Problem: Speeding up games for better fps

Hello,

Would anyone know of a way to launch games in GameBase Amiga along with altered hardware settings, like increased CPU? Some games would definitely benefit from it since they run way too slow on the original settings, for example StarFlight I/II and Frontier Elite II (especially the latter). Ofcourse, I have tried finding a solution myself before posting here but sadly failed. So far I have done and tried the following:

- Imported and edited GameBase Amiga.uae / WHDLoad.uae configurations with WinUAE.
- Here I altered some settings to my liking, for example Floppy Drive Emulation Speed on 800% and settings for Display/Sound.
- Altered hardware settings for increased CPU speed.

All seems fine until I launch a game with GBA, which doesn't seem to run faster at all! The other settings however, seem to be active.

Floppy Drive Emulation? Data is read much and much faster, check.
Resolution? All good, check.
A500 Floppy Sounds? Check! (this is so awesome)

When I go back into WinUAE and import the configurations, I note that every setting I changed remains intact except for the Hardware settings! I have tried changing it back and launching a game in GBA again, but it keeps reverting the hardware settings. So I tried launching Frontier Elite II using only WinUAE and altered CPU, and what do you know? It works perfectly!

What could be the problem? The Autoload checkbox seems to be greyed out though, maybe it's related to this? I don't know how to activate it...
Or would this mean that every game in GameBase Amiga is loaded with custom Hardware settings, which are probably found in the database file?

Please don't shoot me for my postcount. I know i'm new to this forum and asking help like this doesn't really make me look good on day one... but any help would be much appreciated!

[Belgarath]

hardware settings are set for a reason, a game like Starflight from 1989 is unlikely to work with a 68040 cpu... if you want to try and alter it from gamebase then you need to select a game, press f2 and change the settings there. but again be warned that this will in most cases break compatibility and the game won't work or won't work properly etc.

[tero]

Like Belgarath said: Be carefull or
You can change per Game settings with rightclick/Gemus"key=Value"pairs in the gameslist
Have a look and you see how it works

EDIT:it's the same as f2 - just didn't know that

Thank you for your replies, that was quick! Unfortunately, I couldn't really figure out what to do myself. These are the GEMU values for Elite II:

kickstart_rom=v2.05
nr_floppies=2
floppy0type=0
floppy1type=0
floppy2type=-1
floppy3type=-1
immediate_blits=false
ntsc=false
chipset=ECS
collision_level=playfields
fastmem_size=2
bogomem_size=0
chipmem_size=4
cpu_speed=real
cpu_type=68000
cpu_compatible=false
cpu_cycle_exact=true
blitter_cycle_exact=false
statefile=savestates\Frontier - Elite II.uss

Is there any documentation available on the possible values? I would like to avoid the "match A500 speed" setting if possible and go for either "fastest possible" or "adjustable between cpu and chipset". From the looks of it, it would seem that all I need to change is the "cpu_speed=real" value.

I'm very aware about the compatibility issues that may occur with any changes, but for a slow game like Elite II that's a small price to pay

[TCD]

"Fastest possible" would be "cpu_speed=max". For the other settings (except kickstart rom), just create a config with your desired settings and look them up in there.

Yipes, I totally forgot about that Thanks a lot guys, I think i'll manage to make it work now!

[TCD]

Hehe Oh and I forgot to say : Welcome to EAB!

[Retroplay]

I did something like this with Wing Commander, which IMO is unplayable at A500/A600 speeds.

kickstart_rom=v3.1
nr_floppies=3
floppy0type=0
floppy1type=0
floppy2type=0
floppy3type=-1
floppy_speed=0
immediate_blits=false
ntsc=false
chipset=AGA
collision_level=playfields
fastmem_size=1
bogomem_size=0
chipmem_size=2
cpu_speed=max
finegrain_cpu_speed=max
cpu_type=68020
cpu_compatible=false
cpu_cycle_exact=false
blitter_cycle_exact=false
statefile=savestates\Wing Commander.uss

This sped the game up and is now a very enjoyable and playable experience.

Awesome information Retroplay, you just made my day! I was breaking my head to what option exactly decided the "Fastest possible" setting in WinUAE, I just couldn't figure it out.
I decided to make one configuration with "Match A500 Speed" and the other with "Fastest possible" and comparing the two with each other. The changed values I found, however, had no impact on the game speed at all when I tried them out... it was just really frustrating. Thanks to your post, I was able to learn about the "finegrain_cpu_speed=max" line, which I cannot find anywhere else. I also found out that it only seems to work in combination with the "cpu_speed=max" line.

My current GEMUS configuration for Frontier Elite II:

kickstart_rom=v2.05
nr_floppies=2
floppy0type=0
floppy1type=0
floppy2type=-1
floppy3type=-1
immediate_blits=false
ntsc=false
chipset=ECS
collision_level=playfields
fastmem_size=2
bogomem_size=0
chipmem_size=4
cpu_speed=max
finegrain_cpu_speed=max
cpu_type=68000
cpu_compatible=false
cpu_cycle_exact=false
blitter_cycle_exact=false
statefile=savestates\Frontier - Elite II.uss

Alright, to wrap things up, this is what you need to speed up the game. The following must be changed/added:

cpu_speed=max
finegrain_cpu_speed=max
cpu_cycle_exact=false

And if the above is not fast enough, you can always try changing the platform (not recommended):

kickstart_rom=
chipset=
cpu_type=

Couldn't have done it without you guys! Thanks a lot!

[Retroplay]

Glad you figured it out.

Oh, on a sidenote, it appears that these settings didn't cure the speed issue I have with Starflight The game runs fine, it's just that landing on planets takes AGES. The whole sequence is rendered in glorious 3D and I expected it to be CPU related but it seems that wasn't the case at all. I never played the Amiga version before until now. What makes it even more strange is that the PC and C64 versions don't have this problem at all (they too are rendered in 3D).

Has anyone ever tried playing Starflight on a authentic A500? Was landing really this slow?

[Belgarath]

I've often thought about altering settings for games to speed them up, but there's always the compatibility problems..in fact just because it appears to work right away, doesn't mean it will work flawlessly all the way through. another thing which stopped me doing it is some games that were slow in places worked great with a faster cpu...but at parts where it was fast enough anyway it then went way too fast...

if a part of a game is slow where you don't really need any user input then i'd recommend using winuae's warp mode which is end + break (also works great for loading games as well which is why i don't mess around with the floppy speed).

Agreed. Compatibility vs performance has always been a tough cookie, not only on multiple platforms but also the personal preference of the user taken into consideration. Hardware limitations often end up being pretty nostalgic anyway and besides that, Compatibility > Performance, always. What good is a game/program anyways if it misses three wheels?
I didn't know there was a difference between boosting the floppy speed and using end+break! Thanks for the tip, I think i'll prefer using warp mode now.

PS: Tried using the latest WinUAE beta with GBA but it no longer works with the GEMUS configuration posted above and locks the CPU again I guess the magical finegrain_cpu_speed=max is no longer used in the latest build.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by ApOkwARG

PS: Tried using the latest WinUAE beta with GBA but it no longer works with the GEMUS configuration posted above and locks the CPU again I guess the magical finegrain_cpu_speed=max is no longer used in the latest build.

What did the finegrain_cpu_speed setting change in WinUAE?
Edit : I think I found it. finegrain_cpu_speed still works, but needs a numerical value. Save a config under the latest beta and look the number up. That should fix it

Well, cpu_speed=max did not seem to work unless finegrain_cpu_speed=max was present, that's all I have noticed. This was on WinUAE v1.5.0 and it does not work on v2.0.0b21
I switched back to v1.5.0 to double check it, adding each line to GEMUS and testing it, one by one, and I come to the same conclusion. The game used was Elite II.

cpu_speed=max
finegrain_cpu_speed=max
cpu_cycle_exact=false

I switch back to v2.0.0b21 and try the same again but it locks the speed as if one of the lines is no longer in use.

[TCD]

It's either cpu_speed or finegrain_cpu_speed now (which is the same in 1.5.0). It seems that finegrain_cpu_speed doesn't support 'max' anymore, so you need to use a numerical value with it.

Never mind, I got things to work now it seems. What I did was delete the GameBase/WHDLoad.uae plus uninstalled WinUAE. Then reinstalled v1.5.0 and applied the GBAv1.6 setup. After that, I replaced the winua.exe with the latest beta. GEMUS still had the same settings and while I didn't expected it, Elite II booted with glorious performance again! Didn't use a numerical value as you mentioned, either.
On the downside, many WHDLoad games that used to work refuse to boot now.

[TCD]

Hmm, if I use finegrain_cpu_speed=max here I get the same result as just using cpu_speed=max. Whatever, as long as it works for you