SNES9x (Super Nintendo Emulator) PS3 Port Arrives!

[squarepusher2]

OK folks, I checked out where this 'alex793' posts on (gueux-forum.net/index.php?showuser=28647), and it appears in one post he tells us of the changes he made to fix the sound (as I already suspected, the culprit was SNES9x itself and the way it was configured - this bodes well for PS3 porting as we can get complex emulators to work without much hassle or effort involved).

You need to add this to the Settings (the file you need to edit is cell.cpp - it's the only file that the author of this port actually wrote and is PS3-specific, except for the shader files and the Makefile):

Settings.SoundSync = TRUE;

Lastly, there was what appeared to be an SRAM lag that I assume was causing the sound to lag and crackle. To fix this, change:

Settings.AutoSaveDelay = 5

to

Settings.AutoSaveDelay = 0;

Here is my own addition - so that the emulator can read SFC files.

Change this in cell.cpp:

if (strcasecmp(ext, ".smc") && strcasecmp(ext, ".fig"))

to

if (strcasecmp(ext, ".smc") && strcasecmp(ext, ".fig") && strcasecmp(ext, ".sfc"))

So, I'd say try out these source changes without fiddling around with the PAL and NTSC settings, and see if that takes care of the sound problems.

[calvinguy]

Do you think you could upload a compiled version with those changes for the rest of us who don't know how to do it?

[squarepusher2]

Do you think you could upload a compiled version with those changes for the rest of us who don't know how to do it?

It doesn't really do what that guy claims it does for sound - you will still hear the occasional sound hiccup, but I guess overall it's an improvement. You will notice indeed somewhat less lag, but the sound is still scratchedy. This seems to be somewhat of a problem with SNES9x starting with version 1.42.

I have looked at the latest SVN revision of snes9x-gtk (which contains a lot of fixes, also some having to do with the new APU and some fiddling with input and output values). Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to compile in combination with some of the files that came from the PS3 Snes9x port (gave a compile error at memmap.cpp). I will try to take a look at individual patches they did to the APU core and see if there's anything there that might take care of the problem.

I still think the key to getting the sound just right is to find the optimal setting/value for Settings.SoundInputRate and Settings.SoundPlayback (it seems anything lower than 48000 sounds terrible - since a lot of guides advise you to set the output to 32000 since that was the frequency that the SNES soundchip normally outputted at.

Anyway, I guess it's better than the previous build. And at least this build is compatible with .sfc files.

SNES9x -

* Setting.AutoSaveDelay = 0
* Settting.SoundSync = 0
* SFC ROM support

I will try to see if we can get zip support working - trying to figure out how to use loadzip.cpp.

Nobody wants to see bSNES more than me personally on the PS3. Unfortunately, I have looked at the source and I don't think I have enough understanding of the SDK (or bSNES, for that matter) at the moment to try. But fortunately, it seems like somebody else that has already posted on byuu's forums is already looking at doing a port.

http://board.byuu.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1002

[neophyte5001]

It seems that some are having compatibility issues, although I have tried tons of roms without a single hiccup. Maybe some gfx improvements (smoothing, scaling, oversampling, higher res etc) might be good but on my 60" projection it looks, sounds, and plays wonderfully. Am I the only one? Just wondering if anyone else has had a great experience with this.

[squarepusher2]

It seems that some are having compatibility issues, although I have tried tons of roms without a single hiccup. Maybe some gfx improvements (smoothing, scaling, oversampling, higher res etc) might be good but on my 60" projection it looks, sounds, and plays wonderfully. Am I the only one? Just wondering if anyone else has had a great experience with this.

Any compatibility problems will be down to the version of SNES9x used. This is as close to a bare-bones port as you can get - whatever worked on a PPC PC, will work on PS3.

There are some patches out there that boost compatibility - such as this one: http://snes9x.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=4711

This merges bsnes's accurate SA-1 core into Snes9x. SA-1 was a chip that was embedded on certain cartridges, such as Super Mario RPG and Kirby Superstar.

AFAIK, this version is based on the vanilla 1.42 source. I will try to backport these patches from snes9x-gtk where possible.

[eiz]

I still think the key to getting the sound just right is to find the optimal setting/value for Settings.SoundInputRate and Settings.SoundPlayback (it seems anything lower than 48000 sounds terrible - since a lot of guides advise you to set the output to 32000 since that was the frequency that the SNES soundchip normally outputted at.

Sound playback rate has to be 48000 because it's the only sample rate the PS3 AudioServer supports.

Looking at the bsnes platform specific code, I don't think it would be particularly difficult to at least get it running.

[squarepusher2]

Finally, I'm getting somewhere. I applied these two patches from the snes9x-gtk fork to the vanilla source -

https://code.google.com/p/snes9x-gtk...e/detail?r=283

r283 - Integrate timing hack variables into the clock ratios to allow integers in all
cases.

r282 - Use APU clock that yields 32040hz output instead of 32000.

https://code.google.com/p/snes9x-gtk...e/detail?r=282

This seems to do some wonders for the sound. It is still slightly scratchy, but all of the sound delays and pops are practically gone. So apparently the bad sound we have experienced up to now is due to the version of SNES9x used - otherwise, there wouldn't have been any APU patches.

Anyway, here is the new build with these two patches applied ontop of the other stuff above. I'm also providing the source along with it. Tried it with both Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island and both seem a lot more fluid in that I no longer hear noticeable sound pops.

Snes9x - new build (with source)
- Applied patches 282 and 283 from snes9x-gtk fork - improves sound

Next on my list:

Patch 287 - another sound-related patch

https://code.google.com/p/snes9x-gtk...e/detail?r=287

'Don't push samples if there aren't any'

And implementing the bsnes SA-1 core.

[Figgzor]

Nice stuff. maybe its a little too early to ask, but how do you think about the possibility for SnesHD? do you think it can be done?

[ferrell]

Nice work! I've been playing with this build, and it's quite nice!

[squarepusher2]

Nice work! I've been playing with this build, and it's quite nice!

So far I've created another build with two more patches - r287 and r260 - 'Don't push samples if there aren't any' and 'Optimize the linear interpolation macro'.

This patch apparently will implement bsnes' SA-1 core into Snes9x. I also noticed that this same patch will implement a specific gamehack for Seiken Densetsu 2/Secret of Mana (a HDMA timing hack).

https://code.google.com/p/snes9x-gtk...e/detail?r=272

Next thing I want to try is fiddle with the InputFrequency once again - now that all the APU patches have been applied, perhaps there is a chance that we can get crackle-free sound given the right Settings.InputFrequency.

In the long run, though, I think a bSNES port would save us a lot of hassle - even though nearly every game I've thrown at this emulator runs at 60fps on 480p mode. In case bSNES won't run every game we throw at it at full speed, perhaps we could make a multi-SNES emulator - have both SNES9x and bSNES as two core engines, and allow the user to boot any ROM using one of the two emulators. Similar approach to Surreal 64 Xbox 1, which had ports of 1964 and Project 64 all combined into one frontend/executable.