New IPF decoder ("capslib") supports loading of raw files

[mr.vince]

Hi,

you can now use any dumps made with the CAPS/Softpres dumping tool (now released as KryoFlux FREE for AmigaOS) over the last decade and directly load your raw files in WinUAE.

Here's the direct link for the new library v5.0, release of source is pending:
http://www.kryoflux.com/download/ipfdec5_binary_win.zip


Here's the complete news:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=72971

[BarryB]

Works pretty well in WinUAE, my dumps of Cosmic Pirate, Goldrunner and Behind The Iron Gate all run without any apparent issue

One question, do the dumps have to be made with preservation settings before they can be converted to CT format, -i0 and -i2? I have a dump of the original Dungeon Master not dumped with preservation settings, less revolutions I think, and it will not load, the other 3 I did were dumped with -i0 and -2. Obviously this is bleeding edge at the mo so will re-dump Dungeon Master and see.

[mr.vince]

Yes, CT raw needs five revolutions per track (and yes, even with 5 revolutions per track our raw format is astonishingly small). IFW could tell if I am wrong, but of course DM would need several revolutions because of the deterministic weak bits. Not sure if that was tested but... go ahead and let us know!

[BarryB]

Right, on my todo list, re-dump Dungeon Master!

I like small, Cosmic Pirate 2.94mb, Goldrunner 3.97mb and Behind the Iron Gate 2.75mb Disk1 and 2.39mb Disk2.

[IFW]

Dungeon Master (currently) works with CT Raw images made with a real Amiga; there are tons of them around (and many different revisions), so imho just pick any of them
DTC will be updated later to produce the same result, and you might as well just... oh, let's just wait for another surprise coming - don't want to spoil it

But regardless, we need more DM images as well in stream format, so would be very useful to submit those.

Just to make sure: for imaging you use the latest DTC, right? That way preservation settings are automatic if you specify stream output - but you can explicitly disable that behaviour. Older versions of DTC had to have the preservation settings explicitly enabled... it's better the way it is now

[IFW]

Originally Posted by BarryB

Right, on my todo list, re-dump Dungeon Master!

I like small, Cosmic Pirate 2.94mb, Goldrunner 3.97mb and Behind the Iron Gate 2.75mb Disk1 and 2.39mb Disk2.

CT Raw images are heavily delta compressed with a specific algorithm that was designed to work with bitcell data (only!); that's why it takes some time to produce output in that format.
The encoding works in a way that allows standard dictionary based or statistical compression to still make the image smaller later on, which wouldn't work very well with the original data, which is usually about 12-16MB in its original state.

[Supamax]

Originally Posted by IFW

Dungeon Master (currently) works with CT Raw images made with a real Amiga; there are tons of them around (and many different revisions), so imho just pick any of them

tons of them around? And different revisions?
Where?

[dlfrsilver]

Yes, since my father burnt 90% of my amiga collection, i hope that i could download my own RAW dumps back if it was possible

[BarryB]

If you want a KF dump of my DM then you can have one! Or a nicely delta compressed CT RAW image

[Supamax]

Originally Posted by BarryB

If you want a KF dump of my DM then you can have one! Or a nicely delta compressed CT RAW image

Me too, Barry (if possible), since my original DM doesn't load anymore .

EDIT: it boots, but it fails the protection check when saving.

[StingRay]

Awesome news, guess there's something I'll have to try this weekend. Thanks guys!

[alexh]

Great news. The KF now got much more interesting for Amiga users. Thanks for all your hard work.

[mr.vince]

Thanks, Alex. Much appreciated.

And we haven't yet released the new host software for KryoFlux USB. This will bring...

[tomse]

thanks a lot :-)

[IFW]

Thanks Alex.
Although this is an Amiga board, I'd like to point out that ALL emulators using the ipf library to load files benefit from this change, e.g. Atari ST emulators as well - and rest assured, there are tons of existing CT Raw dumps for ST, and quite a few in KryoFlux stream format as well. Since they contain data as is, and don't rely on detecting the protection at all, they should work significantly better than STX.
For the best experience (to deal with some edge cases) the host emulator can use extra new functionality available in the new library - but this is not mandatory, as the library without further instructions from the host tries to make sure that the image works. Regardless, adding the enhanced functionality to emulators is work in progress, but most things should work as is right now.

Yes, Denis, of course - everything you, or anyone else has ever uploaded has been archived.
However I think there were a lot of things that you were only planning to upload, so those are all obviously lost

Originally Posted by Supamax

Me too, Barry (if possible), since my original DM doesn't load anymore .

EDIT: it boots, but it fails the protection check when saving.

See above; DM and CSB are the only games that have to be archived on a real Amiga using CT. This is due to the difference in PLL behavior, which will be updated, but I don't want to break the data recovery capability of DTC, which would be badly affected with the Amiga-style PLL.
So quite possibly it will be done in a different way somewhere else, not in DTC, somewhere where it can't wreak havoc... soon

[dlfrsilver]

Yes indeed, i have btw to raise a ticket maybe for the games that have been officially out by SPS, that i owned, and for which i didn't get the IPF.

I contact you soon for that.

[mr.vince]

There are no games "officially out" by SPS, but I think we understand what you mean.

The system would email contributors, but since there are no real email associations to directories, it's guesswork and things, so you might not have gotten such email.

You have mine, so get in touch... an ascending list sorted by SPS ID would be great.

[IFW]

Denis,

I've noticed that you posted new KryoFlux dumps for ST etc. and I am sure those have never been uploaded to SPS.
Could you please upload any stream dumps not yet submitted, for any platform?

Thanks

[dlfrsilver]

Please PM me the FTP coordinates I'm reinstalling my whole PC desktop computer at the moment, and i don't have those on my laptop.

And yes indeed, there are dumps i never submitted. My god, i hope that i could get those who were not dumped and destroyed by the fire :'(

[IFW]

Could you please contact MrVince for that? I am an user myself as well on the FTP.
Well, it's too late for that, but I still think that nothing happened to your family and your loved ones is more important.