Gens-gs-r7_pre5.rar_gens_gens-gs-r7

Gens/GS r7_pre5 (Gens/GS) [PREVIEW RELEASE] Copyright (c) 1999-2002 by Stéphane Dallongeville Copyright (c) 2003-2004 by Stéphane Akhoun Copyright (c) 2008-2009 by David Korth This version of Gens is maintained by David Korth. E-mail: gerbilsoft@verizon.net For news on Gens/GS, visit Sonic Retro: http://www.sonicretro.org ================================================================ 1. What is Gens/GS? Gens/GS r7_pre5 is David Korth's fork of Gens, initially based on Gens for Linux v2.15.2. The number after the "r" indicates the Gens/GS release. Releases are usually made after a significant new feature has been added, with minor releases if a major bug is found. ================================================================ 1a. PREVIEW RELEASE Gens/GS r7_pre5 is a preview release. Although the new MDP plugin system is now considered to be "stable", parts of Gens/GS may still be buggy. This release is intended to help find last-minute bugs before the final r7 release. NOTE: The MDP documentation and Gens/GS manual are not finished in this version of Gens/GS. They will be completed before the final release of Gens/GS r7. ================================================================ 2. Short History of Gens/GS (mostly taken from the Gens for Linux readme) Stephane Dallongeville is the author of Gens (Windows version). Caz has made a BeOS port, using Allegro. But this port was command line oriented. And though Allegro is a great library, its GUI part is ... well ... rather ugly. Thus, I (Stephane Akhoun) wanted to use GTK+ for the GUI. But as mixing Allegro and GTK+ events loop was a bit of challenge (though possible) I decided to switch to SDL. Fortunately, it was very easy (only 2 function calls to change !). Finally, in the port process, my main work is the GTK+ GUI, and some work here and there. Caz ported the gens core : I wanted to thank him/her one more time for his/her pieces of advice. Thanks also for Lester Barrows (aryarya) and El Pelos (wah wah 69) for their contribution, patches, joystick support, ... For all users that helped and help us in the porting process : thank you very much ! Gens/GS picks up where Gens for Linux left off. Among other things, it integrates the Windows version into the same codebase. See the ChangeLog file for a comprehensive version history of Gens/GS. ================================================================ 3. Minimum System Software Requirements Linux: [runtime requirements] - SDL 1.2 (SDL 1.1.3 has been reported to work previously.) - GTK+ 2.4 Linux: [build requirements] - gcc 2.95 - gcc 4.x recommended [there may be some unknown 2.95/3.x compatibility issues] - nasm 2.05.1 - autoconf-2.63 - automake-1.10 Windows: [runtime requirements] - Windows 9x, Me, 2000 or later. - Tested on 95, 98SE, 2000, and XP. - DirectX 3 or later for keyboard input and GDI rendering. (No audio) - DirectX 6 or later for joystick input and DirectDraw 4 rendering, and sound. Windows: [build requirements] - MinGW and mSYS - MinGW Runtime 3.14, 3.15.1, or later - MinGW Runtime 3.15 has a bug that causes command-line parsing to crash. - DirectX headers (specifically, ddraw.h, dinput.h, and dsound.h) - nasm 2.05.1 - autoconf-2.63 - automake-1.10 ================================================================ 3.1. Easy Windows Build Instructions Since not everyone is a computer wiz, I created an easier build system for Win32. It consists of four easy steps. 1. Copy all files from C:\WINDOWS into the Gens/GS source code directory. 2. Run "compile.hta". Internet Explorer will ask you to download and install an unsigned ActiveX control. Click Yes. If your antivirus program warns you, click "Ignore". "compile.hta" will generate a Visual Studio 2008 project, "gensgs.sln". 3. Open "gensgs.sln" in Visual Studio 2008, Professional Edition or higher. You must use a legally licensed copy of Visual Studio 2008; if your copy is pirated, you will be redirected to newegg.com, where you may purchase a copy of Visual Studio 2008, Professional Edition, for the low price of $649.99. 4. Compile the project using Visual Studio 2008. The final binary will be called "gens.exe". ================================================================ 4. Where are gens.cfg and language.dat stored? On Linux: ~/.gens/ On Windows: the same directory as gens.exe ================================================================ 5. What is the syntax of gens.cfg ? gens.cfg uses the standard INI format, which looks like this: [section1] key=value ... ... [section2] key=value ... ================================================================ 6. How do I configure controller inputs without the GUI? ---------------------------------------------------------------- 6.1. Old Gens joystick configuration format. Older versions of Gens/GS (m6 and older), and the original Gens, used a relatively limited format for storing controller configuration. Older joystick input format: (16-bit binary) 0001 JJJJ TTTT WWWW where: - 0001: High nybble is always set to 1. - JJJJ: Joystick number. - TTTT: Type of input. (0 == axis; 1-7 == button; 8 == POV hat) - WWWW: Which axis, button, or POV hat. For axes, the following values are allowed: - 1: Axis 1, negative. (Up) [TODO: Original documentation said Down, verify this!] - 2: Axis 1, positive. (Down) [TODO: Original documentation said Up, verify this!] - 3: Axis 0, negative. (Left) - 4: Axis 0, positive. (Right) - 5: Axis 3, negative. - 6: Axis 3, positive. - 7: Axis 2, negative. - 8: Axis 2, positive. - 9: Axis 5, negative. - 10: Axis 5, positive. - 11: Axis 4, negative. - 12: Axis 4, positive. Among the problems with this scheme are the "backwards" notation (axis 1 before 0) and the 6 axis limitation. On Windows, the 6 axis limitation (actually 5, since the DirectInput handler ignores the 6th axis) isn't much of a problem, since most Windows joystick drivers map some axes to POV hats. On Linux, most joystick drivers map all axes to axes instead of POV hats, which does create a problem. Notably, the Xbox 360 controller's D-pad is mapped as axes 6 and 7, which doesn't work with this scheme. For buttons, TTTT WWWW is taken as a whole byte. The number 0x10 is subtracted from the byte, resulting in the button value. For example, the first button, button 0, would have a TTTT WWWW value of 0x10. For POV hats, the following format is used: NNDD where: - NN: POV hat number. - DD: Direction. (0 = up; 1 = right; 2 = down; 3 = left) Thus, the "Up" direction on the first POV hat on the first joystick would be indicated as 0x1080. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 6.2. New Gens/GS joystick configuration format. Starting with Gens/GS r7, a newer format is used for storing joystick configuration. The new format allows up to 128 axes, 256 buttons, and 64 POV hats. New joystick input format: (16-bit binary) 1TTT JJJJ WWWW WWWW where: - 1: High bit is always set to indicate new joystick input format. - TTT: Type of input. (0 == axis; 1 == button; 2 == POV hat) - JJJJ: Joystick number. - WWWW WWWW: Which axis, button, or POV hat. For axes, the following format is used: NNNN NNND where: - NNNN NNN: Axis number. - D: Axis direction. (0 == negative; 1 == positive) For buttons, the entire WWWW WWWW value is used as the button number. For POV hats, the following format is used: NNNN NNDD where: - NNNN NN: POV hat number. - DD: Direction. (0 = up; 1 = right; 2 = down; 3 = left)