WinUAE 0.8.21R3 released

[Toni Wilen]

Report all vsync-mode comments and compatibility problems.. (but remember to read readme.txt first!)

http://www.winuae.net/

[Ian]

Cool:cool

Nice to see things moving forward Toni, keep up the good work.

Haven't tried it yet, and I will of course report any bugs here

[Ian]

HUGE slowdown in this version.

With none of the new vsync options enabled using a config from 0.8.21 r2, The Nine Fingers demo is running at a solid 10 FPS whilst loading.

It runs at full speed using the same config in r2.

[oldpx]

Just booted my workbench setup with it. It works like a charm, well done Toni :)

[oldpx]

Hmm Ian is right. I just tried the demo "Big Time Sensuality". The sound is skippy unlike previous versions. I know I told you R2s sound was not good previously but I had solved that by increasing the sound buffer, now this does not help either. Using the same config, this demo runs better with R2.

[Belgarath]

Specs

P4 1.3ghz
Geforce 2 MX400

ouch, big time slowdown, adjusting the sound buffer makes no difference, vsync and refresh rates not available at all and first 2 times i ran it it crashed until i did the detect 16-bit pixel format again

[ethylene]

Just tried 0.8.21R3...

Doesn't allow me to set refresh rate or enable vsync. Running with previous config (from 0.8.21R1):

720x576, 16-bit, 60Hz (screen refresh actually 50Hz, though)
Full-Screen
Line mode Doubled

Using this same config with 0.8.21R1, I can get vsync just by enabling it through DirectX. It works very well when the screen refresh is set to 50Hz through a utility called Powerstrip. However, after a period of time, the sound always begins to fall out of sync or something, and won't recover until you enter/exit the GUI. So, I just run 0.8.21R1 at 50Hz with DirectX vsync off, and I get smooth scrolling and sound, but with occasional tearing. Good enough for me!

I tried the same setup with 0.8.21R3, but it didn't perform as well. I tried disabling Powerstrip and restarting, but no. I don't want to mess with my DirectX settings, because I just reinstalled my OS last week and my PC's in that great, prime, virgin state, you know? :)

And, all of the above is true at 60Hz/720x480/NTSC settings, too.

[ethylene]

Sorry, the following info would probably help, too:

PIII 550@616MHz
440BX
256MB CAS2.0 SDRAM
Geforce 256 32MB DDR (Detonator v.4.13.01.2832)
AWE64 Gold ISA

And, the 'tearing' I mentioned is just screen tearing, the sound is fine.

Hey, another thing: When I play with my old songs in Deluxe Music, I can get WinUAE to send MIDI to my AWE64's synth, but not out of the PC's serial port to my Roland gear, which I originally used when writing the songs. Both of these devices are selectable in other Windows applications and they both work there...

But first things first though, right Toni? :)

[Toni Wilen]

Anybody without new sound and slowdown problems?

Only one beta tester had slowdown problem, but unfortunately report came too late... I think I'll release public beta soon that hopefully fixes this problem (If I find the problem, everything works perfectly here as usual..)

This is shot in the dark, but does it help if you physically remove all joystick(s)?

Sound code isn't changed between R2 and R3. Enabling Vsync changes timing, but without vsync everything should be same.

DirectX vsync must be enabled or winuae vsync won't work. (I forgot to document this)

btw: Remember to report operating system too. I have heard that (some? all?) W9x Nvidia drivers don't support refresh rate selection but w2k/xp drives do.

[Toni Wilen]

Argh. stupid me. WinUAE tried to read joysticks and mice too many times per frame...

Try following updated executable. I'll add link to winuae.net download page later today (if this update really fixes slowdown problems)

http://www.winuae.net/files/winuae0821r3update.zip

[ethylene]

I just spent about twenty minutes tooling with the new executable...

First I reinstalled 0.8.21R3 and copied the new executable over that (I had already reverted to 0.8.21R1).

I started with my usual PAL A500 config. I watched the cracktro scroller (Backlash) for Alien Breed 92SE. Just as with the earlier 0.8.21R3, it didn't scroll as smoothly as 0.8.21R1.

I tried altering the PAL A500 config. Tried using different fullscreen modes to see if they would let me use VSYNC, but none did. I'm not a very good debugger, but I tried turning things like Immediate Blits on and off, and changing the sound buffering. None of this seemed to affect the choppiness in a positive manner.

So, I went into the nVidia driver options and changed the VSYNC settings there to Always On, and to Auto Select when Always On didn't help the smoothness. Neither one helped.

Finally, I tried unselecting my gamepad from within WinUAE (I know you wanted a physical disconnect, Toni), but this didn't help either.

Operating system is Windows 98 with all current updates. I have no options in my nVidia drivers to change system-wide refresh rates. I have to either edit the registry keys for the resolutions for which I want to set the refresh rates, or use a third-party utility like Powerstrip.

In 0.8.21R1 it was possible to get a VERY nice VSYNC by manually editing the registry to include "RefreshRate" "50" string in the "720,576" key under the "16" "MODES", and then setting DirectX's VSYNC setting to Always On. I don't know if these manual settings are 'fighting' with the new 0.8.21R3 in my case, or what...

I know you're working hard, Toni, and thank you very much. Good luck! :)

[Ian]

The update fixes it for me Toni, but it might not fix it for everybody.

Anyone with a computer slower than an Athlon XP1800+ checked it??

[oldpx]

The sound of the demo is significantly better now, but it's not as good as R2. I'm always using that demo because WinUAE cannot properly emulate some parts of it.

[Paul]

It is a tiny bit slower when I tried State of the Art and hiccuped in a couple of places, but is still pretty good!

With Technological Death, there were no sound break ups, but I have noticed a bug with centring in 640x480 with correct aspect

[cray]

Originally posted by Ian

Anyone with a computer slower than an Athlon XP1800+ checked it??

Yep.
The fix works fine for me, too, no slowdowns as i can tell yet.
The music is fine, although i think it was better in R2.

My specs:
Athlon 900
Windows XP
SB Live
256 MB Ram
GF 2 MX 32 MB

[Paul]

I have just noticed that when closing Winuae I get a blank button on the task bar (see pic)

I have Windows 98SE, AMD 1000Mhz, 1GB Ram, 80 Gb HD, SB Live 5.1, ATI 128 Ultra 32MB card.

I have only tried it with Ians OCS 1.3 config so far:D

[Paul]

Just tried switchback AGA Demo and is a lot slower than r2 and the sound breaks up.

What is VSysc for? as it is grayed out. Also What is the drop down box with only default in it for?

[Mclane]

A couple of oddites..

When I ran the new version for the first time it wanted to detect the 16bit Pixel format, I said yes and then WinUAE crashed?

If I select no WinUAE runs fine, and the strange thing is that if I choose to detect the 16 bit by the checker in the display menu then it works fine??

The other odd one is that I can't use the Vsync, I read the readme and Toni lists a GF2 and drivers version 27.32. Mine is a GF3 and the latest 28.?? drivers from Nvidia.

I'm running it under Win98SE, its a Elsa Gladiac 920 GF3, a P4 1700 and an SB 5.1...Oh, also DiecctX 8.1 is on the machine..

Just seems weird I can't Vsync??

Removed the configs..no joy?

I'd have thought the card would support the needed settings..Maybe not??

[Toni Wilen]

Unfortunately it seems only W2K or WXP (maybe Windows ME too?) supports directdraw refresh rate selection. (stupid MS..)

[Mclane]

Originally posted by Toni Wilen
Unfortunately it seems only W2K or WXP (maybe Windows ME too?) supports directdraw refresh rate selection. (stupid MS..)

There seems to be no end that MS will stoop to to be awkward ;-)

Cheers Toni

[Toni Wilen]

I uploaded DX SDK refreshrate example to the zone.

McLane, could you test if it works with W98SE? (WinUAE refresh rate support bugs are always possible because DX SDK isn't very clear...)

[Mclane]

Originally posted by Toni Wilen
I uploaded DX SDK refreshrate example to the zone.

McLane, could you test if it works with W98SE? (WinUAE refresh rate support bugs are always possible because DX SDK isn't very clear...)

Toni it gives an error 98SE:

Testing cannot proceed

This driver does not support the refresh rate feature of directdraw. The test cannot be performed.


On a related front I installed XP for a dual boot and the lovely Vsync then jumps into action nicely under XP..

And very nice it is too :-)

[Belgarath]

no vsync under win me

updated exe has fixed the speed problems for me though

[Mclane]

Originally posted by Mclane

Toni it gives an error 98SE:

And error IN 98SE ...Oops

[andreas]

Anyone with a computer slower than an Athlon XP1800+ checked it??
:laughing
Make sure that you've got your irony-detectors turned on, guys! :D:D

[Twistin'Ghost]

I'm rather curious about which range of systems are being used by the beta team. If they are mostly using high-end XP-based systems, this will certainly be a problem in the future for all new releases (unless everybody upgrades/downgrades).

[sarek2k]

I checked Winuae 0.8.21-R3 I tried Banshee AGA and Sound/Music was bad cranked up sound buffer but still the same!
Got the Slowdown fix too

I can't say as i ran the game before so have no benchmark.

My system Duron 850 ( :( for the moment) 396mb, Geforce 2 etc
Win98se

Getting Athlon 1.2/4 tommorow will test on that

(Have 2 puters one is short a processor at the moment)

[andreas]

With Technological Death, there were no sound break ups, but I have noticed a bug with centring in 640x480 with correct aspect
YES!!
Centering is broken, even though you don't set correct aspect at all.
It's so odd: Bernd told me to use 640x480 mode if I want centering, but some games would only show the *whole* playing screen if you use 800x600! Don't forget the CD32 boot-up animation as well - exactly the same thing. And turning centering on shows that notorious clipping stripe.
Please bug Bernd to fix this, I'm not going to do this any longer because I'm utterly fed up with it. He simply doesn't consider it important! :mad

[ethylene]

andreas:

Easy there! :)

I'm curious to know what kind of videocard you have.

A really great way to view the whole screen AND get rid of any clipping stripe is to add these resolutions to your registry:

16 bit, 720x576, 50Hz (for PAL games)
16 bit, 720x480, 60Hz (for NTSC games)

www.entechtaiwan.com/ makes a killer utility called Powerstrip. It can add these resolutions for you through GUI dialogs.

I hate to see someone so upset when there's such an elegant solution! :)

[andreas]

Thanks for your efforts to cheer me up again :)

OK, I'm gonna try to "implement" the Overscan settings.
You don't have any explanation why this works in WinFellow without having to use Powerstrip, do you? :confused

BTW, see my experiment with both WinUAE and WinFellow at a time for comparison: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3682

[@UAE]

Hi all
when enabling the Vsync .. the speed becomes mad ... very high speed ..
but very smooth scroll ..
i am using xp with intel 1000 ..

i tried all refresh rates .. but same problem ..

[oldpx]

Does selecting "Match A500 speed" help?

[bippym]

Ok... What am I doing wrong??

I cannot get the VSync option enabled, I am using XP on a 1100 Thunderbird with a Ge-force2 MX400 GFX Card.

I have directx8 installed (obviously)

how do I enable directx vsync?

Cheers

[Argh!]

Originally posted by Paul
I have just noticed that when closing Winuae I get a blank button on the task bar (see pic)

WinUAE always gives me those blanks whenever switching screenmodes. The same problem occurs in some other programs, like Quake2.

For Toni: here's a link to some code that fixes the problem in Quake2.exe. Perhaps it can also help in WinUAE?:
http://www.quakesrc.org/?Page=tutorials&What=./tutorials/Quake2/bugfix/taskbar.txt

[Toni Wilen]

when enabling the Vsync .. the speed becomes mad ... very high speed

You need to select either 50Hz or 100Hz refreshrate for correct speed. (Read the readme.txt...)

[darkseid]

Toni is there a way to implement an automatic frame skip option so no matter what refresh rate you use the scrolling will be perfect and everything runs at the right speed. They have this option in STEEM (I will probably get flamed for mentioning this emulator here) the ATARIST emu.

[Toni Wilen]

here's a link to some code that fixes the problem in Quake2.exe.

WinUAE already does ShowWindow(handle,SW_HIDE) before DestroyWindow(). Does blank taskbar icons also appear in R2 or only in R3?

implement an automatic frame skip option so no matter what refresh rate you use the scrolling will be perfect and everything runs at the right speed

How can scrolling be perfect if frames are skipped? All frames are needed for 100% smooth scrolling.

You probably meant option that drops frames if display emulation does not have enough time to render all frames?

I have tried to implement this kind of automatic frame skip but I never managed to make it work very well...

[Chuckles]

Originally posted by Toni Wilen


Does blank taskbar icons also appear in R2 or only in R3?


I can't speak for anyone else, but I've been getting the blank taskbar icons for a long time - even prior to 0.8.21Ranything. When I've just spent a fair amount of time fiddling with settings in my various configs, I'll often find that my taskbar has lots of them, each of which quickly disappears when you select it with the mouse.

[Dirksche]

Hello,

where is the right place to report WinUAE bugs?

A few minutes ago I installed the new WinUAE 0.8.21R3 and the update.
But with this Version some keys aren't working anymore.
For example all the cursor keys and the right shift key isn't working.
With WinUAE 0.8.21R2 all keys are working o.k.

//admin: please don't use direct signature in your post, configure your UserCP (http://eab.abime.net/usercp.php?s=) instead.

[oldpx]

Go to the Game and I/O ports tab and check if any "Keyboard Layout" settings are enabled. Sounds to me like you are using a keyboard layout preset for joystick emulation.

[Dirksche]

Hello Burseg,

thanks! Selecting "PC Joystick 0" as "Amiga Mouse Port 1" fixes this problem.

//admin: please don't use direct signature in your post, configure your UserCP (http://eab.abime.net/usercp.php?s=) instead.


Originally posted by Burseg
Go to the Game and I/O ports tab and check if any "Keyboard Layout" settings are enabled. Sounds to me like you are using a keyboard layout preset for joystick emulation.