841 | -- Frequently Asked Questions --\r |
842 | \r |
843 | Q) How do I run this on my PSP?\r |
844 | \r |
845 | A) Provided is an EBOOT.PBP which will run as is on a 1.0 firmware\r |
846 | PSP or custom firmware that can run unsigned EBOOTs. On 1.5 firmwares\r |
847 | you must use a kxploit tool to run it (try SeiPSPtool). On 2.0\r |
848 | firmwares and higher further exploits must be used - see\r |
849 | http://pspupdates.qj.net/ for more information. Note that I have NOT\r |
850 | tested this emulator on any firmware version besides 1.5, and it's\r |
851 | very possible that it doesn't run well, or at all on higher versions.\r |
852 | Therefore I strongly recommend you downgrade if possible, and use\r |
853 | Devhook to run games that require > 1.5 version firmwares.\r |
854 | \r |
855 | Be sure to include in the same directory as the EBOOT.PBP file the\r |
856 | game_config.txt file included and the gba_bios.bin file which you\r |
857 | must provide yourself.\r |
858 | \r |
859 | gpSP does not run on PSPs with version 2.71 or higher firmware yet,\r |
860 | nor does any other homebrew executable.\r |
861 | \r |
862 | \r |
863 | Q) What is a BIOS image file? Why do I need it to run gpSP? Other GBA\r |
864 | emulators don't require this...\r |
865 | \r |
866 | A) The GBA BIOS image file is a copy of a ROM on the GBA system that\r |
867 | has code for starting up the GBA (it shows the logo), verifying the\r |
868 | game, and most importantly, providing utility functions for the games\r |
869 | to use. It is the latter that gpSP needs the BIOS present for. It's\r |
870 | possible to replace all of these functions with equivilent code, but\r |
871 | this will take time - in the future gpSP may not require a BIOS image.\r |
872 | \r |
873 | \r |
874 | Q) I can't find this BIOS image.. please send it to me.\r |
875 | \r |
876 | A) Sorry, but you're on your own. I won't send you a BIOS or tell you\r |
877 | where to get one (unless you want to rip it from a GBA yourself, in\r |
878 | which case I'll just give you the same link at the top). I can't do\r |
879 | this because it's not legal to send it around and I don't want to\r |
880 | get a reputation for illegally distributing BIOS images.\r |
881 | \r |
882 | \r |
883 | Q) How do I know I have the right BIOS?\r |
884 | \r |
885 | A) If you have md5sum you can check if it has this hash:\r |
886 | a860e8c0b6d573d191e4ec7db1b1e4f6\r |
887 | That BIOS should work fine. I think that some others work fine too,\r |
888 | although I haven't confirmed this with absolute certainty. It's also\r |
889 | theoretically possible to use custom (and free) BIOS replacements,\r |
890 | but I don't know of any publically availablone ones.\r |
891 | \r |
892 | As far as I'm aware there are two BIOSes floating around, I doubt\r |
893 | you'll get one that isn't one of those two. There's a very easy way\r |
894 | to determine which one you have - just look at the very first byte in\r |
895 | a hex editor. The correct BIOS begins with 0x18, the buggy BIOS begins\r |
896 | with 0x14.\r |
897 | \r |
898 | \r |
899 | Q) My favorite game won't run.\r |
900 | \r |
901 | A) There probably isn't anything you can do about this, although a\r |
902 | change to game_config.txt might help. gpSP is still an emulator in\r |
903 | its infancy so the compatability is not superb. I don't have time\r |
904 | to test too many games so I'm releasing it as a public beta to get\r |
905 | a feel for some things that don't work. The next version could\r |
906 | perhaps fix it, or it might never run. There are always other\r |
907 | emulators of course, please try one.\r |
908 | \r |
909 | However, before nagging me there is one thing I recommend you try,\r |
910 | and that is to add the option "iwram_stack_optimize = no" for the\r |
911 | game in game_config.txt. See the file itself for more information\r |
912 | on how to do this. If this fixes your game (and it's not already\r |
913 | in the game_config.txt) please tell me about it.\r |
914 | \r |
915 | \r |
916 | Q) My favorite game is very slow.\r |
917 | \r |
918 | A) Emulating GBA takes a number of resources and getting it done well\r |
919 | on PSP is no simple task by any means. Some games are just going to\r |
920 | overwhelm the emulator completely. Of course, there is one special\r |
921 | case of game (a lot of early generation games fall under this\r |
922 | category) that can be made much faster by a simple addition to the\r |
923 | game_config.txt file. Wait for a new version of this file or the\r |
924 | next version of the emulator and the game may be improved.\r |
925 | \r |
926 | That aside, there are still numerous optimizations that can be done,\r |
927 | and I sure you future versions will be faster (I just can't tell you\r |
928 | how much)\r |
929 | \r |
930 | Also, a lot of games will be sped up considerably by adding an\r |
931 | idle_loop_eliminate_target line for it in game_config.txt. There\r |
932 | are some more obscurer options there that can improve speed too. If\r |
933 | the game is VERY slow there might be something wrong with its\r |
934 | emulation that can be improved. For instance, if you can't get a game\r |
935 | to run fullspeed on any frameskip you should e-mail me about it.\r |
936 | \r |
937 | \r |
938 | Q) Some games run fullspeed but the sound is messed up. Why?\r |
939 | \r |
940 | A) At least 9 out of 10 times it means the game isn't really running\r |
941 | full speed, but just that you can't notice the difference. Increasing\r |
942 | frameskip will almost always improve sound quality in these\r |
943 | situations, to a certain point (after around frameskip 3 you\r |
944 | probably won't be seeing many more returns if it isn't already\r |
945 | fullspeed). The rest of the time it means there's a bug somewhere else\r |
946 | in the emulator, probably in the CPU core. Chances are that all you\r |
947 | can do is wait for it to be fixed in a later release.\r |
948 | \r |
949 | \r |
950 | Q) The emulator crashed!\r |
951 | \r |
952 | A) Most games that don't run will probably take the emulator down with\r |
953 | it, or it could be an emulator bug completely unrelated to the game\r |
954 | (but unlikely). Press home and wait for the next version.\r |
955 | \r |
956 | There is some information that comes up when the game crashes. This\r |
957 | information may be slightly useful to me, but chances are it\r |
958 | usually won't be all that interesting.\r |
959 | \r |
960 | These days games are more likely to exit with a "bad crash" error.\r |
961 | This number is possibly useful to me, but to debug a game I'll have\r |
962 | to reproduce the crash anyway. When this happens it's probably due to\r |
963 | a bug in the CPU core that hasn't been fixed yet.\r |
964 | \r |
965 | \r |
966 | Q) Why won't my game save?\r |
967 | \r |
968 | A) The game might need 128KB flash turned on and might not be listed in\r |
969 | game_config.txt. See game_config.txt for more information regarding\r |
970 | this. Be sure to include game_config.txt with the EBOOT.PBP file.\r |
971 | \r |
972 | Other games might simply have bugs in the save support. For now, use\r |
973 | savestates as an alternative if you can't save.\r |
974 | \r |
975 | \r |
976 | Q) How do I change sound quality?\r |
977 | \r |
978 | A) Right now, you can't. For those wondering, sound is locked at 44.1KHz\r |
979 | (sounds a bit high? It is, but it's currently necessary to play\r |
980 | everything correctly). I don't have any plans to allow changing this\r |
981 | right now, because I don't think there's really much reason to be\r |
982 | able to (it'd be a tiny speed boost at best and I don't think SDL even\r |
983 | allows for anything besides this sampling rate on PSP)\r |
984 | \r |
985 | \r |
986 | Q) What is this emulator's name?\r |
987 | \r |
988 | A) Um.. what? It's gameplaySP, isn't it? You call it gpSP for short.\r |
989 | Somehow the name can't have the acronyms gbSP, gbapSP, or really\r |
990 | just about anything else you feel like giving it. Oh, and if you\r |
991 | really want to make me happy get the capitalization right too.\r |
992 | That's gpSP, not gPSP, GPsp.. you get the idea.\r |
993 | \r |
994 | \r |
995 | Q) Does gpSP run Gameboy/Gameboy Color games? Will it later?\r |
996 | \r |
997 | A) No. Even though GBA can run these games it uses separate hardware\r |
998 | that proper GBA games have no access to (save for the audio chip),\r |
999 | and thus there's no point including it in a GBA emulator (it\r |
1000 | doesn't help run GBA games). I recommend using a GB/GBC emulator\r |
1001 | like Rin for playing these games. It'll probably give you a lot\r |
1002 | more options anyway. gpSP will never actually emulate GB/GBC\r |
1003 | games. You'd may as well be waiting for it to emulate PS2 games...\r |
1004 | (that was an analogy. gpSP won't ever emulate PS2 games. >_>)\r |
1005 | \r |
1006 | \r |
1007 | Q) Other emulators use the PSP's graphical hardware to accelerate the\r |
1008 | video emulation. Is this possible for gpSP?\r |
1009 | \r |
1010 | A) I'm honestly not too sure at this point. It's definitely a rather\r |
1011 | complicated procedure, and I don't think it'll be possible to\r |
1012 | accurately accelerate alpha blending. On the other hand, affine\r |
1013 | transformations could perhaps receive a speed boost this way. Any\r |
1014 | solution would have to be hybrid hardware/software, which might be\r |
1015 | possible due to the nature of the PSP's VRAM. Maybe someone will\r |
1016 | be willing to help me think of possibilities here?\r |
1017 | \r |
1018 | But don't bother of you're just going to tell me to render a list\r |
1019 | of quads...\r |
1020 | \r |
1021 | \r |
1022 | Q) Other emulators use the PSP's second CPU to offload the sound\r |
1023 | emulation. Is this possible for gpSP?\r |
1024 | \r |
1025 | A) Yes, but it wouldn't improve it nearly as much as say, SNES9x TYL.\r |
1026 | This is because most of the processing that goes into sound on a GBA\r |
1027 | game is done in the CPU, not in dedicated audio hardware. It could\r |
1028 | help a little, but probably not a lot. Maybe enough to be worthwhile.\r |
1029 | It might also be possible to split the video rendering to the main\r |
1030 | CPU and the main emulation to the secondary one, but there are a lot\r |
1031 | of coherency issues involved.\r |
1032 | \r |
1033 | \r |
1034 | Q) I heard gpSP can only load games 16MB or smaller in size. Is this\r |
1035 | true? What about zipped games?\r |
1036 | \r |
1037 | A) As of version 0.8 gpSP can play 32MB ROMs. However, they must be\r |
1038 | unzipped. The reason for this is that parts of the ROM are constantly\r |
1039 | loaded to memory as needed, and for this to be as fast as possible the\r |
1040 | ROM has to be present on the memory stick in raw format.\r |
1041 | \r |
1042 | You might be wondering, why not just have gpSP unzip the ROM to a file\r |
1043 | then delete the file when it is done? The reason why is because this\r |
1044 | would impose a "hidden" requirement of 32MB on the user that very\r |
1045 | likely may not be there. Furthermore, there are only a few 32MB games\r |
1046 | that anyone actually wants to play. If you only have one 32MB game on\r |
1047 | your memstick then it'd actually require signifnicantly more free space\r |
1048 | to hold both the ROM and the 32MB raw file. With 2 32MB ROMs you only\r |
1049 | gain a around 10-25MB of free space, depending on how effective the\r |
1050 | compression is.\r |
1051 | \r |
1052 | \r |
1053 | Q) Savestates? From other emulators??\r |
1054 | \r |
1055 | A) See the savestates option in main menu. gpSP will probably never\r |
1056 | support savestates from other emulators, there's just too much in the\r |
1057 | way of emulator specific data in them.\r |
1058 | \r |
1059 | Savestates are currently 506,943 bytes. They would be a little smaller\r |
1060 | without the snapshot, but I find that very useful and it wouldn't help\r |
1061 | size immensely. Compression would help, but I wanted the size to be\r |
1062 | constant so you knew exactly how much you could hold and to improve\r |
1063 | save/load speed.\r |
1064 | \r |
1065 | \r |
1066 | Q) What's with the zip support?\r |
1067 | \r |
1068 | A) I hear stories that some games work unzipped and not zipped, so you\r |
1069 | might want to try unzipping them if it gives you problems. You also\r |
1070 | might want to try making fresh zips with WinRAR - users have\r |
1071 | reported some higher success rates doing this.\r |
1072 | \r |
1073 | \r |
1074 | Q) What's with the config file? Should I make it read only?\r |
1075 | \r |
1076 | A) There was a bug in version 0.6 that caused the config file to not\r |
1077 | get updated or get corrupted sometimes. Hopefully this is fixed now,\r |
1078 | but if it DOES get corrupted making it read only can prevent this\r |
1079 | from happening in the future.\r |
1080 | \r |
1081 | \r |
1082 | Q) So when WILL the next version be released?\r |
1083 | \r |
1084 | A) Sorry, but I almost never announce release dates. Furthermore, I'll\r |
1085 | probably be pretty hush hush on internal development, just to keep\r |
1086 | people from nagging me about it and building too much suspense.\r |
1087 | \r |
1088 | \r |
1089 | Q) I don't like this emulator. Are there other alternatives?\r |
1090 | \r |
1091 | A) Yes. Try PSPVBA by Zx-81 (http://zx81.dcemu.co.uk/). Overall I doubt\r |
1092 | the compatability is significantly higher than gpSP's anymore, but\r |
1093 | I'm sure there are some games it runs that gpSP doesn't.\r |
1094 | \r |
1095 | \r |
1096 | Q) I heard there was a version of gpSP for PCs. Is that true?\r |
1097 | \r |
1098 | A) I developed this emulator internally on PC. It might have a speed\r |
1099 | advantage over other PC GBA emulators, although the PSP version has\r |
1100 | more sophisticated optimizations. Most people have fast enough\r |
1101 | computers to run better GBA emulators for PC and gpSP lacks some\r |
1102 | important features (screen resizing) that the PSP version kinda\r |
1103 | hides. Even though gpSP spent a majority of its development\r |
1104 | gestation as a PC app it was always developed with the PSP in mind,\r |
1105 | so the PC version will probably not see the light of the day unless\r |
1106 | I get overwhelming demand for it. It is, however, possible to\r |
1107 | build it from the source. But I request that you don't distribute\r |
1108 | such builds. If you happen to find one, bear in mind that I don't\r |
1109 | offer any support for it, and as far as I'm concerned it won't\r |
1110 | exist.\r |
1111 | \r |
1112 | \r |
1113 | Q) I hear there's a version of gpSP for other platforms too, like\r |
1114 | Dreamcast. And I hear they're slow! What gives?\r |
1115 | \r |
1116 | These are ports, done by other people (or maybe myself?). This is\r |
1117 | possible because gpSP is open source and its base version is fairly\r |
1118 | portable, but to run fast enough on anything but platforms quite a\r |
1119 | bit faster than PSP it at least needs a CPU specific dynarec backend.\r |
1120 | \r |
1121 | I don't (necessarily) maintain all builds of gpSP, so you'll have to\r |
1122 | contact the authors of these ports for more information. That\r |
1123 | notwithstanding, I try to get as involved in other ports of gpSP as\r |
1124 | I can.\r |
1125 | \r |
1126 | \r |
1127 | Q) I want to modify gpSP. How can I do this, and am I at liberty to do\r |
1128 | so?\r |
1129 | \r |
1130 | A) Yes, you are, under the terms of the GPL (see the included\r |
1131 | COPYING.DOC). You can download the sourcecode from whereever you\r |
1132 | downloaded this; if you can't find it please e-mail me and I'll give\r |
1133 | you a link to it. I would vastly appreciate it if you contacted me first\r |
1134 | before forking my project, especially if you're just looking to gain\r |
1135 | recognition without adding much to it. It's better to keep all changes\r |
1136 | tidy in one branch of development.\r |
1137 | \r |
1138 | I would like to stress this a little more seriously (hopefully those\r |
1139 | interested are reading this). Although you are legally entitled to\r |
1140 | release your own forks of gpSP it would be much more benficial to me,\r |
1141 | to you, and to the users of this program if you instead tried working\r |
1142 | with me to get your changes incorporated into the next version. I\r |
1143 | really don't feel like competing with other builds of my source\r |
1144 | anymore, so please do me a big favor and send me an e-mail if you want\r |
1145 | to work with gpSP.\r |
1146 | \r |
1147 | \r |
1148 | Q) How do I build gpSP?\r |
1149 | \r |
1150 | A) make will build it. You need to have SDL for PSP installed, as well\r |
1151 | as the standard PSP toolchain/PSPSDK and zlib. gpSP isn't much of a\r |
1152 | "build it yourself" program so please don't bother me much about how to\r |
1153 | build it unless you have a good reason for wanting to do so.\r |
1154 | \r |
1155 | \r |
1156 | Q) What is with the version numbers?\r |
1157 | \r |
1158 | A) Anything less than 1.0 means beta. Beta means that I still have major\r |
1159 | plans for working on it, and that I don't fully back it as being\r |
1160 | stable or reliable software. Of course, if it does hit 1.0, that doesn't\r |
1161 | mean it'll be perfect. It just means I'll have spent a lot of cumulative\r |
1162 | time working things out. The closer it gets to 0.9, the happier I am with\r |
1163 | it overall.\r |
1164 | \r |
1165 | \r |
1166 | Q) Donations?\r |
1167 | \r |
1168 | A) Very appreciated. exophase@gmail.com on PayPal. <3\r |
1169 | \r |
1170 | \r |
1171 | Q) How can I contact you?\r |
1172 | \r |
1173 | A) exophase@gmail.com, Exophase on AIM, exophase@adelphia.net on MSN. I\r |
1174 | welcome IMs, but if you nag me a lot you'll make me sad inside. And\r |
1175 | don't ask me for ROMs or the GBA BIOS. I figured this was common sense\r |
1176 | but apparently not.\r |
1177 | \r |
1178 | \r |
1179 | -- Credits --\r |
1180 | \r |
1181 | Exophase: main developer\r |
1182 | siberianSTAR: zip support\r |
1183 | psp298: analog nub code\r |
1184 | \r |
1185 | Beta testers for 0.7:\r |
1186 | theohsoawesome1\r |
1187 | thisnamesucks837\r |
1188 | blackdragonwave9\r |
1189 | dagreatpeewee\r |
1190 | xsgenji\r |
1191 | \r |
1192 | Beta testers for 0.8:\r |
1193 | Runaway_prisoner\r |
1194 | theohsoawesome1\r |
1195 | tanyareimyoko\r |
1196 | spynghotoh2020\r |
1197 | \r |
1198 | Beta testers for 0.9:\r |
1199 | RunawayPrisoner (my right hand man)\r |
1200 | Veskgar (my left hand man)\r |
1201 | qasim\r |
1202 | \r |
1203 | -- Special thanks --\r |
1204 | \r |
1205 | Quasar84: He's helped me in so many ways with this. We both kinda learned\r |
1206 | GBA together, he did little demos for me and I got them emulated. It was\r |
1207 | great trying out your more advanced code for your own projects once you\r |
1208 | got to them, it was equally rewarding to see your work and to be able to\r |
1209 | run it at the same time. Least of all I wouldn't have been able to do any\r |
1210 | of this without your constant support and presence. I really owe this\r |
1211 | release to you.\r |
1212 | \r |
1213 | gladius: You are an amazing GBA coder. I wouldn't have been able to get\r |
1214 | through some tough parts without your help. Its been good talking about\r |
1215 | ideas with you.. I'm sure you're glad to see that there's finally a GBA\r |
1216 | emulator with dynarec ;)\r |
1217 | \r |
1218 | \r |
1219 | Many, many others of course, probably too many to name, and I don't want\r |
1220 | to make anyone feel bad by putting others above them (well, except those\r |
1221 | two, heh) so if you think you should be on here, you probably should be!\r |
1222 | Just pretend you are for now, and maybe I'll put you here next time.\r |
1223 | \r |