http://www.mame.net/downmain.html

0.93

----

 

The main feature of this release is Aaron's huge update to the sound system.

There is a high chance this has introduced new sound / crashing bugs in

several drivers. A number of problems were already found and fixed prior to

the 0.93 release thanks to Aaron, Derrick and R.Belmont.  Updates will follow

to correct any severe bugs found.  Please test this release extensively.

 

----

 

Sound System update [Aaron Giles]

(see list below for changes)

 

Sound System Changes

--------------------

 

Core changes

-----------

common.c:

* Changed auto_malloc() behavior so that a failure is absolute (calls

osd_die); you can now assume that auto_malloc will always succeed and will

never return NULL.

* Removed all sample loading code; this is now in sound/samples.c

 

config.c:

* Tried to update this to the new mixer stuff in usrintrf.c, but it hasn't

been tested and I bet it's busted somehow.

 

driver.h:

* driver->sound_attributes is gone; if you need to detect stereo support,

count the speakers.

 

mame.h:

* Machine->samples is history (yay!)

 

timer.c:

* I created a new type of timer that has a pointer for a callback param

instead of an int. These sit next to the existing timer code, so nothing

else is affected. They made object orienting the sound cores much much

cleaner.

 

usrintrf.c:

* Mixing volumes are retrived from the sound core, not from the mixer (which

is gone). Mixing volumes can now be overdriven to 2.0 (could be increased in

the future)

 

 

Machine driver changes

----------------------

* MDRV_SPEAKER_ADD is how to create a new speaker. You specify a name and a

3D vector for where the speaker is relative to the player's head.

* MDRV_SPEAKER_REMOVE and MDRV_SPEAKER_REPLACE operate as expected.

* MDRV_SPEAKER_STANDARD_MONO("name") specifies a single standard mono

speaker positioned directly in front of the user.

* MDRV_SPEAKER_STANDARD_STEREO("leftname","rightname") specifies a standard

pair of stereo speakers situated to the left/right of the user.

 

* MDRV_SOUND_ADD now takes a 'clock' parameter instead of an interface

pointer. The clock for each chip is specified here rather than in the

interface. I have removed any 'clock'-like parameters from all the sound

interface structures.

* MDRV_SOUND_CONFIG is where you specify the interface. This mirrors

MDRV_CPU_CONFIG. Note that you do not have to specify a config; in this

case, it is NULL. This is ok. Many sound chips really only need a clock and

volume info (which has also been removed from the interface structs).

* MDRV_SOUND_ROUTE is how to control where a sound chip outputs its data.

The first parameter is the output index, or ALL_OUTPUTS if you want to route

all the outputs for a given chip to the same place. The second parameter is

either the name of a speaker or the name of another tagged sound chip. The

third parameter is a floating point gain: 1.0 is standard.

* You can specify as many sound routes as you need; multiple routes for the

same output will split the sound. For example, you can route the single mono

output of an OKIM6295 to both the left and right speakers on a stereo

system.

 

 

Sound core interface changes

----------------------------

mixer.c/.h:

* These files are gone, gone, gone. Everything is handled by the streams or

by sndintrf.c directly. Mixing is performed by code in sndintrf.c which

creates a stream to do the final mixing.

 

sndintrf.h:

* We now no longer #include every sound core's header. You have to include

them yourself in your driver.

 

sndintrf.c:

* Sound cores are now hooked up very much like CPU cores. There is a single

get_info function that is public for each core; all other functions and data

are retrieved through it.

* Similar to CPU cores, you can call sndtype_xxx() to query/set values for a

specific sound chip type; you can also call sndnum_xxx() to query/set values

for an indexed sound chip in the Machine->drv->sound array; finally, you can

call sndti_xxx() to query/set values for the nth instance of any give sound

chip type (sndti = sound type+index).

* At startup, all sound cores/filters are created. Then all the speakers are

created. Finally, everything is wired up together. There are new consistency

checks to make sure you don't do anything wildly bad.

* sndintrf.c calls the OSD layer now, and always requests stereo output. It

also does a final downmix from the various speaker streams into left/right

streams based on the X coordinate of the speaker.

 

sound/streams.c:

* I have added a new type defined in sound/streams.h: stream_sample_t, which

is used to represent a sample as used by the stream system. It is typedef'd

to an INT32.

* Regardless of the size of stream_sample_t, all streams should be generated

as if 16 bits were the maximum. The extra bits give us headroom to overdrive

things if we want.

* All streams have the same format callback, with support for multiple

inputs and outputs.

* Each stream has a sample rate; inputs to that stream will be

down/upsampled to that rate; outputs will be down/upsampled as necessary to

connect to the input of the next stream/speaker in line.

* Each input to a stream has its own gain, and each output has a gain as

well. These can be controlled while things are running to provide some extra

volume knobs.

* I haven't done much in the way of optimizations in order to keep things

simple and working. Once things are back to normal, I may consider some

additional optimizations.

 

 

Notes for sound core authors

----------------------------

* I marked all sound cores as Copyright the MAME Team; if you want your own

credit there, feel free to send an update.

* I removed all volume and clock speeds from the interfaces; these are

specified elsewhere now.

* I made interfaces optional for many sound chips that often don't need an

interface.

* Many sound cores used global variables and assumed a single instance of

themselves; this has been fixed in all cases.

* In some cases I removed global lookup tables and pushed them into the

sound interfaces. This can eventually be fixed but I didn't want to deal

with it.

* stream_init and stream_init_multi are gone; there is only stream_create

now.

* Streams are named for you automatically, so you don't need to pass in

names to stream_create. Volumes are also outside of your control now, so you

don't need to pass in volumes to stream_create either.

* The get_info function can return pointers to set_info(), start(), stop(),

and reset(). There is no concept of an update() function anymore -- updates

are handled via streams.

* The start() function is passed three things: a 'sound index', which

indicates which instance of chip you are (i.e., 0 if you're the first chip

of this type to be created, 1 if you're the second, etc); a 'clock' which is

specified in the driver (no clocks in the interfaces please!); and a

'config' which is a pointer to the interface for this chip (it can be NULL

too, be careful).

* The start() function now is expected to allocate memory for its data

structures and return a pointer to that if successful. If not, it should

return NULL.

* The pointer returned by the start() function is passed to the stop() and

reset() functions.

* Since there were many cases where we provided a read/write handler for the

'nth' chip, you can also fetch the pointer from the start() function by

calling sndti_token(chip_type, index).

* If you have a non-digital chip that doesn't do internal clipping, you can

probably remove the clipping code and let the mixer clip it in the end.

* If you do your mixing in a secondary buffer to get more bits of

resolution, you can probably optimize your code to mix directly into the

stream buffer.

* While fixing up all the sound cores I was VERY brute force in getting

things to work. If you don't like what I did to your sound core, feel free

to fix it up.

 

 

Sound core-specific changes

---------------------------

* ADPCM -- I removed this entirely and wired up dummy MSM5205s to most of

the drivers still using it; these need to be revisited and fixed.

* AY8910 -- cleaned up the interface for the YM chips to access this.

* Custom -- many drivers using "custom" drivers were just using hard-coded

samples and playing them with the (now-defunct) mixer. This is not "custom",

it is "samples". They have been converted over to samples.

* Filter (volume) -- this is a new very simple filter that can be used to

control the volume of a stream if you need an extra knob.

* Filter (RC) -- this is a new filter that replaces the old RC filter that

was in the streams code. Eventually, this could get replaced by some simple

discrete logic.

* IremGA20 -- Acho cod... transmission lost

* NES APU -- changed the way this worked so that it used streams properly

instead of an update function.

* Samples -- there is now a start function that allows you to create your

own custom samples if you want. This allows us to replace "custom" drivers

with "samples" in several cases. There is a new call sample_start_raw()

which lets you play a raw sample from a pointer to INT16 data.

* Votrax -- there was a dead Vortrax core that was still being

hard-compiled. I pulled this out and made it a proper sound type (which

currently isn't included).

* VRender0 -- fixed a clipping bug that was lurking there (negative clipping

wrapped to positive values -- noticeable at 32-bits)

* YM2151 -- removed the alternate version and kept only Jarek's around.

Having two cores was confusing and caused problems.

* YM2203/2608/2610 -- these chips now pass a set of functions into the FM

core with pointers to all the AY8910-compatibility routines, rather than

relying on global pointers.

* YMZ280B -- this code is just terrible now compared to when I first wrote

it!

 

----

 

Other changes in 0.93

---------------------

 

Misc patch [Nathan Woods]

src/debug/debugcpu.c:

    - Changed an instance of memory_get_read_ptr() to memory_get_op_ptr()

 

src/cpu/g65816/g65816ds.h:

src/cpu/g65816/g65816ds.c:

src/cpu/g65816/g65816.c:

    - G65816 disassembler changes; program_read_byte() is no longer used

for disassembling and also the core now reports the PC as being the full

PB or'd with PC

 

Fixed controls in Hyper Crash (still needs freeplay to start) [Angelo Salese]

 

Changed Big Striker to use its PROM [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]

 

Changed way.map file is generated [smf]

 

SPI Big Endian fix [R.Belmont]

 

Swapped Namco 54xx filters on Port A & C [Derrick Renaud]

(fixes xevious sound)

 

C89 fix [Lawrence Gold]

 

Decrypted GFX in all SPI games [Nicola Salmoria]

 

Fixed crash in WCBowling 1.2 [Derrick Renaud]

 

FD1089 update (adding 317-0028) [Nicola Salmoria]

 

Added many opcodes to Shisensho II decryption table [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]

game is *almost* working correctly, still some errors

 

Updated MACs driver [Tomasz Slanina]

yujan now boots but isn't playable

 

Fixed ddcrew (2 player) sound loading [David Haywood]

 

Fixed Alien Syndrome ROM names [shinobiz]

 

Removed ingame debug button in rachero which was causing you to be locked

to the middle lane [David Haywood]

 

New Games / Clones supported or promoted from GAME_NOT_WORKING status:

----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Ufo Senshi Yohko Chan [Pierpaolo Prazzoli, Nicola Salmoria]

 

Senkyu / Battle Balls [Nicola Salmoria, Ville Linde]

Raiden Fighters [Nicola Salmoria, Ville Linde]

Raiden Fighters 2 [Nicola Salmoria, Ville Linde]

Raiden Fighters Jet [Nicola Salmoria, Ville Linde]

Viper Phase 1 [Nicola Salmoria, Ville Linde]

E-Jan High School [Nicola Salmoria, Ville Linde]

sound emulation on the SPI games is still incomplete

various alpha blending effects missing

 

clones

------

 

Super Cross (Japan set 2) [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]

 

Alpha Mission [Dave Widel]

 

Aliens (World set 3, Japan set 2) [MAN]

 

Defense [Torsten]

(note the program roms are bad on the original board, a patch is needed)

 

High Impact Football Proto v8.6 [brian Troha]

 

Surprise Attack (Asia Ver L.) [Andreas Thorsén]

 

G-Darius (Ver 2.02A)

 

New games marked as GAME_NOT_WORKING

------------------------------------

 

MoonQuake [Mariusz Wojcieszek]

 

Tuts Tomb

Ghost Hunter

guns not hooked up

Rice Video plugin is a N64 emulator GPU plugin.

• External high resolution texture loading. Read HiRezTexture.txt for further information
   
  
• Texture group dumpping
   
  
• Zelda MM point lighting
   
  
• Software vertex clipper problem fix by not using inline for a few important functions. Microsoft C++ compiler did a very bad job of optimization before. By converting these inline functions to regular functions, the clipper works with much less glitches now.
   
  
• Some fixes on a few color combiners, including DirectX high-end, opengl 1.2/1.3, opengl 1.4, Nvidia openg register combiner. You may see various improvement on these combiners if you are using them.
   
  
• Various DirectX frame buffer related fixes
   
  
• Using BMGLibPNG to handle PNG files. The include BMGLibPNG.dll file must be placed under your emulator folder, not the plugin folder.
  

» Rice Video Plugin homepage.

There is now a new Nintendo DS emulator in the works that has even surpassed DSEmu. The coder is FireFly, one of the first to also emulate the GBA. It already has Double GPU cores which the DSEmu only has 1 at the moment. Also known to have which DSEmu doesn't is 3D, touchscreen, high-level ARM7, and ARM9 system coprocessor. However, it is not released yet and will be released soon.

What's this all mean? See for yourself below.

"It looks like Firefly's gonna be the first with a working emulator, just as it was with GBA. And I think tradition's a good thing. :)" - Two9A (Creator of DSEmu)

»» http://www.hyperds.com

»» http://dsemu.oopsilon.com

After visiting Zophar for the news and MAME.Net for more information, it appears, that David Foley (Owner of Ultracade) has attempted to trademark MAME. He has even threatened MAMEDev and people on eBay that mention MAME as well. This same tactic has been known to be tried before with Linux with no avail. See the links below for more information.

http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=...&entry=76627578

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