Spectrum: ZXSEC 2022.07.07 :: AEP Emulation Page - Emulation News

20220707 -- minor patch replacing the old option "Zoom by integer" with a new submenu "Window" with options that set the size of the window, ranging from 100% to 300%, that also stick between sessions (suggested by Xyphoe), and turning the options "Pixel filter" and "Blend scanlines" into "X-blending", "Y-blending" and "Frame blending", that respectively blur the image horizontally, vertically and dynamically. Several improvements in the VIC-II (sprite crunching: Carrion & Crest's "Heraklion", Arise's "Merswiny"; line crunching: Samar's "Ukiyo") and the SID (ports 27 and 28: second chip detection in "To Norah", sound effects of "Cloud Kingdoms"; wave shapes: song of "HVSC 10 Years"; filter based on the Chamberlin algorithm). The command line parameter `-c0..-c7` is now `-c0..c9` and includes the fifth mode, average scanlines.
20220615 -- minor patch fixing several glitches: the Win32 binaries use timeBeginPeriod and timeEndPeriod because of recent changes in Win10; the emulators ensure that 'frame_pos_y' and 'video_pos_y' match properly; the Z80 module handles dummy IX/IY opcodes without the unreliable macros Z80_BEWARE and Z80_REWIND; the VIC-II chip avoids retriggering sprites ("Gothik", Booze Design's "Sprite Invaders") and clips them properly if they sit on screen edges (Singular's "Smooth and Wonders"). The filter of the SID chip is now more detailed, and its third voice's oscillator returns more realistic values: "Mazemania" no longer hangs at the beginning of a level. CSFEC can load extra colour palettes from VPL files, either old style "RR GG BB D" or new "RR GG BB".
20220531 -- minor patch adding a new power-up boost option (enabled by default) that tells the emulators to trap boot procedures and speed them up. Printing a disassembly now includes the source bytes, ensuring that the binary can be always rebuilt even if the disassembly is ambiguous. The Z80 operations RETN and RETI are now identical; telling them apart is up to the NMI-issuing hardware. The Plus ASIC SSSL function is now 32k-compatible, as required by the intro "Simply the Bests". Simpler ZX ULA memory contention model: the timing buffer is now 128k long instead of 256k. The VIC-II chip is more accurate: slowdowns caused by badlines and sprite fetching are emulated (Extend's "Fellas", "HVSC 10 Years" intro...), effectively enabling badline manipulation (Archmage's "Data Zombies", Focus' "Ms. Pac Man", Excess' "Funny Rasters"...), DMA-delay horizontal scrolling ("Creatures", Tempest's "Rewind"...) and sprite stretching (Oxyron's "20 Years"). The default palette is now Community-Colors instead of Colodore. The CIA chips are more accurate too (TRSI's "4Krawall") but they don't pass the PC64 test suite yet. The internal SID filter is now partially emulated; the user can manually disable it. Minor optimisations through "likely/unlikely" branching hints.