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| Snes9X Windows Woes |
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So, I've released a new Snes9x Windows version with reorganised 3Dfx glide code... and it still doesn't work for some people; f**k and other rude words! Still, I now know that using DirectX and Glide inside the same wasn't causing the problem.
The question is what to do next? I could switch to Glide library version 3, maybe there are bugs in Voodoo 3 support in Glide v2, but I'm not even sure if Glide v3 fully supports the Voodoo 2 card I have. I could try and borrow a Voodoo 3 card, but nobody I know actually has one, so that's a bit of a non-stater. Finally, I could buy one, but paying a few hundred dollars for a card just to help me debug some software I give away for free is a bit extreme. Normally there is a little fund I have to buy such things, but the fund is empty at the moment...
If you didn't know, this web site is paid for by the revenue we get from the adverts on the various pages, and the site isn't cheap, several hundred dollars each month and its about to go up. For every visitor who sees an advert we get a small fraction of cent, but if lots of people visit, it can add up to enough to pay for the site and a little left over, mine and Jerremy's 'fund'. I've used it in the past to buy a SNES copier (which is now broken, unfortunately), every second-hand game cart I could lay my hands on that Snes9x has problems with, and a second-hand copy of Visual C++.
The problem is, within minutes of me releasing a new Windows version of Snes9x, its copied onto several other web sites and people download it from there; the other web sites get the money from their adverts, we get nothing. Its now getting so bad that the advert revenue might soon not cover the cost of this site; when that happens Snes9x will be no more...
Gary, 26-1-2000 05:01:00 |
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| WWEmu is back =) |
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| Well, not so long ago we reported that WWEmu had been discontinued, well due to a lot of mails from fans and loyal visotors he has come back. This time for good, or atleast that's what we're hoping =)
Jerremy, 23-1-2000 13:49:00 |
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| More on the Chrono Trigger Black Screen Problem |
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The Chrono Trigger black screen problem is proving more difficult to solve than first thought - the problem only occurs on the Snes9X Windows version.
I normally develop new emulation features under Linux because coding errors during development don't crash the machine, unlike Windows, and its only the Linux port that has emulation debugging facilities built-in.
Before I could debug the Chrono Trigger problem on Windows, I had to add some SNES debug features first. I now know what's going wrong but still don't know why, yet. More investigation is required...
Gary, 21-1-2000 03:01:00 |
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| About the New Windows Release... |
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Well, a new Windows release has finally happened, a little later than planned due to me trying to use an old user name and password to ftp the new zip file onto the site. Whoops!
Seems to be 3 main problems people are having with the new release: Chrono Trigger black screens, problems with some sound effects in Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 3, and 3Dfx support.
The Chrono Trigger black screen problem is almost certainly a change I made to the NMI emulation timing to fix a couple of other ROMs; looks like the change broke Chrono Trigger. I'll back out the change and have to investigate the problems with the other ROMs later.
The sound effects problems are caused by my attempt to simulate the SNES sound DSP's bug/feature where noise is generated when uncompressed sample data deliberately goes outside a 16-bit range. My code is triggering the simulation when it shouldn't. zsKnight very kindly sent me his code a while ago, but I didn't actually bother looking at it; I guess its time to study his code to find when he triggers the simulation...
The 3Dfx support problems people are having seem to be very nasty. 3Dfx support works fine on my Creative Voodoo 2 card, but others are seeing Snes9X crashes or complete machine crashes. I'm sure its the Voodoo card's driver that is causing the crashes. It would seem that some Voodoo card drivers do not like an application using both DirectX and Glide. I remember reading in the Glide documentation that an application was not allowed to use both DirectX3D and Glide, but using just DirectX seems to cause a problem as well.
I need access to my desktop machine to test any Glide support changes, so I won't be able to look into this Voodoo problem until the weekend. In the meantime, you could try using the official reference Voodoo drivers available from the http://www.3dfx.com site , that's what I'm using.
Gary, 19-1-2000 06:57:00 |
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| Blast! Can't ftp to the site at the moment. |
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Sorry. I've finally got a new release of the Snes9X Windows port ready and but now I can't up it onto the site, Jerremy might have changed the password without telling me.
Don't go blaming Jerremy, I should have checked with him earlier. Again, sorry about this, normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.
Gary, 17-1-2000 22:59:00 |
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Go back in time
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