07005: worldadv, luplup, poosho (possibly more): DRC malfunction with 36 minutes of emulation

ID	Category [?]	Severity [?]	Reproducibility	Date Submitted	Last Update
07005	Crash/Freeze	Critical (emulation)	Always	Jun 5, 2018, 23:48	Jan 1, 2019, 08:04

Tester	D Go Go Fan	View Status	Public	Platform	MAME (Official Binary)
Assigned To	Ryan Holtz	Resolution	Fixed	OS	Windows 10 (64-bit)
Status [?]	Resolved			Driver	misc/vamphalf.cpp
Version	0.198	Fixed in Version	0.205	Build	64-bit
		Fixed in Git Commit		Github Pull Request #

Summary	07005: worldadv, luplup, poosho (possibly more): DRC malfunction with 36 minutes of emulation
Description	I am using Wolf MAME 198. World Adventure randomly freezes. It happens so often that it is impossible to beat the first world. The freezes only affect the game, MAME can still be paused, and the menus entered. The freezes seem to happen more often the further into the game you go; it hasn't frozen in the first 5 levels. I played Poosho Poosho to stage 11, and it didn't freeze; this appears to only affect World Adventure. This should be demoted to "not working" if it can't be fixed soon, as it makes the game impossible to beat.
Steps To Reproduce	Just try to beat the first world (France), and it will freeze after a few stages.
Additional Information	Wolf MAME 198 state save attached, you can't beat the level before it freezes.
Github Commit

Flags
Regression Version	0.194
Affected Sets / Systems	worldadv, luplup, poosho (possibly more)

Attached Files	worldadv.zip (521,298 bytes) Jun 5, 2018, 23:48 Uploaded by D Go Go Fan
Attached Files	worldadv1.zip (527,753 bytes) Jun 6, 2018, 19:31 Uploaded by D Go Go Fan worldadv without drc

No.15101 Tafoid Administrator Jun 6, 2018, 04:18	Can you verify if such issues still exist if you use -nodrc?
No.15105 D Go Go Fan Tester Jun 6, 2018, 19:29	The DRC doesn't cause the problem, but makes it worse. Running World Adventure without the DRC, the only problem I had in the first world, was some sound stuttering. This also happens with the DRC. Without the DRC, I can get about one third through the second world before the game freezes. It is not a total freeze like with the DRC, instead, the game will freeze for a few seconds, then run for several seconds, then freeze for longer, then run for less time, then freeze for longer. When I get a game-over after when the freezing period starts, the insert coin and/or start buttons stop responding. The insert coin button will make the normal coin jingle, but the game can't be continued, or a new game started. The game will keep running attract mode while freezing often.
No.15110 wuemura Viewer Jun 6, 2018, 22:02	Game freezes alright, with '-nodrc' it chokes at some points. I don't know how to play the game so I just left the thing running and it freezes by it self after a while. Confirmed.
No.15160 Haze Senior Tester Jun 11, 2018, 00:23	how odd, I left attract running overnight without a problem when I added it that said, the game does have a lot of bugs even on the PCB, like weird flashing pixels, tiles not darkening when they can't be moved etc. so part of me wonders if it's actually an unfinished game / prototype (especially considering we've only ever seen a single PCB) I'm not against it being demoted tho.
No.15174 Haze Senior Tester Jun 14, 2018, 02:00 edited on: Jun 14, 2018, 02:01	This might be part of a more general hyperstone issue I've been given a report that various Hyperstone games freeze after about 36 minutes, and that this didn't happen in older versions. I'm not sure exactly when it started happening. I can confirm freezes in Lup Lup Puzzle and Poosha Poosha after 36 minutes. World Adventure seems to fit the same pattern.
No.15175 Tafoid Administrator Jun 14, 2018, 22:15	I did some testing, it seems that during emulated second 2147 the gameplay will halt but MAME and emulation will continue trying to chug along. Confirmed with luplup and worldadv via Haze's mention.
No.15176 kazblox Tester Jun 15, 2018, 04:24	2147 seconds? Sounds like something suspicious, perhaps 32-bit integer overflow.
No.15824 Haze Senior Tester Nov 23, 2018, 15:18 edited on: Nov 23, 2018, 17:27	This affects a large number of the Hyperstone games (if not all of them eventually) and really needs either addressing, or the DRC disabling by default as it's leaving many things in NOT-WORKING state by default and is one of the biggest regressions of the year at the moment. I plan on making a PR to disable the DRC on a per-driver level, with it only being reenabled for games which are individually tested and known to not cause issues. My personal suspicion is it has something to do with timers firing at close to the same time and the core not coping properly with multiple interrupts at the same time, possibly losing one, and causing a timer to stop forever. This might actually be a general core bug that's being made worse by the DRC, but the most obvious fix at the moment is to turn off the DRC in the drivers.
No.15863 Tafoid Administrator Dec 1, 2018, 23:12	https://github.com/mamedev/mame/commit/0e6bff870e68bae444caa4ff607a4c65183a7276 This appears to fix luplup in my testing. If anyone else sees continued issues, post here please! Resolving
No.15965 D Go Go Fan Tester Dec 27, 2018, 20:20	I tested worldadv in MAME .205 under default settings which I think is DRC on. The game is still buggy, but now much more playable. It is acting better now with the DRC than it was with the DRC off. I got about two thirds of the way through world two when the freezing started. It now freezes less often, and for a shorter amount of time. I can insert credits after the game has started the freeze and run cycle, although I have to hit the button at least ten times to get it to register. There is now a new graphical glitch; twice when I selected a block to push, I saw the man do his block pushing animation while standing in place not next to the block, and the block was pushing itself across the screen.
No.15978 Tafoid Administrator Jan 1, 2019, 08:04	The set World Adventure (along with Mission Craft and Wyvern Wings) is now considered NOT WORKING or UNEMULATED PROTECTION and was demoted this last dev cycle. Any issues with it are unrelated to the DRC and are core emulation issues which, as the flag now suggests, are now expected and not subject to reporting.