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@sverx 1 question: With devkit is possible create a vgmplayer with a gui visual and playlist feature?

[Admin: split topic from https://www.smspower.org/forums/15228-DevkitSMSDevelopYourHomebrewInC ]

segarule wrote

@sverx 1 question: With devkit is possible create a vgmplayer with a gui visual and playlist feature?

Sure, provided you:
- convert each VGM to PSG to be used with PSGlib
- put them all in the ROM with the player
it can be done (but of course I have no idea which GUI visuals you need...)

sverx wrote

segarule wrote

@sverx 1 question: With devkit is possible create a vgmplayer with a gui visual and playlist feature?

Sure, provided you:
- convert each VGM to PSG to be used with PSGlib
- put them all in the ROM with the player
it can be done (but of course I have no idea which GUI visuals you need...)

This dont was exactly in my mind. With gui visuals i mean with windows and menu like as Sonicplayer.
https://www.paulsprojects.net/sonicplayer/sonicplayer.png

Quote

- convert each VGM to PSG to be used with PSGlib

My idea was keep the vgm files in folder and the smsapp acess it and play it in native form and with no necessity of rom output.

segarule wrote

My idea was keep the vgm files in folder and the smsapp acess it and play it in native form.

You would probably need an EverDrive and a library to access the SD card in it, then read (cache) a chunk of the file, play that with some VGM replay library while caching the next chunk. It's possible, but not easy.

I don’t think anyone has an example of accessing the SD card on Everdrive. Decompressing compressed VGMs is beyond the system capabilities.

sverx wrote

segarule wrote

My idea was keep the vgm files in folder and the smsapp acess it and play it in native form.

You would probably need an EverDrive and a library to access the SD card in it, then read (cache) a chunk of the file, play that with some VGM replay library while caching the next chunk. It's possible, but not easy.

This was in my mind!

Quote

I don’t think anyone has an example of accessing the SD card on Everdrive. Decompressing compressed VGMs is beyond the system capabilities.

For play it must be decompressed? I was thinking only in some homebrew that recognized the format.

Maxim wrote

Decompressing compressed VGMs is beyond the system capabilities.

Yeah, I didn't even consider that. But 'regular' (not compressed) VGMs could be played if one can actually access the filesystem on the SD card, which of course is a big IF.

Maxim wrote

Decompressing compressed VGMs is beyond the system capabilities.

Out of interest, what's the critical limiting factor here - processing speed or RAM availability?

A bit of both. Deflate has a 32KB window size, plus it needs to build Huffman trees as it works, so doing all that would require rather more than 8KB of RAM. Unzippers exist for CP/M on Z80, for example. I suspect they’d be pretty slow, though.

Regular VGMs can also be played by including them in the ROM, but it’s not very space efficient and makes it hard to have a long playlist. Having them in the file system can seem easier to manage for a typical user.

Hum. So basically we have 2 problems:
1 - Amount of RAM resident in system;
2 - Necessity of decompress vgm faster?

I think that iten 2 could have a solution?

please split this topic from post 126964 if possible :)

Done :)

Maxim wrote

I don’t think anyone has an example of accessing the SD card on Everdrive.

There are probably magic sequences that lock and unlock access to the SD cart, Emulicious emulate that, because you can run the game gear games using everdrive firmware as bios. So that is not much of a secret. The point is, that once locked, it might not be possible to unlock access to the SD cart, but probably not. So you either have to replace the everdrive firmware with your own, or you are lucky and you can load the program from SD and then access that SD. Anyway, reading SD sectors is not enough, you need to implement FAT filesystem as well, at least the read only mode.

ps: on the Game Boy, there is EZFlash Jr. cart, where you can arbitrary lock or unlock access to SD. But no one seem to take advantage of it due to the lack of interest, i guess.

Author	Message
segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 439	DevKitSMS VGM player/accessing the Everdrive filesystem Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2023 12:30 am
segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 439	@sverx 1 question: With devkit is possible create a vgmplayer with a gui visual and playlist feature? [Admin: split topic from https://www.smspower.org/forums/15228-DevkitSMSDevelopYourHomebrewInC ]

sverx Joined: 05 Sep 2013 Posts: 3828 Location: Stockholm, Sweden	Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2023 9:08 am
	segarule wrote @sverx 1 question: With devkit is possible create a vgmplayer with a gui visual and playlist feature? Sure, provided you: - convert each VGM to PSG to be used with PSGlib - put them all in the ROM with the player it can be done (but of course I have no idea which GUI visuals you need...)

segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 439	Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2023 2:30 pm
segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 439	sverx wrote segarule wrote @sverx 1 question: With devkit is possible create a vgmplayer with a gui visual and playlist feature? Sure, provided you: - convert each VGM to PSG to be used with PSGlib - put them all in the ROM with the player it can be done (but of course I have no idea which GUI visuals you need...) This dont was exactly in my mind. With gui visuals i mean with windows and menu like as Sonicplayer. https://www.paulsprojects.net/sonicplayer/sonicplayer.png Quote - convert each VGM to PSG to be used with PSGlib My idea was keep the vgm files in folder and the smsapp acess it and play it in native form and with no necessity of rom output.

sverx Joined: 05 Sep 2013 Posts: 3828 Location: Stockholm, Sweden	Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2023 2:42 pm
	segarule wrote My idea was keep the vgm files in folder and the smsapp acess it and play it in native form. You would probably need an EverDrive and a library to access the SD card in it, then read (cache) a chunk of the file, play that with some VGM replay library while caching the next chunk. It's possible, but not easy.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14745 Location: London	Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2023 5:07 pm
	I don’t think anyone has an example of accessing the SD card on Everdrive. Decompressing compressed VGMs is beyond the system capabilities.

segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 439	Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2023 6:03 pm
segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 439	sverx wrote segarule wrote My idea was keep the vgm files in folder and the smsapp acess it and play it in native form. You would probably need an EverDrive and a library to access the SD card in it, then read (cache) a chunk of the file, play that with some VGM replay library while caching the next chunk. It's possible, but not easy. This was in my mind! Quote I don’t think anyone has an example of accessing the SD card on Everdrive. Decompressing compressed VGMs is beyond the system capabilities. For play it must be decompressed? I was thinking only in some homebrew that recognized the format.

sverx Joined: 05 Sep 2013 Posts: 3828 Location: Stockholm, Sweden	Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2023 9:31 am
	Maxim wrote Decompressing compressed VGMs is beyond the system capabilities. Yeah, I didn't even consider that. But 'regular' (not compressed) VGMs could be played if one can actually access the filesystem on the SD card, which of course is a big IF.

willbritton Joined: 06 Mar 2022 Posts: 671 Location: London, UK	Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2023 10:05 am
	Maxim wrote Decompressing compressed VGMs is beyond the system capabilities. Out of interest, what's the critical limiting factor here - processing speed or RAM availability?

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14745 Location: London	Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2023 10:14 am
	A bit of both. Deflate has a 32KB window size, plus it needs to build Huffman trees as it works, so doing all that would require rather more than 8KB of RAM. Unzippers exist for CP/M on Z80, for example. I suspect they’d be pretty slow, though. Regular VGMs can also be played by including them in the ROM, but it’s not very space efficient and makes it hard to have a long playlist. Having them in the file system can seem easier to manage for a typical user.

segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 439	Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2023 9:02 am
segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 439	Hum. So basically we have 2 problems: 1 - Amount of RAM resident in system; 2 - Necessity of decompress vgm faster? I think that iten 2 could have a solution?

sverx Joined: 05 Sep 2013 Posts: 3828 Location: Stockholm, Sweden	Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2023 2:23 pm
	please split this topic from post 126964 if possible :)

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14745 Location: London	Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2023 6:59 pm
	Done :)

toxa Joined: 09 Aug 2021 Posts: 131	Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2023 10:43 am
toxa Joined: 09 Aug 2021 Posts: 131	Maxim wrote I don’t think anyone has an example of accessing the SD card on Everdrive. There are probably magic sequences that lock and unlock access to the SD cart, Emulicious emulate that, because you can run the game gear games using everdrive firmware as bios. So that is not much of a secret. The point is, that once locked, it might not be possible to unlock access to the SD cart, but probably not. So you either have to replace the everdrive firmware with your own, or you are lucky and you can load the program from SD and then access that SD. Anyway, reading SD sectors is not enough, you need to implement FAT filesystem as well, at least the read only mode. ps: on the Game Boy, there is EZFlash Jr. cart, where you can arbitrary lock or unlock access to SD. But no one seem to take advantage of it due to the lack of interest, i guess.

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