Vga Sog Support For Nkpatcher10, (beta code) Options

[dr_oldschool]

Hello,

VGA SoG patch for nkpatcher10.
If anyone is willing to give it a shot, do so at your own risk . Apply the patch against nkpatcher10 source code. Edit config.inc to your linking. To enable vga patching, uncomment %define VGA_SOG. Compile as always with nasm, and habibi sign.

Use hdtv video cable and connect Y to monitor green input, Cr to monitor red input and Cb to monitor blue input. You will need monitor that supports sync on green signal or build special sync separator circuit.

It shoud work with focus chip although I haven't had a chance to run this with a real sync on green monitor yet. It's possible that conexant and xcalibur chips are supported too.

If anyone tests this, please report your findings in this thread.

Thanks.

[The Zep Man]

Wow. Just... wow.

If this works I will kiss... erm... hug... no... erm... shake your hand! Yeah, that's it. This is sweet! No need for a BIOS-loader or BFM BIOS anymore for VGA-support, plus all the extra's that NKPatcher has to offer (Virtual EEPROM, Virtual C...). Great job and to thumbs up for you.

I will check this when I get home with my SOG-monitor. Finally a good excuse to finish my VGA-cable (with sync seperator).

[edit]
As I read it correctly, you do NOT use VGA-mode (101, 1+3). You will need to use HDTV mode (110, 2+3) which will display VGA-results.

This post has been edited by The Zep Man: Jun 13 2005, 08:59 AM

[The Zep Man]

OK, found a bug.

My system:

Xbox 1.4/Focus (original PAL)
NKPatcher10-VGA + Virtual EEPROM + Virtual HDD
480p+720p+NTSC enabled in Virtual EEPROM
UnleashX as dashboard
VGA-cable: 110 (2+3, HDTV-mode)

When UnleashX boots up, all the colors are good. Once I start a game (with 480p-support), the green-color takes over and everything looks... well, green.

Once I start Xbox Media Center (default: 480p), everything is green. As soon as I switch Xbox Media Center to 720p, everything looks good. Once I switch it back to 480p, all the colors are looking fine. Once I start a game from Xbox Media Center with this fix, the colors seem fine in the game.

Temporary solution to green-color in games: from your dashboard -> Xbox Media Center -> switch to 720p -> switch back to 480p -> start your game

[fghjj]

Great work offcourse, I'm glad there are still ppl looking after the best bios available for Xbox today

[The Zep Man]

Great work offcourse, I'm glad there are still ppl looking after the best bios available for Xbox today

I don't know for 100% what you mean, but NKPatcher is not a BIOS. It is an Xbox program that patches any retail BIOS on the fly. It also offers a few bonuses over any hacked BIOS, like VirtualC and Virtual EEPROM.

The only other thing (besides the complete UXE-font exploit, which is beautiful!) I consider using in softmods is Frosted BIOS Loader. You can configure it to boot a BIOS or to boot NKPatcher10 depending on the state of the DVD-tray (open/closed). Very useful when a debug-BIOS is needed, once in a while.

[dr_oldschool]

When UnleashX boots up, all the colors are good. Once I start a game (with 480p-support), the green-color takes over and everything looks... well, green.

Thanks for feedback.
I fixed this issue.
Latest version of nkpatcher10-vga.

For some reason my monitor (Samsung SyncMaster 191T) can not display 720p mode so I can't test if it works, but 480p mode works for me.
Also I added an option to support 480i only applications - 480i modes are converted to 480p modes. It's not 100% working, but some applications, for example msdash, work.

[The Zep Man]

Thanks for feedback.
I fixed this issue.
Latest version of nkpatcher10-vga.

For some reason my monitor (Samsung SyncMaster 191T) can not display 720p mode so I can't test if it works, but 480p mode works for me.
Also I added an option to support 480i only applications - 480i modes are converted to 480p modes. It's not 100% working, but some applications, for example msdash, work.

Thanks for the fix. I will try it out once I get home.

If you need a beta-tester for 720p, I'm your man (I don't have any games which support 720p, though. Xbox Media Center will do, I guess).

Maybe your SyncMaster doesn't support 1280x720 (=720p), but only does 720x480 (=480p)? It's a bit of an exotic resolution for VGA-standards. Maybe you can try 1280x720 with a normal computer? I haven't checked yet whether my monitor supports 1920x1080 (=1080i). Will need to do that soon.

About MS Dash: the latest version (5960) can be progressive-enabled by pushing L, R, Left Thumbstick and Right Thumbstick at the same time. Still, I very much like the idea of a 'forced' 480p-mode. Finally, no more hex-patches.

Keep up the good work and look forward to my next 'report' of this new version.

[edit]
[http://www.modfactor.com/reviews/monitors/samsungsyncmaster191tlcd/Samsung%20SyncMaster191TLCD.html]Specs[/url] of your monitor. It's a TFT-screen and in general, those are more 'picky' about what resolutions they support. I'm surprised that it does support 720x480m but not 1280x720. Maybe the aspect ratio differs to much.

This post has been edited by The Zep Man: Jun 15 2005, 11:10 AM

[dr_oldschool]

It's a TFT-screen and in general, those are more 'picky' about what resolutions they support. I'm surprised that it does support 720x480m but not 1280x720. Maybe the aspect ratio differs to much.

May be. There are not much games that have support for 720p so I'm not concerned about that. My monitor can display both 480p modes (640x480 and 720x480) without issues, so I'm happy with that.

Anyway I tested about 50 games from my collection with 480p enabled/720p disabled/1080i disabled settings in msdash and only 2 did not work (black screen) - Chessmaster and Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance. Both lack 480p support so it's not much of a problem.

[DaddyJ]

This is sweet, great work man..... Will definitly be checking this out this weekend.

[The Zep Man]

May be. There are not much games that have support for 720p so I'm not concerned about that. My monitor can display both 480p modes (640x480 and 720x480) without issues, so I'm happy with that.

Anyway I tested about 50 games from my collection with 480p enabled/720p disabled/1080i disabled settings in msdash and only 2 did not work (black screen) - Chessmaster and Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance. Both lack 480p support so it's not much of a problem.

Still need to test it. The factor called 'time' isn't on my side, unfortunatly.

[dr_oldschool]

The latest version - improved VGA_FORCE_PROGRESSIVE to support more games without progressive video support. Now Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance PAL version and possibly more titles with similar video initialization code work in 480p mode.

[The Zep Man]

The latest version - improved VGA_FORCE_PROGRESSIVE to support more games without progressive video support. Now Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance PAL version and possibly more titles with similar video initialization code work in 480p mode.

So this would also work with PAL-games? Now THAT would kick ass! A lot of PAL-games work great under NTSC (=60hz), but don't have the 480p-flag enabled. No more requesting stupid hex-patches for softmodders.

Question, though: is it also possible to make a 'force progressive'-option for non-VGA support? In that case I would call your patch not a VGA-patch, but a 'media'-patch or something.

In any case, only one word: WOW.

[dr_oldschool]

Most region 4 games support 60Hz video and 480p. It is only some old titles that do not support 480p. I don't know if there are any 50Hz only games and how would they look on VGA.

To answer your other question, yes configuration

CODE

; %define VGA_SOG
%define VGA_FORCE_PROGRESSIVE

is possible and would set 480p for any game/application that requests interlaced video mode except hdtv mode 1080i.

[jjm]

Can anyone tell me how to use it?
The nkpatcher10-vga.diff.gz file just a txt file?

[dr_oldschool]

Can anyone tell me how to use it?
The nkpatcher10-vga.diff.gz  file just a txt file?

It's a diff file. You still need to know how to configure/compile nkpatcher. To apply source code patch in unix/linux environment or cygwin:

CODE

unzip nkpatcher10.zip
cd nkpatcher10
zcat ../nkpatcher10-vga.diff.gz | patch -p1

Then edit src/config.inc, compile with nasm, sign with xbedump (nasm -o default.xbe xboxapp.asm; xbedump default.xbe -habibi)