Code change to enable SAM LE driver board support

[DJRobX]

New build: 

1) Fix CSI & IJ (again)
2) Fix sound stuttering in SF2 and other heavily divided IRQ systems
3) Fix Walking Dead LE lights.  Turns out there's two more banks of lights.  There's also something writing garbage, so I filter that out if I see malformed data. 

 

 

 

vpm111116.zip

[Drybonz]

Thanks DJR... I dropped the 111116 version in and got a MS Net unhandled exception error on the new Scared Stiff by nFozzy.  Played for a few minutes before the error popped up.

Still getting some stuttery sound in Kingpin.

Indiana Jones table starting and playing with no problems!

Also... forgot to mention the mouse cursor fix is working great and is great not to have that floating around on the PF.

[DJRobX]

.NET exceptions are B2S.   If you dig through this thread (LOL) you'll find a post where I shared an updated B2S DLL that will stop intermittent crashing when modulated solenoids are on.   Here's the link to that download.    Really hope we can get all this new stuff stable so we can do a unified release. 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5o61qx0gahc8r24/b2s102516b.zip?dl=0

 

[Drybonz]

Yeah, I thought I had been following all this pretty closely and I still missed that.  Thanks.

[Thalamus]

Unfortunately, I'm still getting sound distortion on T2 using 111116. Played two short games, Was most noticeable during the canon and video mode.

Using this version :

http://thalamus.no-ip.com/tmp/Terminator 2 - Judgment Day (Williams 1991).vpx

t2_l8 rom set on volume 10.

 

 

[DJRobX]

Thanks for the report Thalamus.  Try this build out and see if it improves.  It seemed OK on my cab with this build, but there are a lot of variables in keeping sound buffers happy.    

Change list:

1) Improve mid-vsync throttling to only use sleep(), for approximate and more CPU friendly mid-vsync time alignment.    We don't need that to be exact, we just want the CPU to process input more evenly so it can respond to flipper input more readily.  

2) Significantly improve Capcom sound for Kingpin and possibly others.  Buffer code was not correctly hanlding wrap around in many cases.   Also disable "BOF hack", which cleans up sound effects in Kingpin very nicely, not sure what the purpose of it was in the first place.

3) Change SAM to control the VPM throttling rate to keep the sound buffer filled at the desired level.   I previously had used a hack to fire more IRQs but that can mess with internal timing.  This instead speeds up or slows down the entire emulation slightly to keep things in alignment, which makes the sound very smooth.    I intend to port this type of throttling to other machines that may need it also (I really want to stop that awful warbling in WPC at some point). 

4) Remove some SAM JIT timeslice checks as they were discarding some CPU instruction counts.  They were the culprit that caused IJ to give that "Not in this country" message when more MAME events were scheduled.

vpm111316.zip

[Drybonz]

Thanks, DJR.

*edit*  Kingpin sounds perfect now.  I did notice that sometimes the initial lights for that game don't come on when you start a new game (delayed).  Is that a rom issue, or something with the table?

[TylerDurden67]

thanks djrobx for your works

 

btw,latest vpinmame update doesnt include the "sound"option like 1 pinmame 2 using pinsound etc..

when you choose setup defaults,none option can be written on the sound mode case,even changing sound key using regedit doesnt change anything,

 

can you have look at it,please?

 

[luvthatapex]

version 111316 is working great here. Much improved!!! Love it, thanks for your hard work!

[CarnyPriest]

40 minutes ago, TylerDurden67 said:

thanks djrobx for your works

 

btw,latest vpinmame update doesnt include the "sound"option like 1 pinmame 2 using pinsound etc..

when you choose setup defaults,none option can be written on the sound mode case,even changing sound key using regedit doesnt change anything,

 

can you have look at it,please?

 

That has to be set while compiling. We'll get this and and the dmd support module all tied together when things are more stabilized. This is all beta development, so have some patience. Thanks.

[Thalamus]

How frustrating it must be for you DjRobX.

I believe the new release to be working much better - but there is still intermittent sound distortion on T2.

The studder I believe is gone, At least I didn't notice any. The distortion can come at any time, In the beginning I was sure you had nailed it because it was perfect

for the first 6 rounds or so. Very had to nail I expect.

 

So, since this is intermittent. I decided to load up an older version of the 103106b - yes, very old. Just to check that this doesn't happen on my computer only.

It doesn't. That release has no issues with the sound at all it seems.

 

[DJRobX]

3 hours ago, Drybonz said:

Thanks, DJR.

*edit*  Kingpin sounds perfect now.  I did notice that sometimes the initial lights for that game don't come on when you start a new game (delayed).  Is that a rom issue, or something with the table?

Yeah I definitely see the same thing.    Wasn't sure what it was either, I was only looking at the sound since someone reported it was choppy.    Mine always does that on the initial game. 

[DJRobX]

2 hours ago, Thalamus said:

So, since this is intermittent. I decided to load up an older version of the 103106b - yes, very old. Just to check that this doesn't happen on my computer only.

It doesn't. That release has no issues with the sound at all it seems.

 

Hmm, ok. What CPU are you running?   

I'm probably going to look at re-working how WPC sounds work to get rid of that horrible warble soon.   

[Thalamus]

On this rig :

Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU    Q6700  @ 2.66GHz

Went back to the latest and greatest to play and test other tables. Before going to bed, I decided to have a couple of runs with T2 again.

No problems. So, this is really intermittent and probably a pain in the "#¤" to pin down.

 

[robertms]

Is anyone else experiencing staticy, stuttery audio with the latest 111316 build on Scared Stiff?

[DJRobX]

Anyone reporting performance issues please include CPU info.  Thanks!

[robertms]

3 hours ago, robertms said:

Is anyone else experiencing staticy, stuttery audio with the latest 111316 build on Scared Stiff?

 

54 minutes ago, DJRobX said:

Anyone reporting performance issues please include CPU info.  Thanks!

Sorry DJR, I'm running an i5 4670K 3.5GHz, 8GB RAM, GTX980, Win 7

[OzBlackKnight]

13 hours ago, DJRobX said:

4) Remove some SAM JIT timeslice checks as they were discarding some CPU instruction counts.  They were the culprit that caused IJ to give that "Not in this country" message when more MAME events were scheduled.

vpm111316.zip

Great work DJRobX. Indiana is working perfectly now.

[robertms]

1 hour ago, robertms said:

 

Sorry DJR, I'm running an i5 4670K 3.5GHz, 8GB RAM, GTX980, Win 7

Another observation, the choppy audio on Scared Stiff occurs only when running the table directly from the editor (v2847) but seems fine when launched via Pinball X (v2.16). I'm not even sure how that makes any sense, am I doing something wrong?

[Thalamus]

Found robertms post interesting. Especially since I haven't played Scared Stiff much since its release. Latest 11316, started from within PinballX.

Immediately noticed crackling, short ones though. Estimated max half second - the longest ones. Noticed that the rom volume was on 26 default. Put it down to 15 and then later up to 20.

No problems. Played 2 x 4 player rounds without any problems. Restarted table all from the start between these 4 player games.

Cranked the volume up to 26 again and played another 4 player game without a hitch.

So, to me it sound like the problem described earlier - a problem that might occur at any time. 

I know it doesn't help you much DJRobX - sorry.

[DJRobX]

No its helpful to know its probably one in the same issue.

[CarnyPriest]

Double-check compiling optimizations? I believe at this point these are set in the official source code, but might be worth a look to see that these options are set. This relates to the build from 1111 where I was getting static, double looping audio, warbling on SS. I have not yet installed 1113.

[Drybonz]

The crackling at volumes 26-27+ has always been there.  Toxie has talked about it before.  He believes it is present on the original roms and has even had a couple guys check on their real tables to confirm that it was there.

[CarnyPriest]

Yeah, I set WPC levels to 25. I don't know if you have been working specifically on WPC, but I have fewer issues with 1113 than with 1111 at least with Scared Stiff VPX. This is outside and inside of PinballX. Launching from CLI and from the editor. There's a little scratchiness, but it doesn't seem like more than what we've usually been dealing with. No audio looping.

 

i5 3570k, 3.4GHz no overclocking

[Thalamus]

@Drybonz The odd thing is that I didn't get back any crackling when I turned the volume up again. It was part of the test for me.

@CarnyPriest I agree with you. 11136 is good. But, tables that to my knowledge has been crackling free now from time to time spew out "noise".