The future Plugin System and your oppinions!

[MasterPhW]

Okay, this great emu isn't fully plugin compatible yet, but that's just a matter of time and that's why want to ask these great community for their oppinion in some questions I have.
Since theplugin specifications for the input plugins are releases only one plugin went to the public (will not be the last one, but we will see), the cd plugin specifications aren't out (are they?) and that's why we don't have a new cd-rom plugin out yet, but if the GFX plugin specs go public and the emu is compatible, what are you thinking? Great improvements to the original graphics? Many new plugins?
If we would know wheather the Chankast and the Icarus plugin specs are the same (are there any infos? I never read something about it), than we could imagine if they will be new plugins... because in a thread a long time ago there was said about a lot GFX Plugins, which were in developpment for Icarus, but Icarus isn't released yet (and I think, it will need a long time because the author seems to be a perfectionist) and these plugin aren't, too.
What are you thinking, will the authors of these plugins release a chankast version? If the specs are not the same, will they rewrite them?
Many things and I hope it will be a great discussion, with a lot of different oppinions and without a lot of n00bs!
Write in it!

 

[Nightmare]

if the GFX plugin specs go public and the emu is compatible, what are you thinking? Great improvements to the original graphics? Many new plugins?

hmm... i don't think we're gonna have great improvements, maybe news screen resolutions, maybe some filter for 2D games, maybe the possibility to use 16 bits depth screens for a small speed increase for those with low specs, that's all. the chankast dev team have already made a great work, so now the improvements are quite limited...

If we would know wheather the Chankast and the Icarus plugin specs are the same (are there any infos? I never read something about it), than we could imagine if they will be new plugins... because in a thread a long time ago there was said about a lot GFX Plugins, which were in developpment for Icarus, but Icarus isn't released yet (and I think, it will need a long time because the author seems to be a perfectionist) and these plugin aren't, too.
What are you thinking, will the authors of these plugins release a chankast version? If the specs are not the same, will they rewrite them?

if there is really a lot of existing plugins for icarus (and i doubt of that), they don't need to be entirely rewritten, they just have to be adapted to the chankast code, it could be quickly made...

I hope it will be a great discussion, with a lot of different oppinions and without a lot of n00bs!

lol, you are really optimist... (i speak about the noobs, of course...)

 

[MasterPhW]

Only one person who had post a oppinion, that's sad...
I think here can be only discussions about sex, not about such things... because of many n00bs, but thanks for your oppinion Nightmare.

 

[russofris]

My opinions and random thoughts.

Since the DC uses a Direct X derivative and a subset of the Metal API (I think that is the native API for the Kyro?), I assume the following.

Graphics plugins will probably exist for DX9 (like the current) and OpenGl.
There should be application controlled options for AF and AA.
Since many DC games (All?) are 16 bit color only, some texture filtering/smoothing and alpha can be added to increase the quality a bit (render 16 textures in 24 bit, not that it will make much difference)
A Gamma slider would be nice (with hotkeys).

For audio, there are a number of "fake 3d" stereo/4/5/6/7.1 enhancements that can be added. Unlikely though.

I'd like to see better CD-Rom support. I get choppiness in play whenever the disk is read (I do not use a virtual cd ISO mounter). A speed limiting function may be nice to have (who knows?)

For Input plugins... I have a Radio Shack Adaptoid thingy and a real DC... So there is not much for me to say here. I guess that it would be nice if it could read my VMUs.


Great work on the EMU guys. If I owned a hat, I'd take it off to ya.

Thank you for your time,
Frank Russo

 

[Nightmare]

Since many DC games (All?) are 16 bit color only, some texture filtering/smoothing and alpha can be added to increase the quality a bit (render 16 textures in 24 bit, not that it will make much difference)

yes, most of them are 16 bits color, with only 8 mb memory for textures on a dreamcast, the games generally can't use 32 bits color...

A Gamma slider would be nice (with hotkeys).

it's a good idea...

 

[mezkal]

While I'm no noob, I felt that this discussion would only serve to bring noobs here with thier limited and often irrelevant opinions....Glad I was wrong so far.

Well the way I see it is this:-

NOW :

Chankast is very much an alpha product. From my experience it looks like the team is really busying themselves with "meat and potatoes" of the product, the EMULATION engine. In that I mean the PVR2/SH4/BIOS Opcodes etc. The fact that we have a GUI at all at such an early stage is really testament to both the programmers' skills and the evolution of dev tools. While it's nice that ElSemi has added some plugin functionality I'm not so sure that the plugin system will not change as Chankast heads toward completion. If you think about how long it took for N64 emus to settle on the Zilmar spec I'm sure you'll agree.

FUTURE :

* Graphics output filtering plugins - possible frame buffer emulations added.
* Post processing graphics output filtering plugins 2/4HQX, Eagle etc
* 3D render engine plugins - offering the same as Zilmar spec'd plugs like Direct64 etc
* A movie recorder - converts the frame buffer output to AVI/Mpeg
* Input plugins based on DirectInput
* Sound Filtering and Extraction plugins (I know first hand that this is possible. I can't say whether the team will add it)
* Modem/BBA Emulation
* Kalliera or equivalent
* Keyboard Support - seeing as the DC had a USB (essentially) keyboard I think this could be exploited via the potential DirectInput plugin.

That's it so far.

Cheers

 

[mashakos]

If a gfx plugin system is implemented and the source is released, I think we'll see a bunch of small plugins cropping up that cater for certain people. Something like a variation of the default plugin with a scale2x effect (fullscreen blur filter for you n00bs) so that the 2D fighters can look good and still be playable. Maybe even a few releases with motion blur/post process effects - who knows?

that's all i can think of :whistling

 

[russofris]

I echo the intrest for a DC keyboard, gun, dance pad, and mouse compatible input plugin.

Thank you for your time,
Frank Russo

 

[ParticleMan]

Perhaps they could eventually add a section that had tweaks for specific games to make them run (better) on the emulator. Here's an example from Pete's plugin for Epsxe: