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 Post subject: Daphne runs fine...(Gentoo Linux) [RESOLVED]
PostPosted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 11:22 am 
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Hi all,

Okay, I was FINALLY able to build my Arcade OS from gentoo-sources (linux kernel 2.6.18 r6) just recently, and the system itself is humming along quite fine (I'll have some images and a walkthrough for *Nix enthusiasts of the end result to share ready once I get some of this stuff sorted out) for both Audio and Video. I went ahead and got an E-GeForce 6200 256MB card so as to take advantage of the OpenGL code Matt is using in the latest beta builds while not burning a hole in my wallet (brand new for $20), and the onboard nForce3 Alsa audio drivers are working nicely (the box is a bareboes Shuttle Xpc SN85G4 micro unit to fit in my candy cabinet). GLXinfo shows direct rendering is enabled and glxgears puts out some decently smooth playback (1774.35 on average). After compiling Daphne and VLDP from CVS assets, I was able to get Dragon's Lair Enhanced (ver. 2.1) running just fine. So what's the problem? Well, there are a few things that I noticed that, either due to my own ineptitude or otherwise, just don't seem right or I can't seem to directly address/work out on my own without more help/suggestions. Here's a breakdown:

  • Why is Daphne trying to grep /proc/pci? - You can see below what I mean based on a snippet of my Xterm output:

    Code:
    --DAPHNE Version 0.101.22
    --Command line is: ./daphne dle21 vldp -framefile lair.txt -fullscreen
    --CPU : AuthenticAMD 1800 Mhz || Mem : 896 megs
    cat: /proc/pci: No such file or directory
    --OS : Linux 2.6 || Video : Unkown video
    Set 640x480 at 32bpp with flags: 80000000
        ...


    From what I've been learning about Gentoo, it and a few other distributions now no longer use the traditional /dev chain since they have moved on to using "udev" instead; not to mention basically considered deprecated in general since 2002 according to this bit of info. In fact, this latest linux revision from Gentoo removed the "Legacy PCI /proc/pci" kernel flag option. In other words, I have no /proc/pci variable for Daphne to search against, nor can I can I build legacy support for it into my current kernel, but I most definitely do have my video card installed correctly despite its findings. Is Daphne trying to cat this to find out what my video card is? Is there a USE flag I should pass to Daphne before I compile for it to use/see my Nvidia drivers since they are not built into the kernel, or should I start thinking about moving on to a different Linux distribution that supports the old /dev structure? How 'bout this: why not have it cat both /proc/pci and grep against the output of lsmod (lsmod | grep nvidia), or lspci aswell?
  • YUV support - where you at, dawg?! - Seriously though :wink: , I know that the GeForce 6200 supports it based on the output of the Nvidia-Settings tool (an emerged Nvidia application from Portage). You can see what Daphne is saying in the snippet here:

    Code:
         ...
    Framefile parse succeeded. Video/Audio directory is: /lasercade/assets/
    YUV overlay is done in software (ie unaccelerated).
    Booting ROM ...


    Is this normal for Dragon's Lair and/or when the -useoverlaysb switch isn't set? Or, is this a value that will always be set based on what Daphne can find (or can't find) in terms of a video card upon initialization?
  • Audio samples - is a low number a bad thing? - This last little bit is also a bit troubling to see:

    Code:
    Initializing sound system ...
    GI Sound chip initialized at 2000000 Hz
    WARNING : requested 2048 samples for sound buffer, but got 940 samples
    ...


    I don't like warnings at all. Does this error have something to do with my onboard audio card, or the audio that I pulled from my Laserdisc during the conversion (saved in .ogg format)? While both the video and audio play just fine, I do notice a very faint "crackle-pop" sound every 10 seconds or so every other time as the game cycled through the intro sequence. While it isn't very noticeable at all at times, is this error something I should worry about? Should I be able to send it a higher sample number than 940?

  • Anouncer voice suppression and dip banks - I guess this may only apply to the DLE version, but I noticed that after the game finishes loading and starts the intro sequence for the first time, you can hear the announcer's voice quite clearly. However, the attract suddenly stops after about 21 seconds or so and starts over again, this time without the announcer voice and it continues on like that forever during attract mode. To troubleshoot, I went ahead and loaded the F2 rom version of "lair" to be sure it wasn't my audio file, and sure enough the announcer can be heard the entire time throughout the attract mode. Is this normal behaviour for dle21 or is it just me?

    Also, I noticed that the daphne docs.html page with the source mentioned that one would use Bank 0 and Bank 1 to set dipswitches at commandline. Is it safe to assume that Bank 0 and 1 are A and B respectively, or is it the other way around?


Other than everything I listed above, Daphne seems to run and play just fine :). However, any and all help with regards to the listed items would be greatly appreciated.


Last edited by lowlight on Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:39 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 6:50 pm 
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It uses /proc/pci just to find out what video card you're using for statistical purposes; it doesn't matter if this attempt fails.

You need SDL compiled with xv support for minimal hardware acceleration.

The smaller the sound buffer, the most responsive the sound will be, but if it's too small it will sound choppy. 2048 is a safe default but 940 is certainly no reason to stop breathing. Under 512 is when you can start sweating.


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 Post subject: Re: Some odd issues, yet Daphne runs fine...(Gentoo Linux)?
PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 11:02 am 
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lowlight wrote:
Anouncer voice suppression and dip banks - I guess this may only apply to the DLE version, but I noticed that after the game finishes loading and starts the intro sequence for the first time, you can hear the announcer's voice quite clearly. However, the attract suddenly stops after about 21 seconds or so and starts over again, this time without the announcer voice and it continues on like that forever during attract mode. To troubleshoot, I went ahead and loaded the F2 rom version of "lair" to be sure it wasn't my audio file, and sure enough the announcer can be heard the entire time throughout the attract mode. Is this normal behaviour for dle21 or is it just me?


This is normal when the game DIP switches are set to disable attract mode audio. The switch mappings are totally different between DL F2 and DLE 2.1, so presumably your switch settings are telling DLE to disable it.

As for why you still get the announcer at first when you have attract audio disabled:

The ROM sends a "play" command to the disc player on the second beep during startup, so vldp dutifully starts playing, including audio, which is on when an LD player is powered on.

On the "chime", the game is fully booted, and starts the attract mode. This is when it sends the mute command to the player.

The original game hardware works this way as well, although it takes a lot longer for the disc player to start up, so it usually doesn't run much into the attract mode. You only see the diag screens flipping by, which of course aren't really running any diags, they're just being played by the player.

If you want to prevent the "false" diag screens and attract mode from showing, you can add a blank m2v to your framefile with a frame index of 1. VLDP will play this one when it gets the "play" command, so it doesn't show the actual video until the ROM mutes/searches to the actual attract mode start frame.


lowlight wrote:
Also, I noticed that the daphne docs.html page with the source mentioned that one would use Bank 0 and Bank 1 to set dipswitches at commandline. Is it safe to assume that Bank 0 and 1 are A and B respectively, or is it the other way around?


Yes, bank 0 is A and 1 is B. Daphne uses banks 0 to n for all games, so they aren't always labeled exactly the way the game board lists them.

Let us know how your project works out. Daphne cabs rule! :)

-Warren.


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 Post subject: thanks guys!
PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 2:20 pm 
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...and thanks to the both of you for the help in the Chatroom, too! As always chat is the most sanest approach to working issues out :wink: . As to the xv needed in SDL, yes Matt, you were 100% correct on this (just like in chat). The only reason it didn't seem to take right away is due to the fact that I was being impatient and forgot to re-compile (emerge) my nvidia-drivers after I re-did libsdl. If I could make a suggestion though, it would be nice to have that note about xv support in the Linux install notes, as the current copy doesn't mention this... :wink: :wink: :wink: (remember, I was baking this cake based on your instructions) :wink: :wink: :wink:


After I recompiled libsdl (SDL) for both xv support as well as opengl support (USE="xv opengl"), Daphne started to play nice and acknowledge the video settings and defualt to hardware acceleration. Of course, this still doesn't explain why Daphne can't discern the name/make of my video card...I find that a bit odd. :oops:


As for the audio, how would I go about increasing the buffer amount Daphne can use; is that a switch controlled feature? I know now that 920 is nothing to really worry about in the light of eternity, but I'm pretty sure that if I push it a bit more I'd be golden for this audio deal. As it is now, there's the faintest "baby-pop" sound at the beginning and end of the Dragon's Lair demo sequence audio. This phenomenon also seems to occur at least 3 times throughout the demonstation's play duration. Again, it's not horrible, staticy or anything like that since it is actually quite pleasant sounding despite the fact, but I can notice it and that does bothers me (I start thinking other people may be able to hear it too) :( . As I mentoined before I'm using the onboard nForce3 audio chipset (AC'97) and I compiled Alsa support directly into the linux kernel rather than modularized, so I don't have an .asoundrc file or anything like that to adjust if that's what I need to do. Other audio apps and the other emulator I'm using to support quasi-Taito Laserdisc support (thanks to HowardC's post a while back, I was able to find an auction on Ebay for a PS1 Time Gal disk) do not exhibit the audio problem that daphne does...which is why I'm assuming this buffer business is something I can adjust within Daphne. Let me know your advice/suggestions on this :) .



And lastly, the announcer business. Thanks for the explanation on this bit, Warren. I had assumed this was normal, but like with MACH3 ("Daddy-Mac3"), my experience with the real thing is very limited especially as an operator and not a player. I'll see if I can set the bios accordingly as you suggested with the info you provided :D.


Audio notwithstanding, I think I'm almost GTG....and to think you guys wanted me to abandon my poor Gentoo load....well I know Layer probably does, anyway :wink:! Again, please reply back when you get a chance if you have any suggestions for the audio. Thanks again!


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 4:06 pm 
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I'm sure Gentoo rockz da hizzy..however..I suck at Linux :D


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 Post subject: Re: thanks guys!
PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 5:48 pm 
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lowlight wrote:
If I could make a suggestion though, it would be nice to have that note about xv support in the Linux install notes, as the current copy doesn't mention this... :wink: :wink: :wink: (remember, I was baking this cake based on your instructions) :wink: :wink: :wink:


Ok, I've updated the instructions in CVS with a mention of this.

Quote:
Of course, this still doesn't explain why Daphne can't discern the name/make of my video card...I find that a bit odd. :oops:


As you already observed, Daphne can't observe the name of your video card because /proc/pci doesn't exist. But the name of your video card is _only_ used to for statistical purposes and has no functional value whatsoever; in other words, Daphne will still work the same whether or not the video card's name is discerned.

Quote:
As for the audio, how would I go about increasing the buffer amount Daphne can use


That is something that is beyond the control of Daphne. Basically, Daphne requested a buffer of size 2048 from SDL and SDL gave it 940; there's not much Daphne can do about that. I suspect it's a driver limitation in ALSA so you may look there.

I personally suspect that the audio buffer size is fine, and that the pops you are hearing are imperfections in the audio stream.


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 Post subject: Re: thanks guys!
PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 6:43 am 
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Matt Ownby wrote:

That is something that is beyond the control of Daphne. Basically, Daphne requested a buffer of size 2048 from SDL and SDL gave it 940; there's not much Daphne can do about that. I suspect it's a driver limitation in ALSA so you may look there.

I personally suspect that the audio buffer size is fine, and that the pops you are hearing are imperfections in the audio stream.


Hmmm...That is interesting. I'll have to look into SDL a bit more I suppose then. Either that, or recapture the audio from my LD and see if it makes a difference. Thanks again, Matt! :D


BTW, I can definitely see the difference now with MACH3 in OpenGL, the attract sequence was a little misleading since it seemed to still run slow there, but it started to run fast and furious as soon as it was coined up; great stuff!


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 7:06 am 
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Is it possible to tell if SDL has been compiled with XV and Opengl support? I'm using the standard library in Debian Etch and this has me wondering if I need to compile it myself. Performance on my system is great but I just want to make sure...


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 1:46 pm 
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Lost Dog wrote:
Is it possible to tell if SDL has been compiled with XV and Opengl support? I'm using the standard library in Debian Etch and this has me wondering if I need to compile it myself. Performance on my system is great but I just want to make sure...



Yes,it's very possible :). While I'm not quite familiar with how apt works in Debian, if it's anything like the portage system in Gentoo you should be able to poll your installed packages using a search switch of some sort or, alternatively, attempting a fake re-compile of the library. In my case, passing Gentoo the command below will make portage "pretend" to install the libsdl library again:

Code:
emerge -pv libsdl


Now, why would I want to do this? Well, amongst other useful information, it will show me what USE flags that package was previously compiled with. Debian's apt should have a feature just like this if not something more accurate than what I've done here. Of course, your biggest giveaway of whether or not SDL was compiled correctly with these items is if you see Daphne defaulting to software rendering for YUV overlays and/or the -opengl flag results in an error in your Daphne log file ;)


Last edited by lowlight on Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 3:23 pm 
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Quote:
Code:
portage -pv libsdl



This should be:

Code:
emerge -pv libsdl


Is Daphne 1.0 beta source available? I would like to start working on an ebuild for Gentoo so when 1.0 is released, the ebuild will be ready for Gentoo users to install the latest version.

Thanks,
Ken


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 Post subject: An oversight
PostPosted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:37 pm 
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Right, that portage <->emerge phrase was edited...I had portage on the mind when I wrote that comment. As to your question, as you can see based on this thread alone the beta of 1.0 has been available for quite some time. To get it, you'll need to go through CVS. The DaphneWiki explains this in detail.


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