RoboCop 3d

[albino]

I watched a battle of the ports episodes about this game, it says the atari st version run smoother than the amiga. Is it something to do with the faster cpu or a crappy convertion?

[Seiya]

faster cpu, lower resolution mainly

Amiga usally is 320x256 at 7.09 Mhz
Atari ST is 320x200 at 8 Mhz

[Retro1234]

Castelvania or Robocop ?

[albino]

If someone could change the thread name to RoboCop 3d instead of Castlevania....I'd be much obliged...

[CCCP alert]

The only "3D" game I know that runs the same on the Amiga as the ST is Domark's F1. The slightly faster ST CPU is used to play software samples in game.

Elite was supposed to be using the blitter to draw the polygons according to some magazines/Mr Micro developer BUT if you run it on a 14mhz A500 it's magically 200% faster so I don't know about that.

Most Amiga games by PAL region developers still used 320x200 to improve performance, like the Lotus games I played and may arcade conversions. There was almost always this black border on the bottom 20% of the screen on my PAL Amiga back then, very annoying they didn't even centre the screen so it looked like a console letterbox NTSC port job for us in PAL regions.

[lmimmfn]

Originally Posted by CCCP alert

very annoying they didn't even centre the screen so it looked like a console letterbox NTSC port job for us in PAL regions.

Good point, this annoyed me also, however did any game recenter a 200 vertical PAL screen?

Its a shame there was no 50/60MHz switch in the Lotus games where the music wouldn't be sped up.

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by albino

I watched a battle of the ports episodes about this game, it says the atari st version run smoother than the amiga. Is it something to do with the faster cpu or a crappy convertion?

I would not say 'crappy' conversion, but instead they used the same routine and way of operating the game (they programmed the Amiga version exactly like the ST version, but we know that in order to get the best in 3D on the Amiga, you must not code the game the same as you would do on ST).

Look Dread, it runs faster on Amiga, with 1mb of ram, versus 2mb on Atari ST and less colors (the game is optimised on ST btw).

this shows that the way you code depending on the target computer counts a lot.

[Torti-the-Smurf]

It is super smooth when played with an 68020 + Cache enabled.
Sadly, the SFX get a bit messy then

Requested for an WHDload fix

[paul1981]

Originally Posted by CCCP alert

Most Amiga games by PAL region developers still used 320x200 to improve performance, like the Lotus games I played and may arcade conversions. There was almost always this black border on the bottom 20% of the screen on my PAL Amiga back then, very annoying they didn't even centre the screen so it looked like a console letterbox NTSC port job for us in PAL regions.

My old Matsui 1436 portable TV (RIP) was brilliant in NTSC mode because it didn't stretch the screen and also it actually centred the image too, giving equal border at top and bottom. It didn't have a SCART input though unfortunately, not that I cared in them days.

[arkiruthis]

Originally Posted by Torti-the-Smurf

It is super smooth when played with an 68020 + Cache enabled.
Sadly, the SFX get a bit messy then

Requested for an WHDload fix

Ah that's good to know, I'd wondered about that! I first heard it glitching it in a stream, then noticed it on my machine and worried it was a hardware fault.

I absolutely love Robocop3D.

[arkiruthis]

Originally Posted by albino

I watched a battle of the ports episodes about this game, it says the atari st version run smoother than the amiga. Is it something to do with the faster cpu or a crappy convertion?

Worth pointing out the color differences as well. I think the STE got some more colors interpolating for the skies and grounds in walking sections. Perhaps one of those rare games that got a little love on the STE to bring it a little closer to the Amiga version.

Also, weirdly, if I recall the intro music on the STE has the "tishhhh" which is missing from the STFM version. I don't know how to describe that properly.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

Look Dread, it runs faster on Amiga, with 1mb of ram, versus 2mb on Atari ST and less colors (the game is optimised on ST btw).

You think that is down to the game architecture? Also you think the game-engine has been optimised as best as possible for the Atari ST HW?

I got the opposite feeling, that the Atari-ST version of Dread was a quick-n-dirty port.

I have no evidence other than how quickly the Atari-ST version arrived and the speed it ran at when it first arrived (i.e. it wasn't super slow and got faster)

[Adropac2]

I had an ST for a few years and loved it but upon playing the same 3d games on Amiga, the slight difference really wasn't anything substantial enough that I even noticed. I mean I get why people point this out as a win for the system but it's not an advantage to really champion like it's somehow a game changer. Especially these days

[CCCP alert]

Does using a 3 or 4 bitplane screen on an Amiga 500 give you any sort of advantage in CPU performance rendering 3D game engines?

Did any game actually use the blitter to render any polygons, partial or fully, on the Amiga?

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by CCCP alert

Does using a 3 or 4 bitplane screen on an Amiga 500 give you any sort of advantage in CPU performance rendering 3D game engines?

Did any game actually use the blitter to render any polygons, partial or fully, on the Amiga?

Using the blitter was quite common, hence the recent games like Killing Cloud where their blitter routines have been rewritten to use the CPU instead.

[paraj]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

Using the blitter was quite common, hence the recent games like Killing Cloud where their blitter routines have been rewritten to use the CPU instead.

While Killing Cloud does use the blitter for polygon filling, it doesn't use the blitter's filling capability in the traditional way (ONEDOT outline + area FILL). Instead it scans the polygon edges with the CPU and uses the blitter to copy parts of pre-filled lines (one for each color) to the screen. Fighter Bomber, another Vektor Grafix game, uses the same technique.

[Mr_Horizon]

Quick noob question about Robocop, as I never played it myself.

First, are we talking about the game with the 3D graphics? So "Robocop 3", not the older "slow contra" like sidescroller?

In that title, I can tell that the car sections are full under player control. But I'm not sure about the corridor shooter gameplay, so here's my question:

Is that on-rails shooter gameplay, or can we move freely around these environments?

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Mr_Horizon

Is that on-rails shooter gameplay, or can we move freely around these environments?

It's a bit of both You can move left or right, but I won't call it freely. The budget manual explains it quite well on pages 18/19: https://amiga.abime.net/games/view/robocop-3#manuals