Topic: MAME .93 released!

[iq_132]

0.93
----

The main feature of this release is Aaron's huge update to the sound system.
There is a high chance this has introduced new sound / crashing bugs in
several drivers. A number of problems were already found and fixed prior to
the 0.93 release thanks to Aaron, Derrick and R.Belmont.  Updates will follow
to correct any severe bugs found.  Please test this release extensively.

----

Sound System update [Aaron Giles]
 (see list below for changes)

Sound System Changes
--------------------

Core changes
-----------
common.c:
* Changed auto_malloc() behavior so that a failure is absolute (calls
osd_die); you can now assume that auto_malloc will always succeed and will
never return NULL.
* Removed all sample loading code; this is now in sound/samples.c

config.c:
* Tried to update this to the new mixer stuff in usrintrf.c, but it hasn't
been tested and I bet it's busted somehow.

driver.h:
* driver->sound_attributes is gone; if you need to detect stereo support,
count the speakers.

mame.h:
* Machine->samples is history (yay!)

timer.c:
* I created a new type of timer that has a pointer for a callback param
instead of an int. These sit next to the existing timer code, so nothing
else is affected. They made object orienting the sound cores much much
cleaner.

usrintrf.c:
* Mixing volumes are retrived from the sound core, not from the mixer (which
is gone). Mixing volumes can now be overdriven to 2.0 (could be increased in
the future)


Machine driver changes
----------------------
* MDRV_SPEAKER_ADD is how to create a new speaker. You specify a name and a
3D vector for where the speaker is relative to the player's head.
* MDRV_SPEAKER_REMOVE and MDRV_SPEAKER_REPLACE operate as expected.
* MDRV_SPEAKER_STANDARD_MONO("name") specifies a single standard mono
speaker positioned directly in front of the user.
* MDRV_SPEAKER_STANDARD_STEREO("leftname","rightname") specifies a standard
pair of stereo speakers situated to the left/right of the user.

* MDRV_SOUND_ADD now takes a 'clock' parameter instead of an interface
pointer. The clock for each chip is specified here rather than in the
interface. I have removed any 'clock'-like parameters from all the sound
interface structures.
* MDRV_SOUND_CONFIG is where you specify the interface. This mirrors
MDRV_CPU_CONFIG. Note that you do not have to specify a config; in this
case, it is NULL. This is ok. Many sound chips really only need a clock and
volume info (which has also been removed from the interface structs).
* MDRV_SOUND_ROUTE is how to control where a sound chip outputs its data.
The first parameter is the output index, or ALL_OUTPUTS if you want to route
all the outputs for a given chip to the same place. The second parameter is
either the name of a speaker or the name of another tagged sound chip. The
third parameter is a floating point gain: 1.0 is standard.
* You can specify as many sound routes as you need; multiple routes for the
same output will split the sound. For example, you can route the single mono
output of an OKIM6295 to both the left and right speakers on a stereo
system.


Sound core interface changes
----------------------------
mixer.c/.h:
* These files are gone, gone, gone. Everything is handled by the streams or
by sndintrf.c directly. Mixing is performed by code in sndintrf.c which
creates a stream to do the final mixing.

sndintrf.h:
* We now no longer #include every sound core's header. You have to include
them yourself in your driver.

sndintrf.c:
* Sound cores are now hooked up very much like CPU cores. There is a single
get_info function that is public for each core; all other functions and data
are retrieved through it.
* Similar to CPU cores, you can call sndtype_xxx() to query/set values for a
specific sound chip type; you can also call sndnum_xxx() to query/set values
for an indexed sound chip in the Machine->drv->sound array; finally, you can
call sndti_xxx() to query/set values for the nth instance of any give sound
chip type (sndti = sound type+index).
* At startup, all sound cores/filters are created. Then all the speakers are
created. Finally, everything is wired up together. There are new consistency
checks to make sure you don't do anything wildly bad.
* sndintrf.c calls the OSD layer now, and always requests stereo output. It
also does a final downmix from the various speaker streams into left/right
streams based on the X coordinate of the speaker.

sound/streams.c:
* I have added a new type defined in sound/streams.h: stream_sample_t, which
is used to represent a sample as used by the stream system. It is typedef'd
to an INT32.
* Regardless of the size of stream_sample_t, all streams should be generated
as if 16 bits were the maximum. The extra bits give us headroom to overdrive
things if we want.
* All streams have the same format callback, with support for multiple
inputs and outputs.
* Each stream has a sample rate; inputs to that stream will be
down/upsampled to that rate; outputs will be down/upsampled as necessary to
connect to the input of the next stream/speaker in line.
* Each input to a stream has its own gain, and each output has a gain as
well. These can be controlled while things are running to provide some extra
volume knobs.
* I haven't done much in the way of optimizations in order to keep things
simple and working. Once things are back to normal, I may consider some
additional optimizations.


Notes for sound core authors
----------------------------
* I marked all sound cores as Copyright the MAME Team; if you want your own
credit there, feel free to send an update.
* I removed all volume and clock speeds from the interfaces; these are
specified elsewhere now.
* I made interfaces optional for many sound chips that often don't need an
interface.
* Many sound cores used global variables and assumed a single instance of
themselves; this has been fixed in all cases.
* In some cases I removed global lookup tables and pushed them into the
sound interfaces. This can eventually be fixed but I didn't want to deal
with it.
* stream_init and stream_init_multi are gone; there is only stream_create
now.
* Streams are named for you automatically, so you don't need to pass in
names to stream_create. Volumes are also outside of your control now, so you
don't need to pass in volumes to stream_create either.
* The get_info function can return pointers to set_info(), start(), stop(),
and reset(). There is no concept of an update() function anymore -- updates
are handled via streams.
* The start() function is passed three things: a 'sound index', which
indicates which instance of chip you are (i.e., 0 if you're the first chip
of this type to be created, 1 if you're the second, etc); a 'clock' which is
specified in the driver (no clocks in the interfaces please!); and a
'config' which is a pointer to the interface for this chip (it can be NULL
too, be careful).
* The start() function now is expected to allocate memory for its data
structures and return a pointer to that if successful. If not, it should
return NULL.
* The pointer returned by the start() function is passed to the stop() and
reset() functions.
* Since there were many cases where we provided a read/write handler for the
'nth' chip, you can also fetch the pointer from the start() function by
calling sndti_token(chip_type, index).
* If you have a non-digital chip that doesn't do internal clipping, you can
probably remove the clipping code and let the mixer clip it in the end.
* If you do your mixing in a secondary buffer to get more bits of
resolution, you can probably optimize your code to mix directly into the
stream buffer.
* While fixing up all the sound cores I was VERY brute force in getting
things to work. If you don't like what I did to your sound core, feel free
to fix it up.


Sound core-specific changes
---------------------------
* ADPCM -- I removed this entirely and wired up dummy MSM5205s to most of
the drivers still using it; these need to be revisited and fixed.
* AY8910 -- cleaned up the interface for the YM chips to access this.
* Custom -- many drivers using "custom" drivers were just using hard-coded
samples and playing them with the (now-defunct) mixer. This is not "custom",
it is "samples". They have been converted over to samples.
* Filter (volume) -- this is a new very simple filter that can be used to
control the volume of a stream if you need an extra knob.
* Filter (RC) -- this is a new filter that replaces the old RC filter that
was in the streams code. Eventually, this could get replaced by some simple
discrete logic.
* IremGA20 -- Acho cod... transmission lost
* NES APU -- changed the way this worked so that it used streams properly
instead of an update function.
* Samples -- there is now a start function that allows you to create your
own custom samples if you want. This allows us to replace "custom" drivers
with "samples" in several cases. There is a new call sample_start_raw()
which lets you play a raw sample from a pointer to INT16 data.
* Votrax -- there was a dead Vortrax core that was still being
hard-compiled. I pulled this out and made it a proper sound type (which
currently isn't included).
* VRender0 -- fixed a clipping bug that was lurking there (negative clipping
wrapped to positive values -- noticeable at 32-bits)
* YM2151 -- removed the alternate version and kept only Jarek's around.
Having two cores was confusing and caused problems.
* YM2203/2608/2610 -- these chips now pass a set of functions into the FM
core with pointers to all the AY8910-compatibility routines, rather than
relying on global pointers.
* YMZ280B -- this code is just terrible now compared to when I first wrote
it!

----

Other changes in 0.93
---------------------

Misc patch [Nathan Woods]
   src/debug/debugcpu.c:
      - Changed an instance of memory_get_read_ptr() to memory_get_op_ptr()

   src/cpu/g65816/g65816ds.h:
   src/cpu/g65816/g65816ds.c:
   src/cpu/g65816/g65816.c:
      - G65816 disassembler changes; program_read_byte() is no longer used
   for disassembling and also the core now reports the PC as being the full
   PB or'd with PC

Fixed controls in Hyper Crash (still needs freeplay to start) [Angelo Salese]

Changed Big Striker to use its PROM [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]

Changed way .map file is generated [smf]

SPI Big Endian fix [R.Belmont]

Swapped Namco 54xx filters on Port A & C [Derrick Renaud]
   (fixes xevious sound)
   
C89 fix [Lawrence Gold]

Decrypted GFX in all SPI games [Nicola Salmoria]

Fixed crash in WCBowling 1.2 [Derrick Renaud]

FD1089 update (adding 317-0028) [Nicola Salmoria]

Added many opcodes to Shisensho II decryption table [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]
   game is *almost* working correctly, still some errors
   
Updated MACs driver [Tomasz Slanina]
   yujan now boots but isn't playable

Fixed ddcrew (2 player) sound loading [David Haywood]

Fixed Alien Syndrome ROM names [Shinobiz]

Removed ingame debug button in rachero which was causing you to be locked
to the middle lane [David Haywood]

New Games / Clones supported or promoted from GAME_NOT_WORKING status:
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Ufo Senshi Yohko Chan [Pierpaolo Prazzoli, Nicola Salmoria]

Senkyu / Battle Balls [Nicola Salmoria, Ville Linde]
Raiden Fighters [Nicola Salmoria, Ville Linde]
Raiden Fighters 2 [Nicola Salmoria, Ville Linde]
Raiden Fighters Jet [Nicola Salmoria, Ville Linde]
Viper Phase 1 [Nicola Salmoria, Ville Linde]
E-Jan High School [Nicola Salmoria, Ville Linde]
   sound emulation on the SPI games is still incomplete
   various alpha blending effects missing
   
clones
------

Super Cross (Japan set 2) [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]

Alpha Mission [Dave Widel]

Aliens (World set 3, Japan set 2) [MAN]

Defense [Torsten]
   (note the program roms are bad on the original board, a patch is needed)

High Impact Football Proto v8.6 [Brian Troha]

Surprise Attack (Asia Ver L.) [Andreas Thorsén]

G-Darius (Ver 2.02A)

New games marked as GAME_NOT_WORKING
------------------------------------

MoonQuake [Mariusz Wojcieszek]

Tuts Tomb
Ghost Hunter
   guns not hooked up


0.92u2000 (0.92u1)
---------

Given the circumstances this seems a worthwhile update ;-).

----

Improvements to Seibu SPI decryption [Nicola Salmoria]
   Tile graphics are decrypted for all Games
   Sprites decrypted for Raiden Fighters 2000

Discrete Sound in Tank8 [Hans Andersson]

Added Trackballs in Championship Bowling [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]

Fixed Super Trio sound frequency [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]

Compiler Fixes [R.Belmont]

FD1089 Update [Nicola Salmoria, Charles MacDonald]
   Complete table for 317-0033 (Alien Syndrome) and  317-0034 (S.Hang On)

Updated Mahjong drivers to use new default controls [James Wallace]

Updated Gladiator driver [Nicola Salmoria]
   - verified with schematics (though the schematics are very hard to read
     so there are still dubious places)
   - converted to tilemaps, fixed scrolling
   - simplified tile decoding
   - flip screen support
   - fixed spriteram size (this fixes gladiatr36rc2gre)
   - support for sprite dual buffer (this fixes sprite trails)
   - adjusted YM2203 mixing levels so bass notes can still be heard (the
     audio mixing stage has some program controlled filters though which
     aren't supported)
   - merged with ppking, drivers/ppking.c is no longer needed
   - proper blending of the fg layer (it's a palette effect not alpha
     blending)

Improved video emulation in XFiles [Tomasz Slanina]

New Games / Clones supported or promoted from GAME_NOT_WORKING status:
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Raiden Fighters 2: 2000 [Nicola Salmoria, Ville Linde]
   Sound is not yet perfect, some graphical effects are missing
   
clones:
Little Hero (bootleg of KidNiki) [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]
Astro Combat (bootleg of Astro Blaster) [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]
Super Missile Attack (encrypted set) [Mowerman, Dave Widel]


New games marked as GAME_NOT_WORKING
------------------------------------

TurboSub [Tomasz Slanina]
   basic driver for now, acts as a bitmap viewer for the GFX roms.

http://www.mame.net

[Styrofoam]

I really really should consider updating soon. Still on v0.69b .... on the other hand all my fave 80s classics are fully emulated

[James33]

At the moment I cannot compile the Mame32 version Due to the sound system changes .

[DethXec]

Yay for Raiden Stuff... a friend of mine was asking for this just when Nicolas WIP came out.

* YM2203/2608/2610 -- these chips now pass a set of functions into the FM
core with pointers to all the AY8910-compatibility routines, rather than
relying on global pointers.

Last one is Neo Geo Sound Chip... we must update some way - though I don't know how.

[James33]

I hope the sounds bugs are fixed soon