@Thread

UPDATE:I added th following line to the config file: gfx_framerate=0

I also changed the refresh rate to 59Hz (from 60Hz my res is: 320x256@59,) and the combination of these two things has improved scrolling smoothness in Turrican 2 big time! (I use the old 0.8.28 as it is faster).

My monitor does not support 50hz screen modes but I believe that being able to use them would improve things further (as a mismatch in frequency generates a micro stutter that can be avoided only if the game and screen mode V frequency perfectly matches).

Of course a Sam optimized version of the old 0.8.28 (re-compiled using the IBM library I mean) would be the icing on the cake, but already in this state I am mighty satisfied!!

Last edited by DAX on 04-Dec-2009 at 12:06 PM.

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@DAX

Am I the only one who tries to "copy" a running OS3.9 setup? The SAM optimized version of 0.8.29 runs really better than all the other .29 versions, but while setting up my OS3.9 Workbench with a 32Bit screenmode (like I did with the WIP5 .29 E UAE) the colors are wrong. Pfff...

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@cha05e90
Did not try that (I have a real A2000 3.9BB2 sitting below my Sam, now that's what I call E-UA!! ) , but why would you do that?
Every software I have on the 2000 runs on the Sam way faster and without UAE!

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@DAX Quote:

UPDATE:I added th following line to the config file: gfx_framerate=0

According to the documentation, such a value does not make sense:
Quote:

gfx_framerate= (default=1) Specifies the rate at which display frames are rendered when emulating graphics output from the Amiga chipset. can be a number between 1 and 20, where 1 means that every display frame is rendered and 20 means only 1 in every 20 frames is rendered. Increasing increases the speed of emulation (there's less work to do), but decreases the quality of the display output. For example, when emulating a PAL display (50 Hz), for full-quality output (gfx_framerate=1), E-UAE must update its display 50 times a second. Setting gfx_framerate=4 will cause E-UAE to draw only 1 frame in 4 and thus its display will updated only 12.5 times a second.

What do you think it does?

P.S. I will try that framerate suggestion, thanks.

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@DAX

If/When my trusty 2000's will die some day - they can live forever in emulated form. So my E-UAE setup is an exact copy of my 040 2000 at the moment. Some kind of "live backup".

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@ChrisH
Yes as a matter of fact if it encounters 0 it resets to 1.

The smoother scrolling is due to the 59hz screen mode (it probably syncs a tad better with the game internal V frequency) it would be perfect if we got it to work in a 50hz screen mode (on the PC I use 50hz S-Video output and it does wonders).

On a side note some games that were slow, can be fast if you set the value to 2.

Again a Sam recompile of the 0.8.28 would be fantastic!

Last edited by DAX on 04-Dec-2009 at 10:35 PM.

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@cha05e90 
Come on, you got two!!

Last edited by DAX on 04-Dec-2009 at 06:30 PM.

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@DAX
Did you have VSYNCMIN=60, or did you change it? Because if it is set to 60, then using @59 (or even @50) will have *no* effect!

edit: I reduced that myself, and I still could not get it to go below 60Hz! You can check yourself by using Sys:Prefs/ScreenMode to check the Vertical frequency...

Last edited by ChrisH on 05-Dec-2009 at 10:03 AM.

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@ChrisH
My VSYNCMIN is set to 50 (yes in sys/prefs/screen mode it says 320x256 and the Vertical frequency states 59Hz) I also lowered the HSYNC to 24Khz as when you create a very low res at 50hz it will also generate a very low H value (in the above case it is slightly above 32Khz so if your HSYNCMIN is higher you will have to change that as well).

Sadly I noticed 2 things:my monitor does not go below 32Khz so even if the Amiga accepts the new res, my monitor will not display it (the messagge "out of scan range" appears on the test screen) this was the case with 320x240.Even at 60hz the latter is 31.06Khz and my monitor does not like it...

The second thing is that the Radeon driver does not generate 50hz screen modes no matter what. (actually I was not able to go below 59Hz at any res.).

Which is a bummer! The emulator internally draws 50 screens but the monitor refreshes 59 or 60 times (depending on your V frequency) which generate a mismatch. The latter result in a "hesitating" scrolling due to continuos redraw adjustments.
If you try and add this value to the .Uaerc "NTSC=True", it will switch the internal frame rate to 60FPS/Hz so that if you have a matching V frequency you should obtain a silky smooth scrolling.

I tried that, and in places where it can cope with it (that is, drawing 60 frames every second) you get exacly that, a smooth albeit faster action (in both graphics and sound, if you don't consider the occasional V-Sync "screen-tearing").

The problem is that faster=bad in this case (as everything seems in "FastForward mode") and when the screen gets filled with graphics, it will not cope with drawing all those frames (remember that by switching to NTSC internally, it will phisically draw 60 screens) resulting in major slowdowns that kill any advantage (the results will vary with different processor speeds).

Ironically, with a 50Hz screen mode we would get both performance and a perfect V frequency match.

In another thread Broadblues said he could create a weird resolution (such as 1440x960 if I recall correctly) using the Picasso utility, as adding the res in the Radeon monitor (in Devs) did not produce any results.

Do you know if it is possible to get a 320x256@50 in Picasso mode?

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@DAX
I've had better success than you with screen modes, but I have to be honest that I cannot tell any difference - Turrican 2 still looks pretty damn good to me, whatever I choose!

I was able to get quite low frequencies with my monitor:
MODE=320x240@58
MODE=320x256@54
MODE=400x320@50

Yes, that is 50Hz you see! For those frequencies to be accepted, I had to use these settings:
VSYNCMIN=50
HSYNCMIN=29000


If 50Hz won't work, then 100Hz should be just as good - except I wasn't able to get anywhere near that with the M9 chipset (maybe a Radeon card would do better?). So I thought that maybe a frequency half-way in between might give reasonable (but not perfect) results:

MODE=320x240@75
MODE=320x256@75

You will have to tell me, since I could not see any difference on UAE with any of these settings!

Last edited by ChrisH on 05-Dec-2009 at 01:54 PM.

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@ChrisH
Your suggestion finally nailed it! 100Hz is the way to go!

I created several 100Hz resolutions but strangely enough 320x240 and 320x256 generate an extremely low H value (well below 30Kz) and my monitor does not work with them (although they are now in the available resolutions of the ScreenMode prefs, ready to be used with the device I linked below ).

However 320x200 generates an H frequency high enough and this is my actual resolution (don't ask me why a lower resolution generates a higher H value as I'm totally clueless).

Games like Rainbow Island or Toki do not lose a single pixel at this res as they only use 200 vertical lines (like many other games) but even games like Turrican 2 are prefectly centered and only lose a few lines above and below (namely stats miss a few lines but are still visible).

Playing games like Alien Breed, Chuck Rock, Xenon 2, Pang, the above mentioned Toki and Rainbow islands, all felt as playing with a real A500!!

I also tested successfully the likes of Ruff'n'Tumble, Pacmania, Gauntlet II, Lotus Turbo Challenge 2 and a few others.

Now all I need is a joypad and this:

http://www.ambery.com/uxtotvprscco.html

This thing takes the VGA signal from the Amiga and outputs a 15Khz 50hz RGB signal via Scart lead, all with the required composite sync!

Basically you get a native 320x240 as it would come out of your A500 with all the associated benefits (no huge pixels being the best one).

Who knows, maybe I'll get one for Christmas...

P.S.
By the way, what would be a good joypad/joystick that works with the Sam?

Last edited by DAX on 05-Dec-2009 at 07:30 PM.
Last edited by DAX on 05-Dec-2009 at 07:29 PM.
Last edited by DAX on 05-Dec-2009 at 07:27 PM.

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AmigaCD 32

@DAX
I recommend the Competition Pro USB.

Note that AmigaInput is a bit buggy in our current OS4.1 (should be improved by Update 1), so it may take a bit of fiddling to get it to work. If you need help, then ask, but I suggest first looking at my guide on getting Payback to work, because I mention USB joystick in some detail there.

Quote:

Your suggestion finally nailed it! 100Hz is the way to go!

Can you please post your monitor tooltypes, so that I can confirm that my Sam-ITX is not capable of 100Hz? (I'm not sure whether my monitor will handle it either!)

Last edited by ChrisH on 06-Dec-2009 at 10:13 AM.

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@ChrisH
Thanks for the suggestion, I will get the Joystick asap.

Below my monitor TT

CMPLENGTH=6
BOARDNAME=Radeon
VSYNCMIN=49
VSYNCMAX=120
HSYNCMIN=24000
HSYNCMAX=120000
MODE=640x480@60
MODE=800x600@60
MODE=1024x768@60
MODE=1280x720@60
MODE=1600x1200@60
MODE=1280x720@85
MODE=1440x900@60
MODE=1680x1050@60-RB
MODE=1920x1080@60-RB
MODE=1024x768@85
MODE=1280x1024@85
MODE=320x256@59
MODE=320x256@100
MODE=320x200@100
MODE=320x240@100
MODE=640x480@100
MODE=640x512@100
(MODE=1920x1200@60)
(FAKENATIVEMODES=Yes)
INTERRUPT=Yes

No need to tell but just in case, I noticed that leaving OWB open in the background (on a page with animated GIFs) did generate sound hiccups in UAE while running (as soon as I closed it they disappeared).

Tryed Lemmings and DynaBlaster this morning. Both played flawlessly

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@DAX
Thanks to your tooltypes, I was able to get 100Hz for both 320x256 AND 320x240. But my monitor would not display it (I think max is 81Hz).

I would be interested to know what you think of 75Hz...

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@ChrisH
I amde a quick test with Pang. The only difference I see is that the larger balloons move a little better at 100Hz (slightly more stuttering at 75Hz).
Good enough I would say...

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Don't want to be pickey but thats just not that impressive and close enough wouldnt be enough for most classic Amiga users.

Last edited by BooBoo on 06-Dec-2009 at 06:27 PM.

@BooBoo
90% of the games work flawlessly on my system but consider that there is much room for improvements, for example the version that runs better (0.8.28 at OS4Depot) is not optimized using the IBM library for the 440 (a library that speeds up certain C functions and that has been only recently released).

A better version of UAE would solve many problems...

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AmigaCD 32

@BooBoo
Not sure what you are complaining about, but: The discussions that me & DAX are having are really aimed at "polishing" the UAE experience (not at making it usable, since it already is!).

To be honest, it already seems fine for me, apart from a very small % of games (perhaps under 5% in my own tests?). And that tiny percentage can reduced even further by using frameskip.

It's also worth pointing out that these tests are with a 667MHz Sam, with the Debug Kernel. With OS4.1 update 1 things should be even faster/smoother. And a 733Mhz Sam (with a faster memory bus) is likely to perform even better still, since the difference between "perfectly smooth" & "almost smooth" is generally only a small amount of CPU horsepower.

Last edited by ChrisH on 07-Dec-2009 at 12:17 AM.
Last edited by ChrisH on 07-Dec-2009 at 12:16 AM.

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I now have OS4 set-up so that I can double-click on WHDLoad patched or JOTD JST patched games, it will start UAE, and then run the game I double-clicked on *inside* UAE! (Or if UAE is already running, then it will bring UAE to the front & launch the game directly!)

This was thanks to UAELoad, but I had to modify it quite heavily (it was only designed to work with iGame not directly from icons). I've sent the author my changes, and hopefully he likes them!


I shall be taking the opportunity at the Amiga Revival Fair to register WHDLoad

Last edited by ChrisH on 10-Dec-2009 at 12:53 AM.

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Author of the PortablE programming language.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue...

@ChrisH & DAX

this is great news guys! I really want to get my Samflex@800 going with E-UAE to get my fav vertical shooter working: Deluxe Galaga AGA.
I have tried the settings Chris posted on the 1st post of this thread with little success so far but I think its because I had the GUI and 0.8.2.9 version also installed? I'm gonna try only with the .2.8 version and see if I can hopefully get the same results you guys are getting

btw, can you guys try running Deluxe Galaga AGA and let me know how it runs

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