Opalvision support?

[idrougge]

Will there be Opalvision support somewhere in the future for WinUAE? I'm looking forward to the day I can run Opalpaint and King of karate in emulation. I have dumped all the software in case that's of any help.

[Toni Wilen]

I checked "devdocs.lha" but unfortunately it does not have enough low level hardware details (It is mainly describing how to use it via supplied helper library) but it mentions another documentation: "See OpalVision System Flow Diagram OpalVision Programmers Tecnical Reference Manual 1.2". It probaby would help.

[idrougge]

Thanks, that's too bad. Opalvision is one of the more interesting non-RTG solutions.

[Toni Wilen]

It probably is not going to be too difficult to emulate, at least basic operations but it is not going to happen unless someone else creates nice disassembly of opal.library. (It is minimum requirement, probably needs much more)

[Toni Wilen]

Old thread but Opalvision support is getting closer. Most basic functions have been reverse-engineered during last few days.

- Main control line (the very first PAL or NTSC line) structure is known. Different encoding than other lines for some unknown reason.
- Misc registers, palette and "CoPro" line (next 3 lines) encoding (usual 4-bits per pixel RGBI digital data) is known. Image data also uses same encoding.

I am not sure if I bother with "weird" color modes (BT RAMDAC supports all kinds of rarely used modes, like 8 bit true color) but at least normal paletted and 24-bit mode should be easy enough to emulate.

"This is not that difficult to reverse after all" moment happened when I noticed that Opalvision document's color mode table and some other Opalvision control bits are actually BT RAMDAC features (Harlequin Plus uses same RAMDAC and I had implemented part of it earlier. Timing always matters..) and RAMDAC documentation is very good. (Opalvision documentation of course does not mention it..)

More info later..

[thor]

Very nice. Will it support both stencil modes (King of Karate needs priority stencil mode, I guess) initially or is this something for the distant future?

[Toni Wilen]

It looks like stencil needs to be implemented. OpalPaint need stencil too.

OVTestCS.lzh (aminet) probably works, no idea if colors are correct (This was my first test program, simple enough). Show24 works now. OpalPaint shows mostly black (needs stencil support) and bottom icons have strange colors. King of Karate's control lines contain something unsupported (probably control line horizontal sync related), nothing works.

Control Line Register is emulated. 8-bit and 24-bit color modes are implemented. Line based "CoPro" is emulated, including Address Load Register. Lores/hires/interlace supported.

For some reason RGB values needs to be inverted, without it black is white and vice versa.

[mark_k]

OpalVision on the Computer Chronicles: [ Show youtube player ]

[Toni Wilen]

Stencils emulated but something is still missing, for example OpalPaint has strange white bar.

[mark_k]

In both those screenshots there should be a palette strip visible. I guess OpalPaint changes display mode and/or buffer in that part of the screen? (E.g. from 24-bit to 8-bit paletted? The alternate black/white dots probably tell the board to treat line as a control line?

[Toni Wilen]

It only uses 24Bit PMapped (and palette is updated only once at startup) and 24Bit By-Pass modes. No other modes in "CoPro list". Neither is Add_Load used.

Control line has different encoding. Unless there is some special mid-screen format too.. (And why would it need control line, color mode can be changed with CoPro byte/line)

[vxm]

I tried emulation via the beta 10. Unfortunately, I do not get the colors.

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by vxm

I tried emulation via the beta 10. Unfortunately, I do not get the colors.

I think you forgot to include all the required information..
- config
- winuaelog.txt
- used WB setup
- used program, including exact version. also opal.library version.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Hello Toni, sorry but from which voice activates the Opalvision hardware, I can not find it, it will be the old age? i also need some drivers?

I tried to run Opal Paint and I have not white bar (lower), although I do not see the red logo, same with OpalPaint v2.2 and 2.4

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by AMIGASYSTEM

Hello Toni, sorry but from which voice activates the Opalvision hardware, I can not find it, it will be the old age? i also need some drivers?

Chipset -> Video port display hardware. (All video adapters that take the normal Amiga video, then do something with and output it are listed there. In other words, any adapter that uses 23-pin video port or video slot)

I tried to run Opal Paint and I have not white bar (lower), although I do not see the red logo, same with OpalPaint v2.2 and 2.4

That is what you get if you run it without OpalVision.

[vxm]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

I think you forgot to include all the required information..
- config
- winuaelog.txt
- used WB setup
- used program, including exact version. also opal.library version.

Yes. I think so too. Here they are : WB 3.1 fresh install, opal.library v4.4 (06/20/93) and OpalPaint v2.2 (020/030/040).

[Toni Wilen]

Change filter options to something that shows larger part of the screen. (I think I need to redesign part of this because filter extra border blanking also blanks the control lines in some situations..)

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

Chipset -> Video port display hardware. (All video adapters that take the normal Amiga video, then do something with and output it are listed there. In other words, any adapter that uses 23-pin video port or video slot)

Thank found!

That is what you get if you run it without OpalVision.

I had suspected, white bars It replaces color palette, to me it appears only a small gray bars .
If you try to use the colors the bar returns but in gray, watch the accompanying video

[Toni Wilen]

OpalPaint palette is now fully visible.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Yes palette is fully visible, the small gray horizontal bar comes when you click the left or right mouse button on the screen.