How to log 32X music?

drdevil · Post by **drdevil** » Wed Nov 18, 2015 2:42 pm

Lately, I've been planning to make a VGM rip of After Burner Complete. However, when I try to log the music on Kega Fusion, it does not log the PWM.

So, what should I use to log 32X music with PWM? I know it's possible, as there are many 32X rips on this site.

Post by **ValleyBell** » Sat Nov 21, 2015 5:09 pm

The only way to log 32x PWM stuff is to use the VGM mod of Gens/GS r7.
I recommend the r7+ version, because it features a few fixes the normal r7 version doesn't have.
(Alternatively one could try MAME/MESS .... but it is slow and has even worse 32x emulation.)

Kega Fusion has 2 problems regarding VGM logging:

It's too old (last release from 2010, MegaCD PCM and PWM were added around that time, maybe even in 2011)
It's closed source, so I couldn't modify it to log those chips to VGM.

drdevil · Post by **drdevil** » Sun Nov 22, 2015 5:20 pm

Thanks for your help. However, even after downloading the 32X BIOS, the ROM won't load properly. It just comes up with a black screen. Any ideas on what's wrong? :undecided:

Post by **ValleyBell** » Mon Nov 23, 2015 1:34 am

If you have automatic checksum fixing enabled, you should disable it.
In general it should work if you set up the BIOS paths in the option menu. Maybe you can try loading a ROM first that's know to work, like Chaotix. (final version, the betas often don't boot)
It also has to show the correct console name "32X" in the window title. And I don't know what happens if you have a region-locked game and boot that with the wrong country setting.

drdevil · Post by **drdevil** » Mon Nov 23, 2015 12:40 pm

Yep, it's disabled.

Chaotix works as expected. The emulator must somehow dislike something about After Burner Complete... not sure what's up with it. :cry:

Post by **ValleyBell** » Mon Nov 23, 2015 1:31 pm

I'm afraid that seems to be a bug inherited from the original Gens.
It's really too bad Kega is closed source.

drdevil · Post by **drdevil** » Mon Nov 23, 2015 2:12 pm

I guess that explains how it hasn't got a VGM rip already.

Is there a way I can notify the person who created the emulator about this issue?

Post by **ValleyBell** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 1:31 am

Umm... it hasn't got a rip because 32X logging in general is still in a pretty early state and the only existing 32X packs were done by me. (and are still pretty big and mostly unoptimized)

I'm afraid there's nobody that takes bug reports. The original Gens isn't worked on since about 10 years. And work in Gens/GS stopped about 2 years ago due to GerbilSoft working on Gens/GS 2. (still in development, Tech Preview 1 should be released soon)

2ch-H · Post by **2ch-H** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 2:07 am

I tried the VGM logging on Mame. (Using MAME164 VGM mod)

After Burner Complete Wip (Tagging is not yet)
Monkeymook edit: Uploaded pack removed. Files have been added to Dropbox to be reviewed. Thank you.

I hope this will help.

Post by **ValleyBell** » Thu Nov 26, 2015 3:20 pm

Now this is some really nice work! It even includes a version of the After Burner with an extended loop.
I guess MAME's emulation is okay as long as it doesn't stream to the YM2612's DAC. (because that usually relies on Z80 cycle timing, which is off in MAME - the 32x PWM relies on timers and FIFO, so that works better)