Demul 0.7 Alpha (Release) Update 9/28/15

[SegaOutrun]

What a lovely day! A new version of Demul was released today. Its an Alpha, so dont expect solid performance. Numerous games have been added, a card reader system and numerous bug fixes. one of the game finally playable is Star Wars Pod Racer. I havent figured out all the controls yet. Now back to testing the new version.

23.09.2015 UPDATE
- added "NAOMI 2 Vertex Cache" option, disabled by default, enable it if you have ATI/AMD GPU only.
- fixed AMD-specific texture glitches in many games (Shenmue II, ECCO, HotD2, etc)
- several optimizations

20.09.2015 UPDATE
- NAOMI 2 emulation rewritten almost from scratch, must be really close if not the same as real hardware, a lot of optimizations, can use separate thread (DX11NG)
- shadow render fix (Cosmic Smash)
- romset sync with current MAME

31.07.2015 UPDATE
- Naomi2 shadows improvements (DX11NG)
- Naomi2 screen scale (DX11NG)
- DirectInput thread close fix AKA "VMU window not closes"
- VMU's windows auto open/close
- exit by ALT+F4
- romset corrections to make some rom managers happy
- more precise SH4 FSRRA opcode
- several minor corrections

19.07.2015 UPDATE
- Crackin' DJ 1&2 playable
- Ferrari F355 Deluxe have sound/music
- fix Naomi 2 materials, lights refactor (gpuDX11ng)
- foolproof VMU files creation
- remember last path in gdrCHD, gdrImage, etc
- better Xinput deadzone handling
- fix GDI audio in gdrCHD (this plugin is recommended now for usage with GDI images too)
- workarounds for newest ATI bugs in 15.7 drivers (gpuDX11)
- SH4 MMU fixes & improvements, Shenmue's Afterburner II minigame playable
- several minor tweaks

11.07.2015 UPDATE
- better G2 DMA edge cases handling
- brake in Atomiswave racing games works again
- fix crash in ROM-based SystemSP games
- weird AICA LSA/LEA handling tweaks

09.07.2015 UPDATE
- fixed broken a long time ago SH3 serial port, Cave Medal Mahjong playable again
- minor romset correction

08.07.2015 UPDATE
- somewhat fixed save/load state for DX11NG
- adjusted sound volume, was too loud, notable in Atomiswave games

07.07.2015
- initial release

Updated Download)

http://demul.emulation64.com/

[nugarp]

This is definitely the best news I've heard in a while! Thanks for posting...now to see if they ever implemented 1 button exit...sigh.

[BadMouth]

SegaOutrun, thank you for keeping us updated on emulation news!!! 

I can't wait until my home renovations have progressed enough to get a driving cab set back up.

[MrThunderwing]

Awesome news. I downloaded it after I got home from work today and have just been giving it a quick bash. Star Wars runs pretty well, apart from a bit of wobbly audio during gameplay and Nascar seems much, much improved now, getting a pretty solid 58 - 60 fps with none of the background music suffering any distortion now (although the engine no longer makes any noise). I seem to be getting a worse frame rate in Planet Harriers now though, oddly enough, although the audio doesn't appear to be as distorted as before, although it's still pretty mangled.

Also, this new version doesn't seem to like my previously working Intial D roms, I'm getting messages about missing roms stuff in all of them, apart from the Cycroft version that loads but won't go past an error screen.

Also, I can't figure out how to get Ferrari F355 working. Has anyone had any joy getting the twin version to load? Mine boots up two separate screens that both seem to do some stuff, but ultimately don't actually connect up.

[jdevane]

what kind of specs (pc) do you guys have?

[DarthMarino]

I'm trying to use the throttles on my flight sticks but have a small issue. Each throttle shows up as a Z axis in windows and Demul recognizes them.  The problem is that when the throttle is centered, Demul sees this as maximum power.  Anyone have any thoughts on how I can use the full axis with Demul? 

[SegaOutrun]

You need the star wars rom that was release in mame 0.158 i believe. The older version of the rom will not work. getting f355 to work is annoying to say the least. You will need the latest bios released around the same time as star wars. The triple monitor version will open 4 demul windows (3 screens and on controller window). Once i had the right bios it booted after it synced. the 4th window of demul was black but it need to be the active window for the controls to work. if you defocus it, it the game will not read my g25. The twin version of f355 would not sync/boot for me at all so, i went into the test screen and changed it from master to single. After a few reboots, it plays fine on one screen only. The twin version will open 2 demul windows and you will have to have the black window active to read your controller.

star wars controls are not wired correctly because the dev is not sure how the original version worked. He mentioned he might fix it once he figures out how the original worked. That explains why i was not going full speed in the video.

all my intial d roms work fine. i didnt have to update them. Make sure you turn off the card reader in testmode, it will get stuck if you leave it on. update: i was wrong v3 worked fine but i had to update v1 and v2 roms.

Also, if your demul is hogging ur cpu or its slowing down, check your background processes, this alpha is not closing properly so its lingering in the background

[Yenome]

 i only have initial d ver 3 export so thats the only one i tried but it worked great on my main rig. save for a few hicups that lasted a second. my main pc is i5-4690k, 16gb dd3 1600, amd r9 280 3gb

[MrThunderwing]

Also, if your demul is hogging ur cpu or its slowing down, check your background processes, this alpha is not closing properly so its lingering in the background

Thanks for pointing that out dude, I couldn't understand why my performance seemed to be suffering at times. Turns out I had about 4 versions of DEMUL running in the background.

The twin version of f355 would not sync/boot for me at all so, i went into the test screen and changed it from master to single. After a few reboots, it plays fine on one screen only. The twin version will open 2 demul windows and you will have to have the black window active to read your controller.

Cheers again man. I'd been searching for a way to do something like swap from Master to Single in the test screen but couldn't see any option to do so. I eventually realised that there was another test screen you needed to navigate to from the first one in order to do that. I've also managed to get the three screen version working now. I was initially getting a message that I was missing a file from my naomi.zip, but I was able to figure out that I needed to put the contents of the F355 bios.zip into my naomi.zip.

[DarthMarino]

Is it me or does adjusting the deadzone on the new releases not do anything? It makes the racing games pretty unplayable.

[MrThunderwing]

Is it me or does adjusting the deadzone on the new releases not do anything? It makes the racing games pretty unplayable.

I've only tried Sega NASCAR, F355 Challenge and Star Wars Arcade Racer so far, but I didn't need to make any changes at all to the wheel settings, they seemed to all play pretty well as they were.

[DarthMarino]

Is it me or does adjusting the deadzone on the new releases not do anything? It makes the racing games pretty unplayable.

I've only tried Sega NASCAR, F355 Challenge and Star Wars Arcade Racer so far, but I didn't need to make any changes at all to the wheel settings, they seemed to all play pretty well as they were.

I noticed it a bit on NASCAR but of course you don't have to turn too much but it was still annoying.  Maximum Speed is where I couldn't really play it at all.  When the game starts you test the wheel and that's where I noticed.

[BadMouth]

Demul controls have always been biased toward dual analog gamepads.  (gas and brake on same axis, etc)
The deadzone is probably tweaked to whatever controller the dev is using.

You might try reducing your wheel rotation.
The deadzone usually shrinks along with the reduced rotation.

[DarthMarino]

Demul controls have always been biased toward dual analog gamepads.  (gas and brake on same axis, etc)
The deadzone is probably tweaked to whatever controller the dev is using.

You might try reducing your wheel rotation.
The deadzone usually shrinks along with the reduced rotation.

I have the same issue using a PS3 controller.  The older Demuls weren't like this.  I think it's an oversight in the new version.  I'll give the wheel rotation adjustment a try.

[Boomslang]

bah...why can't I live in Auckland

http://www.trademe.co.nz/gaming/arcade-pinball-machines/complete-units/auction-915320625.htm

[DarthMarino]

I made some progress on my deadzone issue.  As I mentioned, I can't adjust the deadzone on my wheel which is an Xbox 360 wheel.  I tried a PS3 controller which shows up as an Xbox 360 controller and that too has the issue.  Finally I tried a normal Xbox 360 controller and that also has the issue. 

However, I tried a Wii Classic controller and a Thrustmaster flight stick and those work just fine.  When I increase the deadzone it has an impact on them.  All of those Xbox 360 devices work perfectly in 0.582 and earlier.  I notice that the older versions have an option to select device API which is not in the new 0.7 alpha builds. Not sure if this is what is causing the issue with the 360 devices.  Any thoughts?

Edit: I forgot to mention that the old plugin makes the new version crash so I can't just use that.

[GreatLamer]

Tested Demolition Racer No Exit, THPSes and Matt Hofman BMX. Decided to remove nullDC because it's outdated and outperformed now unfortunately.

[DarthMarino]

I've tried everything with my deadzone situation but I have to throw in the towel.  I got a program that allows me to add or subtract deadzone (negative deadzone) but it didn't help.  The problem is that no matter what, Demul won't recognize movement on the controller until it hits a certain point.  In the initial calibration of Maximum Speed, the range is from 1 to 128 on each side.  I can't get it it to show less than 30 on either side.  It stays at 0 until I rotate the wheel to a certain point and then it instantly jumps to 30.  If I do the negative deadzone, it will immediately jump to 30 but the car will skid a lot when playing.  The Demul dev says nothing changed with the Xinput but somethings has to be different.  It works perfectly on the old versions.

[Howard_Casto]

I haven't tested this new version, but a suggestion I might make is to calibrate the game with a standard gamepad or possibly even keyboard controls and then use the wheel.  You have to do stupid stuff like that a lot in mame. 

[DarthMarino]

I haven't tested this new version, but a suggestion I might make is to calibrate the game with a standard gamepad or possibly even keyboard controls and then use the wheel.  You have to do stupid stuff like that a lot in mame.

Not sure I understand. Once I map the standard gamepad, how will it recognize the wheel? Can something like auto hot key do this?

[Howard_Casto]

The in-game calibration... do it with another controller. 

[SegaOutrun]

works perfectly with my g25. The issue with the xbox wheels is that games will see it as a xbox gamepad and not a wheel and treat the deadzone as such. Ive had this issue before with other games which is why my xbox wheel is in the closet.  try before clicking to map the left/right analog button, make sure your wheel is turned all the way left and right.

ive also mentioned this before but there is a way to get demul to work with un-combined pedals. You have to step on the gas a little bit to get the brake to map as its own axis. So for the gas just step on the gas all the way to map it, then for the brake, step on the gas a little bit and step on the brake completely, if you do it right, it will show up as its own axis.

heres my setting for my g25 for intial d if anyone want to see if copy and paste works for your other wheels

[JAMMA0_0]
PUSH1 = 16777225
PUSH2 = 16777224
PUSH3 = 16777221
PUSH4 = 16777232
PUSH5 = 16777233
PUSH6 = 16777234
PUSH7 = 79
PUSH8 = 80
SERVICE = 10
START = 16777222
COIN = 16777223
DIGITALUP = 0
DIGITALDOWN = 0
DIGITALLEFT = 30
DIGITALRIGHT = 32
ANALOGUP = 33554689
ANALOGDOWN = 33554693
ANALOGLEFT = 33554688
ANALOGRIGHT = 33554432
ANALOGUP2 = 23
ANALOGDOWN2 = 37
ANALOGLEFT2 = 36
ANALOGRIGHT2 = 38

 

[DarthMarino]

The in-game calibration... do it with another controller.

Gotcha.  Unfortunately, it didn't fall for it. Nice and smooth with the standard gamepad, jerky with Xbox controllers (wheel or normal controller).

[Howard_Casto]

Well another solution would be to use non-standard drivers for the 360 stuff, so they show up as regular joysticks.  I'm not fond of that route though.

[DarthMarino]

Well another solution would be to use non-standard drivers for the 360 stuff, so they show up as regular joysticks.  I'm not fond of that route though.

Changing the driver makes me nervous though I do know which one I currently use.  I tried "rolling back" to an older driver for this wheel but it didn't help.

[Howard_Casto]

Well the xbcd guys make drivers for 360 devices.... they show up as standard joysticks instead of xinput devices.  Again though, not too fond of those. 

[DarthMarino]

I tried a few drivers and nothing wanted to work. I think I tried most of these when I first got this computer so I'm not surprised. Oh well.

[DarthMarino]

Not that it makes a difference, but I have the same deadzone problem in 0.5.8.2. This was the first release to remove the "select API device" option. 0.5.8.1 and earlier work just fine.

[SegaOutrun]

can someone with an nvidia card try initial D ver 3 in the Alpha and .58/2? Can you see the speedometer? I was watching an old video of mine playing ver 3 with the speedometer working on .58 and near perfect graphics but, I cannot seem to replicate it. .58 does not work on win 8.1 so installed win 7 and while it works and the speedometer is visible, i am getting a ton of other visual glitches. The only other difference I can think of it that i used to have a geforce 550ti and now I have an amd 7950, so maybe its a nvidia vs amd driver issue.

 

[MrThunderwing]

i am getting a ton of other visual glitches.

I remember getting an issue like this with a previous version of 0.58 DEMUL. One of the developers told me it was because I'd transferred a shader folder across from an older version (rather than configuring all the plugins from scratch) that was the cause the problem. I did a fresh install and only transferred my ROMS over and it sorted the problem out. Might be worth a try? I'm not on my 'good' PC at the moment, but next time I'm on there I'll see if the speedo is visible or not.

[DarthMarino]

The dev created a new pad plugin for me that has solved my deadzone issue so I'm a happy camper.

[Brian74]

When I try to load it, it just crashes 

[SegaOutrun]

The dev created a new pad plugin for me that has solved my deadzone issue so I'm a happy camper.

i dont see it anywhere. Where is at?

[DarthMarino]

i dont see it anywhere. Where is at?

He just sent it in a PM to test out.  I assume it will be part of the next release.

[kanario40]

I have found the issue of sound in the last version 0.7 Alpha of demul .The issue is in the plugin gpuDX11.dll and gpuDX11ng.dll.
 
I have tested for example the game Dolphin with the version 0.52 and with the plugin gpuDX10.dll and works perfectly the sound and the video always is to 60 fps but if then I use the plugin gpuDX11.dll down to 25 fps and the sound it,s distorted.
 
I use Window 7 64 bits ,9500GT nvidia and I7 2600 18 RAM and all games runs bad the sound and the fps of video are always running to 25 fps instead of 50 o 60 fps.

[SegaOutrun]

a 9500gt  is a old card. it makes sense that dx11 would be slow. It runs fine for me.

I decided to test Sega Rally 2 and I was quite impressed. I had to OC my 4690k to 4.3 to get this performance. At the stock 3.5, it would stutter alot. I imagine any with an i7 should get pretty smooth game play

[Hunk_4TH]

Anyone able to run Dreamcast CHDs created from GDIs in the latest Demul? They never load up for me instead it goes to the DC bios screen and I select play and tells me "Please insert game disc" cdis work jsut fine though via the image plugin. Weird.

[Hunk_4TH]

I must be the only one then. I'd hate to go back to using GDIs as I prefer CHDs cause of the space saving.

This is what I'm seeing. It even says the game name on the title bar but any game that is chd which worked in previous Demul versions I get this.

[nugarp]

Some more good news. Just got a notification on google code that the devs addressed an issue I was watching: add a hotkey to exit the emulator! Probably will be out with the next release .

[BadMouth]

Some more good news. Just got a notification on google code that the devs addressed an issue I was watching: add a hotkey to exit the emulator! Probably will be out with the next release .

   FINALLY!!

[MrThunderwing]

Anyone able to run Dreamcast CHDs created from GDIs in the latest Demul? They never load up for me instead it goes to the DC bios screen and I select play and tells me "Please insert game disc" cdis work jsut fine though via the image plugin. Weird.

I've only ever used cdis, never tried CHDs (apart from in MAME).

[Hunk_4TH]

I appreciate the reply but I fixed it by starting from scratch. I couldn't really tell you what the cause was though I sure wish I did.

As for cdis they always have a lower sample rate etc for the audio. Nothing beats the real gdis which is what the chds are.

[nugarp]

New version with what we've FINALLY needed 31.07.2015

- Naomi2 shadows improvements (DX11NG)
- Naomi2 screen scale (DX11NG)
- DirectInput thread close fix AKA "VMU window not closes"
- VMU's windows auto open/close
- exit by ALT+F4
- romset corrections to make some rom managers happy
- more precise SH4 FSRRA opcode
- several minor corrections

Now we can save our high scores and exit with ALT+F4!

 

Download: http://demul.emulation64.com/files/demul07a_310715.7z

[BadMouth]

New version with what we've FINALLY needed 31.07.2015

- Naomi2 shadows improvements (DX11NG)
- Naomi2 screen scale (DX11NG)
- DirectInput thread close fix AKA "VMU window not closes"
- VMU's windows auto open/close
- exit by ALT+F4
- romset corrections to make some rom managers happy
- more precise SH4 FSRRA opcode
- several minor corrections

Now we can save our high scores and exit with ALT+F4!

 

Download: http://demul.emulation64.com/files/demul07a_310715.7z

Isn't ALT+F4 the windows hotkey to kill a program anyway?  Didn't it work before?

Still glad to have a new release.

[nugarp]

It should have been. I don't remember if it closed it. I don't think it used to - I had my AHK set up to kill the process = no NVRAM saves before quitting. My AHK was set to send !{f4} to my other apps when escape was hit so I can only assume I tried back about a year ago when I first set it up.

[Howard_Casto]

New version with what we've FINALLY needed 31.07.2015

- Naomi2 shadows improvements (DX11NG)
- Naomi2 screen scale (DX11NG)
- DirectInput thread close fix AKA "VMU window not closes"
- VMU's windows auto open/close
- exit by ALT+F4
- romset corrections to make some rom managers happy
- more precise SH4 FSRRA opcode
- several minor corrections

Now we can save our high scores and exit with ALT+F4!

 

Download: http://demul.emulation64.com/files/demul07a_310715.7z

Isn't ALT+F4 the windows hotkey to kill a program anyway?  Didn't it work before?

Still glad to have a new release.

It is, but what a lot of people don't know is all that does is send a shutdown request to the application in question.  You still have to program a function to perform on what I believe is a "queryUnload" event. 

[SegaOutrun]

The new update has a major graphic glitch with nvidia cards.

20.09.2015 UPDATE
- NAOMI 2 emulation rewritten almost from scratch, must be really close if not the same as real hardware, a lot of optimizations, can use separate thread (DX11NG)
- shadow render fix (Cosmic Smash)
- romset sync with current MAME

The latest version finally had the speedometer working for Initial D!!!!!!!!!

[SegaOutrun]

23.09.2015 UPDATE
- added "NAOMI 2 Vertex Cache" option, disabled by default, enable it if you have ATI/AMD GPU only.
- fixed AMD-specific texture glitches in many games (Shenmue II, ECCO, HotD2, etc)
- several optimizations

This new version works on Nvidia Cards and AMD Cards!

[BadMouth]

Still has the directx create effect error?   

[Howard_Casto]

I wonder when the emulator will get out of the alpha stage?  These guys are almost as bad as me. 

[MrThunderwing]

23.09.2015 UPDATE
- added "NAOMI 2 Vertex Cache" option, disabled by default, enable it if you have ATI/AMD GPU only.
- fixed AMD-specific texture glitches in many games (Shenmue II, ECCO, HotD2, etc)
- several optimizations

This new version works on Nvidia Cards and AMD Cards!

Wow, that looks way better than the old builds. Nice that all the selection screens seem to be working properly as well now.

[Boomslang]

I tried out the latest demul last night. I was really impressed, Hikaru and Naomi 2 emulation is terrific now compared to a year or 2 back. Well done demul lads

[nugarp]

Good to hear. I've been meaning to try it out since it came out. Now if only I could convince them to make netplay just work in a cab environment...

[Boomslang]

What's net play do?

[nugarp]

I believe a while ago that there was a demul plugin that allowed you to play online. I tried it once but there was a lot of GUI set up and never really tried it. Would love some command line version. I'm building some twins so the more multiplayer the better.

I could be misremembering the emulator though.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Boomslang]

I know the network board isn't emulated for anything in demul yet so I'm assuming it might be playing online but where it makes player 2 the 2nd computer on games like street fighter etc where 2 players are an option compared to network play.

[nugarp]

Ah yeah you're probably right. I will keep my hopes up that one day we'll get something.


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