PPC-Warp3D games speedup - fullscreen in window-mode!

[Bamiga2002]

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 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
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 non-PC screenmode and save the screenmode-setting as "ENVARC:Sys/ScreenMode640x480-nonPC.prefs"
- switch to 640x480 PC screenmode and save the screenmode-setting as "ENVARC:Sys/ScreenMode640x480-PC.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

UPDATES:
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

[Bamiga2002]

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

[Bamiga2002]

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.

[Bamiga2002]

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!

[delshay]

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.

[Bamiga2002]

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.

[delshay]

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

[Bamiga2002]

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?

[Bamiga2002]

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!

[Bamiga2002]

No benchmark results from anyone?

[Bamiga2002]

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

[zipper]

http://www.amigaspeed.de.vu/

[Bamiga2002]

Originally Posted by zipper

http://www.amigaspeed.de.vu/

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

[Bamiga2002]

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

[Bamiga2002]

"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

[Bamiga2002]

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

[Bamiga2002]

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)...

[Bamiga2002]

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

[Bamiga2002]

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

[kriz]

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

[delshay]

Thats impressive speed I never tested 640x480. I always used GLQUAKEWOS @800x600 as standard and its very smooth but I don't think my frame rate is that high.

I think I will now do a test.

[Bamiga2002]

I'll include Quake 800x600 and take vids of other games also.

Delshay I'm interested to see your results

[lesta_smsc]

Originally Posted by Bamiga2002

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

The speed of the game appears a lot quicker than the PC version - is this due to frameskips? You said its around 32 fps - surprised it plays well despite that!

[Bamiga2002]

Originally Posted by lesta_smsc

The speed of the game appears a lot quicker than the PC version - is this due to frameskips? You said its around 32 fps - surprised it plays well despite that!

I didn't SAY anything, in the video it clearly shows 32.8 FPS heh
Which PC-version are you referring to? Quake is surely many times faster on a PC. I have no frameskip option specified so it don't skip any frames here IMO. It's just fast because of the "timedemo" option if that was what you meant.

delshay/kriz, any results yet? Do the screenmode-prefs files work out-of-the-box or did you need to create your own?

[delshay]

It will be a few days before I can do a test. It will be done on the card below.

http://www.amiga.org/gallery/index.php?n=3692

[Bamiga2002]

That's one beast of a card! Expecting monster speed

[matthey]

Originally Posted by Bamiga2002

Quake results (with BlitzQuakeWOS/GLQuakeWOS_blitz)

"timedemo demo1"

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

I get 24.6 fps in a screen at 640x480x16 with BlitzQuake/GLQuake on a 68060@75MHz with 1/4 the clock speed, 1/2 the cache size, 1/2 the memory bandwidth (32 bit instead of 64 bit) and 1/2 the memory used. The AIM alliance will rule the future with PowerPC, or Apple will abandon it, buy P.A. Semi to kill their PowerPC and move to x86 and ARM, IBM will make unaffordable high end PowerPC processors for servers and Motorola will spin off Freescale which will make 5 year old PowerPC designs and license ARM to make state of the art processors that do more with less (like the 68060 above) .

Does the PowerPC auto extend it's stack (AmigaOS 68k does not)? Unless it extends the stack during the game, setting the stack size higher should not make a difference in game speed on the PowerPC.

The Warp3D QueueSize makes a big difference in Warp3D programs that use indirect mode and no difference on programs that use direct mode. You can try setting the variable ENVARC:Warp3D/QueueSize higher. I use 7000000 on the 68k. This memory for the queue will not be allocated if not used (direct mode). I hear Quake 2 68k uses indirect mode so likely the PPC version does also. SDL, MiniGL and StormMesa programs usually used indirect mode with the 68k even though it is officially antiquated.

[Bamiga2002]

@matthey:
I think the stack must be set manually for GLQUake WOS version but I'm not sure. Tested with your "QueueSize" value and it didn't give me any higher result, I have that value in 32768.

I also did speed tests with BlitzQuake 68k. First I ran it with the default script (512x384):
"stack 600000
glquake68k_blitz +map dummy -guardband -particles 64 -hicontrast -gamma 0.7 -bpp 16 -width 512 -height 384 -mem 16 -zone 1024 -audspeed 5513 -bpp 16 -nojoy -nocdaudio -nopsx"

result: 12.8 FPS

then I used the FullWin-script (640x480):
"stack 16384000
glquake68k_blitz +map dummy -particles 256 -hicontrast -gamma 0.7 -bpp 16 -windowmode -width 640 -mem 64 -nocdaudio -zone 1024 -audspeed 8000 -nojoy -nopsx -litfiles -lm_RGB"

result: 13.8 FPS

So a slightly higher resolution still gave 1 FPS more! But the graphics we're all messed up somehow but still the timedemo ran to the end. You have a steadily faster 68k there but still I don't get how you got that high performance result...did you use a tuned up script - maybe post it here?

All righty! As promised here are some new videos I made (with FullWin ofcourse):

GLQuake (800x600)

FPS was surprisingly low compared to 640x480 so I keep playing with that res...

Quake II (640x480)

earlier result was 21 FPS, it seems to vary a little.

Wipeout 2097 (640x480)

Enjoy

[matthey]

Originally Posted by Bamiga2002

@matthey:
I think the stack must be set manually for GLQUake WOS version but I'm not sure. Tested with your "QueueSize" value and it didn't give me any higher result, I have that value in 32768.

It was worth a try. You PPC guys may have newer versions of some of the Warp3D programs that use direct mode rendering now. The newest version of Warp3D may not even work with indirect mode anymore. There are other W3D ENV: variables that could make a big difference in speed. Have you tried any others?

Originally Posted by Bamiga2002

...
result: 13.8 FPS

So a slightly higher resolution still gave 1 FPS more! But the graphics we're all messed up somehow but still the timedemo ran to the end. You have a steadily faster 68k there but still I don't get how you got that high performance result...did you use a tuned up script - maybe post it here?

It's a 3000T with CSMK3 68060@75MHz + 50ns SIMMS, Mediator 3000T/4000T and Voodoo 4. I believe my GLQuake settings are default.
I have tweak the W3D libs:

http://www.heywheel.com/matthey/Amiga/Warp3D.lha

Quake 1 slows down a little when loading textures the first time but otherwise feels full speed. This is probably the slow gfx bus of the Mediator unfortunately. There is plenty more tweaking of the W3D libs possible. The original 68k W3D lib's code optimization is very poor.

[Bamiga2002]

Thanks! I'll try these libs. They are 68k only, right?
With your results the speed is really not very far away from PPC and that's cool

What other ENV-settings for Warp3D should I try? There aren't many other I know of (forbid/keeplock)...

[matthey]

Originally Posted by Bamiga2002

Thanks! I'll try these libs. They are 68k only, right?

Yes. They are the 68k versions of W3D v4.

Originally Posted by Bamiga2002

With your results the speed is really not very far away from PPC and that's cool

Some of the speedup is the libs above and some is the overclocking. My CSMK3 not only has 50% faster CPU but also 50% faster memory than a stock 68060@50MHz.

Originally Posted by Bamiga2002

What other ENV-settings for Warp3D should I try? There aren't many other I know of (forbid/keeplock)...

These are the interesting ones

Permedia2 driver:

Warp3D/Permedia2/Dither (boolean) Default=0
Warp3D/Permedia2/FColor ?
Warp3D/Permedia2/Fog (string?) Default="linear"? (exp and exp2 or exp_2)?

Karlos would probably know what these env: variables do. Dither is obvious and documented. Turning on may cause a slow down but increase quality. The other env: settings I see from peeking in the libraries. I have no clue what FColor does. Fog can probably be linear, exp or exp_2. Linear fogging is the best quality but slowest and exp is the fastest but lowest quality.

Avenger driver:

Warp3D/Avenger/AntiAlias (boolean) Default=0? (I have enabled)
Warp3D/Avenger/Dither (boolean) Default=1?
Warp3D/Avenger/DitherAlgo (string) Default="4x4"? (or "2x2" ordered)?

None of these are in my documentation. They are easy enough though. Dithering supposedly does not slow down rendering on the Avenger. Anti-aliasing may although it looks like it's off by default.

[Bamiga2002]

Hi matthey, I tried your libs but they only give me grey screen...are they supposed to work on my setup? Do I need to set MMU=YES on Mediator ENV?

I also tried the Avenger-ENVs by hand that aren't listed in any Prefs-program I tried (WOSPrefs/WarpOS in OS3.9). I think these proggys should be updated to include these missing ENV-variables. But who would do it?

I will test how these missing ENVs affect performance

[matthey]

Originally Posted by Bamiga2002

Hi matthey, I tried your libs but they only give me grey screen...are they supposed to work on my setup? Do I need to set MMU=YES on Mediator ENV?

Oh yea, you have a 1200 version of the Mediator. That's a little trickier but I know of at least one person that got the patched libs working on a 1200 Mediator (I might have to do some investigating). I believe he used MMU=YES to get it to work. Why aren't you running MMU=YES anyway? It might be better performance and the non-MMU version is a hack as I recall. There may be a jumper on the Mediator needed for MMU=NO as well as the software (including patched W3D libs) to support it. You can use the Warp3D.library by itself with the Mediator 1200 although the majority of the speedup (and work) is in the Avenger libs. Some parts are significantly faster like indirect mode (68k SDL, StormMesa and MiniGL) and auto mipmap creation but almost everything is faster to a lesser degree.

[Bamiga2002]

I may have found a solution for the graphics problem. I have MMU=NO because I remember that PPC-Warp3D games do not work if I set MMU=YES. It's been some time and I must test this again

and matthey can you try Quake again with the FullWin-boost, would be interesting to get some results =)

[Bamiga2002]

Yep MMU=YES results in not-working PPC-games here. But I got BlitzQuake 68k to work without graphic glitches by setting Mediator jumper WAIT (closed). But still didn't get your tweaked libraries working. Tried renaming, swapping Warp3D-librarys, playing with Mediator ENV-vars but no go. Medconfig reports these libs as A3000/A4000 libs by default. BlitzQuake gave me error #8000000B in startup.

[matthey]

Originally Posted by Bamiga2002

Yep MMU=YES results in not-working PPC-games here.

Hmm. I had some problems with MMU=YES at one time also. A Mediator upgrade and switching to the Mu 68060.library fixed the problem:

http://aminet.net/util/libs/MMULib.lha

The Mu 68060.library seems to be less buggy and a little faster but isn't easy to install. It's possible that you need the P5 68060.library for the PPC.

Originally Posted by Bamiga2002

But I got BlitzQuake 68k to work without graphic glitches by setting Mediator jumper WAIT (closed). But still didn't get your tweaked libraries working.

Not even the new Warp3D.library by itself?

Originally Posted by Bamiga2002

Tried renaming, swapping Warp3D-librarys, playing with Mediator ENV-vars but no go. Medconfig reports these libs as A3000/A4000 libs by default

The Avenger libraries are the 3000/4000 versions. The 1200 MMU versions of the Avenger libraries are very similar and may even be interchangeable. The non-MMU 1200 versions use tricks and hacks to control the caching and remap the large gfx card address space. The new Warp3D.library should work with any 68k Warp3D setup.

[Bamiga2002]

Originally Posted by matthey

Hmm. I had some problems with MMU=YES at one time also. A Mediator upgrade and switching to the Mu 68060.library fixed the problem:

http://aminet.net/util/libs/MMULib.lha

The Mu 68060.library seems to be less buggy and a little faster but isn't easy to install. It's possible that you need the P5 68060.library for the PPC.

Thanks I was about to install this some time ago but I RTFM and it doesn't seem a feasible option for a BPPC-card.

Originally Posted by matthey

Not even the new Warp3D.library by itself?

Nope, error #8000000B or #80000003 when starting Quake.

Originally Posted by matthey

The Avenger libraries are the 3000/4000 versions. The 1200 MMU versions of the Avenger libraries are very similar and may even be interchangeable. The non-MMU 1200 versions use tricks and hacks to control the caching and remap the large gfx card address space. The new Warp3D.library should work with any 68k Warp3D setup.

Can you dig some install-instructions for me to get this working? You mentioned someone got it working for an A1200.

[matthey]

Originally Posted by Bamiga2002

Can you dig some install-instructions for me to get this working? You mentioned someone got it working for an A1200.

I looked back at the old e-mails. It was Philippe Bovier (aka mrodfr) that had the new W3D libs working on a Blizzard 1260/50 and Mediator 1200. He used the Mu 68060.library and installation. W3D worked in both MMU and non MMU mode although MMU mode seemed to be more reliable. I don't know how he installed the libs. I believe Cosmos also has a working 1200 setup with the new libs. You would have to contact them for more info.

[Bamiga2002]

Thanks for infos

matthey how much FPS do you get if you run Quake in window-mode with FullWin?

[matthey]

Originally Posted by Bamiga2002

matthey how much FPS do you get if you run Quake in window-mode with FullWin?

Quake gave me 24.4 fps with your settings in window mode or not. Window mode only appears to be faster on the PPC. My fps results were slightly below my normal settings but your settings look a little better (because of your high gamma?). Your high -particles I believe cause the slowdown and I don't notice much difference (pixels flying everywhere don't look that good to me either). I changed to your gamma and now have these settings:

glquake68k_blitz +map dummy -guardband -particles 64 -hicontrast -gamma 0.7 -bpp 16 -width 640 -height 480 -mem 16 -zone 1024 -audspeed 5513 -nocdaudio -nopsx -lm_RGB

I get 24.7 fps with these settings. I may have a slight speedup because of the P96 "Experimental" variable with no noticeable detrimental effects so far. Thanks for that idea.