Phantasy Star Online + DreamShell

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Aleron Ives
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Re: Phantasy Star Online + DreamShell

Post#11 » Wed Jan 03, 2018 7:48 am

He didn't fix the bug; he avoided it by rewriting the boot disc from scratch so as to not use KOS anymore, because trying to figure out what KOS was doing wrong was too much trouble. That was a practical approach since the boot disc is a simple program, but rewriting DreamShell from scratch to avoid KOS (which I assume it is using) is probably not feasible.

I don't really think fixing the bug is that important, since games with streaming audio don't run well over the serial port, anyway. Even if you fix the boot process to remove the PSO bugs, the game is still going to freeze every 2 seconds as it tries to load the next audio chunk, which is infuriating. It's better to just get one of the superior GD-ROM drive replacements.
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Re: Phantasy Star Online + DreamShell

Post#12 » Wed Jan 03, 2018 7:57 am

Great idea DR Teamcast! Im going to post it there and tag him!

Edit: Ok, just sent him a private message on Assembler games forum!
Last edited by NeoSnk on Wed Jan 03, 2018 8:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
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pcwzrd13
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Re: Phantasy Star Online + DreamShell

Post#13 » Wed Jan 03, 2018 7:58 am

Aleron Ives wrote:I don't really think fixing the bug is that important, since games with streaming audio don't run well over the serial port, anyway.


DreamShell isn't just for the serial port SD card reader. It's for the IDE hard drive mod as well. PSO runs amazingly off the hard drive with the exception of this one bug.
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Re: Phantasy Star Online + DreamShell

Post#14 » Wed Jan 03, 2018 8:02 am

Aleron Ives wrote:He didn't fix the bug; he avoided it by rewriting the boot disc from scratch so as to not use KOS anymore, because trying to figure out what KOS was doing wrong was too much trouble. That was a practical approach since the boot disc is a simple program, but rewriting DreamShell from scratch to avoid KOS (which I assume it is using) is probably not feasible.

I don't really think fixing the bug is that important, since games with streaming audio don't run well over the serial port, anyway. Even if you fix the boot process to remove the PSO bugs, the game is still going to freeze every 2 seconds as it tries to load the next audio chunk, which is infuriating. It's better to just get one of the superior GD-ROM drive replacements.



Now games running from SD Card are also running CDDA very well! You can see Flag to Flag and Chu Chu rocket playing the musics with this pack I posted here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10739

Another example of CDDA game running on the SD Card:

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Re: Phantasy Star Online + DreamShell

Post#15 » Wed Jan 03, 2018 8:11 am

pcwzrd13 wrote:PSO runs amazingly off the hard drive with the exception of this one bug.

Don't boot PSO with DreamShell, then. ;) The reason PSO works perfectly with GDEMU is that GDEMU doesn't contain any flawed homebrew menus that mess up the boot process. If you use the third-party GDMENU program to boot PSO with GDEMU, then you get the same bugs as with DreamShell, last I heard. Simplicity has its benefits, but I guess it would be good overall if DreamShell were fixed.

NeoSnk wrote:Now games running from SD Card are also running CDDA very well!

Does that include using the serial port, or only GD-ROM replacements? I was under the impression that the serial port had severe bandwidth limits imposed by the fact that you have to waste CPU cycles to read from it (unlike the IDE port), thus making it impossible to get good performance with games that use streaming music, because reading the music takes up all the SH4's CPU time and leaves nothing left for the game itself.
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Re: Phantasy Star Online + DreamShell

Post#16 » Wed Jan 03, 2018 8:17 am

Aleron Ives wrote:
pcwzrd13 wrote:PSO runs amazingly off the hard drive with the exception of this one bug.

Don't boot PSO with DreamShell, then. ;) The reason PSO works perfectly with GDEMU is that GDEMU doesn't contain any flawed homebrew menus that mess up the boot process. If you use the third-party GDMENU program to boot PSO with GDEMU, then you get the same bugs as with DreamShell, last I heard. Simplicity has its benefits, but I guess it would be good overall if DreamShell were fixed.


Yep! We need this fixed for DreamShell, It's very hard to get a GDEMU where I live for example, however DreamShell is everywhere with HDD mods or SD Card. The Gd readers are going to dye one day (They are already dying), we need other alternatives.
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Re: Phantasy Star Online + DreamShell

Post#17 » Wed Jan 03, 2018 8:20 am

Aleron Ives wrote:
pcwzrd13 wrote:PSO runs amazingly off the hard drive with the exception of this one bug.

Don't boot PSO with DreamShell, then. ;) The reason PSO works perfectly with GDEMU is that GDEMU doesn't contain any flawed homebrew menus that mess up the boot process. If you use the third-party GDMENU program to boot PSO with GDEMU, then you get the same bugs as with DreamShell, last I heard. Simplicity has its benefits, but I guess it would be good overall if DreamShell were fixed.

NeoSnk wrote:Now games running from SD Card are also running CDDA very well!

Does that include using the serial port, or only GD-ROM replacements? I was under the impression that the serial port had severe bandwidth limits imposed by the fact that you have to waste CPU cycles to read from it (unlike the IDE port), thus making it impossible to get good performance with games that use streaming music, because reading the music takes up all the SH4's CPU time and leaves nothing left for the game itself.


Yes, I'm talking about the serial port! The guys who work on DreamShell are really doing the impossible, Flag to Flag, Chu Chu Rocket, Mortal Kombat Gold all use CDDA and they are working fine. These are the games I've tested with the new version. Even Shenmue 1 is running great now. I know it will never be perfect, however like I said before we need new alternatives.
For tutorials and homebrews access Titan Game Studios: https://titangamestudioscom.wordpress.com/
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Re: Phantasy Star Online + DreamShell

Post#18 » Wed Jan 03, 2018 2:56 pm

Aleron Ives wrote:He didn't fix the bug; he avoided it by rewriting the boot disc from scratch so as to not use KOS anymore, because trying to figure out what KOS was doing wrong was too much trouble. That was a practical approach since the boot disc is a simple program, but rewriting DreamShell from scratch to avoid KOS (which I assume it is using) is probably not feasible.

I don't really think fixing the bug is that important, since games with streaming audio don't run well over the serial port, anyway. Even if you fix the boot process to remove the PSO bugs, the game is still going to freeze every 2 seconds as it tries to load the next audio chunk, which is infuriating. It's better to just get one of the superior GD-ROM drive replacements.

Speaking of that https://assemblergames.com/threads/dvd- ... ble.67650/
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Aleron Ives
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Re: Phantasy Star Online + DreamShell

Post#19 » Wed Jan 03, 2018 9:22 pm

Ah, that ASG thread confirmed DreamShell uses KOS, which explains why it can't boot PSO correctly.
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Re: Phantasy Star Online + DreamShell

Post#20 » Thu Jan 04, 2018 2:32 pm

I ll contact one of the devs i have on my vk and ask him if they know about the issue or gonna fix it. I heard there will be release version of the Dreamshell maybe this year.
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