[Mad Echidna]

So cool Gerbil! Are you just submitting patches to the Gens community or are you forking it? Can I help make an Ubuntu package?

[GerbilSoft]

Mad Echidna, on Aug 26 2008, 12:48 AM, said:

So cool Gerbil! Are you just submitting patches to the Gens community or are you forking it? Can I help make an Ubuntu package?

Unfortunately, there's no centralized place to submit patches to, so this is essentially a fork.

I guess you could make an Ubuntu package, but anyone here should be able to compile it themselves. >_>

Note that the m1 release (which I'll release sometime this week, hopefully) will be Linux only. Windows support will be added later on, probably in m3 or m4.

Also, with regards to hardware features: Savestates could be implemented on the actual system with no changes to the games at all, as can overclocking, which is why it's fine. Stuff like adding additional RAM or VRAM would be useless unless a game was rewritten to accomodate for those changes, so that's why I'm not adding that sort of thing.

This post has been edited by GerbilSoft: 26 August 2008 - 08:13 AM

[Overlord]

Uberham, on Aug 25 2008, 10:57 PM, said:

GerbilSoft, on Aug 25 2008, 02:13 AM, said:

Uberham, on Aug 24 2008, 06:30 PM, said:

Could you also Hack in support for ROMS over 4 MB?

It's just I want to play that Ultimate Mortal Kombat Trilogy hack with a current (ish) version of GENS.

UMK Trilogy uses stuff not found on the actual hardware, so I won't be implementing it.

Specifically, it uses a non-bankswitched ~10MB ROM, which is impossible on the actual hardware. There is the official Sega bankswitching system though, which I think Gens already supports. The official bankswitching system supports up to 32MB ROM, but requires the program to be specifically coded to use it. The only game I can think of that uses this bankswitching method is Super Street Fighter II, which has a 40Mb (5MB) ROM.

Yeah, but GENS also uses savestates, also not possible on the actual hardware.

I disagree. With a time manipulation device, you could easily use them - it's after all, just a combo of the ROM and what's in the system's memory at the time.

[Mad Echidna]

GerbilSoft, on Aug 26 2008, 06:11 AM, said:

Mad Echidna, on Aug 26 2008, 12:48 AM, said:

So cool Gerbil! Are you just submitting patches to the Gens community or are you forking it? Can I help make an Ubuntu package?

Unfortunately, there's no centralized place to submit patches to, so this is essentially a fork.

I guess you could make an Ubuntu package, but anyone here should be able to compile it themselves. >_>

What about the official Sourceforge project?

[sonicblur]

Mad Echidna, on Aug 26 2008, 07:21 PM, said:

GerbilSoft, on Aug 26 2008, 06:11 AM, said:

Mad Echidna, on Aug 26 2008, 12:48 AM, said:

So cool Gerbil! Are you just submitting patches to the Gens community or are you forking it? Can I help make an Ubuntu package?

Unfortunately, there's no centralized place to submit patches to, so this is essentially a fork.

I guess you could make an Ubuntu package, but anyone here should be able to compile it themselves. >_>

What about the official Sourceforge project?

You still need to be a member of a project to check in code for it.
If there's nobody to allow him access, then he can't do anything with it.

Just out of curiosity, how well have you decoupled the UI layer from it's underlying functionality? The only copy of the Gens source that I've seen seemed to be organized so inconsistently that it seemed like it would be a waste of time to even try and slap a new GUI on it. I really enjoy how easy it is to port Genesis Plus in comparison, because all you need to do is pass in a pointer to ROM data and controller input each frame. Then it gives back sound and video arrays for you to use as you please. Of course, that makes it easier to be lazy, but it also makes porting a breeze.

[GerbilSoft]

I've released Milestone 1! See the first post for more information.

[Mad Echidna]

Nice job man! I can't wait to compile this when I get home! I'll make a deb so my fellow Ubuntu users can try it out

[Bibin]

Feel free to port it to PPC Macs - my PowerBook G4 aluminum really wants to play Sonic CD, but MacGens is intel only.

[Mad Echidna]

You could just duelboot with Ubuntu PPC and compile it yourself...

[Bibin]

Right, but that requires me to install Ubuntu on a computer I actually value, which won't be happening any time soon. That, and I don't know nearly enough to compile it for the Mac OS X Platform, let alone a PPC one.

[GerbilSoft]

Bibin, on Aug 27 2008, 11:23 PM, said:

Right, but that requires me to install Ubuntu on a computer I actually value, which won't be happening any time soon. That, and I don't know nearly enough to compile it for the Mac OS X Platform, let alone a PPC one.

Unfortunately, that's not happening any time soon. The Starscream core (Gens' 68000 emulator) is a C file that produces a program that emits x86 assembly language, which is then assembled. It's going to be a bitch to rewrite that in C, if it's even possible.

And we just got a G4 Cube at TechServ, too.

On a sidenote, I added PNG screenshot support via libpng, and improved the existing BMP screenshot support. The way it's set up right now is that only one version is compiled in Gens at any given time. If you have PNG enabled, you can't take BMP screenshots, and vice versa. I don't really see a need to enable BMP screenshots unless someone doesn't have libpng, and the chances of that happening are very low. (On Windows and MacOS, I can bundle a copy of libpng if necessary.)

[Overlord]

Bibin, on Aug 28 2008, 04:23 AM, said:

Right, but that requires me to install Ubuntu on a computer I actually value, which won't be happening any time soon. That, and I don't know nearly enough to compile it for the Mac OS X Platform, let alone a PPC one.

Can't you just use a virtual machine?

(lol performance)

[Mad Echidna]

I actually played Gadget: Past as Future on a Win2k vm on my Lombard g3 Powerbook in MS Virtual PC and it didn't lag at all :D

[Bibin]

I may try it in mu W98 VM; it's responsive enough, so hopefully it'll be playable.

[GerbilSoft]

Another version bump: Gens/GS Milestone 2 is out, with PNG, multi-file ZIP, and partial 32-bit color support! :D