Stella 6.2 released

[Thomas Jentzsch]

BTW: Why don't you use the TimeMachine to narrow down the situation? 

[Lauren Tyler]

I'm having trouble getting Pitfall 2 to load.  It worked fine in previous versions, but for some reason now it's loading only a glitched screen.

[+stephena]

This was addressed in the 6.2.1 release.  I tend to not create a new thread for minor releases, but instead add it in the current one.  So if you go back through the last few pages, it's mentioned that there was a 6.2.1 release that fixed this (and a few other things too).

[Lauren Tyler]

I didn't know, my bad.

[cd-w]

20 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

I just implemented this one.  

Thanks Thomas - I hadn’t even submitted the feature request yet!

 

Chris

[Thomas Jentzsch]

1 hour ago, cd-w said:

Thanks Thomas - I hadn’t even submitted the feature request yet!

You're welcome. But like I said above, IMO the TimeMachine is the better tool here.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

On 7/4/2020 at 12:01 AM, SpiceWare said:

On the Mac there's a global setting for all programs, which individual programs can override such as here in FaceTime:

This has been implemented now. With the next release (6.3) Stella will allow selecting an audio device.

Edited July 27, 2020 by Thomas Jentzsch

[+Nathan Strum]

 

On 7/22/2020 at 4:10 AM, Thomas Jentzsch said:

On 7/22/2020 at 2:12 AM, Nathan Strum said:

As I recall, if I rewound a bit, then exited Time Machine directly to the debugger, it wouldn't step ahead from that point. I could go backwards and then forwards - but not past the point where I exited the Time Machine. The step ahead (unwind?) button was greyed out at times, and I wasn't at the end of the recorded save states.

Please double check. On my machine this works.

This is confirmed to be broken. Or rather, it doesn't work the way I expect it/need it to.

• I recorded and saved a game in Time Machine. I can scrub back and forth there fine. But due to the length of recording, I can't step forward/backward a frame at a time.
  
• I exited directly to the debugger. I can use the left/right buttons (next to Step, Trace, etc) to step forward and backwards to Save States. Just like in Time Machine. No problem so far.
  
• But as soon as I hit Frame +1 to step one frame ahead, the forward button is greyed out, and I can no longer go forward to any other Save State after that point. I can only go backwards, or forwards up until the point where I hit Frame +1. Stepping ahead one frame also ignores everything I've done after that point in-game. So I have to go back to Time Machine, reload the states, and do it all over again.
  

I'm really, really hoping the option to disable scaling can be added. Just being able to do screen recordings again would completely solve my frustration with this (and at the moment, I'm working on trying to capture homebrew screenshots for boxes/manuals, so I'm very frustrated).

 

Thanks again,

 

- Nathan

[Thomas Jentzsch]

9 minutes ago, Nathan Strum said:

• But as soon as I hit Frame +1 to step one frame ahead, the forward button is greyed out, and I can no longer go forward to any other Save State after that point. I can only go backwards, or forwards up until the point where I hit Frame +1. 

Works as designed.  

 

Frame +1 runs the emulation for one frame. This must invalidate all future save states, because e.g. the user input might be different in the frame (or line or step). To move forward using the TimeMachine always use the right arrow or (Alt/Cmd+Right).

[+Nathan Strum]

7 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Works as designed.  

 

Frame +1 runs the emulation for one frame. This must invalidate all future save states, because e.g. the user input might be different in the frame (or line or step). To move forward using the TimeMachine always use the right arrow or (Alt/Cmd+Right).

Understood - but for what I'm doing, I need single frame accuracy, forward and backwards for the entire recording. Therefore, I can't get there from here. So 6.0.2 is the last build without scaling, correct?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Previous versions scaled too, just differently. Here is a part of a screenshot of River Raid done with 6.0 (NTSC, aspect ratio 0.91):

Note that the width of the steps in the diagonal differs. 

 

Probably you are using aspect ratio 1.0. Then there should be no scaling effects in 6.0.

 

Starting with 6.1 we scale differently:

1. The width is integer scaled
2. The height is scaled with anti-aliasing.

This reflects much better what happens on a CRT:

 

We plan to add a no-scaling option soon.

Edited July 27, 2020 by Thomas Jentzsch

[Wizzard]

Hello, it is not Stella 6.2 related, but rather 6.0.x. I have Stella 6.0.1 compiled from the source on my Banana Pi with Armbian which I use as my gaming console.

 

When I run Stella 4.7.1 from Ubuntu Xenial distro (I need this old distro because of my joystick support) everything is fine.

 

When I run Stella 6.0.1 compiled from source, it runs too, but I see a few seconds timeout between starting the game and displaying the game graphics on the screen. It does not show immediatelly like on 4.7.1. I see some kind of cursor on the screen, so it seems it is doing something. How can I rid of this annoying delay? This delay is not present when returning back to the game list, it only is present when launching a game.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Stella does some auto detection at startup, but a few seconds seems way too long. Since 4.7.1 Stella got a much better, all new graphic and sound emulation, which needs more CPU time. The Banana Pi CPU (which model to do have) seems to be on the edge. The RetroN77 uses a similar CPU clocked at (IIRC) 1.4 MHz and several parts of the code disabled. For some games it only just handles the requirements. Maybe you are experiencing slowdowns?

 

Have you tried a different renderer?

[+stephena]

There's also a change somewhere in between 6.0 to 6.2 that disables YStart detection, and that added a delay which is now eliminated.  I noticed it on my (very fast) development system, so it would probably me more noticeable on slower systems.  So make sure to try the latest version, 6.2.1, before looking any further.

[Wizzard]

I tried OpenGL ES2 and software rendering, it is the same, delay is about 2-3 secs. I know BPI is not superfast, but still it is just Atari 2600, not Playstation.

 

Can I disable YStart manually in Stella 6.0.1? I cannot use Stella 6.2.1 cause it will not build on Ubuntu Xenial (as I said, I should use this cause only legacy kernel supports my joystick).

 

edit: I do not see the slowdowns, I have set the resolution just 1280x720.

Edited September 3, 2020 by Wizzard

[+stephena]

It is possible to build 6.2.1 on Ubuntu 16.04, but you have to install a newer version of g++ from a PPA. I can describe the process if you like.  I'd really prefer you try a later version of Stella where things were made faster, before we look at anything else.

 

You can't disable Ystart detection in older versions; it was built into the design.  We removed it completely in release 6.1.  This is the point from the changelog:

Quote

 * Removed the 'Display_YStart' property and all automatic detection of
   ystart.  It caused problems on some ROMs, and was not the way a real
   console would work anyway.  Related to this, ROMs now load much faster.
 

 

[Wizzard]

That sounds good! Which PPA should I use? Thanks!

[+stephena]

I won't be able to get detailed instructions until this evening, but for now I have to ask, what is the most recent version that compiles?  Or more to the point, what is the first version that fails to compile?  You're using 6.0.1, which means you can get 6.0.2 as well.  So it's only a jump from there to get to 6.1, where this was addressed.  Have you tried compiling 6.1?  If that works, then we can at least tell if the ystart stuff is the problem.  If not, then I guess we need to go more in-depth.

[Wizzard]

I have not tried any version between those 2, so I should try and check

 

Ok, it seems that 6.0.2 compiles fine, but 6.1 not. It hangs on the similar (same?) error like the latest version:

 

 

Edited September 3, 2020 by Wizzard

[Wizzard]

Btw, what was the last version without Display_YStart property detection, or with faster implementation?

 

I have generally no problem with 4.7.1, just some games are not correctly aligned vertically.

[+stephena]

Version 6.1 was the first to remove ystart detection, and allow ROMs to start faster.  Note that I'm still not 100% sure that this is your issue, but it's a good place to start.

 

The compile errors you're getting is because you're using g++5, and you need g++6.  You can install newer versions of gcc/g++ by following the instructions at https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-toolchain-r/+archive/ubuntu/test?field.series_filter=xenial.  You can go to even newer versions if you like.  It doesn't have to be 6, just something newer than 5.  So go all the way to 9 if it's supported on ARM.  Once you install, you need to set CXX=g++-9 environment variable on the commandline before you run configure.

[Wizzard]

Hi, thanks. I installed g++ 6 and also g++ 9, made also full upgrade.

 

Just tried it before setting G++ version, just to check:

Looking for C++ compiler... g++
Checking for compiler version... 5.5.0, ok

Then when I set

export CXX=g++-9

this happens:

Looking for C++ compiler... g++-9
Checking for compiler version... found non-gcc compiler version not found

The version of your compiler is not supported at this time
Please ensure you are using GCC 5.0 / Clang 3.8 or above

Maybe I should set it different way?

Edited September 4, 2020 by Wizzard

[+stephena]

It may be named slightly differently.  Or you may have only installed gcc-9; you need to install g++-9 (the former is the C compiler, the latter is C++, which is what we need).  I would suggest typing "g++" at the commandline, and then pressing the Tab key a few times.  That will present all the g++ versions on your system.  Then it will be clear which one to use.

 

For example, on my system if I type g++ and then Tab, it presents the following: "g++     g++-10  g++-7   g++-8   g++-9".  From that I would then do "export CXX=g++-9" and then do configure.

[Wizzard]

Ok, thanks, I built it with g++9 and so far, so good. It is the latest version 6.3pre and the delay is over. So, it was caused by that ystart detection, probably.

 

Now the games are perfectly stretched to fullscreen when I set that stretch option. The only problem is that it is not optimized for 16:10 screens yet. When I do not set the stretch, it seems to be narrower than 4:3 and with stretch it is wider that 4:3. I know not many people are playing on 16:10 TVs, but it may be a nice feature to the future.

 

Thanks for the help!

[+stephena]

OK, good that the delay issue is gone.  I suspected it was from ystart stuff, but you never know for sure until you test.

 

As for the scaling, 'stretch' uses all available space (so it would technically be too wide on a widescreen monitor/TV).  Turning off stretch uses the aspect ratio defined by how a real console would look.  So stretch off should have an image that is 4:3, and stretch on will use the full dimensions (either 16:9 or 16:10).

 

The only way that stretch being off would not give a 4:3 image is if you're using a video mode that doesn't match your monitor resolution.  So for example, you mention above you're using 1280x720.  This is a 16:9 resolution.  If you use that on a 16:10 monitor, of course it will be mismatched, and Stella output will be similarly mismatched.  Try changing to a 16:10 mode like 1280x800 and see if it makes a difference.  Alternatively, play around with the vertical size in Options -> Video & Audio -> Display -> V-Size adjust.