Bug in snes9x v1.52

[natsumerio]

My OS is Windows 7 home premium, 32-bit version, USA english language edition.

The bug that I'm reporting isn't an emulator crashing kind of bug, but it's so obvious that I can't imagine that it hasn't already been reported.

This bug happens no matter what game I use with it. I used to use snes9x v1.51, & when I found out that v1.52 was released, I downloaded it to try it out. I set up the display options so that I had it in fullscreen (except for the menubar), with bi-linear filtering turned OFF & the graphics filters set to "None". However, the graphics looked as blurry as possible, as if the bi-linear filtering was turned ON. After much aggravating fiddling with the display options, I was FINALLY able to force it to TRULY turn off the bi-linear filtering by switching it to Direct3D & then back to DirectDraw. If I then switch it from menubar fullscreen to no menubar fullscreen, the bi-linear filtering is still turned off, but if I then switch it from no menubar fullscreen to menubar fullscreen, the bi-linear filtering is turned on again. Finally, if I completely exit v1.52 & then launch it again, the bi-linear filtering effect is back again.

This does not affect any of the graphics filters (although Simple 4X & hq4x crash the emulator, none of the others do though).

V1.51 (the one that supported both DirectDraw & Direct3D) does not have this bug, so I'm going back to it. I hope that v1.53 fixes this bug.

[Agent G]

This does not affect any of the graphics filters (although Simple 4X & hq4x crash the emulator, none of the others do though).

If you want to use "Simple 4X" & "hq4x" without crashes, you must prefer to Direct3D than DirectDraw.

[SparroHawc]

I can't get this to reproduce. Running Windows XP SP3, with stretch on and bilinear filtering off, fullscreen gives me chunky pixels and warping on stretch points.

And every time I go from fullscreen to windowed mode, SNES9x crashes. :/

[OV2]

And every time I go from fullscreen to windowed mode, SNES9x crashes. :/

That's a known bug and will be fixed in the next version.

[SparroHawc]

And every time I go from fullscreen to windowed mode, SNES9x crashes. :/

That's a known bug and will be fixed in the next version.

Yeah, I figured that one was known, at least. It just makes it difficult to test for this bug.

[natsumerio]

I'm including a few more details about my system in case any of it proves to be partly responsible for this bug.
Processor = Intel celeron M CPU 440 @ 1.86GHz, 1 core, 1 logical processor
Video card = Mobile Intel 945 express chipset family
Physical RAM = 1 GB

@Agent G.
For whatever reason my system (my video card, I assume) doesn't support Direct3D. If Direct3D truly is a requirement to using "Simple 4X" & "hq4x", then that leaves me out.

@SparroHawc
My OS might be partly to blame for this forced bi-linear bug that I'm reporting. I notice that your OS & mine are different (see the first line of my first post). Also, when you say windowed mode, do you mean menubar fullscreen or something else? I myself went from no menubar fullscreen to menubar fullscreen by pressing the escape key.

Can anybody here who has Windows 7 (preferrably 32-bit version) test the steps that I explained in my first post to see if they can reproduce it?

[Agent G]

@Agent G.
For whatever reason my system (my video card, I assume) doesn't support Direct3D. If Direct3D truly is a requirement to using "Simple 4X" & "hq4x", then that leaves me out.

Oh, your card doesn't support Direct3D.

[OV2]

DirectDraw in Vista and upwards does not really allow the application to control what kind of filtering is used.

although Simple 4X & hq4x crash the emulator

This sounds like you are still using plain 1.52 - try fix4

If you cannot use D3D you could also try a recent testbuild with OpenGL support.

[natsumerio]

I didn't know that there is more than one version of v1.52. The fix4 v1.52 should really be renamed v1.53 (or something besides just v1.52) to help avoid obvious confusion.

I've tested the 2 versions that you suggested, & here are my results.
Both versions have exactly the same bug that I reported that the plain version of 1.52 has.
On the bright side, Simple 4X & hq4x now work in DirectDraw & OpenGL (can't comment on Direct3D mode, of course).

Specific to the OpenGL testbuild.
I set the path to where my snes ROMS are, but when I tried to open one, I had to navigate there again.
After I loaded a game, when I pressed the "File" button to exit it, it froze (this is random).

DirectDraw in Vista & upwards does not really allow the application to control what kind of filtering is used.

I don't know about that for some of the other versions of snes9x, but this version (snes9x Direct3D v1.51 for windows) does not have that problem with my OS (see first line of first post).
http://www.mediafire.com/?yzmmitewfyy

One more thing. The downloads area of this site is either empty or seems empty. It would make it easier (especially for non-members) if there were at least links to the known versions of snes9x.

[OV2]

Specific to the OpenGL testbuild.
I set the path to where my snes ROMS are, but when I tried to open one, I had to navigate there again.

I couldn't reproduce this - I copied it into a new folder, set up the rom path and the open dialog started in this dir.

After I loaded a game, when I pressed the "File" button to exit it, it froze (this is random).

Does this only happen in opengl mode? And were you able to run ogl with bilinear filtering disabled?

I don't know about that for some of the other versions of snes9x, but this version (snes9x Direct3D v1.51 for windows) does not have that problem with my OS (see first line of first post).

That was my first snes9x version with d3d support. I didn't really change anything significantly related to DirectDraw since then.

Here is another testbuild that could fix the problem you have when enabling the menu in ddraw fullscreen:
snes9x_testbuild_natsumerio.zip

Please let me know if that works.

[natsumerio]

Regarding the OpenGL testbuild.

The wrong ROM path thing.
When I first ran it, I used options to set the path to where my snes ROMS are. Then I used the open dialog, but it showed that it was looking where it was installed to. I checked the options to see if it had forgotten the path that I had set up for it, but it was the correct location.

The random freezing when exiting thing.
I forget which mode I was using when it froze, but I do remember testing all 3 modes. I think it was the DirectDraw mode, because I started with Direct3D (couldn't run it), then OpenGL, & then DirectDraw. I loaded Chrono Trigger & tested the graphics options in each mode to see if the bi-linear thing happened again. After it had gone through the demo cutscenes 1 & 1/2 times (where you don't press any buttons), I pressed file to exit snes9x & that's when it froze. I loaded Chrono Trigger in it again, & exited it after a few seconds, & it didn't freeze.

The bi-linear thing.
I was able to disable b-linear filtering in DirectDraw mode & OpenGL mode, but as with the plain 1.52 version, I had to switch to Direct3D mode & then back another mode. If I then switched it from menubar fullscreen to no menubar fullscreen, the bi-linear filtering was still turned off, but if I then switch it from no menubar fullscreen to menubar fullscreen, the bi-linear filtering was turned on again. Finally, if I exited it & then launched it again, the bi-linear filtering effect was back again.

I wasn't aware of any problems with enabling the menu in DirectDraw in fullscreen. Are you referring to the random freezing thing?

[OV2]

I was referring to the problem that switching the menu off and on in fullscreen seems to reenable bilinear filter for you.

[natsumerio]

I've finally tested the latest test build that you posted in this topic. It has exactly the same problems that the OpenGL testbuild did (including the bi-linear filtering bug), but it doesn't freeze. Actually, I think that when the other OpenGL testbuild froze on me, I think that it might have been my fault, because I had a text document open at the same time (I had my recommended snes9x settings wrote down in it).

Since the 1.51 versions (especially the one with 3d3 support that I linked to), are (in my experience) 100% bug-free, I suggest using them as the ones to improve upon, although I doubt that they can be improved, since they are bug-free.