-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 01. August, 2003 Version 1.15 - Yokota updated his MinGW patches. They are now "less ugly", to quote him :) - Pete fixed an issue with frame limitation if the "old skipping" method was used - thanx to Ronald Andersson for reporting it. - Pete added the new "Pad" display characters in the gpu in-game menu (used with ePSXe 1.6.0) - Pete fixed the Skullmonkeys background layers, they are now perfectly visible - thanx to calb for the save state. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 09. Juny, 2003 Version 1.14 - Avery Lee, the author of VirtualDub, detected a bug within the AVI recording funcs and kindly fixed the issue. It's now possible to load avi files created by the P.E.Op.S. soft gpu into VirtualDub without problems. - Yokota created a patch to compile the plugin with MinGW. You can find it in the "makes" directory, please also check out the included readme file for details. - linuzappz rewrote the Linux config/about dialogs, using Glade. The new dialogs are listing the available fullscreen modes, if XF86VM support is enabled. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 07. January, 2003 Version 1.12 - linuzappz improved the linux ports further: he fixed the non-streched 2x modes for DGA2, added some more error messages, if the DGA2 init fails, and optimized all the Linux stretching funcs, for a little speed up. - All other changes were done by me (Pete), but before I explain them, I want to thank linuzappz for his never- ending support. He added improvements in nearly every release, I don't know how he finds the time beside his other emulation related projects :) - Ok, first a small bugfix: the main menu of Legend of Legaia is now displayed again (I screwed that somewhen in version 1.10 or 1.11). - Important for all ChronoCross players: I have removed the internal status screen hack, and made a special game fix for it. That means that if you want to play CC with epsxe 1.5.2, you have to activate the new "odd/even bit" game fix, otherwise the game will lock up if you want to see the CC status screen. That also means that in the next epsxe version that fix will not needed anymore, due to an improved epsxe vsync handling :) - Another feature for the upcoming epsxe version has been added: a cursor interface func. What's that for? well, the next epsxe version will show it ;) - The 'improved frame skipping' handling has been improved further. Some issues has been fixed, and some more security code has been added. For the users who still like the old (V1.10 and below) skipping method better (which only skipped every second frame), I've added another special game fix, called "use old frameskipping". - For the lovers of an 'enhanced display': I've added the Scale2x stretching method. That one makes 2D images sharper, without adding interpolations like the 2xSai/SuperEgale filters. The Scale2x stretching is GPL, copyrighted by Andrea Mazzoleni , you can find more informations on: http://scale2x.sourceforge.net. The Scale2x stretching is again available in all MS-Windows screen modes, as well as in the Linux X and DGA2 ports. - The nicest new feature (imho) is dithering support. Prolly you already have noticed that g-shaded polygons (often used in 3D games) have rough color steps, which is looking a bit ugly. The real PSX can activate dithering, to make the colors smoother, of course the side-effect is that you will notice a small dot effect when dithering is activated. V1.12 will give you the choice, if the plugin should emulate the psx dithering as well. Three modes are available: * No dithering: fastest mode, no dithering will get activated (that's like in the older plugin's versions) * Game depended: g-shaded textures polygons will get dithered, if the game is turning on dithering. * Always: the plugin will dither all g-shaded polygons all the time, even if a game doesn't ask for it. That's usually the nicest looking, but also slowest, mode. I've added a new menu item to the gpu in-game menu as well, so you can change between the three dithering modes while playing a game. And a big thanx goes to Farfetch'd for his dithering pattern. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 03. December, 2002 Version 1.11 - linuzappz repaired the 2xSai modes for 15 bit color depths. - Pete added an improved frame skipping for slow systems. For full details check out the 1.68 version notes of Pete's hw/accel. gpu plugins, here's only a small summary: * The 1.10 screen flickering with frame skipping will not happen anymore * Still: frame skipping will cause missing graphics in some games * For best results turn on skipping _and_ limitation. Try to reach a steady 50 (PAL) or 59.94 (NTSC) frame rate. * For buggy motherboard chipsets: activate the new 'low- res fps timer' game fix. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 09. November, 2002 Version 1.10 - Farfetch'd suggested a change in the "y display position" code, so Pete changed it ;) Well, it's not 100% perfect yet (could be done better in the soft plugin), but since a 100% solution would need much code changes (and would cause maybe slower speed), I want to check out this approach first. - Pete added 2xSaI, Super2xSaI and SuperEagle display modes. Of course a big thanx goes to Derek Liauw for his free available 2xSaI source examples. The following new options are available (in all supported 15/16/32 bit desktop/fullscreen color modes): * 2xSaI stretching * 2xSaI unstretched * Super2xSaI stretching * Super2xSaI unstretched * SuperEagle stretching * SuperEagle unstretched The "unstretched" modes will always display the screen at twice the original psx resolution, so if your gpu window is too small, parts of the display will get cropped (and if it's too big, a black border will be drawn). The "stretched" modes will scale the image to the window size, so prolly they are the better choice for gaming, but be aware that some gfx cards will add an additional filtering with that (as long as you don't use the "system memory" option in Windows, which will be slower in most cards, though). Talking about speed: all the new modes will need a fast cpu! Nevertheless the "pure" 2xSaI mode will be the fastest, followed by the "SuperEagle" mode, and the "Super2xSaI" mode will be the slowest option. Note that a 16 bit color desktop/fullscreen mode will give a speed up, so I strongly suggest to use it! About the image quality: that's a matter of taste :) Personally I prefer the Super2xSaI mode (and btw, that's what I am using in my hw/accel gpu plugins). Ah, and a note about the Linux ports: the standard X plugin (used by epsxe and pcsx) does offer the same 6 new modes, and I've added most stuff to the special DGA sources as well, only the unstretched modes are not supported, as far as I remember (I can't test the DGA port here). And all new modes are _not_ supported by the special FPSE SDL version, maybe lu_zero can add them in the future, we will see :) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12. October, 2002 Version 1.9 - linuzappz moved the Linux config and about windows into a separate application. This will prevent troubles with main emus/ frontends usig a different GTK version, just copy the cfgPeopsSoft application in the emu's cfg directory. - Pete added a new 'debug mode' option to the Window's plugin, which will enable certain debug modes in the future (so it's mainly interesting for developers). Currently only one debug feature is available: you can configure a key to toggle between the 'normal' display and a full vram view (showing the complete 1024x512 psx gpu vram). Please note: not all cards will be able to do it. - Nearly one year ago the first version of the P.E.Op.S. soft plugin has been released as Open Source. All kind of stuff has been added and fixed during this year, and I would like to thank all the coders who helped me to make it bigger and better, and of course all the users giving support and bug reports :) Now another nice thing happened: good ole Farfetch'd, a well-known fellow emu coder, decided to share his knowledge about the psx gpu with the P.E.Op.S. Open Source project. He provided me with a lotta detail infos, things which are usually hard to find out, since not much games are using every weird psx gpu ability. So over a dozen small changes were done because of the new informations, increasing the compatibility of the plugin, and actually some of them even fixed certain issues :) Enjoy the release, and be prepared for another year of plugin updates, ehehe :) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 06. September, 2002 Version 1.8 - linuzappz added a FPS display to the Linux DGA2 port of the plugin - Lewpy and E}I{ fixed the texture window problem which caused the bad FF7 text box borders, distortions in RRT4, small glitches in Gauntlet Legends and a not fully displayed loading screen in Casper. Therefore the FF7 special game fix has been removed in 1.8! - Pete added a delayed odd/even toggle to correct the FF8 intro scanlines - Pete changed the mask bit handling for sprites. Now the Alone In The Dark 4 cut scenes get displayed, and FF6 battle screen effects are fine - Pete added a "Sprite 1" command count (don't know if such a command exists on the real psx, but Darko's GPU test application needs it) - Pete fixed a small issue with the "screen disable" state, which was hiding some splash screens in previous versions -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 02. August, 2002 Version 1.7 - linuzappz fixed a small issue with the Linux 'About' dialog - Lewpy added a clean way to avoid troubles with the "Disable screen- savers" option in Win95/WinNT - Lewpy replaced the old line drawing stuff (which used simply thin quads) with nicer and faster native line functions - Pete added an internal fix for FF9 mask bit issues (a few texts in animated mdecs were missing) - Pete improved the dma write/read wrapping. Should be fine now. - Pete removed the dmachain special game fixes with a good working 'bad dmachain' auto-detection. - Pete changed major parts in the dmachain handler. Games like 'Monkey Hero' are working now without problems. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 29. May, 2002 Version 1.6 - linuzappz added a fast forward frame skipping. That will give a big speed boost on slow systems as well. I (Pete) have added a selectable hotkey for enabling/disabling this skipping mode in Windows, and you can also use the gpu menu to activate it (in both the Windows and the Linux version). Please note: some games (like FF9) will really hate any kind of frame skipping, you will have to turn it off in that games. - All other stuff in this release by Pete: * Fixed the "mdec polygons" in FF9 * Added new coordinate checks, that will remove most weird polygon glitches (like the lights in MGS) * Extra code for fixing texture distortions on g-shaded rects * Redone all texture window functions, that will give a big speed boost in certain games (for example Jumping Flash) * Fixed the mask bit emulation for non-textured primitives (Bloody Roar 2, Ace Combat 3) * Adjusted some other rendering stuff, Doom should rune fine now * A new special game fix for getting the Ranma 1/2 menus right (most likely caused by a corrupt dma chain) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15. March, 2002 Version 1.5 - lu_zero was working on the SDL support (FPSE version only), he added optional SDL direct blit/direct stretch funcs to get more speed. He also made some Linux Makefile changes, to make compiling of all the different versions easier (well, some configure script will follow soon, I think ;) If you want/need to compile the Linux version yourself, just include the wanted mk file in the main Makefile (for example "mk.x11" for the epsxe/pcsx version or "mk.fpse" for the fpse/sdl version) and run a "make clean all" (or a "make clean release", if you want to have a smaller stripped file). - linuzappz added fullscreen DGA2 support for the Linux version. That will give a 30% speed increase in the fullscreen drawing, if your XServer supports the DGA2 mode (linuappz had to update his XServer to version 4.2.0 to get it to work, and my aging 4.0.3 crashes hard with DGA2). To activate DGA2, you have to edit the mk.x11 files (in the "makes" directory), and set the switch "XF86DGA2" to "TRUE". - Pete removed the "no sprite transparency" and "black poly" special game fixes (both were fixing some main emu bugs, but they are not longer needed), and added two new ones instead.. ;) 1. a fix to increase the display size for Capcom 2D fighting games (without the fix the right side of the display will be missing some pixels) 2. a Lunar1 fix. That one will kinda fix all the black screens in Lunar1 (also a main emu bug... well, the game seems to play ok with that fix, an unwanted 'flashing' will appear when entering a house, but that's bearable, I think) Beside that special fixes Pete also squashed some real bugs, so for example "The Mummy" and "T'ai Fu" will work now in the soft plugin, and some more additional memory checks will make a few magical effects in FF9 and BOF4 appear. - A few more additions (like the Linux xshm support from Vedran Rodic) are not included in 1.5 (lack of time for testing, sorry), but hey, there will be always a 1.6... and I know that some die-hard Lunar1 fans couldn't wait anymore :) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12. January, 2002 Version 1.4 - lu_zero and linuzappz were working on the Linux config windows, now the dialogs should work fine in FPSE-Linux, and in pcsx-Linux as well. - Pete fixed a BAD bug in the linux version, which caused garbage screens in certain games (for example Grandia or Star Ocean2), if stretching was enabled. - Pete also removed unneeded screen clearing, if a game was doing horizontal centering. That will speed up the windows version, and fixes screen flickering in the Linux version. - Syo enhanced the Windows version by adding a "Wait for vsync" option (including an hotkey to toggle vsync waiting on/off during game play). Also the plugin now lists the fullscreen resolutions with supported refresh rates (if that info is available), so you can select a different monitor refresh rate for fullscreen modes. - Small cosmetics: Syo added "Transparent fps menu" option in the Windows version, and lu_zero took care about the caption texts in the Linux versions. - Darko Matesic improved his recording funcs (Windows version). Now there are two types of compression (16bit & 24bit), and a WinFPSE 24bit MDEC support. - Pete added Linux fullscreen video mode switching in the non-SDL version. Unlike the MesaGL plugin the libXxf86vm is linked statically, hopefully that will give less troubles on some systems. If you want to disable the xf86vm support, you can edit the Makefile, and compile a version without video mode switching support. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. November, 2001 Version 1.3 - lu_zero added the native Windows FPSE interface (thanx to xobro for additional help). Now you can use the Windows plugin in FPSE without the PSEmu interface wrapper. As a small goodie I (Pete) have added support for right colors in FPSE mdec movies, if the FPSE interface is used. - Also done by lu_zero: real fullscreen support in the FPSE SDL linux version. - A new coder is syo (syo68k@geocities.co.jp). He has added two options in the Windows plugin: "use system memory" and "stop screen saver". Let's hear what syo has to say about the new options: -> added "Use system memory" When a stretch is carried out, the filter by the video card stops applying, if this check is turned ON. However, when the memory speed of a system is slow, it leads to the sharp fall of speed. In almost all cases, the speed of a system memory is very slower than the memory of a video card. In the following environment, about 50% of speed fall was checked. CPU AMD AthlonMP 1200MHz@1400MHz (system bus speed 133MHz) MotherBoard ASUSTeK A7V266 (VIA KT266) VideoCard ATi RADEON DDR 32MB Clock 166MHz Memory DDR-SDRAM 256MB CL=2.5 1T Command OS WindowsXP Professional Stretch 320x240 to 640x480 -> added "Stop screen saver" If a check is turned ON, operation in a screen saver and power-saving mode will be stopped. However, it does not operate in WindowsNT4 and Windows 95. Since the version check has not been carried out, if this check is confirmed, it will crash by WindowsNT4 and Windows 95. Syo also repaired a small thing in the Windows gpu config window... I never had problems with the old code, but hey, the new one doesn't hurt either :) - linuzappz added a nice About... and Configure... window in the linux plugins. The configure window will change the .cfg file, the file can now be placed into the home directory, the main emu directory or a "/cfg" sub directory (search for the file will happen in reverse order ;). - Oh well, and I've added some changes, too: 1.) support for psx 15 bit texture window primitives... never seen them in games, but Darko and his gputest app forced me to include it ;) 2.) a small fix for Grandia... now the screen will be centered better, causing that annoying flickering line on the right side of the display to disappear :) 3.) fixed a small but nasty bug with the mask bit in Poly4F primitives. Now the MGS message display will be fine again. 4.) a new special game fix called "Adjust extreme coords". That will help games like Nascar racing, Syphon Filter 2 and a few MGS light effects. Maybe some more games are affected, you can try the new option with all games showing wild polygons all over the screen. Well, imho that's a bug of the main emus, but as long as the gpu can repair it, who cares? ;) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11. November, 2001 Version 1.2 - Avi recording funcs by Darko Matesic (Windows version only). You can start/stop the recording using a configurable hotkey. The movie files will be stored into the \Demo sub-directory. - Nasm support by linuzappz. That's important for the Linux version, the same asm code can finally be used in the Windows and Linux plugin (and hopefully a small speedup will show up in the Linux version). - SDL support and FPSE layer (just for the FPSE ports) by lu_zero. Now we can have many more portable version. The makefile has to be fixed again =/ The FPSE layer for Win32 isn't ready -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 04. November, 2001 Version 1.1 - First release of the P.E.Op.S soft gpu plugin, same funcs and features as Pete's soft gpu version 1.54 Check out https://sourceforge.net/projects/peops/ for future releases. --------------------------------------------------------------------------