Sega Saturn Core in Development

musashi73
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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by musashi73 »

I don't seem to be updating distribution. Core Saturn not working.Sucks...

Tulius
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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by Tulius »

I'm worried about Sergiy Dvodnenko because it seems no one at age of 18 - 60 can leave the country now because of War and Ukrain is draining its youth population in this war.

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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by FPGA64 »

Tulius wrote: Wed Aug 23, 2023 12:44 pm

I'm worried about Sergiy Dvodnenko because it seems no one at age of 18 - 60 can leave the country now because of War and Ukrain is draining its youth population in this war.

He is in the occupied zone.

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16Bittt
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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by 16Bittt »

what are the chances that this core never completes?
Saturn was always a complex system,for game developers and emulator programmers.an FPGA implementation doesn't sound like one man job even in normal conditions.
why other developers don't assist him?

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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by Antoine.WG »

16Bittt wrote: Wed Aug 23, 2023 10:18 pm

what are the chances that this core never completes?
Saturn was always a complex system,for game developers and emulator programmers.an FPGA implementation doesn't sound like one man job even in normal conditions.
why other developers don't assist him?

For the same reasons you just stated and because FPGA developers are even more scarce than Saturn developers.

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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by dshadoff »

16Bittt wrote: Wed Aug 23, 2023 10:18 pm

why other developers don't assist him?

I believe some minor items were contributed by others…
But he doesn’t need assistance, and has not requested assistance.
Since he’s still working on it, changes made by others might interfere with his planned changes.
So, basically, it is because we respect him.

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Waifu4Life
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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by Waifu4Life »

Anybody else is getting the screen pushed to the left in the Saturn core when using a consumer based CRT (YPbPr)?

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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by capitaineflam25 »

Waifu4Life wrote: Mon Aug 28, 2023 4:46 am

Anybody else is getting the screen pushed to the left in the Saturn core when using a consumer based CRT (YPbPr)?

That's the case on CRT/RGBs also, i imagine he will work later on centering
And i hope an option for H/V offset will be available, but i don't know how it would be presented since there is more than one resolution for the Saturn : 320x224, 640x224, 704x480i and more

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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by Krathoon »

Why in the heck is it asking for a CD Bios?
That does not exist.

I tried this unstable, Saturn_SingleSDRAM_unstable_20230829_04f601.

The fmvs in Panzer Dragon freeze and Death Crimson has a bunch of vertical lines on the screen. I posted the issues to Github.

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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by shaitan »

Krathoon wrote: Fri Sep 01, 2023 11:13 pm

Why in the heck is it asking for a CD Bios?
That does not exist.

I’m guessing it’s some debug code or hooks for something in the future. Or the Mister framework has some hooks in it looking for a bios and that’s a default naming for it? It’s to be ignored for now though.

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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by Krathoon »

shaitan wrote: Fri Sep 01, 2023 11:35 pm
Krathoon wrote: Fri Sep 01, 2023 11:13 pm

Why in the heck is it asking for a CD Bios?
That does not exist.

I’m guessing it’s some debug code or hooks for something in the future. Or the Mister framework has some hooks in it looking for a bios and that’s a default naming for it? It’s to be ignored for now though.

Yeah. I bet it is the Mister Framework acting weird.

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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by pbsk8 »

All I get is black screen now with latest build. Singleram rbf

Something changed so I can fix and play the games?

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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by FPGA64 »

you have a boot.rom present

Rename boot.rom boot.bin. Never have a boot.rom present
Start core, load the bios option and choose boot.bin

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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by pbsk8 »

FPGA64 wrote: Sat Sep 02, 2023 1:03 pm

you have a boot.rom present

Rename boot.rom boot.bin. Never have a boot.rom present
Start core, load the bios option and choose boot.bin

Thanks, it needed the bios to be loaded manually from osd. Now it works.

inferno999
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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by inferno999 »

FPGA64 wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2023 2:22 pm

Firstly make sure you have no boot.rom. If its even present the Core wont work, Its best to rename boot.rom to boot.bin
When this is done the core will load, then go into the menu and manually load boot.bin
Load the games
Dont worry about cd_bios not found its irrelevent. The games will still work

Thanks! Exactly what I came here for.

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jurkevicz
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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by jurkevicz »

:mrgreen: Saturn Core was Updated Yesterday!

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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by capitaineflam25 »

Nice update. The audio is no more stopping on Sega Rally 😍

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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by FPGA64 »

Builds from Discord

Its an Alpha core so dont report issues.

Attachments
Saturn_SingleSDRAM_unstable_20230915_08c855.rbf
(4.4 MiB) Downloaded 163 times
Saturn_DualSDRAM_unstable_20230915_08c855.rbf
(4.38 MiB) Downloaded 142 times
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Malan
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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by Malan »

I still can't launch any games on this core so far... I know it's still a nightly build, but I don't understand why I am not able to launch games that people can already play...
I tested with serveral BIOS, followed many guides, the only game I can launch is Parodius with no music, and Burning Ranger but I'm stuck at file selection. I even tried to dump my own Saturn games with ImgBurn, still no luck.

Am I the only one here that got stuck on a black or white screen on almost every games?

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PistolsAtDawn
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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by PistolsAtDawn »

Malan wrote: Sat Sep 16, 2023 7:11 pm

I still can't launch any games on this core so far... I know it's still a nightly build, but I don't understand why I am not able to launch games that people can already play...
I tested with serveral BIOS, followed many guides, the only game I can launch is Parodius with no music, and Burning Ranger but I'm stuck at file selection. I even tried to dump my own Saturn games with ImgBurn, still no luck.

Am I the only one here that got stuck on a black or white screen on almost every games?

What format are your disc images in? Bin/cue is the one you want. Make sure you've run update_all and if all else fails try a different micro SD card with a fresh setup.

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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by Neocaron »

Malan wrote: Sat Sep 16, 2023 7:11 pm

I still can't launch any games on this core so far... I know it's still a nightly build, but I don't understand why I am not able to launch games that people can already play...
I tested with serveral BIOS, followed many guides, the only game I can launch is Parodius with no music, and Burning Ranger but I'm stuck at file selection. I even tried to dump my own Saturn games with ImgBurn, still no luck.

Am I the only one here that got stuck on a black or white screen on almost every games?

You are likely using Antonio's Villena Mister with a 4-cell SDRAM. If that's the case, consider purchasing a new SDRAM for $50 that only has 2 memory cells, or wait for the final core release, as I expect it to be made compatible towards the end of the core development with 4 cells SDRAM. The second SDRAM can still be utilized for a dual RAM setup, so it won't be a total waste if you buy a new one actually.

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https://www.youtube.com/@neocaron87

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Malan
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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by Malan »

I'm using BIN/CUE yes, and my games are stored on a NAS, using CIFS on the MiSTer to access them.

My RAM has 2 cells (I think?) here's a photo:

Image

Any idea?

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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by Neocaron »

Malan wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 6:43 am

I'm using BIN/CUE yes, and my games are stored on a NAS, using CIFS on the MiSTer to access them.

My RAM has 2 cells (I think?) here's a photo:

Any idea?

Weird, I haven't hear that people with regular ram module were having issues.
Maybe it's just a problem with your bios name like FPGA64 recommended be sure to do this:

FPGA64:
"Firstly make sure you have no boot.rom. If its even present the Core wont work, Its best to rename boot.rom to boot.bin
When this is done the core will load, then go into the menu and manually load boot.bin
Load the games
Dont worry about cd_bios not found its irrelevent. The games will still work"

Remastering Classic Game Cinematics: My new Youtube fun, check it out :D
https://www.youtube.com/@neocaron87

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Malan
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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by Malan »

Neocaron wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 12:34 pm

Weird, I haven't hear that people with regular ram module were having issues.
Maybe it's just a problem with your bios name like FPGA64 recommended be sure to do this:

FPGA64:
"Firstly make sure you have no boot.rom. If its even present the Core wont work, Its best to rename boot.rom to boot.bin
When this is done the core will load, then go into the menu and manually load boot.bin
Load the games
Dont worry about cd_bios not found its irrelevent. The games will still work"

Yes I've done that, there is no boot.rom anywhere on the Saturn folder and I have tested some BIOS files with a SHA that matches the ones adviced by srg320. I can acces the BIOS GUI without any issue, but almost every games I tried freezes just after boot.
I tested the RAM, It's stable at 143Mhz, so I don't know.

I'm quite unlucky with my DE-10 nano so far, for example, I had never been able to use any HDMI to VGA adapter with Direct Video. I tested some which have a "known working chip".

Well, hope the core will work when released, I'm just sad I can't try "NiGHTS into Dreams..." right now because I'm a huuuge fan of this game ! If someone has the same issue, please let me know :)

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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by Neocaron »

Maybe your SDRAM is damaged, did you try to test it with the SDRAM test software in utilities?

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Malan
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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by Malan »

Neocaron wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 1:02 pm

Maybe your SDRAM is damaged, did you try to test it with the SDRAM test software in utilities?

Yes, it's was stable for an hour at 143MHz, and every other released core work.

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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by pbsk8 »

Malan wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 1:00 pm
Neocaron wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 12:34 pm

Weird, I haven't hear that people with regular ram module were having issues.
Maybe it's just a problem with your bios name like FPGA64 recommended be sure to do this:

FPGA64:
"Firstly make sure you have no boot.rom. If its even present the Core wont work, Its best to rename boot.rom to boot.bin
When this is done the core will load, then go into the menu and manually load boot.bin
Load the games
Dont worry about cd_bios not found its irrelevent. The games will still work"

Yes I've done that, there is no boot.rom anywhere on the Saturn folder and I have tested some BIOS files with a SHA that matches the ones adviced by srg320. I can acces the BIOS GUI without any issue, but almost every games I tried freezes just after boot.
I tested the RAM, It's stable at 143Mhz, so I don't know.

I'm quite unlucky with my DE-10 nano so far, for example, I had never been able to use any HDMI to VGA adapter with Direct Video. I tested some which have a "known working chip".

Well, hope the core will work when released, I'm just sad I can't try "NiGHTS into Dreams..." right now because I'm a huuuge fan of this game ! If someone has the same issue, please let me know :)

do you have the redump version for saturn games?

I also had the same problem as you but mister build unstable was also missing for me, after manually putting in the root of sdcard it solved it.

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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by PistolsAtDawn »

Have you tried to put those problem games locally on the SD card and running them from there instead of from your network share?

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Malan
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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by Malan »

Yes I have the Redump version, I downloaded the last MiSTer unstable on Discord and put it manually on the SD fat folder.

Yes I tried to put everything locally but same thing.

Question, is it normal that there is no loading bar screen on this core? Just to be sure.

PS: I just test the latest N64 core and it's working fine. Only the Saturn core gives me troubles now °°

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Re: Sega Saturn Core in Development

Unread post by PistolsAtDawn »

Very odd. If it were me I would setup a fresh installation just to eliminate possible causes.

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