PocketSNES with OpenGL renderer

[Tala]

I uploaded a new version 31-12-04:

-fixed the white bars bug
-fixed a bug where the Application gets flooded by WM_PAINT messages
-fixed the bug where parts of the image is cut off when switching landscape/portrait
-fixed a bug, where only the upper left corner accepted the change to pause mode
-some performance improvements

Landscape mode is slightly faster than portrait mode.

Tala

with OpenGL ES, we should not need the GAPI tweak by Picard should we?

[Tala]

with OpenGL ES, we should not need the GAPI tweak by Picard should we?

Using Picards GAPI driver has no effect. It is a native VGA application now using OpenGL ES for screen rendering.

Tala

[SeanX]

The OpenGL build needs to convert the frambuffer into a texture(which has a really strange format) and renders the texture to a quad using bilinear filtering. The conversion to a texture format is done in software and takes about 5.6ms using a custom assembly routine, while the second step is done in hardware and is almost neglible.
I first used the standard OpenGL implementation of texture conversion and almost gave up, since it took 34ms!!! Then i wrote the conversion in assembly and it was much faster
Tala

How are you converting the texture?

[Tala]

How are you converting the texture?

It was basically reverse engineering. I loaded up a texture using glTexImage2d(). Then i observed how the texture was stored in graphics memory. Then i could write a custom routine, which loads a 256x256 texture directly into graphics memory including conversion, which was about 7 times faster.

Btw, do you know how to enable a synchronous eglSwapBuffers? To my surprise i get tearing artifacts. I first thought it was because the texture cache may hold old texels after loading a texture but upon closer examination it was because of a not synchronous eglSwapBuffers.

Tala

[Tala]

I made 2 Screenshots to give you an impression how the image quality has improved:

QVGA/Pixel doubled Version:


VGA/OpenGL Version:


Tala

[jagnon]

thanks tala! the new version seems much more stable with no more UI graphics glitches..

[SeanX]

It was basically reverse engineering. I loaded up a texture using glTexImage2d(). Then i observed how the texture was stored in graphics memory. Then i could write a custom routine, which loads a 256x256 texture directly into graphics memory including conversion, which was about 7 times faster.

Btw, do you know how to enable a synchronous eglSwapBuffers? To my surprise i get tearing artifacts. I first thought it was because the texture cache may hold old texels after loading a texture but upon closer examination it was because of a not synchronous eglSwapBuffers.

Tala

I don't get the tearing with my game. It may just because I am only running at 30fps, but it all seems fine. I did have some problems early on, but that was becuase I was calling eglSwapBuffers twice instead of once DOH.

Totally gratuitous iimage attached. How do you post large images? I can only post upto 450*450.

[medictom]

All I know is that Zelda: A Link to the Past looks great on this, I even got Tecmo Super Bowl 3 running at a great speed with some interesting cartoonish sounds, but still it is pretty awesome to be able to play. Nice Work!!!

[R0ninBlade]

does this work with the X30's?

[javageek]

I made 2 Screenshots to give you an impression how the image quality has improved:

QVGA/Pixel doubled Version:
http://ambox.bei.t-online.de/tala/SampleNormal.jpg

VGA/OpenGL Version:
http://ambox.bei.t-online.de/tala/SampleOpenGL.jpg

Tala

What game is that?

[Un[R]egistered]

does this work with the X30's?

LMAO, HAHAHAH.. AHAHAH... AHAH...... HAH.... hah.......... no. heheh.

javageek: Chrono Trigger.

Great job, Tala! It looks fantastic!

[Tala]

New version is here (01-04-05)

-fixed a bug where the window had no focus initially (and did not get keyboard input)
-fixed a bug where the emulator crashed when switching orientation and no game was loaded
-added possibility to make screenshots (quick hack to make the screenshots i posted here and is not fully tested)

Most importantly i did some special timing optimizations for framskip 1. This is for all games and only those, which can run with frameskip 1 and sustain 30fps. The result is (mostly) smooth scrolling synchonized to screen refresh. I am interested how this works for you.

Tala

[jagnon]

Tested the new version with Parodious.. framerate is 5-6 frames faster now.. thanks for the continued work Tala!

[YodaEXE]

Lol this looks good but I'll just stick with Morphgear. It's easier cause it can play all my games.