VBA-M

I.S.T. · Post by **I.S.T.** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 2:12 am

mudlord wrote:
I tried the latest version, and I get two error messages. First one says the file is corrupt, and needs to be reinstalled, the second one says "Windows cannot run this program because it is in an invalid format."

Didn't notice the second one when I was trying it earlier...

That is weird. On my previous dev system, this never, ever occured, which was running XP SP2. Having never being able to reproduce the problem, it sounds like it could be a fault on your end.

I'll try clearing the registry, as that's the only thing I can think of.

Edit: Didn't work, but I have another idea. I'm going to try all of the versions of VBA that are merged into your version. If one of them has the same error, at least we'll know where it's coming from... I know it's not the official VBA, as I can run that.

Edit2: Dammit, that's not the issue either... I tried Spacy, link, smooth and rerecording. 1.8.0-beta 3 works fine as well. o_O

Edit3: Hmm... Found a version of Kode 54's VBA build which I believe is earlier than the one in your build. Might be wrong though. There's no source link, otherwise i'd check for myself. It crashes too, but with a different error message("Visualboyadvance has caused an error in VISUALBOYADVANCE.EXE. Visualboyadvance will now close.").

Man, this is irritating...

blargg · Post by **blargg** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 2:36 pm

As you know, if you load a savestate, it replaces your srm file with one from the state.

Save RAM and save states both save game progress, and save states provide all the functionality of save RAM and more. They work differently so conceptually it's awkward to try to mix them. If you want separate saved games, use more than one save state.

How would you reconcile them? Perhaps if game is started without save state, then load from the save RAM file and save to it when the game is closed (even if save states are then used), otherwise never touch the save RAM file? I haven't used VBA so I don't even know if you can start a game by clicking on its save state file, so the distinction between starting the game and starting with a save state might not even exist. Even if it did, it would be a subtle thing and leave the player unsure as to whether the save RAM file will get updated when quitting. Adding a confirmation dialog when quitting would just be annoying.

What's an example situation where the current behavior is a problem?

mudlord · Post by **mudlord** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 2:52 am

Edit: Didn't work, but I have another idea. I'm going to try all of the versions of VBA that are merged into your version. If one of them has the same error, at least we'll know where it's coming from... I know it's not the official VBA, as I can run that.

Edit2: Dammit, that's not the issue either... I tried Spacy, link, smooth and rerecording. 1.8.0-beta 3 works fine as well. o_O

Edit3: Hmm... Found a version of Kode 54's VBA build which I believe is earlier than the one in your build. Might be wrong though. There's no source link, otherwise i'd check for myself. It crashes too, but with a different error message("Visualboyadvance has caused an error in VISUALBOYADVANCE.EXE. Visualboyadvance will now close.").

Man, this is irritating...

We are using MSVC 2005 to compile. I could try compiling on VS2003 for you to see if that alleviates it. Doubt it though, though we link the libs static to save end users getting the MSVC2005 runtimes...

I.S.T. · Post by **I.S.T.** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 4:01 am

I'd appreciate it, if it's not too much trouble.

mudlord · Post by **mudlord** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:19 am

I'd appreciate it, if it's not too much trouble.

Hey, its cool

It will be no hassle.

I.S.T. · Post by **I.S.T.** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:51 am

Thanks, man.

kick · Post by **kick** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 1:34 pm

Here's another interesting fact about VBA-M: The Win32 build (188) works exceptionally well under Linux with WINE.
While DirectDraw doesn't work and the menubar has some disappearing issues,Direct3D and OpenGL modes were rock-solid.
One thing that surprised me was the emulation speed - a real shocker: it's like running a native Win32 build (!)
DirectInput gamepads work as well,so control is on par with Windows.
There's also a noticable improvement in sound quality over the last version of VBA for Linux.

After all these years,running VBA under Linux was (finally) a wonderful experience.

creaothceann · Post by **creaothceann** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 3:30 pm

kick wrote:One thing that surprised me was the emulation speed - a real shocker: it's like running a native Win32 build (!)

Well, emulators don't interact much with the OS except for key input and drawing/sound, so the speed should indeed be similar.

mudlord · Post by **mudlord** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 10:02 pm

Here's another interesting fact about VBA-M: The Win32 build (188) works exceptionally well under Linux with WINE.
While DirectDraw doesn't work and the menubar has some disappearing issues,Direct3D and OpenGL modes were rock-solid.
One thing that surprised me was the emulation speed - a real shocker: it's like running a native Win32 build (!)
DirectInput gamepads work as well,so control is on par with Windows.
There's also a noticable improvement in sound quality over the last version of VBA for Linux.

After all these years,running VBA under Linux was (finally) a wonderful experience.

I'm glad everything is working so well for you

I'm also happy that the sound thread changes didn't break anything either. I am currently rewriting major portions of the OpenGL renderer for speed, as well as rewriting the GLSL shader parser. Not sure how Wine handles shaders, but OGL ones shouldnt be a issue. Granted though, the GBA graphics core needs a rewrite, bad, like how the core had one.

DancemasterGlenn · Post by **DancemasterGlenn** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 11:22 pm

Hopefully this working reasonably well in Wine is not a reason to put off an eventual native linux gui, but it's nice to know that I have that option. Thanks kick!

mudlord · Post by **mudlord** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 8:58 pm

That's something I really need to start work on (the Qt GUI), plus the GBA graphics core needs severe work. As well as a main code cleanup to do with the large amount of global variables...And I need to finish off the Win32 OGL fragment shader linker/compiler code..

DancemasterGlenn · Post by **DancemasterGlenn** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 10:11 pm

mudlord wrote:That's something I really need to start work on (the Qt GUI), plus the GBA graphics core needs severe work. As well as a main code cleanup to do with the large amount of global variables...And I need to finish off the Win32 OGL fragment shader linker/compiler code..

Don't rush the GUI on my behalf, I'm perfectly content to wait while the actual important things are taken care of. I am looking forward to it, though.

mudlord · Post by **mudlord** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 12:13 pm

There, finished my Win32 OGL renderer rewrite, just need to commit to SVN. There seems to be a issue when the GLSL shaders get applied to the image though. Which is odd, since the init code I rewrote and the shader parser works perfectly fine, and I am targeting the right texture (we are dealing with 2 textures here: the subtexture of the main renderer output, and the font texture for displaying emulator statistics)..Might do much more testing though. Then there is still some emulation kinks to sort out though.

I'm glad though that some people appreciate that some things take time

, like yourself. One thing that removes my motivation is when people pester for things to get done. For me, orders really are a demotivator, but thats getting OT...I'll do a Win32 SVN compile when I can.

Tallgeese · Post by **Tallgeese** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 9:46 pm

blargg wrote:
As you know, if you load a savestate, it replaces your srm file with one from the state.
What's an example situation where the current behavior is a problem?

It was just a request, because accidentially loading an old state can be annoying when you've mostly been using standard SRAM saves. Happened once in Pokemon Fire Red. Not really a big deal but I asked for convienence.

I vaguely remember ZSNES being able to load a savestate without overwriting the SRAM, at least during Secret of Evermore, so I thought I'd ask.

I.S.T. · Post by **I.S.T.** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 6:52 am

Has a VS2003 build been made? I hope I don't come off like I'm nagging or anything... I know there are greater priorities, I'm just curious.

mudlord · Post by **mudlord** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 11:00 pm

I need to convert the VS2005 project files back to VS2003 ones before I can make a VS2003 compile...

I.S.T. · Post by **I.S.T.** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 6:47 am

mudlord wrote:I need to convert the VS2005 project files back to VS2003 ones before I can make a VS2003 compile...

Didn't know that... Not much experience with IDEs and compliers. Sounds like it's way too much of a hassle. Sorry for bugging you, man.

mudlord · Post by **mudlord** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 9:10 am

Its cool, but I think you should upgrade from ME though, seriously, considering how buggy it is....

Anyway, new SVN compile up with loads of updates. Merry Christmas

I.S.T. · Post by **I.S.T.** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 9:11 am

mudlord wrote:Its cool, but I think you should upgrade from ME though, seriously, considering how buggy it is....

Anyway, new SVN compile up with loads of updates. Merry Christmas

I am as soon as possible, trust me.

Edit: don't work. I hate Windows ME and Intel(I bet it's Intel's shitty integrated graphics driver that's doing this...). Nothing you can do to fix this. Sorry for all the trouble, man.

escapee · Post by **escapee** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 8:08 pm

If I have the ogl renderer selected, the latest SVN 220 crashes if I try to load a game, change renderer or set up controls (may even crash on accessing some other functions, but these were all I tried). Previous SVN 188 was fine in this regard. Again, this is only if I have ogl selected.

Win Xp
GeForce 5600 FX (9.1.3.1)
Athlon 1.5 GHz
768 MB RAM
SB Live

mudlord · Post by **mudlord** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 8:13 pm

Thanks for letting me know, this is probably caused by something of my doing which happened during the renderer rewrite...

Sorry for the inconvenience.

mudlord · Post by **mudlord** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 8:27 pm

Okay, it is fixed.

escapee · Post by **escapee** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 8:39 pm

Oh ok, cool. Thanks for the quick response! I had updated to latest driver just to see, but no change. So, I guess I'm waiting on the next SVN upload.

Also, I should take this opportunity to thank you and the teams' efforts with this project. I had looked like everyone was going to have to settle for 'good enough', and now you guys are going above and beyond. Thank you!

Edit:

Ok, with SVN 228; I can get a game to open with ogl selected and I can change to the various renderers fine.

Problems found so far: GLSL crashes whenever I select it with a game running or try to start a game with it enabled and the speed readout overlay is corrupted. Emu crashes on exit the first time I set ogl.

That's ogl only. If I use D3D, sound is crackly regardless of output API choice.

Also, seems to be touchy on saving settings. Probably related to the various crash points, I'd assume, and just a side-effect.

That said, seems to be ok if i just select ogl, close the emu and let it crash then just run a game and leave the settings alone. :\

Edit2:

SVN 230; All the above still applies aside from then corrupted speed overlay. Reverting my driver fixed this.

mudlord · Post by **mudlord** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 11:39 pm

Problems found so far: GLSL crashes whenever I select it with a game running or try to start a game with it enabled and the speed readout overlay is corrupted. Emu crashes on exit the first time I set ogl.

Hhehehe, when you enable that, you need to have the pixel shaders you want to load in the same directory as VBA.exe. Of course, the shader parser expects them, when you tick "GLSL Shaders". This is inherant by design of the fragment shader compiler. Of course, with it disabled, it should work perfect, as there is no shaders to load, compile, link and output

Its best if you dont have any *.frag or *.vert files in the same VBA-M directory as the executable, you dont enable the shader effects, as you found out

.

escapee · Post by **escapee** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 11:57 pm

Mmkay then. Maybe a more graceful error then, a pop-up saying 'foo not found.' or something. Is this even a feature I would be interested in with only 2.0 pixel shader support?

There's still the issue of crash on exit with ogl when you initially select it as renderer. E.G. if I set it to D3D and close it, then re-open it and set it to ogl and close it, it will crash.