08 January 2006, 21:30 | #1 |
Amiga-based Cyborg
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 808
|
Biggest remaining WHDload improvement needed: Stop the flashing!
WHDload is awesome and all that, but one thing still really bothers me: screen flashing when accessing HD. Occasionally the flashing gets so bad that I can't even play the game. Here's an example:
Dune II (with PRELOAD set) 1 flash while displaying WB 1.3 language selection screen 2 flashes before intro starts 1 flash for each new screen in intro 5 flashes after clicking on 'Load' 1 flash every time down arrow is pressed on load list (until end of list reached) 30 flashes while loading saved game! The strange thing is that I used to get only 1 screen flash for each saved game when loading (if 5 saved games, 5 flashes when loading), and no flashes in the intro. I have no idea why it would get worse (starting always after boot with all available memory). This is just one example. Other games have flashing - usually the ones using the Kick1.3 emulation. I assume that this problem doesn't occur in WinUAE otherwise more people would have complained about it. |
08 January 2006, 21:46 | #2 |
Global Moderator
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Derby, UK
Age: 48
Posts: 9,355
|
Get MORE memory and preload will work!!!
The flashing is as WHDLoad goes back to the system to load files as obv most games dfon't have HD reading code installed! |
08 January 2006, 22:17 | #3 |
Amiga-based Cyborg
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 808
|
Ah, now I see - that must be why it is getting worse. With more DuneII saved games, there are more files to preload and there must not be enough memory to preload them. I would have thought 8Mb Fast and 2Mb Chip was enough, but the kick1.3 emulation must take up a big chunk.
Unfortunately I can't get more memory - 8Mb is the limit. Damn! |
09 January 2006, 05:48 | #4 |
Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Vienna / Austria
Age: 44
Posts: 257
|
You could try Dune2 without WHDLoad, I know I played through it that way ( and I even think it ran fine on different Screenmodes on my Multisync ).
IMHO some Games should be left alone, for example I dont understand why I should use WHDLoad for Biing! ( other than removing protection ). The Game itself does a way better job caching the data itself. |
09 January 2006, 15:00 | #5 |
Amiga-based Cyborg
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 808
|
Yes, I tried Dune II without WHDload after my last post. I couldn't believe how fast it was. I used to wish Dune II would be faster and it looks like it was purposely slowed down in the WHDload slave to be playable on fast computers. On my Amiga it's just slightly too fast (I have to move like a maniac). It would have been nice if the game was fast, but the enemy attack slow.
I don't use WHDload with a few games. Lionheart is much better without. On my Amiga, the parallax scrolling in Lionheart skips - without WHDload it is fine. |
10 January 2006, 09:59 | #6 | |
Moderator
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Germany
Posts: 866
|
Quote:
Maybe you have too much stuff loaded on your wb so that there isnt much of the 8 MB free when starting the game? |
|
10 January 2006, 10:09 | #7 | |
Moderator
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Germany
Posts: 866
|
Quote:
But sometimes the slaves do not enable the caches because of compatibility problems. Often there are problems with enabled caches on 68040/60. If you think its slower than normal you can still try tooltypes like CACHE. Which will mostly work on 68020/30. You are also free to ask the install author (after reading the readme) it it is possible to speedup the install. |
|
10 January 2006, 10:37 | #8 | |
BlizzardPPC'less
|
Quote:
http://www.aminet.net/search.php?query=rebootstart It leaves you almost all memory available for the game. |
|
10 January 2006, 10:51 | #9 | |
Amiga-based Cyborg
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 808
|
Quote:
It would be nice if WHDload didn't flash the screen when accessing HD - at least with games already meant to work from HD. I don't know the technicalities, but I'd rather see the screen briefly freeze than have it flash. Last edited by mr_a500; 10 January 2006 at 11:05. |
|
10 January 2006, 12:16 | #10 |
Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: UmeƄ
Age: 43
Posts: 924
|
@mr_a500:
If you run Dune2, using with its normal hd-install, but disable the cpu caches with with "C:CPU NOCACHE", it should become atleast a bit slower, hopefully slow enough . |
10 January 2006, 15:09 | #11 |
Registered User
|
So what is a decent amount of RAM for WHDload these days?
|
04 February 2006, 21:19 | #12 |
Moderator
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Germany
Posts: 866
|
4 MB is enough for most old games.
for newer aga games 16 mb should fine. for all possible games 128 mb is enough |
08 February 2006, 20:11 | #13 | |
Wipe-Out Enthusiast
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: .
Age: 43
Posts: 2,538
|
Quote:
|
|
09 February 2006, 07:39 | #14 | |
This cat is no more
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: FRANCE
Age: 52
Posts: 8,197
|
Quote:
Me, I always try to use fastmem (even when chipmem was hardcoded in the game: examples Nick Faldo's Golf CD32, Ultimate Body Blows CD32, Midwinter II and other games which use MSB to store information) and the games are faster with WHDLoad than without. So why not submitting a bugreport in those cases? |
|
09 February 2006, 12:06 | #15 |
2 contact me: email only!
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Auckland / New Zealand
Posts: 3,182
|
The exception to what Jeff says is some games will be slower with WHDLoad if you have to add blitter waits to the game to make it stable. The blitter is very quick compared to a 68000 so coders often did not bother waiting for it to finish.
On a fast Amiga, the blitter is comparitively slow and if you do not wait for it, the game will corrupt memory and crash. But if you are constantly waiting for the blitter, you are killing the performance of the game, and sometimes that is enough to make it skip a frame and then game slows down. |
09 February 2006, 13:52 | #16 | |
Amiga-based Cyborg
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 808
|
Quote:
I know that you and others try to use fastmem for maximum speed and that's great. |
|
09 February 2006, 14:05 | #17 | |
Moderator
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: France
Age: 50
Posts: 4,277
|
Quote:
perhaps soon I will re-compile slave (and optimized it) using the last powerfull kick13. |
|
09 February 2006, 16:19 | #18 | |
Amiga-based Cyborg
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 808
|
Quote:
|
|
09 February 2006, 17:58 | #19 |
Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Vienna / Austria
Age: 44
Posts: 257
|
I guess the problem with Dune 2 is that it will slow down itself alot when the armies get bigger. I played it on a `030/50 A1200 Years ago, without using WHDLoad, and it was getting very slow on the later maps( and I cant remember having the problem of it beeing to fast). I dont think adding an artificial slowdown to the whole code wouldve made that better.
Cant remember though if I might had disabled caches and/or turned the gamespeed down... |
09 February 2006, 19:38 | #20 | |
This cat is no more
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: FRANCE
Age: 52
Posts: 8,197
|
Quote:
|
|
Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests) | |
Thread Tools | |
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
WHDLoad "screen centering" improvement... | Shoonay | project.WHDLoad | 12 | 04 December 2018 14:24 |
Fate - Gates of dawn (WHDload) - Cursor stop to work | hoborg | support.WinUAE | 10 | 13 April 2013 14:21 |
Help needed with WHDload Errors! | hansel75 | project.WHDLoad | 30 | 19 December 2012 21:53 |
Whdload icons needed please !!! | lolafg | request.Other | 3 | 12 March 2009 20:16 |
Gamebase [black flashing screen when running WHDLoad games] | sjakie43 | project.GameBase Amiga | 2 | 25 July 2007 01:15 |
|
|