The future for vba-m

[ZachBacon]

So to cut it short, we still have bit of an edge in gba emulation, I'm proud to say we've done well for a project, e-reader support, debugging support etc. For the most part we are getting pretty close to a 2.0 release. But for 2.0 and beyond, what's going to happen you may wonder?

Well, I know this is what I want to do, and this is what I will be doing for the next couple of months. In a separate branch in the main git repo, I'll be slowly rewriting portions of the emulation cores in vba-m. Namely for readabilities sake but also for the fact I believe the project would benefit from a file by file rewrite, improving the current code to a more modern approach and see if we can get some improvements to what we have and correct some issues along the way. The other goal for the rewrite is also to increase the accuracy of said emulation as well, increase accuracy but also maintain the balance of the speed we currently have. We've come a long way and we owe a lot of thanks to everyone who was part of the team and who are current as well.

It's going to be a long journey but one I think that will make vba-m better for it.

 

tl;dr:

We are going to make vba-m better than ever.

[Cibomatto2002]

This is good news.

[ZachBacon]

Well it's the next logical step that I could foresee with getting vba-m better.

[Dbfan4life]

Vba-m is an amazing project that I have been following for years. I think it was since the 1.7 release before the -m part. The improvement since then is simply astounding! Thanks for everything you and the team have done! :banana_flip:

[DeriLoko3]

I believe that VBA-M is far beyond other GBA emulators around. Thank you, the VBA-M team, and the original VBA team for improving the emulator very far.

[Pika2219Super]

I loves VBA-M forever! :banana: Keep moving forward! [img]<fileStore.core_Emoticons>/emoticons/smile.png[/img]/emoticons/smile@2x.png 2x" width="20" height="20" />

[WizLizard]

Can we get the d-pad functionality fixed in the next beta? It has been broken for the past two betas. I've tested many controllers on multiple systems and it is definitely broken. Just boot up a pokemon game and try to walk down and make a quick turn left, the character will continue to walk in the initial direction. You have to first come to a complete stop and then make a turn. Tested every pokemon and other games such as kingdom hearts. A look into this would be much appreciated [img]<fileStore.core_Emoticons>/emoticons/smile.png[/img]/emoticons/smile@2x.png 2x" width="20" height="20" />

[Crusher21]

Hello,

I'm new to this forum and I was wondering what exactly VBA-M is and how it differs from VBA. I can't seem to find any information online or any main webpage describing what VBA-M is. I know VBA is an old emulator that no longer receives updates. I assume VBA-M is a modification of VBA with new features, based off the same infrastructure; but I could be wrong. If someone could explain this to me, I would appreciate it. This seems like a very cool project with a lot of supporters and I would love to know what it is exactly.

Thank you

[ZachBacon]

Hello,

I'm new to this forum and I was wondering what exactly VBA-M is and how it differs from VBA. I can't seem to find any information online or any main webpage describing what VBA-M is. I know VBA is an old emulator that no longer receives updates. I assume VBA-M is a modification of VBA with new features, based off the same infrastructure; but I could be wrong. If someone could explain this to me, I would appreciate it. This seems like a very cool project with a lot of supporters and I would love to know what it is exactly.

Thank you

 

I'm surprised you really don't know. VBA-M is more than a modification, it's more of a spiritual successor to vba, it's also a project where it takes other forks (and there are a lot of them, and a lot of dead ones too at that and merged them into the project.

[TEOL]

I think VBA-M is the best GBA emulator there is. I appreciate every update you guys provide us even though you now only do 32-Bit versions again due to the 64-Bits not doing well so you discontinued them but there was a reason for them not doing well back then but now there is a reason to bring them back.

 

Windows or Mac 64-Bit is now the standard OS on a new computer since now in 2016 and all new PC's have it installed as the default OS. We now actually require this version that takes full advantage of the extra 32-Bits in a 64-Bit system as it would mean for our version more system perfect emulations on the speed and accuracy across all the titles and being able to use the most powerful plugins with no slowdowns unlike on the 32-Bits.

 

It was rare and you did have to install it yourself on a supported internal hardware if you wanted Windows 7 "where it started properly" 64-Bit for both the 2009 and 2013 64-Bit versions of VBA-M but now we all have this hardware anyway if we had to replace our computers which I did have to this year after 10 years of all day use on the old Vista.

 

I could go with using these classic revisions for my 64-Bit system which would take full advantag of my hardware but I wouldn't have the latest game fix updates and thats my problem being a 64-Bit computer guy now not having the latest updates on my now native version.

 

Still I would like to thank you Bacon for creating such a great VBA related revival project which this VBA-M is because since it stopped too early original VBA never had a 64-Bit version yet alone a 2 failed attempts to bring it to us on VBA-M back when 64-Bit was such a rarity and we had to install Windows 7 64-Bit ourselves over our computers existing Vista 32-Bit OS if we wanted it back then and even then it had to be a Quad Core which supports the 64-Bit OS to be able to install the rareity to begin with.

 

However this 3rd time I can promise you that the 64-Bit build will not fail this time as I would get it for one due to owning a 2016 PC now due to my Vista blue screening due to 10 years straight all day use which is like 20 years of non all day use for the poor thing to handle.

 

The fact is most Toshiba Sattelite Laptops during Windows 7 era started the trend off that every computer Desktop and Laptop ever since the Sattelite had 64-Bit pre installed as standard by then and now in Windows 10 era it's definitely all 64-Bit.

 

I think the future of VBA-M is using 64-Bit to it's full advantage which is a must now with everyone going that way after computers blowing and perhaps someone maintaining the existing 32-Bit for Vista, XP and early 7 PC's builds on the side for tose who were lucky and still have living computers with those OS installed.

 

Sorry about making 3 different posts on this topic but 64-Bit is a must now and I think it's a requirement to bring it to everyone with a versions attension that we need it now and that it is our future as we can archeive our emulation perfection once we take advantage of 64-Bit hardware to the fullest making a core version that is made for it.

 

Melchior in this thread definitely has 64-Bit as well so obviously he wants it as well looking at his system stats and probably everyone else who now has 64-bit so why we have to keep on a revision way behind the current 2016 SVN which is currently only in 32-Bit flavor is beyond me as although it was rare then it's the norma now and thats why we need it.

 

He has Octo Core as well and a maxed out 16GB RAM now that is a current rare thing to see as Octo's are only just starting to exist but the 64-Bit and Quad Core isn't rare anymore so we do need a version to take advantage and it shouldn't be discontinued anymore for not doing very well back in those days as those days where you had to install it yourself are not relevent anymore guys.

 

The future is now, the future is taking full advantage of 64-Bits.

 

That is my hope for the future of VBA-M anyway starting from scratch entirely on the 64-Bit side to take every advantage of 64-Bit hardware and it's multiple 4-8 cores whilst someone is maintaining the 32-Bit version from when it is at the moment at the same time so 64-Bit guys can use and enjoy both versions until the new starting from scratch 64-Bit one has surpassed the 32-Bit so we then can wipe the 32-Bit verson off and use 64-Bit full time then.

 

It shouldn't take too long to get that far on the new 64-Bit version if we use a mix of the last 2009 and last 2013 ones as a bit of ground code to base the starting from scratch thing from and then we can build up from that putting all the fixes we did to the 32-Bit SVN ones from 2013-2016 into the new code too whilst also bringing fresh code to the picture taking advantage of our 64-Bit hardware hopefully getting the still dodgey looking games in 32-Bit currently working somewhat properly in the process as the extra power surely would help somewhat make getting them final games running almost system perfect archeivable too.

 

Maybe I'm a bit too optimistic about getting 64-Bit revived and thinking it would sort the problems with emulating those final games perfectly from the beginnning of the revival but at least it would give us fresh ground which takes advantage of powerhouse 64 Windows and Mac PC hardware.