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Author Topic: New Dingux-MSX mod: PixaMod  (Read 13069 times)

pixador (OP)

  • Posts: 7
New Dingux-MSX mod: PixaMod
« on: April 05, 2011, 11:33:34 pm »
I have made a mod of Dingux-MSX. It is based on Dingux-MSX 1.1.0 by Zx-81, but I added the changes from Caanoo-MSX 1.1.1 and some ideas from Cax mod, besides from adding my own stuff :)
These are the changes since Dingux-MSX 1.1.0:

* Updated the Z80 emulation to the latest fMSX one
* Emulation of M1 cycles: R register is now fully emulated and cycles are more accurate.
* Fix sound speed issue - UPeriod parameter in settings menu (from Caanoo-MSX 1.1.1)
* Adjust max FPS when changing between PAL/NTSC mode (from Caanoo-MSX 1.1.1)
* Fixed joystick emulation: joystick 2 must not be a copy of joystick 1
* Fixed color 0 in MSX2 sprites
* Fixed color palette for Screen 8 sprites
* Full color depth in Screen 8
* Fixed initial memory mapping for ASCII8 and ASCII16 megaroms
* New megarom type: RTYPE
* Megarom detection with SHA1 checksum with file carts.sha (based on Cax mod)
* Tweaked the built-in megarom type detection to improve its accuracy
* Added setting to force a specific megarom type
* FM-PAC is not loaded if FM emulation disabled
* Sound is shut down when the MSX is reset
* Render modes: "zoomed" and "fullscreen" (based on Cax mod)
* More accurate speed limiter
* Faster emulation
* Changed the default CPU timing for Dingux from 200MHz to 300MHz
* Modified the button layout to have Joy-Fire2 at button B

Update for 6-Apr-2011 (reuploaded):

* Built with dynamic linking
* Tiny fix to fullscreen render mode
* Assigned "Exit" in menu to X button (from Cax mod)
* Fixed gfx garbage in menu (from Cax mod)

You can download it from:
http://www.pixador.com/dinguxmsx.html

I hope you like it :)

Edit: info for the 6-April-2011 build.
« Last Edit: April 06, 2011, 06:09:09 pm by pixador »
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pcercuei

  • Posts: 1720
    • My devblog
Re: New Dingux-MSX mod: PixaMod
« Reply #1 on: April 06, 2011, 06:33:26 am »
Please, please, rebuild your binary, and build it dynamically this time.
If you build it statically, it won't work with upcoming kernels.
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borus

  • Posts: 54
Re: New Dingux-MSX mod: PixaMod
« Reply #2 on: April 06, 2011, 03:16:17 pm »
pixador, great work !

cax is me. Do you have plans to include my other changes - e.g. last used ROM/DSK persistence or quick-exit button ?
Do you experience launcher freezing after exiting Dingux-MSX ? I think it's because of newer kernel I am using.

In fact, openMSX for Dingux is much better in terms of emulation accuracy, and after getting full-screen patch and modding TCL/TK scripts I managed to configure keys to my needs. So, now I am playing MSX games on openMSX for Dingoo.
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pixador (OP)

  • Posts: 7
Re: New Dingux-MSX mod: PixaMod
« Reply #3 on: April 06, 2011, 06:19:07 pm »
@Ayla:
I rebuilt it following your instructions and now it's dynamically linked. Thank you very much for your help!

@borus:
I just uploaded a new build and included a couple of your changes :) About future ones, I don't know... I still have to find some other stuff to add (probably zoomed sprites, since the code is already in fmsxDS 0.9 waiting for someone to backport it :D)

I tried OpenMSX some weeks ago and I felt it was too slow, but I did not looked very much into it since I already had Dingux-MSX 1.1.0. I will give it another try, of course! My feeling was that it was ok for it to be slower since it is designed to be a perfect emulation, so there is a lot of stuff that must be taken care of.
Anyway, PixaMod feels much more like the real machine than the original Dingux-MSX (mostly because of the UPeriod thing fixed by Zx-81 himself in the Caanoo version). It is not as perfect as openMSX but it's really close enough for me :) Besides I feel comfortable with its source code so it doesn't scare me too much to modify it if something doesn't work as it should.
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borus

  • Posts: 54
Re: New Dingux-MSX mod: PixaMod
« Reply #4 on: April 06, 2011, 06:38:30 pm »
Pixador, you are already in the news on MSX Resource Center site ! Welcome !

In fact, it would be nice if you will add "last used ROM/DSK persistence" feature (that enables you to continue playing the game you were playing before exiting DinguxMSX with just 2 key presses) from my code.
Then I can declare my version obsolete and recommend everybody to use your version instead.
« Last Edit: April 06, 2011, 06:45:54 pm by borus »
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xiongxioi

  • Posts: 49
Re: New Dingux-MSX mod: PixaMod
« Reply #5 on: April 07, 2011, 03:58:42 am »
Just tried it, it is suprisingly good, thank you so so so so so much.
really apraciate your effort.

Please keep up this good work.

I also have a few suggestions.
1.the volumn control, the lowest volumn in the Dingux-msx is 1, which I found it is still a bit high.
2.there should be hot keys in the menu screen, I felt a bit awkward to scan through all the options.

otherwise, this is perfect.
you really have done a great jobing, considering you didn't even show up once to talk about it an aweful lot.
you should be really proud of yourself.

regards
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pixador (OP)

  • Posts: 7
Re: New Dingux-MSX mod: PixaMod
« Reply #6 on: April 07, 2011, 06:14:18 pm »
@borus:
wow, I never thought that my little mod would have so much attention! But well I'm glad if that means that more users will play again with their old MSX games :)
Ok, I will adapt your "last used" code. Usually I only include code for stuff I miss myself, but since dingux-msx always opened the right folder for me and I never needed to browse through the directories I did not miss such a code.
Yesterday I played a little with open-msx and it feels very nice, indeed! Sometimes the screen refresh was too slow (for example, Hinotori/Firebird) and Ikari sprites didn't look good (they work fine in pixamod, hehe), but overall I liked it. Oh, and the PSG sound was much better than in pixamod! I love the music of the game Yuurei Kun Mr. Ghost, and openmsx played it exactly how I remembered it from my MSX :)

@xiongxioi
Thank you SO much for your message, it's really encouraging! And I'm really glad that you liked my work. I know they are only small changes but it was a big effort for me, as I am not a C coder so I had to do lots of trial-error. But yes, I'm proud of the result, so far I have been able to fix and implement everything I wanted to.
About the volume, there are two volume settings. One is in the Main Menu (the second option), and the other one is in the Settings Menu (called "Sound Volume"). Is this the one you were changing? It's actually a volume booster, that is, it's the multiplier that the emu applies to the sound generated. It's best left at 1, if you set it to a higher value the sound gets easily saturated. I think I will remove this option. Was this the problem you were having?
About the shortcuts, any suggestions?
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xiongxioi

  • Posts: 49
Re: New Dingux-MSX mod: PixaMod
« Reply #7 on: April 08, 2011, 06:33:02 am »
pixador, you deserved all the honour. no need to rush, just enjoy a bit, have some beer, and play your masterpiece. ;)

er, as for the shortcut suggestion, now in the menu screen, a and b does the same thing (enter), y quits, x does nothing at all, select does the samething as y, l enters the settings, r reset the game.

b should be quit, y and x can be mapped to what ever is fequently used.

I recommand you put options such as volume, button mapping, joystick options all into the settings screen.
you can get there easily by press L.

I also think there should be a savestate menu, where you put load savestate, save, delete savestate and screenshot inside. R button instead of reseting the game, should be used for entering this savestate menu.
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Manuel

  • Posts: 31
Re: New Dingux-MSX mod: PixaMod
« Reply #8 on: May 14, 2011, 12:45:28 pm »
Hi,

Quote from: pixador on April 07, 2011, 06:14:18 pm
Yesterday I played a little with open-msx and it feels very nice, indeed! Sometimes the screen refresh was too slow (for example, Hinotori/Firebird) and Ikari sprites didn't look good (they work fine in pixamod, hehe), but overall I liked it. Oh, and the PSG sound was much better than in pixamod! I love the music of the game Yuurei Kun Mr. Ghost, and openmsx played it exactly how I remembered it from my MSX :)

Thanks for the compliments! (On behalf of the openMSX team.)

Regarding Ikari: yep, that's a bug we introduced a few days before releasing openMSX 0.8.1. We have fixed it in the mean time and next release (or the current SVN, from revision 12086) will show the improvement.

Hinotori/Firebird... too slow? Do you mean it skips frames?
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Bouvrie

  • Posts: 124
Re: New Dingux-MSX mod: PixaMod
« Reply #9 on: May 16, 2011, 08:59:49 pm »
Perhaps a long shot, but I uploaded my savegames of Jaja Maru Kun to 4shared at http://www.4shared.com/file/xocYGdqV/saves.html . When loaded, it seems they produce a graphical anomaly. Perhaps I should just restart the game from scratch to see if it'll occur again, but if anyone feels intrigued to test them to see if this issue is reproducible, be my guest. :)

Still, awesome work getting MSX on the Dingoo, this handheld is the best purchase I've made in years! :D
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Write/save problems? Segmentation faults? Black screens? Read the Troubleshooting and FAQ guide first to fix your issues! :)
SD Card readonly/corruption issues? Chkdisk /F and steer clear from DMenu: use GMenu instead!

Manuel

  • Posts: 31
Re: New Dingux-MSX mod: PixaMod
« Reply #10 on: July 20, 2012, 07:15:56 pm »
Darn, I completely missed your remark... Can you still reproduce the anomalies on the latest openMSX release?
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