Beta test for the next major release of Stella

[israelg]

Running OK on my Windows 10 laptop, I will try late also on my Windows 7 Desktop....

[israelg]

Also running OK on my win 7 desktop...

[+stephena]

By "running OK", do you just mean starting up and running, or have you tested the new sound code with different ROMs? I guess you would need a real console to tell the difference.

 

While knowing the former is nice, the latter is really what we're looking for.

[Trebor]

Here's a helpful list of some noteworthy games and checks for those testing along. This list is not exhaustive, but a good start point for those looking to assist with trying out the beta development build:

 

-Blueprint = Background Music and Loss of Life Melody

-California Games = Opening Melody

-E.T. = Opening Theme & Ship Arrival/Departure

-Frogger = Opening/Clear Round Theme

-Frogs and Flies = Game Over/Night Creature Sounds

-Halloween = Opening/Myers' Presence Theme

-Journey Escape = Opening/Level Pass Ship Escape Theme

-Masters of the Universe = Opening/Defeat Skeletor Theme

-Ms. Pac-Man = Opening Theme

-Pitfall II = Background Music

-Raiders of the Lost Ark = Opening Theme

-Skate Boardin' = Background Melody

-Sneak 'n Peek = Opening Theme and Found Person Melody

-Summer/Winter Games = Opening Theme

-Up 'n Down = Background Melody

-Vanguard = Invincibility Melody

The above all sound absolutely amazing to me in correlation to my 4-switch Woody console. Spot on dissonance present in Stella, just as it should be, during occurrences paralleling real hardware.

The more ears, the better though. So, any who are able, please give some of the above a try between real hardware and this Stella beta release.

[AW127]

So, after quite some time in development, Stella 6.0 is ready for its first beta test. That's right, we're bumping the major version number up one notch. That should give you an idea of how much has changed with the code. The changelog is pretty huge, but for now I will only mention the most important features that require testing.

 

 

Stephena, what about the re-implementation of a 50Hz fullscreen-mode for PAL-roms? Or a possibility to change the display-mode (PAL60/PAL/NTSC) of a group of roms, which would be good for PAL60 roms especially that all start in the wrong display-mode innately??? Aka my two suggestions, that i made some time ago? Think they really would make sense.

Edited August 19, 2018 by AW127

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Stephena, what about the re-implementation of a 50Hz fullscreen-mode for PAL-roms? Or a possibility to change the display-mode (PAL60/PAL/NTSC) of a group of roms, which would be good for PAL60 roms especially that all start in the wrong display-mode innately??? Aka my two suggestions, that i made some time ago? Think they really would make sense.

https://github.com/stella-emu/stella/issues/285

[Arenafoot]

works fine on Win7 32bit - but Chopper Command is still cutoff on the right side of the screen (same issue for several versions of Stella) - is there any fix (or will there be)???

[Thomas Jentzsch]

works fine on Win7 32bit - but Chopper Command is still cutoff on the right side of the screen (same issue for several versions of Stella) - is there any fix (or will there be)???

What do you mean? It sounds like your TV is the problem here.

[+SpiceWare]

Chopper Command is still cutoff on the right side of the screen

Did you mean this, where it looks shifted right due to the black on the left side?

 

If so that's actually common in a number of Activision games:

 

 

It's because they didn't like to show the black HMOVE bars, as seen in Air-Sea-Battle, whenever the players(sprites) are repositioned for reuse:

 

Sometimes they'll hit HMOVE on almost every scanline in order to hide it (on scanlines they couldn't hit it they used the BALL). You can see that by using the Developer Key ALT-COMMA (Linux, Windows) or COMMAND-COMMA (Mac) to turn on Fixed Debug Colors (HMOVE bars are white, and the BALL is blue, in this mode):

 

 

 

 

Other times they'll just leave the left & right side black, like in Kaboom!, which also hides them:

 

 

contrast to Air-Sea-Battle where they only hit HMOVE when they reposition the player:

[Arenafoot]

Did you mean this, where it looks shifted right due to the black on the left side?

Chopper Command (1982) (Activision).png

 

If so that's actually common in a number of Activision games:

Yes..... Oh i never realized that , i guess thats the way it supposed to be

Thanks

[Keatah]

Feature Suggestion:

What about implementing the ability to click on a saved-state file and have it automatically load the associated ROM file? I suppose the information about the name of the ROM and its location would need to be stored in the savestate file. Otherwise the emulator would have to search for it by name or checksum, and that could get tedious and even take some time if on a slower mechanical HDD based system.

 

Secondary Suggestion:

It would be nice to have all savestate files have the same file extension.

 

Tertiary Suggestion:

A more "universal" file format for savestates. Or somehow "freeze" the format. Something that will be more forward compatible. Or make Stella be compatible with older savestates from the 3.9.3 and up era. I have many interesting and personal achievements on many games. So I keep several versions of Stella around to replay them or use them as examples/demonstrations/tutorials. I also realize this is a niche suggestion and may not be a popular feature except among a few. Or just me.

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Feature Suggestion:

Please open issues here. Thanks!

[Keatah]

Can't yet. Out and about and my current browser isn't working with Git.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Can't yet. Out and about and my current browser isn't working with Git.

What browser is that?

[Keatah]

It Safari from IOS version 8 or 9 I think.

 

GitHub has even nailed me on 6 month old firefox setups. So I'm not keen on using it.

Edited August 27, 2018 by Keatah

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Why don't you update?

[Keatah]

Then I lose the ability to use an older version of itunes and some apps that have issues with the latest iOS.

 

I don't want to fall into the loop of update one thing, break something, update that, break something else. It's not a big deal, I can just wait till I'm back in town again.

[alex_79]

Well, I manged to test the new sound core a bit and I'm happy to report that I haven't anything to report....

I recorded samples of real hardware (unmodified, using rf connection) and from Stella 5 and 6 and played them back to back to easily spot any difference. The new audio core sounds like my real hardware in all the games and demos that I tested, while the difference with Stella 5 is evident in many cases.

On my old PC Stella 6 only reports a few audio buffer underruns when selecting the "Ultra quality, minimal lag" preset in the Audio dialog and only on certain roms (e.g. Draconian, Pitfall II and some demos). I can eliminate those by setting "Headroom" to 1 frame, and keeping 96000Hz samplerate and Ultra resampling quality, but when using custom settings I cannot choose Fragment size less than 512 bytes, and the preset uses 128 bytes (I opened an issue on github for this).

BTW, I think it could be useful a down to earth explanation of the meaning of each setting for the uninitiated like me and how they affect performance vs quality.

 

Thanks for your amazing work!

Edited September 13, 2018 by alex_79

[Thomas Jentzsch]

BTW, I think it could be useful a down to earth explanation of the meaning of each setting for the uninitiated like me and how they affect performance vs quality.

 

Thanks for your amazing work!

Thank DirtyHairy, he did it 99% on his own.

 

The settings will be explained in the User's Guide for the Audio dialog. That's a to do on DirtyHairy's list.

[CX40Hero]

Would love to test the new Ubuntu version when its available, Ive only just upgraded to Ubuntu 18.04 and Im unable to run the current version of Stella for some reason....

Will the new version run on my current Ubuntu hardware?

 

Acer Aspire AX3810

CPU E5200

2GB DDR3

HDD 320

X4500 Integrated Graphics

OS Ubuntu 18.04

 

If it will, then Im more than happy to give the new version a thorough testing

[Keatah]

A good test would be setting up Stella and a real VCS, side by side on a scope or even audio analyzer. And compare each oscillation. In lieu of fancy test equipment Audacity could be used.