WinUAE 1.6.0 beta series (was 1.5.4)

[Toni Wilen]

http://www.winuae.net/files/b/winuae_1600b7.zip

Beta 7:

- version number bumped to 1.6.0
- added "resize" autoscale method. Resizes windowed mode window to current detected Amiga display size. (1:1 pixel mapping, no blurriness)
- PAL/NTSC switching in KS3.x early boot screen was ignored until following reboot (old bug)
- do not report no_cd-status when loading CD32 statefile without CD installed
- doublescan modes autoscale/resize better
- improved Amiga display size detection
- autoscale option saved to configuration file
- do not capture mouse if mouse pointer is not in normal mode, prevents annoying accidental capture when dragging/resizing
- very large overscanned modes are centered in autoscale modes, previously right border was simply clipped
- tablet+magic mouse cursor positioning will be even more broken now
- do not create registry key if ini mode is enabled (release versions only)
- renamed "Drawing tablet support" to "Install virtual mouse driver" (which is not much better but at least a bit less confusing..)
- mouse autocaptures in "sync mode" if native side mouse driver does not get "heartbeat" signal from Amiga-side driver (for example when running game that takes over the system). Current timeout is 2 seconds.
- native mode mouse cursor shape copied to Windows cursor (yes, I am going really too far now..) in mousesync mode. Just experimenting..
- left mousebutton didn't always work in mouse sync modes
- fullscreen and full window should work correctly again (hint: full window + autoscale + correct aspect = useful if you don't mind blurriness, scale2x/pal filter may also help)
- on screen leds' background is translucent (32-bit screen + filtered only)
- NOTE: D3D/OGL filters do not yet work correctly in autoscale, autoresize or mouse sync modes (=mouse driver + magic mouse)
- NOTE2: screen dragging does weird things with autoscale/mouse sync (mouse sync issue when two different screens are visible should be fixable)
- NOTE3: both real and "fake" cursor is temporarily visible in mouse sync modes. They should always be in 100% sync and have identical shape. (but aren't, still much work to do..)

Thank you very much Toni !!!!!!!!

This program is a killer !!!

[Marcuz]

tested briefly...

autoscale works fine if you leave default display settings, but sometimes, with those, [i.e. simple quickstart] the positioning, at least the horizontal one is off, with the left part of the emulation out of the window. it happens in fullscreen and windowed mode.

it may just be the odd disk, for instance,
Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge (1990)(Gremlin)[cr Genesis - Angels]

but for the rest is very ok.

also: with lores mode + no double line mode, the scaling is blurred.

-----------

only request i would like to do is:

can you add the 3x and 5x multiplyers (fixed ones with no further customization would be fine even) for when not wanting to use autoscale and not set it as default mode?

thank you!

[Retro-Nerd]

Originally Posted by marco pedrana

but for the rest is very ok.

also: with lores mode + no double line mode, the scaling is blurred.

It's still blurred in Hires mode+Nullfilter/automatic scaling/automatic resize too.

Some emulators fixed the blurriness (this is probably nVidia driver bug irc) by using system ram instead of video ram for software filters. Is this complete nonsense, related to WinUAE fullscreen mode? Probably, eh?

[Marcuz]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

It's still blurred in Hires mode+Nullfilter/scaling too.

Some emulators fixed the blurriness (this is probably nVidia driver bug irc) by using system ram instead of video ram for software filters. Is this complete nonsense, related to WinUAE?

doesn't happen here (at least: there is bound to be some interpolation and henceforth blurrines if the window size is not a multiple of the original resolution [more or less], i don't see how it would be differently).
but i'm on ATI card and driver, so maybe what you mention is that.

but at least it is here very much more blurred in the low res mode.

anyway, in the usability this version is greatly better than the last one, to me.

[Retro-Nerd]

Oops, overlooked the "windowed mode". I tried the fullscreen mode, and there is blurriness. Windowed mode+automatic scale/resize looks fine here.

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

Some emulators fixed the blurriness (this is probably nVidia driver bug irc) by using system ram instead of video ram for software filters. Is this complete nonsense, related to WinUAE fullscreen mode? Probably, eh?

I think the problem is that DirectDraw scaling (not Direct3D) can be different on different cards and drivers..

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by marco pedrana

it may just be the odd disk, for instance,
Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge (1990)(Gremlin)[cr Genesis - Angels]

Usual case of having much bigger and non-centered display window compared to visible graphics, can't really fix these cases without breaking others.

[Marcuz]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

Usual case of having much bigger and non-centered display window compared to visible graphics, can't really fix these cases without breaking others.

yeah i agree, and that's why i asked you to add the other multiplyers too

anyway i've played a bit more and it's overall a very good release

[Retro-Nerd]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

I think the problem is that DirectDraw scaling (not Direct3D) can be different on different cards and drivers..

Just noticed that you've already implemented this feature.

Display Buffer = SystemRam + Fullscreen mode + Autoscale works without blurriness here. Now i need new eyes, this autoscale looks sooooo ugly!!!

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by marco pedrana

can you add the 3x and 5x multiplyers (fixed ones with no further customization would be fine even) for when not wanting to use autoscale and not set it as default mode?

In next beta multiplier select boxes allow directly entered values (like Frequency box in sound panel)

[BlueAchenar]

Hi Toni. Do you want PCMCIA CF emulation patches? Just kidding!

[Marcuz]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

Just noticed that you've already implemented this feature.

Display Buffer = SystemRam + Fullscreen mode + Autoscale works without blurriness here. Now i need new eyes, this autoscale looks sooooo ugly!!!

HEY! SystemRam makes the autoscale cleaner for me too! i thought that the remaining blurriness was because of the non-native resolution on my LCD, instead...
cool! thank for pointing it!

[andreas]

Hmmm...so system RAM makes it cleaner?

I'm trying to draw a conclusion of that:
So the engine might have a problem with the special sort of RAM found on video cards? (on older cards, like mine, this will commonly be SGRAM; newer cards [Radeon...] may already have recent GDDR2/GDDR3/GDDR4 or brand-new GDDR5!)

[Retro-Nerd]

I've always thought that only the nVidia driver causes this blurriness with video-ram (auto-bilinear filtering), caused by a never fixed bug. Interesting that the system-ram buffer works for ATI cards too, resp. you have to do this.

[andreas]

Hmm. I don't quite think the behavior will be identical with all GeForce cards throughout.
Nor is there such thing as "the" nvidia driver .

There are GeForce 5-9 AND some brand-new ones called GT200 or GTXxxxx, which should not be thrown in the same context to begin with, in view of their entirely different architecture.

[Retro-Nerd]

Probably, i still use an old GeForce 6800 card.

[andreas]

FX5200 here ...
(as long as it still works )

[Toni Wilen]

http://www.winuae.net/files/b/winuae_1600b8.zip

Beta 8:

- UAE boot rom was enabled when it should not have been (b7)
- little blitter tweak, writing to bltcon1 while blitter was enabled confused blitter emulation in some cases
- filter multiplier select boxes now support manually entered multipliers, for example 2.5 = 2.5x.
- "Commandline" registry (or ini) string entry will be parsed as a command line (separate step after normal command line parsing)
- built-in hrtmon cycle-exact mode issue fixed
- non-interlace to interlace switch issue fixed (another one, they never end..)
- do not autoresize unless display parameters are stable for next 50 frames
- added "Include removable drives.." option. Now "Add PC drives" only adds nonremovable drives. USB etc. will be only mounted at startup if new option is ticked. "Workaround" for case when "Automount removable drives" is ticked but USB (or whatever) drive is already inserted.
- removable drive insert/eject used unallocated signal bit, it did not cause problems but fixed now
- experimental "flicker fixer" implemented. (Display panel) Works perfectly in WB, not so perfect in games yet (and impossible to get perfect in all cases, as usual..) No more interlace artifacts when any graphics object or mouse pointer moves. NOTE: first and last line will flicker or show garbage.
- "updated" to Windows 7 Beta. (this does not mean you can post anything offtopic)

[Marcuz]

Tested, particularly the resizing / rescaling differences with the last version. it runs very well and the numeric multipliers are very handy in the odd positioning issues, thanks for adding them!

i would like to try the flicker fixing option too, but currently i have no program using interlacing. i need to fix me up Evil's Doom, with the caveat that, as you say, it cannot be expected to work for sure, just wanted to check it

[turrican3]

i tested flicker ixer with shadow of the beast intro, and no problem, it works great with this one !

[Marcuz]

tested it also with Evil's Doom now. (the game changes... display mode? anyway has 2 differents, at least, way of displaying things)

in some occurrences the flicker fixing solves the problem of black "scanlines" leftovers and i found it useful anyway to help readability. (the game still i don't like )

[turrican3]

Line mode must be set double , if not , flickerfixer doesn't work.
For the moment or forever ?

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by turrican3

Line mode must be set double , if not , flickerfixer doesn't work.
For the moment or forever ?

Yes and probably.

EDIT: Flickerfixer is not correct name. "Flickerfixer" is already built-in (=line doubling) but this does not remove interlace artifacts. "New flickerfixer" is something that is impossible outside of emulation. (It emulates two scans lines simultaneously using both odd and even bitplane pointers)

[AxelFoley]

I have a small problem with latest beta versions.
When I start quickstart or any other mode, the cpu boost to more than 100 %,
normallly it stay's around 10 %. Did I miss something. ???

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by AxelFoley

I have a small problem with latest beta versions.
When I start quickstart or any other mode, the cpu boost to more than 100 %,
normallly it stay's around 10 %. Did I miss something. ???

Like last version that worked without slowdowns..

(but I can guess, you have null filter enabled and your display card has issues, disable filter and/or set display buffer in misc panel to SystemRAM)

[AxelFoley]

Thanks Toni - That did the trick. using gforce 7300.
I don't understand how U can make winuae better for every new version !!!
Been using it since one of the 1st releases.
I like the autoresize/scale feature.. Thanks

[Marcuz]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

Like last version that worked without slowdowns..

(but I can guess, you have null filter enabled and your display card has issues, disable filter and/or set display buffer in misc panel to SystemRAM)

uhm, something strange happened here and i don't know if it's beta related...

out of the blue, the last betas and even the ones before, that worked perfectly, both in fullscreen and windowed modes, both with and without filters, both with default ram and system ram, started to get to 100% CPU as soon as i start any game...

it is about 70 % on WB, and then it goes stuttering.

i have changed nothing at all both in my pc, drivers or Winuae config...


[edit]

resetted the pc, no unneded processes running, tested again with the same results twice on 3 tests. all the three had the same configurations...

logs attached

[turrican3]

toni, test it :
set display to 1280 x 1024 and set filter d3d hq2x by exemple or any d3d filter -> even if i set horiz and vert position to 999 it's not centered the screen is displayed too much upper and left.
You could test it with any game, just change to 1280 x1024 and d3d h2x filter.

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by turrican3

toni, test it :
set display to 1280 x 1024 and set filter d3d hq2x by exemple or any d3d filter -> even if i set horiz and vert position to 999 it's not centered the screen is displayed too much upper and left.
You could test it with any game, just change to 1280 x1024 and d3d h2x filter.

Try reading changelogs before posting next time..

[europasat]

i have got the same problem my cpu is getting almost percent.can it be fixed in the next future releases and thank you for winuae as when i play games on that brings me a lot of memories.

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by europasat

i have got the same problem my cpu is getting almost percent.can it be fixed in the next future releases and thank you for winuae as when i play games on that brings me a lot of memories.

Fix was listed above. Change display buffer to SystemRAM. It is not WinUAE problem but hardware/driver "feature". ("Works fine here in 3 test machines")

I am not going to change the default because SystemRAM DOES NOT work in all PCs either. No-win situation.

[Marcuz]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

Fix was listed above. Change display buffer to SystemRAM. It is not WinUAE problem but hardware/driver "feature". ("Works fine here in 3 test machines")

I am not going to change the default because SystemRAM DOES NOT work in all PCs either. No-win situation.

i get that, but it worked fine since the beta 4, and since the problem present itself even with no filters and resizes used, while hardware / drivers have not changed, what could cause it?

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by marco pedrana

i get that, but it worked fine since the beta 4, and since the problem present itself even with no filters and resizes used, while hardware / drivers have not changed, what could cause it?

but you said:

out of the blue, the last betas and even the ones before, that worked perfectly, both in fullscreen and windowed modes, both with and without filters, both with default ram and system ram, started to get to 100% CPU as soon as i start any game...

You didn't say anything about versions, just that ALL betas started working slower. Very different..

So what _exactly_ happened?

[Marcuz]

Sorry Toni, my bad: when i edited the other post to explain what i found, i thought to add the beta numbers and i completely forgot about it.

so: beta 4 works without problems.

beta 5 has problems anyway with the scaling and filters and hanged (not crashed) so i could not test it now, but when i did, when you released it, i had not seen the graphic stuttering.

beta 6 works and it seems to me ok: no graphic stuttering, even while the CPU is at 100% usage.

beta 7 and 8 presented the same problem i reported in the other post: no matter if in fullscreen or windowed modes, both with and without filters, both with default ram and system ram, started to get to 100% CPU as soon as i start any game, plus the graphic scats...

now, after testing again beta 5, with the very same configuration, with no change by me, no winuae istance simply reaches WB, just like the beta 5, it just stay black with not working F12.

this is the very same configuration between all the tests, from yesterday and today!

each of them instead, keeps to reach the boot with quickstars.

so i guess there's a problem in the configurations? some host setting that is touched?

i'm realy puzzled and i'll try to single the thing that makes the mess, but if you have some insight on what i should try, i would appreciate it

[Marcuz]

tested more.

at first i thought that somehow the main HDF had been broken, as i wasn't able to load it anymore. so i tryed loading it through a new quickconfig, adding the settigs for the RTG and memory.

it loaded up but in native mode, like there wasn't a picasso setup.

this way i tested some game, with no stuttering, even if the CPU, as usual now, was at 100%.

new thing while usually winuae sets quickconfigs to have the 2 catweasels joysticks in the two compatibility' ports and so require to manual set them to mouse*, the input configuration reverts by itself to the 2 catweasel joystick every half a minute!
(logs attached)

i noticed something strange about the input stuff compatibility / custom already some day ago, like if a joystick would come active only after swapped or reimposted in a custom config... but i thought it was me garbling things up.

i think now there is something wrong with the input panel since probably beta 5.

anyway. finally i loaded up again the old usual rtg configuration i used yesterday and earlier today, and with no newer changes by my part, it worked again, except the strange input devices behaviour in compatibility mode.

i could not find which is the setting that causes the stuttering, it seems to me pretty much casual, but my wild guess is that it may be the sequence of loadings/unloadings of display in a rtg workbench:

-null filter on, no automatic scaling/resize
1) winuae boots, a small screen centered with the amiga resolution proportions in the middle of the display, trembling.
2) RTG loads, so the display flashes back to Windows, then to the stretched RTG screen. (WB rtg screen gets automatically fitted to display)
3) load a game in WHDLoad, so it gets back to native, etc.

with D3D filter or rescaling/resizing on nullfilter it's pertty much the same, just a bit more complicated. mah!

so far beta 4 is still the more reliable here.

[Marcuz]

i apologize if this is not beta related, i have no way to know it:

the single line in configurations that seems to hang Winuae is this:

catweasel=-1

wich is present in the config branded as:

config_version=1.6.0

and not in the previous ones. it may actually be the cause for the input being scrambled back to the 2 catweasel joystics.
[edit] no it is not: while at least the workbench loads, the input gets always back to the one present when Winuae loads.

it shouldn't explain the graphic stuttering, though, as it was prolly saved by one of the betas between 4 and 6 and that problem was present before.

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by marco pedrana

new thing while usually winuae sets quickconfigs to have the 2 catweasels joysticks in the two compatibility' ports and so require to manual set them to mouse*, the input configuration reverts by itself to the 2 catweasel joystick every half a minute!

It means second firebutton is pressed (or stuck) in catweasel port = autoselect the device. Do you really use latest drivers? Anyway, "not winuae problem".

Other post had 3D filter messages = going to ignore it. It is broken and MUST NOT BE USED OR MENTIONED AT ALL

EDIT: also make sure all magic mouse/tablet checkboxes are disabled.

EDIT2: do not enable catweasel checkbox. It enables MK2 zorro2-board emulation, it should not be enabled if you only want joystick ports.

[Marcuz]

i think best solution in my case is to delete all old configurations and make some with the last beta.

due to the major changes between winuae 1.5 and 1.6, may the different last betas (from 4 to 8) save [when saving configuration] some particular line that is not particularly liked by another one of them? meaning, without the user expressly making that change in configuration?

thanks about the possible solutions to the mouse problem! i will check that

[Toni Wilen]

Slowdown seems to be caused by transparent onscreen leds...