"Let's make GD ROM emulation happen" Facebook group.

Hey guys! I wanted to join the topic here because I got my GDEMU (v 5.4) a little while ago and I noticed a drop in audio quality. I'm gonna have to say right now that I didn't search through this topic if anyone else has already mentioned something about this phenomenon, sorry. So I'll just get on with my experience.

With the GDEMU installed the sound is noticeably muffled compared to having the GD drive in there instead, kinda like having a high-pass filter applied. I have tried this on two different Dreamcasts (PAL) and it's exactly the same on both. Cables were of course the same on both and I didn't change anything on the setup, just switched drive and GDEMU back and forth for comparisons. At first I thought it might have something to do with the games image file but even in the system menu the difference is there.

I made two really quick recordings from the menu of Shenmue II for demonstration purposes. I'd be glad if you could check these out.

From the regular GD-Rom drive:
http://www.filedropper.com/s2drive

From the GDEMU:
http://www.filedropper.com/s2gdemu

So has anyone else noticed this yet?
I hope that this issue can somehow be resolved. The GDEMU is an awesome thing to have otherwise. Cuts the load times in Shenmue almost exactly in half. I made a video comparing the two with a timer and it's really impressive. But the tradeoff of the reduced sound fidelity is kinds ruining it for me.

 

are you using original DISC aka GDROM?

also i don't think that the gdemu can change the quality of the files (on the fly) maybe it is a bug?

 

II think you meant low pass filter. This could be true for cdda audio only, if Deunan wasn't cautious enough with the audio signal circuitry. I must say I didn't notice it myself, but I didn't focused on the audio too much to be honest.

 

Yeah low-pass, of course. I got confused there, sorry.

And yes, I've been using original GD-Roms on the drive of course. As for disc images I have tried cdi and pure dump gdi. To not much surprise they sound the same because, like i said, the audio is muffled even in the Dreamcast system menu.

 

I've been doing music recordings the past couple of months using the GDEMU. I have to agree with CobaltBlue's assessment that the sound is muffled when using the device.

 

Unfortunately, for me it seems to blow up if I alter the region or VGA mode of any of my listed games.

I loaded it up, left 01 empty and edited the VGA capability of Cannon Spike, then tried to change the region code of one of my USA/Japan games, it then froze and dumped the following at the terminal:

System.ObjectDisposedException: The object was used after being disposed.
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateHandle () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.TextBoxBase.CreateHandle () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.SetVisibleCore (Boolean value) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.set_Visible (Boolean value) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at (wrapper remoting-invoke-with-check) System.Windows.Forms.Control:set_Visible (bool)
at System.Windows.Forms.DataGridView.BeginEdit (Boolean selectAll) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.DataGridView.SetCurrentCellAddressCore (Int32 columnIndex, Int32 rowIndex, Boolean setAnchorCellAddress, Boolean validateCurrentCell, Boolean throughMouseClick) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.DataGridView.OnMouseDown (System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs e) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmLButtonDblClick (System.Windows.Forms.Message& m) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc (System.Windows.Forms.Message& m) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.DataGridView.WndProc (System.Windows.Forms.Message& m) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.Control+ControlWindowTarget.OnMessage (System.Windows.Forms.Message& m) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.Control+ControlNativeWindow.WndProc (System.Windows.Forms.Message& m) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.WndProc (IntPtr hWnd, Msg msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Index is less than 0 or more than or equal to the list count.
Parameter name: index
0
at System.Collections.ArrayList.ThrowNewArgumentOutOfRangeException (System.String name, System.Object actual, System.String message) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Collections.ArrayList.get_Item (Int32 index) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.DataGridViewRowCollection.SharedRow (Int32 rowIndex) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.DataGridView.GetRowInternal (Int32 rowIndex) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.DataGridView.GetCellInternal (Int32 colIndex, Int32 rowIndex) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.DataGridView.OnCellLeave (System.Windows.Forms.DataGridViewCellEventArgs e) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.DataGridView.SetCurrentCellAddressCore (Int32 columnIndex, Int32 rowIndex, Boolean setAnchorCellAddress, Boolean validateCurrentCell, Boolean throughMouseClick) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.DataGridView.MoveCurrentCell (Int32 x, Int32 y, Boolean select, Boolean isControl, Boolean isShift, Boolean scroll) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.DataGridView.OnColumnCollectionChanged (System.Object sender, System.ComponentModel.CollectionChangeEventArgs e) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.DataGridViewColumnCollection.OnCollectionChanged (System.ComponentModel.CollectionChangeEventArgs e) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.DataGridViewColumnCollection.Clear () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.DataGridView.Dispose (Boolean disposing) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.ComponentModel.Component.Dispose () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at (wrapper remoting-invoke-with-check) System.ComponentModel.Componentispose ()
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.Dispose (Boolean disposing) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.ContainerControl.Dispose (Boolean disposing) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.Dispose (Boolean disposing) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at GDMenu_Builder_Linux.Form1.Dispose (Boolean disposing) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.ComponentModel.Component.Dispose () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at (wrapper remoting-invoke-with-check) System.ComponentModel.Componentispose ()
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WmClose (System.Windows.Forms.Message& m) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WndProc (System.Windows.Forms.Message& m) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.Control+ControlWindowTarget.OnMessage (System.Windows.Forms.Message& m) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.Control+ControlNativeWindow.WndProc (System.Windows.Forms.Message& m) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.WndProc (IntPtr hWnd, Msg msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
^C

This is on Linux Mint 17 on x86_64.

# uname -a
Linux curse 3.13.0-35-generic #62-Ubuntu SMP Fri Aug 15 01:58:42 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

# mono --version
Mono JIT compiler version 3.2.8 (Debian 3.2.8+dfsg-4ubuntu1)
Copyright (C) 2002-2014 Novell, Inc, Xamarin Inc and Contributors. www.mono-project.com
TLS: __thread
SIGSEGV: altstack
Notifications: epoll
Architecture: amd64
Disabled: none
Misc: softdebug
LLVM: supported, not enabled.
GC: sgen


# genisoimage --version
genisoimage 1.1.11 (Linux)

 

A little more information - if I change one attribute at a time (either vga mode, country code, name, disc number), then build the image, then it works. If however I change more than one attribute, it blows up as above.

Of course the modified data is in the generated target.iso file, so running the tool multiple times doesn't help

Is there a way I can manually edit the generated list.ini file (so that I can add in all the attribute changes I need) to build the target.iso / disc.cdi from the command line?

 

it is a mono bug... (one of them )

i think now it is ok!
xxx.biskoto.gr/GDMENU_Builder.rar

 

Raise it with deunan!

 

I've sent Deunan a message about this two days ago and he told me that he doesn't know the cause yet and that it could be that the lower power draw of the GDEMU affects the audio amps somehow. I've sent him another message yesterday with the two recordings I made. Hopefully he'll look into this. I'd really like to know if there is a way to fix this anytime soon.

 

Yep, the GUI certainly appears to work now and produces a list.ini, target.iso and disc.cdi image (2477252 bytes) - however, the generated disc.cdi file, when placed in folder 01, won't boot to GDMENU - it just loads straight the the DC browser/settings screen

 

Look, don't worry about it - I fired up an old Vista vm under Virtualbox and used the Windows version instead, it worked great and patched both my Cannon Spike PAL to VGA and my USA/Japan games to JUE region fine. They all now work. Just need a big SD card to load all my games onto now (I ripped something like 70 originals to GDI using httpd-ack).

Just the disc image (I don't have any!) and loop-round numbering issue to sort now - this appears to be related to the newer release of the GDEMU firmware though from what I understand.

 

AAAAA... CDI4DC 0.2B don't like DATA/DATA format now i use AUDIO/DATA works ok!
Sorry

one more DL
LINK: http://xxx.biskoto.gr/GDMENU_Builder.rar

 

Dear

I will receive my USB emu card, what's the best format I must use from game: iso, gdi and how to dump my original game gd rom disc in this format.

Thanks

 

Best format is GDI for retail licensed games and CDI for homebrew.

You can find CDI builds for homebrew online, it's the same file you have to burn to CD normally. I think the USB adapter doesn't support CDI.

You can dump GDI using the DC serial sd-card adapter, coder's cable or bba. Or using a PC DVD drive swapping technique, which is complicated.

FG

 

Thanks

 

Anyone that had the issue with the muffles audio on the GDEMU will be happy now. Apparently the issue didn't apply to all Dreamcasts. Thanks to my testing and asking, Deunan looked into it and managed to fix the problem. The new FW is out and all I can say is that the GDEMU now sounds exactly like the drive.

https://gdemu.wordpress.com/firmware/

 

I wouldn't be surprised if it did, and he's just saying that because nobody else noticed it.

I never noticed anything wrong with mine, but the difference was immediately obvious as soon as I upgraded to the new version. The audio sounded a bit louder at the same volume, and slightly clearer. (Especially the Shenmue menu selection sound effect that you had in your example)

Thanks for paying attention to something so subtle.

 

Yeah, that's a really excellent result!

 

I recorded music from Shenmue II using the latest firmware.