Bangai-Oh VGA Patch

[TapamN]

I've been distracted by other things (new Zelda game, doing other DC benchmarks), but I'm going to go back to finishing up the VGA patches. I should have something "soonish", assuming nothing expected happens.

After thinking about it, I'm going to modify the patch method. I was replacing the NTSC mode setting function with new code that converts the NTSC mode parameters to VGA if a VGA cable is plugged in, and I was going to recreate the NTSC settings if composite/RGB was plugged in. I decided it would be easier to reuse the game's existing NTSC code, so instead it will replace the PAL code, and redirect the NTSC call to the new "PAL" code. Then, if there's not a VGA cable plugged in, my code will call the game's NTSC code. The advantage to this is that I don't have to rewrite an NTSC mode setter from scratch while trying to fit the size of the old code.

This helps with other things. My code could modify the NTSC video mode a bit, and do things like force enable/disable interlacing or the deflicker filter, and it might even work to convert 50hz only games to 60hz. One idea I had was to use the system settings to let the user modify the video mode, like using the auto start setting to control interlacing for low res games, or deflicker for high res, or something. There's also a (seemingly) unused byte in the system settings area that might be usable for something (it would need to be set by a homebrew app).

The downside is that this means that the patch won't be able to triple support NTSC/PAL/VGA at the same time, but I don't think that's a big deal, since I don't think most people would have a setup where that's important, and you could still just use the original game if you need 50hz PAL.

[fraggle200]

thanks for the update on where things are. I thought you'd went quiet just cos the work on the patches was taking longer than expected or you'd got on a roll and were just mowing through all the non VGA games to release a full set of patches in 1 go.

Even if it's just life that's got in the way then it's good to hear it's still on the radar. take all the time that's needed, this stuff is very much a "nice to have"

[mistamontiel]

Pardon off-topic to VGA on-topic to video signals, (EDIT: well golly read post thru now)

Racing Simulation 2 Monaco On-Line would be very interesting to tackle it only allows for 60hz over VGA but s-vid anything lesser stays 50

I am new to Saturn like three years ownership and amused how everything PAL format will just 60 almost always with no compromises

[fafadou]

The downside is that this means that the patch won't be able to triple support NTSC/PAL/VGA at the same time, but I don't think that's a big deal, since I don't think most people would have a setup where that's important, and you could still just use the original game if you need 50hz PAL.

We can removed the zone later via IP.BIN, please don't take care of that.
If you find a way to patch the PAL non vga games it will be perfect but not the priority.

[areyareadyherewego]

KoF Dream Match 1999 plays like a dream now with the VGA patch, I love it!

[K.Kertsman]

SNK games: priority for the japanese versions please^''''

[TapamN]

I have Seven Mansions working with NTSC and VGA support. I want to apply the patch to a clean 1ST_READ and retest it before I release it. Were there any changes to Seven Mansions 1.4 besides the VGA patch? The old VGA patch overwrote code used by the new one, so it would be easier to apply it to 1.3, but I could fix up 1.4 if I have to.

I've been trying to add it to KoF99, but have been having problems. I would have thought KoF99 worked like KoF98, but it seems like the game checks the cable outside of video initialization and resets if it's VGA (haven't looked closely enough to see if it's deliberate or a bug), so I had to patch the game's cable checking function to always say there's a composite cable to get it to run with VGA plugged in (I'll need to change it so that it says composite only if VGA is in, because this would break RGB support). With that, I kind of have VGA KoF99 working, but the video settings are wrong so half the screen is cut off and it's running at 120 Hz. https://imgur.com/a/AHmbM8v (The video is not sped up, just the game.) It still needs some tweaks.

SNK games: priority for the japanese versions please^''''

Why the Japanese version over an English one?

The downside is that this means that the patch won't be able to triple support NTSC/PAL/VGA at the same time, but I don't think that's a big deal, since I don't think most people would have a setup where that's important, and you could still just use the original game if you need 50hz PAL.

We can removed the zone later via IP.BIN, please don't take care of that.
If you find a way to patch the PAL non vga games it will be perfect but not the priority.

People on a PAL console would still be able to play with VGA, and PAL60 might still work, it's only PAL50 that I'm overwriting. I was thinking a warning on the IP.BIN logo would be the best option.

[ateam]

I have Seven Mansions working with NTSC and VGA support. I want to apply the patch to a clean 1ST_READ and retest it before I release it. Were there any changes to Seven Mansions 1.4 besides the VGA patch? The old VGA patch overwrote code used by the new one, so it would be easier to apply it to 1.3, but I could fix up 1.4 if I have to.

The only change in v1.4, aside from the asm instruction changes, is the title screen texture modified to read "v1.4 VGA EDITION" (or something to that effect).

[K.Kertsman]

Why the Japanese version over an English one?

primary is censorship, Bakumatsu Roman was removed of final mutilations and red blood (KOF99-Dream too, try slashing with Choi)

KOF99-Evo Jp have the option for english text, so why bother with overseas edition ?

[TapamN]

Patches for KoF 99 Evo US and Seven Mansions are working.

The patch for KoF 99 Evo is an xdelta for track 3 of the US TOSEC dump (MD5 of unpatched track 3 should be 8f9b07766493a862bf57f7ed4f8b4475). I tried using UDCP, but the patch creator was getting an out of bounds error during verification of the source image. This also patches the VGA support bit in IP.BIN. This currently removes support for RGB, I just remembered while typing this up that I forgot to fix the cable check code to report RGB instead always faking composite. I'm releasing it anyways so there's at least an imperfect patch out there, in case I get hit by a bus or something before I fix it.

The xdelta patch for Seven Mansions is for the unscrambled 1ST_READ.BIN of version 1.3. I used the uncompressed version for testing, but it should work with the CD-R compatible version. You'll have to recreate the CDI yourself. (I thought about creating a patch for the CDIs, but I'll let the people responsible for the translation handle it, in case they want to make other changes.) This should still support RGB, since it didn't need the cable faker that KoF 99 did.

Neither were tested that thoroughly, but I got to gameplay with VGA and NTSC on both of them. These don't have the progressive/deflicker toggle idea that I mentioned before.

Why the Japanese version over an English one?

primary is censorship, Bakumatsu Roman was removed of final mutilations and red blood (KOF99-Dream too, try slashing with Choi)

KOF99-Evo Jp have the option for english text, so why bother with overseas edition ?

I figured it was something like that. I might look into redoing the patch for the Japanese version, or someone else can when I release the code.