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November 2nd, 2007, 23:44 Posted By: JKKDARK
New version of the Dreamcast emulator for Linux.
Changelog:
* Implement more user-friendly GD-Rom changer (closes off #31)
* Add recent GD-Rom image tracking
* Fix for CDI images with more than 1 track per session
* Save render buffers as part of the save state (issue #34)
* Show preview screenshot in save state open dialog
* Remove gnome dependency (now just depends on GTK 2.0+)
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November 2nd, 2007, 23:47 Posted By: JKKDARK
News about the next version.
The current plan for 0.9 looks like this:
1. Fix the renderer
2. Implement MMU address translation.
The big focus for 0.9 obviously has to be the rendering module - we need to speed things up a lot (at least 5-10x faster than it is currently), deal with a bunch of bugs (most of them cases where GL and the PVR2 don’t quite see eye-to-eye), and implement about half a dozen missing features (none of them trivial).
The AT is something I’ve wanted to have working for a while but it just hasn’t been a high enough priority compared to everything else (especially as it’s going to be a pain to get it to run fast enough). I suspect that no one else cares, but personally I’m very keen to see linux-dc running inside the emu…
In any case, everything after that is just gravy, and really depends on how I go for time. Unfortunately November is looking to be very busy IRL, so we’re looking at a January release at this point. But it will _rock_, so there ^_^
I’ve also finally gotten around to putting my “status†list up on the wiki. To be honest it’s a depressing list, as it seems to change at a glacial pace, but… there you are.
Changes (what, you want changes already?)
* Implement full-screen mode (scaling based)
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November 4th, 2007, 20:29 Posted By: wraggster
Psyman let me know this news on IRC 
drkIIRaziel "saw the light" and decided that if we don't make a release now we may never do, so here it is:
Be aware that this is more like an ALPHA than a BETA (thus the version number) so some things might be broken.
Read the included documentation and follow the instructions there if you encounter any problems.
Have fun
Heres the readme
The nullDC "Team" saw the light and brings you BETA 1.5 NOW.
Changes Since BETA 1:
Too many to list. Try it and find out.
Notes:
- ITS CRASHY BUGGY SHITTY. If you have problems its your fault for using it.
- You'll need the latest directX redistributable to run nullDC as well as the latest VisualC++ runtimes.
You can find DirectX here (Web Installer):
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en
or here (Offline Installer):
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en
and the VisualC++ runtimes here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en
and winpcap here :
http://www.winpcap.org/install/default.htm
- Before running the emulator make sure that you have the necessary Dreamcast BIOS and Flash files dumped from your
Dreamcast.
The BIOS must be named "dc_boot.bin" and the Flash must be named "dc_flash.bin". Both files must be placed in the "Data"
directory which is in the location where you installed the emulator.
- Sound Is Broken
- We don't know if something else apart from sound is broken in this version.
- Gamepads are (supposedly) supported. Note: Only tested on XBOX/XBOX360 controllers and the
Dreamcast<->PC adapter that lev| donated ( http://www.ztnetstore.com/index.php?ref=51 if you
want to get one ).
- Joystick/n works ONLY with joysticks, use old [winhook] for keyboard
- null
- also look ReadMe_old.txt
- the _mmu version has mmu emulation when used in intepreter mode
EOF
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November 5th, 2007, 13:43 Posted By: JKKDARK
New version of the Sega Saturn emulator.
Changelog:
* scsp:
- Fixed slot pitch LFO. Amplitude LFO is probably more accurate now too.
* emulated bios:
- Added Backup RAM manager functions.
* opengl video core:
- Fixed a bug with VDP2 2x2 plane size rotation screens.
- Optimized tile mode rotation screens
- Added support for VDP1 polyline.
* software video core:
- FPS display now working.
- Added support for VDP2 rotation without coefficient tables.
- Fixed a bug in VDP2 24 BPP bitmap mode.
- Fixed several clipping bugs in Normal and Scaled Sprites.
- Fixed a bug with VDP2 2x2 plane size rotation screens.
- Optimized tile mode rotation screens.
* linux port:
- Cursor now disappears after 2 seconds of inactivity in the gtk port.
* macos port:
- New high resolution icon.
- Add some missing OS X application property list keys.
* windows port:
- Fixed window position bug.
- Other bug fixes.
* general:
- Tweaked frame timing code so it's more accurate.
- Re-implemented save states.
- Some internal changes do so that sound, video, and cd cores can be changed at runtime.
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November 7th, 2007, 02:39 Posted By: fackue
Taken from EmuForums comes an updated release of the very promising Dreamcast Emulator for Windows
[i]7/11/2007
Fixed a couple of bugs, it has a new aica plugin & some other minnor fixes.Read the readme for more info.
# Old chanka aica code restored
# Elsemi code moved to ElsemiAICA,replaced all chanka code with nullAICA parts & fixed the timing bugs.
# nullPVR requires sm2.0 or fallbacks Fixed Function
# Relaxed the debug check on invalid loops (fixes nullAICA crashes on DOA2LE, possibly elsewere too)
# nullExtDev no longer requires winpcap when not emulating anything
# Version changed to 1.0.0 beta 1.6
# PowerVR AA mode now works properly (omikron half screen problems, possibly others)
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November 8th, 2007, 23:17 Posted By: JKKDARK
New update of the Sega Dreamcast emulator for Linux.
Changelog:
* Fix configure script to abort if it doesn’t find a required library (eg, libGL.so or
libz.so)
* Add checks to the configure script for linux/cdrom.h, and avoid building the
CD-Rom driver if it’s not found.
* Add preliminary support for nulldc-style gdi images
* Implement gdrom mode select command (mostly stub)
* Fix some non-64bit-safe code
* Fix the maple 0×00000700 issue
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November 14th, 2007, 22:03 Posted By: wraggster
SofiyaCat has today popped up with a test release of the Sega Saturn emulator Yabause for the PSP. this emulator has been ported to Dreamcast by DCemu UKs very own BlueCrab so its nice and very interesting to see it ported to PSP.
Be under no illusion that this is basically a tech demo but how cool
You will need a saturn bios too
DIGG THIS
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via SofiyaCat
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November 15th, 2007, 23:47 Posted By: wraggster
The rather excellent and very honest GP2X Store have today added the Treamcast Special Edition to their store, priced at $199 (£95)
Heres more details
Treamcast Special Edition is the latest edition of the Treamcast family. This special edition comes in matt black with a sharp TFT screen for optimum performance. This collectors edition has also be redesigned using the some of feedback we have received from happy users.
Description
- Matt Black for a more sleek look
- The first 128bit console
- Advance PowerVR graphics chip
- Samsung 5†TFT screen for optimum performance
- Brightness and Volume control
- Headphone output
- Plays all region Dreamcast games
- Plays Dreamcast backups
- Plays Dreamcast homebrews
- 12v car adapter
- 100-240V auto switching power adapter comes with 2 pin cable (cable can be changed to suit your needs)
- Comes with an original Dreamcast controller for optimum performance
- Can be connected to a normal TV (cable not supply and its outputs a NTSC signalfor best compability)
Buy at GP2X Store
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November 15th, 2007, 23:54 Posted By: wraggster
More news from Makaron the Dreamcast Emulator for Windows:
I figured out what made most of the casted shadows look wrong. It's again the problem of 1/Z -> Z conversion, and really limited precision of 32/24 bit floating point numbers. But that doesn't mean it's resolved now I'm afraid.
Quick summary: PVR2 expects 3D data to be registered as [X; Y; 1/Z], or [X; Y; 1/W]. X and Y are already in screen space, so those actually hold pixel position value. 1/Z is used for two things: Z-buffering and perspective-correct texture mapping.
What is W exactly anyway? Well, all 3D transformations can be undone one way or the other. That's beacuse the end result is always a homogeneous space. To simplify things consider it always being a subset of space that can be fitted into a cube. For example, to keep visibility clipping fast the hardware assumes it needs to fit into [-1; 1] data range. So your task is to write the matrices in such a way that in the end everything you want on the screen will fit into [-1; -1; -1] / [1; 1; 1] cube. That's the price for having the hardware do it for you so the CPU can spend more time on AI or whatever.
But there's a catch, as always. Namely perspective transformation is one-way and once applied it cannot be reversed to produce exactly the same input data. That's because the last step is a division that looks like this: K / (K + N). Having only a number as the end result you can't tell what original K & N were. However, since the division is the very last thing to do, there is a workaround
Keep 3D data as 4D vectors, that is [X; Y; Z] becomes [X; Y; Z; W] where W is always 1. Always, except the perspective transformation, after which W becomes something else and the last division is actually [X/W; Y/W; Z/W]. Since we keep W we can always reverse it if needed. What's more, you need only to invert W once into 1/W - one easy case division and then 3 multiplies is faster than 3 full-blown divisions. Not by much perhaps, but still, every cycle counts if you want a high fill rate.
Since PVR2 has no hardware transform engine of any kind (all it does is rasterization) it will happily accept the bare minimum - that is X, Y (already after the division!) and 1/W. In most cases you can freely substitute 1/Z for 1/W as both will produce required Z diversity for Z-buffering and the correction factor for texturing. In other words, if you are emulating PVR2 you know not if what you get is 1/W or 1/Z, and you still need to recreate all four vector elements for the PC graphics card to work with.
And it's not only that... the 1/Z isn't actually 1/Z, it's just referenced to as such so you don't have to write 200 / (Z + 200) every time. And this is more likely what it is. Except of course 200 can be any number and you don't know it anyway
Not difficult enough yet? Then how about when you start messing with Z too much you suddenly realize you're loosing precision bits. Fast. If you do (N * N) / N, or (N / N) * N, you will most likely not get exactly N in return. Worse even, if N is very big or very small the end result might be quite different from what you'd expect.
Ah, but that is still not all there is to it. Some games out there are not too shy of registering Z values as low as 0.00001 and as big as 10000 at the same time. Now try to compress that into required [0; 1] range and you'll realize there are simply not enough precision bits in modern 24-bit Z-buffer implementations. 24 because it's 32 minus 8 bits for stencil buffer (and stencil buffer is no longer optional, there is simply no support for plain 32-bit Z-buffering).
Wait, have I forgot to mention that some titles go as far as throwing infinities and even NANs into 1/Z? Have fun with these.
So... shadows look much better (some issues still remain). Train wheels in Evolution 2 intro should not be visible through the floor. But that broke Dead or Alive 2 intro in few places (eyeballs sticking out of skulls, anyone?). That too can be fixed, more or less, but it will break Soul Calibur character selection screen. Getting this to work will in turn cause menus and other stuff in Soul Reaver become invisible. And so on...
I see no other way now but to break some games on purpose (keeping the glitches to minimum) in order to make others work at all. The alternative would be to try and create several profiles for different games and use those. I'll have to think about it some more.
http://dknute.livejournal.com/
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November 19th, 2007, 21:18 Posted By: wraggster
via elation comes more news of the upcoming Dreamcast Emulator for Windows:
Okay, so most of SEGA Mega Drive (Genesis for you US folks) aren't that playable. Too many graphics bug for one - the emulator makes heavy use of PVR OIT capability. Sound will usually get ugly when heavy action starts even though it's fine in menus. And there are other nasty problems as well, like falling through floors in alternate Prince of Persia.
But some games do work well enough (too bad Lotus 2 RECS is not one of them
By the way, I can't shake that crazy idea of connecting a hard drive to Dreamcast off my mind. I'm pretty sure it can be done. Basically all that's needed is some hardware to translate SEGA Packet Interface commands into HDD reads, and that's exactly what Makaron's GD module is doing. Right now there is logical link on register level but I'm confident I can extend it to handle singal layer as well. I do have some experience with ATA/ATAPI hardware.
At first I was thinking of FPGA to handle the ATA part, but perhaps a fast clocked ARM7 would suffice - I need research it some more and see what kind of latency I can expect. I really don't have time for this though... but if there's anyone out there with the money, skills and time and wants to try - contact me. I'll help
I feel like I could...
ScummVM works now (except the newest 0.10 version which is known to have sound problems on the Dreamcast port). Thanks to it crashing frequently on T8 I managed to nail down a bug in the MT version of Makaron.
Running emulator inside emulator is fun! Also, FreeSCI 0.3.5 port is actually performing better on Makaron than the native PC version...
SEGA Genesis emu works as well. I'll update tomorrow with some pictures.
More at the homepage here --> http://dknute.livejournal.com/
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November 22nd, 2007, 17:54 Posted By: wraggster
With thanks to the web archive ive now managed to fix Chuis Site, as you all know Chui is the coder of
NEO4ALL : Alternative open source NEOGEO/CD emulator.
AES4ALL : NEO4ALL fork for emulating home and arcade NEOGEO systems.
DCASTAWAY : The first Atari ST emulator.
UAE4ALL : Open source Amiga500 emulator.
SNES4ALL : Alternative Snes9x port (Super Nintendo emulator).
ZX4ALL : Open source ZX-Spectrum emulator.
MAME4ALL : MAME GP2X adaptation for Dreamcast.
PSX4ALL : Open source Playstation emulator.
NOIZ2SA : Abstract shoot'em up.
FENIX : The way to game development.
SDL : My Dreamcast SDL driver.
Im going to ask Soully later to see if we can adapt Chuis site with a News Forum and Comments section.
For now enjoy having the site back here --> http://chui.dcemu.co.uk/index.html
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November 24th, 2007, 00:25 Posted By: JKKDARK
lxdream, the Sega Dreamcast emulator for Linux, was ported to x86-64 and Mac OS X.
From the official page:
It must be porting week - both the x86-64 and mac ports should (fingers crossed) work out of the box now. (Note that the mac port is intel only, and still requires X11+GTK 2.0 to build). Real native mac support will probably follow slowly as time permits - I’m getting something of a crash course in mac programming at the moment ^_^.
Changes
* Added x86-64 support to the translator
* Initial Mac OS X support (configuration and translator ABI changes)
* Fix buggy TRAPA instruction (translator only - fixes several homebrew games)
* Improve error handling of a few situations (can’t connect to display, etc)
* Esound is now optional (but without it you’re not getting any audio)
* Re-add the “Load Binary†menu entry that somehow got lost in the GUI revamp.
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November 27th, 2007, 14:25 Posted By: JKKDARK
In 27th November 1998 the sixth generation started and the Dreamcast was released. Happy birthday Dreamcast
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November 27th, 2007, 14:40 Posted By: Max
On November 27th 1998 the Dreamcast had its birth in Japan. Reason enough to celebrate its 9th birthday with many prizes and annoucements.
Dreamcast Scene presents - in cooperation with Sega Germany, redspotgames and Van Basilco - a sweepstake that haven't been there in this form. Good Dreamcast knowledge is required and the prizes grow from day to day.
Information: www.dreamcast-scene.com
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November 29th, 2007, 17:41 Posted By: Christuserloeser
Guess we're a bit late on this one, but Chui posted about his plans on some of his current and future projects in his forum a while back:
SNES4ALL project is stopped now, sorry. Fox and me are thinking to rebuild ALL for making a ZNES multiplatform port with some SH4 assembler cores. It is very crazy and we will spend a long time.
Also now Fox and me are working on a secret project  I think that we could have a decent release for christmas.
About PSX4ALL is very complex project and maybe it will be the definitive project and i am sure that it will be the last project for me.
Now PSX4ALL is developed for GP2X and PSP coders, really friends and i hope that they will get the best results at near future.
Finally, the next is: ZX4ALL with new ZX/Spectrum games, other Fenix games/remakes, Neverball, MAME4ALL and the secrect project ;-) also i hope release some commercial games for Dreamcast at the next years with 3dfxdev.net
Source: Chui's Dev and Discussion Forum, hosted here at DCEmu UK
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November 29th, 2007, 18:24 Posted By: Christuserloeser
The folks at Cryptic Allusion released a new CryptoCast episode:
Below, you'll find the podcast notes for the highly uncensored and very wandering podcast. It's basically a recorded conversation where everyone sat down in one room at my house and talked everything from beer to niche gaming. Hopefully you guys will enjoy this! But beware that it is NOT SAFE FOR WORK (unless you're wearing headphones). We do a bit more cursing than usual, and I'm too tired this week to bleep it all out. Plus, I'm going on a honeymoon tomorrow...sue me ^_^ Enjoy!
---
CryptoCast 006 - Konnichwa, Bitches!
Direct Download: Linkypoo
All apologies for the odd sound quality. The mic I was using is mostly for close-up vocal recording, and we were surrounding it. Some of us behind the cardioid (your's truly) sound like we're in the back of a room, and that's because the mic was picking up the reflections of our voices from the walls in the room. Everything should still be intelligible though.
Links:
Street Fighter 4 - Video Link to Capcom's site
Pizza with crazy toppings - Link
Here's the picture in which you're supposed to figure out who the statue is of (from TIGSource): Link
The shirt Pam was wearing: Link on Jinx.com
Source - Cryptic Allusion Forums
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