Netplay Bugs

[MadM]

Hi neopop_uk!
I tested the netplay function of neopop 0.68 with Card Fighters Clash. Trading cards works fine except the Akari(s)+Akuma special trade..it's strange, both games don't crash and the music plays normally in the background but the trade doesn't finish !?!
When you play vs exhibition mode you get three error messages which are:
[PC 24258B] Unknown [reg] instruction 01
[PC 24258E] Unknown [src] instruction 2A
[PC 242591] Unknown intruction D6
This happens everytime you select a card from your hand, but the game doesn't crash..you just have to click OK at all three error messages.
I hope this description helps a little bit  http://www.emuxhaven.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[neopop_uk]

Hi, thanks for the info, but can you e-mail me a saved state because I can't really hope of fixing it otherwise...

(Make sure the save is a bit before the point of the problem) I'm not at all familiar with this game, so some instructions would be nice!

Regards,
neopop_uk

[MadM]

No problem..my eMail should be there now.  http://www.emuxhaven.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Timepaladin]

i've also tried the TCP/IP function. My friend and I were testing the link fature of NeoPop and everything was fine till we tried to play a versus match in CFC. My friends comp ran at only 3% as opposed to the 64% when he started. the game didn't actualy freeze but the sound became choppy.
My friends sys specs are:

PIII 450MHz
160 MB Ram
Riva Nvidia 128/128ZX graphics card

Also, will you be re-adding the framskip option neopop_uk? my comp seems to run & sound better (almost perfect) with a frame skip of 3 e.g. when the voice in CFC says "CARD FIGHTERS...", it sounds choppy on my sys at zero FS whereas at 3FS it sounds almost perfect.

my sys specs:

Intel Celeon 433MHz
196 MB Ram
Riva Nvidia 128/128ZX graphics card

Thanx and keep up the good work

[neopop_uk]

Yeah, I probably will add frameskipping back in - it was a bit rash of me to take it out like that. It doesn't slow things down THAT much, just me being paranoid.

As for CFC slowing things down, well the netplay functions have overheads, and as i've not really been able to test it properly, i'm not sure I can do anything until I get my own network.

Regards,
neopop_uk

[Nesagwa]

So it only plays over Lan and not over TCP/IP on the internet?

[neopop_uk]

NeoPop uses TCP/IP and should connect over the internet, but I don't think in practice that the transfer speed will be fast enough to fool the games.

Effectively there isn't much I can do about it because the games all have their own linkup code build-in and all I provide is a byte transfer for the data. I suppose you could freeze things while the transfer takes place, but that has issues which I won't go into. I'd personally look at how Koyote gets on (I'm not sure if they have net support yet) - they will no doubt have the proper resources, and patience, to get this working...

Cheers,
neopop_uk

[FuzzyX]

About how long will it take for this emulator to play online at a good speed?

[MadM]

I found out why the netplay bug with the 3 error messages occured..it must have something to do with battery files (*.ngf) from older versions of NeoPop. When you trade a card in Card Fighters Clash the game writes a new battery file immediately and the errors occur. You have to delete the old battery files, then all trade and exhibition functions work perfectly. But watch out..you will loose your old card collection when you delete the (*.ngf) files! But then you can finally get all 300 cards. The choice is up to you.. http://www.emuxhaven.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[brightman]

Can't you take a savestate and delete the flash after? Or will the savestate save the old flash data as well?

[Shadow Theory]

<font color='#000000'>I haven't been able to play CFC on the net at all, me and my friend get stuck at the "press a" screen. We can't go any further than that.</font>

[MadM]

<font color='#000000'>I don't know if savestates save the old flash data..and i can't test it because i already deleted my old battery files.
The press A button freeze should be fixed when you delete your old battery files.</font>

[neopop_uk]

<font color='#000000'>Hi,

To clear things up, NeoPop saved states don't save anything relating to the flash data. They just save the ram, CPU state and sound chip state, things like that.

The flash emulation works by modifying the copy of the rom image stored in memory, this is how the real thing works. The flash data is written to disk as the contents of these rom locations.

I had considered merging the two files, but there are possible annoying consistancy problems that could occur - so I left it.

What I would say as a final note is that flash data and state data should be kept together if possible - a state on it's own might not be enough to describe the game state. (Consider a saved state on a 'load game' screen, without having the flash data)

As for CFC, I had the same "stuck on 'press A'" problem when I tried to fix a bug report, and wasn't able to resolve it. Perhaps this was because of a flash inconsistancy? Oh well.

Regards,
neopop_uk</font>