Zeewolf - A1200 Frame Rate

[rabidgerry]

Hello,

I am just wondering if anyone has ever had an issue with ZeeWolf frame rate the same as what I am experiencing. So having looked into this it appears I should be getting a lot smoother frame rate than what I am currently getting. To me it seems as though what I and experiencing now is how the game was when I played it on my A500 years ago. Currently I've a TF1260 installed in my A1200 and expected a nice smooth frame rate playing it but alas it is still quite choppy playing the WHD load version.

Is there something I need to do for a better performance?

I know this video is Zeewolf 2 but surely it's the same scenario where I should be getting a smoother experience no? Retro32 video below shows a much better performance which I am quite envious off.

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[roondar]

I don't have a TF1260, but it's possible that the game requires high bandwidth from the CPU to Chip RAM and perhaps the TF1260 doesn't offer that. Some cards have that issue, where they're just not very fast at reading/writing Chip RAM.

Also, perhaps the WHDLoad disables some caches or makes some other compatibility changes that slow down the game. Perhaps those settings can be tweaked?

[Octopus66]

I believe this is a known difference between Zeewolf 2 and original. The sequel makes much better use of accelerators.

A comment on Lemon Amiga recommends trying to play from floppy for better performance.

[derSammler]

Zeewolf runs much slower than Zeewolf 2 (WHDLoad versions). Even with a PiStorm, it's not really smooth (but not jerky). Since both use the same game engine, it's probably the WHDLoad slave causing that.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by derSammler

Since both use the same game engine, it's probably the WHDLoad slave causing that.

They both use practically the same slave written by the same guy at the same time.

[derSammler]

And...?

Maybe "tweaked cache settings for better performance" simply didn't do the trick with Zeewolf 1. Or maybe it has a frame rate limit that was removed from Zeewolf 2. Whatever it is, Zeewolf 1 runs slower on fast hardware.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by derSammler

And...?

And so it is unlikely to be the WHDload slave causing the slow down in Zeewolf 1 as I thought you were suggesting.

I have no evidence but I imagine it is likely to be that optimisations were made between Zeewolf 1 and Zeewolf 2 to the game engine. e.g. code that runs better from cache? Or perhaps has fewer chip memory accesses?

[Predseda]

I have TF1260 (running on 50MHz) and original Zeewolf boxed, to I can do a comparison to whdload version.

[robinsonb5]

I was under the impression that the difference is just that Zeewolf 2 is capable of running from Fast RAM, if present, while the original isn't?

[rabidgerry]

Originally Posted by Predseda

I have TF1260 (running on 50MHz) and original Zeewolf boxed, to I can do a comparison to whdload version.

That would be pretty useful to know actually as I could always run adf's.

So the consensus seems to be that ZeeWolf1 is slow compared to ZeeWolf 2.

Ok thanks guys appreciate the comments.

That game Virus uses same engine right? Think there is another game near identical to Virus also. I wonder are the like ZeeWolf 1? Might have to try these.

[Superman]

I have just had a go on both these games on my A1200 with TF1230 50mhz and Zeewolf 2 is definitely faster. I don't know if an update to the slave will make any difference as they are quite old.

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[zipper]

Oh those times - was helping John Girvin via testing on my A4000 / 060.

[Predseda]

Virus and Zeewolf are visualy similar, but they do not use the same engine AFAIK.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by rabidgerry

That game Virus uses same engine right?

No. Looks similar. Different programmer. Different engine.

Originally Posted by rabidgerry

Think there is another game near identical to Virus also.

Conqueror. This game IS the same engine as Virus/Zarch. Jonathan Griffiths designed the game using the David "Elite" Braben coded Virus engine.

[rabidgerry]

Originally Posted by Superman

I have just had a go on both these games on my A1200 with TF1230 50mhz and Zeewolf 2 is definitely faster. I don't know if an update to the slave will make any difference as they are quite old.

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It's night and day really, looks so good on ZeeWolf 2. Nice and smooth.

[Predseda]

Just tried Zeewolf from floppy and from WHDLoad. It is a bit choppy (anyway, it is a chopper) but subjective from WHDLoad it is smoother than from original diskette.

[rabidgerry]

Originally Posted by Predseda

Just tried Zeewolf from floppy and from WHDLoad. It is a bit choppy (anyway, it is a chopper) but subjective from WHDLoad it is smoother than from original diskette.

Appreciate the test, thanks again.

[paraj]

Originally Posted by robinsonb5

I was under the impression that the difference is just that Zeewolf 2 is capable of running from Fast RAM, if present, while the original isn't?

Good theory, but unfortunately a quickish attempt (in the zone), of getting code/stack into fastmem doesn't increase frame rate noticeably. Haven't dug into the rendering code (yet?) so maybe there are obvious optimizations to do.

[alexh]

If paraj is able to understand how the rendering code works and work his magic on this game it could be an amazing project. Zeewolf 1&2 are great Amiga games that few people have played due to it's relatively late arrival and an accelerated version would be fantastic.

There was an amazing project to optimise Zarch (virus) on the Archimedes and the developer was able to optimise the render so much (and he was using a very fast ARM) he was able to increase the viewport so much which greatly improved the game. It was quite incredible.

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[jotd]

running in fastmem is a must do anyway.