MiSTer FPGA Forum

max1602 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 09, 2021 4:04 pm

SegaSnatcher wrote: ↑Fri Mar 05, 2021 4:46 pm

Neocaron wrote: ↑Fri Mar 05, 2021 4:43 pm

No way in hell. You should get an SDRAM upgrade, it's pretty cheap currently.
On a second thought, since they plan to run the audio on the SDRAM maybe they won't use it for anything else and MAYBE it could run on 32mb, but I have my doubt. ^^

The dev board they are using only has 256MB of DDR3 ram with a 16-bit bus. The DE-10 Nano has 1GB of DDR3 with a 32 bit bus.

Why are the arcade-cores like neogeo so dependent on extra few mb of sdram?

Don't really know but I would speculate that 16/32-bit arcade games had much larger ROMs than we saw on contemporary home consoles. Most of the home consoles moved on to CDs pretty quick, and CD games are built around loading from slow media into a relatively small amount of fast RAM.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namco_System_11

This is a great example, there are many others. You are correct that the ROMs would be larger. I think the bigger issue is that the sound CPUs often differed, or on some of the variants they had different RAM.

max1602 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 09, 2021 4:37 pm Sorry but what does MRA mean?

MRA files are XML files with the core to use, a list of the ROMs, and more information. If you look under /_Arcade/ you'll probably see some of those. For example, here's the Galaxian MRA file: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Arcade- ... laxian.mra

pgimeno wrote: ↑Thu Mar 11, 2021 12:36 pm

max1602 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 09, 2021 4:37 pm Sorry but what does MRA mean?

MRA files are XML files with the core to use, a list of the ROMs, and more information. If you look under /_Arcade/ you'll probably see some of those. For example, here's the Galaxian MRA file: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Arcade- ... laxian.mra

thanks that makes sense. its information for the core

I've been messing around with PSX emulation the past few days and one thing I've re-confirmed to myself is that OG PS1 graphics are really poor and makes for a very bad gaming experience.

I think the graphics need to be at least 2X internal resolution to be playable today on modern displays and if there was the option for Geometry Correction, that would be great too.

I'm excited for this core. PS1 is maybe the best console of all time. I have all my games ripped and ready to go.

chanunnaki wrote: ↑Sat Apr 03, 2021 6:57 pm I've been messing around with PSX emulation the past few days and one thing I've re-confirmed to myself is that OG PS1 graphics are really poor and makes for a very bad gaming experience.

I think the graphics need to be at least 2X internal resolution to be playable today on modern displays and if there was the option for Geometry Correction, that would be great too.

I'm excited for this core. PS1 is maybe the best console of all time. I have all my games ripped and ready to go.

I don't see any enhancement of the sort happening. If they manage to get full speed emulation it would be an achievement already. It would be pretty cool to have perspective correct but that wouldn't in the spirit of Mister, then again we do have hacks like with the A0486 which is more about making things run well than 100% accuracy. I guess the closer we get to the actual FPGA chip limit, the more hacks and hybrids tricks we will see for the sake of making everything run. Anyway, I would gladly take these as bonus features if it's even feasiable.

chanunnaki wrote: ↑Sat Apr 03, 2021 6:57 pm I've been messing around with PSX emulation the past few days and one thing I've re-confirmed to myself is that OG PS1 graphics are really poor and makes for a very bad gaming experience.

I think the graphics need to be at least 2X internal resolution to be playable today on modern displays and if there was the option for Geometry Correction, that would be great too.

I'm excited for this core. PS1 is maybe the best console of all time. I have all my games ripped and ready to go.

It's amazing how "timeless" and beautiful 8-bit and especially 16-bit 2D graphics are in comparison to the early 3D consoles. For this reason my enthusiasm for a PS1 core is mostly centred on playing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

I like the lowpoly, low resolution, not filtered texture look a lot. I still remember the exact feeling of the zeitgest when everybody were looking at, for example, Tomb Raider 1 thinking it was the best graphic ever, while something like Metal Slug was "just 2d, go back to the Snes!".

Personally, this is my most wished core.

chanunnaki wrote: ↑Sat Apr 03, 2021 6:57 pm I've been messing around with PSX emulation the past few days and one thing I've re-confirmed to myself is that OG PS1 graphics are really poor and makes for a very bad gaming experience.

I think the graphics need to be at least 2X internal resolution to be playable today on modern displays and if there was the option for Geometry Correction, that would be great too.

I'm excited for this core. PS1 is maybe the best console of all time. I have all my games ripped and ready to go.

Meh, you get used to it. I got an xstation for my ps1, bought a retrotink 2x pro and the HD Retrovision component cables, hooked it up to my display, and I fell in love with it again. After quite a few hours, the original graphics look fine to me.

Just need a nice blurry scanline filter. Or maybe something like the Genesis composite mode, in particular to deal with color dithering.

Force 256px + Bright Soft Scanlines filter basically gives me a composite crt look on the SNES core, would be similar with ps1 I guess.

chanunnaki wrote: ↑Sat Apr 03, 2021 6:57 pm I've been messing around with PSX emulation the past few days and one thing I've re-confirmed to myself is that OG PS1 graphics are really poor and makes for a very bad gaming experience.

I think the graphics need to be at least 2X internal resolution to be playable today on modern displays and if there was the option for Geometry Correction, that would be great too.

I'm excited for this core. PS1 is maybe the best console of all time. I have all my games ripped and ready to go.

Get a CRT

If you want nice scanlines, you can use the OSSC with the Mister, it looks great and the scanlines are way deeper than the ones on Mister. I usually go with 50% horizontal and vertical, scaling is always perfect that way for the scanlines and it looks accurate to what I feel it should look like. On the OSSC you can use the vga input (with an hdmi to vga active adapter) or the scart input, both work great as long as your tv accepts the weird refresh rates of some of the cores. But for PS1 and Saturn it will not be a problem!

Neocaron wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 1:02 am If you want nice scanlines, you can use the OSSC with the Mister, it looks great and the scanlines are way deeper than the ones on Mister. I usually go with 50% horizontal and vertical, scaling is always perfect that way for the scanlines and it looks accurate to what I feel it should look like. On the OSSC you can use the vga input (with an hdmi to vga active adapter) or the scart input, both work great as long as your tv accepts the weird refresh rates of some of the cores. But for PS1 and Saturn it will not be a problem!

Holy crap you are correct. I never even thought about using the OSSC for the MiSTer I mean why would I it has HDMI already. The scanlines look absolutely amazing through the OSSC. I'm using it via RGB but I think I'lll try VGA later on today. I wish I didn't need the OSSC to make scanlines look this good on the MiSTer

djsquare wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 5:17 pm

Neocaron wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 1:02 am If you want nice scanlines, you can use the OSSC with the Mister, it looks great and the scanlines are way deeper than the ones on Mister. I usually go with 50% horizontal and vertical, scaling is always perfect that way for the scanlines and it looks accurate to what I feel it should look like. On the OSSC you can use the vga input (with an hdmi to vga active adapter) or the scart input, both work great as long as your tv accepts the weird refresh rates of some of the cores. But for PS1 and Saturn it will not be a problem!

Holy crap you are correct. I never even thought about using the OSSC for the MiSTer I mean why would I it has HDMI already. The scanlines look absolutely amazing through the OSSC. I'm using it via RGB but I think I'lll try VGA later on today. I wish I didn't need the OSSC to make scanlines look this good on the MiSTer

I usually reserve the VGA port on the OSSC to my home computer. I run it at 720p with 50% horizontal and vertical for the scanlines (the scanlines offset is at 50% as well to get proper white and highlights), using multiplication of course. For emulation it's great, for watching movies and getting this retro look it's great, but even on recent titles it can look quite amazing in combination to a nice AA and the performance gain running at 720p is huge I played Cyberpunk like this at a very high and 60fps . It makes my 1080ti feels like a monster. I recently play FFVII with Satsuki mod using this set up is just mindblowingly good. The scanlines adds this little bit of "made up by your brain details" that you don't get when the texture is perfectly clean. It's a experience I would recommand greatly, especially if you have great black level on your TV. I usually run in game mod with the baclkight and contrast push to the max, no sharpness and I crank up the colors a bit.

For those following development a few new updates:

Based on the progress of the team, I think I'm not taking any risk saying we'll get a fully fonctional core by the end of the year. Unbelievable.

WOW!!

this together with the Saturn, would make the system practically complete i'd say

Perhaps once there will be a Playstation core on the Mister. Something like PXGP support could be implemented for perspective correct texturing. That would be awesome and maybe even a turbo mode for locked and stable framerates. Can’t wait to see what you guys will bring.

MostroW wrote: ↑Thu Apr 08, 2021 4:49 pm this together with the Saturn, would make the system practically complete i'd say

I'll say that when I see a DC and a 3DO core as well

But yeah, a PSX core would really make my year.

pgimeno wrote: ↑Thu Apr 08, 2021 9:47 pm

MostroW wrote: ↑Thu Apr 08, 2021 4:49 pm this together with the Saturn, would make the system practically complete i'd say

I'll say that when I see a DC and a 3DO core as well

But yeah, a PSX core would really make my year.

I guess 128 bit systems will be only on Cyclone 10

really expensive right now

I am happy closing the 32 bit gen with n64 core next

pbsk8 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 08, 2021 10:53 pm

pgimeno wrote: ↑Thu Apr 08, 2021 9:47 pm

MostroW wrote: ↑Thu Apr 08, 2021 4:49 pm this together with the Saturn, would make the system practically complete i'd say

I'll say that when I see a DC and a 3DO core as well

But yeah, a PSX core would really make my year.

I guess 128 bit systems will be only on Cyclone 10

really expensive right now

I am happy closing the 32 bit gen with n64 core next

Same here, 64 would be a stretch but it would still be a fitting end for the Mister (as a power ceiling), that and maybe a Pentium core with a 16/32mb graphics card.
Dreamcast however is 100% impossible because the Mister just doesn't have what it takes in hardware to do it and nothing can change that. Not to mention that creating a DC in FPGA will take probably years as the chips in these consoles got more and more intricated as time went by.

i'm not expecting dreamcast to happen on this MiSTer, maybe if and when there will be bigger fpga's available in the future? (for a reasonable price)

everything after the Playstation and Saturn used pretty complex cpu's and video chips i think?

If there'd ever be a MiSTer where DreamCast, PS2 and the first XBOX would be emulated, i personally think there would be nothing left for me anymore that i'd like?
The newer systems have most games available on PC as well, or the hardware itself is still pretty cheap to obtain.

New update on their Patreon. Very technical, but interesting nonetheless.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/update-38-for-50716376

The way they are handling the cache is pretty interesting.
I knew latency with the DDR modules would be a b**** But with the workaround they are using, it's getting pretty close. Could the "pre cache" fonction be used on other cores to bypass the need for the 128mb addon?

What's the likelihood that something like PGXP could be developed for the PSX core? I would welcome a way to eliminate vertex wiggle and UV wobble.

Getting PS1 and maybe Saturn would take an already amazing project (MiSTer) and just make it that much more incredible

scanline_samurai wrote: ↑Mon May 03, 2021 10:01 pm What's the likelihood that something like PGXP could be developed for the PSX core? I would welcome a way to eliminate vertex wiggle and UV wobble.

PGXP uses openGL which requires a GPU. The MiSTer doesn't have a GPU. This would be a serious undertaking. A GPU in a recent research paper has been designed using thousands of logic elements in the Cyclone V that is on the DE10-Nano which are highly parallelized, which ostensibly has enough performance to do something like this, but how would this affect timing? Will there be enough space? How difficult will it be to achieve? etc... It's unlikely this will be done very easily if at all. It would be awesome if someone figured it out though!

That funky integer math has to be one of the things that makes this project more doable. At least I'm assuming that means simpler chips are being used, which means there's better odds they can be replicated and fit onto the de-10.

aberu wrote: ↑Wed May 05, 2021 2:40 pm A GPU in a recent research paper has been designed using thousands of logic elements in the Cyclone V that is on the DE10-Nano which are highly parallelized, which ostensibly has enough performance to do something like this, but how would this affect timing? Will there be enough space? How difficult will it be to achieve? etc... It's unlikely this will be done very easily if at all. It would be awesome if someone figured it out though!

Could you do something crazy and hook up a second DE-10 nano? One running the PSX core and another running a GPU core?