PPC-Warp3D games speed boost - fullscreen in window-mode!
 

As some of you already may know PPC-Warp3D games such as Heretic 2, Quake 2 and Wipeout 2097 run faster in a "window" than on "fullscreen" mode. But there are annoyances:

- just try playing Quake 2 in a window - the mouse pointer is always visible and so, distracting
- if the pointer happens to point to the window title or outside the window and you press left mouse button, in-game focus is lost.
- PPC-Warp3D games are nice and fast in a window but you'd want the game to be EVEN faster (yes!) and fill the whole screen at the same time.

Not to worry, for now we have some kind of solution for this :) ! (at least it works for me)

This package assumes you want to use a 16bit 640x480 resolution (or 800x600) to play the mentioned games in window-mode and is tested with a PPC/Mediator equipped Amiga with Voodoo 3 and with OS 3.9 without any GUI decorations like Afa_OS/VisualPrefs. You have to test yourself to see if this works on your system! It could also work with G-Rex/BVision. But here we go...

There are predefined scripts included for Freespace, Heretic 2, Quake (BlitzQuake/GLQuakeWOS), Quake 2 and Wipeout 2097.

After you have downloaded the archive below, proceed to...

INSTALLATION:
1. set Freespace/Heretic 2/Quake 2 to run in 640x480 window-mode
2. in Wipeout 2097 a 640x480 mode should also be set together with "window" mode set
3. copy contents as per directory (C,LIBS,PREFS) structure to your SYS: partition and "_game-icons&scripts" contents as per game dir (EXCEPT for "_optional" - it's optional :))
4. Create the desired screenmodes yourself with Screenmode-prefs like this (You can do this with the 800x600 modes now or later on):
- switch to 640x480 8bit screenmode and save the screenmode-setting as "ENVARC:Sys/ScreenMode640x480-8bit.prefs"
- switch to 640x480 16bit screenmode and save the screenmode-setting as "ENVARC:Sys/ScreenMode640x480.prefs"
5. reboot

FIRST TEST:
1. "leave-out" any game icon to Workbench
2. Close all open drawers any programs that prevent intuition changing screenmode
3. Launch a game-script and go!

You should find that games run faster in window-mode but without stupid borders and irritating mouse pointer (from WB) anywhere - and fills the screen just like fullscreen mode (except Wipeout 2097 that leaves a small area on the bottom + visible pointer). Try with Quake - write "timedemo demo1" in console and compare result to a normal "screen" -mode timedemo! :)

One downside to this is that you must reboot after your gaming session because intuition won't change screemode anymore (ForceBorder "bug"?). A price one has to pay unfortunately.

Please, try this and tell if it works for you and if so, enjoy your boosted PPC-Warp3D experience :great

UPDATES:
2.11.2013 - not restricted to Mediator+Voodoo anymore - changed the screenmode-switching so that a 8bit-mode is switched first then a 16-bit mode & included empty "wbpattern.prefs" file and inserted into game-scripts (saves graphics memory and maybe speeds up game)
6.2.2013 - package and thread update (refer to "ReadMe.txt")
18.01.2013 - screenmodes are advised to create by user itself, because the "screenmode.prefs" info differs 99% for every user. Also tidied up this 1st post because it was originally written kinda badly ;)
28.12.2012 - slight script change for Quake and speed improvement tips! :)

PS. some videos with "FullWin" in action @640x480:
Freespace
Heretic II timedemo
Quake timedemo "demo1"
Quake timedemo "demo2"
Quake II timedemo
Wipeout 2097

Btw. how can I run a timedemo in Heretic 2? I'd like to make some benchmarks here :). Maybe need to tweak the script for "forceborder" to make Wipeout 2097 really full-screen, need to adjust the 'BOTTOM' commandline option to some minus value perhaps...

What is the technical reason that the games run faster in window-mode? Or is it just me?

Funny that I can't change the screenmode in Workbench after playing these games in window-mode. It just nags there is some screen open when there isn't :confused

Tried different values for forceborder but didn't manage to get Wipeout 2097 bottom border off. Well that doesn't really matter the game is almost fullscreen anyway. Anyone know if Shogo can be forced to run in window-mode?

I will improve the script to make the games run with a double-click instead of "hunting down" the icons. Maybe WBRun/WBLaunch will do the trick.

OK I updated some things :)

"FullWin.lha" package edited (scripts removed & added) and is now attached to the first post. Added WBLaunch (uses wbstart.library - included) and included pre-defined scripts to launch
Freespace, Heretic 2 and Quake 2 in fullscreen window-mode (Wipeout 2097 script also included, but leaves that little border on bottom).

Scripts work like this:
1. remove window borders
2. change the screenmode to 640x480 (to activate border-hack. without change it won't work. the screenmode changes 1-2 times, depending if you have the screenmode set already in your WB. just in case)
3. make pointer invisible
4. launch game :)

Simple.

Just configure the games first to use the window-mode, then copy each script to the right gamedir. Study the scripts please and edit if needed -> Launch and enjoy! :great

Don't know how you are running things,but all PPC games run standard 800x600 on my set-up and has done for many years now and its more than fast enough.

Im still making progress and PPC games are now starting to show some very good performance with little or no difference when chosing 800x600 or 1024x768.

There are still a few games that slows down on 1024x768 and hopefully I will find a fix and will become standard on Blizzard/Bvision combo. Almost there.

slight update: edited forceborder tooltype to 'TOP=-9' to hide that window depth gadget if you accidentally press it. Also included NOTES.TXT for little help.
Yes the game's window depth gadget is still there even if you cannot see it. I don't know how to remove a window's depth gadget. When you accidentally press it all open Workbench drawers pop up in the front. A workaround for this is that you close ALL open drawers after you've clicked the icon (be quick!) or better just "leave-out" the script-icon. Haven't found a proggy that could automatically close all open drawers.

@delshay
Well good for you :). I don't know how this affects other users game-speed but for me it makes a positive difference on in-game FPS-rate. Perhaps BVision isn't affected but have you tested this? Anyway this is all good fun tinkering the Amiga-way for me and I could play these damn games xxx times faster on my PC but that's not the point here :).

I'd like to hear users results for performance so fire up eg. Quake 2 and write in the console:

"timedemo 1"
and after that
"demomap demo1.dm2"

With the Quake2-amigaguide I did some speed tweaks and this gives a result of 21.5 fps for me.

Last test I did with Bvision all tested with screenmode 1024x 768.

Wipeout: smooth,very high frame rate.
Freespace: smooth,very high frame rate only slowed down when it access speech (all details set to max) 128Mb. 256Mb to be tested.
Heretic 2: ok needs to improve
Quake 2: ok needs to improve

Remember this "trick" is tested only with Mediator+Voodoo3 combination, dunno if it makes difference in BVision.

So did you test them in window-mode? Can you run the Quake 2 timedemo in both "screen" and "window-mode" and write results here please?

C'mon delshay don't do this hit-n-run thing now ;), come up with some benchmarks for "window" and "screen" modes. I'm interested to see those! :cool

No benchmark results from anyone? :nervous

Just found out how to benchmark Heretic 2 (surprised nobody mentioned this before...):
downloaded standard.hd2 from Alinea Computers page, created 'demos' drawer inside H2/base -drawer and copied standard.hd2 there, loaded up H2, put in settings
"Effects Detail 2 (one tick to the right), paletted textures = yes", entered console and wrote:

"timedemo 1
demomap standard"

test results:

screen res: 640x480
display: screen 13.2 fps
display: window 15 fps

Yeah I know, thanks. And as you can see, no A1200 in that test surpasses the benchmark that's done here in fullscreen-window mode :)

Quake results (with BlitzQuakeWOS/GLQuakeWOS_blitz)

"timedemo demo1"

screen res: 640x480
display: screen 26.3 fps
display: window 32.5 fps

Maybe those AmigaSpeed-pages aren't so up-to-date :D

"FullWin.lha" package UPDATED! (scripts added & modified) :-)
Please read "ReadMe.txt" inside FullWin-archive or as attachment in the first post for more info.

latest minor changes:
* in Wipeout 2097 script the pointer is now visible by default
* moved game-scripts from "S:" to "_game-scripts" to avoid confusion :)

By setting "stack 8192000" in Quake-script you gain some little speed improvement over "stack 4096000".

Also it seems that the framerate is slower when eg. game is played in 640x480 when WB is set to 1024x768 THAN to first change WB-screenmode to be the same as the game will have.

quick Quake 2 test (timedemo 1, demomap demo1.dm2):

WB 1024x768 - game 640x480 (window, without FullWin) - 19.6fps
WB 640x480 - game 640x480 (window, with FullWin) - 21.0fps

strange...but positive :)

PS. if you wonder the faster 21.5fps I posted before that's because I changed glmaxparticles from 128 to 256 (looks nicer)...

Some little changes again:

* replaced 'Voodoo.info' - changed some tooltypes based on my own speed results
* added Picasso96-environment variables based on my own speed results (backup originals just in case)
* fixed: Quake didn't have 4096000 as default stack
* added "stack 8192000" as an option in the script for Quake & Wipeout 2097 (seems to increase speed a little in Quake, Wipeout 2097 unconfirmed)
- can't really test if this has an impact on Wipeout 2097 but if you have enough mem then no problem :)

Quake running with "FullWin"
just for kicks...

Great !!! i will try these scripts later also .. !!