(REQUEST) Add Daphne Singe emulator?

AdamBeGood

@gamesman said in (REQUEST) Add Daphne Singe emulator?:

@adambegood said in (REQUEST) Add Daphne Singe emulator?:

Further Edit: I manually amended the X and Y values in the run.sh

What did you amend the X and Y values too in order for them to work? I have the same screen issue you did.

1920 and 1080 for my screen. :)

SaturnX

@dirtbagxon

So I’ve been experimenting with the full KMS video driver on my Pi4 to address some of the screen tearing issues that we see on the Pi4 due to the “fake KMS” driver.

While it works great with RetroArch - it breaks any SDL1 based emulators (daphne, singe, dosbox, openbor, fuse, etc..).

Given that the full KMS driver is the future and that development has ceased on the “fake KMS” driver - any idea on whether it would be possible to port singe to SDL2?

I’d be happy to support/test any way I can!

And as a side note - since this also breaks Daphe the same also applies. I’d love to see it made “future friendly” by migrating it over to SDL2.

For reference, SDL has published a migration guide.
https://wiki.libsdl.org/MigrationGuide

Thoughts?

DirtBagXon

@saturnx said in (REQUEST) Add Daphne Singe emulator?:

@dirtbagxon

So I’ve been experimenting with the full KMS video driver on my Pi4 to address some of the screen tearing issues that we see on the Pi4 due to the “fake KMS” driver.

While it works great with RetroArch - it breaks any SDL1 based emulators (daphne, singe, dosbox, openbor, fuse, etc..).

Given that the full KMS driver is the future and that development has ceased on the “fake KMS” driver - any idea on whether it would be possible to port singe to SDL2?

I’d be happy to support/test any way I can!

And as a side note - since this also breaks Daphe the same also applies. I’d love to see it made “future friendly” by migrating it over to SDL2.

For reference, SDL has published a migration guide.
https://wiki.libsdl.org/MigrationGuide

Thoughts?

Heya @saturnx,

I have thought about tackling this a few times, but I just don't have the spare time to undertake it at the moment. It looks to be a non-trivial task. And to be honest, the interest in the projects is fairly small looking at the github stats.

https://github.com/libretro/daphne - Has tackled the move to SDL2 but seems to have several issues, including a major audio bug, plus no one seems to be developing it any longer.

I also looked at Hypseus a while ago, which also had ported Daphne to SDL2 but seemed to have a lack in documentation. However, I just noticed that Jeffrey Clark seems to have picked up on developing it again this year. So it may be worth poking around his repo: https://github.com/btolab/hypseus

As far as future-proofing Singe is concerned, I think Singe V2 has that route covered :)

I initially started both my Daphne and Singe repos for 64bit Ubuntu desktops* after re-discovering Dragons Lair et al. Finding that all the available versions, at that time, had issues and wouldn't compile in 64bit land. At the moment with full OpenGL and hardware acceleration it thankfully still works well on this platform....

*Hence, also writing the Daphne/Singe Loader frontends in GTK.

SaturnX

@dirtbagxon Thanks for that update and honestly, thanks for all the effort you've put in so far!

So after I posted my message above, I went ahead and loaded up my Pi4 with my build of RetroPie (4.7.1) that I use for development and testing.

I updated the kernel to the latest LTS that's been pushed (5.10.xx) and switched from the fake KMS driver (vc4-fkms-v3d) to the full KMS driver (vc4-kms-v3d).

As expected daphne failed to load video (but heard sound), however to my surprise, your singe build ran Time Gal and Ninja Hayate just like before!!

I had thought this was tied to SDL1 vs. SDL2, but it appears its tied to the use of dispmanx which isn't supported by KMS. Does your singe build not use dispmanx?

I also just took a look at hypseus and compiled it last night on my Pi4, however no game was even remotely playable either due to freezes/video skips, etc.. Maybe I'm missing something, but the same titles run perfectly under daphne.

I've posted in the other thread about hypseus to see if I can get the conversation going again :)

DirtBagXon

@saturnx said in (REQUEST) Add Daphne Singe emulator?:

I had thought this was tied to SDL1 vs. SDL2, but it appears its tied to the use of dispmanx which isn't supported by KMS. Does your singe build not use dispmanx?

It only uses GL and SDL. As I understand it, dispmanx is a poor version of SDL not used very much any more, but seems to be adopted to some degree on RetroPie or RPi in general.

I also just took a look at hypseus and compiled it last night on my Pi4, however no game was even remotely playable either due to freezes/video skips, etc.. Maybe I'm missing something, but the same titles run perfectly under daphne.

What version of Daphne are you using? The RetroPie build or custom build from DavidGriffith or myself ? These repos are very similar to the Singe repo, so may also work. They have the same fixes in that I put into the underlying Singe repo daphne engine.

I've posted in the other thread about hypseus to see if I can get the conversation going again :)

Yeah I would like to see that up and working too, maybe it needs some TLC from extra developers to give it a kickstart.

SaturnX

@dirtbagxon That makes total sense about the use of GL and SDL in your singe build.

Yeah the first thing I noticed switching to the full KMS is the loss of the boot splash screen, as it turns out RetroPie uses dispmanx for the boot splash screen.

I’m actually using @pjft’s build (which fixed issues with DragonRise joystick encoders). I didn’t even know you or DavidGriffith had a Daphne repo. I’m sure I can find yours, but do you have a link for the DavidGriffith repo?

Any insight on the differences between yours and his?

Regardless I’ll give them a go on my dev build and report back. The full KMS driver is still new territory in the RetroPie space and such is the adventure of being on the “bleeding edge”.

Also - any tips on compiling on the pi? Just want to ensure I don't miss anything. Would it be the same as the singe install?

DirtBagXon

@saturnx said in (REQUEST) Add Daphne Singe emulator?:

I’m actually using @pjft’s build (which fixed issues with DragonRise joystick encoders). I didn’t even know you or DavidGriffith had a Daphne repo. I’m sure I can find yours, but do you have a link for the DavidGriffith repo?

https://github.com/DirtBagXon/daphne - Install is pretty much identical to Singe

I pushed all of my changes back to David, including the fixes for Badlands, Road Blaster and Bega's Battle on the RPi from pjft.

pjft - Any insight on the differences between yours and his?

@pjft's version is a fork of grant2258 which in turn is a fork of the RetroPie fork, whereas I forked from David's which is more inline with Matt's original version.

https://github.com/mirror/daphne-emu/network/members

Ignore "DirtBagZon" above, it was a created to get around a Github restriction on cloning multiple forks of the same repo (mentioned somewhere in this thread).

There are also a few enhancements I added while back, for example utilising an alternate game customised -keymapfile file. e.g. Flight based games.
See here:

https://github.com/DirtBagXon/daphne/tree/master/custom

If @pjft shares the merge request for the DragonRise joystick encoders, you could patch it into any daphne. If it was just the fact of adding more button/controls on the joystick: I have committed a patch today, to daphne, to match the Singe merge from pjft I had previously.

https://github.com/DirtBagXon/daphne/commit/47bda19b52da4a9c04770a22c272fc93b0b20d0d

SaturnX

@dirtbagxon Awesome thanks for that comprehensive overview.

I've just compiled it on my pi4 from your repo, I'll give it a go a bit later tonight to see how it runs/performs.

I appreciate the custom run script - that will help me hook in nicely with EmulationStation.

Regarding the DragonRise Encoder issue - it'd be great if @pjft can share the updates, but at least on my end it's become a non-issue as I've transitioned to using xboxdrv for keyboard emulation which provides wayyyy more flexibility than relying on the joystick interface in daphne/singe.

pjft

@saturnx I am under the impression that I shared such changes at some point with @DirtBagXon 's repo, but correct me if I'm wrong. I don't think I ever did it to the RetroPie repo, though.

SaturnX

@pjft Amazing! I'm going to give @DirtBagXon's version a go in a bit and I'll report back.

SaturnX

@dirtbagxon Once again... a HUGE thanks!

Fired up your build of daphne on my pi4 using the full KMS driver (vc4-kms-v3d,noaudio) on kernel 5.10.17 on RetroPie 4.7.1 and all the games booted up without issue and running smoothly :)

Using your version is obviously a bit more manual to set up all the necessary symlinks for everything to run, but it's well worth it.

I find it extremely interesting there is such a stark difference between the RetroPie build of daphne and yours. It's a shame, it would be great if your enhancements were pulled into the RetroPie build so this was a far less manual exercise.

This is a huge win-win for my arcade cabinet, I can now move entirely to the full KMS driver to improve video performance on my pi4 and still run my desired emulators (fb-neo/mame/redream/daphne/singe).

The only thing I lose by going to the full KMS is the lack of a boot splash screen - a small price to pay to eliminate screen tearing, and I'm sure RetroPie will eventually be updated.

If I can find the time, I'll see about putting together another guide for your daphne build.

Darksavior

@saturnx thanks, looking forward to it. I couldn't get Daphne to compile back when I tried it. I'm fine without the splash since my setup boots in around 30sec.

SaturnX

@darksavior I'm hoping I'll have some time in the next week or so to dive into the details (especially when it comes to hooking everything in with EmulationStation).

The main quirk I had was just selecting the correct makefile (which for the pi is Makefile.linux_x64), then it should be as simple as:

Ensure you've got the right dependencies:

sudo apt install libsdl-dev libglew-dev libvorbis-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-dev

Then clone the repo:

git clone https://github.com/DirtBagXon/daphne.git daphne

Compile with the following steps:

cd daphne/src/vldp2
./configure --disable-accel-detect
make -f Makefile.linux_x64
cd ../game/singe
make -f Makefile.linux_x64
cd ../..
ln -s Makefile.vars.linux_x64 Makefile.vars
make
cd ..
mkdir -p ~/.daphne
cp -a pics sound ~/.daphne/

I then opted to use @DirtBagXon custom run scripts for greater flexibility, you can find them here (see run.sh):
https://github.com/DirtBagXon/daphne/tree/master/custom

Then it's a matter of setting up all the symlinks, as this build expects the following:

roms: ~/.daphne/roms/
video files: ~/.daphne/vldp_dl/[game]

Once I set those up, everything booted up perfectly from the command line.

Now that I think about it, and maybe @DirtBagXon could confirm - but instead of symlinks, could we not simply modify the run.sh script to target the typical locations on a RetroPie install?

I'm assuming it's hardcoded that for the rom files, daphne will look under $DATADIR/roms/[game].zip?

If that's the case then I can put together a modified version of the run script to map back to how daphne games would typically be installed on RetroPie.

DirtBagXon

@saturnx said in (REQUEST) Add Daphne Singe emulator?:

@dirtbagxon Once again... a HUGE thanks!

I find it extremely interesting there is such a stark difference between the RetroPie build of daphne and yours. It's a shame, it would be great if your enhancements were pulled into the RetroPie build so this was a far less manual exercise.

I think this demonstrates the issues arising in porting software. As I stated my version is far closer to original source than that of RetroPie, libretro and hypseus ports.
All of which seem to have different issues.

If I can find the time, I'll see about putting together another guide for your daphne build.

I'm certain many users would appreciate that.

I have made some discoveries on the hypseus port, and have some games running better. I may delve more if I find some time.....

Thanks to both you guys for your help in testing all this too...

DirtBagXon

@saturnx said in (REQUEST) Add Daphne Singe emulator?:

Now that I think about it, and maybe @DirtBagXon could confirm - but instead of symlinks, could we not simply modify the run.sh script to target the typical locations on a RetroPie install?

Absolutely, you can write a custom run.sh for Daphne and Singe.

I would be happy to merge into my repos if you create a pull request.

SaturnX

@dirtbagxon said in (REQUEST) Add Daphne Singe emulator?:

@saturnx said in (REQUEST) Add Daphne Singe emulator?:

Now that I think about it, and maybe @DirtBagXon could confirm - but instead of symlinks, could we not simply modify the run.sh script to target the typical locations on a RetroPie install?

Absolutely, you can write a custom run.sh for Daphne and Singe.

I would be happy to merge into my repos if you create a pull request.

Excellent! I'll put some time into that with the end goal of making it extremely easy for other RetroPie users. I'll play around and see what I can come up with.

DirtBagXon

Some movement on the Hypseus (Daphne SDL2 replacement) working with 64bit Kernel + KMS for those interested:

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/post/254871

TreasureFingers

@saturnx said in (REQUEST) Add Daphne Singe emulator?:

@dirtbagxon said in (REQUEST) Add Daphne Singe emulator?:

@saturnx said in (REQUEST) Add Daphne Singe emulator?:

Now that I think about it, and maybe @DirtBagXon could confirm - but instead of symlinks, could we not simply modify the run.sh script to target the typical locations on a RetroPie install?

Absolutely, you can write a custom run.sh for Daphne and Singe.

I would be happy to merge into my repos if you create a pull request.

Excellent! I'll put some time into that with the end goal of making it extremely easy for other RetroPie users. I'll play around and see what I can come up with.

Seriously can't wait to see the script. i've been following this but keep getting stuck on things. I've been dying to finally play these games.
thank you

DirtBagXon

@treasurefingers said in (REQUEST) Add Daphne Singe emulator?:

@saturnx said in (REQUEST) Add Daphne Singe emulator?:

@dirtbagxon said in (REQUEST) Add Daphne Singe emulator?:

@saturnx said in (REQUEST) Add Daphne Singe emulator?:

Now that I think about it, and maybe @DirtBagXon could confirm - but instead of symlinks, could we not simply modify the run.sh script to target the typical locations on a RetroPie install?

Absolutely, you can write a custom run.sh for Daphne and Singe.

I would be happy to merge into my repos if you create a pull request.

Excellent! I'll put some time into that with the end goal of making it extremely easy for other RetroPie users. I'll play around and see what I can come up with.

Seriously can't wait to see the script. i've been following this but keep getting stuck on things. I've been dying to finally play these games.
thank you

@SaturnX

Can I suggest that you hold off a little on doing too much work on documenting/scripting this version of Daphne/Singe. I am making good progress on getting Hypseus Singe working which should be a big improvement and far easier to create an installation, as it will twin as a SDLv2 Daphne replacement too. It is a monolithic statically linked binary so doesn't require dealing with the libvldp2.so and libsinge.so shared libraries. Which means you can drop it anywhere and run it.

I don't think ActionMax games (if they are important to you ) are going to be implemented in Hypseus Singe at this point.
The overlay indexes will need some work to transfer to SDLv2.

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/post/255510

I just need to find time now....

SaturnX

@dirtbagxon Thanks for the heads up!

I just got your daphne build up and running on my Pi4 (Kernel 5.10.17 w/ Full KMS driver). It's running like a dream.

I quickly put together a a small script just for it to hook in nicely with EmulationStation and to allow me to keep the ROM structure identical to the RetroPie build of Daphne. It's still rough since it meets my needs (also needs a couple symlinks), so I'll hold off on polishing it up.

I'm excited to see the developments on hypseus - I'm actively watching that thread.

I completely agree about finding time... haha. There just never seems to be enough!