SPU2ghz Releases

[GiGaHeRz]

Public Beta 1.5 is up. This is a experimental release with some important changes:
[*] Changed the way the ATTR register is handled. Should fix a lot of games, but it's experimental.
[*] Changed the thread priority of the output modules to TIME_CRITICAL, so that they have the highest possible priority.
[*] Updated to latest and final version of FMod 3.
[*] Changed some parts of register-based (PIO) memory writes to speed up audio streaming writes in RotTK games.
[+] Added DirectSound output module. It seems to work better than all the other modules so I set it as the new default.
[+] Added setting of IRQ reason flags. I didn't even know that register existed!
[+] Added a new ADPCM decoder based on the old one, but with full-block decoding to try to make it a bit faster.
[-] If running with an older emulator build, the CoreReset feature is executed immediately, without a delay.
This fixes booting problems in bios and many games that were broken since this feature was introduced.

[Shadow Lady]

BIOS and games working again good job

i'll test it later on now that I can :P

[Gilgamesh83]

Since I'm currently playing FFXII I'm gonna give feedback on that.
It now starts in rev 239 and gives a great sound in music but the sound effects such as footsteps and menu choice is a little off. The footsteps gives a weird sound in all the surfaces like the sound of walking on sand doesn't sound like it should like it does in zeros plugin. otherwise great improvement overall and did a 1024/15 and the sound get a better synch in the game, just a few quirks.

[GiGaHeRz]

I'm aware of FFXII's stepping sound, but just like with FFX's menu option sound, I don't yet know what's causing it.

On a side note, it's really fun hearing the footsteps of ppl when you are in a crowded place... xD

Now that I think of it, let me make a short list of the problems I found in my games, that aren't yet fixed:

• Xenosaga sound is partly broken.
• FFX isn't going ingame after the new game intro, this has been there since before the release, but used to be random.
• Sword of Etheria used to reach the main menu at some point, and I haven't managed to get that far again.
• FFXII's footsteps.
• When you press new game on Atelier Iris Eternal Mana, There's a loud noise if you have effects processing enabled.
• Atelier Iris 1 and 2's voices have still some looping problems, but they usually work well enough to play.
• Plus any other issue I forgot...

[WHOPODER!!!]

Originally Posted by Firnis

For Xaudio2 you need a November's DirectX.

DX 9 november is my instaled current version!
Ty anyway

[GiGaHeRz]

To install XAudio2 beta you need the November 2007 SDK of DirectX (that is, the developer files).

Still, XAudio2 module doesn't work any better than the DSound one, so there's no real point in getting the whole SDK just for it.

[Gilgamesh83]

Yo!

recently I had a crash of the emulator when playing ffxii with the latest plugin in dx9 mode (only mode I can use since in xp) and the crappy error report in xp just told me that the reason was the gsdx. A little frustrated I went to seek a way to get error/crashes to be logged and found a little program that lets me to this easily. its called Inspector IIXII and once run it will ask u if you want the program to log crashes and hangs of programs. Easy to use and handy I thought since many have crashes and no way of reporting these to developers.

Read about it on my post in gsdx.

GSdx

[John Chen]

GiGaHeRa is a studious coder.
Thanks!!

[GiGaHeRz]

I uploaded a build of the plugin with experimental 5.1 output.

This build doesn't decode digital 5.1 audio that would go through the optical output on the ps2, instead, it tries to decode the ProLogic sound data.

Obviously, to use it, you need a 5.1 speaker set.

As a note, I don't have a 5.1 set in this house, so I had to check it using a pair of stereo speakers for the front L, C and R channels and a pair of headphones for the rear L and R. Meaning I haven't been able to check if the LFE output is correct.

[Gilgamesh83]

you really are trying to make up for those 4 years hehehe... great job will try it out but I also have a stereo system but can playback 5.1 since almost every new motherboard have at least a 5.1 soundcard integrated.

[GiGaHeRz]

well if you don't have at least 4 speakers (left, right, rear left, rear right), you aren't gonna enjoy it too much.

ah I forgot to say something important

The 5.1 module NEEDS bigger buffers! The buffer size counts in total samples from all channels at once, so with this one being 5.1 (6 channels) the buffer "duration" is 1/3 of the others! I would recommend making it 4x bigger while using it.

[Shadow Lady]

upmixer Oo

that's so great thx for new version! (need to get some time for game testing )

[RpCiD]

your plugin is really begin to be awesome thanks !!!

[CheatMaster]

Originally Posted by RpCiD

your plugin is really begin to be awesome thanks !!!

Me too but this is the first version that I was be able to run a game using this plugin and I notice that this plugin read the sound in different way,it's not synchronize to the video but that allows him to run the sound on normal speed even on game that have low speed...thats really good at least for me .

I try Atelier Iris 2 and the sound is running out of sync but the game is running at max speed video/audio and voices are not working correctly

Thanks for the plugin

[rama2]

I tested 5.1 decoding with ff12.
It all seems to work well, there's no stray voices in any channel so its not simple upmixing.
Bass seems to work but I can't say if its decoded LFE or the my soundcard doing the crossover.

All in all this is going to be a great feature of spu2ghz, once the big buffer issue can be solved

[there148]

hi there GiGaHeRz

i use your plugin for ffx and it sounds good

however can you please post feature updates somewhere else besides this forum, like gabest does

i, and im sure there are others, have skipped your previous releases due to registration requirements of this site

much obliged and thanks for creating a potentially great plugin

[WHOPODER!!!]

Originally Posted by GiGaHeRz

To install XAudio2 beta you need the November 2007 SDK of DirectX (that is, the developer files).

Still, XAudio2 module doesn't work any better than the DSound one, so there's no real point in getting the whole SDK just for it.[/quote]

I have directx_nov2007_redist 65MB installed. As u said:

Originally Posted by GiGaHeRz

Still, XAudio2 module doesn't work any better than the DSound one, so there's no real point in getting the whole SDK just for it.

[GiGaHeRz]

Originally Posted by CheatMaster

Me too but this is the first version that I was be able to run a game using this plugin and I notice that this plugin read the sound in different way,it's not synchronize to the video but that allows him to run the sound on normal speed even on game that have low speed...thats really good at least for me .

I try Atelier Iris 2 and the sound is running out of sync but the game is running at max speed video/audio and voices are not working correctly

Thanks for the plugin

Out of sync? That shouldn't happen... Did you use a huge buffer size or something?

Originally Posted by rama2

I tested 5.1 decoding with ff12.
It all seems to work well, there's no stray voices in any channel so its not simple upmixing.
Bass seems to work but I can't say if its decoded LFE or the my soundcard doing the crossover.

All in all this is going to be a great feature of spu2ghz, once the big buffer issue can be solved

The code in the plugin decodes the sound based on what I read on the Dolby Pro Logic II "decoding principles" pdf. It doesn't decode the DPLII surround left/right separation yet, so the surround channel is mostly mono (I faked some stereo in it by adding a small amount of L/R data to it).

The LFE is calculated by applying a lowpass filter to the input sound, and adding the stereo data together. It might lose the surround data that way but it should give bass anyway.

Originally Posted by there148

hi there GiGaHeRz

i use your plugin for ffx and it sounds good

however can you please post feature updates somewhere else besides this forum, like gabest does

i, and im sure there are others, have skipped your previous releases due to registration requirements of this site

much obliged and thanks for creating a potentially great plugin

Well if I didn't attach in here, I would upload to sourceforge.net, but with the current release rates (almost one every day), it would get annoying.

Well I guess I will, once releases get more stable and all...

Originally Posted by WHOPODER!!!

I have directx_nov2007_redist 65MB installed. As u said:

Now I don't get you at all...

[CheatMaster]

Originally Posted by GiGaHeRz

Out of sync? That shouldn't happen... Did you use a huge buffer size or something?

No,First I try it with the default settings(without configuring anything....Buffer Size 4800 and Number of Buffers 10).The delay is ~2 seconds slower than normal.

Anyway thanks for the tip,I have to tweak the Buffer Size to make it work normally(lowering the buffer size too much make the sound start skipping).I'll make some tests

[GiGaHeRz]

Uploaded a new 5.1 WIP build. Still no compatibility changes yet:
[+] Updated the 5.1 module to include experimental ProLogic II decoding (it should give better surround).
[*] Changed the buffer sizing so that the configured buffer size applies to whole samples.
This means now settings 1024 as the buffer size will make it 2048 on stereo output, and 6144 on 5.1 output.