Mac titles for CD32 via Shapeshifter?

[thairacerjp]

Hi ! i have sent email to the author of shapeshifter but on in his website it's not clear, I sent to christianbauer@cebit.net but is it ok ? did he answer you ?
cause I don't understand why some images iso/toast/img
working and other not ..... with basilisk all image working but I like shapeshifter, really stable .

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by DamienD

Here are some timings:

AddBuffer 10000 = 43 seconds until "Loading Warcraft Macintosh..." appears.

AddBuffers 1000 = 48 seconds until "Loading Warcraft Macintosh..." appears.

I did find however that with a value of 10000 the video on the "Objective" screens when it shows the land was smoother and showed more frames before going to the "Loading xxx screens".

If I use a value of 3000 though it's almost identical to using 10000.

So; I think for "Warcraft: Orcs & Humans" I'll set "AddBuffers 3000". For all the rest of the MAC games I'll set "AddBuffers 1000".

More work for me

Bah, to make it universal, I think I'm going to just set "AddBuffers 5000" to all my MAC games

It gives the exact same loading times / performance as with a value of "10000", and yet uses less memory

[wairnair]

Originally Posted by DamienD

You must have quoted my old post; "50" is too low for these MAC games and really made no difference

Erm, I have no idea where I got 50 from.

[wairnair]

Originally Posted by DamienD

Bah, to make it universal, I think I'm going to just set "AddBuffers 5000" to all my MAC games

It gives the exact same loading times / performance as with a value of "10000", and yet uses less memory

I'll experiment with addbuffers for cd's. Seems like 10000 is overkill for iso's and even counter-productive. (even the game chooser menu takes ages to load)

Btw I'm still in iso9660 hell. Ok I'm exaggerating but I just can't figure out what the difference is between my vhd image and the CD32 bootable iso. And why.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by wairnair

interesting bit: with the extra scsi options POP2 always starts with the intro, has a cutscene when leaving the first episode and always does the crappy sound+slow motion in the beginning.
but after a few minutes it just "wakes up" and goes on normal.

I somehow skimmed over this part of the post as was concentrating on other things at the time...

What "extra scsi options"?

You're saying you can now see the cutscene after finishing level 1 and before level 2 starts?

Looks like I'll need your updated Prefs file

[wairnair]

Originally Posted by DamienD

I somehow skimmed over this part of the post as was concentrating on other things at the time...

What "extra scsi options"?

You're saying you can now see the cutscene after finishing level 1 and before level 2 starts?

Looks like I'll need your updated Prefs file

Yeah POP2 seems to work consistently (but still not so well) with the SCSI settings.

It's attached somewhere if you read back a bit
BUT I think you're already using it if I remember your Warcraft image correctly

to be sure just run ShapeShifter from Workbench and check the two flags on the SCSI page:

- "Apple hard disk emulation" and
- "Summer mode"

You can run it even from your compilation if you comment out ShapeShifter in startup-sequence so that the script stops.
Then type LoadWB, endcli.

The ShapeShifter GUI can only use 1 prefs file and that is "ShapeShifter Prefs" in its main directory.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by wairnair

Yeah POP2 seems to work consistently (but still not so well) with the SCSI settings.

It's attached somewhere if you read back a bit
BUT I think you're already using it if I remember your Warcraft image correctly

to be sure just run ShapeShifter from Workbench and check the two flags on the SCSI page:

- "Apple hard disk emulation" and
- "Summer mode"

You can run it even from your compilation if you comment out ShapeShifter in startup-sequence so that the script stops.
Then type LoadWB, endcli.

The ShapeShifter GUI can only use 1 prefs file and that is "ShapeShifter Prefs" in its main directory.

Nope, this "ShapeShifter Prefs" file I'm only using in my "Warcraft: Orcs & Humans" .HDF.

Also, do I need to use the "StarterdiskQT.hfv" file or can I use the smaller "Starterdisk.hfv" file with POP2?

Tonight I'll play around when home from work

[wairnair]

Originally Posted by DamienD

Nope, this "ShapeShifter Prefs" file I'm only using in my "Warcraft: Orcs & Humans" .HDF.

Yeah, that's what I was referring to:

"BUT I think you're already using it if I remember your Warcraft image correctly"

Originally Posted by DamienD

Also, do I need to use the "StarterdiskQT.hfv" file or can I use the smaller "Starterdisk.hfv" file with POP2?

You can use the smaller Starterdisk.hfv.

[DamienD]

Cool, will try this out tonight. Thanks again

[Retro1234]

Did you sort your ISO out ?
Does it work if you start from the ShapeShifter Gui and not Quick?

Can you upload?

Interesting about the SCSI mode.

[DamienD]

Was trying to find reference to what "Summer mode" is / does.

All I can find is this: ShapeShifter source code

2) The "Summer mode" in the ShapeShifter preferences (actually called "FastCrap mode" in the source code) refers to a workaround for a bug in the Fastlane Z3's z3scsi.device written by Ralph Schmidt who went by the nickname "Laire" which, in Tolkien's lore, is the Elvish word for summer. I had a heated email exchange with Ralph about this at the time, and I still believe that the z3scsi.device is violating the specs by returning wrong values in the scsi_Actual field.

[wairnair]

Originally Posted by DamienD

Was trying to find reference to what "Summer mode" is / does.

All I can find is this: ShapeShifter source code

wow, very interesting piece of information
so maybe apple harddisk emulation would suffice

I'll upload the iso and current vhd tonight
Thanks!

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by wairnair

interesting bit: with the extra scsi options POP2 always starts with the intro, has a cutscene when leaving the first episode and always does the crappy sound+slow motion in the beginning.
but after a few minutes it just "wakes up" and goes on normal.

Ok, so for "Prince of Persia 2" I've tried setting the following:





Unfortunately the above makes zero difference for me when it comes to "seeing the cutscene after finishing level 1 and before level 2 starts"... it always gets skipped

[wairnair]

Here's the .vhd and the .iso produced from it. (Rebel Assault is missing to conserve space)

https://mega.nz/#!99RlRAIQ!GbmzKICyr...HJ402V12v431gw

As for POP2... I was going to recommend turning off scsi devices 2-6 (silly I know) but I gave POP2 a go before that..

And guess what it stayed on the "ship screen" just like before and eventually died with a black screen.

I guess it was just pure luck.

[DamienD]

I've never seen the cutscene between level 1 / 2 no matter how many times I've played the game

If you think turning of SCSI 2 - 6 helps then I will do this.

[DamienD]

Update to all my MAC games .HDFs; as mentioned in my collection thread:

Originally Posted by DamienD

Famous last word

Tonight I have totally revamped all MAC game .HDFs

...no longer are they "hacks" of wairnair's original "Prince of Persia 1 / 2" image.

These are the details of what I've undertaken (besides anything previously mentioned):

• All games now have "Apple hard drive disk emulation" set.
• "Prince of Persia 2" and "Warcraft - Orcs & Humans" now have "Summer mode" set.
• All games have been set up via "ShapeShifter" with the correct OS "Starterdisk.hfv" file and the "<gamename>.hfv"; instead of being renamed / hacked to work.
• All games are no longer copied / run from RAM. This means that you can use natives "Saves" from within MAC emulation (except for "Warcraft - Orcs & Humans" as "The computer may not have been shutdown properly" message annoyed me).
• The "Warcraft II - Tides of Darkness" preferences file has been slightly modified to slow down "Mouse Scroll" and "Key Scroll" as they were too high.
• "SaveStates" after protection were re-created for "Prince of Persia" and "Prince of Persia 2"; as that's what needed when you change the base .HDFs.

Anyway, that should really be it... I don't think I can get these any more perfect

So, just downloaded / extract the following into "C:\WinUAE"

[wairnair]

Originally Posted by DamienD

I've never seen the cutscene between level 1 / 2 no matter how many times I've played the game

If you think turning of SCSI 2 - 6 helps then I will do this.

I have no idea what exactly makes it work, but:









Here's the ShapeShifter Prefs file that I played with. Also attached is a save state and my winuae config if you want to try to reproduce - nothing unusual though.
It seems to do the cutscene when it's really choppy like 1 fps in the beginning and also choppy after you die and respawn.

edit: if I load back the save state it crashes to workbench after jumping onto the ship
edit 2: I had scsi devices 2 to 6 disabled (not sure if it matters)

[wairnair]

Originally Posted by Retro1234

Did you sort your ISO out ?
Can you upload?

Not sorted yet. I've uploaded the iso and the vhd to Mega, here

Originally Posted by Retro1234

Does it work if you start from the ShapeShifter Gui and not Quick?

Nope, it pops up the floppy with the blinking question mark both ways, GUI and QUICK.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by wairnair

I have no idea what exactly makes it work, but:

<snip>

Here's the ShapeShifter Prefs file that I played with. Also attached is a save state and my winuae config if you want to try to reproduce - nothing unusual though.
It seems to do the cutscene when it's really choppy like 1 fps in the beginning and also choppy after you die and respawn.

edit: if I load back the save state it crashes to workbench after jumping onto the ship
edit 2: I had scsi devices 2 to 6 disabled (not sure if it matters)

Damn, I've never seen those...

Thanks for the information and files; looks like I'll have to play around again tonight.

[DamienD]

So before rushing off to work this morning, I took a quick peek at your "ShapeShifter Prefs" file.

Besides unticking "SCSI 2 - 6", I noticed that you've also now ticked "Direct transfers".

I tested POP2 twice but skill kept skipping the cutscene between level 1 / 2

Another question, when you jump onto the boat the game just sits there. Pressing <Fire Button 1> or <Fire Button 2> does nothing. I usually have to do one of the following to progress:

• Press <Spacebar>.
• Move / click the <Left Mouse Button> on the "Menu Bar" --> "File".

How do you usually deal with this?