VBA-S [S as in Spacy]

[Spacy]

From the ReadMe:

What is VBA S?
VisualBoyAdvance S is an unofficial modification of
the original VisualBoyAdvance by Forgotten.
My nickname is Spacy or Spacy51.

My aim:
I want to make this emulator fit my needs and hopefully the needs of others,
which want a light-weight, small, fast, easy to use and multimedial emulator for the GBA
that makes as much use of the power of modern PCs as possible, but with sense.
If you need one of the removed features, just use the official emulator build
or try another one of the many VBA modificated versions.

Design guidelines:
- Easy GUI for people which are not familiar with GB/A emulation
- Still keep debug and dumping functions
- Include everything in one EXE file (no need to search for any DLLs/Applications except DirectX)
- Use only free (as in freedom) software
- Remove senseless/gay features
- Strive for hardware acceleration

Here's the link to the latest version: VBA-S [S as in Spacy]

--------------------

Hi.
I'll continue in this thread, because the old title "VBA -> Direct3D9" just doesn't fit enough


Here's my new release:
S1.7.6:
Emu:
- Readded MMX macro
- Updated zlib to 1.2.3
- Changed some first start options
- Other small changes
- Put zlib & libpng in seperate Projects
- Added most changes from the latest CVS source
- Small changes to ROM Header Info (just4fun)
- Fixed the linker error (new&delete defined twice)

Filters:
- Speeded up HQ3X code
- Fixed LQ2X using HQ2X functions

Display:
- Added extended display mode selection (GDI/D3D)
(Display Adapter, Resolution, Bit Depth, Frequency)
- No more unnecessary black borders in full screen
- Direct3D doesn't always take the whole screen (only if you want)
- Direct3D shows menu and windows correct
- Direct3D doesn't show a black screen if left fullscreen to Windows
- Changes on max scale are applied immediately

Sound:
- Updated sound to DirectSound8


Known Bugs:
- fsMaxScale = 1 in Direct3D fullscreen results in wrong image size
- Direct3D: Menu toggle takes a little too long


Download:
Binary & Readme
Source Code

NEEDED: DirectX DLL [d3dx9_26.dll]
(YOU NEED THIS EVEN IF YOU ALREADY HAVE INSTALLED THE LATEST DirectX9 RUNTIME)

[Keith]

Nice work I will post it up over at emulation64

[Cypherswipe]

What about adding 7z support? 7z has become popular almost overnight (it's been around for a long time, but never got much use until very recently), and it would be great to be able to leaves games in 7z format instead of having to repack them to zip format.

[suanyuan]

Great, a lot of improvements.

[Spacy]

I'm creating a config dialog where I'm going to cover all the menu settings because setting up the options for a fresh VBA without ini's is a pain...

The audio tab is already finished and working.

[Keith]

Looking good

[jeffkongz]

Great work, my games are running smoother with this version

Though could you add audio Interpolation and other low pass filters like those in ZSNES
The audio sounds much cleaner with them

and please allow rewinding even after a save state is loaded.
Sometimes I make a wrong save state and can't rewind to before I made it

[Akotan]

On the last thread, you posted an Yoshi's screen game. I never saw this game! Is this a demo?

[Spacy]

Yes, it's a demo. Maybe it originally comes with the GBA SDK.

[Jldnr77]

Could you look into fixing the problems that Forgotten left with Creative drivers? I had a SoundBlaster Live! LS and I got sound errors all over the place....I figured it was because it was a 16 bit sound card...anyway...I have finally upgraded to a SoundBlaster Audigy2 ZS which is a 24 bit buffer and plays audio great, however there is still all kinds of sound glitches with VBA. I know forgotten said on his website that he thinks Creative's drivers suck, and that's why he never built in support for them....but for people who use soundblaster....(which I believe is alot)...this kind of leaves us out in the cold....

[Spacy]

Sorry, but I can't fix a problem that I don't have *g*
I own some Sound Blaster Live! Value Cards (OEM), but those run fine with VBA.

[suanyuan]

Originally Posted by Jldnr77

Could you look into fixing the problems that Forgotten left with Creative drivers? I had a SoundBlaster Live! LS and I got sound errors all over the place....I figured it was because it was a 16 bit sound card...anyway...I have finally upgraded to a SoundBlaster Audigy2 ZS which is a 24 bit buffer and plays audio great, however there is still all kinds of sound glitches with VBA. I know forgotten said on his website that he thinks Creative's drivers suck, and that's why he never built in support for them....but for people who use soundblaster....(which I believe is alot)...this kind of leaves us out in the cold....

(1) VBA internal using 16 bit stereo as playback sound buffer format, so high end sound card support 24-bit, 32-bit and 48-bit playback quality didn't have any advantage to low end sound card like creative PCI 128 or an on-board sound chip like AC97.

(2) VBA using DirectSound as audio playback API, any sound card works fine with DirctSound should work fine with VBA.

(3) Try to turn on "options->emulator->synchronize" option and set "options->frame skip->throttle->no throttle". With sound synchronization turn on, you should get rid off most of sound glitches.

(4) Try my build of VBA smooth download from http://vbasmooth.emulation64.com/, with the help of Kode54's PCM interpoation module, you can get a more clear audio ouput.

[Jldnr77]

Wow....I feel retarded now. I had the throttle set at 100% so that the games wouldn't run to fast, but when I turn it off....the sound runs just fine. Thanks alot! Now I can play my gameboy games again without turning the sound off!!!

[Spacy]

Here is a small status update for those who are interested:

VBA 1.7.7 WIP
BIN&DLL


Edit:
Sorry, I forgot some infos *g*

- Fixed 3 Bugs in Gameboy Mono Color Picker
- Added Color Set: Real Colors
  (Thanks to TheCloudOfSmoke)
- Rearranged source code
- Removed "Use old synchronization" option
- Added Config Dialog (this will be an alternative to the menu)
- Added Audio Tab to the config dialog
- Added more Tabs to the config dialog
- Menu cleanup
- Added changes of official VBA 1.8.0 beta3 (including huge core changes)

[Cypherswipe]

- Added changes of official VBA 1.8.0 beta3 (including huge core changes)

Does this mean that you've been able to figure out what changes were made in 1.8b3? Since there's no changelist posted, nor even an updated NEWS file in the cvs, the rest of us are in the dark.

[Viper_Viper]

Originally Posted by Cypherswipe

Does this mean that you've been able to figure out what changes were made in 1.8b3? Since there's no changelist posted, nor even an updated NEWS file in the cvs, the rest of us are in the dark.

Mostlikely he just applied his additions to the new build.

[Spacy]

Well, I used WinMerge to have a look at the changes. Most of the changes were internal (CPU, Memory, Flash, EEProm, etc.)

There weren't much GUI changes or new functions. Only the Game Overridables got a new option, as far as I can remeber.

If you got some questions, just ask and I'll have a closer look at it


I made a quick measurement between the old and the new core, and I got 10% slower performance, but that wasn't a very accurate measurement.

And as long as pokemonhacker improved compatibility, I will deal with it.

[Cypherswipe]

Basically, I'm just trying to figure out whether or not it's worth updating from 1.7.2. I kmow 1.8b1 was actually worse than 1.7.2, so I'm wondering if 1.8b3 is actually an improvement over 1.7.2 (as b1 should have been) or merely an improvement over b1 (not hard to accomplish :-\ ).
Has speed improved? (Sounds like a "no", even if your tests weren't completely accurate.)
Has cheat codes/searching improved? (Does it accept all GB/GBC gameshark codes as valid now? Has it added new GSA/AR codes that weren't previously supported? Any enhancements to the search dialog?)
Any obvious new features/improvements?

[Spacy]

As far as I remeber there WERE changes to the cheats code. Why don't you just make some tests with it and report it here?

[Cypherswipe]

Unless they added support for some obscure code type that rarely gets used, there's no change to the cheat functions. Indeed, I can't find any differences between 1.7.2 and 1.8b3.