Aarch64/ARM64-native compiled executable outputs broken tokens only

[FlyingFathead]

Hi there!

I was wondering if there's a Little Endian/Big Endian byte ordering type issue when compiling vzgpt natively on a ARM64 (i.e. Raspberry Pi) type device?

If compiled on a native aarch64/arm64 system, the program only outputs broken tokens when running as a native-compiled arm64/aarch64 binary (= the program runs "fine", but all of vzgpt's output is garbled into broken Unicode characters).

This issue only appears on aarch64 compiles and when running on that type of architecture.

I have used this as a workaround: if you compile vzgpt to a x86_64/amd64 executabe and run it over Box64 (https://github.com/ptitSeb/box64) on an ARM64/Aarch64 system, the output is pretty much okay, albeit slower than it would run native due to the bottleneck caused by the userspace emulation in between.

Given that the garbled output issue is only present in the aarch64/arm64 native compile, this would lead me to believe it's a little/big endian byte order issue.

Is there a proposed solution to get vzgpt run natively as an aarch64/arm64 executable?

Are you planning on releasing a proper configfile soon that would perhaps take this issue into account?

Thanks and all the best with your project.

[FlyingFathead]

P.S. I have tried switching between clang and gcc to no avail, the problem likely persists somewhere deeper in the code, that I sadly have no expertise to work on. I am trying to get the program to run on a ARM64 device to use it to provide assistance to a disabled relative of mine, so that's why I am asking...

[viznut]

Isn't Aarch64 little-endian by default? I believe it's more likely to be a floating point format issue than byte order issue. The 16-bit packed float format is probably the most incompatible piece of bit-banging in the program, so you could maybe try to undefine USE_PKDFLT and USE_PKD_WTE from config.h, recompile and try again. Also, what kind of file(s) are you loading the model from? (Separate files or dumpcpkt or the new packed format? Generated with an ARM or x86 computer?)

Also, I know a person who has has succesfully run vzgpt on Aarch64, and I haven't heard anything like this from them. Can you provide more detailed information (e.g. the actual stdout output of the program?)