Messages

181

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Gp2x Psone Emulator Running Realy Fast

« on: January 23, 2006, 01:54:48 pm »

Well, I worked on "ZarPSX" some more. I started over completely and tried to get PCSX up and running on the Zaurus using GTK, CDRiso compiled as a shared object, and Dr Hell's GPU. Still got the same bug in Final Fantasy Tactics (no textures are shown in the opening scene in the rotating 3D building), and Tactics Ogre glitches when choosing the birthday when starting a new game. What's weird is I never use to get these bugs on previous ports, until I started to port to the GP2X, which is also a ARM/Linux based handheld. Now I can't seem to figure out what's causing this bug. Am I missing a compiler option for int sizes or something (had an issue on the Palm port where int size of 2 or 4byte was an issue)? I really doubt it's Dr Hell's GPU, since I got Pete's SoftGPU running and it had the problem as well, even on the GP2X. This bug is really bothering me. If someone can figure it out, please let me know how to fix it! Thanks!

In the meantime I cleaned up ZarPSX 0.01's code, still have that bug, but the code is a bit nicer looking.

From the readme:

UPDATED January 23rd, 2006:
Grab ZarPSX v0.02 at:
http://www.friggingames.com/zarpsx002.zip

ZarPSX (working title), has been updated to v0.02. This release is pretty much a cleanup of code and a change of the CDR plugin to try to find out what's causing strange glitches in games.
Changes include:
- CDR plugin changed to cdriso. This allows for .bz compression, but has temporarily taken away .znx compression. Due to including bz compression, you will *need* to have the "libbz2.so.1.0" shared object file put inside the  "/usr/lib" directory on your Zaurus. If you need this file, it is included in this release.
- Clean up of code. I've tried to take away most of the crap needed for previous ports of this emulator. What's left is pretty much barebones.
- Downgraded from PCSX 1.6b to 1.5. I seemed to have left some code related to 1.6b in the last release by accident. Fixed.
- Set default frameskip to 3

This release is only useful to those who care to look at or use the source. Not much has changed for end users of this emulator...yet. At least once I track down a certain bug, compatibility should go way up.

182

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Gp2x Psone Emulator Running Realy Fast

« on: January 23, 2006, 08:30:32 am »

It's definitely cool to finally get help with this stuff! The Z has a great community.

I'm posting the source to cleaned up version of ZPSX ( ZPSX sounds better than ZarPSX ). It still has some odd bugs in it relating to how I'm compiling PCSX, but it now uses CDRiso which supports .bz instead of .znx. I'll include the shared library for libbz2 just in case someone doesn't have it. Hope thats ok.

Once I track down why PCSX is giving some games glitches such as freezing at the psx logo at boot, or 3D not rendering textures properly, game compatibility should go way up. I think it may have to do with how I'm compiling the emu, since in this version I took out all edits to PCSX, used a different "CD Plugin" and I tested  the GPU and it works in Windows. Anyways, I'll compile in Pete's SoftGPU with as few modifications as possible, and see if I can get things working that way, just in case it is the GPU.

Time to study makefiles and get a new version using Pete's softgpu up again.

183

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Gp2x Psone Emulator Running Realy Fast

« on: January 22, 2006, 01:18:18 pm »

Great to see people taking interest in getting the PSX running on the Zaurus.

I tried using the bvdd driver and it didn't give any speed boost over SDL. SDL on the Zaurus is much better than on the PocketPC with GAPI.

Urielka: When you compiled PCSX for the Zaurus, what needed to be changed in order for it to compile? I'm trying to track down some bugs in ZarPSX, which is based on PCSX 1.5 (though I've tried using 1.6 beta as well). If I could do a diff on your sources to mine, maybe I could fix it. Though, I don't use plugin's since the lineage of this code ran on a few other platforms that didn't support stuff like that.

I really hope we can get a PSX emu working on the Zar at good speeds. I'll do my best.

184

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Gp2x Psone Emulator Running Realy Fast

« on: January 21, 2006, 01:43:33 pm »

Just got some example code for bvdd support. I'll see if working it into the code makes things go faster, which it should. Argh SDL!

185

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Gp2x Psone Emulator Running Realy Fast

« on: January 21, 2006, 01:33:41 pm »

Yay! ZarPSX has been released!

Grab ZarPSX v0.01 at:
http://www.friggingames.com/zarpsx.zip

So, I named the emu ZarPSX. It's a working title. It's ZarPSX and not ZaurPSX since I have a tendancy to prefix things with a 3 letter name. Any suggestions for a final name?

Stuff that works in ZarPSX so far:
- A few games. I'm playing R-Types right now. Most games have graphical glitches or run slow in 640x480 mode. Let me know if you get a game working well. My guess is games like Bust A Move 4 and Buster Bros, will run well. Vandal Hearts runs pretty well but with a graphical glitch at the top of the screen. Compatibility list anyone?
- Saving/Loading from memory cards should work.
- BIN/Z/ZNX ISO support. I use XDuplicator (CDRTAO open source project frontend) for ripping to raw BIN format, then compress to Z or ZNX with PocketISO 2.0.
- Frameskipping works. Right now I only have it so the frameskip setting makes the actual blit skip, not the rendering. I can get a good speed up if I skip rendering of frames, but it causes graphical glitches as you could imagine.
- GPU is now my own custom version of Dr Hell's GPU. I like it a lot, but it needs more tweaking.
- 640x480 build for full screen 640x480 screen, as well as a 320x240 build for a huge speed increase (60 FPS in Final Fantasy 7 with frameskip of 1-2, though FF7 crashes pretty quickly into the game, more on that later).
- All the default controls work. They're mapped as noted below. They'll change as the emulator progresses, I just had this button layout set before people started suggesting there own.
- File menu for loading ISO's. It sucks, but it works!
- HLE support works. Hold down the 'H' key when selecting an ISO to run the game using HLE. HLE should improve performance, and perhaps fix or cause glitches by the way it handles emulating the PSX BIOS. When HLE is used, no BIOS ROM is needed, and no PSX splash screen is seen.

Stuff that doesn't work in ZarPSX yet:
- Final Fantasy 7 as well as some other games don't work when they should. As you can see in the code for ZarPSX, it's based off of PCSX. Yeah, PCSX. :/ ...Good thing is, PCSX works with a lot of games, including FF7, which is why I'm unsure as to the reason my small modifications to the core of PCSX made these games not work. I was thinking it might actually have to do with some of the "plugin" code I jammed into ZarPSX such as PlugCD.c. If someone feels like getting these games working with ZarPSX, please PM me.
- MDEC timings are off. This is probably a quick fix, but I timed the MDEC interrupt wrong. MDEC is the "movie codec" the PSX uses. So if you get really jittery or slideshow-like movies, this is why. I'll fix it asap.
- Games that span multiple ISOs won't work currently.

As I've explained to Urielka, ZarPSX's code is horrid imho. I think we can make this emulator much better as a community. So take a look at the code, clean it up, edit it, and submit it back to me, and I'll keep everything in order and keep the ZarPSX project humming along. Urielka is researching dynamic recompilers, and if a dynamic recompiler is made for ZarPSX, we will see a fairly good speed increase from it. Right now, 320x240 ZarPSX is pretty fast, full speed for most games with a single frameskip. But 640x480 ZarPSX needs about a 3 or 4 frameskip to reach the same speed, yet appears choppy. So let's get 640x480 full screen ZarPSX fullspeed!

Things to help out:
- Get a compatibility list for ZarPSX up and running. This will help me out greatly, especially when the emu progresses. A wiki would be good for this most likely.
- Fix bugs in ZarPSX and submit them to me.
- Get a CVS going?
- Help me figure out how to use the framebuffer on the Zaurus Cxxxx line.
- Get ZarPSX running on Zaurus' other than the Cxxxx line.

Keep in mind it's "normal" to wait a minute or so for the stupid PSX splash screen to finish. I'll speed this process up for the next release, in the meantime, wait for it or use HLE to skip the process.

----
How to use ZarPSX:
Run zarpsxhi for a full 640x480 resolution. Games will go slower.
Run zarpsxlow for 320x240 resolution. Games will go faster but will appear in a small window in the center of the screen. :/
----
Controls:
PSX -> Zaurus
UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT -> Digital Pad
X/SQUARE/O/TRIANGLE -> A/S/D/F (might have these in the wrong order, i'll get the correct order in a bit)
L1/R1/L2/R2 -> Z/X/C/V
START -> ENTER
SELECT -> SPACE

SELECT ISO -> ENTER/OK
QUIT EMU -> BACKSPACE
LOWER FRAMESKIP -> K
RAISE FRAMESKIP -> L

Every once and awhile an issue comes along that a game reads from the wrong coord in the VRAM set for the PSX. I made a little fix for this by using the 'P' key to toggle this graphics fix. Don't use it unless you think it's needed (such as when the game seems frozen or is stuck on a blank screen).
----
BIOS:
If you do not use HLE, you will *NEED* a PSX BIOS. The BIOS should be named scph1001.bin and be located where zarpsx is. Please DO NOT ask for this file. If you can't find the file, try using HLE by holding down the 'H' key when selecting an ISO. HLE should give a slight speed increase as well, but may cause glitches.
----
Saving games:
Currently only saving through a memory card file is supported. That's why the two formatted memory card files (.mcr files) are included. Saving within the game to the memory card files should be the same as if it were being saved to an actual memory card on a PSX. So nothing to worry about here. Just keep the .mcr files in the same directory as zarpsx.
----
Required Librarys:
You will need the SDL library as well as the Zlib library installed on your Zaurus.
----
Required Zaurus:
This version will probably only work on the Cxxxx line of Zaurus' from the sounds of things. But maybe not, let me know!


Hope you enjoy ZarPSX! There's a long ways for it to go, but it's coming along. Once the compatibility goes up and things speed up enough to be able to use 640x480 over 320x240, things will be smooth. I really do think a fullspeed PSX emulator with sound is possible on the Zaurus Cxxxx. Let's get this project nice and polished.


ZodTTD

P.S. Anyone interested in a port of OpenTTD (Transport Tycoon Deluxe) to the Zaurus? I've ported it to many other handhelds, and can probably get it up and running on the Zaurus fairly easily if it hasn't been done already.
Also, I just remembered I forgot the makefile to compile zarpsx. It's simple to compile though. If anyone needs help compiling, let me know.

186

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Gp2x Psone Emulator Running Realy Fast

« on: January 20, 2006, 05:36:34 pm »

A little update on things...

I have the PSX running on the Z C1000 running pdaXrom. Since I just got my C1000, and it being my first Zaurus, I know little about the system.

For instance, when I went to draw directly to the mmap'd framebuffer, it was drawn as if the screen was 480x640, instead of 640x480...rotated? Which brings me to another question, what's the most common Zaurus screen dimension?

Anyways, the PSX emu is running pretty slowly right now. If I get some example code or information on using the framebuffer with, at least,  the Z C1000 I can speed things up. It's using SDL right now, and I modified things so it just Locks the surface, draws to the surface, unlocks then updates. Argh SDL!

Controls are working, the screen is stretched when needed to 640x480 (hardcoded though, which is probably a bad thing considering other Z's probably don't have a 640x480 screen). The screen stretching makes things go pretty slow. There isn't any hardware stretch on the Z Cxxxx series is there?

So, you might be able to play a simple 2D game pretty well at this point, but FF7 is still slow. :/

I'll work on it a bit more before releasing an initial build. I want to make sure compressed ISO's load, as well as try to speed things up more.

Wish me luck. ;P
ZodTTD

187

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Gp2x Psone Emulator Running Realy Fast

« on: January 19, 2006, 05:27:12 pm »

Hi, just an update to things...

This is the first time people have offered me donations before I started a project. Very cool community! I was able to buy a new C1000 for $397 US, shipped. It shipped REALLY fast, and already arrived. So I'm working on getting the source code polished up as well as setting up a Linux development environment. Most the code for the emulator is easily ported, and getting the GPU (graphics processing unit) code to blit to the framebuffer shouldn't be hard. I'll have to change some of the input code to support the Zaurus, since GP2PSX used code specific to the GP2X. Since the GP2X runs a flavor of Linux, most this code should be able to be ported pretty quickly. I'm hoping to have something working today. I'm in the process of getting Urielka set up so he can work his magic with a dynamic recompiler.

Thing's that definitely won't work right away:
Sound/Music

Thing's that might not work right away:
- A good frameskip option. I can get something working temp at first though.
- Support for ZNX compressed ISOs. Raw BIN  and Z compressed ISOs should work though. Use PocketISO 2.0 from the *cough* FPSEce *cough* homepage to compress the ISOs.
- The control layout will probably suck and not be configurable at first. Any suggestions on a button layout?

Things to expect, even though we have no idea how it'll turn out:
The emu might run really slow at first. If it turns out that way, I'll do my best to get it going nice and fast. Using direct access to the framebuffer instead of SDL, and using a different GPU will help things greatly.

I'll add a donate link to my signature once I get the emu working on my C1000 and release a build.

Thanks for introducing me to this awesome handheld!

188

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Gp2x Psone Emulator Running Realy Fast

« on: January 14, 2006, 01:14:01 pm »

Hello,

I'm the developer of GP2PSX for the GP2X. I'm extremely interested in getting the PSX running on the Zaurus C1000. I had never heard of this PDA before, but I really want one now. I will gladly get the PSX running great with pdaXrom, but I need to get the system first. I have a feeling it will be pretty hard for me to find the C1000 in my "price range". I will gladly work with the community for help in getting this project up and running.

On a side note, I've been able to get the GP2PSX codebase working on my 412MHz ARM Asus A620 PPC and playable speeds with very little work. I imagine with the Zaurus in my hands, and a few good full days of work, you can see the PSX running at playable speeds. I won't promise full speed, but I think with a powerful system (in comparison to what I normally work with), such as this, I can get a full speed PSX emu up and running in a matter of weeks.

So any ideas on how I could get a C1000 for cheap?

Thanks,
ZodTTD