Amithlon Setup Guide

[SnkBitten]

Spending a LOT more time with ModePro and Lightwave I can render display to CyberGraphx now. I also have the screen showing the rendering info.

Running it vs. my WinUAE setup it's surprisingly a tad slower. Make Preview is faster...(though you can't see them after making to view the real-time playback) so perhaps it's all the extra mode promotion/emulation it's having to do with fake native modes? I need to try rendering out no display and save RGB images instead on both systems. In the WayEarth scene WinUAE averaged about 2 seconds per frame while Amithlon was averaging 3 seconds per frame creating a ham6 anim (which forces a ham6 screen to be opened which Amithlon can't do).

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[SnkBitten]

Settings that worked for me to get LightWave 3D 5.2 running on Amithlon.

You'll need LightWave 3d 5.2 (eab ftp), CyberGFX Renderer V1.2 (eab ftp), ModePro (aminet).

Simplest way is to set ModePro to ask you for each screen and then add them as they pop up. In ModePro's menu's, check "ask about unknown screens" and when done adding the screen names and saved, you can uncheck it.

Launch Lightwave, ModePro should how to promote, select Screen Name then promote with Screenmode and you'll choose your GFX card for some, and FakeNative: for a few. I use an nVidia card so just substitute yours where you see me listing "nVidia-1"

Launch LightWave and ModePro will ask about the Screen Name being opened...

LW Layout 672 x 432 (I'm NTSC, adjust as needed)
Screenmode = FakeNative:HighRes-Lace, Width 672, Height 432, colors 8, AutoScroll

Switch to 1024x768 8 color mode in Lightwave's layout screen (Option button at the top)
LW Layout 1024 x 768
Screenmode = nVidia-1: 1024x768 32bit, colors 8

You'll need to load the CyberGFX Renderer V1.2 plugin in the plugins section (also Options button)

Load a scene and then change the Record (Record button at top) Render Display to CyberGFX and click Continue.

Render a scene and you'll get three more ModePro popups.

LW Render Status
screenmode = FakeNative:HighRes-Lace, 640 x 18 (yes 18), force planar

LW Render Feedback
screenmode = FakeNative:LowRes, 640x480, force planar


EDIT
** You do not need to promote the screen below. Make sure to run the CyberGFX Renderer app and set your Screenmode preferences there.
CyberGFX Renderer V 1.2
screenmode = nVidia-1: 1024x768, 32bit
**

When you render a scene or frame, Lightwave will open the "LW Render Status" showing the frame status and the "LW Render Feedback" that would normally give you a quick view of the rendered frame. When completed rendering it will open the 24bit image in the screen mode you selected for "CyberGFX Renderer V 1.2". ESC will exit that screen and drop you back to the LW Render Status. Press Amiga M (Windows M) and you will be on a black screen which is the "LW Render Feedback" screen. Mouse click in the screen then hit ESC to exit back to the Layout screen.

When rendering with Render Display CyberGFX you'll see it render each frame. (Using WayEarth scene it updates the display about every 2 seconds with the next image).

When rendering with Render Display None (if you are saving the 24bit .iff's instead) you'll get the "LW Render Status" screen displayed.

Now I need a good program to convert the 24bit iff files into an animation........

[SnkBitten]

In LightWave, even running with Render Display <none>, LightWave still opens up two native Amiga screen modes "LW Render Feedback" and "LW Render Status" so I can't eliminate that for testing to see if that is what adds the extra second vs. WinUAE. I do know that I prefer working in Amithlon as generating a "Make Preview" steps through the animation fast enough to get a feel for the playback. You have to "Make Preview" every time you want to watch it but it's fast enough to not be an issue, it's almost real time. It's significantly faster than WinUAE in generating a Wireframe preview. I've been running Lightwave on the Amithlon, rendering out single frames (Save RGB as 24-IFF) then transferring that folder of images to my NAS box and using XnView on my PC to convert them to .png files and then VirtualDub to assemble the frames as an .avi file.

MUCH better results than rendering as a HAM-6 anim option Lightwave offers (or even HAM-8 on an AGA Amiga). Rendering is fast, even with lots of rendering options enabled.

Here's a few I did one evening trying to remember how to use LightWave since it's been so long since I've played with it (about 20 years...wow)...and I only "played" with it back then as rendering was just SLOW and disk space was limited for 24 bit images....(I did have a Single Frame VCR though to record them afterwards).

Two were included with Toaster software (scenes) the others just testing object movement, camera movement, lens flares, etc...just goofing around. Some rendered Medium, some High (2x).

https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...1QtcEd0RGtiYTQ

[themamboman]

Excellent job Snkbitten! I hope to get back to Amithlon soon and Lightwave was something I wanted to try.

[SnkBitten]

It's very enjoyable working with Lightwave on Amithlon. Using a 1024x768 layout is nice and if you set the option (which I don't remember off the top of my head what it is) you can manipulate the objects as wireframe models instead of a bounding box, so it's easier to set your object positions.

**EDIT
Manipulate your objects as wireframes vs. bounding boxes by going to 'Options' then choosing the 'Layout View' tab and raising the "Bounding Box Point/Polygon Threshold" to a number higher than your objects. I just set mine to 10,000.

[SnkBitten]

Two test animations......joined together and then adding a little audio....

(I'm really having a lot of fun with Lightwave 3D on Amithlon).

VirtualDub on my PC to join the animations and add the sound track.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1R...lRdWhudEE/view

[SnkBitten]

Just started rebuilding my Amithlon system and I'm glad I am. Following along the guides I had put together I found I'm missing a few little pieces here and there that are kind of required to get the most out of the system. Some things I just didn't need in the virtual environment (Virtualbox) I was using while putting the guide structure together.

Now I need to find all the CDs I had previously burned with all the files and patches and such.

Reason for rebuilding... eliminating the dual boot setup I had previously and replacing both 3.5" SATA drives with 2.5" drives. An old Xbox 360 20gb drive as the dos boot drive and a 256 GB SSD drive to replace the old 80 GB AmigaOS drive. I'll post up when I get the guide updated, hopefully over the weekend.

[SnkBitten]

Installation guide updated with the following info. I can't believe I had skipped over updating Picasso96.

*Picasso96Install
I realized I never covered updating the built-in installation of Picasso96 until doing a new Amithlon install recently and this is a key piece regardless of a hardware accelerated supported video card or not.
This is very specific in what to install. I’m using Picasso96 2.1e so download it and extract it to RAM: Run the Setup from the Picasso96Install folder and make sure to choose “Update an installed version”, then make sure to choose “Expert User” as we want to specifically pick what is being installed. Choose ONLY the following selections:
Libraries
24bit picture.datatype
Picasso96Mode
Picasso96 Variable Setter (PVS)
Continue installing with until completed then browse the Picasso96Install/Devs/Monitors/ and copy the ‘powerfb’ monitor file to your SYSevs/Monitors/ folder overwriting the one currently there. Reboot AmigaOS and then go to Prefs and launch Picasso96Mode. From the menus you can select the “attach settings to” option, and if your graphics card is supported, select your card, mine is “nVidia-1” as I’m using an NVidia FX5500 PCI card which is supported in the kernel. You’ll have to tweak the settings and that is covered in Part 2 of the Installation Guide. If your card is not listed it will most likely show “powerfb” as the current board and “VESA-1” as a choice. I'm not sure if you should manipulate the settings under fboard or VESA-1 as I've only done so under nVidia-1 for my monitors sync/refresh rates for different resolutions.

At the least you get updated versions of P96, at best your card is supported and you can use it for significantly faster graphics.

Nice!

Now all we need is networking in VirtualBox on Windows 10 to work and we're golden

[jdog320]

Networking works fine under windows 10 in virtualbox. I recommend using miamidx if you can since its more stable than genesis when downloading files. In the vbox settings, you can use either nat or natnetwork. Only problem is that miamidx has a problem with routers that automatically lease the I.P. every once in a while. Correct me on thr last one if im wrong

Seriously? I couldn't get it to work for the life of me. What version of VBox are you using? And what Amithlon kernel setup?

[Marlon_]

Originally Posted by esc

Seriously? I couldn't get it to work for the life of me.

Me neither, but I haven't tried with either MiamiDX or Roadshow yet.

[jdog320]

Originally Posted by Marlon_

Me neither, but I haven't tried with either MiamiDX or Roadshow yet.

It's possible. iirc set ip to dhcp, gateway to 10.0.2.1, and allow dynamic dhcp servers. There are some steps i've missed, i think @alpyre knows how to set up miami in amithlon

[jdog320]

Originally Posted by esc

Seriously? I couldn't get it to work for the life of me. What version of VBox are you using? And what Amithlon kernel setup?

I'm using 5.1.16 since i'm too lazy to update. Just uing kernel 3.10 with pciinsmod drivers. Use PCNet iii as emulated nic

[SnkBitten]

I've been emailing doobrey about adding the Amithlon ROM to ROMsplit so that we can pull it apart and create our own with Remus.

http://www.doobreynet.co.uk/index.html

So look for an update to ROMsplit soon. I have played with a beta he provided and it does grab the ROM and save the results as a project.

Of course you'll have to be able to put the Amithlon "shape.rom" in to your bigird.gz/smallird.gz files but you can find how to do that in the guides on my site.
"How to Modify the Kickstart ROM in Amithlon" which shows how to open the big/smallird.gz files and mount them in linux and replace shape.rom with your own.

Originally Posted by jdog320

I'm using 5.1.16 since i'm too lazy to update. Just uing kernel 3.10 with pciinsmod drivers. Use PCNet iii as emulated nic

I still can't get it to work at all. I took a full packet dump from the host side into a pcap and checked it out in wireshark.

Tons of "ETHERNET FRAME CHECK SEQUENCE INCORRECT" errors. *shrug*

[gulliver]

Originally Posted by SnkBitten

So look for an update to ROMsplit soon. I have played with a beta he provided and it does grab the ROM and save the results as a project.

I have ROMsplit v1.7 (beta) from Doobrey, is this the one you have?
Also have RomID.dat v1.13, KS40.dat v2.26 and RomFixes v2.6 from him (all of them beta versions).

Please let me know which versions do you have.

[SnkBitten]

Originally Posted by gulliver

I have ROMsplit v1.7 (beta) from Doobrey, is this the one you have?
Also have RomID.dat v1.13, KS40.dat v2.26 and RomFixes v2.6 from him (all of them beta versions).

Please let me know which versions do you have.

ROMsplit 1.9, I don't believe he's made it publicly available as a beta yet.

[SnkBitten]

I started looking for additional SetConfig options for use in the Startup-Sequence, a few or well known, but it looks like there are others available but missing any documentation. If you know of any and their use, please share.

SetConfig options:

Setconfig >NIL: vesa_defaults (0 disables VESA 60 hz limit)
Setconfig >NIL: hsyncmin (Horizontal Sync Minimum)
Setconfig >NIL: hsyncmax (Horizontal Sync Maximum)
Setconfig >NIL: vsyncmin (Veritcal Sync Minimum)
Setconfig >NIL: vsyncmax (Vertical Sync Maximum)
Setconfig >NIL: clockmax (Graphics Card Pixel Clock)

For the above settings, consult your monitor’s specs to supply the appropriate numbers.
These only apply to a configured card in Picasso96Settings and do not affect the “builtin” screenmodes.

Setconfig >NIL: setleds

Some users have reported complete lockups of the keyboard controller as soon
as they pressed CapsLock. The cause has been traced to setting the keyboard
LEDs. If you suffer from such lockups, add

setconfig setleds 0

to your startup sequence. This will prevent Amithlon from ever trying to
change your keyboard LEDs, thus avoiding the lockup. The actual CapsLock
functionality, however, is still there

Setconfig >NIL: wheelcount

Also, some users apparently have mice for which the scroll wheel does
not work exactly like expected, and fast scrolling produces left/right
events rather than up/down. Unfortunately, the IntelliMouse protocol
is not completely defined, and there is an ambiguity in the presence of
two mouse wheels.
If you suffer from this, and have a single-wheel mouse, add

setconfig wheelcount 1

to your startup sequence. This will force the protocol interpreter into
single-wheel mode.

Setconfig >NIL: asynchronous_io (1 enables, commented out by default)
Setconfig >NIL: cachesize (65536 if you have plenty of ram to make the system perform faster, commented out by default)

Setconfig p96_lowwidth 4096
Setconfig p96_widthstep 1

Some cards require bytes-per-row values to be multiples of some power
of two. However, some AmigaOS software (notably "Action") cannot deal
correctly with forcing that requirement. If you experience bad display
in such software, try adding "setconfig p96_lowwdith 4096" and
"setconfig p96_widthstep 1" to your startup sequence. This is safe on
nVidia cards, but might cause trouble with the display of 800x600 modes
(among others) on some other cards.

Found in a few google searches but not verified.....

Setconfig >NIL: p96_accell 247 ;avoids erratic lines on nVidia.
Setconfig >NIL: p96_accell 0xF1 ; if a GeForce4 Ti Graphics Cards is present (no need to set before kernel)
setconfig >NIL: p96_accell 0xff ; all on
Setconfig >NIL: p96_accell 0x00 ; all off

Here's my startup-sequence section with settings I'm using based on my monitor, graphics card and ram.

RunEnvCheck >NIL: AMITHLON
If WARN
Path >NIL: C:AmithlonC ADD

; Note: setconfig stuff should be the very FIRST in startup-sequence!
; You risk invalidating your disk otherwise.
;
; Video @ 75 Hz
;
Setconfig >NIL: vesa_defaults 0
Setconfig >NIL: hsyncmin 24
Setconfig >NIL: hsyncmax 82
Setconfig >NIL: vsyncmin 48
Setconfig >NIL: vsyncmax 76
Setconfig >NIL: clockmax 300
Setconfig >NIL: p96_lowwidth 4096
Setconfig >NIL: p96_widthstep 1

; Asynchronous input/output
;
Setconfig >NIL: asynchronous_io 1

; Just-In-Time compiler cache size. Raise to 65536 KB when you have lots of memory.
;
Setconfig >NIL: cachesize 65536
Setconfig >NIL: keyboardmap fff|0x77|
Setconfig >NIL: keyboardmap fff|0xf7|
AmithlonSetup
Setconfig >NIL: rebootifchanged

Stack 65536

; >>> The key to the city.... <<<<
Amithlon_key HaageKey >NIL:
Else
C:MountAmigaHDDs >NIL:
EndIf

[SnkBitten]

Doobrey was nice enough to allow me to post a link to the current beta, though he ask that it not be copied and hosted elsewhere. It is a beta and you'll need an install of a previous version to copy the files included in this archive over the current install. Hopefully he'll finish up the changes he wants to make overall and provide a non beta version in the not too distant future.

http://www.doobreynet.co.uk/beta/ROMsplit_1.9a.lha