Virtual Karting 2 graphics

[brolly]

Virtual Karting 2 graphics in WinUAE don't display properly, I'm aware the game requires a RGB lead on real hardware and I also know there are a few old threads about this in the forums here, but they all end up stating the game needs "filtered low resolution" enabled in WinUAE, thing is even with this setting active the game doesn't look right, graphics become a bit smoother, but the colors are still all wrong.

Is there something else needed or is it simply not possible to get the graphics to look correct under WinUAE?

[ovale]

As far I know this game uses composite color artifacts.
On a real Amiga you need to connected the monitor using the color composite output.
I don't think WINUAE emulates composite monitors.

[Toni Wilen]

Completely wrong colors and black background? Same happens on my real Amiga (whatever the connection to TV). It is not emulation problem.

[viddi]

Just use scanlines and it´ll work.

[Michael Sykes]

From the WHDLoad readme...

It requires:
- WHDLoad 16+
- 1.0 MB ChipMem and 1.5 MB OtherMem
- An installed Kickstart 3.1
- Super Hires in WinUAE settings for correct colors

[brolly]

If any of you guys actually got the game working properly could you please share a working config? Would be a great help.

Because neither scanlines or superhires did anything for me (other than making it look even worse), there are several posts in the forums here all giving different methods to get it to work, but I tested them all without luck.

For instance here Toni says it needs filtered low res:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=30902

Other suggest different things, but no one actually said they got the game actually running fine and shared a config file.

This is the best I can get the game to look (using filtered low res):


Colors are still all wrong obviously.

@Michael Sykes, where did you get that readme from, I'm reading it from here:
http://www.whdload.de/games/VirtualKarting2.html
And I don't see it, this is also the WHDLoad version I have, don't think there's a newer one?

[Michael Sykes]

I got the readme from the installer on the WHDLoad page(i guess).

The track you have is a night track and the colors are fine.

The game is using the superhires mode to simulate more colors.
Thats the reason why it looks so strange. On a CTR monitor the colors fade into each other and look even. But on a modern LCD you can still see the (virtual) sub-pixel.

Here are two pictures of how it looks on a day time track.
One is the WinUAE screenshot. The other one is a photo of what I see on my (LCD)monitor.

[viddi]

Can you please post a screenshot from the Paris course?
This one looks like the moon track...

[viddi]

Yeah, like Michael said....

BTW, I can play it with the right colours on my real A4000 on a LCD monitor via Indivision PLUS scanline emulation!

Without scanlines the colours look wrong.

[Michael Sykes]

In WinUAE I use scanlines and superhighres mode on a 1920x1080 host screen.
Bilinear filtering and fixed scaling. No fancy stuff like other filters involved.

On the 1200(no indi) I use an old TV. So there is no problem with the colors.

[brolly]

Can you share your UAE config file?
Because superhires mode does nothing for me except making it look even worse, here's how it looks now (day track):


I tried with scanlines, without scanlines, all sort of combinations and nothing helped. So there might be something else needed (or I'm missing something).

filtered low resolution mode is what makes the game look better, but still not good enough.

Had no idea that track was night btw, if that's the colors that track is supposed to have then it's just ridiculous, I mean a brown track? lol

[Toni Wilen]

I don't think there is any kind of "reference" image quality for these kinds of modes. Too good can be wrong too..

At least "Filtered lores" has to be enabled.

[brolly]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

At least "Filtered lores" has to be enabled.

This is what makes it look better for me as well (even though not good enough), but as you can see Michael and viddi are suggesting different things so not really sure thus why a UAE config would be nice as I could try with those exact same settings.

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by brolly

This is what makes it look better for me as well (even though not good enough), but as you can see Michael and viddi are suggesting different things so not really sure thus why a UAE config would be nice as I could try with those exact same settings.

What is "good enough"? Who decides it? As I said, there is no (and can't be) "reference quality" image (Except perhaps game programmer's TV!)

Use of superhires option in Display panel is not a good idea, you also need to have good Filter panel scaling options to get back to original aspect ratio and filter that creates expected mixing effect. You also get higher CPU power requirements when not in game because internally everything is rendered as superhires.

"Filtered lores" takes average of two pixels when converting superhires pixels to hires. (or hires to lores).

[brolly]

By good enough I mean something that makes the game playable, just look at the last image I posted, that's obviously not good enough since playing the game like that will make my eyes bleed after 5 minutes

I just want the game graphics to look decent so I can play the game, don't need them to look 100% accurate to what they should look like.

So besides "Filtered lores" what other option should I use Toni? hires or lores? Any scanlines/filters?

By using superhires I also think some very specific settings such as filters/scaling are needed because I can't get the game to look anywhere near a playable state, thus why I was asking for a working uae config file.

[Locutus]

I just tried this game out of curiosity on my 4000 with a scandoubler, it looks bizare on a TFT, its one big mash of pixel puke :-)

[Michael Sykes]

Originally Posted by Locutus

I just tried this game out of curiosity on my 4000 with a scandoubler, it looks bizare on a TFT, its one big mash of pixel puke :-)

True.
This game was made for the good old blurry CRT.

EDIT: A pixel perfect 1:1 ratio is needed in WinUAE. Do not use auto scale features that stretch the display to fullscreen and use no filter except for the bilinear one.

This is the best I can do, note that the objects borders will look better because the photo does'nt reproduce the flickering effect:


It's the full game set (Deluxe edition), 100% portable and ready to use:
Extract, read "Help" (there are all commands description and a info to start game, otherwise you get stuck on loading), open "WinUAE" folder and execute "1.bat".

As universal convention:
[Alt]+[Enter] = Fullscreen
[Alt]+[F4] = Quit

Note: by using others WinUAE or game versions, the brightness/contrast/gamma settings and other ones should mess up everything, here because it's a fullset portable.

[utri007]

Would it be possible hack scanlines away? It is totally unplayable with real Amiga with lcd display.

[Torti-the-Smurf]

Tried it on FPGA MIST and the Colours are ... well ...screwed up

Sadly unplayable