ZEsarUX Beta 7.2-RC

Struggling with Fuse or trying to find an emulator with a specific feature. Ask your questions here.
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chernandezba
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ZEsarUX Beta 7.2-RC

Post by chernandezba »

Hi

I have uploaded a new ZEsarUX Beta version: 7.2 Release Candidate! Next version will be final stable :)

You can download it from:
https://github.com/chernandezba/zesarux/releases


Changes are:


Improved menu environment:
* Added new menu window type: ZX Vision. GUI Windows can be moved, resized, scrolled, minimized, closed, and change the focus to the background
* Windows can be scrolled using mouse wheel
* Warning and Error window messages now show an animation
* Added first-aid help windows

Added Z80 assembler
Added setting to specify configuration file
Added key to save text windows contents to a file
Added setting to send a final space after every word in the osd adventure keyboard
Added Dandanator CPC emulation
Added machine Amstrad CPC 4128
Added CPC machines support to ZSF snapshots
Added tape to wav converter (tap, tzx, o, p to wav)
Added text driver (curses, stdout, simpletext) for Chloe 80x24 mode

Improved Debugger:
-Now you can disassemble on the Step-to-step mode from the Debug cpu menu
-Now you can assemble from the Debug cpu menu
-Added Chloe memory Zone

Improved TBBlue emulation:
-Better CPU usage:
--Use 4% less cpu time (in my machine) when only ULA and/or Tiles enabled
--Use 1% less cpu time (in my machine) when all layers enabled
-Added TBBlue Tiles video mode
-Added TBBlue "reveal" setting to view which pixels use a layer
-Resized display: now is twice bigger
-Fixed Timex hi-res mode 512x192

Improved ZRCP:
-commands smartload and snapshot-load are more intelligent now
-running in verbose or limit mode, or cpu-step command, can now update the display inmediately (having real video setting on)
-added commands: get-cpu-frequency, get-cpu-turbo-speed, get-tstates, get-tstates-partial, reset-tstates-partial

Improved vu-meters: high volumes are shown in red
Improved sprite viewer
-you can view sprites up to 512x512
-you can export sprites to C source code file

Improved file selector:
*now it remembers the last files used
*Windows: now you can use up to 20000 files in the same directory
*Windows: added drive selector (press shift-u)

Improved audio: silence detector is disabled by default. That should fix some Windows audio problems. Check Settings->Audio->Silence detector if you have configuration autosaving enabled

Improved disassemble window:
*now you can export the disassemble to text file
*you can now see the full opcode when debugging Sinclair QL
*you can now show/hide hexadecimal dump of every opcode

Improved hexadecimal editor:
*now showing subzones information

Improved MMC emulation: allow non-standard mmc file sizes

Fixed visual glitches in some menus when Pentagon machine and real video: audio wave, visualmem, ay piano, wave piano, view sprites
Fixed timex hires mode 512x192 on tbblue
Fixed visual glitches in some menus when interlaced enabled: audio wave, visualmem, ay piano, wave piano, view sprites
Fixed audio bug: sending a sample to the DAC by using Next registers, it wasn't reseting the silence detection counter, so sound would probably be frozen (and repeated again, and again...)
Fixed autoload on tbblue (on normal and also fast boot mode)
Fixed error managing TBBlue Layer 2 vertical scroll
Fixed triggering "opcode" condition breakpoint
Fixed emulating Inves interrupt bug
Fixed segmentation fault when showing electron on debug


Enjoy!
Cheers
Cesar
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PeterJ
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Re: ZEsarUX Beta 7.2-RC

Post by PeterJ »

Thank you for looking at the audio issues [mention]chernandezba[/mention] and all the other updates.

I will play over the weekend.
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Re: ZEsarUX Beta 7.2-RC

Post by chernandezba »

PeterJ wrote: Fri Mar 01, 2019 12:04 pm Thank you for looking at the audio issues @chernandezba and all the other updates.

I will play over the weekend.
Thanks. There are still some issues with the annoying "clicking" on Windows but it should have improved...
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Re: ZEsarUX Beta 7.2-RC

Post by dfzx »

The sound on the 48K Spectrum isn't quite right. Playing my own game (Wonky), the squeaks as he jumps or hits something come after they're supposed to. It's not much, maybe a couple of hundred milliseconds, but it's definitely noticeable. I tried Space Raiders off the Horizons tape, and that shows the same thing. You press fire, the bullet appears, then a moment later the sounds comes.

Also, do you have any plans to give it a modern PC based interface? i.e. what they used to call "WIMP"? Navigating those menus with the cursor keys is a bit anachronistic.
Derek Fountain, author of the ZX Spectrum C Programmer's Getting Started Guide and various open source games, hardware and other projects, including an IF1 and ZX Microdrive emulator.
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Re: ZEsarUX Beta 7.2-RC

Post by chernandezba »

dfzx wrote: Sat Mar 02, 2019 12:32 pm The sound on the 48K Spectrum isn't quite right. Playing my own game (Wonky), the squeaks as he jumps or hits something come after they're supposed to. It's not much, maybe a couple of hundred milliseconds, but it's definitely noticeable. I tried Space Raiders off the Horizons tape, and that shows the same thing. You press fire, the bullet appears, then a moment later the sounds comes.
I'd really appreciate if you could test the Windows version, just boot the 48kb rom and don't press any key. Do you hear silence or an annoying "click"?

Also, do you have any plans to give it a modern PC based interface? i.e. what they used to call "WIMP"? Navigating those menus with the cursor keys is a bit anachronistic.
Read the FAQ, the question "Q: Why the emulator doesn't use more beautiful menus..."

Thanks
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PeterJ
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Re: ZEsarUX Beta 7.2-RC

Post by PeterJ »

chernandezba wrote: Mon Mar 04, 2019 3:18 pm I'd really appreciate if you could test the Windows version, just boot the 48kb rom and don't press any key. Do you hear silence or an annoying "click"?
I seem to get one more extra click than expected but after that, silence. Big improvement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n03g8nsaBro
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djnzx48
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Re: ZEsarUX Beta 7.2-RC

Post by djnzx48 »

I still hear a lot of clicking on Windows, and everything sounds distorted, especially AY music. I think I can detect the slight audio delay as well. It's probably just because my CPU sucks (it's < 2GHz).
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Re: ZEsarUX Beta 7.2-RC

Post by PeterJ »

djnzx48 wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2019 4:06 am I still hear a lot of clicking on Windows, and everything sounds distorted, especially AY music. I think I can detect the slight audio delay as well. It's probably just because my CPU sucks (it's < 2GHz).

Hi. Do you hear more than one or two clicks when you start the program.as discussed by [mention]chernandezba[/mention] above? It used to click every few seconds but this has now stopped for me.

I agree other sounds whilst playing games don't seem quite right, but I need to do more testing
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Re: ZEsarUX Beta 7.2-RC

Post by chernandezba »

Thanks Peter for the tests. Can you check if Silence detector is disabled? See attached image

Having silence detector disabled, you must hear only silence, no clicking

About AY distortion.... that's another issue, and I'm not checking it now

Thanks!


Image
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djnzx48
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Re: ZEsarUX Beta 7.2-RC

Post by djnzx48 »

There's not too much clicking when nothing's going on but fastloading, using the menus, or using other programs in the background makes it more noticable. I also get occasional framedrops down to 47fps or so which cause audio dropouts.

Actually I just tried testing again and the silence detector does help by setting the level at the default 0 value when nothing is playing. But typing or playing music do cause clicks.
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Re: ZEsarUX Beta 7.2-RC

Post by chernandezba »

djnzx48 wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2019 7:57 am There's not too much clicking when nothing's going on but fastloading, using the menus, or using other programs in the background makes it more noticable. I also get occasional framedrops down to 47fps or so which cause audio dropouts.

Actually I just tried testing again and the silence detector does help by setting the level at the default 0 value when nothing is playing. But typing or playing music do cause clicks.
Thanks
But what I really need is:
-Disable silence detector, I don't want to have it enabled. Reopen the emulator if the setting was enabled
-Volume at 100%
-Select machine 48kb
-Just don't press any key. Just listen. Is there any continuous clicking audio? Or not?

Cheers
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djnzx48
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Re: ZEsarUX Beta 7.2-RC

Post by djnzx48 »

OK, I tested it and there is no clicking. I only start to get clicking noises if I switch to other windows in the background.
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Re: ZEsarUX Beta 7.2-RC

Post by chernandezba »

djnzx48 wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2019 8:13 am OK, I tested it and there is no clicking. I only start to get clicking noises if I switch to other windows in the background.
That's great! Thanks
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PeterJ
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Re: ZEsarUX Beta 7.2-RC

Post by PeterJ »

Hi [mention]chernandezba[/mention]

I've made three recordings which I hope will be of assistance. I can confirm that the silence setting is enabled.

ZEsarUX - PowerUp.mp3 - Shows the handful of clicks that you get when you first start the application with the 48K ROM. As mentioned earlier this is greatly improved now and I don't now consider this to be an issue.

I appreciate you said that you are not looking at audio distortion currently but this may help in the future. I have recorded 15 or 20 seconds of Dan Dare in Fuse and ZEsarUX

DynamiteDan - ZEsarUX.mp3 (Recording started then the file opened)

DynamiteDan - Fuse.mp3 (Recording started then the file opened)

All the files are here.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/SoundTest/

If we can help with any other testing please let us know.

If other want to record audio then I recommend Total Recorder. The free version lets you download one minute of audio which is fine for my needs.
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Re: ZEsarUX Beta 7.2-RC

Post by chernandezba »

Thanks Peter
I’m going to hear them

But as I said, I need you to test audio having silence detector DISABLED, not enabled. Forget it by now ;)
Thanks
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Re: ZEsarUX Beta 7.2-RC

Post by PeterJ »

chernandezba wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2019 7:44 pm Thanks Peter
I’m going to hear them

But as I said, I need you to test audio having silence detector DISABLED, not enabled. Forget it by now ;)
Thanks
Apologies I misread
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Re: ZEsarUX Beta 7.2-RC

Post by chernandezba »

I’ve heard them

I know about the power up sound. It’s related to high cpu use at startup, although I haven’t tested it too much

About comparing with Fuse... there’s no point on doing that. ZEsarUX plays audio at 15 kHz, 8 bit. It has less quality than any other emulator I know. It’s easier for me (15 kHz is the same scanline frequency in speccy) but poor quality. I know that ;)
Also, Fuse adds some audio filters to the playback, and I don’t do that either

About distortion... well anything can be improved and I will do it, if I can ;). I have a lot of things on the to-do...
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Re: ZEsarUX Beta 7.2-RC

Post by PeterJ »

[mention]chernandezba[/mention]

I have added an additional file to the folder:

ZEsarUX - PowerUp & Load Game - Silence Detector Not Enabled .mp3

Edited
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PeterJ
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Re: ZEsarUX Beta 7.2-RC

Post by PeterJ »

chernandezba wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2019 7:49 pm I’ve heard them

I know about the power up sound. It’s related to high cpu use at startup, although I haven’t tested it too much

About comparing with Fuse... there’s no point on doing that. ZEsarUX plays audio at 15 kHz, 8 bit. It has less quality than any other emulator I know. It’s easier for me (15 kHz is the same scanline frequency in speccy) but poor quality. I know that ;)
Also, Fuse adds some audio filters to the playback, and I don’t do that either

About distortion... well anything can be improved and I will do it, if I can ;). I have a lot of things on the to-do...
Thank you [mention]chernandezba[/mention]

I will delete the files from the server in one week.
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Re: ZEsarUX Beta 7.2-RC

Post by chernandezba »

PeterJ wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2019 7:51 pm @chernandezba

I have added an additional file to the folder:

ZEsarUX - PowerUp & Load Game - Silence Detector Not Enabled .mp3

Edited
Thanks. Perfect, only the startup “clicks” and nothing else
Just to be sure... did you recorded that in Windows?
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Re: ZEsarUX Beta 7.2-RC

Post by PeterJ »

Yes, Windows 10.
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Re: ZEsarUX Beta 7.2-RC

Post by chernandezba »

PeterJ wrote: Wed Mar 06, 2019 6:04 amYes, Windows 10.
Thanks!
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Re: ZEsarUX Beta 7.2-RC

Post by chernandezba »

PeterJ wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2019 7:51 pm @chernandezba

I have added an additional file to the folder:

ZEsarUX - PowerUp & Load Game - Silence Detector Not Enabled .mp3

Edited
Finally, after spending two days testing the Windows audio clicking issue I can confirm:
-It has nothing to do with my sdl audio module. The same is used in Mac and Linux and they don’t have the same problem
-Tested by filling the audio buffer with fixed value and the clicking also appears. Seems the clicking happens when a sample value of 0 “appears” in the final hardware buffer. If I fill the audio buffer with 0, no change is produced in the hardware buffer and you don’t hear any clicking. If you fill the buffer with something else different than 0, you may hear a clicking
-There’s no difference on enabling real audio, ay audio chip, etc. So as I said, I can confirm there’s not a bug in my module
-My Windows development machine is Virtual box. The default virtual audio card is a Intel HD. That has a lot of clicking. I changed it to a AC97 virtual card and the clicking has gone in the 90% of cases
-Seems there’s some kind of issue with MinGW+SDL+Audio driver. With the same test, sometimes the clicking appear and some others don’t. (With ac97 card)
-As some of you had made tests with real windows machines and you don’t have clicking, I can be sure, again, it’s not a bug in my software
-It seems also the audio module is sensible to O.S. multitask. I mean, if you change to another Windows task and leave ZEsarUX in the background, some clicking may appear. That doesn’t happen in other operating systems. That confirms me, again, Windows is not my preferred operating system ;)
-I tried changing the audio sdl module to another one, programming a Direct Sound native windows module. But I haven’t found any examples to do that on my MinGW environment.
-So, until I couldn’t change the audio module to something different (DirectSound or SDL2-which already have tested) some of you will have clicking on Windows. It will depend on your audio card and audio driver
-That clicking issue is not related with clicks at startup or looping click in tbblue browser. These two others are probably bugs in my code

Some of these explanations are expressed in the FAQ. But I will have to extend it

Thanks a lot for your beta testing! :)

Cheers
Cesar
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Re: ZEsarUX Beta 7.2-RC

Post by PeterJ »

Thanks for your work [mention]chernandezba[/mention]
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