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Post by gauze on Apr 9, 2016 22:35:02 GMT -5
it might help if I extracted Update.zip in the same directory as Beta.zip doh. got it now, thanks.
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Post by mountaingoat on Apr 10, 2016 10:34:00 GMT -5
Yep, I did that too - the root dir for the update zip is not the original Vide directory. :-)
The update is really nice, Vide literally saved me hours yesterday when I was debugging a nasty problem with some memory getting incorrectly reset. Putting a breakpoint and stepping through the code in question let me fix the issue in minutes instead of probably hours.
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Post by mountaingoat on Apr 10, 2016 18:12:20 GMT -5
Message to all Vectrex developers:
Guys, you HAVE TO try and use Vide, you will be so happy you did so.
I have started using it (ever since Malban made it available) for Super Goat Jumper and I can tell you that so far this XXI. century development tool made my life so much easier it is not even funny.
So if you are doing any kind of development for the Vectrex, you owe it to yourself to try and use Vide.
(Disclaimer : Malban did NOT pay me for this message :-)
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Post by Malban on Apr 12, 2016 18:35:31 GMT -5
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Post by mountaingoat on Apr 13, 2016 5:36:47 GMT -5
These Vide features are most welcome as yesterday I spent a couple of hours creating a bleat sound for SGJ. I was going through your very good PCM 'tutorial' and used both Audacity and a mini java app I wrote to convert the binary pcm into asm.
So I know exactly how much easier this tool is going to make adding pcm to games.
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Post by Malban on Apr 14, 2016 17:44:50 GMT -5
Hi, another update: VideUpdate.zipChanges: - Sound overhaul, there should be less "noise" - Sample editing and examples (vedi, rightclick on project files, popup in tree) - digitized sound also "overhauled", there were some nasty bugs - added again a bunch of downloadable binaries to starter - breakpoint handling now more "stable", you can configure now if dissi should clear or retain breakpoints upon starting a new "image", "softreset", keeps breakpoints allways - vectrex 3. generation now has less volume on digitized sounds - fixed ray gun (still slow as hell) - bug in dissi, page 2/3 opcodes did not have cycle information - in dissi the current PC is now "light blue" colored - assi gives an error if bin file is larger 32767 bytes - ani window can be reopened - some config settings added/changed ... and I am sure many other things I have forgotten... Regards Malban
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Post by Malban on Apr 17, 2016 14:40:03 GMT -5
Weekend stuff added: Mod Support... next on the list is YM than AXFX and after that I have no further excuses, I must start again with vectorlist generators... Malban
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Post by Malban on Apr 18, 2016 17:52:12 GMT -5
... and another...
added support for "YM"-File conversion... and added support for "AYXF"-File conversion...
Also updated the "VideUpdate.zip" file, its this time about 14MB. For now I will leave the sound department - and will start with vector generation next.
Regards
Malban
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sdw
Vector Runner
Posts: 47
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Post by sdw on Apr 19, 2016 16:23:33 GMT -5
Thanks again for your amazing work with this, I think for sure this will be part of my development process for the next Vectrex project. One thing I find a bit strange, even though I have a decently fast computer, the emulator slows down quite a lot as soon as I size up the window above the default size (I can tell that the movements of graphics are slower than usual, and for example the music in Vectrexagon sounds all wrong as it plays too slow). It would be good to somehow have an indicator once the emulator falls behind "realtime" so that I know that it's the emulator running slow and not my code! Any idea what could be causing these slowdowns? I noticed that things ran better when I unchecked "ring buffer", but since that had to do with saving CPU state, I don't think it should make any difference how big the emulation window is? Or could it be "on the edge" of running realtime with ringbuffer on, and then sizing up the windows steal just a bit more CPU time, making it drop below realtime?
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Post by Malban on Apr 19, 2016 17:31:03 GMT -5
Hi, yeah, I have pretty good ideas why it slows down :-)!
And yes, I should at one stage indicate how fast vecxi runs. (will write it on my todo list, which somehow does not shorten in any conceivable way)
The only really speed bottleneck is the graphics department, since this is native java and I have not done ANY optimization at all yet, the drawing is really slow.
short description how graphics are implemented at the moment:
a) there are two "images", one which is displayed, and one which is not. b) on a screen refresh following things are done: + clr screen 1 + copy screen 2 with a persistency alpha value over screen 1 + draw all vectors o if vectors are splines, draw splines o if vectors are arrows, draw arrows o use line "size" for these drawings o if glow is enabled, draw each line x times (from huge width to small width, with degenerating brightness) + if available copy the overlay image (with alpha values) over the image + give the resulting image to the "paintComponent" methods + which again copies the given image to its display surface
So... in the worst case an image the size of the emulator window ist drawn about 5 times with alpha values and vecxi tries to do that 50 times a second.
This TAKES time!
The absolut huges time savers are: - 1) do not have a huge (or even "normal" sized) emulation window :-) - 2) switch off "glow" - 3) do not use overlays
- small time savers are...
Well, what am I writing - look at the FAQ!
But YES, I will do optimization for the above, but that is on the priority list not very high, since I wanted VIDE to be a "good" (not fast, the display speed was absolutely secondary, the display is more "bonus") emulator and offer an environment to debug and a tool to develop.
Regards
Malban
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Post by mountaingoat on Apr 20, 2016 5:43:46 GMT -5
Malban, great improvement in the sound - there is no popping at all now!
On issue I found (filed on Git) is that is does not look like that Vide will process ym files as they come out of Arkos. I think it assumes that they are already compressed.
Thank you again - with every update Vide keeps getting better and better.
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sdw
Vector Runner
Posts: 47
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Post by sdw on Apr 23, 2016 5:13:36 GMT -5
Question - is there an option to turn off sound somehow? I am at the very beginning of a new project, and currently I restart my ROM, watch about 2 seconds, then restart etc. and hearing the standard Vectrex "doh-de-DOO"-sound every time is starting to drive me crazy! Since I don't have any sound in my actual program yet, it would be OK for me to run with the whole emulator silent, but I can't seem to find any option to turn it off!
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Post by binarystar on Apr 23, 2016 6:05:36 GMT -5
You could always mute your computer
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Post by Malban on Apr 23, 2016 8:22:08 GMT -5
No - as of yet you can not.
But I just implemented a volume control to the configs, so you WILL be able to ... with the next update, possibly tomorrow another beta... depends, today we'l have visitors and tomorrow I have to work...
Regards
Malban
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sdw
Vector Runner
Posts: 47
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Post by sdw on Apr 23, 2016 11:29:55 GMT -5
You could always mute your computer Well, I like to listen to music while coding sometimes, but otherwise that idea had occured to me, yes!
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