WinUAE tips & tricks

[NewDeli]

Hi,


I am preparing a appendix to the great Green Alien v3.1 Workbench install guide. Here are the three main areas of interest :

• AmigaOS CD installation over a v3.1 Workbench. I know some people are perfectly happy with simply a v3.1 Workbench at hand. As I was very curious to know the details of where had gone Amiga in the late 90s, Operating System wise, I got myself the CD from Haage & Partner and figured it out to install the famous v3.9 OS.
  
• Description of the (mostly p.d.) software I got from Aminet in order to run my self-made AmigaOS setup (libraries, antivirus and such). So, basically a longer list of requirements to run the OS smoothly.
  
• Video capture

I would understand if the maintainers of the Green Alien guide section would consider it as useful a chocolate ashtray, as the above mentioned guide is nothing short of perfect, and due to the fact that I could simply post what I call an appendix to some place and call it "the unofficial Alien Guide appendix".

However, those people who are reluctant to use AIAB or Amikit for some reason could be expecting a follow-up to the Guide, and could be willing to continue to install stuff by themselves from A to Z, so I still think it could fit 'here'. 'Here' being the section of EAB you decide or not to allocate to such a project.

Finally, I can risk myself to promise to have it finished by the end of the Year 2008, late October if I get some help.

[NewDeli]

Meanwhile, I'd be glad to share with you some WinUAE tips and tricks, in a "tip of the day" fashion, if that's OK with the Team :

• Make sure you know where you store your precious config files.
  WinUAE installer puts them in the user folder, so beware if you need to erase the system partition
  
• When it comes to choosing display modes, performance is optimal in full screen mode.
  If you have a fairly good computer, you may experiment with the new full-window mode, a mixed-mode between full screen and window mode : Amiga desktop "full screen window" can be put in the background (not minimized) via alt+tab, while your Windows taskbar and active programs are available in the foreground.
  
• Priorty above normal (when active) - I always leave this on.

[NewDeli]

I've been asked quite often how I could link my (relative) knowledge of WinUAE and the installation of Amiga system programs. Well, there's a chance the majority people following a Guide to install AmigaOS are doing it from a PC, via an emulator (WinUAE, E-UAE, Amithlon...). AmigaOS runs fast and is pretty stable when executed from within an emulated environment, with the optimal UAE settings.

Some veteran Amiga users deter WinUAE's massive GUI. Personally, I think it could be your best asset, if you pass the initial complexity. True, it requires some testing, but it has a linear learning curve, meaning the more you learn about it, the less you're likely to loose time on pointless settings.

Display tab options for example are really exemplary, as with Picasso96, they provide you with the ability to run your Workbench in any resolution and color mode your graphic adapter is capable of, going beyond the infamous PicassoMode which has inmho the most dreadful video support modes.


Of course people running real Amigas with hard drives and such are more than welcome to use the resource more specifically designed for people running emulators. Here is what I found out :

Believe it or not, Amiga machines are still sold today (I am not talking about Commodore attempt to penetrate the PC market). Not so much Classic Amigas (A500 s & A1200s) but Amiga PCs based on exotic hardware (Pegasos, Efika...) which gives the ability to run Amiga Games (old -68k's and not so old -Power PC's...) and Applications almost natively and furthermore, but also taking advantage of the 'newest' 3D games, like those developed for the Power PC chipset, mostly alienated to UAE users.

Some of these people (a fraction of the MorphOS user base, not to name them) have mitigated reactions to Amiga emulation, going from indifference to hostility. You may refer to this article this article.

I spent countless hours trying to grab the rationale behind this, but ultimately failed at it. I think I try myself at picturing the general idea, though :

Buying real Amiga hardware still has some virtues (like boosting the remaining software companies to produce hits, even it's it at a much, much lower pace than 20 years ago)

UAE Amigans should be aware of most if not all the legal issues involved with the use of copyrighted material : Amiga Inc. struggle to keep its branding name, Workbench VS AmigaOS statutory disputes (It's unclear what we should do about it, except of course make sure we have acquired the roms from an official reseller -Cloanto, Haage & Partner)


Amiga is a registered trademark of Amiga inc.
V3.9 AmigaOS CDs can be bought from the German company named Haage & Partner
Most if not all credit due to the Green Alien guides authors

[NewDeli]

Perequisite -
System must be in clean state :

• All temp. folders empty
• Minimal background activity (stop useless services, close servers... anything will help)
• explorer closed or even better : KILLED via task manager
• fresh reboot
• Hard drive defragmented

Don't waste time trying it otherwise...
Even with Windows explorer killed, it is still possible to run programs and access your folders, I use the ObjectDock toolbar for that purpose.

• Tick Immediate Blitter to speed up emulation (not so safe, your game might not support it)
• Activate the null filter
• Refresh every second frame
• Disable onscreen leds
• Switch to normal (hires) resolution
• No stereo separation
• Set sound emulation to enabled, frequency to 22050k
• Set sound filter emulated (A500) for a smoother listening experience

With the null filter activated, the games screen will be resized to 640x512 (ratio should be preserved, no need to downsize your workbench window/screen), so you can record this smaller area more easily (tested with a 1280x1024 desktop resolution and an external desktop video capture tool).

If you experience crackles and noises, pause the emulation for 10 seconds right after the capture process has started (for the cache to fill & deplete itself)

I use Camstasia Recorder with its TechSmith (the makers of Snag-it) screen capture codecs, it's a bit heavier on the system than FRAPS or CamStudio, but it's packed with useful features (smart focus, annotations, highlights...).


Camstasia production settings :

• Compression control slider nearer to Better (as opposed to Faster) Compression
• Keyframe every 150 frames
• Framerate : 30 frames/sec.

Edit your project : Add captions, voiceover comments, transition effects, watermark...

Then choose carefully your production settings (128k 22050Hz Mp3, 256 colors, 640x480 or a fraction of it), and produce your video as avi.


Some on my computer specs. : Athlon 64 @ 2400 GHz, 2GB DDR, Raptor HDD... I know... it's not really top notch hardware

I suppose that to capture videos LIVE, the higher your system overall speed is, the better.
At least, producing the videos would be faster.

If you use a standard browser (Firefox, Safari...), you may watch the results with Battle Squadron here
or search for my nick on YouTube.

Next game in line : Skweek
Sorry for not being able to present Baal for the moment , I need to get into it a bit deeper. It's a hard & huge (250 screens) game.

EDIT :
Here, you can find the WinUAE config. I tweaked for video capture.


Note : it's a bit strange, but Camstasia 'finds' frames up to 50 frames /sec, even if the refresh rate is reduced in WinUAE

[Charlie]

Hello,
Thanks for your efforts - much appreciated.

[Anubis]

I'm against any changes in Pauls guide.

I would like to see them left as they are, in the memory of our friend.

[TCD]

Reading your tutorial on video capturing WinUAE I wonder if you ever tried to use WinUAE's build in video capture.

[Marcuz]

well, i'm not against appendices to the guides.
a strict requirement, imho, is that they should be in tone with the Paul' work (that beside affection related considerations, is very very good for a friendliness, lightness and clarity).

so, personal comments like which cpu' "manufacturer' arrogance" is more regrettable on the writer's point of view should go away.
also, but that's a different matter, if you talk about technical matters, you should give more explanations on detalis and avoid shortcuts in explanations, as on a cursory read, i for one don't understand much, and making things perfectly clear is the point of a guide.

that said, i welcome the effort!

[Toni Wilen]

Weird guide. First, you should NEVER record in 640 if program is in lores (like most games)
Messing up with Windows is totally pointless.
Speed of system does not matter, you won't lose any frames, internal sync is always kept (in A500 modes)
Lowering sound quality is stupid.
etc..

[Anubis]

marco,

it would be better if we leave Paul's guide as it is.

If we like to make it current, we would have to change everything, as most of WinUAE menus changed. (still guide should be enough to set up WinUAE)

I prefer if we create new guide and leave Pauls as it is. New guide should point to his original, and include all his work for WB installation plus updated WinUAE setup, tips and tricks.

I'm sure that having second guide will not kill server space wise.

If you guys disagree, I would like to ask then to have a copy of his guide so that I can set it up on my server as legacy for our friend without any changes.

[Marcuz]

Originally Posted by Anubis

If you guys disagree, I would like to ask then to have a copy of his guide so that I can set it up on my server as legacy for our friend without any changes.

sorry, i phrased myself poorly...

i don't mean Paul guide should be changed, but i tend to equale them to the wiki, as they cover much of what there is to say on winuae general purpose utilization and WB use.

that's a simplyfication on my part. but it stands to reason that any guide to Winuae and Amiga SHOULD be written according to that plain and simple tone and friendly way of explanation.

if so, whatever added to the wiki would be just an appendix, and that in no way, imho, detract to Paul' work: if anything, the opposite.

i've used them again last week to install Picasso, for instance. thay may not be up to date regarding everything that's amiga, but what they DO tell is still the same as it was couple of years gone.
more to the point, they are the kind of guide i can read from start to end. and be satisfied having done so: respects to Paul notwithstanding.

if the guide should be updated or preserved, that's not my point here: that comes later, if ever. my point here is that while i'm ok for anybody to write guides on whatever's amiga,

first and foremost, i need to understand the instructions,

subsequentely, they need to reach the standard of good english (which for instance i don't) AND equanimity of the guides already here and

lastly they need to be correct or following the simplest way in regards of the technicality, which this appears failing to.

that said, again, please do write! there is a lot happened to winuae and even amiga community in the last years.

then if that is Delauvive's tips and tricks or Paul's guide appendices, well later to be discussed.

[NewDeli]

@Marco : Ok. Comment removed. Still people with a faster computer are welcome to 'try this at home'. What is it you don't understand ? The 'not so safe' mention means 'faster but may be unstable if used all the time'. (like : use the JIT to load AmigaOS, then disable it)

@TCD : I think Camstasia has the right 'screen' codecs for that purpose.
I decided stop using system codecs (xvid and such) for capturing / transcoding tasks.

@Toni : Well, I simply cannot enjoy making captures with a low-res version of my workbench & I activated the null filter as specified on the Amiga guide. What resolution would you suggest ? Original ratio is preserved, so I am glad with it (and I produce with a lower res.)
I am not trying to make hires movies, and in the audio department, usually gamers on YouTube switch off the game fx and put their favorite Metallica tune instead, so what's best ?

Also, killing explorer proved useful to me. It was simply a no-go with explorer (taskbar and icons loaded). It can be run again after the capture is finished, though.
May be your computer can support a more intensive background activity while capturing.
May be it would be different with linux, but we're talking about the memory hungry Windows Vista here.

To the others : I sincerely wish I had stumbled upon those guides earlier, that would have saved me a lot of headaches when trying to set up AmigaOS. But anyway, I learnt it the hard way (no preconfigured OS to rely on) and I am glad I did.
I can't decide about those guides urge to be revised, and I made it clear I thought they were great 'untouched'.

For me it is more a matter of taking them further (upgrading from AmigaOS v3.1 to v3.9 is not mentioned in the guides, to my knowledge) than to altering them, but I leave the decision up to you.

I am sorry if these instructions overlap those from the video capture chapters, they will be moved to my web site ultimately.

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by Deleauvive

@Toni : Well, I simply cannot enjoy making captures with a low-res version of my workbench & I activated the null filter as specified on the Amiga guide. What resolution would you suggest ? Original ratio is preserved, so I am glad with it (and I produce with a lower res.)

With the null filter activated, the games screen will be resized to 640x512

You said games. 95% of games = lores.

Also do you use WinUAE built-in recording or some external program? Built-in NEVER loses frames, even if you run it on a 66MHz Pentium that takes 1s to render one frame.

[NewDeli]

Internal output feature still needs you to choose the right codecs.
Are you talking about outputting uncompressed frame ?

I use Camstasia Studio to capture LIVE, since I need to edit the project (adding captions, watermark...) before rendering it. I guess you're right : For a direct rendering I could use WinUAE built-in recorder.

and what's the trouble with the games being lores ?
With double-line mode and 1280x1204 workbench, the game screen is about 640x512 in size with Hires (normal). Ratio is preserved and the quality is good. Is there a reason why I should switch to lores ?

Here is what I get with low res :

[Anubis]

And I have to pay $299 + tax to be able to record in game movie?

Check Lemon Amiga game intros. Most of them are done in 320x256. Most of screenshots in HOL are also the same, original resolution.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Anubis

Check Lemon Amiga game intros. Most of them are done in 320x256. Most of screenshots in HOL are also the same, original resolution.

I would say nearly all of them are 320x256 in HOL. There is no point in setting the resolution higher than the game provides.
About that 'LoRes' screenshot : You should set the resolution inside WinUAE to 320x256 and not to your desktop resolution and force it to fullscreen.

[Marcuz]

Originally Posted by Deleauvive

@Marco : Ok. Comment removed. Still people with a faster computer are welcome to 'try this at home'. What is it you don't understand ? The 'not so safe' mention means 'faster but may be unstable if used all the time'. (like : use the JIT to load AmigaOS, then disable it).

by no mean i am the judge of what is the correct way to write a guide or to write in general, but if i have to read i prefer:

simplified or, better, no disclaimer.
with it you are justifying choices that are not so plain, like the use of an external software and very particular settings of winuae to do something that's easier done with the built in recorder.
you are proposing tips and tricks: is the way you do simpler for the user than the usual one?

if so, (and i have not agreed that it is so, strongly) and that's the part i don't understand, i wan't fool proof step to step instructions, as i would be stupid (which, for the purpose of this discussion i am), i don't want to exercise my brain any.

also if it's a guide, i would like it to be devoid of personal tokens, or particular experiences. Again, this being "Deleauvive' tips and tricks" you may choose to be personal. I just say that i prefer guides to be not so.

Originally Posted by Deleauvive

• Make sure you know where you store your precious config files.
  WinUAE installer puts them in the user folder, so beware if you need to erase the system partition

that's only true if you install Winuae in the Programs' directory i believe.

------

Originally Posted by Deleauvive

I've been asked quite often how I could link my (relative) knowledge of WinUAE and the installation of Amiga system programs. Well, there's a chance the majority people following a Guide to install AmigaOS are doing it from a PC, via an emulator (WinUAE, E-UAE, Amithlon...). AmigaOS runs fast and is pretty stable when executed from within an emulated environment, with the correct UAE settings.

Some veteran Amiga users deter WinUAE's massive GUI. Personally, I think it could be your best asset, if you pass the initial complexity. True, it requires some testing, but it has a linear learning curve, meaning the more you learn about it, the less you're likely to loose time on pointless settings. Display tab options for example are really exemplary, as with Picasso96, they provide you with the ability to run your Workbench in any resolution and color mode your graphic adapter is capable of, going beyond the infamous PicassoMode which has inmho the most dreadful video support modes.

Of course people running real Amigas with hard drives and such are more than welcome to use the resource more specifically designed for people running emulators, but I found out two things :

- Believe it or not, Amiga machines are still sold today. Not so much Classic Amigas (A500 s & A1200s) but Amiga PCs based on exotic hardware (Pegasos, Efika...) which gives the ability to run Amiga Games (old -68k's and not so old -Power PC's...) and Applications almost natively.

- Some of these people (a fraction of the MorphOS user base, not to name them) have mitigated reactions to Amiga emulation, going from indifference to hostility. Read this article.

I spent countless hours trying to grab the rationale behind this, but ultimately failed at it. In the end, I believe people (and newbies) should be set free to choose to buy a real machine or to use emulation (provided they acquire the roms from an official reseller), same goes for MAME VS Arcade...


Amiga is a registered trademark of Amiga inc.
AmigaOS CDs are still sold by a German company named Haage & Partner
Most if not all credit due to the Green Alien guides authors

i quote this just as an exemple, as it is full of your personal points of view:

infamous picasso mode? to whom?

the bit about "winuae massive GUI"? if somebody is reading at that point, wanting to record an AVI, it is probably someone who's already past the basic use of Winuae interface.

Amiga inc. and Haage & Partner, is that relevant to the guide?

"A fraction of the MorphOS etc." if it's a fraction who has varied reactions etc, the rest what does it have? and again is it relevant?

"people should be set free etc..." well of the two options they have both already, so i miss the point...


so resuming: cut disclaimers and 2 cents.
stick to step by step instructions so that the reader should not guess.

short of that, your guide is already perfectly understandable, if i have to dig in it.

no offense meant

[NewDeli]

Well, I mentioned CamStudio & FRAPS, which are cheaper. Also, some people can do most of that stuff with VirtualDub, apparently.

Luckily WinUAE can deal separately with the Workbench resolution (which I am not willing to alter, if you don't mind too much) and the game resolution. The null filter makes the game screen close to its original resolution, and line doubling well... doubles the number of lines, hence the 640x512.

Camstudio web site offers a free lossless screen capture codec, which I put to download here.

[TCD]

Your screenshot is 1280x1024 not 640x512. The point is if you give tips for capturing videos in WinUAE you should really describe why you choose which method (like marco said). You tell about disabling the windows explorer, but use another program to capture the video, which causes way more performance loss. Maybe it would be more helpful to describe how to capture the video with the build in functions of WinUAE in a WinUAE tips & tricks thread

[NewDeli]

I am talking about the game screen, meaning the size it occupies on my (or any 1280x1024) desktop (over the Workbench, if you prefer) with the null filter activated. Sorry for the confusion.

The program I use is an all-in-one suite, the raw .avi (only a few MB) corresponding to the captured footage can be easily edited with comments and such, then the video is to be produced in a shareable format, as an avi usually, with the desired settings (MP3 bitrate, codec sliders adjusted) which can be saved into a preset.

Its guided approach might not please the HD purists, but I found it more than adequate.
Also, the explorer killing was more helpful to keep the audio smooth and in sync than to increase the framerate, I think.