MazHoot
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Corthax wrote:

Everything seems ok in BlastEm.. (Or I've fixed this bug already?... big_smile)
I dont have any everdrives to test on hardware right now. And the only console I have is Nomad.

The square sound bug is only on megadrive (i tested on megadrive 1). On emulator I didn't tried with Blastem but in gen's (linux) and picodrive (rg350) all works good :-)

I think everdrive are still available I bought my just a few weeks ago. Maybe you can try on Nomad and there is megadrives / sega genesis for 30€ in my cash express hehe. Your tracker is too awesome for not be tested on real hardware! Lol

Corthax wrote:

All the song data is written drectly into SRAM. It should save and load automatically the same way as it works with games that use battery for saves.
Do not use everdrive save states, thats completely different thing.

The only guaranteed way right now is BlastEm emulator. Others simply does not support both even and odd writes into SRAM, and typically restricted to 32kb.

So it means that there is no way to save on real megadrive / sega genesis with everdrive? Why save state shouldn't work? Because it's bigger than 32kb? As an exemple on Blasttracker everdrive's save state works great. It's a working megadrive tracker but which is really hard (mad) to use .

Last edited by MazHoot (Dec 19, 2020 8:51 am)

Corthax
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Everdrive has both SRAM and save states. As everyone knows...
SRAM save is standard way used in real games (chip with battery power).
Save state is different, it writes current RAM into file, so yeah - the state of tracker is saved, but not the SRAM data - thats written in different file and maybe shoud be loaded (and saved?) manually depending on how flashcart handle it.
Now on 0.14b amount of SRAM required is 512Kb.
Mega Everdrive Pro support is the main priority, after all tested and working - I'll make stripped down versions with less effects per pattern row available, for MegaSD (384Kb), X7 (256Kb), also maybe for Mega Everdirive X5/X3/V3 (128Kb)

Last edited by Corthax (Jan 7, 2021 1:13 pm)

MazHoot
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Ok thank's for your precisions. I'm sorry if I don't understand all, when it becomes english + technical stuff (i'm french), it started to being hard to understand but I think I get it.

I don't prefer save state than standard way, I think standard way is more confortable, like saving on lsdj or on lgpt. I was just searching an other way to save because I couldn't find a standard way on your tracker. But if you plan to implement that, that's much cooler!

Keep the great work and happy new years :-)

Edit : just for know, my tests are with everdrive x7

Last edited by MazHoot (Jan 6, 2021 8:25 pm)

Corthax
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MazHoot wrote:

I couldn't find a standard way on your tracker.

The whole song data sits entirely in SRAM, so you just need to save/load it to/from file on SD card using flashcart functionality when loading rom.

MazHoot
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I tried different things, the manual of everdrive says that :

"SRAM backup: This function allow automatic backup of SRAM save data to SD card. Every
time when user changes the game, the OS will make write a file in MEGA/SAVE/ folder, the file
name will match to ROM name"

I don't have this option when i goes in options from C menu after booting everdrive. Maybe I need update the OS? It's not activated in my case because if I turn off megadrive with MD tracker (I tried also with RESET) and back on, it always start empty.

In MEGA/SAVE, I have this file : MD TRACKER 0_13b.srm so it is suppose to works? (I don't know if it's sram file or save state file, it can be old save state one) but it don't work. Maybe a problems about rights? I will try "sudo chmod 777" on this folder and files

And if I open the in game menu ("START + DOWN") in "options" if I goes in "toolbox" I can select copy from ram to sd or copy from sd to ram. I tried do that but it does not work.

In my tests, I also discover that the undiscontinuated sound when stopping tracker, will finally stop after a few minutes.

Last edited by MazHoot (Jan 7, 2021 6:19 pm)

Corthax
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If the file size is 256Kb then it is SRAM. Can you send me that file?
Also, you can try to put save file created by BlastEm (usually located at \Users\[username]\AppData\Local\blastem\MD TRACKER 0_13b\ save.sram) into MEGA/SAVE. Rename it to "MD TRACKER 0_13b.srm" to match required naming. Then check if it loads, or overwritten.
Also, does tracker saying "GENERATING MODULE DATA" at every boot? Or just starts with empty song.
...
...
The sound bug thing is funny smile

Corthax
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0.14b is out, sheck the first post for DL link.
New:
- 512Kb SRAM required. If have only 256Kb then split save.sram file in half and load the first part. Just don't touch patterns that belongs to the rest of save file. Theoretically that should work.
- 6 commands per row.
- Copy FM instrument parameters to another.
- commands description help in pattern editor.
- Fix: copy/paste in pattern.
- Portamento now can be stopped (31--/32--) or reset (31FF/32FF) separately.
- Much faster GUI (a little playback slowdown, mostly while switching screens, as tradeoff).
- Other small bugfixes and changes.
- 0th(--) pattern is uneditable now.
- Now it opens selected instrument in pattern editor for editing.

Last edited by Corthax (Jan 8, 2021 2:10 pm)

MazHoot
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Yesss!!!

It seems that we can't send files in private message, can you give me your mail in private for I send you? the file is 65.5 ko
Yes it says generating module data at every boot.
I will try the blastEm trick and say.

I will also try with your update just in case :-)

MazHoot
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So it's the same problem on new version for save (for the sound bug too), I didn't try blastEm trick, I will test it, I need to find it and install first (it will be the linux version I only have linux for test it)

I found something I didn't saw before in everdrive's menu. If you go in the folder mega directly from megadrive, there is save, snap and txt options available. I selected save and they ask me to copy from sram to sd or sd to sram but even with that, after starting MD tracker it's still says generating module data and it's empty :-(

EDIT : I tried with chmod 777 to save folder and files but the problem is still here. I saw that the save file name.srm have spaces in it. Often programs don't like it, maybe it's something like that? But it should not be that because it's good created...

Last edited by MazHoot (Jan 8, 2021 3:54 pm)

Corthax
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MazHoot wrote:

Yesss!!!

It seems that we can't send files in private message, can you give me your mail in private for I send you? the file is 65.5 ko
Yes it says generating module data at every boot.
I will try the blastEm trick and say.

I will also try with your update just in case :-)

I guess this is save state (the RAM snap, so thats the wrong file).
SRAM file should be much larger.
----
BlastEm: https://www.retrodev.com/blastem/

Corthax
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MazHoot wrote:

So it's the same problem on new version for save (for the sound bug too), I didn't try blastEm trick, I will test it, I need to find it and install first (it will be the linux version I only have linux for test it)

I found something I didn't saw before in everdrive's menu. If you go in the folder mega directly from megadrive, there is save, snap and txt options available. I selected save and they ask me to copy from sram to sd or sd to sram but even with that, after starting MD tracker it's still says generating module data and it's empty :-(

EDIT : I tried with chmod 777 to save folder and files but the problem is still here. I saw that the save file name.srm have spaces in it. Often programs don't like it, maybe it's something like that? But it should not be that because it's good created...

According to MED OS since MEGAOS-V4.04  08.08.2020
1) Saves management changes.*
*System will move save data from battery ram to SD card every time when cartridge boots to menu (instead of moving when game changed).
It makes save system more clear and prevent lost of data for last played game if battery dry out.

So.. it shoud save every time cart boots to menu.

In terms of writing/reading SRAM nothing has changed in 0.14b compared to 0.13b, just the amount requirement because patterns now bigger.

Corthax
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Also, make it clear... Tracker works (more or less) fine on hardware? You can write music, but its not saved after shutdown?

MazHoot
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"So.. it shoud save every time cart boots to menu."

It should, but it don't... with the price of everdrive, that's bad that something don't work correctly... Maybe I will try update OS but I think I have the last one. I will try with normal games for see if it works with it or not.

Yea it seems to works good except the undiscontinuated sound bug and the save problem. But because I can't save I didn't make a lot of things with it so I can't test many things, because I know all my work will be lost...

I can make a video if you want, for you can understand better what's happening with sound bug. For the save it sounds everdrive's problem.

Last edited by MazHoot (Jan 8, 2021 5:19 pm)

MazHoot
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Save sram works good with the game sonic 3, so it seems to come from the tracker!

With sonic 3 I just pressed reset, and after coming back to the game, it was saved

Last edited by MazHoot (Jan 8, 2021 5:44 pm)

Corthax
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Thats strange. If everything works then all the sram data is present and correct. But maybe everdrive cant detect if it needs to be saved and thinks there is no sram used. But why...

MazHoot
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I didn't test yet loading blastem sram. I will test it later or tomorrow and say