Reicast-emulator: Reicast @ Hack4Glarus summer edition (06~08.07.2018)

[skmp]

I will be participating at the Hack4Glarus summer edition hackathon with reicast as a project. I know some other reicast members might also join, and wanted to make an open call.

If you are interested in joining, please fill in the form and put "reicast" as the project, and "reicast users" as to who will be benefiting. You can of course apply with your own projects, or work on multiple things during the weekend. Thanks :)

Remote participation

You can join us remotely, either via #hack-4-glarus in ungleich mattermorst or #reicast in freenode (IRCCloud link)

Hackathon ideas

Done

• [x] Minimal cmodel implementation that runs 256b
• [x] Investigate j2/j4 cores
• [x] Implement SMC for x64 / rec-cpp & related easy fixes (#1168, #1167, #1141, #380, #107)
• [x] Investigate https://cmty.app/ (Applied, Waiting for reply)
• [x] Install vivado and web ISE
• [x] Get the zynq dev board running a simple design

To do

• [ ] progress report on site, donations update for site
• [ ] Compile aarch64 snaps via lincpp
• [ ] Per game ini loading
• [ ] Make the debug checks optional for x86
• [ ] Look for other bounty systems apart from bountysource
• [ ] Work in code of conduct / donations / purpose documentation and legalese stuff
• [ ] Make a bounty dashboard page
• [ ] Logos, banners and visual design for fb and such
• [ ] consolidate information for new devs / attract devs

r7 release push

• [x] #1109 in armv7 core
• [ ] gamedb organizational work
• [x] "fast track" continuous delivery of post r7 beta ("Reicast Edge" or something?)
• [ ] Add donation information in android shell

Maybe for another day

• [ ] Minimal verilog implementation that runs 256b
• [ ] aarch64 backend
• [ ] Add http streaming for disks in reicast.js
• [ ] libdreamcast brainstorming
• [ ] Forums url link and such (coordinate w/ |darc| about it?)
• [ ] Integrate test suites from redream and lxdream
• [x] r7 update of android store

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[AbandonedCart]

Google Maps said no...

[skmp]

Try skyscanner :p

[skmp]

4 weeks to go, if interested please register at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeku90cUufMGJqdvkXUWaGNUqqcymsHT5i1A8y03Tv1y7AeOw/viewform :).

We'll likely have an FPGA dev board to play with, various phones and dev boards, and will plan to make a release Saturday night / Sunday morning.

For more details on the event in general visit https://www.facebook.com/events/199003247383696/, ask here or PM me. We might be able to sponsor some of the travelling costs to CH if you poke early enough and ungleich also sometimes covers costs within CH.

[skmp]

Oh, also, after discussing with @MrPsyMan We decided that #746 #571 (ala, r7 release) will be worked on. I hope we’ll have a new build by sat morning, and to push it through all channels. Testing and bug fixes would be very much appriciated up to then :)

[skmp]

Me and @rrrh had a couple of days, looks like we will have two major tracks for the event.

@rrrh will most likely focus on an aarch64 backend, likely using vixl for emitting.

@skmp will try to get 256b running in an fpga implementation, either using j2/j4 from j-cores or by writing a minimal verilog implementation of sh4.

Plus, r7

[skmp]

(Updated the first post with more information)

[skmp]

@reicast/members Will any of you join remotely?

[AbandonedCart]

I won't know until next week.

[twinaphex]

Crossposting this by request -

https://github.com/libretro/reicast-emulator/issues/12

[telmich]

Something @skmp might not have mentioned: There's free food at the hackathon and very pretty mountains. So everyone should come just for slacking off! (we will later catch you in the mountains and bring you back to hackin' on reicast though, because we know better where you get stuck - but I'm not going to tell this anyone yet...)

[AbandonedCart]

@twinaphex That is a somewhat misleading title. Looked like a much bigger issue.

[Shoegzer]

Such a cool idea for you to be a part of this!

Just a quick comment - hopefully you might consider libzip / libchdr integration if you can make it in.

[rubenjavier]

Sounds great,
please CHD v5 support is the feature Im missing the most
Thanks in advance

[baka0815]

@rubenjavier You may add a new Issue titled "[FeatureRequest] ..." if there is something you would need/want to have. Than the Feature Request label might get added and
someone might try to implement that feature if they are interested.

[skmp]

You can just leave requests here as comments, or join irc, mattermost or discord chats :)

[skmp]

So, quick update

So far

• We got a tiny dreamcast emulator that runs 256b (see https://github.com/skmp/fpgadc)
• We got the xilinx tools installed (ISE 14.7 + Vivado 2018.2)
• We managed to successfully synthesize a test project and program the fpga
• We managed to create a bsp package for the main cpu core
• We got to generate a j4 core
• @rrrh almost (?) got j4 to work with vivado, and managed to build the sh2 tool chain

Nothing too impressive so far, but I have a much clearer overview on what is involved for the hardware clone project.

I'm gonna sleep a bit and follow up with the r7 / non-fpga tasks when I wake up

[Deivmsr]

Would not it be possible for you to take advantage of this "Hack4Glarus" to add a simple option to enable or disable the shadow effect to help in the King Boom Boo of Sonic Adventure 2? I am not a programmer but this problem persists since the versions of Reicast that I tested on a Galaxy S4 at the time and to this day in my Note 8 with Mali GPU still occurs. I think it would be an interesting breakthrough at Reicast. And as you commented that enabling this "shadow" could impact the emulator's performance, but why not test a feature on the current Android devices?

[skmp]

This is already done @Deivmsr. The missing shadow was not a bug, just a performance optimization for older phones.

[skmp]

Merged and reviewed #1163, some snapcraft fixes, and #1206 (pending CLA signing from @sergiobenrocha2)

[rubenjavier]

OK I just added for request a new issue with [FeatureRequest] label:
Please add the CHD v5 compression to reicast
with libchdr from @rtissera this should be doable like the new cores do
https://github.com/rtissera/libchdr

apparently libchdr is already implemented on upstream reicast, but CHDv5 roms are not working yet on nightlys:
https://github.com/libretro/reicast-emulator/issues/54

Thanks in advance
Best regards

[baka0815]

As dar as I can tell, libchdr lives in /core/deps/chdr in reicast, but it would need some changes to be upstream compatible.

[skmp]

The chdr library is actuallya fork from reicast's code, so it is not that much different. I originally used some old mame code and then re-worked it to a lib back in 2010ish?

[skmp]

h4g recap: https://blog.ungleich.ch/en-us/cms/blog/2018/07/11/hack4glarus-2018-summer-edition-epilogue/. Will try to finsih off the tasks and close this over the weekend

[skmp]

h4g recap: https://blog.ungleich.ch/en-us/cms/blog/2018/07/11/hack4glarus-2018-summer-edition-epilogue/. Will try to finsih off the tasks and close this over the weekend

[skmp]

TODO: Better document relationships with 3rd party forks, and have a way to coordinate with downstream users / forks

[skmp]

TODO: Work on a public roadmap, so it's not all in my head

[luserx0]

Closing this down.
A new discussion for a Roadmap may apply to 35c3

[skmp]

Opening this as a reminder for myself to do follow up

[skmp]

@gigaherz also assigning this to you for documentation and post-op