UnOfficial gpSP kai-1 test svn rev 3.3 - GBA Emu for PSP

[Exophase]

Well.

Actually Exophase said he would continue developing gpSP for PSP if he got a PSP Slim & Lite, a few months ago.
In order to do that he needed money, which he got more than half by donations.
Then he announced that he had enough money, that he would go out - buy one and he even wanted to create a new thread for us to tell him what vital new functions and optimizations it should contain, giving a lot of users hope for a new official release. This was just before Christmas. And the problem was - the PSP was incredibly expensive at this time. He stated he would pick up a PSP S&L at the early new year. Thats were the story ended, just for all the people who didn't follow the official gpSP v0.9 release thread.

Now, I don't want to whine and I think Exophase knows how many PSP users would be more than happy with a new release.

There are so many -

1. people who can only take and then flame developers,
2. people who cannot read readme files to set something up which is so easily described,
3. people who keep nagging people and developers, asking to get them certain files or taking them as their personal consultant,
4. "developers" who "steal" your code to add useless things, don't release sources or not even think about consulting the original creator.

Seeing all these groups now and by reading and posting at forums for years makes me claim that 75% out of all PSP users seem to fit in at least one of these groups.

BUT, Exophase (and I hope you read this carefully) the PSP Scene is much bigger than the GP2X Scene since there are no commercial games for the device as someone else already said.

AND, which is more important, Exophase, the 5. group consists of people who appreciate all you have done, all you do and everything you will do and are so greatful at least leaving you a Thank you, from so many countries all over the world.

You have done such an awesome job writing this Emulator. For me it is the best and the only homebrew application I stay on CFW for. If someone can seriously continue and improve this work it's you.
What ever will happen, a big "Danke" from me and my friends in Germany for what you have already done.

This post does deserve attention/clarification on my part, I probably owe an apology too. I do intend to make good on the money I was donated and buy a PSP Slim now that they've finally come down in price; I don't want anyone to think that I've tricked people on that. However, since I've gotten myself involved in other work before and during that time it could be a while still before I can really do that. I don't like doing "clean up" versions but that was pretty much what I said I'd do (ie, fixed some games, a few minor improvements, but nothing too major). I still don't have a Slim yet, of course.

If the people who donated feel ripped off by this I can refund them for the time being, sorry about that.

There's really no question at all that I get a lot more positive reception in the PSP scene than the GP2X scene because the PSP scene is just so much larger. I think hundreds of thousands of people have used gpSP, judging on download counts. I don't have a problem with a quantitative lack of appreciation because I have plenty of it. It's just the negative stuff that gets me down way too much, it's hard to deal with.

I think the biggest thing that bothers me about Takka's releases is that he implements things that I generally wouldn't have.

Some of these things I think are objectively useless. Some of them are more subjective - I can argue with why I think that the emulator shouldn't have them but a lot of people will want them anyway.

For instance TV out support. I'd rather encourage people to use a PC or an XBox or something for emulating GBA games on a big screen, not a PSP. But there are people who not only insist on it but complain like crazy when it's not there.

Then there's FF6 support. gpSP has had FF6 fixed for a really long time now (way before Takka released his version that played it), but I didn't bother because I want to encourage people to use the SNES version. FF6 had one of my favorite soundtracks of all times and the GBA version totally butchered it. You might argue that gpSP would emulate it faster, but the game totally $#@!s the GBA and gpSP has to skip a ton of frames in battle. If I'm going to release a version that plays it I want to at least make it faster.

Then you have lots of other little things that feel like they're added because they're done by someone who has time to waste and doesn't have to worry about the real issues involved in coding an emulator. Loading bars, when most things take no more than a couple seconds to load. Battery life/time display, when you get the same thing by pressing start. Configurable locations for directories in several separate files - do users really need to specify this so badly or could you just have fixed directories?

Most of these things feel like they have nothing to do with improving GBA emulation, and don't even really improve the emulator but they make it "feel" like it's more like other emulators. And people see this and feel like a lot of improvements have been done.

Now from my perspective for every time he does this I have to evaluate what he has done and then if I see that people will demand having it I have to go ahead and reimplement it. I can't use his code because he's pointlessly changed so many things in my code which I don't agree with (and it has a lot of Japanese comments), and yet the actual changes are trivial. But there are too many of them. The last time I sat down and reviewed his code changes it took me several hours, just so I could conclude that 90% of it was meaningless. I don't want to do that at all, I'd much rather just implement things myself.

This is what I did with gpSP 0.9 - I spent several months intensely debugging games (Mario & Luigi, Zelda, Mario & Donkey Kong, etc), then spent the last day implementing "Takka features" to make people happy. But I don't feel like doing this anymore. I don't WANT my emulator to have features that I think are lame, but if it doesn't then people are going to complain, people are going to insult me compared to him.

Seriously, I made a mistake making this GPL. I guess it just seemed like the natural thing to do and I knew my GPL zealot friends would chew me out if I didn't do it. When it comes to emulators I've spent so much time just reading source and so little time actually modifying it (nothing that I've ever publicly released, nor would I without contacting the author) that I figured that's what people would want with it. I was worried about this happening from the start but I determined that if I just put in the readme asking people not to do this that they wouldn't, and if they did I could talk them out of it. Guess not. Oh well.

When I get a Slim I might make a topic just to get an idea of what features gpSP 0.9 lacks that they actually want (whatever Takka's added), because I am not going to spend time reviewing his source again, that sounds like a nightmare. Unfortunately so many people have said that his versions are better or worse for reasons that are totally inaccurate, like that it plays games that work fine in 0.9 (Minish Cap for instance...) that I can't make sense of it. At this point I really don't even want to look at the version to get an idea of what it has. The whole thing is a mess.

I hope this makes some of my frustration clearer.

I really never intended to make a big announcement about scene participation but I see that's how it was taken as this was posted on several other places...

[Triggerman]

This post does deserve attention/clarification on my part, I probably owe an apology too. I do intend to make good on the money I was donated and buy a PSP Slim now that they've finally come down in price; I don't want anyone to think that I've tricked people on that. However, since I've gotten myself involved in other work before and during that time it could be a while still before I can really do that. I don't like doing "clean up" versions but that was pretty much what I said I'd do (ie, fixed some games, a few minor improvements, but nothing too major). I still don't have a Slim yet, of course.

If the people who donated feel ripped off by this I can refund them for the time being, sorry about that.

There's really no question at all that I get a lot more positive reception in the PSP scene than the GP2X scene because the PSP scene is just so much larger. I think hundreds of thousands of people have used gpSP, judging on download counts. I don't have a problem with a quantitative lack of appreciation because I have plenty of it. It's just the negative stuff that gets me down way too much, it's hard to deal with.

I think the biggest thing that bothers me about Takka's releases is that he implements things that I generally wouldn't have.

Some of these things I think are objectively useless. Some of them are more subjective - I can argue with why I think that the emulator shouldn't have them but a lot of people will want them anyway.

For instance TV out support. I'd rather encourage people to use a PC or an XBox or something for emulating GBA games on a big screen, not a PSP. But there are people who not only insist on it but complain like crazy when it's not there.

Then there's FF6 support. gpSP has had FF6 fixed for a really long time now (way before Takka released his version that played it), but I didn't bother because I want to encourage people to use the SNES version. FF6 had one of my favorite soundtracks of all times and the GBA version totally butchered it. You might argue that gpSP would emulate it faster, but the game totally $#@!s the GBA and gpSP has to skip a ton of frames in battle. If I'm going to release a version that plays it I want to at least make it faster.

Then you have lots of other little things that feel like they're added because they're done by someone who has time to waste and doesn't have to worry about the real issues involved in coding an emulator. Loading bars, when most things take no more than a couple seconds to load. Battery life/time display, when you get the same thing by pressing start. Configurable locations for directories in several separate files - do users really need to specify this so badly or could you just have fixed directories?

Most of these things feel like they have nothing to do with improving GBA emulation, and don't even really improve the emulator but they make it "feel" like it's more like other emulators. And people see this and feel like a lot of improvements have been done.

Now from my perspective for every time he does this I have to evaluate what he has done and then if I see that people will demand having it I have to go ahead and reimplement it. I can't use his code because he's pointlessly changed so many things in my code which I don't agree with (and it has a lot of Japanese comments), and yet the actual changes are trivial. But there are too many of them. The last time I sat down and reviewed his code changes it took me several hours, just so I could conclude that 90% of it was meaningless. I don't want to do that at all, I'd much rather just implement things myself.

This is what I did with gpSP 0.9 - I spent several months intensely debugging games (Mario & Luigi, Zelda, Mario & Donkey Kong, etc), then spent the last day implementing "Takka features" to make people happy. But I don't feel like doing this anymore. I don't WANT my emulator to have features that I think are lame, but if it doesn't then people are going to complain, people are going to insult me compared to him.

Seriously, I made a mistake making this GPL. I guess it just seemed like the natural thing to do and I knew my GPL zealot friends would chew me out if I didn't do it. When it comes to emulators I've spent so much time just reading source and so little time actually modifying it (nothing that I've ever publicly released, nor would I without contacting the author) that I figured that's what people would want with it. I was worried about this happening from the start but I determined that if I just put in the readme asking people not to do this that they wouldn't, and if they did I could talk them out of it. Guess not. Oh well.

When I get a Slim I might make a topic just to get an idea of what features gpSP 0.9 lacks that they actually want (whatever Takka's added), because I am not going to spend time reviewing his source again, that sounds like a nightmare. Unfortunately so many people have said that his versions are better or worse for reasons that are totally inaccurate, like that it plays games that work fine in 0.9 (Minish Cap for instance...) that I can't make sense of it. At this point I really don't even want to look at the version to get an idea of what it has. The whole thing is a mess.

I hope this makes some of my frustration clearer.

I really never intended to make a big announcement about scene participation but I see that's how it was taken as this was posted on several other places...

I do get your point and understood for myself that features Takka added are totally pointless a long time ago.
What I didn't know was that users made you feel to implement these useless things in your releases.
Have there even been Takka releases before gpSP v0.9?

Sure, TV-out support would be nice, Ad-hoc would be nice. But these are no vital things like optimizing emulation or compatibility like you always intended to do. These are the things I (and I'm sure many other users) always enjoyed about your releases. These are the things only you can offer because you are the man who can translate GBA operations best into PSP operations on the whole planet I guess.

Loading bars, as you already mentioned are useless to me too, as well as many other things he changed about the GUI. I even felt he messed it up because everything seemed to be clearly arranged to me.

I totally enjoyed playing Metroid Fusion on my PSP. There were areas in that game where gpSP v0.8 used to make it lag. The sound stuttered. I think to remember it were areas of large heat with some kind of blur-effects. It somehow made me feel happy when v0.9 fixed this issue (don't know if this was intended by you ^^).

Anyway, I can imagine you've been begged a thousend times to return to gpSP for PSP if thats enough. I did so as well and still do. Your last release was such a long time ago and that is what makes me say - it just would be wonderful to feel that way again I described. And it would be a shame if work like that will be simply dropped. Don't you feel that too? After all it's you who spent countless hours setting it up.

[Exophase]

I do get your point and understood for myself that features Takka added are totally pointless a long time ago.
What I didn't know was that users made you feel to implement these useless things in your releases.
Have there even been Takka releases before gpSP v0.9?

Yeah, he was doing them back then (hence the big disclaimer at the top of the readme pretty much telling him to stop.. it's kinda hilarious that this readme is bundled with his releases still)

Sure, TV-out support would be nice, Ad-hoc would be nice. But these are no vital things like optimizing emulation or compatibility like you always intended to do. These are the things I (and I'm sure many other users) always enjoyed about your releases. These are the things only you can offer because you are the man who can translate GBA operations best into PSP operations on the whole planet I guess.

I'm sure there are lots of better people but they would have probably written their own emulators before I did. @_@

If he does get ad hoc then props to him but I don't see any real signs of it.

Loading bars, as you already mentioned are useless to me too, as well as many other things he changed about the GUI. I even felt he messed it up because everything seemed to be clearly arranged to me.

Yes, I don't really get why he felt he had to rip it all apart like that and that really bothers me too (another reason why I can't just integrate his changes blindly). I get the feeling that it's all so he can superficially distance it from the releases I've done...

I totally enjoyed playing Metroid Fusion on my PSP. There were areas in that game where gpSP v0.8 used to make it lag. The sound stuttered. I think to remember it were areas of large heat with some kind of blur-effects. It somehow made me feel happy when v0.9 fixed this issue (don't know if this was intended by you ^^).

It's probably auto frameskip at work, rather than actual performance improvements. <3 auto frameskip

Anyway, I can imagine you've been begged a thousend times to return to gpSP for PSP if thats enough. I did so as well and still do. Your last release was such a long time ago and that is what makes me say - it just would be wonderful to feel that way again I described. And it would be a shame if work like that will be simply dropped. Don't you feel that too? After all it's you who spent countless hours setting it up.

Yeah, I really don't want to abandon it. I'm happy with what I've done and have hit more diminishing returns along the path I wanted to follow, but there's still a lot more I want to at least try.

[Broadus]

We love you, Exophase!

[mathieulh]

This is my first post on dcemu (I do not tend to go often on these forums) however after reading your posts, I felt like I had to post even if it is just to tell you how much I agree with your point of view. When I red your post, I remembered that pretty much the same things happened to me and the people I have worked with (noobs whining for releases, other noobs saying that OE/M33 ripoffs are better than the actual software, lamers thinking that we owe them anything at all, people mistaking me or my mailbox for some kind of hotline, or even people selling our releases and making profit over our hacks !)

Thankfully not everyone is like that on the psp scene and this is what keeps me from leaving it (at least at this time) as it would be sad for me and others to leave the people who entrusted their faith in us and are truthfully looking forward our future releases (for other reasons than personal gain)

I agree that the psp scene is mostly filled of people that only think of themselves before anyone else and that by such a fact the scene is kind of "rotten" Yet for the few people that put their faith in us, we have not left, and this despite the very time consumming and huge ammount of work that this task requires from us.

I wont lie by saying that we still have fun while codding and we love to make new discoveries which really make it seem like a quest to us. Development is pretty much a hobby and if it wasn't that fun we would have stopped long ago, especially considering that we do have lives, which is another thing most people forget about.

To be honest I never used Takka's "version" of gpsp and since I have red your initial readme asking Takka to stop his work, I have boycotted every of his releases and never used those, I most likely never will.

Your emulator is a true piece of art, and really impressed me when I first ran it, it is one of the best homebrew ever coded for the psp.

I wish you the best of luck in getting your message to reach the whole psp comunauty, and I hope and expect news and/or future releases from you.

Cheers from a humble homebrewer

Message to Takka : あなたの新しいGPSPは必要がない、も解放を止めて下さい。
何故がほかの新たなhomebrewを作れないのですか。

[jas0nuk]

Nice to see you posting here Exophase I'll be watching out for your upcoming releases with excitement

As for these gpSP kai releases, I find them pretty unstable, full of useless features, and buggy. Every release is just fixing the countless bugs and "tests" from the previous version.

And John Vattic, seriously, stop being an idiot.

[FrozenIpaq]

Exophase - well said (your complaints and opinions). I'd just like to thank you for making gpSP GPL - even though it has brought on these "unofficial" versions, you're able to set an example in the PSP scene.

This was a very common occurance (unofficial versions) within homebrew games and emulators, mainly stemming off of someone wanting more attention for little effort. It hurts to see this happen to you, someone of which many people respect and praise.

The PSP scene has been far from perfect over the years, however it takes brave developers like yourself to make change, or to at least instigate change. I recall PSMonkey (if I recall his name correctly) having a similar call out to the scene and had a very desired emulator that he was working on (N64) too. He was heard, and I hope you too will be heard. You're a great developer and you have my upmost respect whether you continue to try to improve gpSP or not (it's already more than we could've wished for )

[Veskgar]

Well, the best thing about this thread is that it has gotten the attention of MANY. So much so that other highly respected developers in the scene have taken the time to post comments which more or less concur with the views expressed by Exophase.

So while scores of homebrew users can argue and flame endlessly, the fact will always remain that the direction Exophase wants to take with development of HIS emulator needs to be respected and supported. Its actually not asking much.

gpSP 0.9 is still one of the most impressive and inspiring works of homebrew that the PSP has seen. The excitement and magic of playing a new update to gpSP is something so many look forward to.

I just hope its the respect, admiration, and appreciation that Exophase thinks of most as opposed to the negative.

[jedikevin20]

I understand your point exophase. You've made it for a really long time now. We really don't need to start the flaming every time takka makes a update. It really makes no sense. Its been at least 4 months and most likely alot longer since the flaming began and every time i see a takka release people began to flame and it gets worst when you post something exo. I'm on your side but popping in with these big speeches just brings up old wounds. I just don't understand why this stuff has to be brought back tot he surface like this every time. Somethings you just gotta let go and move on.

[DarthPaul]

I think the official versions are simply amazing, and I feel very excited every time I see something like "gpSP X.X released!", or any other official emulator updated. I really don't get the same joy when an Un-Official version is released, like this one for example. But still, I try them sometimes, and enjoy them. I don't think Takka is better than Exophase in any way, but I do feel like he's doing a good job adding little touches to this emulator while we wait for a new official release. I really loved the TV-Out support, it feels really nice to play GBA on my HDTV, something I never thought I would do. This is one of the things that I couldn't agreed with Exo. I know that playing GBA on Xbox or PC is better, but this is the PSP Scene, not the Xbox or PC's, and I don't think everyone has one of the mentioned platforms here. What else is a good addition? Hm... eh... honestly, I think that's the only feature I liked.

I don't think we're going to break up our "loyalty" with Exophase by downloading or trying this mock-up, it's just one single addition to the emulator, we already know that Exophase is the real developer.

I kinda agree with jedikevin20, I don't think this is the place to start flaming Takka.(or praising Exophase because he commented) You should show that respect by taking actions, not words. Go and donate something and give the man some motivation if you really want a new release coming from him. That's what I'm going to do as soon as I get my PayPal account confirmed.

Haha, jas0nuk and mathieulh here, it's a shame that mathieulh won't stay.

@Exophase: I know how you feel, those noobs adding you to ask you some dumb questions. I'm not a developer/coder, but believe me, I do. They're always adding me to ask me for $#!+ even if I'm just a normal user. I can't imagine how many people add you. But seriously, why don't you look at the positive side? My guess is that you have more fans here than what you have in the GP2X scene.

Anyways, I hope you really release the very awaited gPSP 1.0. And if you're getting a Slim, I hope you make some use of the extra-RAM it has.


PS: I feel lame posting my opinion here with so many big-brains like Exophase, Veskgar, Mathieulh, and Jas0nuk around.