Meteor (GBA) core for Windows

RetroArch General
#1

The Meteor core dll’s that you can get through Phoenix do not work. They either produce garbage sound or crash. Having used Meteor on Linux just recently with good results I found it odd and I tried compiling it for Windows as well, and it actually works just as well as on Linux. I hope the devs will recompile and reupload it so that you can get it through Phoenix, but in the meantime I’m providing my build here: http://www.mediafire.com/?q7z4eb64h4bbsaf

It’s 32-bit and won’t work on the 64-bit version of RetroArch. I might provide a 64-bit version as well if I manage to set up MinGW better.

#2

I noticed this too. I just stuck with VBA-Next. Any reason to use one over the other?

#3

From what I’ve been able to observe, VBA (and every emulator based on VBA) has some graphical glitches in Estpolis Gaiden (translated to Lufia something) and Final Fantasy I - II which Meteor doesn’t. Sound emulation is… different. I don’t know much at all about the inner workings of either emulator, but I like trying out different options.

#4

I uploaded builds like yesterday to updater, you say that your meteor build works, but mine doesn’t? o_O

#5

I downloaded Meteor through the updater again just now, and that seems to be the case. Your build just crashes. Does it work on your PC? Really strange…

I don’t know what we may have done differently. I just downloaded the libretro-super repo and did sh libretro-build.sh through my MinGW setup’s bash, and I got a working build. I didn’t change any code or anything.

#6

I generally don’t test every single core on every update. I’ll test Meteor more thoroughly later today I guess.

#7

Re-downloaded Meteor, and re-tested it. Can confirm that it does not work with Sonic Advance. VBA-Next works just fine.

#8

What GCC version do you use? I have mingw-w64 4.7.2 here.

#9

I messed around a lot with different packages so I’m not exactly sure, but I think what I have now is this: http://ignum.dl.sourceforge.net/project/mingw/Installer/mingw-get-inst/mingw-get-inst-20120426/mingw-get-inst-20120426.exe

I created the file bash_profile in mingw/etc containing this line, to make it compile stuff: export PATH=$PATH:/d/dev/mingw/bin:/d/dev/mingw/msys/1.0/bin

#10

Eh … Well, digging deep into Meteor source right now and logging stuff. There is definitely some deviation happening. It could be either subtle bug in Meteor or compiler bug …

EDIT: OV2 found the issue. It was very dubious code in Meteor being broken by recent GCC and MSVC. A fixed build will be out shortly.

#11

Great. :smiley:

#12

Mind explaining the difference between Meteor and VBA-Next? Is one more compatible with some games than the other, is one faster, etc.?

#13

Meteor doesn’t have nearly the compatibility of VBA and I believe it’s currently slower, but it is still early in development has a lot of room to grow into something great.

VBA hasn’t received any substantial emulation improvements in quite a while and the codebase itself isn’t in great shape, so it’s nice to see an alternative show up that might eventually surpass it. There’s been a lot of good GBA research since VBA was being actively developed, so hopefully the Meteor author can start on a firmer foundation.

Byuu’s GBA emulation is cycle-accurate, for whatever that’s worth, but it’s also pretty slow and lacks compatibility, currently, as compared with VBA.

#14

A fixed Meteor core is uploaded to updater.

#15

Now it works, without sound in Akumajou Dracula Circle of the Moon (My build has sound, so something is probably wrong).

#16

Could be a related bug with struct padding … Damn it.

#17

Tested it. W7 64

Aria of Sorrow: Works Circle of the Moon: No sound

An improvement from before.