SWIV WHDLoad - score display is ugly

rsn8887 · 30 June 2021, 00:10

In original SWIV game on A500, the score display has a pretty color gradient. In WHDLoad, the score display only has one ugly color. Another longstanding WHDLoad slave bug. I created a Mantis bug for this.

Somebody did this on purpose. Ok, but at least tell people in the readme.txt when you purposefully modify a game like this, especially when making the game more ugly compared to the original.

jotd · 30 June 2021, 00:21

Harry did that because the gradient was using CPU dependent timing and he could not fix it otherwise (edit: it's not the exact reason check Stingray post)

Alternative is: no score displayed.

Maybe Psygore can find a better way.

StingRay · 30 June 2021, 08:38

The score display in SWIV originally only works on OCS/ECS machines due to using illegal Bplcon2 settings which in turn enables an undocumented feature to only display the pixel in bitplane 5 without taking bitplanes 1-4 into account.

Did not check how Harry fixed it but I guess it was quite a bit of work to make the score display work on AGA machines.

It could/should be mentioned in the ReadMe, but a slightly worse score display is still better than no score display as JOTD already mentioned.

jotd · 30 June 2021, 11:02

yeah we whdload team like removing features too

Codetapper · 30 June 2021, 13:45

Harry's fix switched AGA machines to 6 bitplanes while the score part is displayed, meaning no matter what data is in the bitplane, it will draw the same lilac colour where the text should be. To add a nice gradient, you'd have to set all 16 colours to new values on each line and do this on each of the 7 (or 8) lines of the font. I suspect doing that would seriously screw up the game as the copperlist already has to do various things with the palette. As the others have said, be thankful you can see the bar at all, thanks to Harry's great patch!

jotd · 30 June 2021, 15:18

of course the slave could detect if AGA is present and perform the fix only on AGA machines.

When Harry fixed it, whdload fixes targetted AGA machines, used 1MB chip, ... now people tend to boost their ECS machines and things are different.

StingRay · 30 June 2021, 18:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by jotd

of course the slave could detect if AGA is present and perform the fix only on AGA machines.

That would be possible but WHDLoad would still fault in SNOOP mode due to the illegal Bplcon2 settings.

30 June 2021, 00:10	#1
rsn8887 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: USA Posts: 1,058	SWIV WHDLoad - score display is ugly In original SWIV game on A500, the score display has a pretty color gradient. In WHDLoad, the score display only has one ugly color. Another longstanding WHDLoad slave bug. I created a Mantis bug for this. Somebody did this on purpose. Ok, but at least tell people in the readme.txt when you purposefully modify a game like this, especially when making the game more ugly compared to the original. Attached Thumbnails

30 June 2021, 00:21	#2
jotd This cat is no more Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: FRANCE Age: 52 Posts: 8,161	Harry did that because the gradient was using CPU dependent timing and he could not fix it otherwise (edit: it's not the exact reason check Stingray post) Alternative is: no score displayed. Maybe Psygore can find a better way. Last edited by jotd; 30 June 2021 at 10:48.

30 June 2021, 08:38	#3
StingRay move.l #$c0ff33,throat Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Berlin/Joymoney Posts: 6,863	The score display in SWIV originally only works on OCS/ECS machines due to using illegal Bplcon2 settings which in turn enables an undocumented feature to only display the pixel in bitplane 5 without taking bitplanes 1-4 into account. Did not check how Harry fixed it but I guess it was quite a bit of work to make the score display work on AGA machines. It could/should be mentioned in the ReadMe, but a slightly worse score display is still better than no score display as JOTD already mentioned. Last edited by StingRay; 30 June 2021 at 18:28. Reason: typo fixed

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30 June 2021, 11:02	#4
jotd This cat is no more Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: FRANCE Age: 52 Posts: 8,161	yeah we whdload team like removing features too

30 June 2021, 13:45	#5
Codetapper 2 contact me: email only! Join Date: May 2001 Location: Auckland / New Zealand Posts: 3,182	Harry's fix switched AGA machines to 6 bitplanes while the score part is displayed, meaning no matter what data is in the bitplane, it will draw the same lilac colour where the text should be. To add a nice gradient, you'd have to set all 16 colours to new values on each line and do this on each of the 7 (or 8) lines of the font. I suspect doing that would seriously screw up the game as the copperlist already has to do various things with the palette. As the others have said, be thankful you can see the bar at all, thanks to Harry's great patch!

30 June 2021, 15:18	#6
jotd This cat is no more Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: FRANCE Age: 52 Posts: 8,161	of course the slave could detect if AGA is present and perform the fix only on AGA machines. When Harry fixed it, whdload fixes targetted AGA machines, used 1MB chip, ... now people tend to boost their ECS machines and things are different.

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