Author Topic: What I've been working on (iq_132's work in progress)  (Read 720588 times)

Online iq_132

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What I've been working on (iq_132's work in progress)
« on: August 04, 2008, 02:58:22 PM »
It's been pretty quiet from me for a while now...

One of the things I've been messing around with a bit is a "Virtual Memory Manager" for FBA-XXX. 
While it does have one already, I wanted to make an attempt at one myself and am quite happy
with the results.

Here's a short description of what my VMM does:

First, I allocate a structure holding information for each object (sprite/tile) such as size, when it was last used, and the offset in the data at which it is located, and a pointer to allocated ram for just this object. Next, I dump the data that we're trying to keep out of RAM and free the RAM it was loaded into. Then, in the drawing function, I make a call to my vmm_get_data function. The vmm_get_data function checks to see if we have enough free ram to load another object (the amount of ram available is definable), then it either frees some ram or starts looking to see if our object has already been read into ram.  If it is in ram already, we move it to the temporary malloc used by the drawing function, if it's not, we allocate some ram to put the object in, seek in the data file to the offset the object is located, read it into the allocated memory, and then move a copy of it into the temporary ram used by the drawing function.

While this may sound very slow, it seems to be fairly effective for games that take a great deal of memory, such as the PGM games.  Knights of Valour, Oriental Legend, etc. all work at a fairly steady rate (usually full speed [~59.97fps]), dropping in areas with excessively heavy sprite use.


The next project that's been eating up a lot of my time is a "Magical Cat Adventure" driver.  It's probably the most complicated drawing hardware I've tried to work with yet.  It has "line scrolling," and variably-sized sprites, meaning that it takes complex, slow drawing routines to draw them.  I've spent a lot of time making sure the routines are as fast as possible and take as little code as possible.  I've hit several roadblocks that have taken a great deal of time, such as a small glitch with the background layer -- part of it doesn't scroll correctly, and the second is that the other game on the hardware "Nostradamus" is having problems communicating with the Z80 -- I'm not entirely sure if this is related to some sort of doze bug or a timing issue.



I've also been working on completing a snk68 (P.O.W., Search and Rescue, Ikari III, and Street Smart) driver that I've had almost finished for ages.  I can't quite get the analog "spinner" inputs hooked up correctly using the mouse input.
I've ported, and re-ported a "Kangaroo" driver, but have had no luck fixing graphics issues, which, at this point, I am assuming are related to doze.
I started porting a Bubble Bobble driver (only some of the bootlegs work atm).
« Last Edit: February 17, 2010, 12:34:35 PM by iq_132 »


kev

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Re: What I've been working on (iq_132's work in progress)
« Reply #1 on: August 04, 2008, 05:22:36 PM »
nice. It will be interesting to compare your xbox port with what I have in my build. I optimised the code a bit over the last version lantus and I wrote and it seems to run fullspeed on everything I have tried, although I am using a debug xbox so it has 128mb. Can't get it working in 1080i at a decent speed tho.

Your drivers should be interesting as well. I have been taking a look at the megadeive driver again and almost all the graphics problems I have found are fixed but the sound is going wrong with doze.sorry for spelling mistakes etc  I am posting from my phone and it doesnt like your board software much :)

Offline Barry Harris

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Re: What I've been working on (iq_132's work in progress)
« Reply #2 on: August 05, 2008, 05:51:23 AM »
Cool on all counts!

Megadrive fixes would be cool.

I've been working on a driver for Unico games. http://www.mameworld.net/maws/driverinfo/unico.c

Only Zero Point 2 left to add but that is rather different.
« Last Edit: April 22, 2021, 07:37:44 PM by iq_132 »
Account of Barry Harris; the traitor.
Send me an e-mail at barry@fbalpha.com letting me know how big of a piece of sh** I am.

Offline CaptainCPS

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Re: What I've been working on (iq_132's work in progress)
« Reply #3 on: August 05, 2008, 04:11:47 PM »
OMG! T__T a lot has happened here...I don't know where to post exactly so I will post here, in the latest thread.  I have to say that FBA have a load of cool stuff since the last time i used it and the things you have been working (IQ) are very nice too =)...

I have been very busy as IQ wrote in a recent post, most of the stuff is related with work, I have been doing PC repairs here at home and doing works outside but I havent find a stable job, one that i can be relaxed and say 'ok, now i can go back to all my hobbies'...it's not easy these days to get a job (it doesnt matter if I have 4.0 pts score)...sometimes I came here to check things but I just didnt want to lose focus of things i was doing in real life, like for example a comic story im writting for my future comic book series...its not like i have it completely done but its a WIP project, I still have to register / copyright chars and stuff.

Anyway, I will try to come here again, because I miss this place so much, I miss emulation T___T... probably I will not be able to make FBA modifications like i used to do but, I have some small ideas that probably can help the FBA original project, not to be better because its great as it is now ^^, but I just want to do small collaborations =)

BTW, I'm so sorry to dissapear like i dissapeared but it's just that I was having so much issues in real life and couldnt been on like i normally do. My desktop PC is fkd up too, and I have been using my laptop all this time and just recently i was able to buy a HDD converter so I can connect them to my laptop via USB and recover my old files and projects.

I hope to be online some more from now on guys, I hope all understand my situation =)

Take Care all!!
SeeYaa!
 :biggrin:


Offline pmc2

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Re: What I've been working on (iq_132's work in progress)
« Reply #4 on: August 05, 2008, 05:42:43 PM »
Ho, captain CPS-X. Welcome back :)

Online iq_132

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Re: What I've been working on (iq_132's work in progress)
« Reply #5 on: August 06, 2008, 02:44:23 PM »
nice. It will be interesting to compare your xbox port with what I have in my build. I optimised the code a bit over the last version lantus and I wrote and it seems to run fullspeed on everything I have tried, although I am using a debug xbox so it has 128mb. Can't get it working in 1080i at a decent speed tho.

Mine definitely isn't full-speed 100% of the time, but it runs fairly well, and on my standard 64mb xbox lol.
I've attached the PGM driver + my vmm code if you want to take a look at it.

Quote
Your drivers should be interesting as well. I have been taking a look at the megadeive driver again and almost all the graphics problems I have found are fixed but the sound is going wrong with doze.sorry for spelling mistakes etc  I am posting from my phone and it doesnt like your board software much :)

Nice, I'd love to see fba become an excellent Genesis emulator. :)


Cool on all counts!

Megadrive fixes would be cool.

I've been working on a driver for Unico games. http://www.mameworld.net/maws/driverinfo/unico.c

Only Zero Point 2 left to add but that is rather different.

Ah, cool! I was thinking about adding that driver myself.


OMG! T__T a lot has happened here...I don't know where to post exactly so I will post here, in the latest thread.  I have to say that FBA have a load of cool stuff since the last time i used it and the things you have been working (IQ) are very nice too =)...

I have been very busy as IQ wrote in a recent post, most of the stuff is related with work, I have been doing PC repairs here at home and doing works outside but I havent find a stable job, one that i can be relaxed and say 'ok, now i can go back to all my hobbies'...it's not easy these days to get a job (it doesnt matter if I have 4.0 pts score)...sometimes I came here to check things but I just didnt want to lose focus of things i was doing in real life, like for example a comic story im writting for my future comic book series...its not like i have it completely done but its a WIP project, I still have to register / copyright chars and stuff.

Anyway, I will try to come here again, because I miss this place so much, I miss emulation T___T... probably I will not be able to make FBA modifications like i used to do but, I have some small ideas that probably can help the FBA original project, not to be better because its great as it is now ^^, but I just want to do small collaborations =)

BTW, I'm so sorry to dissapear like i dissapeared but it's just that I was having so much issues in real life and couldnt been on like i normally do. My desktop PC is fkd up too, and I have been using my laptop all this time and just recently i was able to buy a HDD converter so I can connect them to my laptop via USB and recover my old files and projects.

I hope to be online some more from now on guys, I hope all understand my situation =)

Take Care all!!
SeeYaa!
 :biggrin:




Nice to have you back Cap! When the hell are you going to be on MSN?? :D


Offline CaptainCPS

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Re: What I've been working on (iq_132's work in progress)
« Reply #6 on: August 06, 2008, 02:55:50 PM »
Nice to have you back Cap! When the hell are you going to be on MSN?? :D

LOL, Im planning on going to MSN soon, probably tonight  :p, btw that code u posted works in regular src of FBA or its just for XBOX port?

SeeYaa!
 :biggrin:

Online iq_132

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Re: What I've been working on (iq_132's work in progress)
« Reply #7 on: August 06, 2008, 03:00:36 PM »
LOL, Im planning on going to MSN soon, probably tonight  :p, btw that code u posted works in regular src of FBA or its just for XBOX port?

SeeYaa!
 :biggrin:

I probably won't be around tonight. :( And yup, in uni_vmm.cpp comment #define XBOX


Online iq_132

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Re: What I've been working on (iq_132's work in progress)
« Reply #8 on: September 04, 2008, 01:05:43 AM »
x


Online iq_132

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Re: What I've been working on (iq_132's work in progress)
« Reply #9 on: September 15, 2008, 07:57:36 PM »
x


kev

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Re: What I've been working on (iq_132's work in progress)
« Reply #10 on: September 15, 2008, 08:01:54 PM »
revenge of doh, very nice.

Online iq_132

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Re: What I've been working on (iq_132's work in progress)
« Reply #11 on: September 22, 2008, 01:37:46 PM »
Both of these drivers are finished and *should* be in the next fba release.


Online iq_132

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Re: What I've been working on (iq_132's work in progress)
« Reply #12 on: September 22, 2008, 01:38:30 PM »
x


Online iq_132

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Re: What I've been working on (iq_132's work in progress)
« Reply #13 on: September 27, 2008, 01:41:33 AM »
Just finished this up (mostly) today...


Offline JacKc

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Re: What I've been working on (iq_132's work in progress)
« Reply #14 on: September 27, 2008, 07:11:04 PM »
Thanks iq_132 for working and working on drivers to be ported on FBA...It's nothing but words...But all my support !!