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Stella 6.0 released


stephena

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Looks like the direction is to put the non-program files into Appdata or My Documents. I'm just an end-user who doesn't contribute to the project, so I know my opinion mostly doesn't matter. But with emulators, I much prefer everything to be self contained in 1 folder, not spread all over the hard drive. Maybe I'm in the minority.

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Looks like the direction is to put the non-program files into Appdata or My Documents. I'm just an end-user who doesn't contribute to the project, so I know my opinion mostly doesn't matter. But with emulators, I much prefer everything to be self contained in 1 folder, not spread all over the hard drive. Maybe I'm in the minority.

 

There will be an option to place everything elsewhere (a 'basedir' commandline argument). It didn't make it for 6.0, as there were much more important things to do. But it will be there for 6.1. So that means all files can be placed in one location, and no 'phantom' directories will be created where they're not needed.

 

My annoyance (if you sensed it) is not with you or your request. Just with the fact that this issue has been popping up for (literally) years. And we can never seem to solve it properly. When I implement the fix in 6.1, it will be the last time I will have to look at this, since it will accommodate everyone's preferences.

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There will be an option to place everything elsewhere (a 'basedir' commandline argument). It didn't make it for 6.0, as there were much more important things to do. But it will be there for 6.1. So that means all files can be placed in one location, and no 'phantom' directories will be created where they're not needed.

 

My annoyance (if you sensed it) is not with you or your request. Just with the fact that this issue has been popping up for (literally) years. And we can never seem to solve it properly. When I implement the fix in 6.1, it will be the last time I will have to look at this, since it will accommodate everyone's preferences.

 

From someone who benefits from the fruits of your labour and the labour of others who work hard on emulation like this, thank you for all that you do!

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I'm thinking the debug color used for the background should be darker. Was explaining object reuse on Facebook and its image compression turned this, where it's already hard to see the balls used to draw the stars:

post-3056-0-94423800-1546710001.png

 

to this, where its even hard to see them:

post-3056-0-97641400-1546710032.jpg

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Are these screenshots from the latest version?

 

 

Nope - looks like I forgot to "bless it" when I installed it

post-3056-0-88957600-1546712552_thumb.png

 

Basically have to run newly installed programs once to grant permission. Suspect when I did <COMMAND><SPACE>Stella<RETURN> to run it via Spotlight that OS X picked up a previously approved build from my development folder. I find it faster to launch program via Spotlight than opening the Application folder and looking for the executable.

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Nope - looks like I forgot to "bless it" when I installed it

attachicon.gifScreen Shot 2019-01-05 at 12.19.29 PM.png

 

Basically have to run newly installed programs once to grant permission. Suspect when I did <COMMAND><SPACE>Stella<RETURN> to run it via Spotlight that OS X picked up a previously approved build from my development folder. I find it faster to launch program via Spotlight than opening the Application folder and looking for the executable.

 

I'm in the process of moving to Mojave and Xcode 10. Seems there's an option there to self-sign the app even without paying a developers fee ($99/year, which I definitely won't be doing). So hopefully these 'blessing' issues may be fixed for 6.1.

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I have questions about "Video" options:

 

1 - When using Direct3D renderer, NVIDIA G-Sync doesn't trigger when in fullscreen. I must use one of the OpenGL video renderers.

Is there any workaround for this that enables G-SYNC with Direct3D? (happened also in Stella 5)

 

2 - "Multi-threading" option is disabled by default. Is there any known issue if it's enabled?

Edited by alb3530
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I have absolutely zero experience with G-Sync, so I can't comment on this whatsoever. Also, I don't have access to any Nvidia systems; all Intel and AMD graphics. And even if I did have an Nvidia card, I don't have a G-Sync compatible monitor. :( So progress in this area will be very slow, TBH.

 

Multi-threading is disabled by default since it hasn't received a lot of testing yet. TBH, on any fairly aged system, emulation will not be taxing anyway, so the effect of multi-threading will probably not be noticeable. This is more for systems that are multi-core, but relatively slow. So something like an ARM CPU/GPU, or similar. Shouldn't hurt to use it all the time, but in many cases it won't help much either. Feel free to test and report :)

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This is more for systems that are multi-core, but relatively slow. So something like an ARM CPU/GPU, or similar. Shouldn't hurt to use it all the time, but in many cases it won't help much either. Feel free to test and report :)

 

Compiled 6 on the new RPi earlier today, seems to be running nicely (and with multithreading) :)

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I have absolutely zero experience with G-Sync, so I can't comment on this whatsoever. Also, I don't have access to any Nvidia systems; all Intel and AMD graphics. And even if I did have an Nvidia card, I don't have a G-Sync compatible monitor. :( So progress in this area will be very slow, TBH.

 

Multi-threading is disabled by default since it hasn't received a lot of testing yet. TBH, on any fairly aged system, emulation will not be taxing anyway, so the effect of multi-threading will probably not be noticeable. This is more for systems that are multi-core, but relatively slow. So something like an ARM CPU/GPU, or similar. Shouldn't hurt to use it all the time, but in many cases it won't help much either. Feel free to test and report :)

 

Thanks for your reply! I'll leave it disabled by now then....

 

As for the G-SYNC issue, I was almost sure the problem was related to windowed fullscreen being used instead exclusive fullscreen.

 

Then, after reading some Stella source code, I realized it uses SDL, so I read some SDL documentation as well.

 

After, I setup VS2017 and could (sort of) fix it.

 

https://youtu.be/RjFhjXm41fk

 

Note I don't have experience as a game developer, so I wasn't expecting to fix it without side-effects: if I leave the game when in fullscreen, sometimes emulator disappears, and it must be restarted.

 

I just wanted to be sure it was related to exclusive fullscreen. Again, as I'm no game developer, I understand you could have avoided using exclusive fullscreen for some reasons, and as Stella uses SDL, maybe the fix might even be out of your control.

 

Anyway, if you want to look at it anytime, and need some tester, I'll be here!

 

Thanks!

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Stella 6.0

Windows 10 x64

 

Testing a PAL demo (not PAL60).

Had S-Video selected.

Interpolation not selected.

 

Scanlines have these dark bands, unless Interpolation is on. Then it is uniform.

 

P.S. Thanks again for Stella 6.

I have been enjoying my own compiled version for a time and it has been great!

post-29575-0-45379900-1546828670_thumb.png

Edited by iesposta
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@ieposta: Can you post all your video settings, please? (screenshots would be nice)

Will do.

Laptop has built-in video and an Nvidia 450MX graphic card 8GB RAM shared with both system and these cards.

Before posting this I was going to check both, but the way I knew to change back and forth no longer works, and I got lost in the settings.

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Core i7 Desktop

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti

Windows 10 x64

Stella 6.0


My system does not experience any dark bands with both TIA Interpolation turned off under "General", and Interpolation turned off under 'Scanline Settings' under the "TV Effects" tab:


post-18-0-00478300-1546920462.png


Screen captures of my video settings are in the spoiler below.



post-18-0-79226600-1546920201_thumb.pngpost-18-0-63492400-1546920268_thumb.png






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