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Dreamcast Emulator: Chankast


Posty

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Is that a constant GFX issue with the scope in your 7th pic from Silent Scope? If so, very disappointing :(. I absolutely pwned @ that game back when the coin-op vers first came here and I'd just love to try it out again.

Seems I'll hafta go through the DC games list after all, see if there are enough cool games in it for me to start workin this DC-emuing business. I remember most games weren't that awesome, but maybe those weren't all of em. Wonder if Silent Scope 2 came out for the DC as well. Hmmm...

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I never got this thing working..

I never really tried, though.

Is it a complicated install, any risks, etc?

:x

very easy to install, no risks (as far as i know)

only thing you need to do antyhing with it is: the bios (included in the package if i'm right) and a few games :P

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only thing you need to do antyhing with it is: the bios (included in the package if i'm right) and a few games :P

That's what I meant by risk...

Loading an emulator into my bios isn't exactly the safest thing.

Heck, using a regular emulator off your hard drive is enough risk!

:x

yep that is really too risky

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Are you people stupid? You need the DREAMCAST BIOS. It runs right off the hard drive, but the dreamcast bios runs with the emulator. The bios is just so the games have a so-to-say "dreamcast operating system" that runs with it. It wont fuck up your pc, and its totally safe.

Also, one note. With the games, you need Windows XP. This is why.

Some games have an audio/data setup. The audio track is for making itself bootable on the dreamcast (selftboot also required for emulator). For some reason, only windows xp reads these types of games correctly, and so on.

The only other type of game is a data/data boot. This is also a way of making the game boot. XP can read these as well, but the good news is that Windows 2000 can read these types too. The only bad thing is that not a whole lot of games use that.

AND ALSO: I repeat this. The dreamcast bios (dc_bios.bin and dc_flash.bin) are REQURED to make the emulator run. It does nothing to your pc's bios. IT DOES NOTHING to the pc's bios. It IS totally SAFE.

-Posty

PS - trust me on this. im an emulation junkie :P

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Are you people stupid?[...]

LMFAO!! Almost hit the floor when I read that 1 after our brilliant omni-posters were done with their first pass on this thread. I mean I was giggling already from the other 2 before yours, but that was... damn!

Anyways, back on topic, since I'm too bored to go dig in the DC emu scene, can you plz just gimme an overview, like who and who's behind Chanka, how long they've been workin @ it, what other versions of it have come before (if any), what kinda compatibility are we lookin (or estimating) @, how ahead it is as a breakthrough compared to other DC emus up to now (dunno any others, but I've never actively searched for some :?), etc.

Oh and tell me if that prob with the scope's a constant GFX issue f00. I wanna get into snipin heads again :) (was SS2 released for the DC too?).

PS: By the way, MTA doesn't require winXP's. I've been running it on win2kz for 8 months now, so I hope I'm right on this one...

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PS: By the way, MTA doesn't require winXP's. I've been running it on win2kz for 8 months now, so I hope I'm right on this one...

I believe Windows 2000 and Windows XP are "comparable" operating systems... In fact, MTA might even say it works on both, but I've only ever heard XP...

Perhaps not enough people use Windows 2000...

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@Prokopis: Lol, why were you laughing when i asked if they were so stupid :P

Anyways, that IS an SS bug, so it isnt really playable.... Otherwise, itd work perfectly... That kinda sucks.

Anyways, to the other questions.

Garofi (spell? :P) and a few others are actively working on Chanka. So far, this is the only version of it, but a new release (fixing many bugs, and adding much to compatability) is soon to follow, about a week supposedly. Compatability for 0.1 is probably about 30% of Dreamcast games, and thats because of some crash errors and VGA-Only support (0.2 will support non-vga games). But you have to understand, this is work after 3 months ;) This is very far ahead in DC emulation. The only other emulator that runs DC games hasnt been released (icarus.boob.co.uk) and it also runs games slower than this. But this emulator is possibly the best emu of the year. Also, as far as it is in compatability, the games run at a very decent speed, so this is a very good emulator ;)

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Once again I'll say wow. 30% compatibility for something so young seems quite an achievement, especially when there's no1 else from other projects and crews to get help from. One question you always gotta ask though, is where they get their info for the first and basic reverse engineering (if I remember correctly, it was kinda tricky for ppl to get started with the N64 some years ago). Unless of course it's the fact that modern gaming consoles have begun taking a form much more similar to PCs than ever before, thus making them easier to understand, model, figure out CPU repertoires, opcodes, general architecture, pipelinin' and the rest of the workings (video, audio, input).

Which brings me to the next question I wanted to ask: what's the emu's architecture like? Is it like a collection of seperate components tied together, like core, graphics, sound, input (plugin oriented), or is it just one big bundle with a huge options panel controlling everything? Giving ppl the freedom to write their own parts under standard specs would work much better and benefit the DC-emuing scene a lot more too I believe, but it doesn't happen with every emu out there. That way you can avoid huge time intervals between newer versions as well (:P), since those are mostly due to tedious core development, while during that time, different coders would produce their plugins, giving the community something new to try out every so often. Anyway ranting off a bit here... BTW is the main author(s) the one doing the GFX work as well, or not?

Uncool thing I suppose is the size of the DC games images, which would mean you'd need a few good gigs to store your lil collection after a while. Oh well, with added quality comes added size as usual (UT2k4 = 6CDs, mumble, mumble... :@).

Also,

ok, since most other places ban asking for games, FLASH AND BIOS[...]

Games images and bios files I can understand, but what the hell do you mean by "flash"? If you're referring to anything created by the emu from the running of games (controller saves, save states, other configs, or whatever), those are perfectly legal to discuss, exchange or distribute, I can assure you. If you meant something else, plz elaborate.

Anyway, thx again for the info Posty. Much appreciated 8).

PS: On a more odd note, Chanka reminds me of Sanka and we all know where that leads to, don't we? Yatta!!!

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u need flash and bios. i dunno wat flash does, maby its like, cmos for the dc? i dunno.

especially when there's no1 else from other projects and crews to get help from

wrong, just because theres no working emus, doesnt mean no1 else is workin on emulating or understanding the dc hardware. theres alot of people that know diff parts of makin a dc emu.

what's the emu's architecture like? Is it like a collection of seperate components tied together, like core, graphics, sound, input (plugin oriented), or is it just one big bundle with a huge options panel controlling everything?

i have NO idea how to emulate hardware. but, just like psx and n64 and other emus, you could d/l grafix and sound and controller, etc plugins. this emu doesnt. i dunno if theres plans to change it or not, posty should know.

also, about the compatibility. note how most dc games are diskjuggler rips (i hate diskjuggler...). theres not much of a prob w/ compatibility unlike roms. since roms dont have a standard and isos do. but hell, what do i know, i dont even know how emus work!

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u need flash and bios. i dunno wat flash does, maby its like, cmos for the dc? i dunno.[...]

Well think about it; if it was something that doesn't change at all, like the contents of a cmos chip, why not just fuse it in the emulator and be through with it? IMO a "flash" file just doesn't sound right, but I'll look into it anyway and tell ya when I find out what it is.

[...]just because theres no working emus, doesnt mean no1 else is workin on emulating or understanding the dc hardware. theres alot of people that know diff parts of makin a dc emu.[...]

Of course there are other ppl that are working on DC emus of their own and would possibly have a good clue of how to approach the emuing of its various components and other issues, but that wasn't my point. Posty himself told us that these guys managed with their first release alone to top everyone else's work by achieving a compatibility of roughly 30%. That should tell you they're treading on new grounds where no1 has so far gone and if they should run into any problems they can't solve, no1 else will be able to help them cause they simply wouldn't have reached that point yet. I think it's quite simple reasoning here. Of course they'd be able to get input from other teams on many issues, but on some especially unknown ones, they'd be on their own - kinda like these folks here are when they're fishing for extra actor anims, or other functions from the game's working memory lake (lol, didn't that sound a bit poetic 8)?).

[...]also, about the compatibility. note how most dc games are diskjuggler rips (i hate diskjuggler...). theres not much of a prob w/ compatibility unlike roms. since roms dont have a standard and isos do.[...]

Well there may not be one @ the ripping stage for most cases (even if there was in some instances, dealing with it could be considered an issue kinda outside of the emu authors scope), but usually compatibility issues come up at subsequent levels of process, such as in the HLE core, or @ the GFX plugins, rendering games unplayable one way or another (unhandled/unknown opcodes stopping emuing, or terrible visual output for example). I even remember cases where enabling audio syncin would be reason enough for a game to freeze in place with PJ64.

Anyway, it's those kinda probs that mostly count when assessing the playability of a certain game and estimating the total comp percentage for the emu after that.

Heh, fun discussing emuing after so many years (for me at least) :).

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Just wanted to point out, Chanka Alpha 0.2 will be coming sometime THIS WEEKEND. Here's the post from the emu co-author.,

_____________

Hi all,

First at all, we wanna announce ElSemi has joint chanka team He is the programmer of nebula and nebula model 2.

And about chankast, we are gonna release a new chankast version this weekend. You are gonna love the new features:

- more stable, no more random crashes

- better gfx core

- more compatibility

- speed improvements

- cable selector

- new pad support

- and a lot of more features

Garrofi

_____________________

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Some games, like Soul Calibur, arent VGA Compatable. Chanka runs VGA only games. The cable selector allows you to choose between VGA and non-VGA. So games like Soul Calibur wont need hex editing to enable the VGA-flag in the IP.BIN.

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CHANKAST 0.2 IS OUT (came out this morning :))!

and i uploaded it, including the flash and bios (since it also was in that other package)

LINK REMOVED [read my post (robpol86)]

and here's the feature list:

- Improved stability, no more random crashes during gameplay

- Fixes to the GFX core for games such as Shenmue 1&2 and Soul Calibur

- Better compatibility, for example F355, Dead or Alive 2, Virtual On and many, many more

- Optimized code for even more speed

- Option to over- and underclock the SH4 CPU

- Completly re-done PAD configuration screen

- Added support for PAD plugins

- Added an option for cable selection

- Integrated Capcom hack into the other versions

- Re-worked menu and help file

- ... and many more fixes we don't really remember

Have fun :)[/url]

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ok, since most other places ban asking for games, FLASH AND BIOS, i dont want them here. find them urself on google, if i did it, u can too.

i guess u dont like reading mb. if bill says its ok, then good, but no1 has contradicted me as of yet so ill enforce this rule.

what "package" are u tlaking about?

talk on irc if u want to complain/bitch/discuss...

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