WHDLoad blank screen

[ScottC2010]

Hi,
I have a CDTV 68010 with kick 1.3/3.1 and 8MB Fast and i have been making a CD for myself with tinylauncher
Most games are working but RiseOfTheRobots_v1.4-C_1365 and F1GP and a couple of others have blank screen,
I have the correct kickstarts and checked the CRC16 for the 40063.A600 and it is fine
I am running decigel for extra 68010 compatibility
I have tried with and without preload and also loading the games from command line with no success and changing settings in tinylauncher such as RAD and Boot
Is there a way of producing a log each time i run whdload? - i see something called filelog/s but i'm not sure of the exact syntax as i get command line error
Thanks

[jotd]

First, if you have 8MB fast, just keep PRELOAD set.

for logging, there are 2 options: FILELOG (just add FILELOG) and TRACE.

It defaults to writing the .whdl* files in C:. Of course if the game crashes/locks up without flushing/writing anything you'll be stuck.

Of course on this 68000 machine, make sure that you don't have 3.1 for A1200/A4000. It should not try to start those without a 68020 though, specially since it's been fixed in 1.4-C but the coïncidence makes me wonder...

Version 1.4-C (26.04.2020)
- possible crash on 68000 if A1200 or A4000 kickstart is found

- can you check devs:kickstarts for any A1200/A4000 ROMS?
- can you check slave version again?

[ScottC2010]

Hi,
I don't have any A1200/4000 roms - definitely removed
Slave version is the latest 1.4-C which i have just downloaded
I have set up a similar system in winuae using A500+ and 8MB fast 1MB chip and using the directory that i used for creating the cd and setting to 68010
I will try the trace and filelog now too and let you know the results

[jotd]

WinUAE is very good to re-create the configs and debug them. If it doesn't work on 68010 winuae, just change to 68020 and test. Or 68040+MMU (which detects more things such as illegal read/writes), without changing anything else in the configuration (memory, ...)

Playing should only be done on the real thing

Yeah, definitely interested by the results even if the real process is to create a ticket @ http://mantis.whdload.de where we could have this conversation without "polluting" EAB.

but for such a fine game such as Rise of the Robots (ECS) I'll make an exception.

F1GP is that one right? http://www.whdload.de/games/FormulaOneGrandPrix.html
using kick 1.3 and a very old install too...

Maybe both bugs aren't related. But a 68010 has a VBR and should be able to trap issues more easily than 68000 (which locks up most of the time on bugs)

[ScottC2010]

Hi,
Here are the log and trace,
I managed to get it working (I don't know how) in the A500+ config
The CDTV config which is identical except that i created an iso from the workbench directory using isocd still goes blank,
Maybe i can send you the cd?

[jotd]

Maybe I have an idea. cdtv device is supposed to be disabled by whdload but which version of whdload are you using? if not disabled, you run into problems when the machine gets spurious interrupts from the CD

You can also try JST instead of whdload (latest version on my github) https://github.com/jotd666/jst on the slave. JST also runs on kickstart 1.3

[Wepl]

I think WHDLoad on CDTV when loading from CD will only work when all files are preloaded because WHDLoad will disable the CD interrupts after Preload and doesn't enable then again during a Switch.
This could explain the hang with Rise.
F1GP should work with 8 MB. The trace file shows that Preload is off for that game.
To verify this for Rise you could run it on a normal setup with FileLog and then strip the data files to the only used ones from the filelog to use them on the CDTV. So that WHDLoad will have all the files needed with Preload until the title screen.

[jotd]

The Rise issue makes sense. Game is huge(well, I mean: in terms of size)... Too bad you can't play Rise But you can play the game on normal CD without whdload I think. There's a protection but it sucks big time. It may be on some AmigaJay CDTV compilations or such. Didn't check.

[ScottC2010]

Great, thanks i will try all of these - maybe i could run a full hd setup rather than whdload and try that too - it may be just that some games aren't quite compatible (yet) too - most of the games now run from my cd which is really good like Mortal Kombat 1 and 2, Gods, Lotus 2, and of course there are the amigajay cds which are great and the sovox compilation
I'll have a look at the filelog too

[ScottC2010]

Originally Posted by jotd

Maybe I have an idea. cdtv device is supposed to be disabled by whdload but which version of whdload are you using? if not disabled, you run into problems when the machine gets spurious interrupts from the CD

You can also try JST instead of whdload (latest version on my github) https://github.com/jotd666/jst on the slave. JST also runs on kickstart 1.3

I am using whdload 18.6
I will have a look at jst too

[ScottC2010]

With jst i get:
Can't allocate enough memory for files
I have tried the following - lowmem, hdload options as well as disabling preload in the icon

[ScottC2010]

Ok, i am just running the folder in a 500+ setup with 68010 and 8MB Fast
Have got it to the intro anims (with WHDLoad - JST just came up with a window - i will see if i can generate a log) then fails with this:
Exception "Address error" ($800C)
PC = $8774CE (Task 'DH0', ExpMem $24CE)
Word Write to $99999999

[jotd]

JST won't help if files can't be all preloaded anyway. Same as whdload.

You're getting exception but that's probably normal as many games aren't robust to missing files.
The point was to check if whdload was running at all, which seems to be the case.

Don't you have a hard drive/cf card? that would solve the loading problem on Rise. On a CD you can't use partial preload as Wepl explained, but on a hard drive you certainly can.

[ScottC2010]

Hi,
I have a 1200 with a hard disk - so i can try on that - it is already set up with whdload.
I think i will leave the cdtv for this game for the moment (Though i may have a play around with different configs etc) - i have plenty of games working now for the moment.
Thanks for your help and keep up the great work!

[ScottC2010]

Hi,
Just an update - i have an ACE2b 2MB Chip on it's way so i will try that and see if it makes any difference