Mac titles for CD32 via Shapeshifter?

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by wairnair

While it's not exactly fast I think it's still faster than 7.6.1. You could try disabling some Extensions. That can be done by moving them anywhere out of the Extensions folder.

Ok

Are they not needed though i.e. the icons you see on boot for QuickTime images / video, Speech etc. and the apps will still run?

Originally Posted by wairnair

Try making the OS hfv read-only so that it can't save this "reminder".
(this is automatically done on the compilation because of the read-only CD)
It may also be disabled somehow, I don't know.

I don't really want to make the OS hfv read-only; when I did this last time the game crashed when clicking on a character.

As you say though; maybe there's a way to disable this message.

[wairnair]

Originally Posted by DamienD

Are they not needed though i.e. the icons you see on boot for QuickTime images / video, Speech etc. and the apps will still run?

Quicktime extension is probably needed for Warcraft.
Don't know about the rest but "Starterdisk.hfv" had less of them and most games still worked with it.

[wairnair]

I'd like to get back to trying the compilation on real hardware (CD32).
I still haven't figured out how I should create the ISO from the VHD file.

Somehow ShapeShifter doesn't find the OS hfv.
Can someone look if I share the ISO..?

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by wairnair

Quicktime extension is probably needed for Warcraft.
Don't know about the rest but "Starterdisk.hfv" had less of them and most games still worked with it.

Been playing around, a better way than "moving them anywhere out of the Extensions folder" is to click "Apple" --> "Control Panel" --> "Extensions Manager" and then untick all unnecessary like the following:



As you say though, you still need "QuickTime™" ticked otherwise the videos won't work...

Need to do some boot timing tests to see if there's any increase and therefore worth me undertaking this exercise

[wairnair]

Originally Posted by DamienD

Been playing around, a better way than "moving them anywhere out of the Extensions folder" is to click "Apple" --> "Control Panel" --> "Extensions Manager" and then untick all unnecessary like the following:
Need to do some boot timing tests to see if there's any increase and therefore worth me undertaking this exercise

let me know your stats

we're digging deep in mac os classic land

[DamienD]

Done

...don't know if it's worth making changes though:

With all extensions enabled: 1 minute 33 seconds before you see the desktop icons.

Without extensions enabled beside "QuickTime": 1 minute 10 seconds before you see the desktop icons.

I really wonder how the old OS that you used became sooooo speedy?

[wairnair]

1 minute+ in both cases ??

loads in like 15 secs for me under winuae, usual TF330 performance (around 10 mips in sysinfo)

nevertheless 20 secs seems worth it still

but the whole boot should take 20 secs max..
I assume running from hdd

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by wairnair

1 minute+ in both cases ??
loads in like 15 secs for me under winuae, usual TF330 performance (around 10 mips in sysinfo)
nevertheless 20 secs seems worth it still
but the whole boot should take 20 secs max..
I assume running from hdd

Yup, 1 minute 33 seconds

...and yes, running from .HDF.

You can try my standalone .HDF / configuration file here, I've set a 68040 CPU also (like all MAC games that I use).

The old "OS" .HDF takes about 15 seconds to load before you see the desktop icons

[wairnair]

Originally Posted by DamienD

Yup, 1 minute 33 seconds

I've added AddBuffers 10000 to your SYS: drive, now it's down to ~30secs maybe less, didn't time it

Also added BBlank so that you have a nice black border/background

https://mega.nz/#!J84kRABB!yeyzmvVT6...AU9AACXVproViU

edit: with Quicktime extension only it's almost Starterdisk.hfv speed

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by wairnair

I've added AddBuffers 10000 to your SYS: drive, now it's down to ~30secs maybe less, didn't time it

Also added BBlank so that you have a nice black border/background

https://mega.nz/#!J84kRABB!yeyzmvVT6...AU9AACXVproViU

edit: with Quicktime extension only it's almost Starterdisk.hfv speed

Damn; "AddBuffers 10000" is all I need to improve things?

Never even thought of that, off to try

Many thanks man

[DamienD]

Oh man, now it absolutely flies!!!

"BorderBlank"; nice option and something I didn't think about implementing...

Now I probably need to update all these .HDFs

• Alone in the Dark [AGA] [ShapeShifter]
• Blackthorne [AGA] [ShapeShifter]
• Prince of Persia [AGA] [ShapeShifter]
• Prince of Persia 2 [AGA] [ShapeShifter]
• Warcraft - Orcs & Humans [AGA] [ShapeShifter]
• Warcraft II - Tides of Darkness [AGA] [ShapeShifter]

[wairnair]

Originally Posted by DamienD

Now I probably need to update all these .HDFs

All you need to do is
- copy bblank to SYS:C (if you like it)
- add the 2 extra lines to startup-sequence: bblank and addbuffers. copy from your warcraft image

---

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.

go figure..

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by wairnair

All you need to do is
- copy bblank to SYS:C (if you like it)
- add the 2 extra lines to startup-sequence: bblank and addbuffers. copy from your warcraft image

---

Yeah I know

...and this has now been done for all MAC games in my collection

The speed increase when loading is amazing!!!

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.

go figure..

Yeah; weird indeed.

[redblade]

Originally Posted by DamienD

Oh man, now it absolutely flies!!!

"BorderBlank"; nice option and something I didn't think about implementing...

Now I probably need to update all these .HDFs

• Alone in the Dark [AGA] [ShapeShifter]
• Blackthorne [AGA] [ShapeShifter]
• Prince of Persia [AGA] [ShapeShifter]
• Prince of Persia 2 [AGA] [ShapeShifter]
• Warcraft - Orcs & Humans [AGA] [ShapeShifter]
• Warcraft II - Tides of Darkness [AGA] [ShapeShifter]

That's a great game list you have there DamienD. Also do the warcraft support an online function?
Also is Syndicate on the mac?

[redblade]

Also DamienD can you do some youtube videos for these Warcraft Shapeshifter vids please

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by redblade

Also do the warcraft support an online function?

Don't know, maybe if setup correctly...

I only emulate and don't bother going through the hassle of enabling / surfing the internet on an Amiga.

Originally Posted by redblade

Also is Syndicate on the mac?

No idea, sorry.

Originally Posted by redblade

Also DamienD can you do some youtube videos for these Warcraft Shapeshifter vids please

Nah, I don't do videos... prefer the real (or emulated) experience

If you want to do this yourself then here is my archive for use in WinUAE: https://mega.nz/#!1rwAjABJ!QTS8xBLf-3em913kh8WVsYkI14rsI8GKZ-hKp6EHf3Y

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by wairnair

I've added AddBuffers 10000 to your SYS: drive, now it's down to ~30secs maybe less, didn't time it

Heya wairnair,

Just a question related to "AddBuffers" and the value you used of "10000".

I read about AddBuffers here.

It says "Although adding buffers speeds disk access, each additional buffer reduces free memory by approximately 512 bytes" and recommends "30 for hard disk partitions".

It also warns "adding too many buffers reduces overall system performance by taking RAM away from other system functions".

I tried changing this value to "1000" and to be honest I experienced the similar loading times / performance as with a value of "10000", but obviously uses less memory.

So, any reason why you use a value of "10000"?

[wairnair]

Originally Posted by DamienD

Oh man, now it absolutely flies!!!

"BorderBlank"; nice option and something I didn't think about implementing...

Now I probably need to update all these .HDFs

• Alone in the Dark [AGA] [ShapeShifter]
• Blackthorne [AGA] [ShapeShifter]
• Prince of Persia [AGA] [ShapeShifter]
• Prince of Persia 2 [AGA] [ShapeShifter]
• Warcraft - Orcs & Humans [AGA] [ShapeShifter]
• Warcraft II - Tides of Darkness [AGA] [ShapeShifter]

Originally Posted by DamienD

Heya wairnair,

Just a question related to "AddBuffers" and the value you used of "10000".

I read about AddBuffers here.

It says "Although adding buffers speeds disk access, each additional buffer reduces free memory by approximately 512 bytes" and recommends "30 for hard disk partitions".

It also warns "adding too many buffers reduces overall system performance by taking RAM away from other system functions".

I tried changing this value to "50" and to be honest I experienced the same loading times / performance as with a value of "10000", but obviously uses less memory.

So, any reason why you use a value of "10000"?

from the manual
"As a general rule, you can use
30 to 50 buffers for every megabyte of disk storage in your system"

so I thought about a cd size image (for the compilation). That's 700x30=21000, and I thought that's too much.
Besides I saw 10000 or similar somewhere but I don't have proof

But by all means if 50 does the exact same thing go with 50. I'll go with it too, so thanks for pointing this out!

[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

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by wairnair

But by all means if 50 does the exact same thing go with 50. I'll go with it too, so thanks for pointing this out!

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