gsu (superfx) support [work in progress]

[Eyedunno]

Fair enough. Personally I don't mind it. As for Street Fighter Alpha 2/Zero 2 I wouldn't wanna play the snes versions anyway even if it did work on the sd2snes. Its so slow to play. Id rather either play it on mame or my ps2 version on the anthology pack. I suppose for those who don't have those options or just prefer the snes version i can see why they would want it.

I do still play the SNES version from time to time. But beyond that, what about just wanting the SD2SNES to be as compatible as possible within the limitations of the hardware? What about potential hacks of S-DD1 games? (I can think of one possibility: presumably the announcer's voice could be removed to reduce or eliminate the infamous load times! But maybe somebody wants to do a more thorough hack...right now emulators and cart-cannibalizing repros would be the only way to play it.)

And sure, SFA/Z2 is flawed, but is it more flawed than Doom? I'm still happy to be able to play Doom on the SD2SNES thanks to redguy.

[DJBabyBuster]

Fair enough. Personally I don't mind it. As for Street Fighter Alpha 2/Zero 2 I wouldn't wanna play the snes versions anyway even if it did work on the sd2snes. Its so slow to play. Id rather either play it on mame or my ps2 version on the anthology pack. I suppose for those who don't have those options or just prefer the snes version i can see why they would want it.

I do still play the SNES version from time to time. But beyond that, what about just wanting the SD2SNES to be as compatible as possible within the limitations of the hardware? What about potential hacks of S-DD1 games? (I can think of one possibility: presumably the announcer's voice could be removed to reduce or eliminate the infamous load times! But maybe somebody wants to do a more thorough hack...right now emulators and cart-cannibalizing repros would be the only way to play it.)

And sure, SFA/Z2 is flawed, but is it more flawed than Doom? I'm still happy to be able to play Doom on the SD2SNES thanks to redguy.

Just thought I'd pipe in that Doom with Redguy's fast speed option is totally fixed and playable.  Maybe the same speed enhancer could help improve Street Fighter Alpha 2/Zero 2 as well.

[Gumball]

Fair enough. Personally I don't mind it. As for Street Fighter Alpha 2/Zero 2 I wouldn't wanna play the snes versions anyway even if it did work on the sd2snes. Its so slow to play. Id rather either play it on mame or my ps2 version on the anthology pack. I suppose for those who don't have those options or just prefer the snes version i can see why they would want it.

I do still play the SNES version from time to time. But beyond that, what about just wanting the SD2SNES to be as compatible as possible within the limitations of the hardware? What about potential hacks of S-DD1 games? (I can think of one possibility: presumably the announcer's voice could be removed to reduce or eliminate the infamous load times! But maybe somebody wants to do a more thorough hack...right now emulators and cart-cannibalizing repros would be the only way to play it.)

And sure, SFA/Z2 is flawed, but is it more flawed than Doom? I'm still happy to be able to play Doom on the SD2SNES thanks to redguy.

I get what you're saying and yeah being more compatible would be pretty sweet despite how I feel about SFA2 on snes. Anyway I will say the SD2SNES has become one monster of a flashcart and I am so glad I have one o.o

[the_randomizer]

Fair enough. Personally I don't mind it. As for Street Fighter Alpha 2/Zero 2 I wouldn't wanna play the snes versions anyway even if it did work on the sd2snes. Its so slow to play. Id rather either play it on mame or my ps2 version on the anthology pack. I suppose for those who don't have those options or just prefer the snes version i can see why they would want it.

I do still play the SNES version from time to time. But beyond that, what about just wanting the SD2SNES to be as compatible as possible within the limitations of the hardware? What about potential hacks of S-DD1 games? (I can think of one possibility: presumably the announcer's voice could be removed to reduce or eliminate the infamous load times! But maybe somebody wants to do a more thorough hack...right now emulators and cart-cannibalizing repros would be the only way to play it.)

And sure, SFA/Z2 is flawed, but is it more flawed than Doom? I'm still happy to be able to play Doom on the SD2SNES thanks to redguy.

Just thought I'd pipe in that Doom with Redguy's fast speed option is totally fixed and playable.  Maybe the same speed enhancer could help improve Street Fighter Alpha 2/Zero 2 as well.

I'd rather see SA-1 before S-DD1 to be honest.

[Gumball]

Me too. Super Mario RPG is a must for me and I no longer have a copy of it.

[the_randomizer]

Me too. Super Mario RPG is a must for me and I no longer have a copy of it.

But again, we don't know if there's room for SA-1 =/

[Eyedunno]

Just thought I'd pipe in that Doom with Redguy's fast speed option is totally fixed and playable.  Maybe the same speed enhancer could help improve Street Fighter Alpha 2/Zero 2 as well.

Yeah, that's not going to happen. That specifically has to do with the GSU-1/2 chip being emulated at a faster speed than it ran at originally. There have been people who overclocked the GSU-1 on a real cart with similar results. It's not something you could do on just any game though, and all the S-DD1 chip is used for is for graphics decompression. However, I get the feeling the annoying load times could be decreased or eliminated just by making the SNES load fewer audio samples. Perhaps getting rid of the announcer altogether or just keeping "FIGHT!" (or maybe replacing fight with a generic punch sound or something, I don't know...) would be enough.

Edit: OOOOR, use MSU-1 for the music, freeing up RAM on the S-SMP for more samples to eliminate the load times AND get great-sounding arcade music at the same time. This would probably be the ultimate solution.

I'd rather see SA-1 before S-DD1 to be honest.

Well yeah, of course. I would rather have had SA-1 before GSU, too! But SA-1 is a lot iffier, and even if it can be implemented, it's much harder to implement than S-DD1. My understanding is that there is even a native S-DD1 decompressor that just uses the SNES CPU, though obviously you couldn't use it on-the-fly in a game.

[mrpopsicleman]

Well, yeah, but the Retrode can't dump the SRAM from SA-1 (or S-DD1) games. Neither can the Super UFO Pro 8 or my Mash Mods SNES programmer.

I dumped the SRAM off of my Super Mario RPG cart just fine with the Super UFO Pro 8.

[Eyedunno]

Oh, so hey, I've been derailing this thread like crazy, but now I have something to bring the topic back to the gsu beta--and I owe it all to my earlier thought about an MSU-1 version of Street Fighter Alpha 2 (though I still think this idea is swiggety-sweet *wink*).

I have a Rev. F SD2SNES, and with the most recent ikari firmware a +12dB audio boost is about right for most normalized MSU-1 games, but when I swap SD cards to the one that has my GSU beta firmware (v08, but of course), that is WAY TOO LOUD, and I have to turn the boost off. So I think this firmware may have broken the audio boost option. Can anybody with both firmwares readily available see if you can replicate this problem with MSU-1 stuff?

I suppose it's preferable to test this on an older SD2SNES like mine, though I wonder if the problem might not be even worse on rev. H.

[Relikk]

+9.5db is usually the sweet spot for me on my Rev. F.

I can't test at the moment, not for a few hours anyway. It depends on the game and the balance between PCM volume and SPC sound effect volume. Just to rule it out, did you use the same game to test or is it happening on all games?

[dreimer]

Oh, so hey, I've been derailing this thread like crazy, but now I have something to bring the topic back to the gsu beta--and I owe it all to my earlier thought about an MSU-1 version of Street Fighter Alpha 2 (though I still think this idea is swiggety-sweet *wink*).

I have a Rev. F SD2SNES, and with the most recent ikari firmware a +12dB audio boost is about right for most normalized MSU-1 games, but when I swap SD cards to the one that has my GSU beta firmware (v08, but of course), that is WAY TOO LOUD, and I have to turn the boost off. So I think this firmware may have broken the audio boost option. Can anybody with both firmwares readily available see if you can replicate this problem with MSU-1 stuff?

I suppose it's preferable to test this on an older SD2SNES like mine, though I wonder if the problem might not be even worse on rev. H.

Not anymore. I had a Rev E2, but modded it up to Rev H and thus don't have any volume problems anymore at all. Would be strange if the MSU audio level would be a problem because that stuff is untouched as far as I can see.

[Eyedunno]

+9.5db is usually the sweet spot for me on my Rev. F.

I can't test at the moment, not for a few hours anyway. It depends on the game and the balance between PCM volume and SPC sound effect volume. Just to rule it out, did you use the same game to test or is it happening on all games?

Yeah, I think +9.5dB is better on 0.1.7e too. I was just using +12dB because I'd read that's what brings it closest to the Higan implementation. Anyway, +9.5 is also way too loud and clips like crazy on my v08 SD card. I have to turn the boost all the way off.

And yes, I used the Blake Robinson orchestral Super Metroid WITH the 2018 normalized audio on both. At first, I thought I'd forgotten to copy the normalized audio files to the v08 card, so I copied them again, and nope, that wasn't the problem. And just for you, I went and tested Super Road Blaster, Ninja Gaiden Trilogy (with NES music), and Rock 'n Roll Racing (with the normalized audio pack with vocals). I couldn't hear the beeps at all on Super Road Blaster, Ninja Gaiden Trilogy was the least bad, but still obviously too loud, and I could barely hear the announcer over Ozzy on Rock 'n Roll Racing.

[Relikk]

I just tested mine and there's no differences for me. It's exactly the same as it was on previous GSU versions, and stock firmware. No idea what the problem could be on your end.

[Eyedunno]

I just tested mine and there's no differences for me. It's exactly the same as it was on previous GSU versions, and stock firmware. No idea what the problem could be on your end.

Ack, thought maybe it might have something to do with using the dotsarecool modified menu.bin, so I redownloaded both firmwares and put the original, unaltered menu.bin from each firmware on their respective cards. No difference--still way too loud with the boost on v08, but not on vanilla 0.1.7e.

I also opened up my SD2SNES to confirm the PCB revision. It is NOT revision F, but Revision E1 (I have one of the first StoneAgeGamer SD2SNESes, lucky #013).

[James-F]

RedGuy just released a small v08.2 update which fixes GSU-1 and GSU-2 timings.

Copy this over v08:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/430550791552630800/439066633458417684/fpga_gsu.bit

I have compared Stunt Race FX (GSU-2) intro+'first yellow car demo' and StarFox 2 demo (GSU-2), both stayed in sync almost to the frame.
Also, Vortex (GSU-2) looks pretty spot on.
Moreover, GSU-1 timing improved and now the ship explodes by the two rockets 95% of the time, and timing matches more closely.

Have Fun.