blueMSX 1.5.0

Version 1.5.0 of blueMSX has been released. Initially conceived as a bugs fixing release, this version comes mainly with the following improvements:

The entire timing scheme of the emulation and DirectDraw is replaced. The result is higher frame rate on slower PCs (< 1.4 GHz) and less interruptions in the sound.
MSX1 emulation is improved : correct specific palette of colors, CMOS disabled in MSX1 mode.
Full RTC implementation in MSX2/2+ modes, including test and alarm register.
The system roms are no more embedded in the executable file and the emulator is released in two versions : one that includes the bios roms as separate files (as NLMSX or paraMSX) and one that only contains C-BIOS and no copyrighted roms.

Some other changes?

Added two counters : frames per second and using of CPU resource by the emulator.
Added pause and stop buttons to toolbar.Added finnish language.
Added support for the different SCC/SCC+ mappers.
Added support for zipped save states.
Added rom type selection dropdown in rom open dialog box.
Updated horizontal stretch.
Correct sprite palette in screen 8.
Fixed bugs with double click on a dsk or rom file : the emulator starts now with this file only (it ejects any inserted cartridges); if blueMSX is already running, the double click will have effect in the existing emulator.
Fixed mouse lock when running at high frequency.
Fixed lockups when running emu and dialogs are moved over emulation.
Fixed bug with property page in full screen mode.
Fixed bug in toolbar update when starting or stopping emulation.
Made switch check boxes in options/emulation not restart emulation.
Fixed VDP bug that made some Namcot MSX1 games fail in screen 1.
Fixed bug in disk patch : it flushes VDP commands correctly (BGV 13 in Disk Station 17 and Rune Master III now show graphics correctly).
Fixed bug in machine editor dropdowns : clicking outside dropdown does not reset value.
Fixed bugs in the mixer control (position of the balance slider, volume when selecting mono).
Fixed bugs in sprite emulation and screen 6 horizontal scroll.
Fixed bugs in the graphical interface.
Fixed bug in save states for MSX1 machines.

Relevant link: http://www.bluemsx.com

Comments (12)

By Bart

Paragon (1422)

12-06-2004, 13:03

Good to see that Daniel decided to release BlueMSX without the ROMS embedded! Next step is to only release the C-BIOS version But good job again team!

By Latok

msx guru (3973)

12-06-2004, 16:22

That website is incredibly stylish!

By wolf_

Ambassador_ (10151)

12-06-2004, 21:38

(just trying blueMSX for the first time )

The gfx look way cool.. that noise/blur is great stuff!

The moonsound emulation is not 100% correct! tho. There's obviously something wrong with the volumes/envelopes. I tested Coral2 with it.. and, well, just wait on the first musical climax to get my point
MSX-Music emulation is not really good.. (test some xak3 tunes).

However, regarding the sound: there's a mixer with a panner for each chip.. that's neat, but by default it should be panned all straight in the centre.
Ofcourse, I could set them in the centre myself, but that's because I 'know' they should be in the centre.. I'm more pointing towards non-msx ppl who download blue as their first emu and might think that these default settings are the way things should sound!

That also leads me to another point, which is basically an interesting debate for all emus: is somewhere described how loud the individual soundschips should sound?
iirc I was told once, long ago, that the fm-pac/psg volume-ratio on a 8245 and turbo-R was the proper one, whereas on a 8250/55/80 it was not. If I run Imagine][ in NLmsx, then I usually lower the PSG volume (in the player) to -2 in order to get the 'sound' as I remember it from my 8245 .. but in blueMSX, I had to lower it much more in order to get the proper balance. This ofcourse can all be solved by using that mixer in blueMSX, but there's no information about what the real loudness-ratios on real MSX'es is.
So, again, I could balance that mixer in order to make it sound right, but how does a non-msx'er know what the proper balances are?
So, my question is if somewhere in the msx2+ standard is defined loud how the fm-pac should sound compared to the psg.

anyway.. nice emu!

By dvik

Prophet (2200)

12-06-2004, 22:19

It would be very good if someone took the time to actually do a deep analys fo the relative volumes and shared the results with the MSX community. I guess openMSX or blueMSX is the best choice to do these tests since both emus have an easy interface to adjust the volumes of the individual sound chips.
If it is done in one emu it is easy to translate the results to another emu.

Any volunteers?

By flyguille

Prophet (3031)

13-06-2004, 17:42

WOOOOWWWW!! the website is wonderful !!!!!!!!!

Really EXCELENT design and work!!!!!

13-06-2004, 20:47

It would be cool if it is possible to interchange savestates! Right now, a savestate includes the location of the ROM and DSK which is loaded and therefor, it crashes if someone else is trying to load a savestate inside his emulator. Imagine the possibilities! 'Hey, check this out, I just finished Nemesis3! Do you want to see the enddemo? Here is my savestate!'

13-06-2004, 20:53

Actually, savestates don't work anymore when you change the directorystructure of your HD. That's not very convenient.

13-06-2004, 20:54

As it is now, I can't even change my own directory-structure as it prolly can't find my stuff anymore!

grr

13-06-2004, 21:02

Including the rom/disk in the save state is a very good idea. It could also be made optional in case you don't want to have the bigger save states. I'll look at this for next release.

By BiFi

Enlighted (4348)

13-06-2004, 21:43

Maybe it's an idea to say something like: Can't find the image on this location, select alternate location? or something.

13-06-2004, 21:48

anyway.. just finished Usas, yesterday I finished Nemesis 3 .. on one side it might be lame this way, but on the other side... finally finished those games

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