jEnesisDS 0.7.4 - Genesis Emulator for Nintendo DS

[Mini Moose]

Yes!! Thank you, Lordus!!!

It just keeps getting better, and better!!!

[Echo1]

Nice work Lordus. I do enjoy your updates.

Is there any chance in a future version that you could scale the screen like they did with the Neo-Geo emu?

[Lordus]

that goes for me too, and this emulator is right at the top for me. cheers Lordus for another fantastic update :-)

I know this update is only minor but will there be any broken games from 0.7 that are now fixed in 0.7.4? or is it just mostly sound that's been improved and speed?

cheers. . . paul

No, there are no fixes to games, it's "just" the sound and speed that has improved.
I am not really a fan of minor updates, but from my point of view it isn't one, as it was much more work than can be seen. You can add 10 new features in a day, but writing an FM core in ASM takes a bit longer.. And once you're at a certain level, making it even a bit faster can be very very hard.
Anyway, i thought it's much more enjoyable to play with this, than with the former version.

Nice work Lordus. I do enjoy your updates.

Is there any chance in a future version that you could scale the screen like they did with the Neo-Geo emu?

I'm trying to relax now, when i hear the scaling question for the 100th time, but it's not always easy
No, the screen can't be scaled like NeoDS does it. If I could do that, then I can tell you that I would, instead of having stupid workarounds like panning and the follow d-pad option.
The NeoGeo composes it's screen almost entirely out of sprites, that NeoDS renders in 3D. With 3D it's relatively easy to scale the whole thing.
The Genesis has 2 background layers and 1 sprite layer, each of which can have high or low priorities (selectable on a per tile basis). So effectively the screen can be composed out of 6 layers. To do this with the DS hardware i need all the 4 backgrounds it offers. Just 2 of those backgrounds can be scaled in hardware, and software scaling is out of the question.
The other alternative is software rendering, where you compose a bitmap out of all Genesis layers, which you can then draw on a single DS background and scale it in hardware.
The downside of this is, that it is incredibly slow. I can tell you, that a typical PC Genesis emulator probably spends about 50% of all its time in software rendering. That's a more than the emulation of the 2 CPUs takes (except the CPU cores are very unoptimized).

[TechRat]

I don't have a Games n' Music, so it's not that easy for me to trace this down. I have a theory though, which i want to test later (have to sleep a bit now..)

Glad to hear there's hope.

If you need someone to test with a GnM, let me know. I'd be happy to help when I can.

[Spidery_Yoda]

Lordus you are amazing .

For the past few months, jEnesis has been literally the only thing running on my R4, and on my DS in general.

I think you can probably tell from the length of your jEnesis threads that i'm not the only one .

Anyway, just downloaded this so i'm off to transfer it to the card.

Edit: ok had a small play. This is a pretty huge improvement . In 0.7, whenever I did a water level in any Sonic game I had to disable the sound to get it to run smoothly. Now it runs smoothly anyway . No sound scrambling so far either, and everything just seems to 'sound better'. I remember the spin dash in Sonic 2 was a little deafening before, even though Sonic 3's was fine. Now they both are. Yes sorry i'm rambling a bit. Take it as a compliment that i play it enough to notice all the little things .

Also, the mushrooms in Mushroom Hill Zone in Sonic & Knuckles now make their distincive sound when you jump on them. The silent mushrooms were my biggest complaint of 0.7 .

Brilliant work, thanks.

I'm trying to relax now, when i hear the scaling question for the 100th time, but it's not always easy
No, the screen can't be scaled like NeoDS does it. If I could do that, then I can tell you that I would, instead of having stupid workarounds like panning and the follow d-pad option.

I still say you should include that as a disclamer in your original post. Every single time. In big red writing.

I remember when I first found jEnesis (0.4 or 5, i cant remember which. Which ever one was part of that competition), I read the readme and posts before I downloaded it and so knew about the scaling issue before I even played it.

And yet, with every single release you make you get people asking about it at least 10 times ber thread. Make it huge and maybe people won't miss it.

[eder182]

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!! Thanks GOD MASTER LORDUS!!!!

Comix Zone Very very Fast! tnx!

[Echo1]

I'm trying to relax now, when i hear the scaling question for the 100th time, but it's not always easy
No, the screen can't be scaled like NeoDS does it. If I could do that, then I can tell you that I would, instead of having stupid workarounds like panning and the follow d-pad option.
The NeoGeo composes it's screen almost entirely out of sprites, that NeoDS renders in 3D. With 3D it's relatively easy to scale the whole thing.
The Genesis has 2 background layers and 1 sprite layer, each of which can have high or low priorities (selectable on a per tile basis). So effectively the screen can be composed out of 6 layers. To do this with the DS hardware i need all the 4 backgrounds it offers. Just 2 of those backgrounds can be scaled in hardware, and software scaling is out of the question.
The other alternative is software rendering, where you compose a bitmap out of all Genesis layers, which you can then draw on a single DS background and scale it in hardware.
The downside of this is, that it is incredibly slow. I can tell you, that a typical PC Genesis emulator probably spends about 50% of all its time in software rendering. That's a more than the emulation of the 2 CPUs takes (except the CPU cores are very unoptimized).

Sos, about asking that dreaded question but I haven't been reading any stuff. I usually just download and play, if ya get me. Thanks for the explanation, though. I (like many others) do appreciate the work you put into this emu and sure do thank you for it.

Cheers.::thumbup:

[tylerbgood]

works great, only thing is the horizontal scaling, the d-pad follow thing works alright for some games, but some games you just need to see everything on screen.

If you absolutely need to see the whole screen you can use PicoDriveDS. It is not nearly as polished as JenesisDS, and has no sound, but it scales games to fit on the screen. (The three scale options can be toggled using the L1 button.)
Now after reading Lordus' explanation of scaling on the DS, I am assuming PicoDrive uses software rendering. I'm learning here, so please someone correct me if I'm wrong

[eke-eke]

I just spend the last hour trying it.. FM sound is better than ever

congrats Lordus, I can not imagine how optimized your asm code is !

[Steely]

I always love emulator updates(I only wish SnemulDS would have more frequent updates.. Ah well.).

jEnesisDS works very well, thanks a lot. I don't even really know what features you can add now. Comix Zone works really well now, only a bit of flickering here and there. Sound sounds even better, now(Although in Sonic 2, I think the ring and spin dash sounds are still loud. Is it just me?).

Again, great emulator, and I always look forward to future releases.