lolSnes was a silly side project I started two years ago. The goal was to make a SNES emulator for the DS, that would be better than the current emulators available (none of them render without glitches, and one of them doesn't seem to work).

I first coded the CPU side, fully in ASM. It was nice and worked well. Then moved to the PPU, and wanted to implement a line-accurate software renderer. However, as discussed in this thread: Is the DS really that underpowered..., the DS isn't powerful enough to handle such a renderer, let alone running it alongside the CPU and other fun things to emulate.

After that discovery, I pretty much forgot about the project, leaving it in a dormant state like all my failed projects.

And now, for some reason (probably my constant need to work on something new), I decided to take my old code, shake dust off of it, and continue it.

I trashed the software PPU attempt, and started implementing the PPU in hardware, ie using the DS's 2D hardware to emulate the PPU. With some work, I got this: (HCC demo ROM-- running fine, minus wrong BG priorities)



All kinds of trickery will be used to get the most accurate possible PPU emulation. For example:

* SNES graphics are planar, while DS graphics are linear. To make up for this with the least overhead possible, there's a system that keeps track of what each 1K block of emulated VRAM is used for. Then, when BG modes/sizes/whatnot change, or the emulated VRAM is modified, the DS VRAM is updated accordingly.

* SNES backgrounds can be as low as 2bpp (4 colors). In this case, the palette numbers in the screen data select palettes with a granularity of 4 colors. On the DS, the lowest granularity you can get is 16 colors. As a workaround, we use extended palettes: each palette is filled with 4 or 16 colors depending on the BG's color depth. This wastes space, but it's the only simple way out of this problem.

Then come other fun features which aren't handled yet. Among which: per-tile priority (this will be a whole lotta fun), window combination logic, and perhaps some funky color effects which the DS can't emulate...


However, I have work in other areas. Namely, SPC700. I need to emulate that fucker if I want to get anything serious running. For now, games will get stuck in a loop while trying to communicate with the non-existent SPC700, and my attempts at faking that have failed miserably.

At some point, prior a release, I'll also need a basic interface, just to let people select a ROM. For now it's hardcoded to load 'snes/rom.smc'.


Current status

What runs:
* HCC demo
* dunno what else

What doesn't run
* anything that will use the SPC700 (that is, any serious game)

Support:
* Main CPU (65816c): 99% (all opcodes emulated, may miss a few unimportant bits)
* PPU: ~20% (supports rendering 2bpp and 4bpp BGs with scrolling)
* Memory mapping for various setups
* Intelligent ROM caching: ROM bank 0 is cached as well as the bank PBR points to (caching needed because there's not enough RAM to load a full ROM)


I may put the code on a github repo later on, when it's more... mature.
_________________________
Kuribo64 - RH-fucking-cafe - Kafuka

zrghij

Put Bowsers that spit ice and shit poisoned Yoshi eggs and the Yoshis that come out of it are shadow Yoshis that curse Mario and shoot caramel bricks it'll be awesome!


Since you posted this in the non-serious forum, it means we aren't required to give serious replies!
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Kuribo64 - RH-fucking-cafe - Kafuka

zrghij

Useless post. You aren't staff.


What about a NSMB adaptation of this? Sounds epic!

Or port tons of AR codes to ASM hacks to make Mario always giant or something!
_________________________
Kuribo64 - RH-fucking-cafe - Kafuka

zrghij

POSTCOUNT LOVING IRON MAN :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD


Seriously, this thread is pointless. People are just going to take two random things and use that to inflate their postcount.
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Kuribo64 - RH-fucking-cafe - Kafuka

zrghij

We already have something similar implemented. Try posting in some of the old threads and you'll see.

But y'know, noobs don't read shit. Even if you shove huge red text into their face.
_________________________
Kuribo64 - RH-fucking-cafe - Kafuka

zrghij

how do I breathe?


... seriously, stop asking basic questions, try shit out yourself. Also stop posting that here, it's offtopic.
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Kuribo64 - RH-fucking-cafe - Kafuka

zrghij

So yeah, there is effort being made towards multiplayer hacking, but I'm wondering, is it really worth it?

In my opinion, multiplayer hacking would be cool if co-op was hacked in. Otherwise, well, there's not much material to hack. 5 small levels made for competitive gameplay...

Main difficulty with multiplayer hacking is, you guessed, the unability to test shit in an emulator. I have some ideas to overcome that, but they'd still have to be tried.
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Kuribo64 - RH-fucking-cafe - Kafuka

zrghij

As if you were one to talk about that, Thierry.


Who cares if the guy speaks Google Translate type English, as long as their hack is good. Of course, good English makes you look more professional, so it's always a bonus, but it doesn't change the quality of the hack.

(to the OP: the part about Google Translate was an example, don't take it personally)
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Kuribo64 - RH-fucking-cafe - Kafuka

zrghij

❶ I figured this would be common sense, but apparently it's not the case. When editing your layout, check your profile to make sure it doesn't look like utter shit and that YOUR POSTS ARE READABLE. Layouts breaking this rule will be modified or removed in whatever way we deem acceptable.


❷ When using backgrounds, make sure they either tile properly or otherwise look good at high resolutions. The former is recommended, we don't want 20MB background images that are 5000x3000.


❸ Be careful with custom fonts, namely:

• no bullshit font-family rules. Read how to use CSS fonts before trying.
• if using fonts that aren't available on all systems, be sure to provide fallback fonts (font-family: 'BlargFont', 'Arial', sans-serif; for example).
• if using external fonts, it is highly recommended you upload them on our uploader. Some browsers enforce the same-origin policy when retrieving font files, meaning that font files hosted on an external domain will be ignored.

This is an example of result of badly coded custom fonts:


In this specific case, a non-standard font is used, and no fallbacks are provided. The browser selects the universal default, Times New Roman. It's ugly. It's tiny.

You don't want to inflict that to people reading your posts.

Neither do I. I'm sick of seeing Times New Roman because people can't be assed to make proper CSS font rules.


❹ Please put some effort into making a pleasant layout. I'm kinda sick of seeing layouts that are just a fixed background applied on the whole post table. It looks cheap, can cause readability problems depending on the background chosen, and fixed backgrounds can cause lag.


❺ As said above, avoid fixed backgrounds unless your cool effect absolutely depends on them. Fixed backgrounds require the browser to redraw the page when you scroll, which can lag less performant machines, and is also prone to display problems especially on mobile devices.


❻ This is not related to layouts, but please refrain from altering your profile's background and just the background. On some themes, it doesn't work well. If you really want to customize your profile, either make a full theme, or don't mess with the page background.

Relatedly, I have seen many people applying a background to div#body instead of body. This is bad. View the page in a screen wider than 1366 pixels and you'll see why.


Thank you.
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Kuribo64 - RH-fucking-cafe - Kafuka

zrghij

Here's a little proof of concept I put together in a few hours out of boredom.

It's meant to make testing levels easier, although it's barebones so for now that probably won't be the case. It basically lets you enter level/world numbers etc, and then launches the game in desmume, directly in that level.


I provided the source code of it. It's in C# so it could be built into NSMBe easily.

If you're not a programmer, you'll be more interested in the contents of the Release folder. Note that for it to work, you must put a NSMB ROM named nsmb.nds in there. It also has to be an USA ROM.

You can use another desmume instead of the one I provided, but it has to be named desmume.exe and (obviously) be recent enough to load the provided savestate.


How to use it

Launch nsmblaunch.exe and provide the needed details.
• World number goes from 0-9 (0-7 for worlds 1-8, 8 for Toad houses, 9 for MvsL levels and unused levels)
• Level number is the number of the level in the world, from 0 to whatever the max is
• Area number is the global number of the starting area of the level. 0 for 1-1, 3 for 1-2, 6 for 1-3, 7 for 1-4...

This is where the easiness breaks down. An easier version would allow for giving the level name in W-L format (1-1, 2-3) and automatically compute those parameters.

Upon loading, desmume will throw errors regarding the savestate, just ignore them. If everything works allright, you'll enter the level you selected.


Current issues

• the aforementioned errors desmume throws (I yet have to find why that happens)
• level name will be 1-2 no matter which level you choose
• after dying or completing the level, you'll return in World 1 on 1-2's spot
• this will not work if your ROM has ASM hacks
• this takes up savestate slot 9. Desmume doesn't support loading an arbitrary save file via command line.


How it works

The following RAM addresses control which level is loaded:
• 0x02088F3A (byte): world number
• 0x02085A14 (byte): level number in the world
• 0x02085A18 (byte): global area number

(those are set by the function loadLevel() at 0x0200696C)

I made a savestate during the transition when entering 1-2. Said savestate is the one provided in the package. nsmblaunch.exe modifies the savestate so that the RAM addresses above are changed to what the user entered. Once that is done, it launches desmume, passing the savestate and ROM to it via command line args.

The savestate slot used for this is slot 9. If you wish to reload the level from within desmume, you can press F9. Once again, ignore the errors, it works.


Download


Hoping it can be useful.
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Kuribo64 - RH-fucking-cafe - Kafuka

zrghij

So you've seen it, guys?

An almost-full hack has just been produced in less than 10 days.


Why the Community Remix is taking so long to get done, I don't know, but there's no excuse. You can do it.


Hoping to get your motivation up with this.
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Kuribo64 - RH-fucking-cafe - Kafuka

zrghij

Either way the current situation can't last. The only way to upload files is... the unfinished new board.


Either finish that thing or give us a way to upload files from the current board.
_________________________
Kuribo64 - RH-fucking-cafe - Kafuka

zrghij

No. Distributing ROM files is illegal.
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Kuribo64 - RH-fucking-cafe - Kafuka

zrghij

Sure, it gets so busy, with all your playdates
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Kuribo64 - RH-fucking-cafe - Kafuka

zrghij

It's just that there isn't much interest in NSMB hacking anymore. At this point, everything that could be done with the current tools and knowledge has been done. It'd need new blood to get more activity.

Level editing has been done since 2007 or so. Graphics editing has been done. Text editing has been done. 3D model/texture editing/importing has been done. Music hacking has been done. The main directions to go now would be a) ASM hacking and b) multiplayer hacking. The former is a pain due to the overlays thing and the lack of a disassembler suited to handle that. The latter is a pain due to the lack of wifi support in DS emulators.

Another direction, though, would be improving the toolsets available for the above domains. Most of them are still a pain in the ass to do, and model hacking still requires illegally using Nintendo's tools.

Or we could look at why SMW hacking is still going in 2015 even though they have already done everything you can do to that game.


The spammy threads are just a common thing. The ask thread plague struck Kuribo64 and RVLution too.
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Kuribo64 - RH-fucking-cafe - Kafuka

zrghij

This is why you always slap credits on your own product, I guess.
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Kuribo64 - RH-fucking-cafe - Kafuka

zrghij

We only wish you were more alive, Mr Post-In-Closed-Threads
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Kuribo64 - RH-fucking-cafe - Kafuka

zrghij

Hello, ray.


Goodbye again.
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Kuribo64 - RH-fucking-cafe - Kafuka

zrghij

No. Distributing ROMs is illegal.



And just because you removed that copyright notice, suddenly it's yours?

Well I'm going to take Windows, remove Microsoft's copyright, and claim I made a new OS.


Even if you made new levels, the game still belongs to Nintendo. The game engine you're using was made by them. And it still belongs to them. Removing the copyright notice doesn't make you magically own the game, it just makes you an asshole.
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Kuribo64 - RH-fucking-cafe - Kafuka

zrghij