gnuboy-for-dfi/docs/README.old

GNUBOY README


  INTRO

Welcome to gnuboy, one of the few pieces of Free Software to emulate
the Game Boy handheld game console. Written in ANSI C with a few
optional assembler optimizations for particular cpus, gnuboy supports
a wide range of host systems, and has been tested successfully on:

  GNU/Linux
  FreeBSD
  OpenBSD
  BeOS
  Linux/390 (IBM S/390 Mainframe)
  SunOS/Sun Ultra60
  IRIX/SGI O2
  IRIX/SGI Indy
  AIX/Unknown
  DR-DOS
  MS-DOS
  Windows DOS box
  Windows 9x/NT/2k

Additionally, gnuboy should run on any other *nix variants that have
ANSI C compilers and that are remotely POSIX compliant. As gnuboy is
Free Software, you're welcome to fix any problems you encounter
building it for a particular system, or to port it to entirely new
systems.

For build instructions, see the file INSTALL. For information on the
structure of the source tree, program flow, design decisions and
guidelines, porting, and so on, read HACKING.


  GENERAL USAGE

Just pass the name of the rom to load on the command line. Default
keybindings are as follows:

  esc         - exit
  arrow keys  - d-pad
  alt         - a
  ctrl        - b
  space       - select
  enter       - start
  0-9         - select savestate slot
  ins         - save current state
  del         - return to saved state

  joypad      - d-pad
  joy0        - b
  joy1        - a
  joy2        - select
  joy3        - start

(Note: joystick is not available on all platforms at this time.)

If you want to change these or other options, you should create a
gnuboy.rc file. See the system-specific info below for where to put
it.

The rc subsystem is very similar to Quake's console in many
respects. You have commands and variables. First, the commands:

  quit        - exit gnuboy (saving sram)
  reset       - reset to powerup state
  source      - process another rc file
  set         - set a variable's value
  bind        - bind keys
  unbind      - remove a keybinding
  unbindall   - remove all keybindings
  savestate   - save current state
  loadstate   - return to saved state

Additionally, each gameboy pad button has two commands, one to press
it, and another to release it -- for example, +start and -start. When
a key is bound to one of these commands that starts with a +, it will
perform the corresponding - command when it's released, as expected.

Here's a list of the + commands, though they should be obvious:

  +start  +select  +a  +b  +up  +down  +left  +right

Now for the variables. To set any of the rc variables, just put the
command of the form "set variable value" in your gnuboy.rc or other rc
file. Some of the more interesting variables are:

  rcpath      - search path for loading extra rc files
  savedir     - the directory where save files will be stored
  savename    - base of filename to use for sram and savestates
  forcedmg    - set to 1/true/yes to force color roms to play mono
  framelen    - delay in microseconds between frames
  framecount  - run only the given number of frames, then exit

  dmg_bgp     - specify 4 custom colors to be used for mono background
  dmg_wndp    - same thing, but for the window layer
  dmg_obp0    - and for sprite palette 0
  dmg_obp1    - and sprite palette 1

  scale       - factor for screen scaling; currently only 1 and 2 work
  density     - density level for screen scaling; see description below

  sprsort     - x-sort sprites for correctness on dmg roms

  syncrtc     - fake elapsed time on rtc since last session at startup

  trace       - output a complete cpu trace to stdout
  sprdebug    - display bars indicating sprite count per line

There are a few others which may or not be useful. Also, certain
system and display targets have their own variables, which will be
described in the relevant sections below. For more info on how the
variables work, read the source.

For sample rc files, look in the etc/ directory.

Finally, to display help, version, or copying information, use the
--help, --version, or --copying options respectively on the gnuboy
command line.


  USAGE - *NIX SYSTEMS

The file gnuboy.rc should be placed in ~/.gnuboy/. If it is not found
in this location, the current working directory will be
searched. The following defaults will be used:

  rcpath      - ~/.gnuboy:.
  savedir     - ~/.gnuboy/saves

If you don't like these, override them with gnuboy.rc.

There are presently four *nix targets supported: X11, SDL, and Linux
fbcon and svgalib. In the future other fb devices (such as the Sun
console) should be supported as well.

If you have problems with gnuboy running too slowly on svgalib, turn
off the vsync option, i.e. set vsync 0. Putting --no-vsync on the
command line works as well. At this point svgalib is the only one that
supports vsync, so it's a non-issue on the others.


  USAGE - DOS and Windows

Place your gnuboy.rc in the same directory as gnuboy.exe. You need to
specify a save directory in it; otherwise the working directory will
be used, which is probably not what you want. For example, if you've
installed gnuboy.exe in c:/gnuboy, and you want your saves to be
stored in c:/gnuboy/saves, place the following in a plain text file
called gnuboy.rc in c:/gnuboy.

  set savedir c:/gnuboy/saves

By default stereo sound is disabled on DOS since it doesn't work right
on some of the systems we've tested; to enable it, add the following
line to your gnuboy.rc:

  set stereo 1


  VIDEO MODES

Now all the display targets except Linux fbcon support the uniform
"vmode" rcvar to set the video mode. From the rc file, you can specify
a video mode like this (for 640x480, 16bpp):

  set vmode 640 480 16

Or you can specify the mode on the command line, as

  --vmode=640,480,16

If the requested video mode is not available, gnuboy may either give
an error message or use a similar available mode.


  SCREEN SCALING

Scaling by integral factors 1-4 is now supported. Just set the rcvar
"scale" to the desired scaling factor. Most of the display targets
will automatically choose a video mode appropriate to the chosen
scale, but DOS and Linux fbcon users should be aware they they need to
set the mode manually, as described above. Of course, if you prefer,
you can always set it manually.

By default, for performance reasons, vertical scaling will not be
fully dense but will leave some blank scanlines. This behavior can be
adjusted by means of the "density" rcvar. Density 0, the default,
skips every other line. Nonzero values N fill in the first N copies of
the scanline, and leave the remaining scale-N scanlines blank. So, if
you want a fully filled in display (and the worst performance), you
should set density to the same value as scale.

Please be aware that this code is still slightly experimental, and the
ways of configuring scaling may change considerably in the next few
releases.


  HARDWARE ACCELERATED YUV-SPACE SCREEN SCALING

If you're using the SDL display target and your video card/driver
supports it, hardware screen scaling is available. This feature
provides scaling to any size with almost no cpu usage! It's enabled by
default if the screen resolution is set to 320x288 or higher; manually
set the "yuv" rcvar to 0 or 1 to force it off or on, respectively.

Scaling will be performed to fill the entire requested video mode.
For example, to scale to 640x480, either add the following line to
your gnuboy.rc:

  set vmode 640 480

or put --vmode=640,480 on the command line. A better alternative is to
just request a particular scale, for example with:

  set scale 4

or --scale=4 on the command line; this way the gameboy's near 1:1
aspect ratio won't become distorted.


  SOUND SUPPORT

At this point all features are implemented and everything should be
right, so any incorrect sound output should be treated as a bug, which
we'll try to fix as soon as possible.


  JOYSTICK AND GAMEPAD SUPPORT

At this time, the Linux and SDL joystick devices are the only ones
supported. We hope to have DOS joystick support soon.

Binding joystick controls works the same way as for the keyboard. Just
use the key names joyup, joydown, joyright, joyleft, joy0, joy1, joy2,
etc. Default bindings should probably be ok for most users, except
that A/B might be backwards on some gamepads.


  PERFORMANCE

Here are some performance estimates i've gathered (given in percent
cpu utilization, running at full 60 fps)...

                                 Optimized C        Assembly
  AMD K6-2/450                       12%               8%
  Pentium/75                     (too slow)           70%
  SGI O2                             25%            (no asm)
  SGI Indy                           70%            (no asm)
  Sun Ultra60                       3-20%           (no asm)
  IBM S/390                      about 0.3%         (no asm)

Note that these figures were computed before sound was implemented.
Until the sound code is further optimized, gnuboy may run somewhat
slower than these numbers suggest.


  SUPPORTED MEMORY BANK CONTROLLERS (MBCS)

At this time, gnuboy supports MBC1, MBC2, MBC3 (including realtime
clock), and MBC5 (including the version with rumble support, although
that functionality is omitted).


  GRAPHICS SUPPORT

Color Gameboy roms are supported completely, including so-called
"highcolor" tricks. Yes, even in 256-color mode, although in games
that use too many colors on one screen, the later ones will only be
approximated. Use a 16 bpp (or higher) display mode if this is a
problem.

Alternatively, for games that look bad in 256 color mode, you can
run in simulated 3/3/2 bits per channel truecolor. Just set the
variable rgb332 to something nonzero (or just putting --rgb332 on the
command line will work). Color precision is lost somewhat, especially
in smooth gradients, but for the most part it looks very good.

Much care has been put into ensuring that the lcd timings and
interrupts behave as closely to the real hardware as possible. A few
features remain unimplemented, such as reduced length HBLANK depending
on the number of sprites visible on the scanline, but the vast
majority of display tricks used in current roms work fine.

We do, however, lack information on proper GDMA timings, which could
theoretically cause problems for some roms. If you can provide us with
accurate information, please do!


  COMPATIBILITY

Eventually I'll put detailed information here. For now, just see known
bugs for the few cases where roms fails.


  KNOWN BUGS

The portal between the temple and the Talon in FFL3 is glitched and
the game freezes for a second or two building the incorrect animation
when entering those screens.

GDMA finishes instantly, whereas it should take time. Making it take
time breaks Wacky Races, last I checked, so apparently the documents I
have on GDMA timing are incorrect. Same goes for HDMA. Good
information would be much appreciated.

The main loop in emu_run is very sloppy and not quite right, but it
works.

Sound mixing is taking way too much cpu time. I have some ideas for
fixing this, and I plan to write optimized assembly code for sound
eventually. If it's a problem try turning down the sample rate.

YUV-space hardware scaling only supports the common "YUY2" mode so
far. More modes will be added in the future.


  REPORTING OR FIXING BUGS

Found a bug not mentioned above, or better yet, fixed one? Send bug
reports or patches to gnuboy@starfox.org. Please be aware that
distribution of any code based on gnuboy must follow the provisions of
the GPL, so if you don't agree to this, don't send code to us or
anyone else. Let us know if you wish to be included in the credits.

For guidelines regarding code contributions, see the file HACKING.

Please be aware that evaluating contributed code and figuring out if
or how to work it in can take time. If we haven't done anything with
your code yet, please be patient.


  THANKS

Thanks goes out to everyone who's expressed interest in gnuboy by
writing -- users, porters, authors of other emulators, and so forth.
Apologies if we don't get a personal response out to everyone, but
either way, consider your feedback well appreciated.


  EPILOGUE

OK, that looks like about it. More to come, stick around...



  -Laguna