PSPVBA: GameBoy Advance Emulator for PSP v1.2.2

[zx-81]

http://zx81.zx81.free.fr/images/pspvba-snap-122.jpg

Hi All,

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

After days of intensive work on this emulator, i have to say that i've tried many things,
and unfortunatelly none give better speed results.

It seems that i've reached the limit of what i can do on this emulator (from speed point of view).

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

What's new in version 1.2.2 :

- Rewrite some part of the Gfx code (up to 5% faster)
- Bug fix and code cleaning

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

PSP VBA Compatibility List (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=29918)

[Surajk]

Gr8 job

[jimmi]

Good job man! Dont quit yet u can do it man!

[s075933]

look like this is the end of it ayy?
Hope has run out

[SeaN_187]

keep workin on it dnt give up evry1 is desperate for this emulator

[tedou]

very nice thanks zx the best

[Recounter]

On my PSP this Version works slower than the 1.2.1 with Pokemon Rubin. xD
But I think other games will work faster.
I'll use the 1.2.1 for Pokemon xD

[zx-81]

On my PSP this Version works slower than the 1.2.1 with Pokemon Rubin. xD
But I think other games will work faster.
I'll use the 1.2.1 for Pokemon xD

good to know ... but it's a bit faster on the games i've tried (mainly car games).

[tedou]

zelda minish cap work faster

[compoman386]

Hey zx-81, good job another release so soon!

What about the idea that you mentioned yourself about dropping the sound emulation completely and using the media engine to handle gfx??

I would take better speed over sound, most of the games i play need the sound off to get a decent speed anyway

[.:}<3\/!}\{:.]

thx

[ArchAngel]

I have to turn down my volume to stand most games anyway, so no sound emulation would make no difference to me. But then again, as with the snes emulator, I noticed if you had the sound on, the games would crash in certain spots... so I dunno.

[zaiser]

Thank you very much for pspvba1.2.2:D

[Video_freak]

this emu is getting close to perfect :)

[zx-81]

this emu is getting close to perfect :)

thanks, but we are far from perfect, but close to the end lol :D :D :D

[Video_freak]

thanks, but we are far from perfect, but close to the end lol :D :D :D
i was trying to be positive :)
it is pretty awesome tho, you have to admit

[zx-81]

i was trying to be positive :)
it is pretty awesome tho, you have to admit

yes many thanks :) :)

[D0N]

Yep I have to admit it is pretty awesome! Keep up the great work zx! :D

[Video_freak]

de rien ( i hope thats how you spell it :confused: ) i only read french because i moved to the US from france when i was 6 (i'm actually in france right now visiting family :))

[zx-81]

de rien ( i hope thats how you spell it :confused: ) i only read french because i moved to the US from france when i was 6

that's it, you spell it properly :)

[ACID]

Great job ZX. If this project is done any clue on whats next on your list.

[Kramer]

this version seems to have better sound or is that just me
anyways good job

[zx-81]

this version seems to have better sound or is that just me
anyways good job

Yes on several games, the sound is better ... :) (but still crappy lol)

[PSPegasus]

Don't quit on us! Please! Cut sound emulation all together if necessary but you have to keep trying until it's like 80% the speed it should be. I think that's what everyone is really hoping for.

[Nafogel]

Dont give up. If you keep trying you will find someway to make it full speed, The psp has a lot of potential power, But great release, it seems somewhat faster

[Triggerman]

Don't tell him what to do and what not. When he says he cannot improve the speed any more i'm sure he knows what he's talking about!
The only way seems to be applying Arm dynarec. But this would effort so much time and a lot of hard work.

Thank you ZX! You made the best GBA emulator so far :) and you wouldn't be the first one giving up on it ;)

[acn010]

too bad is not for me :(

[jwilds73]

While I know the systems are drastically different I wonder if atleast in concept any of the optimizations StrmNrmn is using for Daedalus could be translated to this emulator? I just wonder if the roms make any of the same type requests and if those were attacked what type of gains could be seen.

[O-bake]

Thank you for your hard work, especially for this emulator :)

Maybe you should contact other GBA-emu coders or exchange your sources, maybe you can get some improvements via teamwork.
i just read that miemt1 has done new work on his gba-emu.

[Mr. Shizzy]

Awesome. Thanks again Zx!!!!

[Lodis]

I am surprised to hear this but I guess a port can only be optimised so much. The only way to get this working faster would be to have it using a dynarec I would assume. I really had high hopes for this and maybe I simply underestimated how possible it would be to get near full speed GBA emulation. I hope Zx will find a way or a breakthrough. Look at the N64 emulator, he discovered a bug that was actually slowing it down but then that was related to the dynarec and interpretor modes so I guess it doesn't apply here. I guess this is the end of the dream of near full speed GBA emulation. Thanks for all of your hard work Zx, if you say you have tried everything then it means you really have. Thanks again.

[.:}<3\/!}\{:.]

plzzzzzz dont give up!!!!

[pkmusicmaker]

I just don't get why this emulator seems to be such a struggle, and why so few people choose to work on it. I'm pretty sure it's at the highest demand, yet no one really wants to code it. Thanks for at least getting it this far, it's good to see someone contributing.

[smoky]

Keep up the good work man we are very proud of you for what youve done for us

[jOeBrO]

pkmusicmaker: hey man zx-81 has worked day and night losing sleep on this emulator,

he is the most dedicated and most taleneted coder i know and if he is struggling with getting it to fullspeed every other coder will have at least the same or even more trouble getting this emulator to fullspeed

hes worked very hard ot get this emulator this far

thanks for all your hard work ZX!!

[felonyr301]

nonetheless great fu*king job man really you tried harder than the others and gotten pretty far and i know you tried really hard to just get a few more fps out of the sucker but to no luck so dont worry about it you still my fav coder now the question is whats next on the list for you zx and it doesnt have to be an emulator could be something else did like your calculator.

[zx-81]

@all: thanks for your kind words :)

edit: without your support and encouragments, i would'nt have been so far ;)

[Video_freak]

@all: thanks for your kind words :)

edit: without your support and encouragments, i would'nt have been so far ;)
thats why you dont go to qj and look at the flames over there :)

[Kramer]

for those who dont appreciate zx's work you should download this and give it a go
http://psp-news.dcemu.co.uk/pspgba.shtml

[zx-81]

thats why you dont go to qj and look at the flames over there :)

I don't mind about flamers or retarded kids lol ... even if there was a full speed gba emulator, they will always find something wrong. :rolleyes:

[Video_freak]

I don't mind about flamers or retarded kids lol ... even if there was a full speed gba emulator, they will always find something wrong. :rolleyes:
your right, but there will always be more thats right, then there is thats wrong :)

[jOeBrO]

you now what we should do... is give developers an incentive to make a dynamic recompiler for ARM7

For Example:

people would sign some electronic contract and when someone completes the dyn. recomp. the people who signed the contract would have to pay 5 dollars or soemthing similar

[zx-81]

you now what we should do... is give developers an incentive to make a dynamic recompiler for ARM7

For Example:

people would sign some electronic contract and when someone completes the dyn. recomp. the people who signed the contract would have to pay 5 dollars or soemthing similar

I may be wrong, but no coders here are doing something for money ... they all do this as a hobby, for their own pleasure ;)

[QueadlunnRau]

Zx thank you for the update, man you work to hard! Anytime ur in Seattle I spring for lunch.

^_^

[BL4Z3D247]

yayy another update :D gunna check it out now, but i already know what to expect though :), thanx zx u da man

[jOeBrO]

i understand that zx, but i would do anything to motivate coders who have the ability to produce great programs like yourself :)

[parsifal968]

ARM7 CPU core in ASM for better speed.

[jimmi]

wow i just tried it is pretty damn near perfect! u d bomb zx !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dementia7]

damn i got here late. well after reading all the posts seems like its the end FOR A WHILE. Zx , when theres a you, theres a way. so im more than sure this isn't the end.

good work on the latest BTW.

[jwilds73]

Your truly an amazing coder It is wonderful that you have taken this project this far. I know someone will continue to build upon this and I really appreciate and enjoy all your works. I can't wait to see what other projects you have up your sleeve

[kayhanbakid]

thank you so much for your efforts.

[kubatilles]

ZX: have u thought about making a dynamic recompiler core for the ARM cpu? Surely that would speed the emulator alot. I know it's a lot of work though, but I think it's the only way to achieve full speed or at least playable speed. It's useless for N64 emus anyway, they'll never get to sth playable, but I think in GBA it would really be very useful.
Another idea is to a datfile with speedhacks for single games, like snesadvance or SnesTYL do, or even the old crappy UltraHLE. The DRC is a better way to go though.
Don't get it as a complain though, it's a very well coded and complete emulator, kudos to u, it's just it's too ambitious project for a system like a psp.

[dg49]

good job!!!thanks!!!

[Kvonx]

thanks again man. i kno evr1 waz ichin 4 dis......r u evry gonna think of multiplayer soon :confused:

[pspfan]

It seems only two things can be done now to result in a big speedup:

1. See what Miemt11 has done to his emulator, and see if any of the same optimizations can be done to this. (Could be that all his optimizations have already been done in the emulator, but maybe he got some that haven't been done.)

2. Write a dynamic recompiler (would probably end up in fullspeed (or neat it) and good sound, but would take a ton of coding.

There may be some more things that can be done, but the two above (mainly number 2) would probably end up in a very big improvement in the emulation, whereas the other small things that might possibly still be there would speed it up, but not greatly like a dynamic recompiler.

Remember though, zx doesn't have to do this. He releases the source code with every release meaning some other great coder could pick it up (PSMonkey? hehe).

Anyway, excellent job thus far zx.

[Kvonx]

people i notice....cuz i tested them both with the exact same settings.....1.50 an 2.++ versions:)
POKEMON EMERALD VERSION pspvba 1.2.2

1.50 faster gud sound improvement but lil crakky

2.++ slightly slower than 1.50...but still fast wayyy bettr sound:confused:

perfect settings sound yes
frame skip 2
turbo 2
disable sfx no
arm tick 5 (if this is more than 5 when entering battle it will freeze:( )

[pkmusicmaker]

pkmusicmaker: hey man zx-81 has worked day and night losing sleep on this emulator,

he is the most dedicated and most taleneted coder i know and if he is struggling with getting it to fullspeed every other coder will have at least the same or even more trouble getting this emulator to fullspeed

hes worked very hard ot get this emulator this far

thanks for all your hard work ZX!!

I'm not sure why you thought I was bashing ZX in a post where I thanked him.

[chrisrulz555]

ZX-81 please dont say this is the end, these releases have been outstanding every time I boot up and see a new emulator my heart skips a beat. Some of the suggestions above seem possible such as writing a dynamic recompiler, surely there will be another coder out there willing to give you a hand. Dont give up, I believe in you.

[zx-81]

ZX-81 please dont say this is the end, these releases have been outstanding every time I boot up and see a new emulator my heart skips a beat. Some of the suggestions above seem possible such as writing a dynamic recompiler, surely there will be another coder out there willing to give you a hand. Dont give up, I believe in you.

before writting a re-compiler, i think it should be possible to improve this emulator by rewritting partially the CPU emulation (it's not really well optimized). May be also using another version of gcc, because i can win / loose up to 10% depending if gcc succeed to find a good way to compile the big switch case statement for the ARM instruction decode ... :(

[O-bake]

I don't think it's the end.

even zx-81 picked up the source and improved it. so even if zx will stop on this emu, someone else will pick up his source and improve it more and more.
gba-emulation is a too big thing to die. sooner or later we will have a fullspeed emu, i'm sure.

And actually i guess, zx won't completely quit on this project. maybe it's the end of 3 releases a week ;)

[lplover2k]

looks like it's the end for pspvba..... thanks anyway for all ur works!!!

i hope someone else starts working on another gba emulator soon...

[Voltron]

looks like it's the end for pspvba..... thanks anyway for all ur works!!!

I have seen a LOT of posts similar to this on all of the PSPVBA releases. I may be interpreting it all wrong but it seems a lot of people are either really negative and ungrateful or are hoping that some reverse psychology will give zx-81 more determination to keep going with this project.

Saying things like "this is the end" or "someone else will pick up the source and make it better" is not really helpful. ZX-81 owes us NOTHING but has given us SOOOO much and proven himself to be one of the BEST PSP coders ever.

Lets all give zx-81 positive reinforcement and support. Lets not be negative. Instead of considering PSPVBA dead, think of ways that it could be improved.

[s075933]

I have never seen a coder do as much work as Zx give him a break. He has been working on it countless hours a week.

Ps. It is good to see someone that is capable of doing it:) :) :) :cool:

[zx-81]

@Voltron: thx, btw people who knows me, can say that i never give up until there is no hope ;) ... i've got plenty of ideas to test on this emu, but don't expect anything ... This version is already playable (without the sound) on many games so please enjoy this one, while waitting for another emu (from me or from another coder).

[psiko_scweek]

lol thanks for this emu, anyone want to start making a compatibility chart for this one, so we know what settings to use to play our games at fullspeed (or near it)

[yoshinatsu]

No man... Don't give up...
I know you've tried your best, and never stopped working on it but there MUST be a way to improve it... Please, for the sake of the community, I beg you zx-81... Don't quit it so fast...

[chrisrulz555]

@Voltron: thx, btw people who knows me, can say that i never give up until there is no hope ;) ... i've got plenty of ideas to test on this emu, but don't expect anything ... This version is already playable (without the sound) on many games so please enjoy this one, while waitting for another emu (from me or from another coder).

With any of your ideas do you ever see the possibility of getting the emulator up to 80% original speed, with or without sound?

[chrisrulz555]

I have seen a LOT of posts similar to this on all of the PSPVBA releases. I may be interpreting it all wrong but it seems a lot of people are either really negative and ungrateful or are hoping that some reverse psychology will give zx-81 more determination to keep going with this project.

Saying things like "this is the end" or "someone else will pick up the source and make it better" is not really helpful. ZX-81 owes us NOTHING but has given us SOOOO much and proven himself to be one of the BEST PSP coders ever.

Lets all give zx-81 positive reinforcement and support. Lets not be negative. Instead of considering PSPVBA dead, think of ways that it could be improved.

Sorry for the double post but the main reason people are stating this is the end is because they read ZX81s post and have confused "reached the limit" with "I quit". Alot of people were looking forward to a full speed emulator and are now in doubt and annoyed that it may not arrive. Just ignore them :P

[zx-81]

Alot of people were looking forward to a full speed emulator and are now in doubt and annoyed that it may not arrive. Just ignore them :P

+1 :p

[Triggerman]

ZX-81 !? Just wanted to say that you're pretty much awesome! :)

[mameuser]

The Sound are better now, and speed more stable

BTW, only room for speed is dynamic recompiler and core rewrite

[Shiesty]

thanks for all your hard work

viva zx the computer genius

[ACID]

ZX-81 your the man do what you do best and dont get botter by any negative comments. Hope you bring us much more other then GBA in the future thanks again for everything. Love all your emus have them all in mi 4gb memory.

[Alucardmoon]

there have been a lot of other emulators glad to see there are still gba ones too

[Xenon312]

This is quite amazing indeed, take your time with the emulator, but don't give up; maybe find someone to work WITH, might get a few new ideas and make work go faster. Though i can imagine it might be really hard to find someone with sufficient coding skills.

...just my two cents.

[jdendon]

zx-81, thanks for your hard work, but... are there any chance of a fps limiter? :D

[XioN980]

The fact that you might slow down the releases is ok, i mean you made so many releases it made my head spin, just do other things apart from speed.

You the man :cool:

[mameuser]

Just a little bit more of speed, it will be perfect

[zx-81]

zx-81, thanks for your hard work, but... are there any chance of a fps limiter? :D

Looool ! :D :D :D

[zx-81]

Just a little bit more of speed, it will be perfect

I succeed to win few % now !

I can run v-rally 3 at 96/97% with sound and without any frameskip, instead of 92/93 % in v1.2.2. I've rewritten some part of the Gfx, some part of the ARM cpu emu, and modify some cache strategy ... but as i said, we are close to the end ;)

[jOeBrO]

good job zx!!

you're one amazing coder

[mr_nick666]

Great work ZX :D If everyone is honest you've probably surpassed their expectations already! ;) Everything else you achieve is a bonus :p You are one of the greatest assets to the PSP homebrew community :) Cheers! ;)

[Omega21XX]

does anyone know if anyones working on a version for the 2.6FW? yeah i know its alot of work for someone to do that, cause of having to get by the psp restictions. the reason i havent just downgraded my system is cause only the 2.0FW has the wlan internet connection to my house.

[Video_freak]

Sorry, this one only works for 1.5.
This is PSPVBA version 1.2.4 for 2.6 users:
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=8471&d=1154630338