Notices

I see that BUG 9755 is marked as Resolved.

Is there a new version of PicoDrive up on the repository that supports scaling sprites?

Do you have to enable it in some option menu or command line argument?

This fix is coming in the next version, not available yet.

BTW, Pico Drive just made it to Extras!

And like clockwork I just hit the donate button on PayPal again.

This emulator is amazing! It works so well and control mapping is easy. Thanks a bunch!

Hi, picodrive is excellent, im just wondering roughly how much room there is for improvement (mainly speed wise), if emulation of the genesis on the n900 is nearing its peak, due to the technical ability of the device in general? On a slightly different note, ive noticed the n900 lacks screen v-synch, its not a major problem, but is noticable with certain programs. I do wonder if its something only nokia would be able to add to the n900 or if individual programs can add this ability? it would be good if picodrive was able to do this, unless there was a large trade off in speed?

thanks

I've yet to play a Genesis or Sega CD game on this port of Picodrive and see any kind of lack of speed. Every game plays at least as fast on the N900 as it played on the original hardware.

What kind of improvement are you talking about?

i agree its very good for speed, but I mainly wondered if v-sync was possible to be added to the emulator itself, and if so, if the n900 was technically capable of at least constantly maintaining the same speed as it runs at now with v-sync switched on. if you try games that scroll (eg platformers) you may notice the lack of v-sync when the screen moves along (horizontal lines/screen tearing). this is viewable on all similar software, as the n900 does not support v-sync at all. Im hoping it could be added by nokia in a future update, although I doubt they would see it as a major issue.

Nokia pretty much admitted that the n900 was a rush job when they stated that they did not have enough time to add an fm radio (although third party players can now be downloaded), but the general lack of screen v-sync does not boost user confidence either. Hopefully, if nokia refuse to ever add v-sync, then it could be included in third party software instead (such as in emulators where screen tearing is most noticable)... but im wondering if its addition would impact on emulator performance due to the phones technical ability/processing speed, or if its simply a matter of time for the emulation to get to the correct level-if there is much room for improvement.

This isn't entirely true. I'm actually slowing down the N900 to emulate the true speed of the mega drive, otherwise you would be playing in some sort of fast motion. When I disable this code, I get consistent 70-90 fps.

If you are talking about CD games with real time mp3 decoding, that's a whole different story.

AFAIK none of the maemo 5 graphic APIs expose vsync info so that's pretty much a big no. Of course it would have a performance impact if it was possible to implement, but probably still in very playable levels.

thanks for that I think it was the lack of vsync making me think it was slowing down. when I come to think of it, switching the frame rate from auto to off on pc emulators (on old systems) seemed to give off quite a ridiculously fast frame rate, so I guess its the same with the nokia! its unfortunate that third parties cannot implement vsync if nokia wont give out all the required info. i just wonder how far nokia will take maemo, eg in the sense of if 5 will be fully updateable to 6, or if that will only be possible if buying an entirely new phone. I can only hope that they do implement vsync at some point, if its worth doing and doesnt slow the system too much overall

Apparently it's a driver issue they won't be fixing for Fremantle:

https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5556

You wouldn't notice any slowdown system wise. Only real time applications trying to synchronize their screen refresh with the vsync signal might show noticeable frame drops (especially the ones that are already struggling to reach the 50-60 fps)