plugin status

ibrown · January 15th, 2007, 16:01

Hi, I realise that this may not be the correct place for this question - if it is not, just point me in the right direction.

I've just started playing with the pscx source. I'm looking at Baldors Gate (the first one, European version) and have decided to look into why only half the screen is displayed (regardless of which graphics plug-in). A screen shot of how it looks at the moment is attached.

To make debugging easier, I would like to have the GS plug-in compiled from source. I have compiled the GSSoft plug-in from SVN because it looks like it is the 'reference' plug-in. At the moment, I am concerned with correctness rather than speed. Problem is that when starting it via pcsx2, I get an error that GSsetMemBase function is not found. It's correct - it's not in the plugin source, or in fact any of the GS plugins in SVN.

My question is whether the GS plugins in SVN are deprecated, or whether I am doing something wrong. If they are now out of date - is it worth extending them to have the required functions - if so, where do I find the spec as to what the functions should do?

Ian

Attached Images

gsdx9_20070115170721.JPG (41.3 KB, 57 views)

Last edited by ibrown; January 15th, 2007 at 16:12.. Reason: attached a screenshot of how it currently looks

ibrown · January 16th, 2007, 22:13

After some hacking with the gssoft plugin, It's kinda working with the 0.9.2. The important thing is that it does not show the same artifact - it displays the entire width.
I would say that means the problem is in the GS plug-in. Problem is that it would appear that the supported plug-ins are all now closed source, which means I cannot do much to investigate it

I suppose that means my only avenue is to continue to try and bring the GSsoft plugin up to date. Is anyone interested in patches? Is there any good forum to discuss the implementation?

Ian

Attached Images

bgda_soft.jpg (57.1 KB, 48 views)

**CpU MasteR** · January 16th, 2007, 22:35

As far as I know (Which I really dont, me being out of the emulation scene for at least 7 months. Hi ya'll!

), since the departure of linunzappz which whom wrote GSsoft, I would think it is discontinued. As far as the source code, I think it is out there somewhere. I believe remembering the source being on the website, but since it has been redesigned I think it has been trashed.

General Plot · January 16th, 2007, 23:12

Welcome back CpU Master.

Staying this time?

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Barius · January 17th, 2007, 01:24

The source for GSsoft is out of date, but not by all that much. Obviously, if you've made it work then you're already familiar with many of the changes to the spec.

Unfortunately, GSsoft is not a 'reference' for GSdx9, they are very different internally. I can't say for sure about ZeroGS though as it is closed-source.

I can't remember where I got the source of GSdx9 anymore, Refraction pointed me to it months ago. It's still online somewhere. However, GSdx9 is also getting out of date because it isn't being actively developed. The last version was made compatible with PCSX2 v0.9.0, no updates have occurred since then (although there have been no significant changes to the way the memory is handled, it's mostly been the addition of utility functions like checkCRC()).

If you can talk Zerofrog into releasing his source code I'll spank your monkey for free

**shashClp** · January 17th, 2007, 02:00

For GSdx9, you can browse the svn repository here, and checkout with your favourite svn client from here. I cheked out and compiled it a few months ago, so I can assure it's complete and working

(even if a bit old)

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**zerofrog** · January 17th, 2007, 05:44

ibrown: Run ZeroGS on that scene (turn off MTGS) and press F11. This should save a gsXXXXXXXX.000 file in your sstates folder. Send me this file and I'll check out the bug.

EDIT: Make sure you are running the devbuild version of pcsx2, otherwise this feature is disabled.

About ZeroGS open source, there are plans to release the OpenGL version of ZeroGS as open source when 0.9.3 comes out. This version, unlike the DX version, will be cross platform. And ZeroGS is very different internally from any of the existing GS plugins.

Last edited by zerofrog; January 17th, 2007 at 05:50..

ibrown · January 17th, 2007, 08:02

cool, I'll do that tonight when I'm home from work (send the GS snapshot). I'll also take a look at the dx plugin source and see if it can help me finish off bringing the soft gs plugin up to date.

zerofrog: I've sent you a PM telling you where you can download the save state file. The game is SLES 50672 (PAL Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance).

EDIT: I've attached a patch to the gssoft plug-in code to allow it to work with the latest release. It's not the speediest plug-in in the world, but it is useful to try and understand how the GS plug-in works. It would be helpful if someone could apply this to subversion so that my private copy does not get too far out of synch.

Ian

Attached Files

gssoft.patch.zip (9.6 KB, 91 views)

Last edited by ibrown; January 18th, 2007 at 14:44.. Reason: Patch upload

kekko · January 19th, 2007, 20:11

Nice work Ian.
Even if software rasterizers are quite slow for modern standards in realtime graphics, this plugin has still a big value as sample code for future gs plugins made by third parties. I guess the sources just need a cleanup to make it more readable, although slower.

EDIT: Just tested TR Legend and it shows way better than any 3d accelerated plugin....

Last edited by kekko; January 19th, 2007 at 20:53..

cyclonmaster · January 20th, 2007, 02:27

This bring back memories. Good job ibrown. Even though this linuzapp leftover is very slow, still it's produce nice graphics on certain game with low GPU spec requirement.

p/s: kekko, where have you been?

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zellgoku · January 20th, 2007, 02:38

where i put this patch?

cyclonmaster · January 20th, 2007, 02:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by zellgoku

where i put this patch?

If you can't figure this out by yourself. It's nothing I can say. Go learn about the source and svn.

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jos708 · January 20th, 2007, 03:01

A question to the dev's: why is the source of pcsx2 on svn not updated anymore? Since the release version 0.92 there has not been an update.
Are you still planning to update svn from time to time or are the sources not been released to the public anymore ?

Chobi San · January 20th, 2007, 03:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by jos708

A question to the dev's: why is the source of pcsx2 on svn not updated anymore? Since the release version 0.92 there has not been an update.
Are you still planning to update svn from time to time or are the sources not been released to the public anymore ?

The devs only release a new version of PCSX2 when they feel that they have made "significant" progress. Seeing as this is their project they are free to release new versions whenever they feel like. Source codes are usually released with each new release, so the next source code will be released with version 0.9.3

...and SVN builds are not supported on this forum

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zellgoku · January 20th, 2007, 03:28

hey i didnt know my laptop support pixel shader 3.0

See this:

GPU Information :
Number of GPU : 1
Codename : GMA 950 Graphics
Bus : 64-bit
Memory Type : DDR-SDRAM
GPU Frequency : 250 MHz
Texels : 1600 MTexels/s
DirectX Support : 9.0
Pixel Shader Version : 3.0

then why in my plugin gsdx9
it says 2.0?

it not ps3

Why??

thc · January 20th, 2007, 11:13

bit unrelated, don't You think ?...
>> search this forum <<
http://forums.ngemu.com/pcsx2-offici...alyze-how.html

Quote:

Originally Posted by jos708

A question to the dev's: why is the source of pcsx2 on svn not updated anymore? Since the release version 0.92 there has not been an update.
Are you still planning to update svn from time to time or are the sources not been released to the public anymore ?

http://forums.ngemu.com/pcsx2-offici...ml#post1066927

@ibrown if You manage to get it to speed of ZeroGS with compatibility of GSSoft I'll give You cookie. IMO it's better to wait few months until/if ZeroFrog release ZeroGS(ogl) and tweak that one (altho even better is left it to him as he's better in it).

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ibrown · January 20th, 2007, 11:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by thc

@ibrown if You manage to get it to speed of ZeroGS with compatibility of GSSoft I'll give You cookie.

That's not the point of the exercise. There are a number of reasons, IMHO, to have an independent GS plug-in that does not use accelerated 3d:

By comparing the results of different GS plug-ins it is possible to better determine if a problem is in the core engine or in the plug-in.

It is easier to debug a software only plug-in in order to better understand how the GS works. This is because you can single step though all of it and you do not have an extra DX or OGL layer to contend with.

It should be able to act as a reference plug-in. By that I mean it will be slow but it should have 100% compatibility. Accelerated plug-ins can use it as a reference for correct behaviour then. Compare it with the reference rasteriser shipped by Microsoft.

To be honst though, I just enjoy playing with VM implementations. 15 years of writing Virtual Machine implementations as a profession will do that for you

Having said that though, in Baldurs Gate (which is what I am currently trying to get working) and also in Rayman Revolution, my super optimised version (using VS2005 with global opimisation and then with profile guided opimisations) runs slightly faster than the current ZeroGS. It would appear though that in these 2 games, about 85% of the run time is spent in the EE emulation and not in the GS.

It would be nice if there was a forum to chat about the source. I know this is not the place, but there doesn't really seem to be anywhere else

Ian

thc · January 20th, 2007, 18:24

ahh, exercise.
well, web development/programming is bit unused and plugins also don't have any rules about sources talking (mods in this forum are friendly otherwise I was banned long time ago)
altho question is who can talk about PCSX2 besides it's devs. I think there are two ppl (ok, now three) who visit these forums and say something worthwhile reading about PCSX2, it's plug-ins or PS2 (and those two don't really visit often),

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brain damage

jos708 · January 21st, 2007, 02:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by thc

bit unrelated, don't You think ?...
>> search this forum <<
http://forums.ngemu.com/pcsx2-offici...alyze-how.html

http://forums.ngemu.com/pcsx2-offici...ml#post1066927

@ibrown if You manage to get it to speed of ZeroGS with compatibility of GSSoft I'll give You cookie. IMO it's better to wait few months until/if ZeroFrog release ZeroGS(ogl) and tweak that one (altho even better is left it to him as he's better in it).

Too bad svn is not updated anymore, there are a lot of people who are just intrested in playing around with the source and not having any bad intentions on releasing hacks. I hope someday they will update it again like it was before when linuz was still around.

**zerofrog** · January 21st, 2007, 13:56

jos708: feel free to play with the source as you wish. The reason we're not updating with the newest changes is because things can get pretty buggy in between major releases. Trust me, the devs are doing everyone a favor. Also, if you discover anything major, just tell us and we'll consider making the changes.

ibrown: all the bottlenecks of the emulator occur in the recompilers and the GS plugin. Everything else is just pipelining the data (the wiring). Even if you optimized that section like crazy, you won't see a 1% speed improvement.

As for GSsoft, that's awesome that you are working on it! As far as I know, gsdx has a software renderer that has much higher compat. There was even a point in time where GSsoft borrowed some of its code.

If you want to do changes to the source and want to chat, PM the devs or go to irc and ask around for the devs (there's plenty of work left to be done)

EDIT: The next version of ZeroGS will have ~10-20 advanced options to play with for those curious enough to get the best perf out of every game (it will be just like the way patches work for pcsx2, except this is for the GS).

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January 16th, 2007, 22:35	#3
CpU MasteR omfg h4x0r Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Yuma Arizona, USA Posts: 559	As far as I know (Which I really dont, me being out of the emulation scene for at least 7 months. Hi ya'll! ), since the departure of linunzappz which whom wrote GSsoft, I would think it is discontinued. As far as the source code, I think it is out there somewhere. I believe remembering the source being on the website, but since it has been redesigned I think it has been trashed.

January 16th, 2007, 23:12	#4
General Plot Britchie Crazy Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Plymouth, England Posts: 4,952	Welcome back CpU Master. Staying this time? __________________ Intel Core i7 920 @ 3.4 Ghz \| 6 GB DDR3 RAM in Triple Channel \| GeForce GTX 285 2.5 TB Hard Drive Space \| Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Official betatester of PCSX2

January 17th, 2007, 01:24	#5
Barius Registered User Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: At home Posts: 942	The source for GSsoft is out of date, but not by all that much. Obviously, if you've made it work then you're already familiar with many of the changes to the spec. Unfortunately, GSsoft is not a 'reference' for GSdx9, they are very different internally. I can't say for sure about ZeroGS though as it is closed-source. I can't remember where I got the source of GSdx9 anymore, Refraction pointed me to it months ago. It's still online somewhere. However, GSdx9 is also getting out of date because it isn't being actively developed. The last version was made compatible with PCSX2 v0.9.0, no updates have occurred since then (although there have been no significant changes to the way the memory is handled, it's mostly been the addition of utility functions like checkCRC()). If you can talk Zerofrog into releasing his source code I'll spank your monkey for free

January 17th, 2007, 02:00	#6
shashClp Emu author Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: VisualC Posts: 1,195	For GSdx9, you can browse the svn repository here, and checkout with your favourite svn client from here. I cheked out and compiled it a few months ago, so I can assure it's complete and working (even if a bit old) __________________ Emulator development blog

January 17th, 2007, 05:44	#7
zerofrog Emu author Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: my mind Posts: 374	ibrown: Run ZeroGS on that scene (turn off MTGS) and press F11. This should save a gsXXXXXXXX.000 file in your sstates folder. Send me this file and I'll check out the bug. EDIT: Make sure you are running the devbuild version of pcsx2, otherwise this feature is disabled. About ZeroGS open source, there are plans to release the OpenGL version of ZeroGS as open source when 0.9.3 comes out. This version, unlike the DX version, will be cross platform. And ZeroGS is very different internally from any of the existing GS plugins. Last edited by zerofrog; January 17th, 2007 at 05:50..

January 19th, 2007, 20:11	#9
kekko Registered User Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: GMT +1.00h Posts: 76	Nice work Ian. Even if software rasterizers are quite slow for modern standards in realtime graphics, this plugin has still a big value as sample code for future gs plugins made by third parties. I guess the sources just need a cleanup to make it more readable, although slower. EDIT: Just tested TR Legend and it shows way better than any 3d accelerated plugin.... Last edited by kekko; January 19th, 2007 at 20:53..

January 20th, 2007, 02:27	#10
cyclonmaster EmuAddict-_-;; Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Sarawak, Malaysia Posts: 2,737	This bring back memories. Good job ibrown. Even though this linuzapp leftover is very slow, still it's produce nice graphics on certain game with low GPU spec requirement. p/s: kekko, where have you been? __________________ :::Gadget Dream:::Dropbox::: Win XP SP3 \| Monitor BenQ FP 91G+\|Intel Core i3-530 2.93GHz \| GA-P55-USB3L - GIGABYTE \| Albatron 6600GT 128MB PCI-E \| Corsairs 2GB DDR3 Laptop Lenovo z460 : Win XP SP3 \| Intel Core i5-460M(2.8GHz) \| NVidia G310M CUDA DDR3 1GB \| 2GB DDR3 Memory \| 500GB HDD SATA \| 14.1 WXGA LED Display Please Answer This Survey. Thank You.

January 20th, 2007, 02:38	#11
zellgoku Registered User Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Memories of Cloud Posts: 66	where i put this patch?

January 20th, 2007, 03:01	#13
jos708 Registered User Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 56	A question to the dev's: why is the source of pcsx2 on svn not updated anymore? Since the release version 0.92 there has not been an update. Are you still planning to update svn from time to time or are the sources not been released to the public anymore ?

January 20th, 2007, 03:28	#15
zellgoku Registered User Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Memories of Cloud Posts: 66	hey i didnt know my laptop support pixel shader 3.0 See this: GPU Information : Number of GPU : 1 Codename : GMA 950 Graphics Bus : 64-bit Memory Type : DDR-SDRAM GPU Frequency : 250 MHz Texels : 1600 MTexels/s DirectX Support : 9.0 Pixel Shader Version : 3.0 then why in my plugin gsdx9 it says 2.0? it not ps3 Why??

January 20th, 2007, 18:24	#18
thc Member © Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Prague, CZ Posts: 691	ahh, exercise. well, web development/programming is bit unused and plugins also don't have any rules about sources talking (mods in this forum are friendly otherwise I was banned long time ago) altho question is who can talk about PCSX2 besides it's devs. I think there are two ppl (ok, now three) who visit these forums and say something worthwhile reading about PCSX2, it's plug-ins or PS2 (and those two don't really visit often), __________________ E6600 @3600, P5W DH DLX, 2x 512 A-Data @800, 4-4-3-4, X1900XT listening to Weird Al... brain damage

January 21st, 2007, 13:56	#20
zerofrog Emu author Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: my mind Posts: 374	jos708: feel free to play with the source as you wish. The reason we're not updating with the newest changes is because things can get pretty buggy in between major releases. Trust me, the devs are doing everyone a favor. Also, if you discover anything major, just tell us and we'll consider making the changes. ibrown: all the bottlenecks of the emulator occur in the recompilers and the GS plugin. Everything else is just pipelining the data (the wiring). Even if you optimized that section like crazy, you won't see a 1% speed improvement. As for GSsoft, that's awesome that you are working on it! As far as I know, gsdx has a software renderer that has much higher compat. There was even a point in time where GSsoft borrowed some of its code. If you want to do changes to the source and want to chat, PM the devs or go to irc and ask around for the devs (there's plenty of work left to be done) EDIT: The next version of ZeroGS will have ~10-20 advanced options to play with for those curious enough to get the best perf out of every game (it will be just like the way patches work for pcsx2, except this is for the GS).