FourDO is now in Beta

BryWI · Post by **BryWI** » Fri Oct 07, 2011 9:42 pm

4DO 1.1.0.0 Beta Released!

The copy and paste is too big to throw on here so check out what is new at http://www.fourdo.com/?p=156

Congrats on beta Johnny. Here is where the real fun begins?

Post by **3DO Experience** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 3:51 am

WooHoo!

bonefish · Post by **bonefish** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 5:27 am

This is the way to go with emulators from the get go. Especially something with such a limited fan base as the 3do. Peoples interest goes up and down, I would imagine it is the same with coders, you just get tired sometimes. Way to go Johnny!

BryWI · Post by **BryWI** » Sun Oct 16, 2011 5:07 pm

EDIT: Seems there is an input bug, wait for a bug fix!

This seems to be the most stable version yet when it comes to audio....

4DO 1.1.1.0 Beta Released!

Features:

Stereo sound – Sound was previously mono, and using the right channel’s audio only.
Volume control – Accessed through the new “Audio” menu.
Error logging – Logging gets dropped into a new “Temp” folder. This logging “archives” itself and will not exceed a certain size.

Fixes:

The void area pattern now will correctly show up if the emulator is stopped and the screen is entirely black.
Fixed a crash occasionally seen when saving or loading save states.

Read more about this release and download it at
http://www.fourdo.com/?p=161

BryWI · Post by **BryWI** » Wed Oct 19, 2011 4:52 am

4DO 1.1.1.1 Beta Released!

Bug fix:
1.When using a POV hat on a controller, the LEFT and UP combination was not working correctly. Previously, this was being processed as only LEFT.

Read More about the release, and Download it at
http://www.fourdo.com/?p=168

btw, the website might be down for a few days in the upcoming week due to hosts being changed.

Silanda · Post by **Silanda** » Thu Oct 27, 2011 9:25 am

Nice work on the emulator, it's much easier to use than its progenitor freedo. I can actually use a pad now! I do have a couple of comments though:

Firstly, I'm not a coder but I suspect something is a little funky with your rendering code. It does not VSync on my system unless I force it with D3DOverrider, and if it's not synced it produces 99% load on my GPU and causes it to heat up. Secondly, I seem to be getting a fair amount of audio lag, is this normal?

BryWI · Post by **BryWI** » Fri Oct 28, 2011 12:50 am

I forwarded off that bug report. This is the third stressed gpu report I have seen now. It's definatly something to look into. Thanks for that info, hopefully the vsync thing is helpful in finding the bug.

Scarlettkitten · Post by **Scarlettkitten** » Tue Nov 01, 2011 7:43 pm

Great emulator so far

I've noticed a glitch though, just been playing Total Eclipse though and the enemy explosions are just a big brown block.

BryWI · Post by **BryWI** » Tue Nov 01, 2011 10:22 pm

Thanks for the info. I will verify it and see if it's a FreeDO Core bug or not and then I will add it to the compatibility wiki. All bug reports are welcome

CasetheCorvetteman · Post by **CasetheCorvetteman** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 5:10 am

I only just found this and tried it last night, and it is an exceptional effort

I tried some games from disc and they were quite jolty, but when i ripped them to an .iso, they ran very nicely.

What would be great is if i could get a 3DO pad to work on the PC, i think there is a SNES to PC adaptor somewhere which would do the job though.

BryWI · Post by **BryWI** » Sat Jan 28, 2012 6:49 pm

BTW, 4DO 1.1.2.0 Beta was released on Thursday.

1. 4DO can now fall back to its original “windows-based” (GDI) rendering if it fails to initialize DirectX rendering. This shows up in the log (Temp\DebugLog.txt) as “Video Render – DirectX canvas initialization failed! Will attempt to fall back to windows(GDI) rendering.”. This will allow more machines to run 4DO, but this GDI rendering is more CPU intensive (which will result in “skipped frames”, and does not have V-Sync.

2. In the (default) DirectX rendering, the game screen is no longer drawn at maximum speed. Previously, this was causing unnecessary load on a machine’s GPU. 4DO will only render the screen as often as needed.

Download it at http://www.fourdo.com

ArfredHitchcacku · Post by **ArfredHitchcacku** » Sun Jan 29, 2012 7:31 pm

Just added it to my Steam and slammed in Gex, and wow. You can run at any 4:3 resolution for 100% super duper sharpness, it's nearly max speed, and the sound is only very slightly buggy. Now it just needs max speed, full sound, and 16:9 resolution, (You CAN stretch the 4:3 image to fit a widescreen monitor, but it's stretching, not native) as most 3DO games seem to support that on my HDTV.

Still, just amazing. The only thing I wonder now is, what's the point of FreeDO?

BryWI · Post by **BryWI** » Tue Jan 31, 2012 1:16 am

4DO is based off of FreeDO actually. So the point of FreeDO is that it paved the way! It was a good emulator, and still is in some respects.

BryWI · Post by **BryWI** » Wed Feb 08, 2012 6:54 am

OK let's bring this up to date!

4DO 1.1.2.2 Beta Released

1.4DO now supports ISO or BIN files in Mode1+2352 format. – Previously 4DO only supported Mode1+2048. Users can open a BIN, CUE, or ISO file. Cue files are recommended to “strongly” identify the file type. If a file you open has a matching CUE file, 4DO will trust it. If no CUE file is paired with a BIN or ISO, 4DO will guess the encoding (using file type and file length). The results of this “guess” will be output to the logs.

2.Fixed a bug in which the log files were only being written on crashes.

Also changes from 1.1.2.1

1. including a fix for a freeze in at least Gex and Super Street Fighter II

2. 4DO now uses DirectSound for audio playback. This gave me gave me more control over the audio playback and it should remove the stuttering issues that some machines were experiencing.

3. SlimDX.dll is now being included in the 4DO release ZIP files, so this should help the situations in which the SlimDX runtimes weren’t installing on machines properly (64 bit machines, so I hear).

The Latest version can be downloaded from http://www.fourdo.com

BryWI · Post by **BryWI** » Sat Feb 11, 2012 12:30 am

4DO 1.1.2.3 Beta Released

1.Added option to pause emulation when main window loses focus. – Default is OFF.

2.Added option to ignore keyboard input when main window loses focus. – Default is ON.I figured that joystick operation outside of one program at a time was not likely. Anybody rigidly opposed to playing the game without the game being the active window is more likely to be appeased with the “pause emulation” option.

3.Display area now redraws itself when necessary if the console is paused.

4. Added an updated options screen, including fun little graphics to help explain some of the features to those less familiar with the verbiage in the options.

http://www.fourdo.com

swaaye · Post by **swaaye** » Tue Feb 14, 2012 7:28 am

It's really exciting to see 3DO emulation moving along again. Thanks Johnny.

BryWI · Post by **BryWI** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 12:14 am

4DO 1.1.4.0 Beta Released

http://www.fourdo.com

1. Added support for high-resolution (640×480) rendering. You can find the option for the in the “4DO Options” screen, under the “Advanced” tab. This is only of value for 3D games. Additionally, since each frame takes 4 times as long to process, it will cost a lot of CPU! I recommend increasing your audio buffer as well if you enable this.

[changes from 1.1.3.1]

1.Fixed bug in audio buffer size calculation. This was causing some audio buffer size selections to behave incorrectly.

[changes from 1.1.3.0]

1. Added the ability to adjust the emulated CPU clock speed. This can result in framerates increased beyond the original hardware limits. This is analogous to the setting in the latest (last?) version of FreeDO. Be aware that many games will not handle this well since they were not coded to support it. I’ve found that Star Fighter is an example of a game that handles a clock speed increase well.

2. Added the ability to adjust the audio buffer size. I have found that audio buffer size is a bit of a personal preference. The default is 100ms, but people who want more protection from audio glitches can now adjust the audio buffer size higher (at the cost of latency).

3. Added a few command-line options for debugging purposes. At the moment, these are mainly for my own purposes, but see the command line usage for specifics.

Post by **3DOKid** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 9:26 pm

BryWI wrote:4DO 1.1.4.0 Beta Released

http://www.fourdo.com

1. Added support for high-resolution (640×480) rendering. You can find the option for the in the “4DO Options” screen, under the “Advanced” tab. This is only of value for 3D games. Additionally, since each frame takes 4 times as long to process, it will cost a lot of CPU! I recommend increasing your audio buffer as well if you enable this.

[changes from 1.1.3.1]

1.Fixed bug in audio buffer size calculation. This was causing some audio buffer size selections to behave incorrectly.

[changes from 1.1.3.0]

1. Added the ability to adjust the emulated CPU clock speed. This can result in framerates increased beyond the original hardware limits. This is analogous to the setting in the latest (last?) version of FreeDO. Be aware that many games will not handle this well since they were not coded to support it. I’ve found that Star Fighter is an example of a game that handles a clock speed increase well.

2. Added the ability to adjust the audio buffer size. I have found that audio buffer size is a bit of a personal preference. The default is 100ms, but people who want more protection from audio glitches can now adjust the audio buffer size higher (at the cost of latency).

3. Added a few command-line options for debugging purposes. At the moment, these are mainly for my own purposes, but see the command line usage for specifics.

Very cool. Is that because starfighter is a big number crunching game? I bet Dr Hauzer would look pretty neat too. I'll give it a go

Nice work by the way

JohnnyDude · Post by **JohnnyDude** » Thu Feb 16, 2012 1:22 am

3DOKid wrote:Very cool. Is that because starfighter is a big number crunching game? I bet Dr Hauzer would look pretty neat too. I'll give it a go

Nice work by the way

I'm not sure what you mean about Star Fighter. I don't know if the comment was obvious, but it's one of the well behaved ones.

Since the release I've found that Immercenary also behaves very well with increased CPU and/or resolution. More frames per second makes the game a lot more playable!!

BryWI · Post by **BryWI** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 5:06 pm

http://www.fourdo.com

Johnny has released 4DO 1.1.4.1 Beta

1. Controller setup screen now shows currently pressed keys (in yellow).

2. A running game in 4DO now ignores all user input if the controller setup screen is open..

3. Removed “remember pause status” option. I’m pretty sure I’m the only one that used it anyway. It has been replaced with a command line option, –StartupPaused

4. Changed a core emulation timing setting. (See more info below).

Regarding the timing setting, I looked into a “__temporalfixes” switch in the FreeDO core code that I set to “1″ when I first put 4DO together, and I have changed this to “0″ in this release. I have not made sense of what this switch controls, this is very much just ignorant tinkering on my part! It seems to resolve speed issues in PO’ed and Doom. It did not seem to negatively affect any games that I tested out. I would appreciate knowing if you happen to notice that a game that once worked in 1.1.4.0 and is no longer working in 1.1.4.1.

BryWI · Post by **BryWI** » Tue Feb 21, 2012 2:23 am

http://www.fourdo.com

Johnny has released 4DO 1.1.5.0!

Viktor, creator of 3DOPlay, has offered his time to introducing his changes to the FreeDO core into 4DO. A more complete list of the changes is:

1 Timing fixes – a more proper fix for the “temporalfixes” setting in FreeDO’s original code
2 Sprites in Doom are fixed
3 Fonts and sound speed in Wicked 18 fixed
4 Sound in games better, no bugs (some examples are Need For Speed, Escape from Monster Manor, Star Fighter, Slayer, Pyramid Intruder)
5 Games work faster (some optimizations added)
6 “Bad Slack Calc” error fixed

Thank you Viktor!

The internal timing improvements have various noticeable improvements in games. I noticed that lip syncing in Lost Eden is now working correctly. Some benefits/changes from 3DOPlay are not added. For example, Phoenix 3 currently still hangs at loading screens in 4DO.

In addition to this, I’ve added a few higher-level changes:

In DirectX rendering, fixed diagonal pixel misalignment when using non-smoothed image resizing. – At certain window sizes, this was causing a “slice” down the diagonal at the center of the screen in which pixels were misaligned.
4DO now only emulates controllers/devices that have input bindings. For example, if you have only set up input bindings for controller #1, 4DO will only emulate one attached controller. This resolves the non-responsive controls in Super Wing Commander. However, if you create bindings for all 6 controllers, the game will produce this issue (perhaps the original game acted this way?).

BryWI · Post by **BryWI** » Thu Feb 23, 2012 6:56 am

http://www.fourdo.com

Johnny has released 4DO v1.1.5.1

A couple good fixes this time. There is one currently known bug that I will explain below.

Improvements:

1. Fix for Phoenix 3 hanging in load screens – A continuation of the changes to move 4DO to the new timing behavior. It will not always work (it works about 50/50, in my experience), so you will have to save beforehand and try skipping the cutscenes at differing times. But the game is otherwise quite playable!

2. Once-a-second stuttering/lag spike resolved – It was discovered that some systems were slower to perform than others in polling for input devices, which was causing a noticeable delay in emulation every second. This is now resolved.

However there is one bug I know of in the system which I just recently noticed. As of 1.1.5.0, the emulation is presently working slightly too fast from normal. This is also causing the audio playback to get pushed ahead about once every 4 seconds if using the default audio buffer size. You could run 4DO with “-DebugLogging AudioDebug” to see the symptoms. This is a result of the new timing improvements that are newly worked in, so it will be ironed out in time. Anyway, please be aware that this issue exists in both 1.1.5.0 and 1.1.5.1.

GuruMeditation · Post by **GuruMeditation** » Thu Feb 23, 2012 12:58 pm

BryWI wrote:http://www.fourdo.com

Johnny has released 4DO v1.1.5.1

2. Once-a-second stuttering/lag spike resolved – It was discovered that some systems were slower to perform than others in polling for input devices, which was causing a noticeable delay in emulation every second. This is now resolved.

Excellent! I'll give it a try as soon as I get home!

GuruMeditation · Post by **GuruMeditation** » Thu Feb 23, 2012 6:07 pm

Yeeeeeees!

Works great for me now, thanks JohnnyDude!

BryWI · Post by **BryWI** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 11:51 pm

Johnny has released 4DO version 1.1.6.0

Side note... Translators for the User Interface are needed...
See this topic. http://forum.fourdo.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=32

1. Support for multiple languages added. See the related forum post for information on how to contribute a language!

2. Russian translations added. – A gift from Viktor!

3. Patched audio timing bug from 1.1.5.0 and 1.1.5.1 – This bug manifested as an audio skip about every 4-5 seconds when playing any game.

4. Alfred Hitchcock (JP) added to game database.

5. Screen saver is disabled while playing.

6. SlimDX upgraded to January 2012.

BryWI · Post by **BryWI** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 12:34 am

Johnny has released 4DO version 1.1.6.1

There are still some Translations that have not been done yet.
Any help would be appreciated!
See this topic. http://forum.fourdo.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=32

Improvements:

1. Chinese (simplified) translations added. – Contributed by “money”!

2. Portuguese translations added. – Contributed by Enio Marconcini!

3. French translations added. – Contributed by Benjamin Siskoo!

Thank you again to Viktor, “money”, Enio Marconcini, and Benjamin Siskoo for taking the time to translate the interface elements!

4DO should default to your system’s default culture. In case you have a different preference (or something goes wrong), you can always set the culture via the “Options” menu. Your default culture is used to append text on the language menu items in case you choose one you can’t read

BryWI · Post by **BryWI** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 10:53 pm

http://www.fourdo.com

Johnny has released 4DO version 1.1.6.2

1. Game fixes. Provided by Viktor! This involves changes that resolves the remaining freezing issues seen in Phoenix 3. These fixes also make the following games fully playable:
- Twisted
- Space Hulk
- Games published by “American Laser Games” (Drug Wars, Mad Dog McCree, Crime Patrol, Space Pirates, etc.)

2. Spanish translations added. Contributed by Antonio “Bloodbat” Ramirez!

3. Ability to specify game file/drive via command . Similarly, users may also request fullscreen on startup. See details below.

4. Graphical transparency fix. Resolves certain overly-transparent features in Immercenary. Possibly other games, but I could not find others exhibiting the issue.

5. This version also includes some corrections and improvements to the French and Chinese (simplified) translations.

Those looking to load games from the command line may now do so with the new command line options available:

======================================================================
= 4DO (1.1.6.2) command line options usage =
= Basic usage: 4DO.exe [-option value][/option "value"][--switch] =
======================================================================

-StartLoadFile [filename] : Loads a game from file.
-StartLoadDrive [letter] : Loads from CD of the drive letter.
--StartFullScreen : Start Full Screen.

BryWI · Post by **BryWI** » Mon Mar 12, 2012 11:22 pm

http://www.fourdo.com

Johnny has released 4DO version 1.1.6.3

1. Wing Commander 3 video rendering fixed. It took me quite a while to track down the problems, but the video rendering in Wing Commander 3 is now fixed! Additionally, Viktor has added some freeze fixes to resolve several of the freezes seen when playing videos! As a result, the game is now quite playable! Please be aware that I have still run into a couple freezes during the videos a couple times. If you happen to find a reproducible case, please leave a comment!

2. Timing / freeze fixes. Viktor has added timing behavior to work around occasional loading screen freezes in these games:
- Immercenary
- Scramble Cobra
- Twisted (EU version)
- Street Fighter II (There were no known freezes for this one, this is just a timing fix)

3. As a result of the rendering fixes, some of issues seen in other games are also fixed. Known examples (spotted by Viktor) are:
- The Horde
- Jurassic Park – in the car mission
- Wicked 18 – fonts fixed
- more?

4. Spanish translations correctly added. I neglected to release the translated files in 1.1.6.2! (Translations contributed by Antonio “Bloodbat” Ramirez!)

5. This version also includes some corrections to the French translations.

I dug into the CEL rendering logic and documentation enough to understand the bugs causing Wing Commander 3′s video issues. It took the whole week! I finally saw the resulting clean images at about 4:30am last night.

Martin III · Post by **Martin III** » Thu Mar 15, 2012 11:54 pm

Man, I'm gonna have to try this emu out when I get a moment.

BryWI · Post by **BryWI** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 12:47 am

http://www.fourdo.com

Johnny has released version 1.1.6.4 Beta

1. Seal of the Pharoah now fully playable.

2. Video timing fix for The Horde

3. Improved timing fixes for Wing Commander 3 – Freezes now occur much less often, but can still sometimes occur.

4. Graphical rendering fix for Pebble Beach Golf Links font issue – This may also affect other games, but I have not seen any occurrences.

5. Russian translations improved – Provided by Sedabi!

6. Alt+Enter now toggles full screen mode.

7. A couple French translation improvements.

Also, I've noticed an undocumented feature of this release.

8. Dark transparency over the middle of the screen in Virtuoso is fixed.

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FourDO is now in Beta

FourDO is now in Beta

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