Day of the Tentacle AGA

[NovaCoder]

Hi,

Just to let you guys now that I'm nearly ready to release a BETA of my updated port of DOTT.

It's based on an ALPHA release of SCUMMVM (v0.38.2), the work done by P. Barèges and bits of the latest SCUMMVM release (v0.13.1).

This has been coded on WINUAE and a real Amiga 1200 :D


My done list:

Fixed game speed
Fixed most of the graphical glitches
General speed-ups
Added 16 channel MIDI sound library
Got Speech and SFX working with the new sound library
My to-do list:

Get music working

Getting the music working is proving a little tricky at the moment but I hope to crack it soon. I've got the original PC CDROM version so I should be able to convert all speech/sfx and music for my Amiga version.

When it's ready it will need a few beta testers, any volunteers?

If I get the time........I may also release SAM & MAX for AGA machines because it uses the same basic engine ;)

[Bamiga2002]

Sounds great!

But why do this if you can use ScummVM? Just curious :)

[DDNI]

Nice one! Lemme know ;)

[Xenon]

Very nice!! I am able to test it ^-^

PS: About Sam & Max... YES!!! It's my favorite adventure :D

[NovaCoder]

Yep, should be ready to release a BETA soon.

Update: I've just tested it with the CDROM'S 262MB sfx file on my 1200 and it doesn't run out of memory :)

[NovaCoder]

Sounds great!

But why do this if you can use ScummVM? Just curious :)

If you mean the latest version of ScummVM, then it hasn't been ported to classics (yet). If you mean the old AGA version's, they only support AHI which my system really struggles with.

[dlfrsilver]

i wonder if the french SFX 260 mb file will be supported :D

[kriz]

Very cool, look forward to try this ;)

[pbareges]

very exciting indeed...i'm looking forward to testing it on my basic a1200/8mb fast config...fingers crossed!!

thank you so much!

PS: i would also love to see you complete the sam&max conversion!

[Big-Byte]

Good to see you havent lost your coding skills ;) I though the Amiga would have been on ebay by now after your recent new arrival :)

Must show you what Ive been working on soon as I too have got the (XNA) coding bug

[NovaCoder]

Cool, thanks for the support guys :)

[Boo Boo]

Yes well done Dude - I tryed your last beta and am looking forward to this.

[frikilokooo]

Well done dude!:bowdown

[Bamiga2002]

Go Nova!

[Pyromania]

That's awesome news NovaCoder!

[PowerPie5000]

This is great news! I always wanted to see DOTT on the Amiga :) I'm looking forward to hearing how the music will sound when it's working! For the PC version i always preferred Roland and GM music compared to the crap Sound Blaster/Adlib FM music.... and i know the Amiga sounds much better than an old Soundblaster/Adlib card :agree

[DyLucke]

Great news indeed. I hope you'll be able to finish both projects.

[Hungry Horace]

sounds cool. Although i'm confused by the need for the 16-channel sound library if there is no music?

Is the trouble with making a 4-channel version the music conversion to mod?
i'm interested, as I might be able to help with that. (I havent heard the originals yet though!)

i would have though speech/sfx would be fine on 4-channels, if you then use CD-audio for the music instead... although that is not ideal.

does sfx/speech really need more than one channel? could it be written that you have 4-channel music written, with one channel allocated to "mute" when sfx/speech come in, like happens with Xenon 2?

i guess i'm an idealist, and i'll love to see a "genuine" classic amiga version

[NovaCoder]

Hiya Horace,

I'm currently aiming to have 1 channel for speech, 1 for sound effects and then 16 (simulated) for the music. The music is proving to be a little tricky as the originals are MIDI files so I need to do some conversion work to get them to play.

[Hungry Horace]

Hiya Horace,

I'm currently aiming to have 1 channel for speech, 1 for sound effects and then 16 (simulated) for the music. The music is proving to be a little tricky as the originals are MIDI files so I need to do some conversion work to get them to play.

i had a listen through some of the .mod conversions in P. Barèges (http://amiga.h-plus-t.com/)'s download earlier.

Although there may be a standard 16 channels for .mid files, they clearly arent all used most of the time, and I wouldnt see a 4-channel conversion (in some cases lower!) being that difficult, just that it would take a lot of time to do all of them. Style-wise, it would likely end up a lot like Monkey Island 2.

just my thoughts!

[NovaCoder]

Ok, time for an update...yes this project is still alive ;)

I had real trouble getting the music library working properly but I'm finally happy with it's quality.

The only thing I need to do now is convert the game's MIDI (http://www.shikadi.net/moddingwiki/MID_Format) files to MUS (http://www.shikadi.net/moddingwiki/MUS_Format) at runtime.

If any competent C coders can help me out, please see this thread (http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=600117#post600117).

[pbareges]

Ok, time for an update...yes this project is still alive ;)

I had real trouble getting the music library working properly but I'm finally happy with it's quality.

The only thing I need to do now is convert the game's MIDI (http://www.shikadi.net/moddingwiki/MID_Format) files to MUS (http://www.shikadi.net/moddingwiki/MUS_Format) at runtime.

If any competent C coders can help me out, please see this thread (http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=600117#post600117).

really good news !! fingers crossed

[NovaCoder]

Update:

Ok, I've now got the MIDI working properly :D

I'll do some last minute bug-fixes and upload it to Underground Arcade (www.underground-arcade.com) next week for beta testing by the hoards :p

I did a quick video of it running on my real 1200, the audio capture volume is really low and crappy sounding for some strange reason (worked fine last time I capture from my 1200).

DOTT AGA Intro (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nVGnGARENw)

[dlfrsilver]

Thank you sooo much for this !!!!

[pbareges]

your capture looks very promising... i can't waitto put my hands on it

[ungi]

Very interesting project... And Sam n Max, too? I am just playing the PC version. Maybe I should wait for the Amiga conversion...

[DDNI]

Fantastic simply fantastic.

If only the will had been there to develop on the Amiga when these games were first available... An 030 A1200 was so under-stretched by so many released miggy gems....

Cant wait for the release Novacoder! Many thanks :great

Update:

Ok, I've now got the MIDI working properly :D

I'll do some last minute bug-fixes and upload it to Underground Arcade (http://www.underground-arcade.com) next week for beta testing by the hoards :p

I did a quick video of it running on my real 1200, the audio capture volume is really low and crappy sounding for some strange reason (worked fine last time I capture from my 1200).

DOTT AGA Intro (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nVGnGARENw)

[dlfrsilver]

will the french version will be supported easily ?

[NovaCoder]

Yes, it should work ok with any language version if you have the original game files.

[dlfrsilver]

Yawn Yawn :D !!!

[pbareges]

hi there...

i just found that you added it under projects page (on underground arcade website)..do you intend to make it freely downloadable?

thx again

[NovaCoder]

hi there...

i just found that you added it under projects page (on underground arcade website)..do you intend to make it freely downloadable?

thx again

Well spotted :D

When it looks like it's stable enough you can upload it to the DOTT site.

[pbareges]

Well spotted :D

Yep you can now download the beta from here (http://www.underground-arcade.com/Downloads.php) :xmas

When it looks like it's stable enough you can upload it to the DOTT site.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! i will report soon about it running on my vanilla miggy!!

thx again.

[dlfrsilver]

i got no sound at all with the french version. I'm using the amiga OS3.5 / A1200/030@50mhz

[DDNI]

I get a hang at the first whirly spiral screen.
Snoopdos stops reporting when Midi_instruments is accessed.

This is using the 060 exe from underground arcade.

[NovaCoder]

I get a hang at the first whirly spiral screen.
Snoopdos stops reporting when Midi_instruments is accessed.

This is using the 060 exe from underground arcade.

That's strange, what about the 020 version...does that run ok?

If that works ok, try using the DoomSound.library from the 020 install with the 060 exe.

[NovaCoder]

i got no sound at all with the french version. I'm using the amiga OS3.5 / A1200/030@50mhz

Hiya,

But it runs ok apart from that? What about when you try with the files from the UK version?

[dlfrsilver]

it runs OK yes. I have to try the english version ;)

[derLegoMann]

Hi!

Works perfect in Winuae with 030 config.

Now I will try it on a real Amiga :D

MfG
derLegoMann

[DDNI]

That's strange, what about the 020 version...does that run ok?

If that works ok, try using the DoomSound.library from the 020 install with the 060 exe.

The 020 exe fails in the same way. Also happens if I use the 020 doomsound.library :confused

[NovaCoder]

The 020 exe fails in the same way. Also happens if I use the 020 doomsound.library :confused

That's not good, wonder why it doesn't like your setup?

I didn't actually write the sound library so I have no way of debugging it :(

[DDNI]

That's not good, wonder why it doesn't like your setup?

I didn't actually write the sound library so I have no way of debugging it :(

Hmm will have to try it on my 030 setup.
I don't run Blazewcp on the A1200T so maybe that is an issue?

[NovaCoder]

it runs OK yes. I have to try the english version ;)

Ok, let me know how you get on.

Also you need to make sure that your 'MONSTER.SOU' is correctly named (that is where the SFX are stored).

[NovaCoder]

Hmm will have to try it on my 030 setup.
I don't run Blazewcp on the A1200T so maybe that is an issue?

No it won't be BlazeWCP causing the problem, it's more likely when it's trying to use the sound library + the Midi Instrument file and having some kind of issue. You could try renaming the 'music' folder to 'musicx' to disable music playback and see if that makes any difference.

[NovaCoder]

Hi!

Works perfect in Winuae with 030 config.

Now I will try it on a real Amiga :D

MfG
derLegoMann

Cool, glad it works for someone :p

[DDNI]

Hi Novacoder, I tested the 060.exe and 060 doomsound.library on my A1200T with no startup-sequence. It runs very well. Slight hitching when screen scrolls, but nothing to complain about ;)

The music and speech volume is very quiet though. Is it just me that is getting that?

[NovaCoder]

Hi Novacoder, I tested the 060.exe and 060 doomsound.library on my A1200T with no startup-sequence. It runs very well. Slight hitching when screen scrolls, but nothing to complain about ;)

The music and speech volume is very quiet though. Is it just me that is getting that?

Hiya,

Yep a lot of people are saying that it will only run with no startup-sequence, I'm not sure why and for me it runs directly from WB. Maybe I can make it more 'WB friendly' in a future release.

Yes I can't seem to get rid of those slight screen glitches but then again I've seen the same (and worse) from other ports running on much more powerful HW.

No I think there is a problem with the sfx/music volumne, I'll have to wack it up a bit for the final release.

[pbareges]

music/sfx is close to perfect wich original soundchip ..that's a hell of a job ! congrats!!

unfortunately, the midi interpreter make it too slow to be truly enjoyable on my lowend config (vanilla 1200 with fastmem)...maybe i should try to redo the conversion process with your midi instrument bank which is much more standard than the one i used so that music is really close to pc original rendering..

also as i do not have much hd space on my 1200 , i only use the floppy version monster.sou file (regular sfx + intro voices but that's about it)...when i played yesterday i noticed you disabled the text display (probably because voices are emulated) which is fine during the intro but after as my monster.sou does not handle voices so text displaying would be nice to play the game!!

anyway thanks again for your contribution and good luck in the final bug removal process..

[DDNI]

Ran the 020 version on my 50mhz 030. GREAT JOB. Runs from WB with no issues.

[nujack]

Runs perfect on my A4000/060 from Workbench. Great job. :great
Only some gfx-glitches when figure moved over screen. Sound and sfx without any problems. Save/Load-function works too. Next I'll try it out on my A1200/030.

[NovaCoder]

Cool, glad you like it guys....and they said that it wasn't possible on an 030 :)


Yep, I thought an 020 would struggle....it's the MIDI playback that's doing it.

My next version will include the option to turn on/off (MIDI/SFX/SUBTITLES) and this will be the final release as I'm going to look at Sam & Max next.

[Hungry Horace]

if you had access to .mod versions of the tunes NovaCoder, would it be possible to implement them into it, (thus making an 020 version a lot lighter) or would it be a lot of hard work?

[NovaCoder]

if you had access to .mod versions of the tunes NovaCoder, would it be possible to implement them into it, (thus making an 020 version a lot lighter) or would it be a lot of hard work?

It wouldn't work I'm afraid because you lose SFX/Speech with the MOD player, this is the problem that Pbareges had with his port. I suppose it would be possible to pause the music during SFX/Speech, that would be the best compromise I think.

The hard thing is getting the music samples to sound good as MOD samples. I had to do quite a bit of 'pre-production' on the original MIDI files just to get them to play correctly on my version.

[dlfrsilver]

Novacoder !!! I have found the problem !!!! It's because the files attributes have been removed !!

Now it works like a charm !!! under OS 3.5 / A1230 @ 50 mhz / 32 mb of RAM + Blazewcp :D

Please find the 020 and 060 version in the zone

Unzip ZIP compression is the problem :( the 060 archive has the same problem.

[NovaCoder]

Cool, thanks for working it out!

[dlfrsilver]

it works very nicely yes :D.

[Hungry Horace]

It wouldn't work I'm afraid because you lose SFX/Speech with the MOD player, this is the problem that Pbareges had with his port. I suppose it would be possible to pause the music during SFX/Speech, that would be the best compromise I think.

The hard thing is getting the music samples to sound good as MOD samples. I had to do quite a bit of 'pre-production' on the original MIDI files just to get them to play correctly on my version.

hmm. my thinking is maybe a few sample merges (having a listen, the channels used arent too many), maybe having one channel set up with instruments that dont sound odd when cut out (thus allowing the speech to override it)

i might have a play with the files and see what i can come up with!

[NovaCoder]

Thanks to everyone who beta tested and gave me feedback. Beta testing is now finished, I'll upload the finished version (based on beta feedback) next week :)

[meynaf]

I tried dott (from there : http://amiga.h-plus-t.com/) on my A1230. As just saying "great work" isn't very helpful in improving anything, get ready for the big bad flood :evilgrin

First thing I have to say is : zip is a bad choice because it eats the "e" (executable) attribute. Please use lzx, or, at least, lha. Besides, a smaller archive could be given to people who already have the game files (right, 14MB is big for me).
Second : the main dir is a mess. Music modules should really go into a separate dir.
But it was a good idea to include original midi files so people can compare, and perhaps enhance. It runs on 3.0 and doesn't need AHI (a VERY good thing IMO) : next step could be to get rid of the need to run SystemPatch or blazewcp ; I can help you with the c2p if needed.

It started by screen mode choice. I admit I hate that stuff, why not just opening a PAL screen ?
Hopefully choice gets saved, but still, I don't like this.
Moreover, there is no vertical screen centering.

I ran the sfx version and let the intro go : it got stuck after a while (frozen).
Here is what I could get of the cli output up to that point :

WARNING: stub setShake(1)!
start soundsfx 1671
WARNING: stub setShake(0)!
start soundsfx 774948
start soundsfx 2512679
start soundsfx 1528330
start soundsfx 2529983
start soundsfx 1545534
start soundsfx 2556396
start soundsfx 2599206
start soundsfx 1553053
start soundsfx 2628883
start soundsfx 2656948
start soundsfx 1567480
start soundsfx 2699665
start soundsfx 2742786
start soundsfx 1623367
start soundsfx 2781089
start soundsfx 2824301
readSoundResource(type=4,index=92)
start soundsfx 1648484
start sound 92
loading 92.mod.
readSoundResource(type=4,index=93)
start sound 93
loading 93.mod.
start soundsfx 2841607
start soundsfx 2868814
get sound status 93

I could successfully resume by pressing Esc, though.

Animations were just too fast, leaving no time to read texts. Intro's spoken texts were always absent regardless of the version ; maybe sfx-only version could be good if you really can't mix. Perhaps ptreplay.library won't let you steal a channel, but it would be even better if the replay was included.
Some SCUMM games (e.g. Loom) offer choice of music vs sfx by F6 key, maybe you could do the same and avoid distributing several versions.

F10 exits without stopping the music. No good. Quitting with F5 seems ok.

Ok this is all for now, but I didn't play throughout the whole game :D

[DDNI]

@meynaf, you are running the original amiga port done by pbarages :bowdown

This thread is about the work done by Novacoder and his retake on pbarages port. You should use Novacoders latest version from here; http://www.underground-arcade.com/ although the DOTT download has gone for now....Novacoder is about to release a final version so thats the cause of the download hiatus...

[Mad-Matt]

Not realy relevent but just for kicks, I tried running it on my A1200 which only has AmigaOS4 classic on it atm. Unfortunatly ...it didnt work, just froze the system ;)

[NovaCoder]

Not realy relevent but just for kicks, I tried running it on my A1200 which only has AmigaOS4 classic on it atm. Unfortunatly ...it didnt work, just froze the system ;)

Yep my version will never run on OS4 because the sound library 'bangs the hw' ;)

[NovaCoder]

I tried dott (from there : http://amiga.h-plus-t.com/) on my A1230. As just saying "great work" isn't very helpful in improving anything, get ready for the big bad flood :evilgrin



I've removed the link to the original version at the start of this thread as way too many people were getting confused :p

[meynaf]

You should use Novacoders latest version from here; http://www.underground-arcade.com/
There was no download link in here, so checked whatever I could get... :o

When will the other version be available ?

[DDNI]

There was no download link in here, so checked whatever I could get... :o

When will the other version be available ?

Yup not your fault meynaf, Novacoder simply removed the old exe from undergroundarcade in readiness for his FINAL update!!! :spin:spin
When you do get it, a report in the style of your previous post would be great to see though!

[meynaf]

When you do get it, a report in the style of your previous post would be great to see though!
You will see it :D

[NovaCoder]

I've now upload all the version 1.0.0 exe's to www.underground-arcade.com (http://www.underground-arcade.com) (eg 030, 040 & 060).

I'll create a special cut-down version for 020's using the original MOD files as I've found that a standard 020 is just not powerful enough to do MIDI + speech & 256 colour VGA.

Next up Sam & Max.....

[pbareges]

I'll create a special cut-down version for 020's using the original MOD files as I've found that a standard 020 is just not powerful enough to do MIDI + speech & 256 colour VGA.

Next up Sam & Max.....

thank you very much sir! do you intend to improve MOD / SFX mixing compared to my version ? i hope somebody is willing to improve the midi2mod conversion to match your perfect rendering through MIDI interpreter.

good luck with sam&max...

[Thorham]

I've now upload all the version 1.0.0 exe's to www.underground-arcade.com (http://www.underground-arcade.com) (eg 030, 040 & 060).One word: Awesome :great Thank you for this, it's great on a 50 mhz '030 :) Plays well, looks good and sounds nice, great, keep up the good work :great

Any change of this going open source?

[NovaCoder]

One word: Awesome :great Thank you for this, it's great on a 50 mhz '030 :) Plays well, looks good and sounds nice, great, keep up the good work :great

Any change of this going open source?

Cool, glad you liked it.

Yep it will go open source after I release Sam & Max (I still want to make some improvments).

[nikvest]

I have graphic problems... When the main character is moving, I get graphical residue on screen. It is like garbled sprite leftovers from the main character. I am having this problem with OS 3.9 Installed, and in OS 3.1 the problem doesn't exist.

I tried all versions of the game. I am using WinUAE.

[NovaCoder]

I have graphic problems...
I tried all versions of the game. I am using WinUAE.

WINUAE is not supported, that is why it's called DOTT AGA ;)

If you want to play DOTT on the PC, use the PC version instead. :agree

[nikvest]

It IS working under WinUAE for me, because I have several virtual hard disks. I just wanted to alert you to the problem with newer operating systems, and to confirm this post from Oct.29.2009:

Runs perfect on my A4000/060 from Workbench. Great job. :great
Only some gfx-glitches when figure moved over screen. Sound and sfx without any problems. Save/Load-function works too. Next I'll try it out on my A1200/030.

[xpect]

. I am having this problem with OS 3.9 Installed, and in OS 3.1 the problem doesn't exist.


I think you resolved your own problem. :)

[Thorham]

If you want to play DOTT on the PC, use the PC version instead. :agreeActually, ScummVM is great for that, works like a charm on my old 550 mhz PIII with WinXP.

[meynaf]

Next up Sam & Max.....

Not so fast guy :D

Now finally I can make my bloody report heheh :D
I promised, didn't I ?
Version tested is 030, on a 030. Yes ;). Used data files from pbareges' port.

Soooo... let's go :
- Still no vertical screen centering...
- Sometimes sprites aren't correctly turned off -> remains of mouse pointer on the screen (doesn't happen often, but it did).
- Display tearing visible when scrolling. But I can say that anims are, this time, done at right speed !
- Loading time relatively important ; game constantly accesses the disk (perhaps the situation is better on SFS, I put that on FFS for now - if so, the readme could be updated). Okay, this is a pc game ;)
- Still dependent to things such as SystemPatch (as I said, I can help in that area). If you forget SystemPatch and run it on 3.0, you'll see black screen, no error message and no easy way to get outta here (as F10 no longer quits).
- It happened to me that the "pull" command was damaged - perhaps it was the original position of the mouse pointer.
- Freeze after "step one : find plans" in the intro (no "step two - save world") and no means to get out of this apart Esc key. All "Meanwhilst" cut-scenes seem to freeze in a similar way.
- From time to time, something which sounds like random audio garbage can be heard - sounds like bad dma wait to me. Note : small .mus test app you gave to me does the same !
- Old scummvm graphical problem I had is still there : talk to Edna, then to Ed and you will see wrongly displayed texts (bad colors). I can make a grab to show you.

Some remarks :
- Tool types : wouldn't it have been simpler to do "thing" and "(thing)" instrad of "thing=true" and "thing=false", as many other programs do ?
- I wonder why it opens mathieeedoub(bas/trans).library ?
- Why did you write that it "runs best in vga mode" in the readme ? For me it's not valid, because VGA in 320x200 has horribly pixelated display. PAL are much better for this.
- If you do amiga-m, it's like F5 and I don't like this.
- In readme, you wrote "coded 10 Nov 2010". Is it a typo, or did you (or me ?) fall in a time quantum hole ?

[nikvest]

I think you resolved your own problem. :)

Yes, and I think I shouldn't have said anything about the problem on different platform, right?

[Thorham]

- In readme, you wrote "coded 10 Nov 2010". Is it a typo, or did you (or me ?) fall in a time quantum hole ?He's using a Chrono-john :D

[NovaCoder]

He's using a Chrono-john :D

Yeah that's right, that's when it was finished :p

[NovaCoder]

Not so fast guy :D

Now finally I can make my bloody report heheh :D
I promised, didn't I ?
Version tested is 030, on a 030. Yes ;). Used data files from pbareges' port.



Thanks for the report :)

[Exit]

which version of scumm is supported, and when it works , are you planning more ports?

thnx for the great work for the amiga community :)

[Thorham]

which version of scumm is supportedThe game doesn't need ScummVM, it's a stand alone game. It needs '030+, Aga, SystemPatch and BlazeWCP (both on Aminet).

[Graham Humphrey]

Doesn't seem to work with BlazeWCP on OS3.0 though so if you've only got that just use SystemPatch.

[Thorham]

Doesn't seem to work with BlazeWCP on OS3.0 though so if you've only got that just use SystemPatch.Strange, I have 3.0 and it works fine with BlazeWCP+SystemPatch (on a Blizzard '030) :confused

[pbareges]

it's because systempatch includes the blazewcp patch for 3.0...blazewcp has no effect on your 3.0 system so you could remove it and it would be the same...

i think that blazewcp patches the os 3.1 writechunkypixels routine wich does not exist in 3.0...systempatch implements writechunkypixels in a patched form from scratch above 3.0 rom.

[Graham Humphrey]

Strange, I have 3.0 and it works fine with BlazeWCP+SystemPatch (on a Blizzard '030) :confused

Ah, you use both? I only used BlazeWCP on its own - I get all the sounds but the screen stays black. That might be the problem then (I am running it on an '040 but it shouldn't make any difference I guess). With just SystemPatch it works fine.

Looks like pbareges has nailed that one then. Perhaps BlazeWCP just has no effect at all on 3.0? Would explain why I can use it fine with other programs but not this one...

[Thorham]

it's because systempatch includes the blazewcp patch for 3.0...blazewcp has no effect on your 3.0 system so you could remove it and it would be the same...

i think that blazewcp patches the os 3.1 writechunkypixels routine wich does not exist in 3.0...systempatch implements writechunkypixels in a patched form from scratch above 3.0 rom.Thanks for clearing that up :great
Ah, you use both? I only used BlazeWCP on its own - I get all the sounds but the screen stays black. That might be the problem then (I am running it on an '040 but it shouldn't make any difference I guess). With just SystemPatch it works fine.The game always needs SystemPatch, without it, it wont work.

[pbareges]

lucasarts routines were far from optimized on amiga, they were mainly coded in c to be as portable as could be on any platform...

scummvm ports rely on sdl libraries implemented on amiga...dott version ported by novacoder make a good use of optimized chunky pixels routines so the issue does not come from gfx, it comes from the midi interpreter that must mix real time up to 16 channels into 4 to fit paula specs. i tried to perform midi to module conversion to avoid this loss of cpu power in the music playing routine but i'm afraid we need a really talented musician with a lot of spare time to perform this!

we can still hope...

[Thorham]

One way would be to simply convert the midis to 28 khz stereo Amiga samples so they can be replayed using DMA with the 14 bit trick. The sound effects most likely have a fixed sample rate, so they can be converted to 28 khz, too. Now the mixing becomes a lot faster, at the price of the game data becoming larger.

[NovaCoder]

One way would be to simply convert the midis to 28 khz stereo Amiga samples so they can be replayed using DMA with the 14 bit trick. The sound effects most likely have a fixed sample rate, so they can be converted to 28 khz, too. Now the mixing becomes a lot faster, at the price of the game data becoming larger.

Yep I had a look a doing this but it turns out that the music tracks would become HUGE :p

MIDI files are just instructions of what instruments to play so they are very small in comparison and can be pre-loaded into FASTRAM (no disk access during game-play, the digital SFX are actually streamed form disk).

[NovaCoder]

Sorry but I've had to take those links down (GPL stuff), will re-release when the next version is ready....

[NovaCoder]

A quick update is in the Zone, grab it while it's hot ;)

I've managed to fix the screen tearing by using double buffering.

[killergorilla]

Nice work :)

[vulture]

where in the zone is it? can't find it....

[TheCyberDruid]

It's called 'DOTT_AGA_030.lha' and is right at the top ;)

[vulture]

sorry for the lame question, but I'm right now in the file server under "the zone" and I can only see older dott versions. What am I doing wrong?

[TheCyberDruid]

Look at the top right of this page (scroll up). That's 'The Zone!' :) The fodler on the file server is just an archive.
Oh and if you can get access, have a look here : http://eab.abime.net/faq.php?faq=vb_faq#faq_thezone_faq_item

[vulture]

Many thx! I always thought I just couldn't access the zone from here.... :p

[TheCyberDruid]

You're welcome :) That's why it's worth to read the rules... just saying ;)

[CFOU!]

great job!!!

Why not a day... SamNMAx ?

[NovaCoder]

great job!!!

Why not a day... SamNMAx ?

Any improvements to the DOTT port will make the Sam & Max port better :p

[CFOU!]

Any improvements to the DOTT port will make the Sam & Max port better :p
I'am happy to read it!

[pbareges]

great work!

[ancalimon]

any chance for smooth scrolling? :)

[Omolungo]

Hi, I've tried the 030 version with my A1200 and Blizzard 1230 IV.
It works quite well :) but I have no subtitle: there's a command to activate them or we have to wait for a next release? :rolleyes

[NovaCoder]

Just use the tooltypes...easy ;)

[Omolungo]

Just use the tooltypes...easy ;)

Which one? Excuse me, I'm a noob :sleep

[NovaCoder]

SHOW_SUBTITLES=TRUE


It's all in the readme BTW...

[Omolungo]

Ops :p

I will try, thanks ;)

Edit: resolved, thanks! :)

[cosmicfrog]

how about doing a cd version with all the music on, if it will fit of course

when you say big for the music how big are you talking

realy must try this sometime, thanks NovaCoder

[NovaCoder]

how about doing a cd version with all the music on, if it will fit of course

when you say big for the music how big are you talking

realy must try this sometime, thanks NovaCoder


It already DOES support the CD version...so you get full digital SFX and speech + MIDI playback using just the AGA chipset :spin

[cosmicfrog]

Kewl :)

[meynaf]

About the subtitles, perhaps it can be a good idea to set them to ON by default, as most people will want them (I think) - even though it was no problem for me to alter the tooltypes :D

[BarryB]

Where does it mention the tooltype settings you can use in the Readme? I've downloaded the DOTT_AGA_030.lha and read the DOTT AGA.readme and it does not mention nor give any tooltype settings you can use.

Apart from that the game runs great under WinUAE 2.0.1 + OS3.9, thanks for doing such a brill port :great

*EDIT* Damn! The tooltypes get added after you run the game, didn't realise, been a few years since I've used an Amiga!

[ancalimon]

Tried it on my A1200 060. Well done :)

It's working without any text on screen. Characters open their mouth and close it right away.

I'm softkicking 3.1 rom together with 3.9 rom updates using blizkick. Do I need systempatch as well? I have fblit and ftext in my s-s. I started blazewcp before running the game. It's been a long time I used AGA only Amiga so I'm not familiar with these AGA patches. BTW mouse pointer is a little bit sluggish is it normal?

EDIT: SHOW_SUBTITLES tooltype found :)

[NovaCoder]

Hiya,

The latest version doesn't require SystemPatch or BlazeWCP ;)

[Vairn]

Heya NovaCoder.

This is pretty cool.

I assume you removed the WriteChunkyPixel command, and replaced it with a C2P routine?

If so, did it improve it alot? I assume you used the c2p from ADoom, or did you roll your own?

For my little Amiga Program, I am using WCP. For the awesomeness called portability, my code just fills a 320x240 buffer up with raw pixel information.
This lets my code work nicely on windows, mac etc. but I was concerned about the speed on Amiga, since mine is a 060, I currently haven't got an 030 to test it with.

I wonder if I can force UAE to emulate at 030/50 speeds hehe.

So I was wondering how much better the c2p worked then just WCP.

[NovaCoder]

Yes that is correct, WriteChunkyPixels is gone (along with the need for BlazeWCP and SystemPatch). The main reason for the change was to implement double-buffering (smooth screen updates) which was proving too hard to do with WriteChunkyPixels.

I'm not sure if the assembler C2P routine is faster or not because BlazeWCP is meant to be very quick (and is probably using a very similar assembler C2P routine anyway).

The C2P version of DOTT that I released to the Zone was only a quick hack (of a quick hack), I've got some ideas to make it a bit smoother (esp on faster machines, see UtilityBase for details).

Yep I'm using the ADoom source which includes an 030 routine written by Mikael Kalms (who is also helping me). The only problem I had using the C2P routine in my project was trying to link the bugger with gcc c++ (I'm using Storm V4 on the Amiga), you can see all my posts on UtilityBase for more info ;)

You use it like this (taken from amiga_video.c):


// render to the hidden bitmap
video_which = 1 - video_which;
c2p1x1_cpu3blit1_queue(imageData, video_raster[video_which]);


When you talk about portability, do you mean using UAE?

[Vairn]

for portability, I mean, more then just Amiga, since I am using GCC.
Basically the differences for each platform, is the creation of the screen, rendering gfx, handling the input etc.
So the graphics, is just a memory buffer, which represents the pixels.
Different platforms then handle it accordingly.
Input just passes information to an input manager etc.

Means I can do all my coding on one platform, and just have VERY basic frameworks for the others. So I have stuff rendering on Windows, Iphone and Amiga atm.


That's the idea anyway.

[NovaCoder]

Sounds like a lot of work ;)

My port using mostly platform independent code with AGA specific extension classes for graphics, sound, music.

If you're seeing any screen-tearing or visual Artefacts using WCP in your code you might also want to swap to C2P.

[Vairn]

ahh, ok cool.

I guess, I should get my 1200 out to test it on, other then uae.
I doubt I will have much of an issue for it though, high frame rate isn't needed, for a DM clone hehe. If I end up doing something more actiony in the future, maybe then.

[Vairn]

Sounds like a lot of work ;)

My port using mostly platform independent code with AGA specific extension classes for graphics, sound, music.
.

It isn't as hard as you think, for input and gfx anyway, writing raw pixels to screen isn't that complex. and input, just mouse pos buttons, and keyboard.

Most platforms are handled by SDL, so Win/Mac/Linux.
Iphone is my own engine hehe.


Sound will probably require more work. :spin

[NovaCoder]

Vairn,

Make sure you call 'WaitTOF();' before calling 'WriteChunkyPixels()', that solved a lot of my original tearing issues.

[NovaCoder]

This is not meant as bashing, but something I've always been thinking about....

Why is it that a game like DOTT needs a 030 to run somewhat properly? I'm also thinking about the scene in Indy 4 where you walk across the sceen in that middle east city (can't remember name right now). On my old Amiga 500, this took like 5 minutes or something! Indy was moving slower than a snail across the screen.

I'm a programmer myself, and I just can't see why it was happening... Even on a 7 mhz machine. They must have done some really bad porting over at LucasArts. The scene consists of a non-animated bitmap background, and a moving sprite across it. How can *that* eat such resources?? I'm thinking about games like Super Stardust or Elfmania that ran smoother than silk, and then we have this seemingly non-techical game from LucasArts that more or less stood still.

Somebody enlighten me, please :)

Easy answer. This is essentially a PC VGA game and as such was originally coded for a 320x200 256 colour chunky display with MIDI music.

This causes a few obvious problems with the AGA chipset which uses a planar display which means that all of the graphics have to be converted each frame (C2P) and AGA is in any case slow with 256 colours because it's based on the old OCS chipset. The other major problem is the AGA chipset cannot do native MIDI and instead has to use some expensive routines to do it in software.

Games like Super Stardust would have been developed using native Planar graphics a native sound format (probably MOD) and coded to the chipset's strengths, which is why they run so well on lower-spec'd machines.

[Vairn]

yeah, it would be lazyness, since they could of written a tool to take the chunky graphics and turn it into planar, then used the converted ones.

[DJBase]

I tried the latest version but its unplayable for me. The sound is crap (sorry) and the game is was too fast on my A1200. I am runing now an older version with 060 executable and its nearly perfect.

[NovaCoder]

Cool, glad you found a version that worked for you DJBase :)

[Lutz G]

Hi,

My to-do list:

Get music working
Getting the music working is proving a little tricky at the moment but I hope to crack it soon. I've got the original PC CDROM version so I should be able to convert all speech/sfx and music for my Amiga version.


Is it possible to get native midi support in dott aga using my roland sc-55 sound module connected to my amiga? Is it possible to patch the settings?
If not, please consider optional native midi support in future versions.

BTW: There are already amiga games with midi support (MT-32) ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDCshk1Q0Ak

Lutz

[NovaCoder]

Hiya Lutz,

That's impressive sound quality, I always liked the good old MT-32.

I doubt I'd get time to add support for it though, I'm having enough trouble finding the time to just do a straight port of the latest version of Scummvm over to 68k (time poor and badly paid).

What about AHI, does that enable you to output to your MT-32?

[Lutz G]

What about AHI, does that enable you to output to your MT-32?

Just had a look at this AHI site http://arp2.berlios.de/ahi/

Don't know if it supports a midi interface - it supports soundblaster stuff - (including midi port?) - perhaps I could get it to work?

Lutz

[NovaCoder]

If you could get your RT-32 to work through AHI then I should be able to support it in DOTT.

[Mad-Matt]

maybe adding midi out support through camd.library would be an option ? It would also allow softsynth through gmplay ....but i think doomsound.lib is prefured ;)

[Lutz G]

maybe adding midi out support through camd.library would be an option ? It would also allow softsynth through gmplay ....but i think doomsound.lib is prefured ;)
Have to check it out. BTW: Testing the midi output is possible using winuae:. Just choose Game I/O Port in emu menue -> MPU-401 Out (if you got midi hardware). Choosing midi softsynth instead should be working too.

[meynaf]

Isn't it possible to emulate that kind of MPU-401 hardware ?
This would help PC games ports (like mine :D).

[Mad-Matt]

There is Munt for emulating MT32 but its 32bit windows only. Should be able to select it as a midi output device in winuae. Those siera games sound quite odd through normal midi out (as my soundfont doesnt emualte mt32 in any way). (cant try munt as im win64bit only on all machines here)

[Riempie]

Wow, this works good om my AT 1200 030 50mhz and 16mb ram.

Maybe a stupid question: It looks like the game is in ntsc-mode, can I switch to pal-mode?

[Bamiga2002]

Where can i get this game? There's no working download-link...

[Jimbo]

I 2nd that where do we get this game, 020 version

Cheers

[Jimbo]

I found a download that works fine on my 020 A1200. Is it ok to link to it? Wondered if there was a reason we had no links for it. I never actually looked on the file server either.

Cheers

[NovaCoder]

nice shoes (http://mipadreteniaunamiga.blogspot.com/2009/11/el-dia-del-tentaculo-por-fin-en-amiga.html?showComment=1263327213647#c1457811418328587767)

;)

[Retrofan]

There are good spanish webs!

[turrican13]

very very good work!!!

When converting another game?

[apex]

Sorry, but where can I find this special scumm release?
Or any ScummVM version from Novacoder? :)

[TheCyberDruid]

Shameless self promotion : http://awesome.amiga.me/scummvm-for-classic-amigas-2228 ;)

[DeafDaz]

I have graphic problems... When the main character is moving, I get graphical residue on screen. It is like garbled sprite leftovers from the main character. I am having this problem with OS 3.9 Installed, and in OS 3.1 the problem doesn't exist.

I tried all versions of the game. I am using WinUAE.


Can u put a HDF bootable version in the zone 4 me plz? I would like to try this game.

[NovaCoder]

Can u put a HDF bootable version in the zone 4 me plz? I would like to try this game.

Why play one game, when you can play all these:

Maniac Mansion
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Loom
Passport to Adventure
The Secret of Monkey Island
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Day of the Tentacle
Sam & Max Hit the Road
Full Throttle
The Dig
Simon the Sorcerer 1
Simon the Sorcerer 2
Beneath a Steel Sky
The Black Cauldron
Gold Rush!
King's Quest I
King's Quest II
King's Quest III
King's Quest IV
Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards
Mixed-Up Mother Goose
Manhunter 1: New York
Manhunter 2: San Francisco
Police Quest I: In Pursuit of the Death Angel
Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter
Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge
Fanmade Games
Mickey's Space Adventure
Troll's Tale
Winnie the Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood
Cruise for a Corpse
Discworld
Flight of the Amazon Queen
The Legend of Kyrandia
The Legend of Kyrandia: Book Two: Hand of Fate
The Legend of Kyrandia: Book Three: Malcolm's Revenge

ScummVM AGA (http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=56815)

:agree

[DeafDaz]

I have downloaded the AHI, Now I am looking at the scummvm website I can see a windows installer, and an AmigaOS4 version. Although I do not have OS4, Would that be ok to use in OS3.9?

[TheCyberDruid]

Have a look here : http://aminet.net/search?query=ScummVM (the last ones with version 1.2.1) :)

[DeafDaz]

Thank you Cyber:great This should be interesting as it had been a long time since I last used AmigaDOS. Mite take me a while to get things going. :) No time like the present to experiment.