Skies of Arcadia Emulation

[zeroofpersia]

Hello ppl xD

I would like to ask help for this game ^^ been trying everything i can, altho i cant use gcos so i havent tried that ( im quite noobish) i have an HP lapto core 2 duo 2.2 ghz, 4 GB ram ,nvidia 9600 gt, 320 HD so basically i think i have more than enough but still i cant get the dolphin to work, i have managed so far to run the game but it doesnt recognize my controller dual logitech thingy, and when i do get it recognized the game slows down, some glitches and no sound whatsoever, plz ill appreciate any help

thx in advance

[ector]

I'd recommend that you run the Dreamcast version in NullDC or some other DC emu instead. The DC version has better sound, anyway...

[diablo2121]

Skies of Arcadia Legends being the only game I have, I feel your pain. There are graphical glitches in both OGL and DX9 video plugins, and like most first party games, sound is broken (except for streaming music eg. menu music).

Like ector said, NullDC runs SoA pretty well with far less glitches and it'll look damn nice to boot. The music ported to SoA:L took a hit in compression and quality, but if you're a SoA fan like me, you've played through SoA countless times, and the extra discoveries, characters, backstory, and other features introduced in Legends only make a good game better (except for the music issue).

Unfortunately, fans like me are just going to have to wait since Dolphin is still a WIP. I've been tirelessly checking SVN builds for any improvements in SoA:L. It has come a long way (it used to only be in menu before SVN builds were published), but it hasn't really changed since ~R50. (I would fix it myself, but my coding abilities are rather elementary, and I only have real experience in Java; I wouldn't even know where to start to address the problems in SoA:L, but that's what Dolphin team is for (bless them for creating Dolphin for all us ungrateful bastards))

Just hang tight, and you can always play SoA on NullDC if you're itching for some Air Pirate action.

EDIT: I just checked with R563, and it seems more of the music is coming through (trust me, I've played through the opening movie so much time, I pretty much remember how the broken music sounds). It's not a major improvement, but I'm hearing sounds that I definietely haven't heard being emulated before.

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Last edited by diablo2121; September 17th, 2008 at 23:31..

[zeroofpersia]

ok where can i get em xD cuz so far i dont have a full working nullDC either :P

as for graphics glitches there are none on one dolphin build i have, but i cant use the joystick, and even if i try to paste the plugin it doenst recognize it, i wouldnt mind to play without music but playing with the keyboard sucks xD

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Last edited by zeroofpersia; September 18th, 2008 at 00:39.. Reason: Automerged Doublepost

[diablo2121]

What build of Dolphin are you using?

[zeroofpersia]

i tried dolphin beta 2-3 -64, (this is the one that runs it without visual glitches [just went tru the intro part] but no joystick nor sound) the DolphinWx (iono i found it somewhere this one is sposed to be able to emulate wii games, havent even tried that) the usual, the latest dolphin realease on the official page

Since im quite new i cant modify anything, tried paste plugins from one build to another but they dont seem to recognize each other as if i had never pasted em so i really dont know what im i doing xD

[diablo2121]

Oh, you must be talking about the intro movie; yeah, everything before starting a new game works deceivingly. Check out the SVN discussion thread, and you'll find some users post links to later compiled builds that are further along than the beta builds on Dolphin's site.

[zeroofpersia]

yeah the intro movie and the first few steps u take into the game ( when u go in search of the captain of the ship u board) after the first fight. as for the emulators, those are the ones ive been trying to use, and for de DCnull, it doesnt work for me either, 1) it goes too fast and still no sound, and second, runs normal but with glitches ( configuring teh nulldc has been more confusing than config, the dolphin lol) any tips on which DC build i need??

[diablo2121]

You'll probably get better help in the nullDC thread.

[zeroofpersia]

OK thx for the help xD

[zeroofpersia]

i found a dolphin build that have worked besst so far its the dolphinwx r430, still a few glitches but we can start from there lol

[diablo2121]

What hardware are you using, if you don't mind me asking.

[zeroofpersia]

HP laptop core 2 duo 2.2 ghz, 4 GB ram ,nvidia 9600 gt, 320 HD

[diablo2121]

I'm not sure which revision it was (maybe R721-R22), but as of R730, SoA:L music and sound is fully emulated! I would like to extend my gratitude to whoever's responsible for this magnificent breakthrough. John Peterson, thank you! (If I'm mistaken, please correct me; I would truly like to give credit to the correct person).

But hey, still not done; I couldn't let myself leave without giving a big thumbs up to the rest of Dolphin team and other coders working on the repository. Hopefully, one day, I'll be versed enough to lend a helping hand to the project as well.



Back to SoA:L, with the inclusion of audio, there are only a couple graphical glitches left that prevent this game from being great (not including speed, 100% accurate albeit slow emulation is still great). I believe it's what others are calling the black graphics bug. OGL just shows red with some models being emulated correctly while DX9 at least has the textures placed in a red tint. I'll post screens later.

[John Peterson]

Originally Posted by diablo2121

I'm not sure which revision it was (maybe R721-R22), but as of R730, SoA:L music and sound is fully emulated! I would like to extend my gratitude to whoever's responsible for this magnificent breakthrough. John Peterson, thank you! (If I'm mistaken, please correct me; I would truly like to give credit to the correct person).

But hey, still not done; I couldn't let myself leave without giving a big thumbs up to the rest of Dolphin team and other coders working on the repository. Hopefully, one day, I'll be versed enough to lend a helping hand to the project as well.

It was probably revision 721 that I commited. I wish I could take credit for it but it was actually ector who came up with this solution. However, on behalf of the Dolphin team I'll say you're welcome and thank you for your kind words.

Originally Posted by diablo2121

Back to SoA:L, with the inclusion of audio, there are only a couple graphical glitches left that prevent this game from being great (not including speed, 100% accurate albeit slow emulation is still great). I believe it's what others are calling the black graphics bug. OGL just shows red with some models being emulated correctly while DX9 at least has the textures placed in a red tint. I'll post screens later.

I'll try the game later and see if I get the same glitch.

[diablo2121]

Well twice as much thanks to J Peterson and ector!

Here are some screens:

DX9 are the ones with textures; OGL are the ones with just red.

Attached Images

	DX91.jpg (206.1 KB, 86 views)
	DX92.jpg (66.7 KB, 79 views)
	OGL1.jpg (150.6 KB, 46 views)
	OGL2.jpg (104.0 KB, 38 views)

[diablo2121]

Here are a couple screenshots from R844 and omegadox's bloom fix. The colors sacrifice menus and dialogue, so it doesn't really help playability, but it sure looks nice (much better than red).

Hopefully, this fix will help a more general fix that can get rid of the red screens.

Attached Images

	oglbloomfix1.jpg (93.3 KB, 81 views)
	oglbloomfix2.jpg (249.7 KB, 63 views)

[diablo2121]

Here's another interesting fact, the ZTP bloom fix in R945 has the same problems with SoA:L (such as menus, dialogue, and battle icons not showing up), but the "red problem" still persists. So whatever omegadox did differently this time around as opposed to R844 can be used to pinpoint the red bug in this game, hopefully.

[diablo2121]

After playing around with some of the new OGL hacks, it seems disabling copy EFB to texture gets rid of the redness we've been seeing. The Fina shot is rendered in full color, but her veil is missing. Also EFB disabling still renders dialogue invisible. I've been messing around with these option as well as wireframe/texture toggling to see what is rendered. I'll post some screens later, but maybe it'll shed some light on what's happening with gfx in SoA:L.

[diablo2121]

Alright, here are some screens that may help diagnose some of the gfx problems.

All these were taken with R1369 with the Pre-945 projection hack since you can't see menus otherwise.

The first screen is with EFB enabled; as you can see, there is mostly red garbage with some models being rendered correctly. Dialog shows up fine. The next is with EFB disabled. The red is gone, but the models that rendered with EFB on are missing now, and so is the dialog.

I also took some screens in wireframe with EFB on and off. Wireframe with EFB enabled shows these two strange red figures where they shouldn't be. This is probably what is causing the red glitch when EFB is on. With EFB disabled, the red objects as well as the models that rendered fine with EFB are not shown.

Hopefully these can help fix some bugs in the OGL plugin. If anyone needs anymore info, I can help.

Attached Images

	efb.jpg (101.4 KB, 33 views)
	noefb.jpg (91.1 KB, 47 views)
	wf_efb.jpg (112.8 KB, 38 views)
	wf_noefb.jpg (102.9 KB, 33 views)