Latest version of ScummVM ported to AGA

[NovaCoder]

Yes the older v1.5 version is probably faster but it shouldn't be that much faster? Each newer version of Scummvm is probably slower than the last. Unfortunately I don't have a real Amiga these days to optimise my ports like the old days.

Yes the scaler is in the graphics mode, should be set to default for no scaling I think.

Maybe someone with a real 060 A1200 can do a comparison using the same DOS game (for example DOTT) and the same scaler settings with these two version of ScummVM to see how they compare performance-wise?

http://aminet.net/package/game/misc/ScummVM_AGA_040

http://aminet.net/package/game/misc/ScummVM_AGA_060

[lioneer]

So, i copied scummvm.ini from 1.5 to 1.9 and now 1.9 is fast. So i dont know, maybe some default settings was bad. Lands of Lore run very fast and smooth.

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

Yes the older v1.5 version is probably faster but it shouldn't be that much faster? Each newer version of Scummvm is probably slower than the last. Unfortunately I don't have a real Amiga these days to optimise my ports like the old days.

Yes the scaler is in the graphics mode, should be set to default for no scaling I think.

Maybe someone with a real 060 A1200 can do a comparison using the same DOS game (for example DOTT) and the same scaler settings with these two version of ScummVM to see how they compare performance-wise?

http://aminet.net/package/game/misc/ScummVM_AGA_040

http://aminet.net/package/game/misc/ScummVM_AGA_060

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by lioneer

So, i copied scummvm.ini from 1.5 to 1.9 and now 1.9 is fast. So i dont know, maybe some default settings was bad. Lands of Lore run very fast and smooth.

cool, that's great

[TuKo]

@lioneer

Can you give out more details about what specific setting made it fast ? This might help other users too.

[lilwshu]

It seems the difference is the line "debug_level=10" in the newer version - if you take it out of scummvm.ini the speed improves a lot. It's still a fair bit slower than 1.5 (all tested on A1200/060/50Mhz) but I can run it without a border with the display_type tooltype unlike 1.5.

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by lilwshu

It seems the difference is the line "debug_level=10" in the newer version - if you take it out of scummvm.ini the speed improves a lot.

Good pickup

I'll update the ini file and re-upload to aminet.

Thanks

Updated: Just uploaded v1.9.0.02 to Aminet (AGA & RTG) without the debug logic, should be a bit faster now.

[lioneer]

Originally Posted by TuKo

@lioneer

Can you give out more details about what specific setting made it fast ? This might help other users too.

I dont know where was problem. I copied scummvm.ini from 1.5 and now 1.9 is fast too

But question for NovaCoder, FPU is required? I am testing ScummAGA right now on LC060, but i get everytime error #8000000B

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by lioneer

But question for NovaCoder, FPU is required? I am testing ScummAGA right now on LC060, but i get everytime error #8000000B

Yes all my ports that require an 060 also require an FPU unless stated otherwise in the readme.

http://aminet.net/search?readme=Novacoder

[lilwshu]

As a general comment enabling Adlib emulation makes Sam and Max (not tried any others) almost unplayably laggy in bits that need timing (whack a rat etc) on my 060/50mhz with the 060 or 030 builds. It's noticeably better in the old 1.5 version.

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by lilwshu

As a general comment enabling Adlib emulation makes Sam and Max (not tried any others) almost unplayably laggy in bits that need timing (whack a rat etc) on my 060/50mhz with the 060 or 030 builds. It's noticeably better in the old 1.5 version.

Not sure what you mean, the 030 build on aminet is v1.5, hasn't been changed for years?

http://aminet.net/package/game/misc/ScummVM_AGA_030

Only 060 builds have been updated to v1.9

[Photon]

I understand this is some engine used in PC adventures. It's good that it's ported, to see what would have been possible in 1992+, if the studios had had a thought towards Amiga for visual novel stuff.

[grelbfarlk]

It was many different engines used and implemented in different ways on many different architectures. Lets take King's Quest V for example.
There was a DOS VGA version, a Mac color version, an Amiga 32 color version and even a NES version.
The interpretive output of ScummVM is just the product of how someone reinterpreted and ported it to a generic platform. How the ports of ScummVM turned out doesn't really speak to the platform it runs on.

[lilwshu]

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

Not sure what you mean, the 030 build on aminet is v1.5, hasn't been changed for years?

http://aminet.net/package/game/misc/ScummVM_AGA_030

Only 060 builds have been updated to v1.9

Sorry - I mean that the 060 build is very laggy in 1.9 and a bit faster but also laggy in 1.5, and the 030 version 1.5 is laggy also.

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by lilwshu

Sorry - I mean that the 060 build is very laggy in 1.9 and a bit faster but also laggy in 1.5, and the 030 version 1.5 is laggy also.

Okay that makes more sense.

As I've said before, each newer official release of Scummvm is probably going to be more demanding than the previous version. The best way to use Scummvm on a real classic Amiga is to invest in midi hardware (or just plug your Amiga into your PC).

[ Show youtube player ]

[lioneer]

Technical question: i have in my amiga 3000 toccata sound card. So, are games faster with this audio card or same like on Paula chip? Thank you

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by lioneer

Technical question: i have in my amiga 3000 toccata sound card. So, are games faster with this audio card or same like on Paula chip? Thank you

No idea, try it.

This might help: [ Show youtube player ]


Best speed for a real classic Amiga is to use MIDI CAMD.

[pipper]

Originally Posted by lioneer

Technical question: i have in my amiga 3000 toccata sound card. So, are games faster with this audio card or same like on Paula chip? Thank you

It will help, but only a little. ScummVms sound system is up sampling everything to 16bit stereo on the input side. The 16bit stereo input will then be forwarded to AHI. On a regular system AHI will downsample again to 8bit (and depending on if there’s a mismatch in the frequencies between what comes from ScummVM and what Paula output is set, that’s quite cpu intensive) .
Much of ScummVMs time is also spent in emulating the original system sound device (Paula, OPL etc) For instance there’s a Paula emulator that emulates the Amiga Paula sound chip (including the low pass filter) for games originally written for the Amiga, producing a 16bit output stream. So even if you’re already running natively on an Amiga, there’s no shortcut - all sound goes through this pipeline of emulation, up sampling and eventual down sampling.
Where Toccata can help is only with the final output stream. If it can do 16bit stereo, AHI should be able to just forward the stream to the sound card without spending much time.

Midi is kind of special. ScummVM differentiates Midi from other sound sources and can pass the midi stream without much computation through the system. CAMD takes the stream and forwards it to the serial port. All the expensive operations that turn a midi stream into music are done outside the Amiga in the Midi synth. The midi stream is around maybe 100byte per second, so the Amiga can handle it with ease. The midi playback is done interrupt driven in a high priority task, so it will never miss a beat even when ScummVM itself runs slow.

[grelbfarlk]

I think what we need is an AHI accelerator. Like just put some things in a chip machine and we can solder them on top of our Alice and it just listens for AHI and makes it spit out whatever thing the input rate is at the output rate we want. Also we configure this with jumpers (or dip switches). Sent Nonarkitten a PM to include.

[grelbfarlk]

Pooh bears just slow down after eating a bunch of honey and attempting to repeat the thing they just heard.

[Photon]

Originally Posted by lioneer

Technical question: i have in my amiga 3000 toccata sound card. So, are games faster with this audio card or same like on Paula chip? Thank you

ScummVM should be about equal to SNES MIDI Casio music regardless of sound card.

Well, I don't like it. Also, it sounds horribly cheap to objective ears just like SNES if you listen.

Toccata was an expensive card, it should synthesize sounds like the expensive AdLib. But it probably doesn't. Oh, the horrible era of MIDI on various devices.

If your sound card supports the General MIDI of the time before PC got sampling sound cards at least, it should be very fast. It doesn't do synthesis and just plays sounds from a fixed palette so it should be about 3 bytes squirted down the bus and done.

Then again the lowliest Amiga could play music like the opening titles of Turrican II, Full Contact, Pinball Dreams, Unreal, Shadow of the Beast or even Speedball 1/2 with no effort.