Author Topic: A little WIP update  (Read 5889 times)

Offline jan_klaassen

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A little WIP update
« on: August 14, 2017, 02:05:43 PM »
This is some of what I'worked on lately, and will be released shortly (I am still working on integrating some of the UI code with the game drivers and a few other details). Unfortunately this will have to be separate from the official version.

dx9 blitter:
  • arbitrily scalable scanlines with cubic filter (much like previous versions, except the pattern is different and the scaling isn't locked).
  • more realistic regular scanlines with cubic filter (scanlines get thinner as well as more intense, the pattern is different and more realistic).
  • CRT similation blitter (scanlines are sharp in the center and blurry in the corners, the scanlines are the result of calculations approximating the the electron beam sweeping across the screen and not just a pattern, so this also has arbitrary scaling).
  • inclusion of softfx, including in combination with the cubic filter and/or scanlines.

switches to the most appropriate refresh rate available, e.g. uses 50Hz if available for PAL consoles.

new, scalable overlay (inludes new fonts/icons, controls for all players or just player 1, and frame count/time/graph for input recordings).

dsound3 audio output that uses a synchronisation object for more efficiency and accurate timing.

support for full cd rom rips in raw format.

MIDI input:
  • digital buttons
  • encoders
  • more to do

fixes several long standing problems:
  • translations -- messages constructed at runtime and printf limitations could lead to awkward translations.
  • cross-platform error messages (with optional platform specific enhancement).
  • cross-platform zip file access.
  • uses cross-platform file system access everywhere.
  • recursive file searches

new file format for savestates/input recordings:
  • fully cross-platform
  • includes metadata for platform/fba version
  • includes metadata to detect differences in the games that the savestate versioning doesn't catch.
  • includes converter for old format
  • includes backup feature

when playing back input recording, allows to switch from playback to recording at any time.

new cross-platform command line interface.

windows gui
  • streamlined menus making fba easier to use
  • multithreaded gui (emulation doesn't stop when dialogs or menus are used)
  • assignable keyboard shortcuts for menu options, as well as aliases on game controllers (while a game is running)
  • full support for multiple displays, for both fullscreen and desktop, including portrait mode and audio routing (e.g. for a TV)
  • audio dsp module that hosts vst2 plugins (e.g. equalisers, enhancers, spectral analysis)
  • toolbar that displays marquees and coin counters when emulating mvs multislot
  • reworked load game dialog with various display/search options, favourite display, tagging (the tag database is part of the cross-platform code)
  • supports both png and jpeg images for flyers and uses optimised resizing for size reduction (custom algorithm) or enlarging (catmull-rom)

PGM emulation:
  • improved cpu scheduling and sound synchronisation, added overclock capability (to some games)
  • fixed the ICS2015 emulation so that it's in line with the (available, incomplete) documentation
  • changed the ICS2015 emulation so that it interpolates at the actual sample rate, and added a cubic interpolator
« Last Edit: November 21, 2017, 06:20:44 AM by jan_klaassen »

Offline Stifu

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Re: A little WIP update
« Reply #1 on: August 17, 2017, 04:58:27 PM »
Unfortunately this will have to be separate from the official version.
As in, none of this will ever be part of the official FBA? Or just not soon? I'm confused.

Offline dink

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Re: A little WIP update
« Reply #2 on: August 17, 2017, 07:24:44 PM »
Of course we might use some features from his build - for example: the star next to favorites in the list, and we also plan to upgrade our dx9 blitter to have a nice overlay in a similar fashion, but, for now you'll have another choice in FBA ui's.  (Add to the list of fba-rr, FBL, FBA Shuffle, Retro Arch, FBA Plus!, etc.).

best regards,
- dink

Offline jan_klaassen

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Re: A little WIP update
« Reply #3 on: August 20, 2017, 02:15:20 PM »
As in, none of this will ever be part of the official FBA? Or just not soon? I'm confused.

What, if anything, will be ported is not my decision to make. On the other hand, there really isn't an official version of fba, so there are choices. Or fragmentation. We will have to find out which.