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zx-81
July 23rd, 2006, 11:27
http://zx81.zx81.free.fr/images/pspvba-snap-12.jpg


Hi All,

Here is a new version of PSPVBA the GameBoy Advance Emulator for PSP.

* This version doesn't work for +2.0 FW ! *

What's new in version 1.2.0 :

- All the sound part has been rewritten to use the media engine (faster)
- Graphical Unit access improvement
(disable cache, may result in graphic artefacts but faster !)
- Add new beautiful icons and background designed by Win-Win (Shadow) !
- Add option to enable/disable GBA battery/flash save
(to avoid annoying disk save every 10 seconds in several games)

How to use it ?

Have a look to the README.txt file !

One binary version for 1.5 FW and sources are included in the zip archive.

This package is under GPL Copyright, read COPYING file for more information about it.

Enjoy, :D

Zx.

Download and Give Feedback Via Comments

New PSPVBA: Game Compatibility List ! (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=29918) (add your submissions)

EDIT: i've uploaded a new version fixing the analog pad bug ...

EDIT: A New version is available, that fix the "freeze on exit" bug, download it here : v1.2.1 (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=29948)

Airtoof
July 23rd, 2006, 11:33
Bravo ZX

jaws365
July 23rd, 2006, 11:44
Oh yeah, thanks!!!

jak66
July 23rd, 2006, 11:47
YAY! one of the best emus just got better...sorry to all you 2.0+ people out there

scupitangul
July 23rd, 2006, 11:48
i can see a 30 % improvement or more in the games that usually work slower....its just hard to believe that every time you show up with a gba emulator theres a 30-40 % speed increase....youre really getting close..keep up the good work...oohh and by the way ...some games are too fast...250%

scupitangul
July 23rd, 2006, 11:53
i have a queston...whats the best configuration...100% with 10 fps....ore more fps and less percent...im a little confused

zx-81
July 23rd, 2006, 11:54
i have a queston...whats the best configuration...100% with 10 fps....ore more fps and less percent...im a little confused

The best configuration is 100% ... the more fps you have, the less lag you have. But when the game is running at 50%, it lags even if you have 30 fps ;) ...

Kramer
July 23rd, 2006, 11:55
thanx for another wicked release zx-81
what are you planning to do now to make it better?

scupitangul
July 23rd, 2006, 11:58
than you mean that at 100% the game is running like on a gba

tophead420
July 23rd, 2006, 11:58
o yeah iv gotta try this lol good job zx

Mew
July 23rd, 2006, 11:58
great release ZX!
Finally media engine, awesome!! :)

But I can't go back to the menu, while I'm playing a GBA rom.. Why?
back to XMB (Home + Yes) doesn't work either

zx-81
July 23rd, 2006, 12:00
thanx for another wicked release zx-81
what are you planning to do now to make it better?

I've nearly reached the limit of what can be done on this emulator. The sound is a bit crappy, it doesn't run full speed on all games, but it's playable for many others.

The Media engine seems to be completly busy with the sound emulation, so i don't think we can make it emulate anything more (such as gfx stuff) :(.

As disscussed in the "VBA suggestion" thread, i can add several new features, but it won't speed up the emulator.

zx-81
July 23rd, 2006, 12:02
than you mean that at 100% the game is running like on a gba

yes, but it's not really true on this emulator, because we use "average tick" value, instead of computing the real ARM tick value (so the time scale is not realistic).

zx-81
July 23rd, 2006, 12:03
great release ZX!
Finally media engine, awesome!! :)

But I can't go back to the menu, while I'm playing a GBA rom.. Why?
back to XMB (Home + Yes) doesn't work either

You should be able to go back to the menu using the SELECT key ...

The home button doesn't work. It's due to the ME, and snes9x had the same issue. I will use the same hint as Snes9x to overcome this problem in futur release.

compoman386
July 23rd, 2006, 12:05
What I would really like to see for this emulator is a compatibility list.

How about more people posting their results for games that are playable and close to full speed, and also say what settings you used.

If there alraedy is a list like this then Ive missed it.

Thanx to zx-81 keep up the good work!

tedou
July 23rd, 2006, 12:09
Excellent zx-81

Kramer
July 23rd, 2006, 12:14
swap analog/cursor option aint working anymore

zx-81
July 23rd, 2006, 12:20
swap analog/cursor option aint working anymore

oops :o :o :o this is a bug, will fix it asap.

jaws365
July 23rd, 2006, 12:22
Is there a list over different GBA games and how fast they run on this emulator?

compoman386
July 23rd, 2006, 12:29
As I am NOT allowed to post new threads, would someone who IS allowed to start new threads start one called something like, oh say

"PSPVBA Compatibility List"

Then everyone can post their results on what works what doesn't and what settings, I will happily compile the results into a single list if that's what everyone wants?

zx-81
July 23rd, 2006, 12:51
As I am NOT allowed to post new threads, would someone who IS allowed to start new threads start one called something like, oh say

"PSPVBA Compatibility List"

Then everyone can post their results on what works what doesn't and what settings, I will happily compile the results into a single list if that's what everyone wants?

Good idea, iv'e done it here : PSPVBA: Game Compatibility List ! (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=163236)

pspfan
July 23rd, 2006, 12:52
Excellent work zx. Will download it tomorrow as soon as I get up because it's almost 4:00 AM here.

zx-81
July 23rd, 2006, 12:52
swap analog/cursor option aint working anymore

Thanks for your feedback, i've uploaded a new version fixing that annoying bug :)

D0N
July 23rd, 2006, 12:53
Nice work zx! Keep it up! Downloading right now! :D

JonasDA87
July 23rd, 2006, 12:53
I downgraded my PSP to 1.50 and when I put this emulator on the PSP the backround image won't show up on the memory stick option under Game. How do I take care of this so I can actually boot up the emulator?

zx-81
July 23rd, 2006, 12:58
I downgraded my PSP to 1.50 and when I put this emulator on the PSP the backround image won't show up on the memory stick option under Game. How do I take care of this so I can actually boot up the emulator?

Did you copy properly the content of fw1.5/ on the /psp/game directory,
in order to have /psp/game/__SCE__pspvba and /psp/game/%__SCE__pspvba directories on your memory stick ?

tedou
July 23rd, 2006, 13:02
ZX-81 your are the best

Exoskeletor
July 23rd, 2006, 13:27
well done zx, i noticed a speed improvement but fifa 2005 still not working like in the 1.1.0 version :(
Also sometimes it shows me the select menu without pressing the select first (and sometimes without pressing anything)

bongadadu
July 23rd, 2006, 13:40
Hey Zx-81, thanks for the great release.

I know its gonna be hard to improve this emulator but im sure you will do what you can, but what id like to see if possible is 7 zip compression support, coz that saves up more memory space.

thanks

zx-81
July 23rd, 2006, 14:06
sometimes it shows me the select menu without pressing the select first (and sometimes without pressing anything)

When the PSP battery is low, then the emulator goes back automatically to the main menu ... you have may be experienced this feature :confused:

PSPKOR
July 23rd, 2006, 14:27
Wow, you were really fast at fixing that bug, this emulator is really good now. Just an idea as you are winding down the GBA emulator, but how about thinking of doing a PSone emulator. Just an idea!

jaws365
July 23rd, 2006, 14:47
Jesus, I am not even allowed in the "PSPVBA Compatibility List"-thread. Must be for the eilte only.

Gazz021
July 23rd, 2006, 15:09
Just tried the new update.I lot faster and smoother on most games including Mario Pinball Land but sound still very choppy.On Silent Scope when you use the red shooting cursor the men you got to shoot don't show up.But it won't be long till you get 100% emulation,keep up the good work.

poopster22
July 23rd, 2006, 15:41
y u not doin it for fw2.X.... i have nothing to look forward to now........:confused: :(

Gazz021
July 23rd, 2006, 15:47
Hi poopster maybe you should look on ebay for a PSP with 1.51 firmware and sell the one you have now.I ve got mine from Japan last summer and since december I stopped upgrading.I dont buy new PSP games I only use my PSP for Emulators.I have Neo Geo,SNES.GBA,ScummVM,MegaDrive and Amiga.

Zombo
July 23rd, 2006, 16:02
Has anyone managed to get Kingdom Hearts:Chain of memories to work? All I get is a yellow screen and nothing's listed in the compatible list, so im guessing it doesn't work.

Kramer
July 23rd, 2006, 16:07
kingdom hearts is too big so it doesnt work

Video_freak
July 23rd, 2006, 16:10
y u not doin it for fw2.X.... i have nothing to look forward to now........:confused: :(

first of all, you can downgrade if it didnt come with 2.6 :)

the reason its only for 1.0 and 1.5 is because it uses kernal mode which speeds the emulator up

Pumped'Up
July 23rd, 2006, 16:24
Thanks ZX!

Hopefully sound can be improved. Btw, what's up with the ARM tick? When set at 5, sound seems to be best (although still very staticy). Anything below or above it is just pure static.

(this was playing Zelda MC)

Lagnus
July 23rd, 2006, 16:44
I need the files that cannot be posted or linked to in forums for me to downgrade from 2.5. Can some help me out?

You must have a version 1.5 firmware psp and just run a program to make a copy of some files and send them to me, the instructions are there at the QJ website with the download of the downgrader.

Hopefully someone can help me. Thanks

fw2.5 + pspvba 1.2.0 = pain :(

BPM9
July 23rd, 2006, 17:13
Amazing Work!

psiko_scweek
July 23rd, 2006, 17:36
so, ZX, your just about done with what you can do with this emulator? hmm...any particular reason we cannot get full speed? im not trying to bash or anything, im just curious. Is there anything we could do to improve the speed and such later? (btw, great work using the ME, most games are playable)

thanks!

Dementia7
July 23rd, 2006, 17:49
Great update, I just woke up and Its already a good day.

Kvonx
July 23rd, 2006, 17:55
this is phenonmenal!!!!! all the games i play have a MASSIVE speed boost the sound is way bettr.....countless games r playin at full speed r near dis iz marvelous:)

metaldrmmer666
July 23rd, 2006, 18:03
lagnus send me a private message for some advice

Lagnus
July 23rd, 2006, 18:44
For some reason i cant pm people. Anyways I think i might be sorted, but will try to contact you by other means if that fails.

Many thanks

Dickhead
July 23rd, 2006, 19:03
This is a great relase thanks. I think adding a automatic frame skip fuction may also help with with emu. Great work zx 81 keep your hard work up!

compoman386
July 23rd, 2006, 19:03
I need the files that cannot be posted or linked to in forums for me to downgrade from 2.5. Can some help me out?

You must have a version 1.5 firmware psp and just run a program to make a copy of some files and send them to me, the instructions are there at the QJ website with the download of the downgrader.

Hopefully someone can help me. Thanks

fw2.5 + pspvba 1.2.0 = pain :(
You can get a version of the downgrader with all the necessary dumped files from 1.5 firmware included.

Just go to: http://www.psp-hacks.com/file/598


Hope this helps :D :D :D :D

BL4Z3D247
July 23rd, 2006, 19:07
Great update, I just woke up and Its already a good day.
yeh its gunna be a good day :D, thanx zx i was wonderin when u were gunna release it

sroon
July 23rd, 2006, 19:13
WOW Metroid Fusion is almost perfet!
i have been watching this rom from every release!
great job bro!

troom
July 23rd, 2006, 19:17
has any one got megaman zero 2 and so on to work

pkmaximum
July 23rd, 2006, 19:30
Sorry if this seems a bit critical ZX-81 but are you saying that we will never obtain a optimal speed like SNES TYL does for many of the games. I have been testing roms after roms and I have not been noticing much of a speed increase from V1.1.0, the sound was a bit better and the speed was a small bit better but nothing to me is still playable. I tried Metroid Zero Mission, Metroid Fusion, Mario Kart, Mario Advanced 1-4, Contra, and Metal Slug. Unfort the frame rate for these games are not playable. I was wondering is this true on how you are not going to be able to get another speed increase because it just seems like so much hard work in vane if we can't get more speed on this emulaotr. =[

Squidman
July 23rd, 2006, 19:36
Very nice, there's a small increase of speed in Pokemon Fire Red and Emerald, and Saphire is very playable at 120% speed with the default settings that are there when u start it up.

But Metroid Zero Mission does this to me:
http://img54.imageshack.us/img54/7231/screenshot0el9.th.png (http://img54.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot0el9.png)

Yes, this is during gameplay!

BL4Z3D247
July 23rd, 2006, 19:38
pk try havin the turbo at 2 and the frameskips at 1 and the arm tick at 4 or 5 mayby a little higher i just messed with them and i got FF Tatics runnin way better than lastnight when i was playin it on v1.1.0

zx-81
July 23rd, 2006, 19:41
Sorry if this seems a bit critical ZX-81 but are you saying that we will never obtain a optimal speed like SNES TYL does for many of the games.

Yes, just because the hardware we want to emulator is not the same ...

I quote a post i've written on QJ :


GBA -> 32-bit 16.8-MHz ARM
NeoGeo -> 16 bits 12 MHz 68000
Snes -> 16-bits 4 MHz

The PSP is max 333Mhz.

Generally to emulate properly a processor you need multiply the frequency by 25, and it gives you the required frequency for the host processor. Here, 12 * 25 > 300 Mhz, so we can emulate a SNES or NeoGeo.

But for GBA : 16 * 25 > 400 Mhz, so we can see that it will be theoretically very hard to emulate a 32 bits / 16 Mhz ARM processor on a PSP ;) ...


:( :( :(

Video_freak
July 23rd, 2006, 19:43
oh well. at least we (and by that i mean you) can come close, right :confused:

the N64 cpu ran at almost 100 mhz so thats screwed too...:mad:

BL4Z3D247
July 23rd, 2006, 19:46
hey zx how much faster could u get this bad boy? just curious :D

zx-81
July 23rd, 2006, 19:48
oh well. at least we can come close, right:confused:

Yes :( ... The only remaining thing i can do is to emulate the GFX with the media engine, and disable the sound.

I've tried to rewrite the GBA instruction decoder part without any improvements. It was worst lol !

But even if we rewrite the ARM CPU emulation in MIPS R4000 ASM, according to me, it won't fit the required speed :o :o

Mr. Shizzy
July 23rd, 2006, 19:53
This is simply amazing!!! This surpassed my wildest dreams on what I expected from this update. Zx - I'm not trying to brown nose, but you truelly are "The Man". The PSP hb scene could never repay you for all you've done. One question - how much room for sound improvement do you foresee in the future? Zx- great job. Thanks for taking on (& conquering) the psp's "Mission Impossible"

parsifal968
July 23rd, 2006, 20:18
As disscussed in the "VBA suggestion" thread, i can add several new features, but it won't speed up the emulator.

Only one option:
coding the ARM7 cpu part of GBA in mips(allegrex) assembler and... go fly!

if only the EMU scene of PSP have good coders capable to do ASM!

Wonder to see also other core CPU ported in mips ASM:
68000 (Amiga, AtariST, Megadrive, NeoGeo, MAME)
65c816 (SNES)
6502-6510 (Commodore, MAME)
Z80 (Spectrum, MAME, sound cpu)

Full speed Emulators? ASM... the only choice!:D

jOeBrO
July 23rd, 2006, 20:19
ZX, thank you so much for all your hard work!! :D

i have one question though, if a gba emulator written from scratch was made(like what psmoney is doing with his n64 emulator) would that make enough of a peed increase to get to fullspeed?

P.S. i'm not asking you to do it(although i couldnt think of anyone else better :) ) i'm just asking if making one form scratch would make a big difference

troom
July 23rd, 2006, 20:23
I Know This Sounds Weird But Im Playing Danny Phantom And Its Going To Fast How Do Slow It Down On The Last Emu It Ran At Full Speed. Also Some Of The Roms That Did Not Work On The Last One Work Now Batman Begins,metal Slug, Also Any Body Get Megaman Working At A Some What Resonable Speed Megaman Zero That Is Thank You.:)

anobulis
July 23rd, 2006, 20:23
mmk i have vs 2.0 and i have been reading all about how wonderfull it is to have vs 1.5 with emulators and koo stuff. so i have been thinking about down grading, but i have been kinda scared cuz i heard u can brick ur psp by doing that, and it would take me like forever to get the money for my psp considering it was my xmas gift... so is it worth going to 1.5 and using devhook? and is it really possible to brick it like that? oh and another question, i updated my eloader to 97 and for some reason the gif/tiff or w/e stopped working and now i have to load it through gta. is there any way around that?

...shadow...
July 23rd, 2006, 20:26
Major speed improvement on this one ZX, the sound is also getting much better. Your getting really close now.

jOeBrO
July 23rd, 2006, 20:26
anobulis.... downgrade man

you will be able to run 2.71 on 1.5 if you downgrade along with using custom firmware with added features that sonys firmware doesnt have

downgrading is a must and it is completely safe from a 2.0

BL4Z3D247
July 23rd, 2006, 20:29
search for the "mph downgrader" theres a guide that tells u how to do it and devhook can't brick ur psp its 100% safe, if u follow the guide for downgrading u should have no problems as i haven't heard of anyone usin this downgrader and brickin

hey troom try puttin the frameskip up for some reason when i put the frameskip up it slows it down

nibble
July 23rd, 2006, 20:35
maybe disabling the sound will give us full speed

anobulis
July 23rd, 2006, 20:36
where can i find a good vs of devhook and instructions on how to use and install?

nibble
July 23rd, 2006, 20:36
btw... Great Job man..

Lagnus
July 23rd, 2006, 20:54
I feel that going to assembly language is a good idea, and also I now succesfully downgraded to fw1.5. :D

MIPS Programming anyone?
Below are some links that seem fruitful.
Mips wiki (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Programming:MIPS_assembly)

Mips Assembly Language Programming (http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~ellard/Courses/cs50-asm.pdf)

Mips Programmer's Guide (http://www.cs.unibo.it/~solmi/teaching/arch_2002-2003/AssemblyLanguageProgDoc.pdf)

LampDev
July 23rd, 2006, 20:59
downgrading is a must and it is completely safe from a 2.0
Wow, that's like saying that space flight is safe for humans right now.
Although it's been performed many times by qualified people, it's never "safe." Shit can and sometimes does happen. Downgrade only if you are prepared for the worst.

zx-81
July 23rd, 2006, 21:33
i have one question though, if a gba emulator written from scratch was made(like what psmoney is doing with his n64 emulator) would that make enough of a speed increase to get to fullspeed?


to write an emulator from scratch or to rewritting existing one, there is no major difference lol. But i would say, yes if we want to go a bit faster, we can rewrite it all, using all optimization technics dedicated to PSP.
:)

kayhanbakid
July 23rd, 2006, 21:34
I think if disabling the sound and using the media engine for something else would help speed at all it would be worth a shot. I never used to play my GBA with sound anyways. It's just repetitve songs and sound effects.

Just woke up so haven't tried it yet but thank you so much for your efforts and good luck on the next version.

zx-81
July 23rd, 2006, 21:40
Full speed Emulators? ASM... the only choice!:D

GCC is doing optimizations that can't be done manually ;). For example in the instruction decode part of GBA, you have a big switch with more than 480 cases, only gcc is able to find a new decoding function to build an optimized jump table ;) ...

The ASM here is only to win 4 (8, 16, more ?) MIPS clock cycle by GBA instruction ... so i may be wrong but i think it's nothing ... Major speed improvements in GBA has been done with the hardware (overclocking, cache, GU, ME), and very little by the software :
only to disable the execution of the GFX on time over 2 (turbo modes) etc ...

zx-81
July 23rd, 2006, 21:42
I feel that going to assembly language is a good idea, and also I now succesfully downgraded to fw1.5. :D

MIPS Programming anyone?
Below are some links that seem fruitful.
Mips wiki (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Programming:MIPS_assembly)

Mips Assembly Language Programming (http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~ellard/Courses/cs50-asm.pdf)

Mips Programmer's Guide (http://www.cs.unibo.it/~solmi/teaching/arch_2002-2003/AssemblyLanguageProgDoc.pdf)

I've already designed MIPS familly micoprocessors, so i know pretty well the instruction set :D :D. I can rewrite partially the GBA instruction code in ASM, but i don't think we will win a lot ;)

Airtoof
July 23rd, 2006, 21:50
Salut Zx, j'ai remarqué que lorsque je quitte l'émulateur en passant par la commande Exit du menu, la psp freeze et ne se quitte pas, on est obligé d'enlever la batterie, as-tu ce problème?

jOeBrO
July 23rd, 2006, 21:56
Wow, that's like saying that space flight is safe for humans right now.
Although it's been performed many times by qualified people, it's never "safe." Shit can and sometimes does happen. Downgrade only if you are prepared for the worst.

well since your running the official sony 1.5 update it is gauranteed(spelling?) by sony that the update wont screw your psp up

anobulis
July 23rd, 2006, 22:16
well i downgraded sucessfully, and im trying to install devhook, and this is really confusing...i got to step 2, idk where to dl the unpaker or where the unpaker is... and i deffinantly dont know how to use the prog.. so if some one would help me that would b great!

zx-81
July 23rd, 2006, 22:17
Salut Zx, j'ai remarqué que lorsque je quitte l'émulateur en passant par la commande Exit du menu, la psp freeze et ne se quitte pas, on est obligé d'enlever la batterie, as-tu ce problème?

Oui, et je viens de faire une nouvelle release qui fixe ce bug :o :o :o :o (v1.2.1)

For non french people: Airtoof has reported us the famous freeze on exit bug ;) ... it's fixed in the version v1.2.1 !

anobulis
July 23rd, 2006, 22:27
i also just knowticed when i downgraded my eloader pix arent there, but when i look at them on my pc, they still are... does anyone know why this is?

idapimp
July 23rd, 2006, 22:43
life is good

compoman386
July 24th, 2006, 08:07
This is just a thought, I know stuff all about programing so please don't go mad if i am talking from my behind here, but:

zx-81 you said:

GBA -> 32-bit 16.8-MHz ARM
NeoGeo -> 16 bits 12 MHz 68000
Snes -> 16-bits 4 MHz

The PSP is max 333Mhz.

Generally to emulate properly a processor you need multiply the frequency by 25, and it gives you the required frequency for the host processor. Here, 12 * 25 > 300 Mhz, so we can emulate a SNES or NeoGeo.

But for GBA : 16 * 25 > 400 Mhz, so we can see that it will be theoretically very hard to emulate a 32 bits / 16 Mhz ARM processor on a PSP ...


BUT.........

Sony is planning a PSone emulator, and that had a processor with a clockspeed of 33.8688Mhz, so how is that going to be possible when emulating a 16Mhz GBA processor is so hard??

Not being critical, just wondered.

zx-81
July 24th, 2006, 09:09
Sony is planning a PSone emulator, and that had a processor with a clockspeed of 33.8688Mhz, so how is that going to be possible when emulating a 16Mhz GBA processor is so hard??

Not being critical, just wondered.

Because they don't do software emulation, but re-compile the PSone games on PSP plateform ;)

BL4Z3D247
July 24th, 2006, 09:16
zx whats the deal with the oncoming track being all black on mario kart super circuit, or is it just my rom?

zx-81
July 25th, 2006, 09:18
zx whats the deal with the oncoming track being all black on mario kart super circuit, or is it just my rom?

may be enable sfx ? enable GU cache ?

BL4Z3D247
July 25th, 2006, 09:22
i got it had to enable sfx, thanx though

mr_nick666
July 25th, 2006, 12:07
I still find it wierd that I like playing 'outdated' systems on my 'next-gen' handheld! :eek: Great release ZX (the compatibilty list is soooo helpfull too!) :D