Dxbx status report

[shadow_tj]

Dxbx is getting better and better almost every day.

Some of you already know that turok can show intro movies and stuff.
But the even more bigger news is that patrick made MAYOR progress on the dxbx.dll

There are still lots of things that need to be fixed before the new update of dxbx can be made... it will be then version 0.0.0.8

But we are close to make that new version.

[gamersat678]

Kool. I've been downloading the svn daily to keep track of your changes. Keep at it.

[RoadTrain]

oh thanks! very good job!

[patrickvl]

I'd like to add my bit to this:

Since I actively joined the Dxbx project, I've done the following things:
- updated the sourceforge website with screenshots, news and (private) tracker items
- defined and applied a coding convention (every project needs one IMHO)
- improved the logging and other low-level code (bit-manipulation was flawed for example)
- fixed the code that did the address-translation in generated EXE's relocation section
- made it possible to switch between three emulation DLL's (cxbx, cxbxkrnl and dxbxkrnl)
- fixed the prologue code, so that the DLL gets actually kicked off (because of this, using cxbx DLL's results in the same level of emulation as cxbx itself - Turok runs!)
- started work on our own emulation DLL, using various usefull units from the Jedi Win32api project
- worked around a difference between C and Delphi, by returning the ThunkTable via a function (Delphi doesn't support declaring records and other variables as 'external')
- translated a few important parts of the initialization code (like EmuFS and EmuLDT)
- made stubs for all 378 (!) known (and unknown) Xbox Kernel APIs (apart from Cxbx, I used OpenXDK and APIReporter as a source for this)
- split up all API's over different units, much like ReactOS has split up the ntoskrnl code
- translated the first few API's that Turok calls (PsCreateSystemThread and CloseHandle)
- (in cooperation with shadow_tj) made Dxbx easier in usage, by converting xbe files dropped onto the dxbx.exe
- currently, I'm busy updating all API signatures (the arguments and their types) so more and more methods that get called will at least return without corrupting the stack (implementing them is a whole different ballpark however ;-) )

Note, that none of this would have gone so fast if we didn't have the _huge_ Cxbx codebase that Caustik has given us! For now, I can only dream of reaching the same level of emulation that Cxbx has...

There's lots and lots of work still to be done before we even get to show our first screenshots of pure-Dxbx emulated games, so all help is welcome!

[snickothemule]

Impressive work lads.

[NexXxus]

i will cry on that day when conker l&r firstly shows up the loading screen, seriously!
and that will be a happy crying

[Bobbi]

Congratulation guys, keep up the real great work!

[patrickvl]

It have been a slow few days for me, but there's still great progress to report:

A new member joined the team: Robert from Austria.
He'll be working on XAPI detection and patching.

Rob has already made a signature file for all XAPI functions, and concluded that it's possible to detect multiple XDK versions with a single set of XAPI signatures.

That great news actually, because it saves us from building detection per version, and also enables us make a small logging-patch for _all_ XAPI's. This will give us detailed insight in the XAPI-calling-patterns of every game we can get our hands on!

Robert also found out why some games can't be converted to an EXE : I'd seems that the Xbox accepts more sections in an executable than Windows XP - one game had 137 sections, which XP refused to MapAndLoad...

All this has spurred Shadow_tj to pick up the pace - he's been translating big parts of the Cxbx codebase into Delphi.

Me, I'm still busy figuring out how all the 387 Kernel API's should look, because it's important that the calling convention, the number of arguments, their types and type of return value (if any) matches the Xbox version exactly (one mistake and the stack could become corrupted). It's a mind-numbingly boring job, and even more depressing is the realization that we'll have to do the same thing for all XAPI's that we must patch (and the most depressing part is, that there's about twenty times as many XAPI's then there are Kernel API's)....

So, that's where we stand right now : nowhere near a working emulator for a long time, that's for sure.

Anyone that feels him- or her-self up to the tasks at hand (like translating C to Delphi, figuring out original method signatures, and any other general coding & testing) should not hesitate to join us - You're all very welcome, because currently we need all the help we can get!

Cheers,
PatrickvL

[cyclonmaster]

Good luck guys. Nice to hear someone still working on xbox emulator.

[kingis]

Just great to see that more people are working in this great emu.
Looking very good.

[snickothemule]

Sounds like epic work. Too bad that it can't be autogenerated. Good luck lads.

[dantes]

about dxbx is joined with cxbx and xenoborg and xeon devs? i think that pcsx2 is a great example to make a best xbox emulator..in some games we can make a patch to skip videos tryng with a pattern hex code or other method, and we can play games that was nothing,..things that i think could to has a great xbox emulator: xbox memcard files and program like mymc for load games(files) in other states from games, and export memcards save states from real xbox for import in virtual memcard dxbx, master pattern hex code or other method for skip videos (iup)in case of games only intro or nothing,,codes decrypted for tricks in patches for xbox games, all last directx sdk tools implemeted for best graphics(alpha corrections vsyncronic, alghoristmictz, bilinear filtering, triliniear filt..antialliasiang 2x, 4x, 6x.graphics hacks and nvidia cuda settings, nvidia t2t, right bios and counters, interpreter, x86.win_32 conversion fine, with all .xbe file roots and source with a good reader, a goods direct input implements for pads, and direct sound interface...question: dxbx has a auto patch maker, but this patch will be edited for make skip videos like pcsx2 does it? somebody can give me a guide for to edit dxbx or cxbx patches? this xbox emulation only need the xbe file for run games? i have xisomanager and extract-xiso_v2.3.win32, i only ectract the xbe file is that all?or i need to extract all hides files in 1 folder with xisomanager?...i have tested many games but doesn´t works lie: mercenaries, and dead or alive volleyball beach..i think that xbox emulation will be a good choice and good gift for emulation and thousand of fans, all must be step by step but you can, i wish that pcsx2 team will gives feedback to this project..and i wish that all devs in emulations will be together.thanks

[3x3cUt0r]

Originally Posted by dantes

about dxbx is joined with cxbx and xenoborg and xeon devs? i think that pcsx2 is a great example to make a best xbox emulator..in some games we can make a patch to skip videos tryng with a pattern hex code or other method, and we can play games that was nothing,..things that i think could to has a great xbox emulator: xbox memcard files and program like mymc for load games(files) in other states from games, and export memcards save states from real xbox for import in virtual memcard dxbx, master pattern hex code or other method for skip videos (iup)in case of games only intro or nothing,,codes decrypted for tricks in patches for xbox games, all last directx sdk tools implemeted for best graphics(alpha corrections vsyncronic, alghoristmictz, bilinear filtering, triliniear filt..antialliasiang 2x, 4x, 6x.graphics hacks and nvidia cuda settings, nvidia t2t, right bios and counters, interpreter, x86.win_32 conversion fine, with all .xbe file roots and source with a good reader, a goods direct input implements for pads, and direct sound interface...question: dxbx has a auto patch maker, but this patch will be edited for make skip videos like pcsx2 does it? somebody can give me a guide for to edit dxbx or cxbx patches? this xbox emulation only need the xbe file for run games? i have xisomanager and extract-xiso_v2.3.win32, i only ectract the xbe file is that all?or i need to extract all hides files in 1 folder with xisomanager?...i have tested many games but doesn´t works lie: mercenaries, and dead or alive volleyball beach..i think that xbox emulation will be a good choice and good gift for emulation and thousand of fans, all must be step by step but you can, i wish that pcsx2 team will gives feedback to this project..and i wish that all devs in emulations will be together.thanks

Your Enter key is broken?

Ontopic: Is looking good guys, keep the good work.

[patrickvl]

Originally Posted by dantes

about dxbx is joined with cxbx and xenoborg and xeon devs? i think that pcsx2 is a great example to make a best xbox emulator..in some games we can make a patch to skip videos tryng with a pattern hex code or other method, and we can play games that was nothing,..things that i think could to has a great xbox emulator: xbox memcard files and program like mymc for load games(files) in other states from games, and export memcards save states from real xbox for import in virtual memcard dxbx, master pattern hex code or other method for skip videos (iup)in case of games only intro or nothing,,codes decrypted for tricks in patches for xbox games, all last directx sdk tools implemeted for best graphics(alpha corrections vsyncronic, alghoristmictz, bilinear filtering, triliniear filt..antialliasiang 2x, 4x, 6x.graphics hacks and nvidia cuda settings, nvidia t2t, right bios and counters, interpreter, x86.win_32 conversion fine, with all .xbe file roots and source with a good reader, a goods direct input implements for pads, and direct sound interface...question: dxbx has a auto patch maker, but this patch will be edited for make skip videos like pcsx2 does it? somebody can give me a guide for to edit dxbx or cxbx patches? this xbox emulation only need the xbe file for run games? i have xisomanager and extract-xiso_v2.3.win32, i only ectract the xbe file is that all?or i need to extract all hides files in 1 folder with xisomanager?...i have tested many games but doesn´t works lie: mercenaries, and dead or alive volleyball beach..i think that xbox emulation will be a good choice and good gift for emulation and thousand of fans, all must be step by step but you can, i wish that pcsx2 team will gives feedback to this project..and i wish that all devs in emulations will be together.thanks

Maybe you should learn to write in such a way that people could actually understand what you're trying say? There are tricks to this, you know:
- Use line-breaks
- Capitalize the first word of a sentence
- Make your sentences short but complete, and let them follow a logical pattern

On-topic :
I agree that Xbox emulation as it is right now, isn't as focussed as it could be. But having a few different approaches isn't bad per-se. Each project could discover things that can help out others. (I think Dxbx is on the verge of entering that terrain right now).
It's a bit like history actually: We're building on the foundation laid out by our predecessors. We can learn and do things better (and as history also shows, we'll probably make the same kind of mistakes too, but that seems to be human nature I guess).

One thing that helps though, is sharing information. Every relevant discovery that's not documented somewhere, will have to be researched again later. Probably by someone totally different, which doesn't help in the efficiency of the process. That's what so great about open-source projects: It's all there to see!

Also, I spotted a question somewhere in your blurb of words. If I'm interpreting your words correctly, you seem to ask about a configurable patching-system, right? Well, this is not present in Dxbx at the moment. (Cxbx has this, but it's all hard-coded).

Sure, it's a good idea, but I won't be spending any time on it for now. The few people working on Dxbx right now have got loads of other things to do already.

I'll try to keep you all up-to-date, but please try to refrain from asking for features that are _way_ out of scope right now. Just watch out for when we begin shouting and jumping about actual emulation starting to work in Dxbx

[dantes]

patrickvl thanks for your words and sorry for my english, well i try to say that will be fine that dxbx has pacthes that works with skip videos, ps2dis is a good example, obvious this works with routes from serial from ps2 game file like slus.xxx.xx.. but need a specic pattern code as hex string for to find the video intro and the possible route for skip this video and to make a patch, but there are others methods for make a patch with lines like called syscall 0000 or decrypted says (//movies) in case of ps2dis, i think that ps2dis is like debugger, with debugger maybe you can work with patches for xbox games , if xbox emulator has this, i can try make patches for many xbox games and to test it maybe some games intro or nothing goes to be playables i can gett like 40 games because is very cheap to me. About dxbx or cxbx i see that majorities of xbox games doesn´t pass os the menu or intro maybe for iup video problem, in more difficult case the game doesnt run: this´s not a problem with bios to me is a problem for bad interpreter at win32 or x86 bad or dvd reader interpreter or decodification, i think so..now if dxbx auto patch maker makes this is much better, other interesting option is a fast load directly from patch with key from keyboard like F8 or F10 to any skip if the reader is paralyzed before of intro from game, anywhere, if bios, interpreter, counters and other dxbx components has the same patterns is rights and make a xbox game playable like turok, and all game run fine..maybe patches will be the solution, no at all games works with the same pattern code to skip videos intro, to find a pattern code in 1 xbox maybe xisomanager and debbugger will gives help in this..pcsx2 team maybe can help you in find a pattern code from games with similars routes and same pattern code but you can to has many methods for find the route from intro video.i invite to all developers to gives helps for this great project "xbox emulator" because you go to enjoy all, and your pc goes to be more funny, is a great contribution for pc emulation and to be more important to has cpu, you will to create a amazing emulators teams..thanks to patrcikvl, blueshogun, caustik and all xbox emulator developers, i give spirits to you because is very important to give spirit to emulators and developers, you are not lonely all yours fans are with you, i am now your fan and my syster and borthers too friends
summary: patches for skip intro(skip iup videos)program like mymc for to pass of the menu or fast load for other game state and maybe to avoid somes graphics bugs (see god of war example in pcsx2)
thanks and more thanks

[shadow_tj]

dantes USE A ENTER KEY while typing your story...
then others can read it also without problems...

[Bobbi]

Damn, this stuff is hard to read without getting a headache, especially if english isn't even your mother language

Way more important: Great work on the progress guys! I'll make a post over at NGEmu tomorrow, as I guess more people will be attracted if you aren't hidden inside a subforum
And if you ever need a site for your project, let me know!

[shadow_tj]

thx for the support bobbi, a new forum would be wonderfull

about a new website.. there are already 2 website.
my own website where it all started and sourceforge.

but if you got a wonderfull template or something you like to share

my website is not that much updated..
but how i can send websites to sourceforge i not figered out yet.

but prehaps a good website is not a bad idea. because the team is getting bigger.
and the project realy has grown to a full emu project...

when we started this, we never expected this, and we will go on and on
also thx for all the support... this realy gives us a boost

greetings,
shadow_tj

[Frog186]

To the team of dxbx:

Hi I just wanted to say thanks for making this cool xbox emulator I appreciate those in your team for working hard making it and so much more my brother has my real xbox in his possession right now but the graphics on regular xbox is still awesome or cool I hope you guys make the best emulator if you guys need any help I have no programming skills right now but if you need information for xbox I can look for it on the internet or through books and magazines from the library or bookstores I still play the regular xbox the console system but the emulator might be better I can't wait until your next release thanks for everything and thanks for listening!

[dantes]

hi again, i have tried with demon stone in dxbx, first: i extract only the xbe file into of 1 folder,,and just i play star emulation, when xbe conversion to .exe is right send me a error: dxbxkrnl.dll can´t be found, what happen with this?, can someone tell me how can i see xbox iso game routes jut like ps2dis does it for ps2 iso gameS? can i to make patches for actual dxbx?i have tested: mercenaries, and others games and nothing happens..