PC Engine core

[Sorgelig]

I've made a quick fix so both madoo granzort and talespin are working now. Download seems doesn't flickering.
May be GreyRogue will make a more proper fix later.

[Sorgelig]

the behavior matches pcetech.txt

Is there more documents about HUC6202 besides sgxtech.txt?
I'm still thinking about 1941's white flash issue. According to sgxtech, if none of VDCs output enabled for some region, then color 0 is output including border where original PCE output color 256. The flash is made of color 256. So i've replaced color 0 to 256 after mixing which basically works OK. So, i'm thinking, may be VPC uses color 0 for empty areas (where both VDCs are disabled) and replaces color 0 with 256 on areas where at least one VDC is enabled.
This is the only explanation i have. May be color 256 on SGX has special meaning to distinguish VDC area from empty area.

[albconde]

Thanks , quick test and the fix work , the misisng sprites is fixed too , for example in "rastan saga 2" , "puzzle boy" and "Davis cup tennis".
Maybe time for a release? ,many things fixed and the addition of supergrafx mode (Daimakaimura ( ghouls 'n ghosts) has an almost perfect port in supergrafx)

[albconde]

There are some new problems with the latest changes.
some games have some new flickering like "racing damashi" (when you start playing, in player 1 blink player 2 not) and "son son 2" in game, or "pac land"

Space Harrier, black screen when you shoot in game, the music continues. --> fixed is you disable supergrafx


The flickering is introduced in the comit: 58c4b6171bc74fb0416323e9fa534a6fb36330ce Some cleanup and refactoring.

[Sorgelig]

I've played mentioned games and didn't find any flickering.
What sprites are flickering? player sprites or enemies?

Try to compile with different SEED value - may be it's metastability problem.

[albconde]

In pac land the problem happens all the time, the screen goes up and down 1 pixel.
If you have not noticed, sure it is a problem on my part.
Tested the seed option ( settings -> complier settings -> advance settings fitter -> fitter initial placement seed ) with value =1000 instead 1,
nothing changes
Thank you

[Sorgelig]

oh, i see.
I'm testing an option to switch between DDR3 and SDRAM for ROM storage.
So, pacland screen is shaking only on DDR3. So, it's something related to delays of ROM reading.
Before that refactoring i've used DDR3 prefetch of next word which probably minimized the DDR3 delays due to latency. With refactoring i've removed that prefetch as i've thought it had no effect.
With SDRAM there are no delays, so core gets the ROM data like from real ROM.

Somehow Darius Plus lost its glitched line. Probably also related to delays.

[Sorgelig]

I've re-added prefetch for DDR3, so Pac Land now doesn't shake.
Also added option to use SDRAM for ROM - it's ideal storage as it doesn't add any delays.
The option allows to switch between DDR3 and SDRAM on the fly.

So, it would be good to test on different games to see if there is noticeable difference between RAMs.

As i've mentioned above, Darius Plus now works without artifacts. Not sure which tweak fixed this issue.

[albconde]

Tested a Little , the shake introduced yesterday is fixed .
Testing the switch between memories ,the only diference I've found for now is flickering in dead moon before you play , for example in "push run button" screen , two options flicker , but in diferent way
In Eternal city thosi tenso keikaku the las line in the play area ingame fliker in ddr3 mode , in sdram not , but is not the correct.

[Sorgelig]

It seems Dead Moon title uses dynamic sprite relocation during screen scan. So it highly depends on presize timings.
I think it will be hard to fix it fully as all components should be precise. It's possible that CPU works faster than required and with DDR3 there are delays making CPU slower and closer to original speed an thus less distortion in the title. It seems game itself is ok.

[albconde]

Best example , out run in ddr3 the road flicker in sdram only two lines , the best way to see is pause the game with run button.
In fantasy fone the screen shake in ddr3 , work with a misplace line en sdram.
I have the feeling that everything works a bit better with the option sdram, but is a feeling , the two modes work great in general.
Nearly all work , and is playable, some games have problems with some lines when the background has parts that move at different speeds, the line that delimits the parts some time is mising or misplaced.

games tested than not work:
After burner 2 : crass
drop off : mising sprites (works before)
f1 circus 92 :black screen before you put the name (works before)
figthing run : problems with sprites

[GreyRogue]

Space Harrier, black screen when you shoot in game, the music continues. --> fixed is you disable supergrafx

Sorgelig, have you considered making the default supergrafx disabled? Considering the number of supergrafx titles, and the unknown number of games that might have issues with it, it seems like it might be better to disable by default and just turn it on for the 5 or 6 that use it. I think I'd prefer disable by default, but whatever you decide is fine.

figthing run : problems with sprites

Uses DW = 1 for sprites, which apparently doesn't read all four pxiel planes. Who would have thought a quality title like this wouldn't use the full number of colors available? Fixed in latest pull request.

EDIT: Added Black and White control to the pull request. Tested with 240p Test Suite. Could be improved if returning more than 3bit RGB values.

[albconde]

Some more test :
"Jaseikin necromancer" : crass in game randomly but in short time.
"Out run" still mising some sounds like sound of a car crash.
"Ghost Manor" : Works but all screen shake .
"final soldier" has flicker on the screen "push run Button", ingame works well.In the last published rbf did not have this blink.
"final lap twin" has some graphical corrución in games (the posters of the sides flicker under the car of player 1), but you can play, in the last published rbf did not have them.

GreyRogue , the missing sprites in "drop off" , started with the fix of "Talespin" , afect to more games , Sorgelig made a quick fix in commit "DMA tweak" , this is the only one not fixed .

Nearly all games allow you to star playing , thanks to both of you.

[Sorgelig]

Sorgelig, have you considered making the default supergrafx disabled? Considering the number of supergrafx titles, and the unknown number of games that might have issues with it, it seems like it might be better to disable by default and just turn it on for the 5 or 6 that use it. I think I'd prefer disable by default, but whatever you decide is fine.

Agree.
Actually i was thinking how to detect these games and automatically and enable SGX for them only. So, something like Auto/Disable/Enable switch would be better.
Probably i can use some strings in ROM to detect.

[Sorgelig]

Which games are using half bitplanes (DW=1) and which games are using monochrome?
Want to test it.

[GreyRogue]

Which games are using half bitplanes (DW=1) and which games are using monochrome?
Want to test it.

The only ones I know for sure are the ones I mentioned. Burning Fight uses DW=1 and the 240p Test Suite (I think I grabbed it from here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/testsuite240p/files/PCE-TG16-SCD/) can turn on monochrome in the options.

[GreyRogue]

Which games are using half bitplanes (DW=1) and which games are using monochrome?
Want to test it.

The only ones I know for sure are the ones I mentioned. Burning Fight uses DW=1 and the 240p Test Suite (I think I grabbed it from here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/testsuite240p/files/PCE-TG16-SCD/) can turn on monochrome in the options.

EDIT: Fighting Run, not Burning Fight...sorry.

[Sorgelig]

Which games are using half bitplanes (DW=1) and which games are using monochrome?
Want to test it.

The only ones I know for sure are the ones I mentioned. Burning Fight uses DW=1 and the 240p Test Suite (I think I grabbed it from here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/testsuite240p/files/PCE-TG16-SCD/) can turn on monochrome in the options.

it seems 512pix mode doesn't run correct. It switches to 512 pixels but somewhere inside it's still clocking at 256 pixels, so text is unreadable.

[Sorgelig]

I've added another DMA tweak so Final Soldier title doesn't flicker. Final lap Twin doesn't have blinking banners.

[GreyRogue]

Which games are using half bitplanes (DW=1) and which games are using monochrome?
Want to test it.

The only ones I know for sure are the ones I mentioned. Burning Fight uses DW=1 and the 240p Test Suite (I think I grabbed it from here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/testsuite240p/files/PCE-TG16-SCD/) can turn on monochrome in the options.

it seems 512pix mode doesn't run correct. It switches to 512 pixels but somewhere inside it's still clocking at 256 pixels, so text is unreadable.

Ahh. That would explain it. I also just downloaded the Screen Dimension Test by Chris Covell. It looks like sprites might be off one line.

I just pushed a change to my repository that fixes the Dead Moon flickering. It probably needs quite a bit of testing. I can do a pull request now, or wait for testing...
I also moved the horizontal over one pixel after the delay in the Supergrafx changes moved it. This is centered again (I test this with the 240p Test suite. In the 256x240 image, if you press button 1, it turns on overscan. I've been trying to keep it centered).

I just saw your post saying you made a change. I'll compare with what I did.

[Sorgelig]

Puzzle boy crash when you solve the puzzle. Crash look similar to Coryoon - screen squeeze horizontally and then hangs.

[Sorgelig]

I just pushed a change to my repository that fixes the Dead Moon flickering. It probably needs quite a bit of testing. I can do a pull request now, or wait for testing...
I also moved the horizontal over one pixel after the delay in the Supergrafx changes moved it. This is centered again (I test this with the 240p Test suite. In the 256x240 image, if you press button 1, it turns on overscan. I've been trying to keep it centered).

I just saw your post saying you made a change. I'll compare with what I did.

Please make a pull request. Probably you need to revert my last DMA tweak.

[Sorgelig]

Is there a special Title ID field in PCE ROMs?

[Sorgelig]

I've made PR by myself.
This is first time i've made PR from others repo to mine. Good to try

[Sorgelig]

Dead moon title is perfect now.
Final soldier has shifted earth now. I get this effect when i played with DMA fix and made DMAS_ACTIVE too early. So, probably just need to delay DMA one or 2 lines.