Skies of Arcadia - Perfect 60Hz RGB+VGA (Desync Fix) Patch RELEASE

[ciscollo]

I have just patched version 1.1, when the intro begins with a white background and some letters appear explaining the beginning, it appears in English, and I have a pal with RGB and I am Spanish and the texts appear in English and that would have to appear in Spanish. If it appears with patch 1.0 and with 1.1 it remains the same, when the gray dolphin appears it stays stuck there. The intro does not end and the music continues

[fafadou]

I believe it's the US released here so only english for now.

But maybe you have a new bios ? the langage is selected via the bios preset.

[Riggles]

I have just patched version 1.1, when the intro begins with a white background and some letters appear explaining the beginning, it appears in English, and I have a pal with RGB and I am Spanish and the texts appear in English and that would have to appear in Spanish. If it appears with patch 1.0 and with 1.1 it remains the same, when the gray dolphin appears it stays stuck there. The intro does not end and the music continues

Ah, will have to take a look at that when I'm back on Sunday. Easy fix.

The intro freeze is a problem with gdemu <5.20 which this doesn't fix.

But the script file for the PAL version was replaced for the intro. The script points at different MLD containers which contains different language textures forthe white screen at the intro.

Best case: I should be able to hex edit it so that the x language MLD is choosen instead of just the default English one, adding the language .MLD pick function to the US script file. They're straight forward enough in a hex editor, so I should be able to add that function.

Worst case I rename the MLDs and provide a different patch for each language. Which would be a temp fix.

Only affects the intro for other languages as I replaced it with the US script file for the correct animation timing.

The credits roll should be affected too as that's the other instance of streamed audio and different MLD containers for each language.

[Riggles]

I have just patched version 1.1

Updated to V2, fixed the issue : D sorry for missing this. The same fix is also done to the ending script, so all should be good now. They PAL optimized these (1.20 multiplier) as they didn't use midi tables like every other cutscene in the game but instead streamed music just for the intro+ending, the fix involved simply changing the instances of 1.20 (float) to 1.0 in these script files, then verifying the functions again in SALSA. The scripts are separate for the intro+ending so nothing else in the game is touched that could break.

V2.0
- Fixes Spanish/French/German mode texture loading for streamed audio cutscenes (black text on white intro screen)
Additionally did a full search through all of the ~400 script files to confirm if there are any PAL optimizations left.
Fixed ending cinematic timings (probably still worked in v1.1, but now has the intended file with PAL optimizations undone instead)
I undid optimizations in the 250A scripts (identical on both discs), unused duplicate ending data, real ending is in 298A,
removed the optimizations anyway. Upgrade to 2.0 to be sure you won't encounter any desyncs with the ending.
This should be the Final version release as all script files have been analyzed.

GDEmu info, unrelated to this mod and happens to all retail releases of Skies of Arcadia:
pre-5.20 firmware will get an intro animation freeze at the final 20 seconds (pressing start works like normal here),
upgrade to v5.20 which updates disc access speeds, hopefully there's a fix for this minor issue for those stuck with v5.15.

I'll poke around and see if I can do something about this old GDEmu issue. Don't expect me to be able to fix that though as it's broken in all original releases.

[Gromber]

Thanks for all your work on this patch
You probably already know this, but the Chinese version of YZB Eternal Arcadia fixed this gdemu problem, although so is heavily modified I suppose it is difficult to find the changes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nG0dL89Kpo

[Riggles]

Yeah, I have it but the executable is completely remade from the ground up, can't just compare it with the retail versions. The executable is somehow way smaller as well, so a bunch of functions were packed elsewhere.
Compared various other related to the intro (script, mld), using those instead in the Japanese version as a test, but those weren't it.

[MoeFoh]

Yeah, I have it but the executable is completely remade from the ground up, can't just compare it with the retail versions. The executable is somehow way smaller well, so a bunch of functions were packed elsewhere.
Compared various other related to the intro (script, mld), using those instead in the Japanese version as a test, but those weren't it.

yzb liked to use a compressed bin file that would decompress on-the-fly. May be the case here. Echelon did this also, as a disc space saving method.

[ciscollo]

GDEmu info, unrelated to this mod and happens to all retail releases of Skies of Arcadia:
pre-1.20 firmware will get an intro animation freeze at the final 20 seconds (pressing start works like normal here),
upgrade to v1.20 which updates disc access speeds, hopefully there's a fix for this minor issue for those stuck with v1.15.
I'll poke around and see if I can do something about this old GDEmu issue. Don't expect me to be able to fix that though as it's broken in all original releases.


I don't understand updating the disk access firmware from 1.15 to 1.20? How was it done? I have gdemu 5.15 b.. with gdemu 5,20.5 does it fix it?

[Riggles]

GDEmu info, unrelated to this mod and happens to all retail releases of Skies of Arcadia:
pre-5.20 firmware will get an intro animation freeze at the final 20 seconds (pressing start works like normal here),
upgrade to v5.20 which updates disc access speeds, hopefully there's a fix for this minor issue for those stuck with v5.15.
I'll poke around and see if I can do something about this old GDEmu issue. Don't expect me to be able to fix that though as it's broken in all original releases.


I don't understand updating the disk access firmware from 5.15 to 5.20? How was it done? I have gdemu 5.15 b.. with gdemu 5,20.5 does it fix it?

You can only update original GDEmu, with the china ones on aliexpress can't update, so you're stuck with the firmware they ship with. 5.15b is the last one that still has the issue. You'll have to buy a new one.

[fernan1234]

Just heard about this new patch. Great to know SoA is being expanded after all these years. Does anyone know if there is a patch available to do something slightly similar: patching the Japanese/NTSC-J version to run in RGB SCART (480i) mode? If now, maybe this patch could be a stepping stone.

As is, the NTSC-J version forces 480p when using an RGB cable, even with modified pins to force SD modes in most other games, so the only current way to play the Japanese release on SD CRTs is using S-video or composite. It would be awesome to make it possible to play on SD-only RGB monitors.