Add-on card emulation

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by Heiroglyph

Toni, if you want a Toaster 4000, I'll send you one. Maybe even a Flyer if I have one left.

If so, PM me your address.

I've probably got an original Toaster as well if you have an a2000 to put it in.

Sounds expensive to ship from US, and there is also possible customs tax issue, I'll think about it first

[Heiroglyph]

Tax even if I'm just sending you a gift?

I wasn't asking for payment just more of a gift/donation for all the good I've gotten from your work.

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by Heiroglyph

Tax even if I'm just sending you a gift?

No, unfortunately it isn't that simple. I'll send PM tomorrow.

[Heiroglyph]

It's completely up to you.

If it's not useful I'll hang onto them, but no point in paying for cards if you'll need them eventually.

[emufan]

Originally Posted by Heiroglyph

It's completely up to you.

If it's not useful I'll hang onto them, but no point in paying for cards if you'll need them eventually.

thanks for your offer and i hope there will be a way to transfer the card

[emufan]

Harlequin card does also work - within the limits.
A test program is running, recognizes the card - a special TVPaint version (included on installer disk image) - starts, but sits on startup-screen (TVLogo).
Images 2-4 made using cli tool htest4 (on install disk)

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by emufan

Harlequin card does also work - within the limits.
A test program is running, recognizes the card - a special TVPaint version (included on installer disk image) - starts, but sits on startup-screen (TVLogo).
Images 2-4 made using cli tool htest4 (on install disk)

This looks like it is simple framebuffer device only, should be easy to emulate, especially with software's test mode.

[mark_k]

It is a simple framebuffer, except bank-switched into a 64KB region. (So you can have multiple cards plus 8MB Zorro II RAM for example.)

I have disassemblies of htest4 and harlequin.library which could be of some help...

[emufan]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

This looks like it is simple framebuffer device only, should be easy to emulate, especially with software's test mode.

@ toni & mark_k

[mark_k]

emufan: If you're using the fake Z2 RAM board trick with the Harlequin software, set its size to 128KB (not 64KB) to avoid problems if you have another Z2 board configured after the fake one.

[emufan]

thanks for the info. i'll keep that in mind.
at the moment, i have made a single config file for each card.

[Toni Wilen]

winuae.7z now has basic Harlequin emulation (PAL, 2M). Not very user friendly because you can't see both native and RTG screen at the same time. END+F9 switches.

[emufan]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

winuae.7z now has basic Harlequin emulation (PAL, 2M). Not very user friendly because you can't see both native and RTG screen at the same time. END+F9 switches.

cool. it does work, just started the TVPaint version, now opening a requester,
accepting it you have to switch to the 2nd screen (end+f9).
here it looks a bit ugly.
the same ugly color mix you can see, if you use the HUSER tool, there are some
graphic test (lines colorbars).
good work, thanks.

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by emufan

cool. it does work, just started the TVPaint version, now opening a requester,
accepting it you have to switch to the 2nd screen (end+f9).
here it looks a bit ugly.
the same ugly color mix you can see, if you use the HUSER tool, there are some
graphic test (lines colorbars).
good work, thanks.

HUSER does not look like that here (But I think I know why it did happen). It is also bad test anyway, no one knows how it should look..

It may be fixed now.

EDIT: memory size, RGB on/off bits, second buffer and PAL/NTSC model selection will be added later. (and perhaps Plus version too)

EDIT2: PAL/NTSC (and Plus variants but RAMDAC features not yet implemented), R/G/B on/off bits, second buffer and VRAM size added. Note that RTG panel VRAM size is currently ignored, VRAM and model settings are in Expansion panel. Not very intuitive but it is the only sane (just add type ID and setting strings, everything else is fully automagic, including config handling) way to add options to any kind of expansion.

[Toni Wilen]

Simple framebuffer framework is now mostly done: framebuffer expansion boards can be now supported "easily".

Remember usual requirement: software must exist!

Note that this will use simple brute-force display rendering, whole frame buffer is copied to output buffer every frame if even single pixel has changed in frame buffer. More optional mode is not worth the trouble for these kinds of non-RTG boards that no one use for anything productive.

[emufan]

i still cannot make the TVPaint version look better.
this is just a demo, cannot load or save an image, to test a known good picture.
other tvpaint version do not support this card. they seem to made special version for each board :/
what you can see on the "AB" image image - it is horizontally streched, I have to make the emulator window bigger, to see the rest of the screen (De --> resize window-> Dem)

[Toni Wilen]

That installer sucks. Crashed immediately. Add more ram, it does not crash. "insert volume work:". Right. So lets add assign. Try again, some other error. Argh.

-> ready installed software needed.. Old installers just suck, I don't have patience to try to guess are undocumented dependencies.

[emufan]

i'm just using the harlequin.dms. i did the install manualy:
Copy Harlequin:libs/harlequin.library Libs:
Copy Harlequin:libs/harlequin_Cardless.library Libs:
Copy Harlequin:devs/harlequin.device Devs:

and extract Harlequin.dms:TV/TVPAINT.lzh anywhere
plus Harlequin.dms:TV/libs/req.library to libs:

i converted some images to tga and used the slide32 tool on the harlequin.dms:
on the cli: slide32 slide-script

image1.tga   0  0  0
;load the image1 and cut
pause 3
image2.tga   10 0  0
;dissolve effect step 2
pause 3
image3.tga 10 0  0
pause 4

these are those red/white amiga spheres - result is the image attached

[Toni Wilen]

What about now? (need those images "pre-processed" if it still does not work...)

[emufan]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

What about now? (need those images "pre-processed" if it still does not work...)

not really, there is another display tool ( better than slide32) --> harlequin.dms/TV/TVDisplay.H ( workbench tool) - thought it was just a header file ...
this can load iff 24 bit images, result, once displayed when choosing "color" ( i think amiga screen mode). second is the output when choosing "harlequin"