WinUAE issues when playing Hoi

[Team_Hoi]

Hi guys,

I've just installed the latest WinUAE (1.4.2a) on my Intel Core 2 Quad system with NVidia Quadro FX 1400 and 8 GB RAM (yes, I know, I'm a snob, but as a 3D graphics creator I need the power for rendering ).

I'm one of the creators of the old Amiga game Hoi and would love to record some levels, like the programmer and I already did with level 1, 2 and 3 a few years ago:

http://www.youtube.com/sevensheavendotcom

I'm currently encountering three problems while trying to play and record game footage:

1: In Hoi level 4 there's an air meter at the bottom right. That meter is constantly being visibly refreshed, as if that particular part of the code isn't emulated correctly. The rest of the screen moves perfectly smooth.

2: Because the game starts in double-sized resolution, recording an uncompressed AVI quickly creates huge files.

3: As soon as I start recording, the emulation gets terribly slow (CPU usage becomes 1000% or so, and movement gets very jerky).

Now I've got a few questions:

1: Can anyone help me to get the perfect WinUAE configuration file for playing Hoi (the original 2-disk old chipset version)? I hope that will fix the strange flashing of the air meter.

2: Is there a way to play Hoi in its native resolution (I believe that's 376 x 283 pixels)? That would already halve the recorded video size.

3: If I set the refresh rate to every 2nd frame, does that also mean that half the amount of frames is recorded?

4: How can I avoid the extreme slowdown when recording? Maybe by choosing an AVI codec in stead of uncompressed frames?

5: Can anyone please help me to get an Amiga Workbench file going and play the Hoi AGA Remix in there?

Thank you very much in advance for helping me out. I'm really looking forward to relive those old Amiga times again.

All the best from the Netherlands,

Metin Seven

[Toni Wilen]

1: Can anyone help me to get the perfect WinUAE configuration file for playing Hoi (the original 2-disk old chipset version)? I hope that will fix the strange flashing of the air meter.

Are you using most compatible A500 quickstart setting?

2: Is there a way to play Hoi in its native resolution (I believe that's 376 x 283 pixels)? That would already halve the recorded video size.

Yes and thats how to do it properly. Tick lores and untick doubling checkboxes. "You get what you see".

3: If I set the refresh rate to every 2nd frame, does that also mean that half the amount of frames is recorded?

Not 100% sure I think so..

[quote]
4: How can I avoid the extreme slowdown when recording? Maybe by choosing an AVI codec in stead of uncompressed frames?
[/uqote]

By not using 800x600 or similar resolution. 800x600x3x50 = too much data per second. Your HD won't be fast enough if using uncompressed (and no CPU is fast enough to compress that kind of data flow in realtime..)

In future version video compression will be moved to separate thread which should help with dual core CPUs.

5: Can anyone please help me to get an Amiga Workbench file going and play the Hoi AGA Remix in there?

?

[Team_Hoi]

Thanks for your reply Toni.

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

Are you using most compatible A500 quickstart setting?

I hadn't tried setting the slider to the "Best compatibility" edge yet. Tried it, together with the lowres option, and now it works fine, thanks!

[how to fix the avi recording slowdown ...] By not using 800x600 or similar resolution. 800x600x3x50 = too much data per second. Your HD won't be fast enough if using uncompressed (and no CPU is fast enough to compress that kind of data flow in realtime..)

That makes sense, thanks again for the info.

In future version video compression will be moved to separate thread which should help with dual core CPUs.

That'd be great!

Regarding Hoi AGA in a Workbench envionment: we released Hoi for free in the shape of a remix in 1993. It was fully Workbench compliant, complete with a intuition frontend. It would be great if I could get that version running again, but I have no experience with the WinUAE harddisk file or getting a Workbench to load. I'd appreciate it if anyone could help me.

Thanks again and cheers,

Metin