ZSNES v1.51 Documentation ================================ N a v i g a t i o n ================================ * Index [Index.txt] * Readme [Readme.txt] * GUI [GUI.txt] * Netplay [Netplay.txt] * Advanced Usage [Advanced.txt] 1. Movie Dumping 2. Configuration Files 3. Debugger 4. KitchenSync 5. Command-Line * Games [Games.txt] * FAQ [FAQ.txt] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * Getting Support [Support.txt] * History [History.txt] * About [About.txt] * License [License.txt] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * NSRT Guide: [http://zsnes-docs.sf.net/nsrt] * ZSNES Home Page: [ZSNES.com] ================================================================================ ~ A d v a n c e d U s a g e ================================================================================ This page documents the advanced features of ZSNES, probably not useful for most end users. ............................................................ 1. Movie Dumping ............................................................ Please note that ZSNES does not support real-time video encoding. ZSNES only encodes existing ZMV (ZSNES movie) files. Refer to the GUI page [GUI.txt] for instructions on recording movies. All instructions in this section assume that you are using the default settings of the zmovie.cfg file. If you are smart enough to edit zmovie.cfg, you had better be smart enough to dump movies with whatever new settings you've created. You can dump video output alone, audio output alone, both at the same time (to separate files), or both to the same file (merged). If you choose to dump audio output, you can choose to dump that audio output uncompressed or compressed to MP3. Both uncompressed and compressed audio can be merged with the video. - - - - - - - - - - - - About Video Encoding - - - - - - - - - - - - Video encoding requires MEncoder [http://www.mplayerhq.hu]. - - - - - - - - - - - - About Audio Encoding - - - - - - - - - - - - Audio encoding requires LAME [http://lame.sourceforge.net]. Currently, Windows users *must* use this fixed LAME build [http://nsrt.edgeemu.com/lame.zip] due to a bug in the official versions. You have a choice of dumping audio either in uncompressed PCM format with WAV header, or compressed as MP3. ZSNES uses LAME [http://lame.sourceforge.net] for MP3, so you can expect high-quality audio, given the bit rate. When dumping audio to a separate file (not merged with video), audio compressed to MP3 will be about 6% of the size of the same uncompressed PCM audio. - - - - - - - - - Dumping a Movie - - - - - - - - - 1. Place your MEncoder (mencoder.exe) and LAME (lame.exe) binaries in the same directory as ZSNES. Alternatively, configure your PATH environment variable to include the directories where MEncoder and LAME are installed. 2. Start ZSNES and load a game. 3. Open the Movie Options dialog. (Misc Menu->Movie Opt). 4. Make sure to select the correct movie slot, depending on which movie slot you used to record a ZMV. 5. Select the Dumping tab, and configure the Video Options and Audio Options to your liking [GUI.txt]. 6. Hit the Start button. 7. ZSNES will then exit the GUI and start playing back the previously recorded movie. If you chose to encode the video and/or audio output, you will see a console window appear, showing the progress of encoding. Don't worry if ZSNES slows down while playing back the movie; it needs to do this because the encoding process takes a lot of processor time. 8. ZSNES will indicate when the movie has finished playback (and encoding). You can now look in your ZSNES directory for the newly created file(s). Note: ZSNES does not create an uncompressed temporary file and then encode it. Instead, the output stream is directly encoded. The only output files will be the finished, compressed files. Because ZSNES must encode the output stream as it is generated, ZSNES may delay the output of new frames of video/audio to give more time to MEncoder/LAME to compress the current frame. This means that you should *not* worry if you see the playback of your movie slow down while ZSNES is dumping it. The dumped file(s) will play back at full speed! ............................................................ 2. Configuration Files ............................................................ Every time you run ZSNES, it checks to see if these files are present in the same directory as the ZSNES executable. If they are not, ZSNES will create them with their default values. Thus, if you are having weird problems with ZSNES, try deleting these files. If there are any missing or invalid lines in zsnes*.cfg, ZSNES will insert or replace the lines with their default values. - - - - - - - zsnes*.cfg - - - - - - - Almost every option available in ZSNES can be configured in this file. If there is something you don't understand in this file, please refrain from changing it, and instead set the option from within the ZSNES GUI [GUI.txt]. The last letter of the filename is different for each port. Windows: zsnesw.cfg SDL: zsnesl.cfg DOS: zsnes.cfg. - - - - - - - zmovie.cfg - - - - - - - This file contains movie-dumping configuration information. You can edit this file to make ZSNES use something other than MEncoder or LAME, or to tweak options. Read the MEncoder and LAME manuals to see what options you can tweak. If you choose other applications, they must support stream input via stdin and raw video (in the case of video encoding). Refer to the appropriate documentation for more information. Unfortunately, you're on your own if wish to play with this. - - - - - - - zfont.txt - - - - - - - This file contains the font data for the ZSNES GUI. You can edit this file to customize the font. * Comments are preceded by a ; and can be up to 99 characters in length. - In the default file, each comment precedes the character it's labeling. * Each letter is represented by a block of five rows, each containing 8 bits. Only the first five columns of bits are used for font data; ZSNES uses a 5x5 font. The last three columns of bits should always be zeros. - There are characters for English, Hiragana, and Katakana scripts. * In case it isn't obvious, a 1 means the pixel is on in that location. A 0 means it's off. If you view zfont.txt, you should be able to figure it out. * The file terminates on the EOF+newline character or the last character (whichever comes first). The absolute ordering of each and every line in this file is *important*. If you're missing a single line, things might start messing up. Just so you know, the last line of data should be on line 846, followed by the EOF character on line 847. If you mess something up, just delete zfont.txt, and ZSNES will re-generate it as normal. ............................................................ 3. Debugger ............................................................ The debugger, now available in all ports, is enabled only when you enter ZSNES with a -d (If you are using the DOS port, just type "zsnes -d" at the commandline. Win port users should add a "-d" after their ZSNES shortcut target). Loading a ROM via a command line will start ZSNES in debugger mode; otherwise press F1 to reach it. Average users, however, should have no need to use the debugger. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - . . Debugger . Keys . . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |Key| |Function| - - - - - - - - - 1 Enable/Disable SPC700 display 2 Enable/Disable 65816 display T Trace (in 65816 opcodes) B 65816 break point S SPC break point C Clear counter M 65816 modify A SPC modify D Debug dump (SPC/DSPRAM dump only) W Break at signal (used only by the programmers) F1 Switch between debugger input and game input F2 Save state F4 Load state Esc Exit entire program ............................................................ 4. KitchenSync (Win port only) ............................................................ This makes NTSC games (60Hz) run at 120Hz, and PAL games (50Hz) run at 100Hz. To enable it, just start ZSNESw with the -ks switch. Alternatively, you can create a shortcut to ZSNESw that starts with this switch enabled, every time. First create a shortcut to ZSNESw in Windows. Next, right-click on the shortcut and choose Properties. Then, put the cursor right after the quotation marks in the Target box, press the space bar, and type -ks. Finally, click OK. If ZSNESw crashes or refuses to start after enabling this, your monitor does not support the 100/120 Hz refresh rate. If your monitor supports 100Hz and not 120Hz, you can instead use the -kp switch for PAL only. This way, you will not have to disable the -ks switch every time you wish to play an NTSC game. ............................................................ 5. Command-Line Arguments ............................................................ ZSNES supports execution arguments via the command line. More detailed descriptions of how to use the arguments with each port is forthcoming. Further detail of each argument's effect is given in [GUI.txt] for the corresponding GUI option, if one exists. Usage : zs...
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