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A new batch of CD bug reports

 
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Kaminari
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 28, 2002 2:56 am    Post subject: A new batch of CD bug reports Reply with quote

Regarding the progressive desynchronization discussed by Dave Shadoff in another post (which should be considered as a different problem from the ones mentioned below), the new Frame Delay option available in the latest beta allows to fix it nicely.

After some extensive experimentation, I found 16711 µs to be an excellent value compared to the default one (16667). You can test it with the karaoke intros of Tokimeki Memorial and Sotsugyou 2. The cut scene of Reiko's death (oops, spoiler) in Valis is also a perfect test, since it lasts more than five minutes and stays synchronized when the above value is used. (With the default one, the CD audio is lagging two seconds behind at the end of the scene.) In any case, I found no difference in deactivating the auto frame skipping feature; but just to be on the safe side, I guess it can't do any harm to leave it activated. David M, Dave S, what would you advise?

Now for the bug reports. All tested games are original. Each test has been reproduced at least three times.

o Burai 2

The first and second parts of the intro (before and after the title screen) are desync, the CD audio starts one second too soon.

The third part (the opening credits) is perfectly sync, but it freezes at the end.

o Snatcher

The first part of the intro is sync, but it freezes after the glowing blue 'Snatcher' logo. It was working OK in the previous beta.

o Sotsugyou (Graduation)

The karaoke intro is completely desync, the CD audio starts two seconds late.

o Tokimeki Memorial

The karaoke intro is perfectly sync, but it freezes at the end.

o Valis

All cut scenes are sync, except for the first one (when Yuko and Reiko talk to each other under the rain), the CD audio starts two seconds too soon.

Some little garbage appear on the end credit scroll.

(Save state available if necessary.)

o Valis 2

The background color of the cut scenes is dark green when it should be black...

That's all for now Smile
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ethylene
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 28, 2002 3:20 am    Post subject: Re: A new batch of CD bug reports Reply with quote

Kaminari wrote:
o Valis 2

The background color of the cut scenes is dark green when it should be black...

Really? I remember it that way on the TurboGrafx-CD console...

C2H4
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dmichel
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 28, 2002 6:42 am    Post subject: Re: A new batch of CD bug reports Reply with quote

Nice work Kaminari! Yes, this forum was a great idea. Wink

I will use 16711 as default value from now on... and that matches what Dave Shadoff had said about NTSC frequency not being exactly 60Hz, with this value we get a 59.85Hz refresh rate.

Quote:
In any case, I found no difference in deactivating the auto frame skipping feature; but just to be on the safe side, I guess it can't do any harm to leave it activated. David M, Dave S, what would you advise?


You can let it activated, it's the best I think. When this feature is enabled frames are skipped only when there's a slowdown in the emulation, in all the other cases it does nothing.

Now about the other kinds of CD audio delay... hmm, those are not easy to fix. I think it's because of CD seek time issues, I noticed that sometimes there was 1-2 second of sound that were cut when playing an audio track (the CD drive started to play audio 1-2 second after the beginning of the track), I don't know why that happens but it's perhaps because of some inertia of the CD drive...

Quote:

o Snatcher

The first part of the intro is sync, but it freezes after the glowing blue 'Snatcher' logo. It was working OK in the previous beta.


You sure about that? I didn't change anything in the emulation code...
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inzanerm
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 28, 2002 7:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

ah, that's why the intro of Golden Axe is de-synced... it is off by 2 seconds... (original cd)
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ethylene
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 28, 2002 8:11 am    Post subject: Re: A new batch of CD bug reports Reply with quote

dmichel wrote:
I don't know why that happens but it's perhaps because of some inertia of the CD drive...


Here's a great program to eliminate that:

CD-ROM Tool by Naiobrin Software

I use a PCE.BAT file that calls this program before running Magic Engine. It sets the CD-ROM speed to 1x.

Before I was using CD-ROM Tool, CD audio would sometimes skip, because data track access would cause the drive to spin up to its max. When the game sought the CD audio track, then, there wasn't enough time for the drive to spin down before the audio started.

Now I don't know if running at 40x or whatever could contribute to any de-syncing, but I've noticed a nice performance boost using CD-ROM Tool (no, I don't work for them) Very Happy (Besides, it's free!)

C2H4
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Danjuro
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 28, 2002 4:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

That is very interesting, reguarding some arguing I had with a friend, he complaining about desync from the start of the sequence and me not.

I explain.

I'm using MacOS 9-8.x and for some reason the CD Drivers are still quite sucky (for various reasons I won't detail here because I just pretend to be a geek, ha!). Anyway, when the CD-ROM is spinning down, it litteraly freezes all of the comp's process for half a second, and then everything is back to normal. This could explain why I never had such troubles.
A bad thing turning out to be a good one in the end.

It was a bit out of topic, sorry, just was fun to forsee an explanation for a long lasting question ;)
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Kaminari
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 29, 2002 6:05 pm    Post subject: Re: A new batch of CD bug reports Reply with quote

ethylene wrote:
Before I was using CD-ROM Tool, CD audio would sometimes skip, because data track access would cause the drive to spin up to its max. When the game sought the CD audio track, then, there wasn't enough time for the drive to spin down before the audio started.


Great tool indeed. Especially when you have a 40x drive noisy as hell and you only need it to spin at 4x when listening to a CD Razz

I really wished that spinning it down to 1x would have given me the same kind of benefit Danjuro gets with his 'buggy' MacOS CD driver Wink but sadly it didn't Crying or Very sad As far as the games mentioned above are concerned, it didn't make the slightest difference at all.

Sure our modern drives are way overkill for the modest PC Engine needs, but the bottom problem I described must be somewhere else, I guess.

PS: as for Valis 2, blimey, I tested it on my Duo and the background is dark green indeed. Talk about aesthetic taste...

PPS: David, I confirm about Snatcher.

PPPS: Dan, thanks for SC5 II Crying or Very sad (hug, smack)
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Kaminari
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 29, 2002 10:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

About Snatcher... It appears the problem was also present in 0.98 Smile

Mmm, well. I'd swear I remember looking at the whole intro in a previous beta...
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