Replace the Chihiro delay hack with a proper solution

[gordonfreeman01]

Quick summary

When attempting to boot a Chihiro game, a Chihiro boot screen shows up then throws an an "Error 22 Communication Error occurred between main board and media board" screen, preventing the game from booting. Revision 8ac5d15 does not have this error.

Details

When attempting to boot a Chihiro game, a Chihiro boot screen first shows "Initializing media board. Please wait..." for a long time followed by an "Error 22 Communication Error occurred between main board and media board" in the same screen. In revision 8ac5d15, the Chihiro logo does not show up and the title boots (both test and main game menus).

System Configuration:

• OS Windows 10 22H2
• CPU AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
• GPU RTX 4090
• RAM 64.0 GB

Additional Information (if any):

I tried several recent revisions released over the last year before the latest ones and they also didn't work. Randomly trying a very old one like 8ac5d15 worked so there might be one version more recent than that working as well.

[RadWolfie]

Commit 8ac5d15 does not exist in our git history, which means you are likely using an external build that we do not provide support for.

However, we are very aware of this type of problem. The issue is that a race condition occurs somewhere that causes this problem. I had to use an alternative workaround hack locally to verify that any of my changes going upstream do work correctly.

[gordonfreeman01]

Commit 8ac5d15 does not exist in our git history, which means you are likely using an external build that we do not provide support for.

However, we are very aware of this type of problem. The issue is that a race condition occurs somewhere that causes this problem. I had to use an alternative workaround hack locally to verify that any of my changes going upstream do work correctly.

I got this build from the official releases, here's the link (the full has is 8ac5d14 and I could find on the master branch history when checking from the project homepage):
https://github.com/Cxbx-Reloaded/Cxbx-Reloaded/releases/tag/CI-8ac5d14

I had to go back a few pages since even on page 2 the builds weren't working with the same errors.

Interestingly (and maybe related?), I was testing Virtua Cop 3 with 8ac5d14 and while accessing the test mode menu, the system information option can't be unlocked without some way to netboot (https://www.ukvac.com/forum/threads/how-to-change-the-region-on-a-triforce-and-chihiro.16756/) but the language change option could be unlocked via going up and down the game assignment menu until the language option showed up. Changing it there didn't actually change the language though, indicating maybe the value wasn't written somewhere. Booting into the game from exiting the test mode crashes after selecting a stage but normal mode works. The game comes with English audio and dialogue for cutscenes irrespective of region but the tutorial text and graphics are in Japanese without this setting so not ideal.

[RadWolfie]

Ah you were off by one number at the ending of commit hash which explain why I couldn't find it in the history.

The work for Chihiro console type is just an initial support. There are a lot of things that are in need to implements. Such as switches, possible custom eeprom necessary to work, interface to jvs' controller supports, etc.

In case of wondering what is my local workaround "hack" fix to progress further than Luke's workaround "hack" fix:

src/core/hle/JVS/JVS.cpp:

@@ -163,4 +163,5 @@ void JvsInputThread()
 			*g_pPINSB = ChihiroBaseBoardState.GetPINSB();
 		}
+		Sleep(1); // HACK: Somewhere has a race condition occur, but here seems to make segaboot communication become happy.
 	}
 }

src/devices/chihiro/MediaBoard.cpp:

@@ -91,5 +92,5 @@ void MediaBoard::ComWrite(uint32_t offset, void* buffer, uint32_t length)
 {
-     // Instant replies cause race conditions, software seems to expect at least a little delay
-    Sleep(100);
 
     if (offset == 0x900000) { // Some kind of reset?

[gordonfreeman01]

Ah you were off by one number at the ending of commit hash which explain why I couldn't find it in the history.

The work for Chihiro console type is just an initial support. There are a lot of things that are in need to implements. Such as switches, possible custom eeprom necessary to work, interface to jvs' controller supports, etc.

In case of wondering what is my local workaround "hack" fix to progress further than Luke's workaround "hack" fix:

src/core/hle/JVS/JVS.cpp:

@@ -163,4 +163,5 @@ void JvsInputThread()
*g_pPINSB = ChihiroBaseBoardState.GetPINSB();
}

• Sleep(1); // HACK: Somewhere has a race condition occur, but here seems to make segaboot communication become happy.
  

  }
  }

src/devices/chihiro/MediaBoard.cpp:

@@ -91,5 +92,5 @@ void MediaBoard::ComWrite(uint32_t offset, void* buffer, uint32_t length)
{

• // Instant replies cause race conditions, software seems to expect at least a little delay
  

• Sleep(100);

  if (offset == 0x900000) { // Some kind of reset?

Thanks for the fix, I'll try it out. The mouse input support on Cxbx makes playing these games on PC possible even with imperfect support so it's cool to have that option even with some temporary fixes for now. And yeah, must have been a typo when I transcribed the commit hash by hand lol.

[RadWolfie]

My workaround fix hack suggestion has been upstream directly via cf031f1 commit. However, it is best to keep this ticket open until the workaround hack is replaced with a real proper fix.

[rcl0ng]

I don't know if I should post here or open a new issue. CI-cf031f1 runs Chihiro games fine but it broke my input method for lightgun games. I've been using ec9934a to run Virtua Cop 3 and it worked with my input method. I use Lichtknarre with wiimotes. Here's what my settings file looks like for the build that works.

[input-profile-1]
Type = 2
ProfileName = "gun1"
DeviceName = SDL/1/vJoy Device
Stick Up = Button 7
Stick Down = Button 8
Stick Left = Button 9
Stick Right = Button 10
START = Button 4
SE/BA = Button 5
Trigger = Button 1
Grip = Button 0
A = Button 2
B = Button 3
Aim X+ = Axis 0+
Aim X- = Axis 0-
Aim Y+ = Axis 1-
Aim Y- = Axis 1+
Turbo Left =
Turbo Right =
Laser =

[input-profile-2]
Type = 2
ProfileName = "gun2"
DeviceName = SDL/0/vJoy Device
Stick Up = Button 7
Stick Down = Button 8
Stick Left = Button 9
Stick Right = Button 10
START = Button 4
SE/BA = Button 5
Trigger = Button 1
Grip = Button 0
A = Button 2
B = Button 3
Aim X+ = Axis 0+
Aim X- = Axis 0-
Aim Y+ = Axis 1-
Aim Y- = Axis 1+
Turbo Left =
Turbo Right =
Laser =

Any insights as to what the problem could be would help me out.