+stephena Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 So, it's time for a new version of Stella. First off, I didn't get Blargg filtering finished. It's probably 70% done, but I didn't want to delay this release. It will definitely be done for 3.7, due sometime in April. Anyway, this is basically a controller-related release. Changes are as follows: Added support for 2600-daptor II device, including native support for 7800 controllers, BoosterGrip and Keypad controllers. Special thanks go to Tom Hafner for a complimentary test sample of this device, and also for donating a BoosterGrip controller. Added ability to dynamically swap the port order of Stelladaptor/2600-daptor devices with the 'Control-1' key combo (useful if you have only one 2600-daptor and want to use it as a left port normally, but as a right port for Star Raiders, etc). Added CompuMate bankswitching/controller support to the emulation core; the Spectravideo CompuMate ROMs (NTSC and PAL) now work. Frequently used keys on the CompuMate are directly mapped to your keyboard (ie, Func-Space for backspace is mapped to Backspace, etc). Loading/saving from the cassette player is not yet supported, and will come in a future release. Fixed bug in BoosterGrip controller emulation; the functionality of the booster and trigger buttons was reversed. Related to this, renamed these actions in the Event Mapping dialog to be more clear. Reverted to SDL 1.2.14 for the Windows 98/2k release, since SDL 1.2.15 isn't supported in that environment. Updated included PNG library to latest stable version. As usual, Stella can be downloaded from the Stella homepage. Please also keep in mind that Stella is DonationWare; please consider a donation of some sort. Bug reports and comments can be sent by PM or posted in this thread. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trent Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 Thanks for all the hard work. I'd be lost without the debugger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
israelg Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Waiting for the Blargg filtering, can you post some pictures with results before the next release ? Thanks...! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebor Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 stephena, Thank you for this release, and your continued effort and work on Stella. It is appreciated by the (silent) majority. The new hardware support looks great, and I am also another one looking forward to the blargg filtering in the next release. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
israelg Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Trebor, nice to see that we both joined AtariAge exactly at the same date... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebor Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 Trebor, nice to see that we both joined AtariAge exactly at the same date... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stephena Posted March 24, 2012 Author Share Posted March 24, 2012 Just to let everyone know, I'm in the process of planning my schedule over the next few months. There are several outstanding issues for the next version of Stella (3.7), with Blargg filtering being at the top of the list. Barring any real-life issues that pop up, I plan to do the release at the end of April. As I make more progress, I should be able to post pictures. I don't have have anything to post yet, though, since I'm working on another part of the code right now. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebor Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 Just to let everyone know, I'm in the process of planning my schedule over the next few months. There are several outstanding issues for the next version of Stella (3.7), with Blargg filtering being at the top of the list. Barring any real-life issues that pop up, I plan to do the release at the end of April. As I make more progress, I should be able to post pictures. I don't have have anything to post yet, though, since I'm working on another part of the code right now. Thanks for the update! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
israelg Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Just to let everyone know, I'm in the process of planning my schedule over the next few months. There are several outstanding issues for the next version of Stella (3.7), with Blargg filtering being at the top of the list. Barring any real-life issues that pop up, I plan to do the release at the end of April. As I make more progress, I should be able to post pictures. I don't have have anything to post yet, though, since I'm working on another part of the code right now. Pictures from the Blargg filtering process will be very nice... Thanks, I.G Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stephena Posted March 30, 2012 Author Share Posted March 30, 2012 Just a quick update that 3.6.1 was just released. I'm not bothering to create a thread for it, just mentioning it here. The only change is support for 28K ROMs in the FA2 bankswitching scheme. For those not familiar with this, it's the new bankswitch scheme used by cdw's upcoming Star Castle ROM. I thought this was important enough to warrant a quick point release. Now back to Blargg and Stella 3.7 ... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebor Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Just a quick update that 3.6.1 was just released. I'm not bothering to create a thread for it, just mentioning it here. The only change is support for 28K ROMs in the FA2 bankswitching scheme. For those not familiar with this, it's the new bankswitch scheme used by cdw's upcoming Star Castle ROM. I thought this was important enough to warrant a quick point release. Now back to Blargg and Stella 3.7 ... Cool...thanks for the update! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClassicGMR Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Just a quick update that 3.6.1 was just released. I'm not bothering to create a thread for it, just mentioning it here. The only change is support for 28K ROMs in the FA2 bankswitching scheme. For those not familiar with this, it's the new bankswitch scheme used by cdw's upcoming Star Castle ROM. I thought this was important enough to warrant a quick point release. Now back to Blargg and Stella 3.7 ... Stephena - thank you for keeping Stella alive all this time. Love the emulator. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
israelg Posted April 22, 2012 Share Posted April 22, 2012 What's new ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
telengard Posted April 22, 2012 Share Posted April 22, 2012 Many, many thanks. And the 2600-daptor support was seamless (worked without any intervention on my part). ~telengard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stephena Posted April 22, 2012 Author Share Posted April 22, 2012 What's new ??? I hope to have at least an initial screenshot by the end of the coming week. I've been hampered recently by some particularly painful dental work. Even now I'm still a little spaced out And I also had to finish up some fixes for features introduced in version 3.6. I wanted to get that done completely before diving into something else. But for the next several weeks I can now concentrate completely on Blargg stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
israelg Posted April 22, 2012 Share Posted April 22, 2012 Dental problems.... I hope you are feeling better now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stephena Posted April 25, 2012 Author Share Posted April 25, 2012 Dental problems.... I hope you are feeling better now... Not really. I've already missed two days of work this week, and while I'll be there the rest of the week, I do feel like crap. So I may not get a screenshot done this week after all. And the release may have to be pushed until mid-May. But rest assured that when I start working again, it will be on the Blargg stuff, and it will be in 3.7. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 Related videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVp4hMNefGs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ifXiGOawEg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stephena Posted April 25, 2012 Author Share Posted April 25, 2012 LOL Yes, brushing is good and all, but my main issue is a medical condition/treatment from the past that's lead to the problems I'm having now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stephena Posted April 28, 2012 Author Share Posted April 28, 2012 OK, for those that were waiting (and as proof that I'm really working on this ), here's the first snapshot of Blargg filtering I have: Note that the quality will improve greatly. I just wanted to get an initial version out there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PFL Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 ^ Ha! Looks just like my telly... It seems silly to say but I'm really looking forward to running this on my netbook. Thanks for all your hard work. As soon as I get a job I'll make a wee donation (I promise!). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
israelg Posted April 29, 2012 Share Posted April 29, 2012 Looks a little too blurry, but surely it can be customized for you own taste...? it looks like the picture you will get using a small TV set (14") in bigger TV's you can see the scan lines very clear... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stephena Posted May 1, 2012 Author Share Posted May 1, 2012 OK, here's a few more snapshots, with the name of the Blargg preset embedded in each filename. Again, this is only the first version. Some of the variables have to be tweaked, the scanlines should be more pronounced (and different variations based on the aperture grill in the monitor), etc. And to answer the question above, there will be different presets, but also one named 'Custom' that allows to adjust each aspect separately. The first one is the normal image (without any filtering): Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stephena Posted May 1, 2012 Author Share Posted May 1, 2012 I should add that I'm looking at a release date of May 15 or so for this, as I want to make sure I've done sufficient testing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebor Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 (edited) stephena, Looks great. My humble two cents is from what I've seen implemented in other emulators, typically there is a 'RF', 'Composite', 'S-Video', 'RGB' preset option and then a custom. If you include many tweaking settings, including Scanline (Intensity), many presets shouldn't be needed. However, you do as you see fit, it is your baby :-) For the record I've seen fine tweaking such as: Sharpness Color Bleed Artifacts Fringing Scanlines (1 thru 100%) There is often a flag for turning on Bilnear Interpolation (Which looks and works really well if you turn on Bilinear Interpolation and then raise Sharpness, You obtain the clarity and sharp picture of an image that appears to have bilinear interpolation turned off, but actualy is on with smoother CRT-type filtering). Anyhow, there is also setting adjustments for: Contrast (aka "Picture")* Brightness Saturation (aka "Color")* Hue (aka "Tint")* *Bracket names are what is often found instead of the primary listed category on older (and even some newer) NTSC televisions. Not sure how much or little of the above you're looking to add to Stella, but even just the presets you showed look fanatastic. Thank you for all the work you continue to put into Stella. It is greatly appreciated. Edited May 1, 2012 by Trebor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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