FS-UAE <= 2.9.x development series

[OlafSch]

Originally Posted by FrodeSolheim

Not without some coding / debugging ;-) Last I checked, FS-UAE crashed when JIT was enabled on Windows, so it's compiled without JIT support on Windows. I haven't really looked into the problem (could be due to other C calling convention (low level argument passing), or something else).

I already thought that... thanx. On Mac and Linux JIT works great

[Foul]

Ubuntu Repo need to be updated

Raring Out !

[FrodeSolheim]

Originally Posted by Foul

Ubuntu Repo need to be updated Raring Out !

Indeed! I'll see if I can fix it tonight

[FrodeSolheim]

Stable version for raring out now (https://launchpad.net/~fengestad/+archive/stable), development ppa version is building and should be available soon

[Foul]

Excellent thx

[Philantrop]

Hello Frode,

did you change your development workflow? I haven't seen any new development versions after 2.3.0?

[FrodeSolheim]

Originally Posted by Philantrop

Hello Frode, did you change your development workflow? I haven't seen any new development versions after 2.3.0?

Hi, and don't worry - nothing is amiss The development workflow is more of less the same, but I've been doing some code restructuring in FS-UAE Launcher - and therefore it may be a bit more "in development" than usual, which is why I haven't posted any updates for a while.

Part of the reason for the restructuring is to make it easier to share large amounts of code between FS-UAE Launcher and FS Game Center, including full support for the Open Amiga Game Database. I'm also working on general improvements to the database support, and new features of course

As usual, I don't have a timeline as such, but it shouldn't be long before updates are more regular again!

That game center you're working on, is it expected to be a separate binary or will it be compiled in to the fs-uae executable? I've been playing with porting fs-uae to another (somewhat restricted) platform, so i'm hoping it's the latter

On another note, I don't know such much about OpenGL at all - as such, messing with it causes me some amount of anguish but do you think there would be much performance gain from using VBO's? FBO's?

Apologies for the above being slightly off-topic.. I should mention though that this is by far and away the best implementation I've seen of UAE.. Yourself and Toni Wilen should be highly commended for your efforts.

With any luck, we'll also start to see some nice contributions from Álmos Rajnai on the PPC side of things.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by TimRex

That game center you're working on, is it expected to be a separate binary or will it be compiled in to the fs-uae executable?

Like the launcher it will be seperate (sorry for jumping in here, but that one is easy enough to answer ).

[Goingdown]

Would it be possible to update Opensuse binaries to 12.3? 12.2 version works, but it requires libpng14 which is not available to 12.3 anymore. I installed libpng14 from 12.2 repo and that seems to work so the issue is not so big.

Thanks

[FrodeSolheim]

Originally Posted by TimRex

That game center you're working on, is it expected to be a separate binary or will it be compiled in to the fs-uae executable? I've been playing with porting fs-uae to another (somewhat restricted) platform, so i'm hoping it's the latter

Hi, it's based on Python / OpenGL, and won't be part of the FS-UAE binary. It is a separate application (like FS-UAE Launcher) You can think of the FS-UAE binary as more of the "emulation engine".

Originally Posted by TimRex

On another note, I don't know such much about OpenGL at all - as such, messing with it causes me some amount of anguish but do you think there would be much performance gain from using VBO's? FBO's?

Not really, in the most "basic" usage (no themes), only a textured quad is drawn on screen every frame. Only improvement I can think of is using some memory-mapping-technique to have FS-UAE draw directly into the video memory - which could probably help a bit on systems where the GPU shares memory with the CPU...

Originally Posted by TimRex

Apologies for the above being slightly off-topic.. I should mention though that this is by far and away the best implementation I've seen of UAE.. Yourself and Toni Wilen should be highly commended for your efforts.

Thank you

Originally Posted by Goingdown

Would it be possible to update Opensuse binaries to 12.3? 12.2 version works, but it requires libpng14 which is not available to 12.3 anymore. I installed libpng14 from 12.2 repo and that seems to work so the issue is not so big. Thanks

Yes, the openSUSE build service repositories need an update. And RPMs for Fedora 18 is not available either (the build fails with a dependency error, possibly the same - don't remember right now ;-))

I would actually like to have some help with this, as I'm not really an RPM expert. I did make it work obviously, but having someone else maintain the RPM spec file(s) would be really nice...

[Goingdown]

Originally Posted by FrodeSolheim

Yes, the openSUSE build service repositories need an update. And RPMs for Fedora 18 is not available either (the build fails with a dependency error, possibly the same - don't remember right now ;-))

I would actually like to have some help with this, as I'm not really an RPM expert. I did make it work obviously, but having someone else maintain the RPM spec file(s) would be really nice...

I am no rpm-wizard either, but I will try to build the fs-uae from source rpm on my Opensuse 12.3 to see how it goes and will report back.

EDIT. I downloaded source tarballs and spec files, and build rpms with rpmbuild command and all was fine, so for opensuse 12.3 simply putting up repo and rebuilding is sufficient.

[FrodeSolheim]

Originally Posted by Goingdown

I am no rpm-wizard either, but I will try to build the fs-uae from source rpm on my Opensuse 12.3 to see how it goes and will report back.

EDIT. I downloaded source tarballs and spec files, and build rpms with rpmbuild command and all was fine, so for opensuse 12.3 simply putting up repo and rebuilding is sufficient.

You are right, there were indeed no problems on openSUSE 12.3 (only on Fedora 18 it seems). Packages for openSUSE 12.3 should be available from the official repositories now

[Philantrop]

Hello Frode,

Originally Posted by FrodeSolheim

As usual, I don't have a timeline as such, but it shouldn't be long before updates are more regular again!

Indeed, several versions of 2.3.1 and 2.3.2 came along - but no tarballs anymore. Just Windows and Mac OS X bundles.
The public git repository hasn't seen any updates since March either.

Just an oversight or *did* something actually change? :-)

Best regards, Wulf

[yesplease]

Originally Posted by Philantrop

*did* something actually change? :-)

Hi Philantrop,
I think Frode is just doing some big cool holidays …

Yeah, Frode you really deserve them !!! Not at least, for your brilliant work. http://eab.abime.net/images/smilies/crazy.gif

[FrodeSolheim]

Originally Posted by yesplease

Hi Philantrop,
I think Frode is just doing some big cool holidays …

Yeah, Frode you really deserve them !!! Not at least, for your brilliant work. http://eab.abime.net/images/smilies/crazy.gif

No holiday, I'm afraid (well, not since easter anyway) -but see below:

Originally Posted by Philantrop

Indeed, several versions of 2.3.1 and 2.3.2 came along - but no tarballs anymore. Just Windows and Mac OS X bundles.
The public git repository hasn't seen any updates since March either.

Just an oversight or *did* something actually change? :-)

Best regards, Wulf

Nah, nothing really changed, like I said, stuff just take time -and those versions were not announced because things were a bit in a flux, and I was not ready to "support" those. Anyway, I've pushed the current code to the public git repo

I understand of course that people can start to wonder, so here follows some explanation on what has been going on :

- To allow finally releasing "FS-UAE Game Center", which didn't see any progress for about a year, the FS-UAE Launcher code has been restructured to allow code sharing between several projects. This also meant that during the restructuring, the Launcher wasn't always fully operational, and my "development versions" are usually quite solid, and I didn't want to change that.
- I've looked at restructuring FS-UAE distributions for some platforms, this is done for Windows and OS X, but nor for Linux, which is why there haven't been (event silently) released builds for Linux.
- I've been working quite a bit on http://oagd.net as well, which has of course competed with FS-UAE itself time-wise.
- Finally, the work pressure has been higher than usual, which combined with the above points means things drag out

But the conclusion is, all is good, and while the code restructuring isn't 100% done (and certainly not perfect), FS-UAE Launcher is stable again these days, and an FS-UAE Game Center (the full-screen game browser) is also soon running well

It is likely that 2.3.3 and onwards will be announced / published as "usual" = back to normal, at least in Windows/OS X/source form. I need to review the debian packaging, and I'm not yet sure what to do with the other Linux platforms (I might need help there, "outsourcing" that bit so I don't spend too much time on packaging and testing stuff for platforms I don't use myself).

While there's not been much development talk here lately, there's been quite a bit of that on irc.abime.net / #FS-UAE (http://embed.mibbit.com/?server=irc....nnel=%23FS-UAE)!

[FrodeSolheim]

FS-UAE 2.3.3 Released:

Version 2.3.3:
* (Launcher) Don't reload images when changing variants (and same images
  should be displayed for the new variant).
* (Launcher) Show joy_emu_conflict from oagd.net in statusbar if applicable.
* (Launcher) More QT port improvements, almost full-featured now.
* (Game Center) Locate correct kickstart ROMs via file database.
* (Game Center) Fixed possible bug in font rendering code.

Version 2.3.2:
* (Launcher) Fixed bug when loading files from archive in a folder named #.
* (Launcher) Fixed bug when automatically looking up Amiga Forever roms [2.3.1]
* (Launcher) QT port improvements.
* (Launcher) Misc bugfixes and minor improvements.

Version 2.3.1:

* On windows, read file name (as program parameter) with MBCS encoding
  (CP_ACP) so paths with non-ASCII characters are handled correctly.
* Windows executables are digitally signed by "Frode Solheim".
* New portable zip file distribution for Windows, "plus" zip file removed,
  and emulator-only zip exists still with _emulator.zip name.
* Logs dir is moved into Cache/Logs/, log file renamed to Emulator.log.txt.
* Always write shader log, in case there's GLSL warnings, etc.
* (Launcher) New status bar with info about num players, languages,
  web links, copy protection and warnings.
* (Launcher) Game variants (from oagd.net) you don't have are also
  displayed, but greyed out.
* (Launcher) Buttons to rate game variants on oagd.net directly from UI.
* (Launcher) Implemented cancel in launch FS-UAE progress dialog.
* (Launcher) Only add Cloanto "Amiga Files" to search path if directory
  exists (Windows).
* (Launcher) Fix slash direction in default search directory on Windows so
  it does not look weird.
* (Launcher) More space-efficient screenshot and cover sizes/formats.
* (Launcher) Internal code rewrite (in progress) to support code sharing
  with Game Center.
* (Launcher) Only have start menu icon for FS-UAE Launcher by default.
* (Launcher) Support new option x_hdinst_args.
* (Launcher) Better support for portable directory, launcher settings can
  be saved in portable dir.
* (Launcher) Non-Cache launcher data files moved to FS-UAE/Data.
* (Launcher) Download cache dir moved to FS-UAE/Cache/Downloads.
* (Launcher) Initial support for auto-downloadable games from oagd.net.
* (Launcher) Initial support for auto-downloadable games from 3rd-party sites.
* (Launcher) Initial support for manually downloadable games.
* (Launcher) Moved local file index into its own database file.
* (Launcher) Extract empty directories as well when extracting archives.
* (Launcher) Fixed bug when specifying window_width / window_height in
  custom settings.
* (Launcher) Partial support for Python 3.x.
* (Launcher) Partial support for using the Launcher with QT toolkit.
* (Launcher) Moved file database into its own separate database, also made
  the file rows more space efficient, and the checksum index smaller.
* (Launcher) Removed support for old XML game database.
* (Launcher) Ignore file extension case when checking floppy list from
  online database.
* (Launcher) Handle some potentially invalid configs from online database
  more gracefully.
* (Launcher) Updated translations: it [speedvicio].

Version 2.3.0

* Show on-screen warning if OpenAL device cannot be opened, log OpenAL
  error code.
* New option save_state_compression can be used to disable save state
  compression.
* New option "log" which can be used to enable misc types of debug logging.
* Queued input events are processed in hsync handler.
* Use CD32 + FMV quickstart for CD32 model, update cd.device in cartridge
  ROM fixes problem with Pirates Gold intro.
* Removed a couple of left-over / unnecesary log statements.
* Support language option to override GUI language.
* New translations: tr [Decypher].
* With video_sync = auto, allow some slack when deciding to enable full
  sync or not (accept host refresh rate 49 instead of just 50, ..).
* New option: assume_refresh_rate (int) to manually specify host refresh
  rate when refresh rate detection fails. This option in combination with
  video_sync = auto effectively replaces video_sync = full.
* video_sync = full is now an alias for video_sync = auto.
* Fixed bug causing FS-UAE to hang when pausing with video_sync = off.
* New model CD32/FMV (includes FMV ROM), CD32 model reverted to original.
* Fixed compatibility issues in scanline GLSL shaders.
* (Launcher) Warn when using A1200 model with < 2 MB chip RAM.
* (Launcher) Fixed a bug where 0-byte screenshot / covers files could be
  stored if a network error occurs while downloading.
* (Launcher) Better support for A3000 and A4000 with the game database.
* (Launcher) Support hiding variants from the database based on _status.
* (Launcher) Cycle-exact can be disabled from database if abs. necessary.
* (Launcher) Support language option to override GUI language.
* (Launcher) New translations: tr [Decypher].

Only OS X packages for now, I need to make some changes to the build systems for Windows and Linux.

There has been some changes to the packaging, and I'll outline the new packages available for Mac OS X:

fs-uae-launcher_2.3.3_macosx.tar.gz - This contains FS-UAE Launcher with FS-UAE.app embedded inside, so the FS-UAE Launcher.app inside this archive is standalone.

fs-uae-game-center_2.3.3_macosx.tar.gz - This contains FS-UAE Game Center.app. Like FS-UAE Launcher above, FS-UAE.app is contained, so this app can be used standalone. But note that this app uses the same files/config used by FS-UAE Launcher, so for practical purposes, at least initially, you need FS-UAE Launcher to set up your Amiga configs. I'll start a new thread about FS-UAE Game Center.

fs-uae-suite_2.3.3_macosx.tar.gz - Both FS-UAE Launcher.app and FS-UAE Game Center.app in one archive. It's the combination of the two archives above (so a bit redundant), and the above comments apply to this archive as well.

fs-uae-suite_2.3.3_macosx_portable.tar.gz - Same as the previous archive, but if you extract everything from this archive you'll get a self-contained portable folder, where both apps and data is stored - very nice to have FS-UAE on removable media and/or use the same setup on multiple computers. This archive can be combined with the Windows portable distribution (coming soon), so you can for example have a self-contained USB stick which works on both Windows and OS X (when you're not using config to specify resources outside the base directory at least).

fs-uae_2.3.3_macosx.tar.gz - FS-UAE.app only, useful when you don't want any of the other stuff.

The content of the FS-UAE directory is being slightly re-organized as well, and files which can be re-created by the applications themselves are now stored (or soon stored) in FS-UAE/Cache. This includes log files, which are not stored in FS-UAE/Documents/Cache. The Cache directory is always safe to delete. There'll likely be some more changes / cleanup during 2.3.x.

The file database has been restructured a bit as well, and the effect of that is that you must run a file rescan after updating to this version.

There might be other things I should have mentioned, which I have forgot, but time will tell Please report back if/when you have tested the new version

Downloadable from here: http://fs-uae.net/devel/2.3.3/

[Dic_Ray]

Hello Frode,

really great to here these news, but where to download? Best

[FrodeSolheim]

Windows builds are also now available from http://fs-uae.net/devel/2.3.3/

As with Mac OS X, there has been some changes in how FS-UAE is distributed:

FS-UAE Launcher - Available as both installer and zip file - both include FS-UAE itself. For the installer, only an icon for FS-UAE Launcher is added to the start menu (to avoid confusion for newcomers).

FS-UAE Game Center - Available as both installer and zip file - both include FS-UAE itself. As with the OS X version, the Game Center should require no configuration, but pick up the config from FS-UAE Launcher.

FS-UAE - The emulator itself is available alone in a zip file if you don't want anything else.

FS-UAE Suite / Portable - Includes FS-UAE Launcher, FS-UAE Game Center (and of course FS-UAE) pre-configured as a portable and self-contained environment. Nice if you don't like installers, or you like to have apps and data together in the same place, or to put on removable media to create Amiga setups to carry with you. Can be combined with the OS X portable package

For installers: Before installing either FS-UAE Launcher or FS-UAE Game Center, I recommend uninstalling the old FS-UAE version from the Windows control panel to avoid potential confusion, as the new installers will install alongside the old version.

Originally Posted by Dic_Ray

Hello Frode,

really great to here these news, but where to download? Best

I forgot to add the download link - original post now updated with link!

(The download page on fs-uae.net will be updated once all distributions are ready for 2.3.x).

[Dic_Ray]

You are such a genius. Thank you so much for this extra ordinary experience these days.

Perhaps could you invest some time to solve my crashs with lha archives? For the moment I seperated out all the lha files, but that's not the ideal solution. Additionaly it would be great to get game list export button to compare the offline internal database entries with the online game database entries. I miss some games, but atm can't say, which one exactly.

Best