Author Topic: [PS3][Coming Soon] FB Alpha Retro Loader (Light) v1.0  (Read 11161 times)

Offline CaptainCPS

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[PS3][Coming Soon] FB Alpha Retro Loader (Light) v1.0
« on: August 22, 2017, 07:20:40 PM »
[PS3][Coming Soon] FB Alpha Retro Loader (Light) v1.0 (powered by PSL1GHT)

Hiyas everyone! It has been a long time! I'm still following all the nice updates Team FBA has been working all this time (daily svn email of updates xD). Life hasn't been giving me the free time I want but I'm trying to come back and at least give some love with a little contribution to FBA users on PS3.

I want to congratulate everyone first, for all the amazing updates and additions to the official FBA over the time. Great stuff! <3

I recently shared the news at PSX-Place forums, but wanted to share it here as well. I started working on a re-write of my old PS3 homebrew FB Alpha Retro Loader, but this time using PSL1GHT SDK instead of Sony SDK, and is coded with mainly C instead of C++. It is a frontend for libretro / fba core. I was able to fix the compile errors on the latest stable source released to the public and merged the Megadrive updates from a few days ago. Plus identified a problem that wouldn't let Megadrive, GameGear, SMS, MSX, SG1000 and various drivers to run, libretro would crash. The compile fix was made public some days ago via my GitHub repo and merged into the official libretro repo. The latest fixes for the console / handheld drivers are not yet published but will be later on when I finish cleaning some things up.

Here is the link to the original thread, with more details:

http://www.psx-place.com/threads/coming-soon-fb-alpha-retro-loader-light-v1-0-powered-by-psl1ght.14610/



And here some images:







(the following was WIP, the info text is properly displayed in my private build atm)











And here images of the systems (previously not working on PS3) running with my fix!

SEGA Megadrive



Altered Beast (running well now, using latest FBA core and M68K v3.32)



SEGA Game Gear



Sega Master System







PC Engine







Sega SG-1000





TurboGrafx 16







ColecoVision







When I release the initial version of FB Alpha Retro Loader (Light) v1.0 (this weekend probably) I will share it here as well! :)

SeeYa!
:D
« Last Edit: August 23, 2017, 09:05:30 PM by CaptainCPS »

Offline dink

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Re: [PS3][Coming Soon] FB Alpha Retro Loader (Light) v1.0
« Reply #1 on: August 22, 2017, 09:50:40 PM »
dude! sweet! :D

best regards,
- dink

Offline iq_132

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Re: [PS3][Coming Soon] FB Alpha Retro Loader (Light) v1.0
« Reply #2 on: August 22, 2017, 11:11:01 PM »
Mon capitaine! Nice work! Long time no see!


Offline CaptainCPS

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Re: [PS3][Coming Soon] FB Alpha Retro Loader (Light) v1.0
« Reply #3 on: August 22, 2017, 11:39:43 PM »
Thanks guys! :D Hope you been allright! ^__^

Here what I was able to work today after work :) (posted at PSX-Place thread)

Quote

Work in Progress!


After I came back from work, was able to progress a bit more with the UI.

- Implemented a game title ticker in case it is too long, it will animate the text so you can read it all.
- Added game selection color animation (cosmetic).
- Added Title Screen preview (previously was only In-Game preview)
- Organized game info text (will make the text bigger later)

When I make the first release, I will include the complete Title + In-game preview pack for all supported systems (previews were made by Gab75 from FBA official forums at NeoSource).

Here some screenshots :)












SeeYa!
:D
« Last Edit: August 23, 2017, 03:30:00 PM by CaptainCPS »

Offline barbudreadmon

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Re: [PS3][Coming Soon] FB Alpha Retro Loader (Light) v1.0
« Reply #4 on: August 23, 2017, 01:15:31 AM »
Hi again :).

I assume you did solve all the issues with altered beast and megadrive ?

Offline Gab75

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Re: [PS3][Coming Soon] FB Alpha Retro Loader (Light) v1.0
« Reply #5 on: August 23, 2017, 01:21:15 AM »
@CaptainCPS: excellent work! :)

@barbudreadmon: the main post suggests that he solved the issues with Altered Beast and Megadrive games! :)

And here images of the systems (previously not working on PS3) running with my fix!

SEGA Megadrive



Altered Beast (running well now)


« Last Edit: August 23, 2017, 01:40:21 AM by Gab75 »

Offline barbudreadmon

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Re: [PS3][Coming Soon] FB Alpha Retro Loader (Light) v1.0
« Reply #6 on: August 23, 2017, 02:49:52 AM »
Oh yes, i didn't notice the altered beast screenshot. So was it a big endian issue in the driver as i suggested ?

Offline Gab75

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Re: [PS3][Coming Soon] FB Alpha Retro Loader (Light) v1.0
« Reply #7 on: August 23, 2017, 04:50:54 AM »
Oh yes, i didn't notice the altered beast screenshot. So was it a big endian issue in the driver as i suggested ?

The PPE inside the Cell processor is a 64 bit PowerPC CPU, so it can be true... but to make sure we have to wait for the CaptainCPS answer! ;)

Offline dink

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Re: [PS3][Coming Soon] FB Alpha Retro Loader (Light) v1.0
« Reply #8 on: August 23, 2017, 07:09:18 AM »
CaptainCPS, please post any fixes that might benefit others somewhere on the forum or via pm :)

Offline JacKc

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Re: [PS3][Coming Soon] FB Alpha Retro Loader (Light) v1.0
« Reply #9 on: August 23, 2017, 02:30:05 PM »
Welcome back Captain :)

Awesome work as always !!!


Offline CaptainCPS

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Re: [PS3][Coming Soon] FB Alpha Retro Loader (Light) v1.0
« Reply #10 on: August 23, 2017, 03:45:18 PM »
Hiyas again! sorry that I didn't post before, I'm at work right now but as soon as I get home I will commit / push the changes to my github :)

I think it wasn't an endian issue since I didnt change any of that, I think it had to do with the files generated for m68k make program, I even compiled it as ps3 application, packaged it instaled it and ran it on the ps3 (probably not needed but wanted to make sure lol), then took the generated files via FTP to my pc and compiled libretro core again.

I did use the updated megadrive source files with dink updates from svn (including m68k source files and generated files via ps3).

Now regarding the issues with all console games, there is a problem with the functions to look for alternate zip name, it is not needed with libretro so I added a condition in burn.cpp so when compiled with __CELL_OS_LV2__ before it tries to redirect to the driver zipname function it will just send it to the regular one.

Console games are running fine, they were just not even launched because of those getzipname functions having issue on PS3. That is why the PS3 would freeze, becuase there appear to be a memory leak or something on those functions.

Again, sorry for not posting earlier, I will post my changes as soon as posible on my github.

note: Sorry for the typos, Im posting from my cellphone xD.

SeeYa!
:D
« Last Edit: August 23, 2017, 03:53:59 PM by CaptainCPS »

Offline CaptainCPS

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Re: [PS3][Coming Soon] FB Alpha Retro Loader (Light) v1.0
« Reply #11 on: August 23, 2017, 05:49:32 PM »
Heading home now! :)

SeeYa!
:D

Offline CaptainCPS

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Re: [PS3][Coming Soon] FB Alpha Retro Loader (Light) v1.0
« Reply #12 on: August 23, 2017, 07:30:06 PM »
Ok let's begin with the old FB Alpha (2012)(Libretro)

Here you have the first fix, this one will make all those games that use "GetZipName" type of function load the games properly on PS3 build (Megadrive, SMS, GameGear, etc), there wasn't emulation problems, the game wouldn't even get to the point of emulation, these functions would freeze the PS3 for some reason, maybe some type of memory leak:

https://github.com/CaptainCPS/fbalpha2012/commit/918d310989ec53d0788cd49302eadb8ca2bd68c0

As you can see, I didn't do anything in the driver source files.

SeeYa!
:D
« Last Edit: August 23, 2017, 08:27:40 PM by CaptainCPS »

Offline CaptainCPS

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Re: [PS3][Coming Soon] FB Alpha Retro Loader (Light) v1.0
« Reply #13 on: August 23, 2017, 08:30:07 PM »
Ok, I am stupid...LOL, FB Alpha (2017) (v0.2.97.42) uses Musashi M68K Version 3.32, it already made Altered Beast work well. I thought it had to something with the generated files, but I was very wrong. Musashi M68K Version 3.3 appears to be the problematic one, used by FB Alpha (2012) (v0.2.97.29)

I need to edit my threads... xD I got mixed up while testing both 2012 and 2017 cores. I apologize for the confusion I created.

At least the good news is that latest FB Alpha using M68K v3.32 is working without issues in that regard.

EDIT: Here the link for the thread with some clarifications ( http://www.psx-place.com/threads/coming-soon-fb-alpha-retro-loader-light-v1-0-powered-by-psl1ght.14610/page-2#post-85265 )

SeeYa!
:D
« Last Edit: August 23, 2017, 08:48:59 PM by CaptainCPS »

Offline CaptainCPS

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« Last Edit: August 24, 2017, 12:37:52 AM by CaptainCPS »