What is the best WinUAE gaming config for a Laptop today ?
 

Note: My Laptop will be now some 10 yrs old (WinXPSP3, Pentium M 2.13GHz) but it is still very capable for WinUAE emulation, of course with some compromises !

Before recently I was not paid much attention on Laptop gaming, mostly because of noticeable sound/input lag I found very disappointing compared to my real Amiga. But on recent WinUAE3400 betas this problem seems to be significantly reduced, so I started to experiment.

I was playing with the recent WinUAE3400b15 (A500 quick start config) and found the configuration w/o screen tearing and with (almost) insensibly small sound/input lag - enough for my gaming needs.

So let see how the config looks:
Quickstart A500 (most common) ... I started from there!

Display:
Screen = Fullscreen 800x600 16 (because the 16 color mode seem to work faster on my laptop, but for newer laptops is better 32 mode I guess)
Settings = Legacy VSync + Triple buffering (reduces/eliminates the screen tearing problem)
Line mode = Scanelines (looks very nice on my LCD after the brightness on PC is increased for one level and it seems to reduce screen ghosting a little)
Interliced line mode = Double, filelds+ (because it is like on a real Amiga)

Sound:
Sound Emulation = Enabled (and everything else on disabled)
Sound Buffer Size = Min (found this very important setting for min sound lag and it seems to eliminate the display lag on input)
Frequency = 22050 (this is a compromise, it reduces the CPU usage on my PC significantly)
Floppy Drive Sound Emulation = A500(WinUAE built-in) set on 27% (keeps amiga feeling while loading a floppy)

Game Ports:
Mouse and Joystick setting
- Port 1 = HID-konforme Maus (gives a smaller lag on my PC than Windows mouse)
- Port 2 = Keyboard Layout B (it uses R_Alt as fire button and cursors keys for movement - for Pinball games needs to be disabled)

Filter:
Settings = none (less CPU usage on my laptop)
NOTE: If Graphics API is set to Direct3D be sure that Horiz Size and Vert size is set to 1x !

Miscellaneous:
Show GUI on startup = Disabled
Native on-screen display = Enabled
Graphisc API = DirectDraw (as default, faster on old laptop) or Direct3D (maybe beter for new laptops)

Pri.& Extensions:
When Active = Above Normal (it could help in some situations when high CPU usage)



So, that would be mostly all settings I changed in previously loaded Quickstart A500 config!

It works pretty nice on my (old) laptop in most games I tested!
Keep in mind that the most important is to keep the Sound Buffer Size on Min setting - the BLUE BOX on the screen bottom must show the value "0" all the time... if not, try to reduce the Frequency to lower value or set the sound emulation on Disabled, but emulated, but not change/touch the Buffer Size !!!
If you cannot live without sound, than better disable the Cycle-exact emulation, it is not needed for most games anyway and will reduce the CPU usage significantly.


p.s. What games have been tested this the new configuration:

Agony
Apidya
Hard Drivin' II
Hybris
Jim Power
No Second Prize
Pinball Dreams
Super Hang On

Only problematic found the Jim Power at title screen (i.e. Sound Buffer not always on "0") but if Collision-level is set to None or Cycle-exact is disabled it works fine. Most of above games uses some 50% CPU time of my old Laptop in game play, and with the cycle-exact disabled usage is even lower - good to keep old laptop cool and less noisy.

NOTE: Below configurations work fine on recent WinUAE3400b15 ! (on 3.x.0 or older WinUAE versions might not work as expected)

Since you like scanlines like myself, I've give a little tip ;)

... Under "Display" set "Line mode" = "Double" instead of "Scanlines".
... Under "Filter" then "Extra Settings", click the drop-down menu and select "Scanline opacity".
... Here I set as "50" (which is perfect IMHO; half the darkness of setting Scanlines via the "Display" section).

I'd go for an a500 setup, with legacy vsync for pal 50hz. What you wrote suffices already in that respect. as mentioned above, go for double instead of scanlines and use filtering instead.

Thanks, I will try this also but afraid how will influence on PC CPU usage. (my old laptop needs all available CPU time for smooth emu)

EDIT: Yeah, it looks much better than with scanelines! (pity that it works only on D3D API which is slower on my PC than DirectDraw)
(maybe I could use it with Cycle-exact disabled sometimes)

EDIT2: I have a tip also! ;)
Instead of "Double" line mode I tried with the "Simple" line mode + Vert.size 2x in Filters + "Scaneline opacity 50" = 2% better in performance !!!
(or 2% less in WinUAE CPU usage)

EDIT3: Game ports / Mouse extra settings / Mouse speed = 25 (instead of default 100) and the Hybris will then work/play fine with a mouse !
(p.s. My mouse sensor sensitivity is 1,000 dpi !)

EDIT4: Sound Interpolation changed to "Sinc" ! (sounds much better but increase CPU usage for 1% more)

"Today" and 10 years old PC with Windows XP? Does not compute :)

Maybe not, but the point is that it still could work acceptably well (with some compromises) even on a 10 yrs old laptop. :) (with proper configuring)

EDIT:
This thread is open mainly because of my enthusiasm with the new WinUAE3400b15 version, and therefore the same applies to the new version !
I just tested it with the game Pinball Dreams and now it runs very very close to a real Amiga 500, compared to older versions of WinUAE !
I think it is primarily the merit of the new "Min" Sound Buffer option with which is substantially reduced the feeling that something is not in sync.

p.s.
So I'm really very pleased that my 10 yrs old laptop is still able to run games with so demanding option such as Min sound buffer without many problems !


EDIT: So, two corrected and optimized A500 & A1200 configs with max accuracy ! (D3D & DDraw)
The final optimization is in the sound buffer on "2" instead on "Min" that lower the CPU usage a lot with barely noticeable lag in the sound.
This works fine on my 10 yrs old laptop even on the Jim Power title screen no matter of Graphics API D3D or DDraw! :)

Although I am delighted with the option Min sound buffer in new versions of WinUAE, with more testing I found that the sound buffer till the option 2 also still fit for the gaming. Inceasing the buffer more really does not make sense, nor brings any benefits. When viewing a demo it is not as obvious as in the gameplay, so if you are playing games on WinUAE be sure to check that the sound buffer is not greater than 2. ;)

"Min" is mainly designed for very low latency WASAPI mode audio (which is Vista or later only).

Well, it also works fine on DSound WinXPSP3 ! (at least on my PC)

If I have more powerful PC I would keep it on "Min" all the time when gaming.. the buffer on 2 is acceptable compromise to keep the laptop less noisy and cooler, but it's almost like a real Amiga when its on Min sound buffer. (the difference between "Min" and "2" is very noticeable)

ps.
With the sound buffer on "Min" the "buffer counter" is always on "00" in blue box when running on full screen, which means perfect sync.

(This all said above probably sound euphoric, but I didn't touch gaming on Amiga for very long time.. only demos!)

Sorry if a bit off-topic, I have read http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=...&postcount=335, but I am unsure if the "Min" sound setting works only in WASAPI shared or in WASAPI-EX too. This is not a bug report, but when I set the sound buffer to "Min" and enable WASAPI-EX the sound clicks and pops, but with WASAPI shared it sounds perfectly.

EDIT: Toni, can you explain for which WASAPI mode it is functioning?

It works as designed. Min means really small buffer, usually smaller than old 1 selected. It does not guarantee your system can actually handle it, especially with 1607+ Windows 10 with driver that has very low latency support.

Thank you Toni.