WinUAE 1.1 RGB overlay issue

Hello,

I have a quirk to report in WinUAE 1.1: when the "Do not use RGB overlays" option is disabled (i.e. RGB overlays are enabled), windowed displays are quite fuzzy both in standard AGA and Picasso96 screenmodes. Unfortunately, this cannot be reproduced as a screenshot, since grabbed images look perfect, so I assume this is an overlay programming issue (for example, some sort of hardware smoothing/filtering is switched on).

The problem goes away when using WinUAE 1.0. In fact, it can easily be reproduced by changing nothing but the EXE file from 1.0 to 1.1; then reverting back to 1.0 solves the problem, which indicates that it is probably not a configuration issue.

Has anything been changed with regard to RGB overlays in version 1.1?

No replies

Anyway, I have uploaded two screenshots with a digital camera that clearly shows the difference. The first one shows the latest WinUAE (1.1.1) using a 16-bit RGB overlay, the second one shows a simple 32-bit BGRA screen mode. Note the horizontal artifacting on the first shot. (Another issue that you probably cannot see on these small pictures is that there is some kind of unwanted blurring/anti-aliasing/filtering in effect on the first shot, which makes everything much less readable.)

The only action that took place between the two screenshots is that I changed the display mode within Directory Opus from 800x600 16bit to 800x600 32bit.

If I enable the "Don't use RGB overlays" checkbox, the problem disappears, but also gone is my ability to use 16bit windowed screen modes, which is pretty bad.

Toni, can you help? Thanks a lot in advance

[Toni Wilen]

I always use overlays (32-bit Windows desktop and 16-bit WinUAE screen) and I have not seen this problem. Maybe this is display driver or model -specific problem? (I have ATI Radeon X800XT)

What is your display card and current display driver version? Does updating to latest official (WHQL) driver fix the problem?

Thanks for your reply, Toni. I am using a BBA ATi Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB with Catalyst 5.8 (packaging version 8.162.050803a2-025203C). Since this is not the latest version, I will update my drivers as you suggested and check back with the results.

Unfortunately, the latest Catalyst 5.10 did not fix the issue. Actually, it's worse now, because the distortion is also seen with WinUAE 1.0.0, although the stripes are far less marked with that version than with WinUAE 1.1.1.

I have also uploaded my last winuaebootlog.txt file just in case it helps

winuaebootlog.txt

If you have some time, Toni, your help would be appreciated.

[Toni Wilen]

Try creating new config froms scratch (also backup and delete configurations/default.uae if it exists)

Another test: Use PrintScreen-key to capture Windows desktop (make sure WinUAE's window does not have focus when capturing), load it in any image editor and measure the size of Amiga display area. It should be exactly 800x600. It could be bug in WinUAE's size calculation (maybe caused by Windows desktop settings or skin?)

Note that you only see black (RGB 10,10,10 or 0,10,0, can't check just now) area because overlay is not captured.

Toni, I think you got something here: the WinUAE display area size is 801x599, consistently, even with different themes including the default Windows XP theme. I did measure it across themes, boot drives and Windows installations, and the calculation was always off by 1 and -1 in both dimensions, respectively.

Indeed, when I look at the Workbench screen, top rows are sharp, then as I look towards the middle of the WinUAE display, they get more and more blurry, then towards the bottom of the display the rows slowly become "focused" again.

So it's probably an unwanted antialiasing effect in the overlay due to the size calculation bug, isn't it? My Windows desktop parameters are: 1920x1200, 32-bit color, 60 Hz refresh, flat panel connected via DVI to Radeon 9800 Pro using Catalyst 5.11 - just in case it helps. I tried to switch to a lower resolution (with display scaling turned off, of course), and it did not help, so the issue does not seem to directly relate to the screen mode or e.g. the required overlay bandwidth being too high because of the high screen resolution.

Also, I'm more than willing to test some code fractions for you on this system, if needed.

(BTW, the overlay color is 10,0,10 )

Toni, I have just downloaded WinUAE 1.2 and the overlay bug has been fixed. Thank you so much for your work and for remembering to fix this one as well. You made my day

[Toni Wilen]

Great.

btw, there appears to be problem with ATI's 6.1 and 6.2 64-bit (not confirmed if it also affects 32-bit) Windows display drivers and overlay. WinUAE's overlay stays black but only if using Radeon X1900 series card (maybe X1800 series too?) X800 works fine.