Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

Is gpsp able to retain individual ROM emulation settings (like audio buffer, frameskip...) when you restart it?

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

Recently I had an unstoppable desire to play some Pokemon, but I was not amused that there are no touch controls, no portrait mode, and that it stutters at 250 MHz, so I took matters into my own hands. ;)

The result is a mashup of the newest upstream version, heavily cleaned up existing port and my imagination. ;)

Would it be alright if I replaced gpspm in Fremantle repositories as soon as I find some time to test for compatibility with gpspmgui and prepare a package? Or does someone feel attached to it?

Attachment 30372

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

Image looks great :) I think you should contact the package maintainer directly and if he doesn't protest - you can go ahead ;)

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

if you don't receive response from maintainer, you can freely upload it to devel (once the damn thing works again).

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

no problem at all... i'll confirm any maintainer who upload new\better version

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

Alright, I think I'm done with testing and all that stuff, so here it comes: gpSPm 3.0! I tried to give it the autobuilder, but no luck, so I'm attaching the deb for those who are eager to play.

Let's see what's new:

• Refreshed/rewritten the whole port
• Added touch controls
• Added portrait mode
• Savestate is saved in ROM's directory

It retains compatibility with gpspmgui (or at least it should).

Touch controls work in both portrait and landscape, even though there are no guides in the latter. It might seem that it's hard to hit the buttons because of that, but I got adjusted in a matter of minutes, and hopefully so will you. If you can't remember which key is where, you can print the attached image and keep it in sight. ;)

Attachment 30384

Keypad image for portrait mode is a 480x480 PNG file, which resides under the name of "/opt/gpspm/keypad.png", so you can easily change it to something prettier. Here comes the stencil:

Attachment 30383

That's it for now, have fun. :)

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

Does it still require the permissions to be setup for new installation?
Like in the OP?

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

gidzzz,

Nice work, and also some remarks :)

• I suddenly needed to create a symlink from /opt/maemo/usr/games/gpspm to /opt/gpspm/gpspm to make gpspmgui start games. Looks not related, but I never saw this before.
• full screen causes the games not to scale vertically in portrait mode, so (I guess) you need to set triple resize.
• I won't mind a small close button, especially in portrait mode. If you are afraid you hit it by accident, make it a double tap ;)
• config files in /opt/gpspm have permission problems

P.s. I put gpspmgui on the whitelist to make it rotate. Apart from the config screens, it looks okay in portrait mode.

@sixwheeledbeast:
Yes, I see you need to chown game_config.txt and conf.gpsp in /opt/gpspm, so it is a bit of an other issue then described in the OP.

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

Thanks for useful feedback. :)

The old packaging was kind of strange: it installed two different binaries, one to "/opt/gpspm/gpspm", the other to "/opt/maemo/usr/games/gpspm", for a reason unknown to me.

I don't have the foggiest idea why (were I sleepwalk-hacking gpspmgui and I don't remember? :eek:), but gpspmgui on my device was using "/opt/gpspm/gpspm". I looked at the source and it should be "/opt/maemo/usr/games/gpspm". After reinstalling it indeed tries to launch "/opt/maemo/usr/games/gpspm".

I'll include the necessary symlink in the next package.

Did you mean "not to scale correctly"? For me they're scaled, even too much (to 480x800). ;) It was kind of planned, but the keypad should be on the bottom layer. However, now that I think of it again, probably no one would want to play with the image stretched so much. I guess I'll make fullscreen look in portrait the same as double and triple zoom.

Do you have camkeyd installed? I can't live without it. :) Also in this case it does a great job. If you were not aware of camkeyd, do you still think that the a close button would have a good traumatic accidents to usability ratio? Double tap might still be not enough in fierce fights. ;)

Is there any other problem apart from that they're all root, so gpspmgui can't write to them? gpspmgui's post-installation script changes them to 666/777 anyway, so I guess that even though there's a conflict with the perfectionistic side of me, I can do that in gpspm's postinst too. As another thing to ease updates, the next package will probably be able to preserve configured keys.

I think I'll put my hands on gpspmgui next, mainly to move the settings/BIOS directory somewhere to $HOME, but on the way I could also modify the layouts and add autorotation.

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

Looks like the autobuilder still doesn't work, so I'm putting another package here. All problems known to me have been fixed. I have also modified touch controls a little bit. To sum up:

• Improved the way in which image is scaled and positioned for portrait mode
• Center of the directional pad releases directional keys
• Fixed an incompatibility with gpspmgui due to a missing symlink
• Fixed opening ROMs specified by a relative path
• Upgrading no longer resets key bindings
• Adjusted file permissions so that gpspmgui works after an upgrade without any additional steps

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

Can I also upgrade to your newest gpSP using Maemo 4?

I have to launch by command line since my version doesn't come with gpspmgui.

This looks really good by the way. :)

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

Permissions and fullscreen scaling in portrait look fine now.

I do miss multitouch on our device in this case... :( It makes most (action) games hard or even impossible to play, as you can't combine a move to the left and the A button for example. Fortunately I still can grab my gamegripper, put it on the keyboard and play it the "oldfashion" way :)

And thanks for the camkeyd tip. I had heard about it, but never gave it try. Really works fine in this cases.

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

I made a quick attempt to compile 3.0.2 for Diablo and I have attached the resulting binary. I have no idea if it works on a real device, I only know that in Scratchbox it doesn't. The amount of my spare time and lack of a Diablo tablet make it hard for me to work on this version, so don't get your hopes up too high. For now you can check if the attached file can run any games and report back.

I also wonder if there is such thing as portrait mode in Maemo 4, or would I have to draw everything rotated?



I said that I was going to adapt gpspmgui to portrait mode, but after seeing what's inside the package I gave up. :p I ended up launching my favorite games with a bunch of simple shell scripts and I was quite happy with that, but the state of gpspm and the GUI were still giving me moments of unrest.

And finally I have gathered my strength, decided that it's time to fix things once and for all, and I'm writing this post because I think I've mostly finished. :) The update consist of improved gpspm and completely new gpspmgui.

gpspm 3.0.2:

• Try to load BIOS from ROM's directory
• Added a pause menu activated with a key or by swiping from screen's left edge to the right edge
• Added an option to autopause when the screen is locked or focus is lost
• Added a key to show FPS

gpspm 3.0.2 is the last compatible with the old GUI (but there's no autopause checkbox, only a command line switch).

The pause isn't perfect: when the screen is locked, it consumes significantly more energy than with gpspm not running at all, but still far less than without pause.

The Quit button in the pause menu quits the emulator, not the pause, remember that. ;)

gpspm 3.1.0:

• Configuration directory moved to "$HOME/.config/gpspm/"
• Added an option to specify keys configuration file
• Revamped the command line interface and fixed crashes when parsing a malformed list of arguments
• Rearranged the order of keys in the configuration file
• Fixed immediately disappearing error reports

Your key bindings file (called "keys" instead of "conf.gpsp") and BIOS ("gba_bios.bin") should now be placed under "/home/user/.config/gpspm/". If you use a custom "game_config.txt", also place it there.

Now a few words about gpspmgui 3.1.0: the main advantage over the old one is that it is not a dirty hack of PSX4M, but there are also additions like box art (e.g. if you have "pokemon.gba", place "pokemon.jpg" in the same directory), extracting information from games, searching, portrait mode and names for bound keys.

There's also a place to specify your own commands to be executed before launching the emulator and after it is closed. If you have kernel-power, you might find it useful for prolonging battery life by clocking the CPU down to 250 MHz and restoring it to normal when finished.

Individual configuration files are now located next to .gba files. This means more files in ROMs directory, but also less files in an obscure configuration directory, so they're easier to clean up and move around.

I would like to upload the updates to the repository as soon as the autobuilder works, but until then you have to download them from the list of attachments.

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

As usual more than excellent work.

The option to add artwork also gives an extra touch. Why does it say "(info unavailable)" at every game I select, and when does it provide info?

And a minor thing, the menu has a typo (Keys cofiguration)

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

It probably says so because every game you select is zipped. If that's not true, you've found a bug, otherwise -- just a missing feature. ;) Which, by the way, I want to implement for the next iteration.

Oh no! I reviewed the whole code, but totally forgot to check the strings!

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

"There's also a place to specify your own commands to be executed before launching the emulator and after it is closed. If you have kernel-power, you might find it useful for prolonging battery life by clocking the CPU down to 250 MHz and restoring it to normal when finished."

How to that exactly?

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

You can do that in Window menu -> Core configuration -> Custom commands, or in the corresponding window for individual games. The first input field is a command to execute before, the second to execute after.

For that specific case the commands would be something like:
or whatever other frequencies you want to use.

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

Fixing that ugly typo in the menu might be a reason good enough to post an update, but to make it more worthwhile I have also made ROM info work for zipped files. ;)

Speaking of the emulator itself, I got rid of crashes when loading certain zips and added a mute button to the pause menu.

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

Thanks for your good work! :)

Found a small bug. Yoshi's Island doesn't load (nothing happens) because of '-character in its name. Renaming the rom helps get around it.

The error message from command line was:
/home/user/.config/gpspmgui/launch: line4: syntax error: "(" unexpected

In case this is caused by character set mine was nordic.

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

Great work and keep it coming ;)

It is a shame that goldensun lost ages still doesn't work :(

Thanks for the update.

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

Thanks.
Is it possible to make Iridion II playable?
And Golden Sun was playable with old version of emu, now exits randomly.

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

Thanks, I've fixed that and uploaded to the repositories as 3.1.2. Yep, it means that gpspm and gpspmgui have finally made it through the autobuilder and can be obtained from extras-devel.

I don't think I'm knowledgeable enough to fix bugs in the core of the emulator, but if I find some time, I might poke around it a bit or try to resolve it with the upstream. It would also be helpful if you could pinpoint the last version which was free of problems with Golden Sun: The Lost Age.

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

Not Lost Age, Lost Age is Golden Sun II. GSLA was always incompatible.
If i remember correctly, first Golden Sun was playable in gpsp from repos, before two latest updates here.
I think you can make something with game_config.txt, not with the core of emulator.
Sorry about bad english.

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

It's been such a long time since I last came here on the community!
Was missing it, and today I came across my N900 sitting on my drawer, that bit of nostalgia brought me back here. :rolleyes:

Anyway, I guess Golden Sun was never really playable due to some bios emulation problems? That on the official builds of gpSP.

Also, if you would like to take a look at some changes, notaz seems to be still working on this emulator, there are neon scaling features, if you have the time to implement that as an option...

If I ever have the time again, it will be a pleasure to help somehow.

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

I played through a bit of the first Golden Sun and have not experienced any problems, maybe I should play more. The entry for this game in game_config.txt has not changed between gpspm 2.0.1-8 and 3.x, so I'm tempted to think that it is as luiscesjr says.

I've already tried to hook them up and I can say that scale3x'd video looks on N900's screen so pretty that I couldn't take my eyes off it. :) However, I have encountered some problems with image tearing and have not managed to solve them. I'll try to upload an update somewhen around the weekend so that you can see how it performs for yourself.

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

Same nostalgy as luiscesjr, and the worst is that I don't have the Nokia N900 anymore (a little bit ashamed to say that I switched to Android) but I'm happy to see that the community is still alive and I come here from times to times to see if there are new progress regarding Maemo. Anyway, keep on making this community alive. I miss the N900 but in 2013, it's a little bit hard to find it new in a new package but who knows... ??? :-)

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

gpspm with NEON scalers and the accompanying version of gpspmgui have just arrived to the repositories. The option is called Filters and is independent from Scale. Scale3x filter changes to scale2x when playing in portrait. For scale3x you need at last 500 MHz, but scale2x (filter) + triple scale (scale) seems to be playable even at 250 MHz, if you want to save the battery and think that it looks better than with no filter at all.

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

where are the saved states located in the new version?

it used to be at /opt/maemo/usr/games/ and I have a bunch of *0.svs files saved there but they won't load

tested quick save/load and it works, but just doesn't seem to save there anymore and I don't know where to place my old saved states files.

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

@gidzzz

New version looks great, working like a charm too. I wanted to implement an opition to the emu, when I have the code ready, may I send you? I won't have the time to do it, porting it from MIPS will already eat my free time hehe, it's an anaglyph 3D rendering code, I thought it could look interesting.

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

Pardon my ignorance if am wrong, but IMO it does not make any sense. How many people are going to fall for fake 3D and put funny glasses on to play games in distorted colors, at the cost of increased overhead? It would be a waste of system resources and your time.

Or do you have something better in mind, like offsetting the background layers provided by GBA hardware?

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

Sorry for not replying, somehow I've overlooked your post.

Saved states are now in the same directory in which corresponding .gba files are.

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

gpspm-diablo doesn't work properly on N810 - black screen with some icon with red cross somewhere in the center of screen)
But emulation started, sound plays smoothly.
Terminal output:
Can you fix it please? This will bring back my N810 to life)

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

please support two player config keys

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

Hum, you mean rendering each of the layers? Sorry I didn't get what you meant.

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

On the N810 gpspmgui always asking me two times "Do you wnant to save settings?" when starting.
If i answer yes for the first qwestion - segmentation fault. Nevermind what to answer for the second. Any idea how to fix it?

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

^ How did you get a GUI installed on your tablet?

I've always needed to launch by command line.

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

You can install gpsp 2.0.3 with gui from repositories.

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

Sorry, but I don't have an N810 for testing and IIRC gpSP does not like Scratchbox.


I've met some people who thought that taking a single picture and making two versions of it, with the only difference being the tint, and combining them with a slight offset, will make it 3D when looked at with the funny glasses. I was under the impression that you want to do the same thing.

As I see it, the only way to make to make useful anaglyphs from GBA games is to take each graphics layer, use it to make two tinted images and combine them with an offset dependent on the location of the source layer in the stack of layers (so the offset in the bottom layer differs from the offset in the top layer). Then, after each individual layer has been processed, they can be merged together and finally displayed.


I have uploaded gpspm 3.1.4:

• Zoom keys can be used in the control scheme.
• Fixed flaky handling of diagonal keys.

And the accompanying update of the GUI:

• Added support for zoom keys in keys configuration.
• Fixed a bug that could reset custom keys configuration.

Zoom/volume buttons will not be captured if you do not use them in the control scheme. If you use them, you can still adjust the volume by pausing the game.

No, the camera button cannot be used as the R button (yet). I did not want to use D-Bus for that, but I also had not enough time to look for other means to detect camera press/release.

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

Very useful change, now it possible play in portrait with option save/load set on zoom buttons. Is it possible to add pause button on touch screen?

Re: [Announce] gpSP
 

There's already a gesture for that. Place your finger on the front panel as far to the left as possible and swipe through the screen, beyond the right edge. Works in both landscape and portrait.