CRT Pixel Shader Filter for SNES Emulation

Update 05/18/2011: More screenshots for more new filters in my new post. :-)Update 05/02/11: After many changes, it looks like the CRT shader development has settled down, so there's less need for me to maintain the older versions of the shaders. From here on out, I recommend visiting Screwtape's git repo for all of your XML shader needs (my mediafire account will still be there, but Screwtape has all of mine and more).CRT.OpenGL.shader and CRT-flat.OpenGL.shader are similar to the shader covered...

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bsnes Phoenix GUI Filter Changes

Byuu has added support for binary filters in his Phoenix GUI as of v073, so we can finally use cgwg's CRT Curved shader in conjunction with blargg's NTSC filter! These binary filters are loaded just like shaders, i.e., via a dialog box in the video options.You can download the available filters, compiled for 64-bit Linux, here or compiled for 32-bit here. These filters do not appear to work on Windows syste...

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Bsnes Special Chips Dumped

Update (6/28/11): Another chip dumped and emulated! This time, the Cx4 chip (cx4.bin), which is used in Mega Man X2 and X3. The contents of this chip were really just math tables--naturally occurring relationships between numbers--and hence not protected by copyright, so byuu felt comfortable hosting the image on his own site. You can download it here (I'll also mirror it in my mediafire in case byuu's copy disappears for whatever reason).Update (1/13/11): Dr. Decapitator has dumped and byuu has added low-level emulation for the NEC uPD96050 coprocessor, which is used by the ST-0010 and ST-0011...

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First Impressions of Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal

I decided to try out the latest build of Ubuntu's next future release, version 11.04 Natty Narwhal, in a VirtualBox VM. I downloaded a pre-alpha daily build and so far have been impressed with the stability and ease of installation.As with Maverick, the installer is clean, polished and easy, and continues the trend of asking most of the configuration questions once the actual installation process has started to save time. You also have the opportunity to install third party programs, such as Fluendo's...

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List of SF4 Materials and Attributes

This is just the start of the list, so hopefully I'll be able to add a lot more as time goes on. Everything will be formatted as:Name/Source:Material: Plain English[Hex code]Attribute: Plain English[Hex code].Akuma's eyes:Material: Emission_W[45 6D 69 73 73 69 6F 6E 5F 57 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 09 00 00 00]Attribute: Glare[47 6C 61 72 65 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 01 00 01 00 00 00]Highly Reflective Metal Effect:Material: SpcEnv_W or SpcEnvAlpha_W (for use with an alpha channel)Attribute: ReflectCoeff[52...

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Beginner's Guide to SF4 Skinning

There are several tutorials floating around for skinning in Street Fighter 4, namely those by Providenceangle and hornyyoshi, but they were both written fairly early on and have not been updated to reflect new, easier methods. So, here is a definitive guide to creating new skins in SF4:1. Collecting the ToolsFirst and foremost, you'll need a painting program. Photoshop is obviously quite common but also very expensive. GIMP is a free alternative that works quite well (it's what I usually use) and...

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How to Extract SSF4 Data From an Xbox 360 ISO

For people who want to get into using files from Super Street Fighter 4 on Xbox 360 with their PC version of vanilla Street Fighter 4, you have to go through a number of steps that have never been appropriately documented, so here goes:1. Collecting the right tools for the jobFirst off, you need a copy of SSF4 in ISO format. I don't want to know how you get it, but I recommend purchasing it and then ripping it to your PC using the 'hot swap' method.Next, we need a copy of isoextract, which extacts...

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SF4 Beginners Guide to Material Attribute Swapping

Credit for this tutorial goes to alekqz, I just cleaned it up a bit.This tutorial will show you how to give a body part a reflective, metallic look, but a similar process can be used to grab other materials, such as Akuma's glowing eyes.1. First, open a *.cos.emz file using piecemontee's Asset Explorer and look for the body part you wish to modify, in this case, Zangief's upper body:Take note of the name used to reference the body part, in this case, 'body.'2. Next, open a decompressed *.col.emz...

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Refutation of G4TV's Metroid: Other M Review

I just got done reading a review of Metroid: Other M by g4tv.com and had a number of disagreements with the author, so I thought I would address them here.The author takes the stance that, not only is the game technically bad and unfun, but the story presents Samus as a childish, vulnerable brat pining for male validation, thereby shattering her image as a tough, feminist role model, unique amid the sea of helpless-princess-bimbos in video games.From a technical standpoint, I thought the game was fun and felt like a real sequel to Super Metroid, which the Prime series was never able to do. I agree...

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Ubuntu Maverick on VirtualBox

The third alpha release of Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat was just released, so I figured I'd give it a shot in the ol' VirtualBox VM.The Pros: Mouse pointer integration is built-in, so you don't have to deal with reinstalling Guest Additions every time you do a kernel update.The Cons: Since Maverick started using a new X-Server (1.9), Guest Additions no longer do their acceleration and resolution magic. This includes manually adding resolutions to the xorg.conf, so until something changes, it's 800x600 all the way...UPDATE (9/30/2010): Looks like the open source edition of VirtualBox has us covered...

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Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat on Acer AspireOne

One caveat before you read any further: my AspireOne is old as hell (9" w/ 8GB SSD) and these problems/fixes may not work on newer models.Ok, now with that out of the way, I've got some good news: Maverick works great on my AO. Installation was fast and painless (it only took around 20 min., I think), and booting is super-quick (something like 15 seconds to a working desktop in my experience). Wireless works out-of-the-box, as does the wifi activity light :O. Unfortunately, the SD card slots are still b0rked. To get them working, we can use the same fix from my previous AO/Ubuntu post:Open up...

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The Runup to bsnes v1.0

As a kid, I was lucky enough to have grown up during the Golden Age of console gaming. I am old enough to have played some Ataris and my older brother had a regular Nintendo Entertainment System when I was really young, but the first console I personally owned was the Super NES (or SNES).The SNES was a pivotal piece of hardware in console gaming. Prior to the 16-bit era, hardware limitations in gaming consoles necessitated that graphics be highly representational and storage constraints were a burden...

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piecemontee's SF4 Viewer Now Open Source!

Piecemontee is a swell guy who created one of the more vital tools to Street Fighter 4 modding, known variously as the SF4 Viewer or SF4 Asset Explorer. This tool allows modders to decompress SF4 files (no more offzip! yay!), extract textures (no more dragon unpacker! yay!) and obj models (unique to the Asset Explorer AFAIK...yay!), and then reinject modified versions of these assets back into the game (no more infuser! yay!). It also enables modders to view their work within the program instead...

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Calibre E-book Library on Ubuntu Lucid with Amazon Kindle

Amazon just had a big sale on 2nd-gen Kindle E-readers, so I picked one up. I am completely happy with the reader and I love the screen, but I am not so happy with the relatively small number of file formats the Kindle supports. I have picked up quite a few ebooks over the years, mostly in Epub and .lit formats, but with sprinklings of a number of other formats, as well, none of which are natively recognized by the Kindle.Luckily, there's a wonderful piece of software available, known as Calibre, which is capable of converting the vast majority of the myriad ebook formats into the digitally signed...

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What's New In the Filthy Pants PPA

I originally created my Personal Package Archive (PPA) to distribute my SVN builds of HandBrake, which has worked out really well. However, I have since added a number of programs, the functions of which may be a bit esoteric to some, so I thought I would take some time to explain what each program does (in alphabetical order):AnomosAn anonymous, encrypted BitTorrent client built using free and Open Source code. It uses an advanced, planned mix network to protect users' identities, though it will...

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