MiSTer FPGA Forum

bazza_12 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 28, 2023 6:44 pm

i wonder what the reasoning was behind removing the timestamps on the cores.. seems to have really messed things up

I suspect that it may have to do with tracking the different versions of the same file in git. If you want to be able to look up the history of a file, the easiest way is to keep the same filename all the time. Normally Git is able to detect when a file is renamed, based on contents, but in the case of RBFs, the content is so radically different between changes that when renaming and replacing in one operation, it considers them different unrelated files and is unable to trace the history to previous versions.

But it's still possible to do this with git. If you have, say, a file called jtoutrun_20230324.rbf and you want to update it to jtoutrun_20230331.rbf, you do this:

1. Replace jtoutrun_20230324.rbf with the new version, but WITHOUT changing the name. Keep the old name for now.

2. Do a commit with the replacement.

3. Use git mv to rename the file to the new name (in this example: git mv jtoutrun_20230324.rbf jtoutrun_20230331.rbf).

4. Do another commit with the rename.

That should allow you to track the history of jtoutrun_*.rbf. I'm not sure how well supported that will be in GitHub though, but in the command line you can do it with git log --follow <archive>.

The reasoning is captured in this github issue:

https://github.com/jotego/jtbin/issues/312

Once I'm happy with a core I give it a date stamp so that MiSTer will use that version. I gave the example before with Track and Field. If you use update_all it will grab that latest version which is broken and doesn't save records and high scores. I was sick of doing an update and having Track and Field change and then having a game to find it had wiped all my scores off.

It looks like it will take some time before OutRun is fixed:
From Jotego
There are still some glitches on the left hand side of the screen in some scenes. After investigating them, it looks like the frame buffer is still a bit too slow to handle all scenes. I have tested several ways of improving it but I still have not got a perfect image. The frame buffer is a strategic development needed for more games too, so we won’t give up on this.

I'm glad he's striving to make it as close to perfect as is possible. It's already in great shape after the last update. I don't need to reset the core after each run now since it's much more stable with the frame buffer.

Hello folks. Executed update_all yesterday (last one was like 2-3 weeks ago). Got some updates, including OutRun.

When I tried to play OutRun, I got an error message (and of course, nothing happens):
games/mame/outrun.zip/opr-10185
opr-10185.ll not found

Tried also Turbo OutRun, also an error message:
games/mame/toutrun.zip/317-0118
317-0118.key not found

I deleted all Outrun files, and tried update_all again. It downloaded everything again, same result.

I checked the release on github, copied the files there (the 3 have different sizes from the ones download through the script), it didn't work also.

Using Mr. FPGA for 2 years, never had an issue before. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or missed any previous preparation steps. I could post the pictures of what happens, but they will just show the 2 error messages described above.
Tried to look around if anyone had this issue, didn't find anything similar so far. That's why I'm posting here.

Regards

Did you delete the roms before running update all?

I've never installed Out Run before the public release. The files I deleted when I tried the 2nd update_all were Out Run***.mra files and jtoutrun.rbf.
Are you refering to any files other than those? Anything else I missed? Thanks

You need ROMs which are not included in the official repository. They can be downloaded with the update all script when Aracade ROMs DB is enabled.
I think you mentioned having some problems with another arcade and it seems to be the same problem.

Just Out Run has issues (and its variant Turbo Out Run). Never had issues with any other core. I have a standard Mr. FPGA installation, never changed anything. I only update using update_all.

Another idea:
Check in /media/fat/Arcade/cores if you have a core named "jtoutrun<TimeStamp>.rbf" if there is one delete it.
There should be an underscore between jtoutrun and <TimeStamp> but the forum does not like it.

Edit:
After thinking about it it cannot be that. Anyway check it.
How did you get the ROM? I think the problem lies there as I said in my first post regarding your problem.

Both me and a friend of mine had to turn on downloading arcade roms again in the update_all settings. Check to make sure that it is set to download the ROMs because it may have reverted to 'no'.

This is really strange. I turned it on since I started to use the new downloader and update all script (around last October) and my settings did not change.
In any case @Alladdim seems to have a problem with the ROM which seems to be present as he does not get an error of missing zip, it looks more like a bad ROM.

Still a line in the middle of the road after update all!

FatSlob71 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 02, 2023 11:03 am

Still a line in the middle of the road after update all!

viewtopic.php?p=71207#p71207

thorr wrote: ↑Sun Apr 02, 2023 3:53 am

Both me and a friend of mine had to turn on downloading arcade roms again in the update_all settings. Check to make sure that it is set to download the ROMs because it may have reverted to 'no'.

That was the case!!!! Just checked update_all and the ROMs update was disabled. Turned on again and now it works.

I never changed it, as you said, it reverted by itself. Simple thing, if you know it is broken. I didn't think of that. Thanks a lot!

jca wrote: ↑Sun Apr 02, 2023 12:41 am

Another idea:
Check in /media/fat/Arcade/cores if you have a core named "jtoutrun<TimeStamp>.rbf" if there is one delete it.
There should be an underscore between jtoutrun and <TimeStamp> but the forum does not like it.

Edit:
After thinking about it it cannot be that. Anyway check it.
How did you get the ROM? I think the problem lies there as I said in my first post regarding your problem.

Yes, the problem was that I didn't get the ROM, as thorr suspected update_all turned it off by itself. I never imagined that. One thing learned and added to the checklist. Thanks for your suggestions!

Good to know as it is not the first thing which comes to mind. Moreover the error message is misleading as it does not say that the zip is missing but a file within the zip is missing. I made a test by renaming the zip and the only hint that the zip is missing is the fact that the popup "Loading ROM" does not appear.

I'd got so used to finding my own roms that it was only last week I noticed my Arcade ROMs DB had been disabled as well.

kevind wrote: ↑Fri Mar 31, 2023 1:32 pm

The reasoning is captured in this github issue:

https://github.com/jotego/jtbin/issues/312

Thanks, pretty much what I expected. The outline I gave here: viewtopic.php?p=71183#p71183 should solve most of the "cons", which are actually mostly "developer cons" rather than "user cons", with one exception:

If a newer version is discarded because of a problem and deleted from JTBIN, it is not clear whether update_all will delete that version from users' systems

Definitely not, but you can rename an older version with a date newer than the problematic version, so that it updates the previous one.