Change of plans - because svn looks likely to become unstable for a little bit with recent work (mmu changes are fairly invasive, and there’s quite a performance penalty that I haven’t optimized away yet), I’m releasing 0.8.2 as it is now (without TLB) for the benefit of those who need the fixes since 0.8.1.
Note: There are no significant changes to the emulation (ie no change to compatibility) - If 0.8.1 runs properly for you, you don’t need 0.8.2

Changes from 0.8.1

• x86-64 architecture support
• Preliminary Mac OS X support
• Pbuffer support (to support OpenGL drivers without EXT_framebuffer_object)
• Support for more recent CDI and NRG image file versions
• Minor bugfixes

Currently working slowly through the MMU TLB implementation and testing. If all goes according to plan (as if that ever happens), we should have a running linux-dc sometime this month. Once that’s working I’ll cut a 0.8.2 and then get on to all those lovely rendering issues…

In unrelated news I’ve had to install an anti-spam filter on the forum, as the spam levels were starting to get out of control. So far it looks to be working well - a little too well, possibly - if anyone is having problems registering or posting, please let me know by email and I’ll sort it out.

So… I’ve finally bitten the bullet and implemented some basic pbuffer-based rendering support, and even tidied up the glx code a little in the process (which is nice). It seems to work ok, but it would be good if I could get some of the people who were having framebuffer troubles to test out the current subversion trunk, and let me know if it works for them.

Don’t get me started on the current state of GL/GLX support in Linux…

I’ve also spent some time on native CD and audio drivers for Mac OS X, but I’ll probably have to come back to them later (they’re taking a lot longer than I originally hoped unfortunately).
Next stop: MMU (finally! ^_^)

It must be porting week - both the x86-64 and mac ports should (fingers crossed) work out of the box now. (Note that the mac port is intel only, and still requires X11+GTK 2.0 to build). Real native mac support will probably follow slowly as time permits - I’m getting something of a crash course in mac programming at the moment ^_^.

Changes

• Added x86-64 support to the translator
• Initial Mac OS X support (configuration and translator ABI changes)
• Fix buggy TRAPA instruction (translator only - fixes several homebrew games)
• Improve error handling of a few situations (can’t connect to display, etc)
• Esound is now optional (but without it you’re not getting any audio)
• Re-add the “Load Binary” menu entry that somehow got lost in the GUI revamp.

The big change this week was the cutover to subversion for source control, otherwise things are fairly quiet at the moment. Also looking into a few homebrew games that are black-screening at the moment (damnit…) which would be nice to fix…
Changes

• Converted source repository to subversion
• Handful of minor bugfixes
• Add support for CDI v4 (I think), and NRG 5.5+ images.
• Add quick-n-dirty set of debian control files
• Fix make install to include system rc file and exclude intermediate tools.
• Start fixing up the unit/system tests to actually run properly
• Added brazilian portugese and german UI translations (thanks to arthonis and linuxdonald)

I wasn’t originally planning to do a point release, but it’s probably worth fixing a few issues that were reported on the forums (mostly configure / portability related). Plus you get full-screen and GDI image support thrown in for free too!

I’d be interested to know how this fares on x86-based *BSD systems if anyone wants to test it out - hopefully it should be possible to at least build it now.

Changes

• Fix configure script to abort if it doesn’t find a required library (eg, libGL.so or libz.so)
• Add checks to the configure script for linux/cdrom.h, and avoid building the CD-Rom driver if it’s not found.
• Add preliminary support for nulldc-style gdi images
• Implement gdrom mode select command (mostly stub)
• Fix some non-64bit-safe code
• Fix the maple 0×00000700 issue

The current plan for 0.9 looks like this:

1. Fix the renderer
2. Implement MMU address translation.

The big focus for 0.9 obviously has to be the rendering module - we need to speed things up a lot (at least 5-10x faster than it is currently), deal with a bunch of bugs (most of them cases where GL and the PVR2 don’t quite see eye-to-eye), and implement about half a dozen missing features (none of them trivial).

The AT is something I’ve wanted to have working for a while but it just hasn’t been a high enough priority compared to everything else (especially as it’s going to be a pain to get it to run fast enough). I suspect that no one else cares, but personally I’m very keen to see linux-dc running inside the emu…

In any case, everything after that is just gravy, and really depends on how I go for time. Unfortunately November is looking to be very busy IRL, so we’re looking at a January release at this point. But it will _rock_, so there ^_^

I’ve also finally gotten around to putting my “status” list up on the wiki. To be honest it’s a depressing list, as it seems to change at a glacial pace, but… there you are.

Changes  (what, you want changes already?)

• Implement full-screen mode (scaling based)

With the work done in the last month both for performance and usability, it seems worthwhile to release a new version. And since this version is actually (hopefully) useable by people who aren’t me, lxdream now has a real version number rather than a milestone. W00t!
Download it and enjoy. And of course, let me know how it goes.

Note: Please do not report rendering problems at this stage - there are many known bugs and unimplemented features, and it’s looking like the whole rendering stage may need to be rewritten for the next version.

Changes

• Implement more user-friendly GD-Rom changer (closes off #31)
• Add recent GD-Rom image tracking
• Fix for CDI images with more than 1 track per session
• Save render buffers as part of the save state (issue #34)
• Show preview screenshot in save state open dialog
• Remove gnome dependency (now just depends on GTK 2.0+)

Screenshot of the shiny new GUI:

Finished off the GUI changes for the next release, and fixed a few audio issues. Still trying to figure out wtf is happening with the channel volume though, something’s not quite right there…
Changes

• Finished rewriting the debug GUI to cooperate with the new main window - last remnants of glade-generated code are now gone.
• More work on the controller settings dialog - it’s useable now (well, useable as in “it’s possible to use it” anyway), works, etc.
• Fixed freelist bug in texcache (I don’t know how its gone so long without being triggered before, but…)
• Fixed AICA save state data (wasn’t saving the channel or IO data)
• Implemented AICA channel status registers

It’s been a GUI kind of week…

Changes

• Maintain aspect-ratio when resizing window
• Simplify command line - “lxdream disc-image” now boots off the specified disc.
• Config file now loaded/saved from home directory by default, with system defaults in the sysconfdir.
• Improve keyboard support to use unmodified key values (ie z and shift-z are now interpreted the same way).
• Add initial controller settings dialog
• Add path settings dialog
• Unbreak the debugger (although the translator still doesn’t play well with it)
• Add CDI V3.5 support (0×80000006) - looks to be barely distinct from V3 anyway.