WinUAE 4.9.1 beta closed thread?

[zygzak]

Why 4.9.1 beta thread was closed? Will not be any more betas in this release?
Beside i wasn't able to run game "Batman Caped Crusader" on A500 configuration on beta 9 (x64). Game gets to the title screen which is scrambled after one second and nothing can be done. Guru meditation follows this state after some short time. The title screen is correct only for 1-2 first seconds. And no music is playing.
Game works correctly on the same configuration on 4.9.0 release. But I did some funny discovery. On first try I put beta 9 in the same program files directory as 4.9.0 but renamed it to winuae64_4910b9.exe where 4.9.0 filename was left as winuae64.exe (beta archive contains only exe so I assume exe should be replaced and rest files should remain).

At second try I thought maybe name has some meaning so I renamed beta to winuae64.exe and 4.9.0 to winuae64_4900.exe. In such case game didn't work on any versions. In third attempt i removed winuae64.exe and left winuae64_4910b9.exe and winuae64_4900.exe only. Now Batman works on 4.9.0 and doesn't work on beta.
I tested "Batman - The Caped Crusader (1988)(Ocean)[cr QTX].adf" image.

[GetBoinged!]

See here: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=109710

[Toni Wilen]

https://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p...4&postcount=55
https://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p...5&postcount=61

[honx]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

https://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p...4&postcount=55
https://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p...5&postcount=61

both links lead to the same post.

btw. if one wants to report bugs, after beta thread was closed, wait for 4.9.2 beta thread?

[Toni Wilen]

No betas exists or nothing to do with beta: post separate bug thread.

[zygzak]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

https://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p...4&postcount=55
https://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p...5&postcount=61



Fortunately it is mostly harmless, it only breaks music player

Well, its not. No music is first symptom game won't run. Even if player tap F1 or F2 when still screen is not broken it won't change the outcome.
I understand now that game is broken at core level but on real Amiga i never experienced such state - not from power up machine, not after reset with CTRL-A-A either. On Winaue 4.9.0 the game started correctly always from power up. The only time it didn't was when I renamed exe and put beta as winuae64.exe into folder. I tried one time reset with key combination on both versions - didn't help. Wasn't sure where reason lies so didn't test it more.
Previous Winuae i used was 3.x and Batman never ended as broken state.

I assume there is no case with renamed files, just had this bad cycle this time.
Got one fail and next success after soft reset on 4.9.0. How could the release such piece of crappy soft.

[Mclane]

As Toni says, just post as a general bug, the cycle of a beta must end somewhere, or it becomes hard to pinpont where issues started in a chain of releases.

[Toni Wilen]

It was never going to be fixed in 4.9.1 because the plan is fix the real cause for this problem after 4.9.1 is out (real fix needs major changes and lots and lots of testing).

Other option would have been to delay this version until summer 2022 (or even later).

[zygzak]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

It was never going to be fixed in 4.9.1 because the plan is fix the real cause for this problem after 4.9.1 is out (real fix needs major changes and lots and lots of testing).

Other option would have been to delay this version until summer 2022 (or even later).

As I understood the bug is not in Winuae so not sure what You want to fix then. The game? It was average product, some liked it, some said it is crap.
I could ask - was there any version of Winuae with hack for Batman and similar games or it always was random that it will start or not?

[DamienD]

There's a simple workaround for this in WinUAE...

Just set a standard "A500 / OCS / KS 1.3 ROM / 512KB Chip & 512KB Slow RAM" configuration, but then tick "Immediate Blitter"

It's been discussed numerous times...

[ross]

Originally Posted by zygzak

As I understood the bug is not in Winuae so not sure what You want to fix then. The game? It was average product, some liked it, some said it is crap.
I could ask - was there any version of Winuae with hack for Batman and similar games or it always was random that it will start or not?

The question is not whether there is a bug or not, but "fix the real cause for this problem". The game is working on bare A500 because of some lucky circumstances and to support this circumstances a not too little piece of code would need a rewrite and proper testing.

Are there any other programs that would benefit from this 'fix' on emulation? Maybe yes, maybe not, but the purpose of WinUAE between one version and another is precisely this, to improve the emulation, up to the coveted 100%. So be patient and this game will also be supported without specific hacks.

[Zarnal]

Yes, you're right, but a lot of people don't realize the difference between "working" and "working properly". The new Agnus emulation has already taken a lot of time during its development phase (and the appearance of the schematics has been very beneficial). But this is only a first step. The rest of the adjustments will not be done in 5 minutes.

[Umpal]

Hi Toni. I see this issue hasn't been fixed yet so I'm linking it as a reminder: https://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p...38&postcount=7

Thanks for your great work

[Mclane]

Originally Posted by Zarnal

Yes, you're right, but a lot of people don't realize the difference between "working" and "working properly". The new Agnus emulation has already taken a lot of time during its development phase (and the appearance of the schematics has been very beneficial). But this is only a first step. The rest of the adjustments will not be done in 5 minutes.

Indeed,

Over the many years I've been around emulators and computers I have come to understand in my own small way just what goes on with this sort of stuff and if it would make many people run like hell. Rarely is it a case where a bug jumps out at you, it usually needs solid hours of painful screen staring but it also needs years of experience to second guess some stuff, that experience does not come easily, it takes hours of detective work worthy of Sherlock Holmes where you don't always find the issue straight away.

It's not like Toni spots a bug, taps the keyboard a few times, and it's all good, often the 'fix' has wide over reaching effects on other code which needs to be checked, hence you will often see phrases such as "the fix may break other stuff" being used.

I know there are many very experienced users / coder's on here that know how all this work but, it's important that all users realise the absolute hard work and time all this takes, and it's all for free.

I often see emulator writers getting a hard time because a game does not work 100% or possibly even, at all. But, try and remember that there's no real simple fix, even if Toni fixes it swiftly it's only because of the experience, training and TIME that enabled him to read problems faster. Rewriting chunks of the emulator often breaks most of it until Toni can re-enable all the working modules back or finish writing them..

Thankfully that is where we come in, we spot the bugs through use, the more we push the program the more we expose any faulty issues, this really aids Toni, it saves him having to do it all (he also does a lot of this before we get to play with it).

Just spare a thought for his hard work, help where you can but follow his instructions before you make his work more annoying. And please remember, Frankenstein configurations rarely help, make sure the bug happens on the least modified config as possible, just because there's a function available it does not mean to just enable it for no reason.

Thanks Toni..

Toni wishes it was just 5 mins

[21stcentury]

Thanx Tony for to have fixed the PAL filter in the last update.

[zygzak]

Originally Posted by DamienD

There's a simple workaround for this in WinUAE...

Just set a standard "A500 / OCS / KS 1.3 ROM / 512KB Chip & 512KB Slow RAM" configuration, but then tick "Immediate Blitter"

It's been discussed numerous times...

I thought cycle exact gives most reliable emulation of A500. But with cycle exact I can't enable immediate blitter. Will immediate blitter give better compatibility?

[ross]

Originally Posted by zygzak

Will immediate blitter give better compatibility?

No.
It's only a side effect of what it does in this particular game (the 'problem' is only indirectly related to something blitter).