WinUAE 5.3.0 beta series

[Toni Wilen]

Ah, I thought WASAPI frequency also changed.

This is actually a feature which I had forgotten (It has existed since lagless was introduced). DSOUND simply can't work in lagless mode, lagless mode has very specific requirements.

[benas]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

Ah, I thought WASAPI frequency also changed.

This is actually a feature which I had forgotten (It has existed since lagless was introduced). DSOUND simply can't work in lagless mode, lagless mode has very specific requirements.

Ahh, ok, sorry for confuse with this, i didn't know.

[Toni Wilen]

https://download.abime.net/winuae/fi...nuae_5300b3.7z
https://download.abime.net/winuae/fi...ae64_5300b3.7z

Beta 3: (Probably 2-4 weeks to go)

- Merlin RTG board blitter fixed. 86box ET4000 blitter/MMU was incomplete (No linear blitter/MMU apertures, missing blit start mode check, pattern/source alignment restrictions are ET4000w32p only). Added vblank interrupt and monitor switcher support. Fixed horizontal panning in 24-bit modes. Overlay/PIP not yet implemented. It is quite useless because overlay and main bitmap depth must match.
- Added oMniBus RTG board (Zorro II to ISA adapter). ET4000AX (no blitter, no HW cursor) or ET4000W32 (blitter and HW cursor. Note: Current Picasso96 drivers have a bug that makes ET4000W32 blitter unusable, bug that apparently has always been in this driver. Fix will be in next Picasso96 release.)
- Added Graffity Z2/Z3 RTG board. Cirrus Logic GD5428 based. Has monitor switcher.
- Added Rainbow II "RTG" card. Not really proper RTG card, has only hardwired PAL and NTSC resolutions (768x576 and 768x476). 24-bit depth only. Note that emulation always refreshes whole screen every frame (not just modified parts but whole screen) which is not very optimal but it really isn't worth the trouble because I am sure now one cares about this old board.
- Some hardware emulated RTG boards had flickering colors during horizontal panning (>8 bit modes only)

- Small PCI emulation changes (For example G-REX + Permedia 2 + some other PCI card: same card appeared 8 times)
- Added Apollo 630 emulation and boot ROM 5.61. Nothing special, ROM is only used to detect the RAM: "32Bit Power-Burstmode-FastRAM", apparently cool sounding name can make RAM even faster! (oddly ROM contains at least parts of IDE and SCSI drivers from other Apollo accelerators).

- In a rare situation it was possible to get false positive "CPU Trace" error when loading statefile.
- Debugger breakpoint "f 123 <extra parameters>" didn't work, "<extra parameters>" was incorrectly detected as PC end address even when it wasn't a number.
- Programmed mode with only VARVBEN enabled (Programmed vblank but hardwired syncs) didn't check if programmed VB ended earlier than hardwired PAL/NTSC vblank, resulting in vblank ending too late, hiding part of display at the top. (ross test(tm))
- If strobe conflicts start after STREQU strobes but before first STRHOR strobes: Denise vblank state stays stuck active until next valid STRHOR strobe is seen by Denise. (SOS / Triangle + ECS Agnus). Interesting detail: If OCS Denise, STRVBL strobe DOES NOT enable vblank (fixed in ECS Denise). Only STREQU strobes enable vblank. STRHOR disables vblank.
- OCS Denise "buggy" vblank start/end (visible only in Overscan+ and higher) start/end position was 2.5 CCKs too early.
- Left and right A1000 Denise/OCS Denise/ECS Denise hardwired hblank position slight adjustments (1 hires pixel) to match new test results.
- Both "SaveImage" (automatically created ext adf when write-enabling non-writable image like ipf) file extension variants are now detected automatically when checking if file exists. Paths panel option now only affects name when new saveimage is created.

All Picasso96 supported RTG boards are now emulated. All CGX4 supported boards except Inferno. Inferno can't work, only known Wildfire boot ROM fails to configure it properly. PCI config logic seems to get confused if PCI BAR size is too large (GD5446 is 16M or 32M depending on revision). It seems Inferno support needs newer boot ROM which may not have been officially released. Apparently Inferno was also never officially released. EGS not tested, reports accepted if someone really wants to check EGS drivers.

[fgh]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

All Picasso96 supported RTG boards are now emulated. All CGX4 supported boards except Inferno.

Congrats, what an accomplishment!
You’re a machine. Thanks again for your endless work, it’s very much appreciated!

[mark_k]

I thought I'd play with Merlin emulation using the software which originally came with the card (as opposed to Picasso96).

I created an HDF after installing the software from Merlin_Install-136.dms (amiga.resource.cx). Download from https://www.media(remove)fire.com/fi...n_1.36.7z/file
(about 1.2MB archive, remove the "(remove)" after pasting URL)

On booting, there is a temporary hang at black screen (probably when the Devs:Monitors driver is run?). And running the test program Merlin-Software/Test-Soft/TestBild_V1.1, it doesn't seem to display an image. You choose resolution and depth then click Testbild. At that point the system seems to hang at a black screen.

I have no idea whether that is supposed to work on real hardware (e.g. was OS 3.1 current when this version of the Merlin software was released?), but have uploaded it in case it might be some help.

Config file: https://www.media(remove)fire.com/fi...Merlin.7z/file

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by mark_k

I thought I'd play with Merlin emulation using the software which originally came with the card (as opposed to Picasso96).

Fixed (winuae.7z). 86box ET4000 emulation had the register emulation that this program needed but ET4000W32I didn't have it.

[mark_k]

Thanks. I ran the TestBild program selecting various modes and that showed up some issues.

4 bit mixed 320x200: Image half width. (Appears correct size with 8 bit packed color mode.)
4 bit mixed 1600x1200: Bottom of the image is corrupted, looks like there is some kind of wraparound? Same happens with 8 bit packed 1600x1200.

15 bit Targa 160x120: Two half-width images appear size by side
15 bit Targa 160x240: Two quarter-width images appear side by side
15 bit Targa 320x512: Image half width

16 bit XGA 160x120: Image appears correct (contrast with 15 bit Targa 160x120)
16 bit XGA 160x240: Image half width
16 bit XGA 320x512: Image half width

[mark_k]

Another Merlin issue with KreisDemo. The program draws large circles in the middle of the screen after tiling the background with small circles. However with some resolutions, the large circles are too wide or too thin.

320x480: The large circles are too wide, wrapping around the left and right screen edges.
640x240, 800x300, 1024x384: The large circles are too thin horizontally.
1600x1200: Same wraparound issue near bottom of screen as with that resolution in TestBild.

With ScrollDemo, MagicColors and Mandelbrot, the mouse pointer appears locked at the top left of the screen. I wonder if on real hardware it is disabled/turned off?

Run Prefs/HRG-PrefsV1.14. You can click on any mode line from the list then click Test Mode to show a similar test image to TestBild. Here, the mouse pointer (a black/square crosshair) can be moved.

1600x1200 and 1920x1536 4 bit mixed mode: Similar wraparound issue. Also the mouse pointer movement is constrained to top half of screen.
320x480 8 bit packed: Mouse pointer movement constrained to left half of screen
160x120, 160x240 16 bit XGA: Pointer in left half of screen only
680x270 24 bit RGB: Pointer in top half of screen only
1016x762 15 bit Targa: Pointer in top half of screen only

Also, if you set Workbench screen mode to Merlin 1600x1200, the mouse pointer position is limited to top half of screen. But the actual pointer position (as far as Intuition sees it) is twice as far down the screen.

[Toni Wilen]

Most of those are probably ET4000 86box emulation problems. I am not that interested in fixing those unless they make it totally unusable.

For example wrap around is due to split line being set to line 1024 (same feature that Picasso96 uses for screen dragging). Possibly related to interlace mode which does not seem to be supported in ET4000 emulation.

320x not doubling will be fixed. 160x is not going to be fixed because no one uses those modes in real world and there is no 4x mode support.

Mouse pointer might be fixable, Merlin has RAMDAC that has hardware cursor support (that Picasso96 uses) but ET4000w32 also has built-in hardware cursor which might be what this program uses.

[zodiac]

Are there any improvements to bring HDR display mode out of beta? Thank you!

[AC/DC HACKER!]

Thanks for CVisionPPC (G-REX + Permedia 2 +)..looks promising.

[mark_k]

Another Merlin issue (still with the Merlin software 1.36)...

I changed board emulation to Zorro III 4MB (with an A3000-like WinUAE config). Running HRG-Prefs, selecting any mode which needs >2MB RAM fails with a message

Can't open the Screen!
Error: 6
Msg: Out of Video Memory!

E.g. 8 bit 1920x1536, 15 bit 1016x1524. I wonder if there is something different in the AutoConfig data when the board is jumpered for 4MB RAM?

[Cowcat]

Something weird with latest b3 when OS4 Classic is emulated:

Basically screen is black on boot and then workbench display is a rectangle with a series of blue stripes and cursor is rendered in low resolution.

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by zodiac

Are there any improvements to bring HDR display mode out of beta? Thank you!

No. Not unless there is someone who says if it is usable for HDR shaders or not. Or there is some other shaders that can use HDR.

Originally Posted by mark_k

Another Merlin issue (still with the Merlin software 1.36)...

I changed board emulation to Zorro III 4MB (with an A3000-like WinUAE config). Running HRG-Prefs, selecting any mode which needs >2MB RAM fails with a message

Can't open the Screen!
Error: 6
Msg: Out of Video Memory!

E.g. 8 bit 1920x1536, 15 bit 1016x1524. I wonder if there is something different in the AutoConfig data when the board is jumpered for 4MB RAM?

Possible. (Picasso96 driver checks the VRAM size by read/write)

EDIT: Only possible location is serial number field. Manufacturer and product ID must be same and board size must be 32M (which is a waste of memory space because upper 16M only has small MMIO space..)

Originally Posted by Cowcat

Something weird with latest b3 when OS4 Classic is emulated:

Basically screen is black on boot and then workbench display is a rectangle with a series of blue stripes and cursor is rendered in low resolution.

Looks like normal PCI card in CyberVision PPC slot isn't supported by OS4
I'll make sure only CVPPC is located there and all other PCI cards are in "real" G-REX slots.

[Cowcat]

I'll make sure only CVPPC is located there and all other PCI cards are in "real" G-REX slots.

Actually in my settings, expansions/PCI bridgeboards have GREX enabled and RTG/board have "Voodoo 3 3000" enabled (just to clarify).

Of course before new b3 beta all worked.

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by Cowcat

Actually in my settings, expansions/PCI bridgeboards have GREX enabled and RTG/board have "Voodoo 3 3000" enabled (just to clarify).

Yes but in this case Voodoo 3 still goes in CyberVision slot which is not detected by OS4 but is detected by G-REX OS3 drivers and CSMK3/PPC boot menu.

[Toni Wilen]

https://download.abime.net/winuae/fi...nuae_5300b4.7z
https://download.abime.net/winuae/fi...ae64_5300b4.7z

Beta 4:

- ET4000W32/Merlin fixes, ProBench (Early RTG software for Merlin cards) now works without glitches. Merlin serial eeprom(?) emulation added: ProBench requires matching Merlin serial number and valid checksum. Serial number is configurable in Expansions -> Graphics boards -> Merlin. Note: amiga.resource.cx ProBench install disks have different serial numbers (1.10=937875, 2.1=23531, 2.2=10010). Note2: there is "cracked" ProBench 3.0 floating around but it is worse than useless, it has modified owner/user string but critical encrypted code is not decrypted. Decryption requires original user string and serial..
- ET4000AX/W32 lores mode not getting horizontal doubled in >8bit modes fixed. Picasso96 RGBA mode (only available in low resolutions due to chip limits) colors fixed. Interlaced modes fixed.
- OCS Denise left overscan special case emulation updated and fixed. Previously BPL1DAT write before cycle $2D was ignored but that is not correct. BPL1DAT writes work normally but only BPL1DAT writes >=$2D disable border. This is not same enable flag as DIWSTRT horizontal match. Bitplanes or sprites are not visible until both DIWSTRT and BPL1DAT border disable are active but bitplane shifters work normally. Only difference compared to previous version is that first few bitplane/sprite pixels in max overscan will not be visible (replaced by color 0) depending on DDFSTRT position if OCS Denise. ECS Denise/AGA does not have this limitation.
- DMA debugger only showed Denise horizontal counter value if also CPU interrupt level was non-zero.
- Only "insert" CV/BVPPC in to CSMK3/CSPPC internal PCI slot. Insert any other PCI card in to G-REX PCI slots. OS4 does not detect boards in first "internal" PCI slot. (b3)
- Fixed ECS Denise superhires mode hires sprite pointer strange odd/even horizontal movement.
- Check all possible Munt ROM directories, including root UAE ROM path when MT32 ROM is needed. Check also other directories if previously detected path existed but didn't contain requested ROM(s).

[GunnzAkimbo]

i was having weird sound glitches and reduced screen sync on B3, seems fixed with B4.

Loading Protracker 4 and playing mods.

[AC/DC HACKER!]

With OS 4, after installing fresh (Quickstart), I get a funky screen of the normal OS 4 'splash' screen, I see the drive light flicker for HDD, ...I don't see the Workbench. CSPPC reflects (same info as my real Amiga) CVPPC.

The long string for 3Dlabs shows when installing and can be selected. I've tried with and without G-Rex being selected during install..

After install and booting from HDF the garbled screen (wrong screen mode?), and HDD loading indicator, I've also used End+F10 and the screen doesn't switch. So CVPPC isn't being recognized. CVPPC only shows in CSPPC PCI menu once G-Rex is enabled in WinUAE Extensions and not added as a Graphics Board in Extensions. Picasso IV Z3 is noticed and active with OS 4..I wanted to make sure that's okay. :-)


With OS 3.1, I'm seeing Icon and window artifacts after opening directories/folders and programs, and after ScreenMode for a new res, the screen will attempt to change but doesn't complete..have to reset to continue. Again, I've made sure CVPPC is noticed by CSPPC PCI menu. Ohh..and the Amiga Boot Menu is longer than it should be. I have to click a bit lower down from any selection to select it.

I haven't had much opportunity to do much checking, but shall create a log soon of both OS 4.x, and 3.1..

I'm currently only testing from Quickstart, A4K and CSPPC.

[AC/DC HACKER!]

Hope the logs are helpful.