< Why there is no 32-bit build of melonDSSneak peek >
Slowdown
Aug 7th 2017, by Arisotura
So things have been quiet lately. My apologies for that, and I can assure you that melonDS isn't dead.


First thing is that real life is striking back. My current job is ending at the end of this month, and I need to finish their project (fresh new website) and put it live. Most of it is done already, but it takes time to check everything and ensure it's alright and looks nice and all. So this occupies my mind more.


I'm also busy with parts of the melonDS adventure that don't produce a whole lot of visual results. For one, I'm investigating interpolation, and once again we're into weird land.

Z interpolation, for example: the depth buffer is 24-bit, but in Z-buffering mode, interpolation suffers from precision loss at various stages. The output precision actually depends on the value range being interpolated over (the greater the difference, the bigger the precision loss).

W-buffering doesn't have these issues as it uses untransformed W values, and uses the regular perspective-correct interpolation path (while Z-buffering requires using special linear interpolation as transformed Z values are already linear into screen space).

Regular perspective-correct interpolation is weird too. It seems to apply correction to W values based on their first bit. I don't quite see what was intended there, if it was intended at all -- after all, it could just be a hardware glitch. But regardless, that causes slight differences that can have visible effects. It's generally a texture being one pixel off, so one would say it doesn't really matter, but I like figuring out the logic behind what I'm observing.


I also want to finally tackle the UI. melonDS has become a fairly solid emulator, but the current UI doesn't really reflect that.

I still haven't picked something to go with, though. I think I'll pick something lightweight, like byuu's hiro, and modify it to interoperate nicely with SDL. I'm not sure how well that can work across platforms, but ideally I would create a SDL window and add a menubar to it, rather than having two separate windows.


I'm also thinking about a buildbot type thing. People wouldn't have to wait for proper releases, but on the other hand, I fear it reduces or kills my incentive to do proper releases.
16 comments have been posted.
< Why there is no 32-bit build of melonDSSneak peek >
huckleberrypie says:
Aug 8th 2017
Just don't make it as convoluted as byuu's higan UI though. A number of people either rolled back or backported changes from later higan releases to classic bsnes due to that ROM organisation system of his.
Arisotura says:
Aug 8th 2017
Well no, the folder ROM thing is something I'm definitely not adopting. hiro would merely serve as the way to create the interface. The new interface would be similar to the current one, sans the useless menu-window.
huckleberrypie says:
Aug 8th 2017
Yeah the current UI does look a little convoluted, though it's understandable given the work-in-progress nature of this emu.
Ririshi says:
Aug 8th 2017
Hi Staple, just stumbled upon your emu as I was searching for WiFi support for DeSmuME! Love your emulator so far, but I do agree the UI could use a bit of a rework. If it's possible, maybe you could hide the console at start unless the user wants it to be opened. For me as an end user who doesn't benefit anything by seeing those - for me rather obscure - what I assume to be hardware calls, having the console open isn't really useful. Other than that, great work and a thousand thanks :)
allcaps says:
Aug 8th 2017
I'd probably skip the buildbot for now. As a user I'd rather have periodic releases that are somewhat stable and contain meaningful advances in form/function. It's annoying and troublesome to read "the stable release is really old, but the latest dev release/builds are great" when finding any software project.
Guy says:
Aug 8th 2017
Android port pls
Guy says:
Aug 8th 2017
And id like a buildbot to have the latest tests!
Tsusun says:
Aug 9th 2017
ps vita ports pls
AsPika2219 says:
Aug 10th 2017
You can use Appveyor on this website! https://www.appveyor.com Desmume also using this one before!
PSISP says:
Aug 10th 2017
Have you considered using Qt for the UI? I found it to be easy to adopt for my code, and getting emulator graphics to display isn't too difficult. The only problem I can see is that Qt by itself does not support sound, but there's likely a fix for that.
Covarr says:
Aug 11th 2017
I don't know that you need to apologize for lack of updates after only two weeks. You're still giving us these fancy news posts far more often than the Dolphin team, and nobody says that's dead.
Luigi442wii says:
Aug 11th 2017
No one is saying your project is dead, and the fact you've managed to accelerate this far as a hobbyist in such a short space of time is astonishingly impressive. You're a pretty good programmer and I think as long as you take your time and produce the best you can you'll get good results in return. :)
Rin Tohsaka says:
Aug 13th 2017
@huckleberrypie

There wouldn't even be a point in even doing such a thing for the DS since many of byuu's choices stemmed out of the problems with regard to accuracy and preservation that the SNES rom/emulation scene was facing at the time - problems that do not exist in the DS rom/emulation scene (possibly due the abundance of flash carts, so having clean rips and being compatible with the original hardware was extremely important).
Rin Tohsaka says:
Aug 13th 2017
@StapleButter

The folder ROM thing wouldn't even make sense for the DS since a game card literally is just an EEPROM (game data) and some flash memory (save data)...
rally says:
Aug 15th 2017
:) No problem, take your time buddy, we're happy to have you arround, take your time UuU <3
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