Options in Amigaforever/Winuae

Hello,

I'm a complete newbie when it comes to Amiga so I picked up the Amigaforever/Winuae pack. Still getting used to it. Thought it would be easier using the forever front end to get used to using Winuae. I'm hoping someone can answer a few questions regarding it. The times I've contacted Cloanto I have not gotten any return emails.

When playing back a game it has a windowed mode. However I can't seem to stretch the window. Is there an option somewhere for that? I tried full screen but it seemed too blocky and distorted. Would be nice if I could stretch the window larger than the 2x option that is provided.

I tried the full screen option for workbench 3.x but it didn't work correctly. I did get it to display full screen but I had to change my screen resolution to the lowest setting. Is that correct? Everything else was HUGE. The screenshots that I've seen on various sites, seems like others using Winuae have some pretty nice workbenches with good resolutions.

Within workbench, is there a way to run the games without having to use the player? I may have to get some documentation as this is my first experience using the Amiga OS.

Thank you for your time!

[antonvaltaz]

The Amiga Forever Player, while pretty, has limited options - presumably to make it more user-friendly. Once you have an emulation session running from the Player, you can press F12 to access the WinUAE control panel - or access it before you start by choosing 'WinUAE Configuration' from the Player (this just loads WinUAE).

HOWEVER... if it's Workbench screen resolution you're interested in, you can ignore all of the above. If you're using windowed mode, just load the 'Workbench 3.x' configuration from the Player. Cloanto have helpfully set up this installation of Workbench with a link to the Amiga's own screen resolution settings. If you change this setting, the window should automatically resize accordingly to match your chosen resolution (by default I think it's 800 x 600).

Now as for games... these have their own resolution, usually pretty low-res by modern standards. While games can be started from Workbench (nowadays most games can be installed to your Amiga HD and started from Workbench - Google WHDLoad and WHDownload), if you're using windowed mode your window will shrink to match the low res.

If you display a game on full screen mode, you have the option (via WinUAE and possibly via the Amiga Forever Player, I can't remember) of turning on scanlines, which is intended to give the effect of playing the game on an old CRT TV - but opinion round here is pretty divided on them!

Hope this is of some help, let me know if you have any more problems.

Antonvaltaz,

This is what I did..In the AF front end I selected applications and then workbench 3.x(or 1.3). When I select it and play it it defaults to the windowed mode 1x screen size and has the dock on the bottom. The screenmode display for the workbench is set fo 800x600 8 bit. (my laptop is set at the highest resolution of 1280x1024.) Changing the display settings within the work bench change the resolution but only within that window. Now if I try to select full screen mode it just has the full screen mode with the workbench taking up a little area in the left hand corner of the monitor. The rest of the screen is blank. If i select full screen mode in the AF options with use hardware full screen mode it flashes and my screen resolution drops but you can't see the full screen workbench. If I drop my laptop screen resolution to 800x600 and then try full screen I get it. But, I didn't think I would have to drop the actual laptop resolution settings.

I am going to look into the whdload. But first it would be nice to be able to just get workbench up and running in emulated mode with a full screen that actually looks nice. Once I do I'd like to look into getting some icons or something that makes the workbench look nicer. Maybe I need to get a hold of 3.9.

**EDIT** I was playing around some more and by changing the screen resolutions from within the workbench I was able to make the display larger. 1280x1024 pretty much filled the screen, however it was in windowed mode. Still have issues with full screen mode.

[antonvaltaz]

Hmmm... sounds a bit odd. I'm afraid I can't give you a definitive answer but I can give you a few observations that might help you along.

First off, you don't need OS 3.9 - the AF 3.x config basically is 3.9 (if you search Cloanto's website there's an article on why they don't call it 3.9). Second, avoid the Workbench 1.3 config altogether - this was for the first generation Amigas, e.g. A500 (you might need the 1.3 Kickstart ROMs to play some older floppy games, but that's an entirely separate issue).

Third, you shouldn't have to manually drop your laptop resolution - WinUAE should automatically change your resolution down if necessary when you start it (and automatically change it back when you exit, like a Windows game). On my laptop (1280 x 800 by default) when I started the AF 3.x config in full-screen mode, WinUAE shifted the resolution to 800 x 600 to match the Workbench resolution, till I altered the settings in Workbench to 1280 x 800 - but in either case it filled the screen completely.

The only thing I can think is that it might be an issue with Amiga Forever 2009 (I have the 2008 version). But regardless, you should be able to get it working via WinUAE itself, regardless of Amiga Forever.

Have you discovered about loading and saving WinUAE configs yet? This is a suggestion on how to proceed:

- start the AF 3.x config from the Amiga Forever player
- once it has loaded, press F12 - this brings up the WinUAE options screen (different to the Amiga Forever ones)
- save the current configuration, under a name you'll remember
- play around with the WinUAE resolution settings (and also the screenmode settings from within Workbench) until you're happy with them
- re-save your customised configuration

Now, in future, don't load up the Workbench 3.x config from the AF Player. Instead, you should choose 'WinUAE Configuration' and load up your own personalised configuration from the WinUAE options window.

Hope this is of some help!

Thanks for the help!

I actually got the screen resolution resolved I believe. I did as you suggested and just changed the workbench settings to 1280x800 and it was then full screen in windowed mode. I select full screen option on the player and it's then full screen no window. That's with the AF setting "use hardware full screen modes" off. However if I turn it on then the whole screen resolution is terrible when trying to view it in full screen without the window. So I guess keeping that option off is fine. It seemed to do more harm than good.

I'm going to have to play around with the Winuae configurations and try to save one. That would definitely make it easier and more like an actual Amiga environment. I'm going to try the Whdload and see if I can get the games and such to work ok with the workbench.

Would you mind if I PM you further questions? I'm sure I'll have more as I go along in this process.

Thanks again!

[antonvaltaz]

Feel free to PM me whenever, I'll try to be whatever help I can!

Thanks! Appreciate all the help.
Sent you a pm.

[phil123456]

F12 does not work at all
it used to work with the real winuae but not with the one shipped with AF

[phil123456]

and there is no 'winuae configuration'

[coldacid]

I have never had a problem with F12 when running WinUAE through Amiga Forever. In addition, WinUAE that comes with AF can be run independently of it if you want.

[Minuous]

Originally Posted by antonvaltaz

First off, you don't need OS 3.9 - the AF 3.x config basically is 3.9

Where did you get that idea!? Most components of it are earlier versions with less functionality than what you get with OS3.9.