Dark Forces Amiga port

[Jacques]

Hi Guys,
is there a new build available anywhere, please?

[Calabazam]

The latest version is on Aminet.

[Jacques]

Originally Posted by Calabazam

The latest version is on Aminet.

OMG, sure it is, I asked in the wrong thread
Was supposed to ask in the AB3D2 one, sorry!

[Seiya]

is it yet available the 1.0 version or someone have it?

edit:

Dark Forces 1.0= midi output
Dark Forces 1.2= midi instruments output

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Seiya

is it yet available the 1.0 version or someone have it?

https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=115498

[PaulUK]

Firstly thank you for doing this. I downloaded the latest Dark Forces file from aminet yesterday, and bought the game on gog. I installed it on my A1200 with a Vampire Ice Drake accelerator with the 68080 CPU which is fully backwards compatible with the 040 and 040.

The game runs in Coffin OS that is based on Amiga OS 3.9, but not on Amiga OS 3.2.2.1 and on Apollo OS. It runs but with some screen flicker. So on Coffin OS, it runs but there are no cut scenes or intro and when I press Esc I get a black screen, no menu. Would anyone know why this may be happening?

BTW, during the game I get between 35 and 48 fps which is nice.

[BSzili]

Thanks for the feedback. OS 3.2.x and 3.9 was confirmed to be working, but I have no info on ApolloOS or Coffin OS. Maybe other Ice Drake users can chime in to help.

[DanyPPC]

@PaulUK have you test the game with RTG320x240 tooltype ?

Several old monitors are not compatible with a low 320 x 200 resolution.

In order, which core do you use ?
Different version could have different results.

I own an Apollo V4SA with Core 9644 (not so stable) and OS 3.9 (rom Coffin which is a 3.9 rom with some Vampire patches, these are needed)
and the new 040 executable works properly as due.
Obviously I use 320x240 resolution.

[vroom6sri]

Thanks for your amazing work. Do you think it'd ever be playable on an 030?

[BSzili]

That's unfortunately not likely, as even the official Mac version needs an 040. And before someone says that's because of the higher resolution, you can switch to low res and even reduce the texture resolution on Mac

[PaulUK]

Originally Posted by DanyPPC

@PaulUK have you test the game with RTG320x240 tooltype ?

Several old monitors are not compatible with a low 320 x 200 resolution.

In order, which core do you use ?
Different version could have different results.

I own an Apollo V4SA with Core 9644 (not so stable) and OS 3.9 (rom Coffin which is a 3.9 rom with some Vampire patches, these are needed)
and the new 040 executable works properly as due.
Obviously I use 320x240 resolution.

I'm using core 9450, on the Ice Drake and checked that the 320x200 and 320x200 could both be displayed in the screen mode test. Other Doom like games all work well. I also tried to start in CoffinOS running on a 500V2 Vampire and the same happens there. I just get a black screen. On both machines, If I set the fullscreen=false, I can see the messages and the point where things go wrong are when the Force Engine loop begins.

Next I shall try to run it on an emulated 060 in WinUAE with OS 3.2 2.

[PaulUK]

Problem solved. It was my fault! I forgot to copy the LFD folder. I spent half a day messing with this. Despite feeling very silly, I'm happy its now working as expected.

[BSzili]

That's great, all that matters is that the problem is solved in the end! If this encourages people who experience problems to double-check the docs I'm happy

[AlphaAmiga]

Does a pistorm32 with pi3a guarantee 50fps or would I need a more power pi? I.e 3b+/4b?

[Calabazam]

Originally Posted by AlphaAmiga

Does a pistorm32 with pi3a guarantee 50fps or would I need a more power pi? I.e 3b+/4b?

I already have more than 50 FPS most of the time with a Vampire 1200 V2.
RPI should be more.

[AlphaAmiga]

Originally Posted by Calabazam

I already have more than 50 FPS most of the time with a Vampire 1200 V2.
RPI should be more.

Thank you

[jkdsteve]

I played this quite a bit back in the day, on ShapeShifter 50MHz 060 / RTG.....really nice to have a native port but can't help feel it should be faster on a 100MHz 060.

[Calabazam]

The speed here is absolulty proportional to CPU power on my setups.
V1200 v2 is 4 time 68060/50 as in any other benchmark. 68060/100 is twice the 68060/50 and half the V1200 v2. There is no more magic in the 68060/100 than double clock over the 50.

[BSzili]

You can still play the Mac version is Shapeshifter, it should be much faster at a 100 MHz.

[derSammler]

Originally Posted by jkdsteve

I played this quite a bit back in the day, on ShapeShifter 50MHz 060 / RTG.....really nice to have a native port but can't help feel it should be faster on a 100MHz 060.

Take note that this uses a reverse-engineered game engine ("The Force Engine") with some enhancements. So unlike e.g. DOOM, this is not a native port of the original source code. And that's probably why it runs slower than the original, highly optimized game in ShapeShifter. TFE was made for modern PCs and not for 30-years old 68k hardware.