ares, el nuevo emulador de Near, antes byuu

[Duke Fuckem]

Ya tiene que ser buen emulador para que no pete con el ET 

Vamos a probarlo.

[Neville]

Puede con todo, sí  O casi.

Puse esa fotito para resaltar la novedad de ese momento, que era la emulación de la Atari 2600.

[Neville]

Ha salido una nueva versión para solucionar bugs en Linux y Mac.

This is an emergency hotfix release for macOS and Linux users that fixes the following issues

- N64, PS1 and 32X emulation crashes on Intel macs running macOS versions newer than Catalina. Unfortunately this slipped through the net because it was functional on Catalina, which I have, and the latest macOS on M1, which Rasky has.

- For Linux users, some Audio/Video/Input driver options were missing, due to broken dependency resolution.

- Additionally, one minor emulation fix did get merged: the Copyright screen on Perfect Dark now renders using MAME RDP. (This is not yet fixed when using Parallel-RDP, as we are still working on getting it fixed upstream)

- macOS users on Apple Silicon/ARM64 platforms, and Windows users can safely skip this update if they wish to do so.

Build System

- Fix broken package detection after the switch to pkg-config [LukeUsher]

Nall (Standard Library)

- Fix the recompiler/JIT on Intel macOS platforms newer than Catalina [LukeUsher]

Nintendo 64
- Handle vstart/vend RDP coordinate wraparound when using MAME RDP [Rasky]

Descargas como siempre en su web.

[Neville]

Versión 131 disponible. Esta vez hay mejoras significativas en los drivers de Sega 32X (que ya no es experimental y hace funcionar el 95% de los juegos), Bandai WonderSwan y N64.



Las novedades:

Spoiler (click para mostrar/ocultar)

ares v131 has now been released.

ARM64 Windows builds are now available.

The 32X core is no longer marked as experimental, having reached 95% compatibility. There are still have some minor glitches here and there, the majority of games can now be played.

There have been significant improvements to many other cores too, refer to the change log below for details.

User Interface
– Debugger: set per-processor trace history depth [invertego]
– Debugger: store 64-bit addresses in trace history [invertego]
– Debugger: use a hashset to track visisted addresses [invertego]
– Move Audio Driver settings onto a new line, to prevent large device names overflowing the container [LukeUsher]
– Implement ‘Reload Current Game’ hotkey/menu option [LukeUsher]
– Controllers: bind analog inputs only on motion away from center [invertego]
 
Build System
– Avoid code-signing when building from PRs [rasky]
– Use widnres from build environment if defined [invertego]
– Add support for Windows AArch64 [invertego]
– Guard SSE usage with a pre-processor [invertego]
– Add mame RGB utils for all architectures [invertego]
– Enable debugging of self-signed builds on macOS [invertego]
– Remove libgtksourceview2.0-dev from dependencies [LukeUsher]
– Make LTO the default option again, the performance boost is worth the extra build time [LukeUsher]
– Support building with MSVC/microsoft clang (still requires GNU make for now) [invertego]
– Define _WIN32_WINNT in makefile rather than headers [invertego]
– Prefer clang on all platforms [invertego]
 
Nall (Standard Library / Runtime)
– Detect and support PowerPC64 [invertego]
– Fix LTO with PowerPC64 [invertego]
– Recompiler: simplify carry flag usage [invertego]
– Prevent AppKit from handling file opens [invertego]
– Recompiler: implement bit rotates [invertego]
– Recompiler: implement masked shifts [invertego]
– Use snprintf to avoid build warnings [invertego]
– Split implementations into .cpp files [invertego]
 
Hiro (GUI Framework)
– Store Windows settings in application directory, making ares truly portable [LukeUsher]
 
Atari 2600
– Correct pixel aspect ratio to 12:7 [LukeUsher]
 
Bandai WonderSwan
– Fix incorrect handling of color mode bit [asiekierka]
– Fix PPU addressing of 1024 tiles in 2bpp color mode [asiekierka]
– Update PPU Planer, packed, depth and grayscale methods to be correct to real hardware [asiekierka]
– Tweaked APU code to properly treat it as a 24000 Hz digital chip, as opposed to a 3072000 Hz analog chip [asiekierka]
– Fixed APU channel 2 « half-volume » bits being ignored. [asiekierka]
– Tentatively tweaked low-pass filter value based on GuyPerfect’s research. [asiekierka]
– Implemented a less stubby serial I/O stub. This properly emits TX/RX interrupts. [asiekierka]
– Added support for Bandai 2003’s 16-bit banking ports [asiekierka]
– Added stubby support for NMI register 0xB7, as found and documented by FluBBa in the NitroSwan emulator. [asiekierka]
– Appropriately gate WSC-mode I/O ports from Mono mode. [asiekierka]
– Fixed behavior of the HBlank/VBlank PPU timers when the reload value is 1, but the timer is not enabled. [asiekierka]
– Fixed APU internal speaker output logic. [asiekierka]
– Added support for the Pixel Accuracy toggle; significant performance increase when pixel accuracy is disabled. [asiekierka]
– Fixed keypad interrupt emulation to match hardware quirks. [asiekierka]
– Fixed handling the interrupt base port on WSC. [asiekierka]
– Added PPU SCREEN1, SCREEN2 and tiles to the Graphics debug view. [asiekierka]
– Added PPU, APU, cartridge, serial and SoC I/O ports to the Properties debug view. [asiekierka]
– Exposed the ability to use internal speaker output in the UI. [asiekierka]
 
ColecoVision
– Correct pixel aspect ratio to 8:7 [PikaSamus]
 
MSX / MSX2
– Correct pixel aspect ratio to 8:7 [PikaSamus]
 
Nintendo NES / Famicom
– Improve MMC5 frame detection [encoded-byte]
– Improve MMC5 RAM management [encoded-byte]
– Fix ram banking on MMC5 [encoded-byte]
– Fix MMC5 expansion audio [encoded-byte]
– Fix incorrect resetting of MMC5 scanline register on NMI [encoded-byte]
– Correct MMC5 scanline detection [encoded-byte]
– Increment scanlines before comparing on MMC5 [encoded-byte]
– Implement namco163 expansion audio [encoded-byte]
– Boost audio output to be inline with other cores [LukeUsher, encoded-byte]
– Merge APU, Cartridge and CPU emulation to a single co-thread; improving performance with no accuracy impact [LukeUsher]
 
Nintendo SNES / Super Famicom
– Add Star Fox EX to the game database [DerekTurtleRoe]
 
Nintendo Game Boy
– Fix RTC emulation [invertego]
– Fix MBC1 mapper implementation for 8/16Mbit cartridges [asiekierka]
 
Nintendo Game Boy Color
– Fix secondary obj pallettes when running in DMG mode [LukeUsher]
 
Nintendo 64
– Fix 1-bit precision errors in mame RDP [rasky]
– Emulate VI guardband [rasky]
– Improve generation of FPU flags and exceptions [rasky]
– Trigger FPU exceptions also via CTC1 [rasky]
– Implement FPU flags and exceptions for FCVT_x [rasky]
– Fix roundings and flags for conversion functions [rasky]
– Fix FPU round-to-even using intrinsics [rasky]
– Add DCTC1 and DCTFC1 [rasky]
– Reset FPU cause bits for every FPU operation [rasky]
– Correct denormal bandling in FCTV_S_D [rasky]
– Implement correct denormal flush for each rounding mode [rasky]
– Prevent compiler from incorrectly re-ordering code using noinline [invertego]
– Replace cmath functions with intrinsics [invertego]
– Improve unimplemented exceptions on underflow [invertego]
– Remove spurious round mode change in FPU impelmentation on aarch64 [invertego]
– Fix conversion bounds off-by-one issues in FPU [rasky]
– Do no clear flags on FMOV [rasky]
– Raise unimplemented exceptions instead of invalid exceptions for FPU conversions [invertego]
– Replace lround with round, lrint with rint [invertego]
– Do not clear FPU flags on LWC1/LDC1/SWC1/SDC1 [rasky]
– Fix analog stick inputs on Aarch64 [invertego]
– Add PC address to FPU exception logs [rasky]
– Implement correct PI open bus behavior [rasky]
– Improve behavior in case of RDP crash [rasky]
– Implement hardware limit of LOAD_BLOCK RDP command [rasky]
– Fix 32bit / 64bit address space confusion [rasky]
 
Sega Game Gear
– Correct pixel aspect ratio to 6:5 [PikaSamus]
– Sega Master System / Mark III
– Serialize cartridge ram [invertego]
 
Sega Mega Drive / Genesis
– Fix cartridge rom banking for roms upto 32MB [TascoDLX]
– Fix a build issue where bus functions were not inlined as intended [LukeUsher]
– Reduce sync between components, boosting performance without any observable loss in accuracy [LukeUsher]
– Refactor VDP to use templating to reduce comparisons in tight inner loops [LukeUsher]
 
Sega 32X
– Fix PWM fifo [TascoDLX]
– Implement DREQ1and fix PWM IRQ [TascoDLX]
– Fix RLE rendering [TascoDLX]
 
Sony PlayStation
– Reduce pause command duration, fixing a race condition in early game bootup [LukeUsher]
– Component Improvements
– Changes to these components are not specific to cores/systems, but rather they impact all systems that use the updated component.
 
CPU: MOS 6502
– fix adc/sbc flags in decimal mode [invertego]
– CPU: NEC HuC6280
– fix adc/sbc flags in decimal mode [invertego]
 
CPU: NEC V30MZ
– Do not ignore immediate operand in AAD/AAM calls [asiekierka]
– Fixed low-hanging CPU timing fruit, based on WSTimingTest. There’s still some tests not passing, most notably jumps. [asiekierka]
– Fixed IN/OUT opcode decoding in the CPU tracer. [asiekierka]
– Fixed emulation of undocumented opcode 0xD6 as well as 0xF7 subop 1 [asiekierka]

Y las descargas aquí.

[Neville]

Ares v132 disponible.

Las novedades:

Spoiler (click para mostrar/ocultar)

General User Interface Tweaks
– Various changes have been made to the ares GUI in an attempt to improve user experience.
– The « Recent Games » list has been updated to show the System name alongside the game names in the « Recent Games » list, avoiding confusion when the same title is available on multiple systems.
– The « Color Bleed » setting is now disabled by default; this option only applies to the SNES core and was causing confusion due to the default settings of ares not being pixel-perfect.
– For those using alternative front-ends, it is now possible to select a shader when launching ares from the command line with the –shader parameter.
– Ares will now attempt to show an error if running on an unsupported processor, rather than silently crashing.
– Screen Scaling
– The changes here are significant enough to warrant their own section.
– The multiplier scale settings are now radio buttons, allowing the user to see which option is selected, additionally, a 1x scale option is now provided for those who want the window to be ‘actual size’ of the emulated framebuffer.
– Available scale sizes are no longer bound by the current monitor size, avoiding the situation where a selected option may disappear if the user changes monitor or resolution, and the resizing code has been updated to prevent the window growing larger than the active display; so you never lose access to the main menu.
– The window resizing logic now avoids un-maximizing the window, if the user has manually done so, even when adaptive sizing is enabled; making it less frustrating to use ares in a maximised window.
– The scaling options have been renamed to better describe their function and two new scaling modes have been added:
– « Center » has been renamed to « Scale (Integer) »
– « Scale » has been renamed to « Scale (Best Fit) »
– A new setting: « Pixel Perfect » has been added, which always displays a 1x scale image in the center of the display, regardless of the window size
– A new setting: « Scale (Fixed) » which will always display an image matching the users selected scale factor (1x, 2x, etc) regardless of screen size.
 
Improved CHD Support
– Ares has supported CHD for CD-ROM based system for some time now, but it made the assumption that the CHD files were created from a raw bin/cue rip, which is usually the case for correctly dumped software.
– This, however, is not the case for Homebrew, which will often ship as ISO files, rather than BIN/CUE. In previous ares versions these would stop working in after being converted to CHD, but this has now been resolved by implementing proper support for MODE1/2048 CHD images.
 
Save states
– While it is expected that emulation updates may cause save states to become invalid when updating ares, the save state version used to be tracked at a global level. This meant that an emulation tweak in one core would break save states in ALL cores, even if the should have remained compatible.
– Save State versioning has been updated to store a per-core version instead, to ensure that save states are only invalidated when actually required.
 
Atari 2600
– We have updated the internal scaling ratio for Atari 2600 so that 1x screen scale works as expected.
 
WonderSwan / WonderSwan Color
– The WonderSwan core has once again received a significant amount of improvements, making it even more accurate than ever before; while most of these changes do not impact commercial games, ares is rapidly becoming more viable emulator for WonderSwan homebrew development.
– Among those changes are:
– Significant improvements to emulation of the processor, including flags, undefined opcodes, and timing.
– Better handling of some differences between WonderSwan and WonderSwan Color
– Improvements to timing of WonderSwan components (PPU, etc)
– Fixed an issue where save states would not work correctly
– For a detailed breakdown, refer to the complete changelog on GitHub.
 
Nintendo NES / Famicom
– There have been a few minor tweaks to NES/Famicom emulation:
– Fixed an issue where the PPUDATA access scanline check was incorrect for PAL systems.
– Added support for the ave nina-001 board, allowing Impossible Mission II to work
– Added support for Unheadered ROMs; while it is still recommended to use proper iNES roms, ares will now lookup unheadered roms in our game database in order to allow known dumps to function.
 
Nintendo Game Boy/Game Boy Color
– It is now possible to configure « color emulation » settings for Game Boy, allowing to simulate the original DMG screen, the GB Pocket screen, or output in pure unprocessed RGB.
 
Nintendo Game Boy Advance
– Fixed support for 512 byte eeprom saves.
 
Nintendo SNES / Super Famicom
– Fixed an issue where ares would crash when using the debugger memory view for cx4, sa1, and superfx.
– Fixed a minor accuracy issue, allowing Peter Lemon’s CPU reset test to pass; this should not impact any commercial games.
 
Nintendo 64
– Once again there have been significant improvements to Nintendo 64 emulation in ares, some of the highlights:
– The Real Time Clock is now emulated, meaning Animal Forest is now properly supported.
– Better emulation of timing for the PI/RCP/SI.
– Fixed saving in International Track & Field 2000
– Improved accuracy of Controller Pak and Rumble Pak emulation
– Ares now has a very accurate implementation of the behavior of PIF and CIC, including the full boot sequence and the communication between the two chips. This causes more accuracy for homebrew productions creating custom joybus packets and/or tweaking the boot sequence
– For a detailed breakdown, refer to the complete changelog on GitHub.
 
Sega Mega Drive / Genesis / CD / 32X
– Fixes to the MD/CD/32X emulation has further improved compatibility, this can especially be seen with a larger number of working Mega CD games.
– Most notable here, is that the Mega CD core no longer requires a specific bios version, users should be free to use any bios version (excluding CDX/WonderMega/LaserActive)
– Thanks to the impressive work of TascoDLX and invertego, we are pleased to announce that every single Sega Mega CD game at least boots; with an estimated 86% of the library playable to completion.
 
Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k / 128k
– Preliminary emulation of the ZX Spectrum has been added to ares.
– Currently this emulates both the 48K and 128K models, and can load games designed for cassette tape, optional accessories such as Disk Drives are not yet supported.
– Ares emulates the base system with a Kempston joystick interface attached, so most games should be playable with this setup.
– Being a new core, accuracy is imperfect, but decent; most games we have tried work as expected.
– Games must be converted to .wav before loading; ares does not yet support the many ZX-Spectrum specific archival formats.
– Due to the sheer size of this library, the compatibility database is currently empty; this doesn’t mean the system is not supported, just that we haven’t yet built the game database yet.
 
SNK Neo Geo
– Neo Geo emulation has undergone the most dramatic improvement out of any core in this release; with a significant portion of the library jumping from « Nothing » state to « Completable ».
– This has been acheived by adding support for many of the Neo Geo copy protection systems, and game specific memory layouts.
– The Neo Geo romset ares expects you to use matches the current version of MAME at time of writing, we will make a reasonable effort to keep this in sync going forward.
– It is now also possible to specify a custom .bin bios rather than a mame zip file; meaning that users wishing to use Unibios can do so.
– Audio emulation has improved significantly: while there are still issues with missing sound effects in some games, overall things are closer to being correct
– The issue where the user would see black lines during sprite scaling has also been fixed.
 
Sony PlayStation
– Fixed an issue where memory cards did not persist between games
 
Other
– Fixed an issue where ares would crash when loading roms from the command line while using the WASAPI driver.
– Fixed an issue where it was not possible to configure bios files on newer versions of macOS.

Parece que las más relevantes son soporte mejorado de imágenes en formato CHD, un nuevo driver de ZX Spectrum (que de momento sólo pilla cintas en formato WAV) y que por fin podemos jugar a la Neo Geo. También hay novedades en los sistemas N64, Sega CD y muchos más.

Página oficial.

EDITO: Estoy probando los nuevos sistemas...

Como decía, el ZX Spectrum sólo funciona con volcados de cinta en formato WAV, de los que sólo he localizado unos pocos. Dicho esto, parece ir bien:



Para alternar entre el teclado de nuestro SO y el del Spectrum hay que pulsar Borrar, igual que con los MSX. No necesita BIOS.

Con la Neo Geo me he peleado un poco, hasta ver que funciona poner como BIOS la última versión de la Universe BIOS, que es un reemplezo de la original. Podemos cargar los juegos (formato MAME y archivos ZIP) en modo MVS (recreativa) o AES (consola doméstica). Con el primer modo no he podido jugar a nada, porque aunque los juegos cargan no he visto dónde está el botón de meter moneda xD

En cambio en modo AES parece que funciona todo, excepto los juegos más nuevos que sólo salieron para recreativa, como el King Of Fighters '99 o el Garou: Mark of the Wolves.

[Neville]

Nueva versión, la v113.



Las novedades son estas:

Spoiler (click para mostrar/ocultar)

User Interface

Systems that use MAME compatible Arcade roms (currently only Neo Geo) now use a dedicated roms folder (configurable in Settings -> Paths). When loading games for these systems, the user is now presented with a game browser dialog, so users no longer have to struggle to remember shorthand .zip filenames for their games.

ares will now use the modern file browser dialog when browsing for a directory on Windows.

Added a "Reset System" hotkey to allow quick resets of the running system.

Save States

It is now possible to undo the last save, or load, of a save state; this is intended to reduce the chance of data loss on accidental saving (easily possible when using a hotkey).

Atari 2600

Improved resolution handling/screen size calculation.

Fixed an issue where the TIA audio would not correctly reset.

Bandai - WonderSwan

Improved timing accuracy of the V30MZ CPU.

Sega Mega Drive / CD / 32X

The following games have been added to the game database

Alisia Dragoon (E): Override for incorrect region flags in header
Fifa Soccer 95 (Korea): Override for bad SRAM flags in header
NBA Live 95 (Korea): Override for bad SRAM flags in header
Sonic & Knuckles + Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (USA, Japan, Europe): Override for missing SRAM header
Fixed an issue where loading a CD32X game could result on the logo lacking color.

Implement correct sprite list termination behavior; fixes Power Drive's vehicle select menu.

Fix latching of window registers to before the scanline; fixes Landstalker's text box rendering.

Fixed a typo causing the 32X WDT to tick at the wrong frequency in some situations (2096 -> 4096).

Fixed an issue where 32X internal timers would tick too slowly when using the recompiler.

Fixed an issue where loading a CD game followed by a CD32X game would result in the 32X not being detected.

Added support for the SH2's mirrored cache control register; fixes Virtua Fighter.

Fixed an issue where CD BRAM would be overwritten if the CD was loaded without a disc inserted (eg: via mode 1 cartridge).

Fixed an issue where the SH-2 recompiler would not properly invalidate cache; fixes NBA Jam

Fix an edge case that could cause the SH-2 recompiler to infinitely defer interrupts.

NEC - PC Engine / TurboGrafx / SuperGrafx / CD

Added support for connecting/disconnecting the multitap; we could not safely leave it enabled as default as it caused some games to break.

Fixed an issue where ares would incorrectly corrupt CD BRAM when loading a HuCard game.

Fixed an issue where ares would not correctly zero BRAM on formatting.

Fixed an issue where the BIOS would incorrectly detect BRAM size and not format it properly.

Fix an off by one error in scanline interrupts; fixes blue characters in Akumajou Dracula X.

Microsoft - MSX

Added preliminary support for loading cassette tape software/games. Currently, this requires .WAV format audio data. The following basic commands are used to load cassette tapes of each type:

Binary Data: `BLOAD"CAS:",R`
Tokenized Basic: `CLOAD`
ASCII `RUN"CAS:"`

Microsoft - MSX2

Fixed sprite rendering in Mode 2.

Implemented support for vscroll, Text Mode 1 and Graphics Mode 5.

Implemented just enough of the RTC to allow the use of a real MSX2 BIOS, rather than C-BIOS.

Nichibutsu - My Vision

Support for this system has now been added to ares; ROM dumps should be raw binary images of an entire cartridge using the ".myv" file extension.

Nintendo - Famicom / NES

Added support for the iNES 2.0 timing flag; ROMs that rely on this flag will now run at the correct speed.

Added support for VRC2/4 sub-types; the VRC2 and VCR4 test ROMs now pass successfully.

Fixed initial reset state, allowing reset test ROMs to pass.

Added support for AVE NINA-03 and NINA-06 boards (iNES mapper 79).

Added support for MMC3 multicarts (iNES mappers 37 and 47).

Fixed an issue where FDS games would play some audio channels at an incorrect pitch.

Nintendo - Super Famicom / SNES

Fixed an issue where games using real time clocks may crash the emulator.

Nintendo - Nintendo 64

ares now correctly uses the virtual and physical addresses when simulating icache loads with the recompiler.

Lots of performance tuning, mostly to offset the performance cost of the recent emulation improvements.

Fixed handling of BADVADDR in TLB miss exceptions that are raised by SWR.

Fixed an issue where PAL games would play audio at an incorrect frequency.

Added support for Weave de-interlacing instead of only Bob de-interlacing, Weave is now the default.

Added emulation of RSP SU pipeline stalls; fixes Donkey Kong 64 and Banjo-Tooie.

Added accurate PI DMA timing emulation; fixes Jet Force Gemini and Micky's Speedway USA.

Corrected out of bounds RDRAM behavior; RDRAM is not mirrored.

Removed MAME RDP emulation; Parallel-RDP is now supported on macOS via MoltenVK so the fallback was no longer required.

Nintendo - Game Boy

Fixed an issue where the stop() instruction would not correctly reset the internal div counter to 0.

Nintendo - Game Boy Advance

Implement upper bounds for background fetch; fixes rendering issues in Monster Gate.

Sinclair - ZX Spectrum

Added support for .tap and .tzx format tapes (no need to convert to .wav anymore).

Component changes affecting multiple cores

Fixed various audio inaccuracies in the SN76489 and YM2612 emulation.

Fixed various inaccuracies in Z80 emulation.

Fix various M68000 timing issues.

Command Line Interface

All ares settings are now exposed to the command line interface: a setting can be changed from command line using --setting. The list of available settings can be dumped with --dump-all-settings.

Added support for suppressing file dialogs and loading multiple roms at once; this allows the loading of complex configurations (e.g.: Super Game Boy) from the command line without needing to use the GUI.

Other

Removed the non-functional Direct3D11 driver; no code for this ever existed, but the UI was displaying the option leftover from an experimental branch.

Fixed an issue where ares would make incorrect assumptions about pregap in CHD files.

Fixed the location/detection of Game Databases on POSIX systems (should reduce issues with third party builds).

Updated the Linux builds to default to GTK3 rather than GTK2, as the latest version of ubuntu has removed GTK2 support from the core repositories.

Added support for IPS softpatching, alongside the existing BPS support.

Descargas aquí.

[Neville]

Acaba de salir la v134, con un porrón de novedades. Quizás la más vistosa es que ahora emula algunas recreativas con el hardware de la Sega SG-1000, para lo que requiere ROMs en formato MAME non-merged.



Las novedades:

Spoiler (click para mostrar/ocultar)

New System: Arcade
– We have added support for Sega SG-1000 based arcade hardware; hopefully the first of many arcade cores within ares (well, technically second because we had the Neo Geo, but that was focused on the console variant, the AES).
Due to the nature of arcade boards, Arcade cores use MAME format roms, and a game list rather than traditional rom files. You can set a path for arcade roms in « Settings -> Paths ».
Arcade games will be grouped under one « Arcade » system, regardless of what system the Arcade hardware may be based on.
Please note that ares does not currently resolve parent-child relationships, so arcade rom zip files must contain every file required for that game; in MAME terminology, this is usually referred to as a « Non-Merged » set.
 
User Interface
– A homebrew mode has been added to the settings panel; this is intended to enable features that are useful to homebrew devs but would harm performance for general gameplay. This setting is currently only used in the Nintendo 64 core; more information on this later.
– Auto save settings when closing the settings dialog.
– Add hot keys for volume control and mute
– Refactor the log system to allow more control over log output
– Restore the ability to hide cores from the menu
– Add a « Scan » button to firmware settings; this autodetects supported firmware from a configured Firmware directory
– Update the « Color Bleed » option to work for all non-HD cores, rather than just the SNES
– Correct the description of Weave Deinterlacing (horizontal -> vertical)
– Improve auto-detection of CD-ROM based games, drag/drop and command line loading are now more reliable
 
Debugging
– Added support for debugging emulated systems via GDB, currently only the Nintendo 64 core supports this, but this will be expanded in future releases.
 
Atari – Atari 2600
– Improve CPU timing in relation to WSYNC
– Improve TIA timing, although still far from perfect
– Implement latching of the current playfield pixel
– Include « current cycle on this scanline » in CPU trace output to aid debugging
– Improve RESMP behaviour and implement NUSIZ for missiles
– Improve HMOVE object positioning
– Fix RIOT timer and timer interrupt bit
– Improve detection of PAL roms by looking for the (PAL) string as well as the (Europe) string in the rom filename
– Support loading .bin format roms instead of just .a26
 
Bandai – WonderSwan / WonderSwan Color
– Properly implement INT_BASE port
– Implement sound DMA hold
– Fix sound DMA readout values when disabled
– Fix sound DMA source/length shadowing
– Fix loading of trimmed roms
– Fix ENTER/PREPARE opcode implementation and timing
– Fix interrupt return address on division by zero
– Improve ROM/SRAM bus timings
 
Microsoft – MSX / MSX2
– Fix conflicts between ROM space and SCC with the KonamiSCC mapper
– Allow loading of .rom format roms, rather than only .msx/.msx2
 
NEC – PC Engine
– Add support for « color emulation » (non-linear RGB)
 
Nintendo – NES / Famicom
– Lowered colour saturation to 1.5 to match most other emulators
– Implement UNROM-512 mapper
– Implement Action53 mapper
– Implement mappers 31 and 218 (inl-nsf, magicfloor)
– Fix MMC5 program mode 1
– Fix support for NES2.0 extended PRG/CHR size variables
– Implement self-flashing support to UNROM-512 and GTROM
– Remove « GAMMA » adjustment when « Color Emulation » is enabled
– Implement PPU open bus behaviour
– Serialize controller state in save states: fixes input glitches when using run ahead
– Support more variants of the Famicom Disk System Bios
– Preliminary support for the EPSM expansion module
 
Nintendo – Game Boy
– Fix MBC3 RTC Overflow/Register handling
– Fix MBC3 RAMbank register width
 
Nintendo – SNES / Super Famicom
– Fix support for the PAL Super GameBoy
– Separate black level crush from color emulation, it’s now exposed as « Deep Black Boost »
– Fix PLB wrapping in emulation mode (based on hardware testing, all emulators seem to have gotten this wrong)
 
Nintendo – Nintendo 64 / 64DD
– Implement RSP VU pipeline timings
– Fix some incorrect game database entries (Beetle Adventure Racing (J), Chameleon Twist 2, J.League Live 64 Quake 64, Star Fox 64)
– Implement RSP duel-issue restrictions for CFC2/CTC2
– Fix RSP zero register locking
– Clamp the analog stick range to an octagon shape
– Implement RDP clock counter
– Fix VI line interrupt to trigger post-increment
– Fix an issue where instructions in icache would consume two cycles rather than one
– Fix an off-by-one error in mul/div instruction timing
– Preliminary implementation of FPU delays
– Improve idle loop detection in the recompiler
– Fix an issue where the recompiler would only advance the physical address and not the virtual address
– Added support for the Nintendo 64 Transfer Pak
– Fix a regression in the n64-systemtest relating to the TLB
– Add support for « Homebrew Mode »: this enables ISViewer debug output, and a cache coherency check to aid homebrew developers.
– Add support for .D64 disk images
– Add support for 64DD disk swapping
– Implement the « Controller Config » portion of the Advanced Homebrew Rom Header
– Clamp X/Y values from the N64 Mouse (prevents jittery input)
– Fix broken RTC emulation for the 64DD
– Fix broken RTC emulation for Doubutsu No Mori (Animal Forest)
– Improve CIC detection algorithm to not rely on a database, allowing support for custom/homebrew IPL3
 
Sega – Master System / Game Gear
– Added support for the Pak4 mapper
– Added support for the Hicom mapper
– Added support for the Hap2000 mapper
– Added support for the K118in1 mapper
– Rename MSX mapper to Zemina mapper to properly represent its origin/purpose
– Add support for « color emulation »: non-linear blue bias
– Improve detection for Japanese roms (Games not containing « TMR SEGA » are only compatible with Japanese systems)
– Force « .sms » extension roms to run in Master System Mode when loaded on the Game Gear core
 
Sega – Mega Drive / CD / 32X
– Add support for runtime disc swapping, allowing multi-disc games to be played
– Add support for the Mega Mouse when running Mega CD titles
– Synchronize on every cycle when the 32X is not in use
– Maintain 32X code cache allocation across resets
– Fix audio overflow when titles restart the YM2612 (Fixes audio issues in Shining Force)
– More performance tuning to the 32X core
– Improve CDC emulation (ares now passes the CDC REGS test in mcd-verificator)
– Fix a hang in « The Terminator (USA) »
– Immediately update YM2612 key on/key-off on write, fixes Puyo Puyo Tsuu music
– Update YM2612 key state on phase tick
– Add 32X framebuffer mirror emulation, fixes SoulStar X
– Tighten synchronisation between audio components
– Improve bus-arbiter delays for z80->m68k communication (fixes audio in Overdrive 2)
– Improve refresh and bus timings
 
SNK – Neo Geo
– Use YMFM for YM2610 emulation, fixes audio issues in many titles
 
Sony – Playstation
– Implement GTE interrupt bug (if an interrupt is triggered when a GTE instruction is next, the GTE instruction is erroneously executed), fixes spiky polygons in many titles.
– Fix an issue where the CD-ROM SetLoc command was erroneously resetting the ‘reading’ flag
– Fix an issue where the Digital Pad would not de-assert /ACK on an invalid command
– Improve /ACK timing and behaviour, fixes broken input in many (but not all) games
– Implement Dual Shock controllers, required for Ape Escape
– Add support for runtime disc swapping, allowing multi-disc games to be played
– Add support for half-speed XA-ACPDM, fixes high-pitched audio in many titles
– Update ADSR envelopes immediately on write, fixes alert sounds in Metal Gear Solid
– Implement muting of data tracks when played as CD-DA
– Perform color modulation in RGB555 space, fixes Silent Hill’s loading screen
– Fix an issue where fast-load hooks would trigger at runtime, causing some games to crash at boot
– Simulate an infinitely long cpu write fifo: fixes an issue where many games ran too slow.
– Various timing tweaks to improve overall accuracy
– Fix an issue where timers would update too slowly when using the recompiler
 
MOS 6502
– Implement support for more undocumented opcodes
 
Other
– Fix system-wide installations on Linux, this fixes database and shaders not loading.
– Add support for SDL2 as an input driver on all platforms.
– Allocate code cache at early startup for the recompiler: boosts performance on macOS, roughly doubling performance on M1 in some cases
– Added support for SDL2 as an audio driver
– Use DwmFlush on Windows for vsync, bypassing OpenGL driver bugs
– Fix relative time in CD-ROM pregap Q subchannel
– Move CD-ROM loading to a separate thread to speed up loading CD-ROM content
– Avoid allocation of code buffers in the recompiler
– More robust code cache allocation in the recompiler
– Added « Games » category to macOS app bundle to allow Sonoma’s Game Mode to function with ares
– Added support for the risc-v architecture
– Added preliminary emulation of the Intel 8080 cpu: not currently used but for future expansion
– Fix an issue where the WASAPI driver would cause sync issues when fast-forwarding

Las descargas, aquí.

[Neville]

Y... versión v135. También anuncian que ahora habrá versión nueva cada mes.



Los cambios:

Spoiler (click para mostrar/ocultar)

User Interface
– Renamed « Reload » to « Apply » in Driver Settings to clarify its function
– Fixed an issue where the « Deep Black Boost » setting would not save
– Rename FPS to VPS (VBlanks per second), as it represents emulation speed and not game frame rate
– Fixed an issue where the Firmware Path setting would not save
 

Debugging
– It is now possible to use instruction tracing even with the recompilers in use
– Fix an issue where GDB would not reconnect after a disconnection
 

Coleco – ColecoVision
– Added support for Xin1 and MegaCart mappers
 

Nintendo – NES / Famicom / Famicom Disk System
– Use HKROM for MMC6
– Improved Famicom Disk System timer interrupt generation
 

Nintendo – Game Boy Advance
– Improve unmapped I/O register behavior: passes I/O read tests in mbga suite
– Improve save type detection
– Improve ROM to RAM DMA timing
 

Nintendo – Nintendo 64 / 64DD
– Added the ability to disable the Memory Expansion PAK
– Simulate SysAD freezes when accessing non-RDRAM areas via the cache
– Improve SI emulation to approximate the correct SI Status values
– Fix a bug where I/O writes to PIF ram would not trigger interrupts
– Improve and extend cache coherency checks
– Implement register mirroring
– Improve PI latch emulation
– Improve PIF HLE emulation by reducing latency
– Add support for roms >= ~63.9MiB
– Implement undocumented accesses in FPU half-mode
 

Sega – Mega Drive / CD / 32X
– Enabled support for the Mega Mouse for 32X and CD32X games
– Improve I/O port emulation (Fixes Decap Attack + others)
 

Sony – Playstation
– Fix an issue where controller input would stop working if sideloading a PS-EXE
 

ARM7TDMI
– Improved ldmia and stmia timings in Thumb mode
– Fix additional instructions that require offset when reading PC
 

Motorola M68000
– Correct prefetch order for ASR instruction
 

Zilog Z80
– Implement newly discovered inir/indr/otir/otdr behaviour
 

Other
– Fixed an issue where macOS builds were being optimised for the build machine rather than for distribution
– Fixed an issue where the recompilers were broken on Apple Silicon
– Fixed an issue where unloading systems after disc swapping could cause a crash
– Fix an issue where ares could crash on startup with LTO on macOS
– Added support for the SDL input driver on macOS
– Fix an issue where the ares would look for resources inside the app bundle rather than alongside it on macOS

Las descargas, en su página web.

[Neville]

Fieles a su palabra de lanzar una versión al mes... versión 136 disponible:



Las novedades:

Spoiler (click para mostrar/ocultar)

Border/Overscan overhaul

When ares was initially designed, it was geared primarily towards SNES emulation, and as such the "Overscan" option in video settings behaved like the overscan feature of the SNES: showing or hiding the lower 16 lines of display. This behavior is not how most end users expect overscan to function.

For ares v136, we have overhauled how borders and overscan is handled across all cores in ares.

The overscan option has been reworked to show or hide all non-desirable edges of the screen (in most cases this is blank borders, but it can include areas that commonly just contain garbage pixels).

Additionally, we have updated most of the emulator cores in ares to have hardware accurate border and aspect ratio when overscan is visible: this also includes PAL, so PAL games are finally rendered at the correct aspect ratio to real hardware when 'aspect ratio correction' is enabled.

NOTE: The border regions for All TMS9918 VDP based consoles are thought to be be correct, as are Master System, Mega Drive, and NES, while SNES and PC-Engine are (educated) estimates. Hiding the overscan area is not yet implemented for Atari 2600, PC-Engine, Nintendo 64 or PlayStation as more hardware verification is required.

Cheat Support

A popular request: ares finally has support for cheat codes, as well as a cheat editor. You can access the cheat editor by going to Tools -> Cheats while a game is loaded.

Cheats are currently implemented for all cores, except for Nintendo 64 and PlayStation: support for these requires larger changes to ares that did not make the cut for this release.

The cheat code format is a simple patch code format XXXXXXXX:YY where X is an address, and Y is the data to write; most emulators support this format so it shouldn't be difficult to port cheats between them.

It is possible to chain multiple codes into a single cheat entry by separating the codes with a + symbol; this is useful if a single cheat requires multiple code to work.

Cheats are saved in a cheat database file alongside the rom: for example, Game.sfc will create a cheat file titled Game.cheats.bml.

Nintendo - Game Boy Advance

Implement prefetch buffer reset on ROM accesses from the CPU.
Implement that timer 0 count-up bit cannot be set.

Nintendo - Super Famicom / SNES

Fix an issue where the Super Gameboy 2 was running at the incorrect clock frequency.

Nintendo - Nintendo 64

Implement newly discovered PI DMA behavior when crossing RDRAM row boundaries.
Fix a corner face in FPU exception handling

Sega - Mega Drive/Genesis, Mega CD, 32x

Add the Mega CD's PC RAM to the debugger memory viewer.
Implement subchannel processing for Mega CD (Allows the playback of CD+G/karaoke discs provided a valid .sub file is provided)

Sony - PlayStation

Improvements to the handling of the GPUSTAT register.

Other

Switched back to wglSwapInterval for VSync on OpenGL for Windows; the DwmFlush approach caused worse tearing for most users.
Fixed an issue where the SDL input driver considered all controllers to be the same device.
Fixed an issue where rumble events could be missed causing rumble issues in many games.
Improved VSync stability with the DirectX video driver.

Descargas aquí.

[Neville]

Fiel a su visita mensual, ya tenemos ares v137.



Esta vez las novedades son soporte para el mismo formato de shaders que RetroArch y algunos bugs solucionados para GBA, NES/SNES, Mega Drive y TurboGrafx 16.

Spoiler (click para mostrar/ocultar)

Slang Shader Pipeline (librashader)
– ares’s shader pipelien has been re-created to support shaders written for the same slang shader pipeline as RetroArch.
– This was made possible thanks to librashader: a reimplementation of the RetroArch slang shader pipeline for standalone emulators.
– All shaders from libretro/slang-shaders are included. Please be mindful that librashader itself, and ares’ implementaton of it are both rather new; some shaders may have compatibility issues, but the vast majority should function as expected.
 
Bandai – WonderSwan / WonderSwan Color
– Improve emulation of the WonderSwan APU: Improves Hyper-Voice accuracy as well as channel timing.
 
NEC – PC Engine / Turbografx 16 / CD
– Add support for Games Express CD-ROM games, these use their own unlicensed System Card/BIOS.
– Fix CD-ROM pregap offset (Fixes Super Air Zonk).
– Fix PC-Engine Duo/Super CD-ROM internal RAM.
 
Nintendo – Super Famicom / SNES
– wdc65816: Implement the (direct,X) wraparound bug in emulation mode. While this will not have any impact for commercial games (they don’t tend to run in emulation mode) it is still an accuracy improvement that allows cputest-full to pass.
– Implement SA-1 BW-RAM protection: as above, this does not have any impact for most commercial games, but it fixes the SA-1 RAM protection test.
 
Nintendo – Game Boy Advance
– Improvements to PPU timings.
– Improve 32-bit prefetch buffer timing during instruction fetch.
 
Sega – Sega Mega Drive / Genesis / 32X / CD
– CD: Fix an off-by-one issue while decoding subchannels, fixes corruption in CD-G playback.
– 32X: Fix that unused bits of the a1518a register should be set to 0; fixes some broken homebrew.
– 32X: Add approximate timing for 32X memory regions; fixes Brutal: Above The Claw, all known commercial 32X games are now playable, although some minor issues may remain.
– 32X: Fix an issue with dotscroll causing corruption on some scrolling graphics.
 
Other
– Fixed an issue where the latest macOS SDK caused the statusbar to overlay the entire screen, appearing as if ares was broken.
– Fixed clipping issues in the splash screen on macOS.
– Improve UI behavior when changing drivers with a game loaded.
– Enabled the SDL audio driver on macOS

Descargas aquí.

[Neville]

ares v139 disponible.



Las novedades:

Spoiler (click para mostrar/ocultar)

Bandai - WonderSwan / WonderSwan Color

Improve EEPROM emulation accuracy

Nintendo - NES / Famicom

Fix DMA interrupt
Various PPU improvements: most (all?) current PPU accuracy test roms now pass!
Improve emulation of MMC3: fixes test roms and crashes in Mickey's Safari & Incredible Crash Dummies
Fix missing scanlines in Burai Fighter (USA) (last known rendering bug!)
Fix MC-ACC IRQ timing
Add support for mapper 150 (UNL-SACHEN-74LS374N)
Add support for mapper 229 (UNL-BMC-31-IN-1)
Add support for mapper 225/255 (UNL-BMC-128)
Add support for mapper 172 (TXC-22211B)
Add support for mapper 132/173 (TXC-22211A/C)
Add support un-headered roms with the .unh extension (note: uses internal database; unknown roms will not work, headered roms are still preferred)

Nintendo 64 / Nintendo 64 DD

Disable run-ahead for 64DD; fixes an issue that caused 64DD games to fail to boot.

Nintendo - Game Boy Advance

Improve VRAM mirroring in bitmap background modes
Implement 1-cycle timer latch behavior
Improve BIOS open bus edge case emulation
Increase synchronisaton between comonents: slight performance loss for measurable accuracy gain in irq dma tests
Improve video capture DMA such that it only runs if enabled on scanline 162 of previous frame

Sega - Mega Drive / Genesis / CD / 32X

Implement correct SH2 clocks for PAL/NTSC 32X
Improve 32X PWM volume/mixing by taking configured cycle rate into account

User Interface

Improve driver settings and full-screen behavior on macOS
Fix an issue where IPS patches that extend the rom would fail to apply
Fix an issue where changing the video driver may not correctly apply settings
Support "Default" as a device with the WASAPI driver on Windows (Win10 only)
FIx an issue where some settings would not persist on non-english locales

[Neville]

Nuestra cita mensual con ares nos trae la v140, y con ella las siguientes novedades:

Systems
Bandai – WonderSwan / WonderSwan Color
– Implement cartridge SRAM open bus
 
Nec – PC Engine / TurboGrafx / SuperGrafx / CD
– Automatic bios detection now prefers the Arcade Card bios for NTSC-J Region, rather than System Card 3.0
 
Nintendo – NES / Famicom / Disk System
– Fix an issue where cartridge ram was not included in save states for some HVC-NROM and Sunsoft 1-3 mappers.
– Add support for Camerica/Codemasters mappers
– Add support for Tengen Rambo-1 mapper
– Add support for Sachen-0037/Tengen-800008 mapper
– Add support for the NES Zapper
 
Nintendo – Game Boy Advance
– Prevent the debugger from advancing the CPU clock
– Reset prefetch buffer on ROM accesses from DMA
– Improve DMA timings
– Implement that the prefetcher should halt only once DMA is accessing ROM
– Prevent DMA from interrupting ROM accesses
– Fix controls when using a rotated screen
– Reload timer value after tick
– Use separate latches per DMA channel
– Implement graphics viewer in the debugger
 
Nintendo – Nintendo 64
– Clear R0 register only when written to (Performance optimisation)
– Fix an issue where loading save states would not set the correct audio frequency
– Add missing fields to save states
– Refactor to remove the branch state machine from the instruction epilogue (paving the way for – future recompiler improvements)
 
Sega – SG-1000
– Fix an issue where cartridge ram was not included for Taiwan-A and Taiwan-B mappers.
 
SNK – Neo Geo
– Fix an issue where cartridge ram was not included in save states for the Jockey GP mapper.
 
Sony – PlayStation
– Fix a crash when the display surface wraps around the framebuffer.
– Fix an issue where CD-ROM seeking would not interrupt a read operation
 
Shared Components
ARM7TDMI
– Fix reading SPSR register in user and system modes
– Improve LDM/STM edge case handling
 
NEC V30MZ
– Fix DAS overflow flag emulation
– Fix instruction prefix handling
– Fix IP on interrupt fired when prefixes are being used with non-prefixed instructions
 
Other
– Fix an issue where settings may not save correctly on non-english locale
– Improve the OpenGL integration with librashader; matching the implementation for the Metal driver
– Improve the OpenGL driver on macOS: Fix flickering on resize, add fullscreen behavior toggle and fullscreen monitor selection
– Fix building using Make 3.81 (macOS users no longer need to install a newer Make manually to build ares)
– Properly detect the target arch when compiling with CL
– Improve compatibility with FreeBSD
– Fix an issue where the settings window would be too small to show all options on some configurations
– Add the ability to switch between the interpreter and recompiler at runtime; previously this was a compile time switch unavailable to end users. You can use the « Force Interpreter » setting to force the 32X, N64 and PS1 cores to use the interpreter.

EDITO: ¿Cómo demonios se usan los shaders? Veo la opción en el menú Settings, pero no está activa.

EDITO 2: Vale, había que escoger salida por OpenGL.

[RodrigoH17]

Parece que tenemos que seguir esperando para que optimicen el core de la N64

[k0venant]

Anda, pensaba que con la desgraciada desaparición de Near nadie iba a mantener el emulador..  :'(

Gracias Neville, voy a echarle un tiento a ver que tal !

[Neville]

ares v141 recién salido del horno.



Las novedades:

Spoiler (click para mostrar/ocultar)

Nintendo – SNES / Super Famicom
– Fix detection of the Sufami Turbo base cartridge (Avoiding serial conflict with Sailor Moon SuperS – Fuwafuwa Panic).
– Fix PowerFest ’94 and Campus Challenge ’92.
– Add support for games with 256KB of SRAM (Notably used in rom hacks, but these hacks also work on real hardware).
– Add support for the NTT Data Keypad
– Fix SA-1 DMA to BWRAM banks 0x41 and above.
 
Nintendo – Game Boy Advance
– Improve stop mode emulation, ensuring it only exits once the requested input is registered.
– Improve interrupt timings (latch IE and IF for 1 cycle).
– Add latches to DISPCNT background enable, object enable and force blank; these now correctly take effect after 3 scanlines.
– Improve SIO register handling.
– Fix an off-by-one error with BG mosaic handling.
– Fix an oversight in OBJ mosaic at x=0. Improve OBJ timing: OBJs are now correctly rendered one scanline in advance, and OBJ PRAM access timings are closer to hardware.
– Add a 2-cycle synchronizer and improve halted CPU timings
– Selectively synchronize CPU and APU, allowing for the removal of the compile time ‘PERFORMANCE’ profile. (Greater accuracy in Release builds with no performance downsides).
– Small improvements to PPU timing.
– Added support for the Pixel Accuracy toggle; significant performance increase when pixel accuracy is disabled.
 
Nintendo – Nintendo 64
– Remove the ‘devertualizeFast’ performance optimisation from code block lookups: this was proven to compromise correctness/accuracy.
– Refactor devirtualize to return additional context for memory access, reducing code duplication in-memory operations.
– Use JIT only when running code from i-cache.
– Add support for 40 Winks (Aftermarket).
– Add support for Xeno Crisis (World) (Aftermarket)
– Allow for Pak swapping on Controller Port 1 (You can now change between Controller Pak/Transfer Pak/Rumble Pack at runtime).
– Fix instruction trace debugging when using the recompiler.
– Add support for multi-byte writes to the GDB debugger.
– Use different GDB signals for the various exception types.
– Allow arbitrary and possibly unaligned writes to RDRAM through GDB.
– Add unusual warning when software uses CACHE on uncached addresses
– Refactor JIT to remove an extra function call (instructionEpilogue) per instruction.
 
Sega – Mega Drive / Genesis / 32X / CD
– Synchronize components more regularly when emulating 32X; this fixes a regression that caused ‘Knuckles Chaotix’ to be broken in ares v140.
– Add an option to enable the TMSS « Produced by or under license from… » screen.
 
Other
– Stage resources into the output directory on Linux; allowing running self-compiled builds without running ‘make install’ first.
– Address some possible uses of uninitialized variables.
– Enable the use of loading higan-style rom folders when using the command line
– Update librashader integration for librashader ABI 2
 
MacOS fixes
– Display errors from the shader loader in metal, easing debugging of librashader.
– Add bounds checking for table view context menus; fixes a crash when right-clicking beyond the bounds of defined rows in a table.
– Fix an issue where librashader did not function on macOS versions lower than 12 (Monterey) when compiled by CI

Y las descargas, aquí, como siempre.