[C, RTG] My raycaster funtime.. sharing code, also looking for performance boost..

[mateusz_s]

Source codes. Executables for Amiga and Windows.
https://github.com/mateusz83/msRay

--- UPDATE - 26.08.2022 ---

msDevPack v0.33 features:
- wall/floor/ceiling textures
- new, faster floor/ceiling render algorithm (based on screen projection and clipping)
- mipmaps (256x256 --> 32x32)
- baked lightmaps
- distance shading
- glowing pixels


video:
[ Show youtube player ]


--- UPDATE - 05.07.2022 ---

msDevPack v0.32 features:
- wall/floor.ceiling textures
- mipmaps (256x256 --> 4x4)
- baked lightmaps
- distance shading
- glowing pixels

Test video (includes V1200 test):
[ Show youtube player ]

Source code. Check out if you are interested in RTG coding,
Amiga framework, ReAction etc.:
https://github.com/mateusz83/msRay/t..._devpack_v0.32

Executables for testing:
http://mstanisz.website.pl/tmp/amiga/msRay-32.zip



--- UPDATE - 15.01.2022 ---

Hello again,
I send some time optimizing the engine and adding features.

Right now I have on V1200:
- 320x200x32 - average 50 fps, near the walls its 70-80 - generally its fast and smooth.
- 640x400x32 - average 16-18 fps (slowly but playable)

Check out demo level (this video is from WinUae)
[ Show youtube player ]

Also check out how its working on Emu68 in INSANE resolutions
[ Show youtube player ]

Checkout the exec yourself (needs RTG)
https://mstanisz.website.pl/tmp/amig...v0.31-exec.zip

The whole "devpack" with all sources (PC and Amiga, editor etc)
https://mstanisz.website.pl/tmp/amig...pack_v0.31.zip

The simplify "devpack" with Amiga sources only:
https://mstanisz.website.pl/tmp/amig...31--SIMPLE.zip



--- 17 April 2021, 23:48 ---


Hi,
Recently I spent some time to develop my Racycaster thinking mostly about Vampire accelerators. But the main point was to test the RTG possibilities and render something at 24 or 32 bits.

Right now, I get to this point (with 1:1 pixels)
- 320x240x32 - about 15-18 fps
- 640x480x32 - about 4-5 fps
on Vampires, the Warp 1260 at now is about 2-3x slower, but as far as I know the RTG is noy yest fully optimized

but please note that these are my coding limits not Vampire or Warp limits


VIDEO OF MY RECENT PROGRESS:
[ Show youtube player ]


I was coding in C, I don't know assembler so I don't think I can optimize the speed any further by now.
But the engine like this should problably works on Vampire like at least 40-50 fps in 320x240x32 and maybe at least 20 in 640x480x32..
it was my first RTG and System Amiga coding attempt, I am glad of the results so far. I hope I will back soon to this project
and optimize it much better.

The textured walls itselfs with shading was very fast even in 640x480x32, but adding floors and ceiling slow donwn everything. They can't be so much optimized as walls.

I also wrote a Launcher that scans thru available display modes (in fullscreen or window) that can be filtered and formated by user.


NOTE!
I would like to share my code to encourage users and coders to use more RTG modes and higher resolutions or color depths.
I would like also to hear your opinion and maybe ideas to optimize the performance
Probably the floor/ceiling is the major problem right now..


DOWNLOADS:
1. exec from the VIDEO: http://mstanisz.website.pl/tmp/amiga/ray8.zip
(works only on 32bit - fullscreen or window)

2. all C sources including Launcher application: http://mstanisz.website.pl/tmp/amiga/ray8-source.zip

3. C source with only main render loop to look up: http://mstanisz.website.pl/tmp/amiga...ender-loop.zip


KNOWLEDGE SOURCES
For people interested in Raycasting and graphisc programming I am sharing
some links:

1. probably the best Raycaster approach and tutorial: https://lodev.org/cgtutor/index.html

2. different Raycasting approach: https://permadi.com/1996/05/ray-cast...e-of-contents/

3. Watch 3 minutes of this clip first to get the idea: [ Show youtube player ]

4. wolf3d algorithm expalined: [ Show youtube player ]

5. javidx9 (aka One Lone Coder) - yout tube channel - lots of inspirations and knowledge: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-y...UJZvieEligKBkA

6. Graphic Gems book series (I-V) lots of graphics algorithms

7. Pikuma Raycasting course - trigonometric approach: https://courses.pikuma.com/courses/raycasting-c

8. another channel with cg aspects coding: [ Show youtube player ]

9. and another yt channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Bisqwit

[Photon]

In rendering, a Profiling method is gold for optimizing Fillrate. Some portions can get close to memory bus bandwidth (staring into a wall), per-pixel operations scale quadratically with resolution (big room with few walls).

I'm sure you know some culprits already, I'm stressing this because the more you know about the slowest rendering code, the more frame time you can remove. Measure frame times accurately, and improve low FPS outliers as first priority; ignore average FPS until you've addressed the major time sinks, removing as many per-pixel operations as you can.

Profiling gives insight into relative performance. Regarding absolute FPS expectations: A 486DX2-66 MHz "struggles a bit" [ Show youtube player ] (usually means ~30 FPS) @ ~256x140x8bpp (with enemies, shots, score, damage, etc). An 060 is faster per MHz if utilized properly. More information about the systems you run your code on is required to draw conclusions about code performance vs ideal (or close-to-ideal) hardware performance.

[Pyromania]

@mateusz_s

Thanx, looks like cool stuff and sounds like fun.

[NovaCoder]

Very cool stuff like I said to you before, well done.....must have been a huge coding effort.

High color RTG graphics on a real classic Amiga will never be that fast I'm afraid to say, even discounting the fact the the CyberGFX API probably isn't very well optimized for high color the Zorro bus throughput is very limited so it will have trouble just drawing a screen quickly. Obviously FPGA computers like the Vampire won't have this limitation.

Profiling C (or even C++) would be very helpful for the classic Amiga but as far as I know this isn't possible using gcc?

[mateusz_s]

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

Very cool stuff like I said to you before, well done.....must have been a huge coding effort.

High color RTG graphics on a real classic Amiga will never be that fast I'm afraid to say, even discounting the fact the the CyberGFX API probably isn't very well optimized for high color the Zorro bus throughput is very limited so it will have trouble just drawing a screen quickly. Obviously FPGA computers like the Vampire won't have this limitation.

Profiling C (or even C++) would be very helpful for the classic Amiga but as far as I know this isn't possible using gcc?

Hello NovaCoder, thanks you for reply..
Well yes, I am aiming for "modernish" accelerators like Vampires with combined RTG..
This because, there are a lots of 8 bit fps and other games, I just wanted to step level up,
and see the new possibilities.

This code can be much more optimised, and almost for sure could run 40-50 fps in 320x240x32.. which is more than enough. ~20fps in 640x400 could also be possible which is playable.

You can use profiler on GCC.. it generates the output file.. but in my case I couln'd find it much useful..

Another possibility is to use cycle counter and cache misses counter, but on Vampire only.

But 32 bit color is not only for 3d games that need lots of calculations. For example for a nice Tower Defense game we don't need 32bit, 8 would be enogh, but in higher resolution etc.

Anyway I am still trying to make more optimalisations, working in C, optimizing loops, trying different rendering algorithms etc.. no pressure just fun..

[mateusz_s]

(THE FIRST POST HAS BEEN UPDATED)


Hello again,
I spend some time optimizing the engine and adding features.

Right now I have on V1200:
- 320x200x32 - average 50 fps, near the walls its 70-80 - generally its fast and smooth.
- 640x400x32 - average 16-18 fps (slowly but playable)

Check out demo level (this video is from WinUae)
[ Show youtube player ]

Also check out how its working on Emu68 in INSANE resolutions
[ Show youtube player ]

Checkout the exec yourself (needs RTG)
https://mstanisz.website.pl/tmp/amig...v0.31-exec.zip

The whole "devpack" with all sources (PC and Amiga, editor etc)
https://mstanisz.website.pl/tmp/amig...pack_v0.31.zip

The simplify "devpack" with Amiga sources only:
https://mstanisz.website.pl/tmp/amig...31--SIMPLE.zip

[Aardvark]

Tested this on TF1260 100mhz+Radeon [ Show youtube player ] No idea whats up with the colors.

[kriz]

Really impressing speed!!

[mateusz_s]

Originally Posted by Aardvark

Tested this on TF1260 100mhz+Radeon [ Show youtube player ] No idea whats up with the colors.

Hi thanks for testing.. nice speed and interesting config. I am glad its fast on TF1260. I don't know right know why some colors are wrong, I run on BGR mode on winuae but it was ok..

[mateusz_s]

All shading variants, with lightmaps:

[ Show youtube player ]

[mateusz_s]

Hello, check out the latest update..

--- UPDATE - 05.07.2022 ---

msDevPack 3.2 features:
- wall/floor.ceiling textures
- mipmaps (256x256 --> 4x4)
- baked lightmaps
- distance shading
- glowing pixels

Test video (includes V1200 test):
[ Show youtube player ]

Source code. Check out if you are interested in RTG coding,
Amiga framework, ReAction etc.:
https://github.com/mateusz83/msRay/t..._devpack_v0.32

Executables for testing:
http://mstanisz.website.pl/tmp/amiga/msRay-32.zip

[mateusz_s]

--- UPDATE - 26.08.2022 ---

msDevPack v0.33 features:
- wall/floor/ceiling textures
- new, faster floor/ceiling render algorithm (based on screen projection and clipping)
- mipmaps (256x256 --> 32x32)
- baked lightmaps
- distance shading
- glowing pixels

Source codes. Executables for Amiga and Windows.
https://github.com/mateusz83/msRay

video:
[ Show youtube player ]

This is probalby the fastest results I have ever made.
- on V1200 35-45 fps
- on Warp1260 19-21 fps

switching off the lightmaps would gain the performance much more

[Dunny]

oh cool! I did something like that in BASIC!

[ Show youtube player ]

Excuse poor recording software, it was some years ago now.

[modrobert]

Originally Posted by Dunny

oh cool! I did something like that in BASIC!

[ Show youtube player ]

Excuse poor recording software, it was some years ago now.

What BASIC is that and what hardware is it running on? Looks pretty fast.

[mateusz_s]

--- Probably the last update ---

msRay 036 features:
- regular / non regular walls, oblique / different height
- doors - regular, non regular, oblique, open up or to sides.
- wall/door collisions
- status bar (autoscaled to width)
- lightmaps
- glowing pixels (not affected by shadows)
- RTG or HAM8 modes

min config: 040/060 AGA
recommend config: fast 060 RTG

source codes avaialb on git hub:
https://github.com/mateusz83/msRay

Link to EXE:
http://mstanisz.website.pl/tmp/amiga/msRay_036.zip


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[Karlos]

That's a good looking raycaster.

I was going to ask if the lightmaps get prebaked, then I saw the door open while the apparent lightmap remained in the same place (as you would expect for an object moving through a shadow volume). Excellent stuff.

[pixie]

I could see Alien Breed on this engine! ^^

[Karlos]

I'm not sure. Raycasting comes with some limitations that restrict level design.

[Reynolds]

This is cool. Keep up the great work!

[pixie]

Originally Posted by Karlos

I'm not sure. Raycasting comes with some limitations that restrict level design.

I guess... but there was something about the lighting that made me feel like home