N64FlashcartMenu/99_developer_guide.md at 9113d1c94981f66b04ffd4ce9ac73ee863ea6687

mirror of https://github.com/Polprzewodnikowy/N64FlashcartMenu.git synced 2025-01-23 15:21:13 +01:00

<!--- Provide a general summary of your changes in the Title above -->

## Description
<!--- Describe your changes in detail -->
This PR merges `develop` and `main` for a tagged release so it can be
used by most users (utilising debug flags where required).

## Release Notes

- **New Features**
- Introduced menu sound effects for enhanced user experience (the
default is off).
- Added N64 ROM autoload functionality, allowing users to set a specific
ROM to load automatically.
- Added menu boot hotkey (hold `start` to return to menu when autoload
is enabled).
- Added context menu and settings management options GUI for managing
various settings in `config.ini`.
- Added functionality for editing the real-time clock (RTC) within the
RTC menu view.
- Improved flashcart info view for showing supported flashcart features
and version.
- Enhanced UI components with new drawing functions and improved
organization.
	- Added emulator support for `SMS`, `GG`, and `CHF` ROMs.
- Enhanced joypad input handling for menu actions, improving
responsiveness.
	- Optimized boxart image loading from filesystem.
	- Improved various text to make the functionality more clear.

- **Bug Fixes**
- Improved error handling in multiple areas, particularly in save
loading and ROM management.
- Enhanced memory management to prevent potential leaks during error
conditions.
	- Fixed text flickering in certain circumstances.

- **Documentation**
- Updated README and various documentation files to reflect new features
and usage instructions.
- Added detailed setup instructions for SD cards and menu customization.
- Enhanced clarity in documentation for RTC settings and menu
customization.
- Improved organization and clarity of SD card setup instructions for
various flashcarts.

- **Refactor**
- Standardized naming conventions across UI components for better
organization.
- Restructured sound management and input handling for improved
responsiveness.
- Streamlined the loading state management for ROMs and disks within the
menu system.
- Improved clarity and usability of the developer guide and other
documentation files.

### Current known Issues
* The RTC UI requires improvement (awaiting UI developer).
* BETA_SETTING: PAL60 when using HDMI mods has regressed (awaiting
libdragon fix).
* ALPHA_FEATURE: ED64 X Series detection does not occur properly
(however this is not a problem as not tag released asset).
* ALPHA_FEATURE: ED64 V Series only supports loading ROMs (however this
is not a problem as not tag released asset).
* Menu sound FX may not work properly when a 64 Disk Drive is also
attached (work around: turn sound FX off).

### Breaking changes
* Disk drive expansion ROMs are now loaded with `Z|L` instead of `R` to
align with ROM info context menu (and future functionality).

## Motivation and Context
<!--- What does this sample do? What problem does it solve? -->
<!--- If it fixes/closes/resolves an open issue, please link to the
issue here -->
Merge the changes:
#110 
#106 
#101 
#89 
#74
and other improvements.

## How Has This Been Tested?
<!-- (if applicable) -->
<!--- Please describe in detail how you tested your sample/changes. -->
<!--- Include details of your testing environment, and the tests you ran
to -->
<!--- see how your change affects other areas of the code, etc. -->
Locally on an SC64.

## Screenshots
<!-- (if appropriate): -->

![image](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/799fc21c-8743-4c21-8449-b4f531d5c62c)


## Types of changes
<!--- What types of changes does your code introduce? Put an `x` in all
the boxes that apply: -->
- [x] Improvement (non-breaking change that adds a new feature)
- [x] Bug fix (fixes an issue)
- [x] Breaking change (breaking change)
- [x] Documentation Improvement
- [ ] Config and build (change in the configuration and build system,
has no impact on code or features)

## Checklist:
<!--- Go over all the following points, and put an `x` in all the boxes
that apply. -->
<!--- If you're unsure about any of these, don't hesitate to ask. We're
here to help! -->
- [x] My code follows the code style of this project.
- [x] My change requires a change to the documentation.
- [x] I have updated the documentation accordingly.
- [ ] I have added tests to cover my changes.
- [ ] All new and existing tests passed.

<!--- It would be nice if you could sign off your contribution by
replacing the name with your GitHub user name and GitHub email contact.
-->
Signed-off-by: GITHUB_USER <GITHUB_USER_EMAIL>


<!-- This is an auto-generated comment: release notes by coderabbit.ai
-->
## Summary by CodeRabbit

## Summary by CodeRabbit

- **New Features**
- Enhanced documentation for N64 Flashcart Menu, including new emulator
support and features like menu sound effects and N64 ROM autoload.
- Added support for additional flashcart features and firmware version
retrieval in the flashcart subsystem.
- Introduced new settings for sound effects and ROM autoloading in the
menu system.

- **Bug Fixes**
- Improved error handling in various menu functions to prevent memory
leaks and ensure proper resource management.

- **Refactor**
- Updated naming conventions for UI component functions to improve
clarity and organization.
- Restructured the sound management functionality to enhance user
interaction feedback.

- **Documentation**
- Expanded sections in README and other documentation files for clarity
on emulator support and usage instructions.

- **Chores**
- Updated dependencies and version references in Dockerfile and other
configuration files.
<!-- end of auto-generated comment: release notes by coderabbit.ai -->

---------

Signed-off-by: GITHUB_USER <GITHUB_USER_EMAIL>
Co-authored-by: Suprapote <111246491+Suprapote@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Christopher Bonhage <me@christopherbonhage.com>
Co-authored-by: Mateusz Faderewski <sc@mateuszfaderewski.pl>
Co-authored-by: Fazana <52551480+FazanaJ@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Guillermo Horacio Romero Villa <65469983+E1ite007@users.noreply.github.com>

2024-12-30 15:08:28 +00:00

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Developer documentation

You can use a dev container in VSCode to ease development.

A quickstart video tutorial on how to set up your environment

To deploy:

SC64

Download the deployer here
Extract and place sc64deployer.exe in the tools/sc64 directory.

Make sure that your firmware is compatible (currently v2.20.0+) See: here

From the devcontainer

It is not currently possible to directly communicate with USB devices. BUT, as a workaround you can use a proxy TCP/IP connection Set up a proxy: open a terminal window, cd ./tools/sc64 and then ./sc64deployer.exe server

Then in the dev container, use make run or make run-debug

From your host (Windows) OS

Run ./localdeploy.bat from the terminal

Toggle the N64 power switch to load the ROM.

ms-vscode.makefile-tools will help (installed automatically in dev container). NOTE: it does not yet work with F5: see this blog post WORKAROUND: in the dev container terminal, use make directly, i.e.: make The ROM can be found in the output directory.

NOTE: a "release" version of the SC64 menu is called sc64menu.n64 and can be created for when you want to add it directly to the SDCard. This is generated by running make all or running make sc64.

Ares Emulator

For ease of development and debugging, the menu ROM can run in the Ares emulator (without most flashcart features).

Ensure you have the Ares emulator on your computer.
Load the N64FlashcartMenu.n64 ROM.

Others

Add the required file to the correct folder on your SD card.

Update submodules

To update to the latest version, use git submodule update --remote from the terminal.

libdragon

This repo currently uses the preview branch as a submodule at a specific commit.

To ensure your local instance is building against it, use cd ./libdragon && make clobber -j && make libdragon tools -j && make install tools-install -j && cd ..

Generate documentation

Run doxygen from the dev container terminal. Make sure you fix the warnings before creating a PR! Generated documentation is located in the output/docs folder and auto-published to the gh-pages branch when merged with main.

Once merged, they can be viewed here

Test generated docs in the dev-container

Testing the documentation locally allows you to preview changes and ensure everything renders correctly before submitting your changes.

Install Prerequisites:

apt-get install ruby-full build-essential zlib1g-dev
gem install jekyll bundler

You can then serve the webpage:

cd output/docs && jekyll serve

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