Latest version of ScummVM also ported to RTG

[NovaCoder]

Overview:

ScummVM RTG is an interpreter that allows you to run certain classic graphical point-and-click adventure games on an Amiga (provided you have their data files).
The clever part about this: ScummVM just replaces the executable shipped with the games, allowing you to play them on systems for which they were never designed!

ScummVM RTG only supports certain ScummVM game engines.

Requirements:

1) An RTG Amiga with an 68040/68060 processor (with FPU)
2) At least 32 MB of FASTRAM
3) AHI installed
4) Some supported games or demos (see below!)


Features:

* 16 bit stereo digital SFX and speech
* MIDI music emulation (no hardware required)
* Double buffered 256 color graphics
* 16 bit GUI (converted to 8 bit in real-time!)
* Screen shake
* Back ported OS4, MorphOS and AROS code!


Performance Considerations:

1) You should always patch exec.library's CopyMem() and CopyMemQuick() routines
for faster processor specific versions.
2) Try reducing the audio playback frequency down to 8k if you're still having performance issues.
3) If you are using Paula, stick with the 'FAST' 8/14 bit modes for AHI (prefs) - a real 16 bit card *may* be faster with a 16 bit mode.
4) This interpreter really hits the hard drive so you'll need a fast transfer rate for the newer games (see below)
5) FFS is really really slow, use PFS3 instead
6) Loading your ROM into FASTRAM is a great idea (see below)
7) If you have a Blizzard you should really be using BlizKick to get most speed out of your Amiga, Apollo users should be using RemApollo.
8) Stick with v4.18 of AHI as the later versions are too slow
9) SCI games are very slow

Thanks and acknowledgments:

The ScummVM developers, my mother, the UtilityBase crew for help and advice.
Minuous for the awesome installers and the EAB beta testers especially DDNI and Rockersuke who went above and beyond the call of duty.

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

This port uses AHI, it's really important that people use v4.18 of AHI with one of the 'FAST' modes set to be used in the AHI Prefs otherwise it will run slow on a real Amiga (this is true for any of my ports that use AHI).

BTW Boing Bags 3/4 will upgrade your Amiga to v6.x of AHI so check what version you are actually running.

[ Show youtube player ]

[Korodny]

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

should be available for download in the next couple of days

"couple of days" my ass It's online now.

Did you recieve our mails (from aminet@aminet.net)? You will have to reupload ScummVM_AGA.lha, the archive was corrupt. And please provide *seperate* readmes in the future, otherwise our scripts ignore your uploads.

Damn nice job, thanks.

[NovaCoder]

Hiya,

Thanks, I'll send you a mail about the other points.

[Exit]

i placed this news about your ports on amigascene.nl and asked people to try out different ports you made for different setups, and that they will join here and give their comments/opinions, thanx novacoder..

[fitzsteve]

Awesome stuff, look forward to trying this one

[NovaCoder]

New faster (I hope) version uploaded to AmiNet.

The funny thing is the the AGA version is quicker under WinUAE than the RTG version most of the time

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

New faster (I hope) version uploaded to AmiNet.

The funny thing is the the AGA version is quicker under WinUAE than the RTG version most of the time

It seems much more popular as well based on the threads

Still meaning to give this a go on my rig, its in bits at the moment waiting for an upgrade...

Keep up the great work

Steve.

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

It seems much more popular as well based on the threads

Still meaning to give this a go on my rig, its in bits at the moment waiting for an upgrade...

Keep up the great work

Steve.

Cool, I would love to know how it runs on a real miggy. Can you test Simon the Sorcerer 1 & 2, Full Throttle and Beneath a steel sky when you get it setup.

Next version will also support AGI games

[xc8]

I tried to give a try to this version , but the only result when I run it is what you see on the attached image...

my configuration is: A4k/cyberstorm mk1 060/128MB/CV64/OS3.9 ...

thx

chris

[NovaCoder]

Hiya,

What do you have your screen mode set to?

From the look of the screen-grab it looks like you're running in a very low resolution. Either try editing the INI file and set 'gfx_mode=1x' or increase your WB resolution up to say 1024x768.

[xc8]

hey!!

thanx!!! this and also the fullscreen option works!!

chris

[Retrofan]

The 030 version doesn't work with my ACA056. I only get a black screen, and after changing the tools to false still I can't find a resolution that works. If I wait around 4 minutes I can see the screen but very bad, and it doesn't let me select anything.

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by xc8

hey!!

thanx!!! this and also the fullscreen option works!!

chris

Wow you got the fullscreen option to work, that's great most people can't get it working....what's the trick?

Did performance increase fullscreen vs running it in a window?

Can you also try the graphical filters for me to see if they work?

A video would be nice, nobody has done one of the RTG version yet, just the AGA version.

[Quagliarulo]

I'm getting the following error in the log file:
Could not initialize SDL: Found no sufficiently capable CGX visuals!
I'm using an A1200 + Mediator + Voodoo with P96 software and I have video modes available ranging from 320x240x8 to 1600x1200x16 all tested and working. The OS is 3.9 and I'm using an Apollo1260@50 with 64Mb RAM.

[Quagliarulo]

SOLVED!
Just copy these 2 libraries from the Picasso96 2.1c (alpha) distribution:
LIBS:Picasso96/emulation.library
LIBS:Picasso96API.library

[NovaCoder]

Cool glad you got it working, have fun

[Quagliarulo]

I've been trying different options and such, and I don't think the slowness is due to the music. I can disable it completely and the gameplay remains just as choppy. Also using a soundcard or Paula doesn't make much difference (I had to change my AHI settings for this, is there a way to get an audio device requester?). As rockersuke pointed out in the thread related to the AGA version, Doom is fairly smooth even on '030s with music and sound effects enabled, whereas this ScummVM port tends to be quite slow. Perhaps this has to do with SDL, which Doom obviously doesn't rely upon. Full screen doesn't work for me and I think that would be the way to go to gain some speed. Let's hope Novacoder manages to get it working.
One more thing: sometimes when I quit ScummVM, the (empty) window remains on the screen and doesn't go away anymore, no matter what I do.
Edit: I think xc8 could tell us his HW/SW configuration, so that we get a clue as to why he got fullscreen working!

[NovaCoder]

Hiya,

The only hint I can give you about getting the RTG version running in fullscreen is this from another user as I've never managed to get it working myself

To get the games playable I had to switch my WB-screen to a 320*240 8bit resolution, since SCUMMVMRTG seems to take the resolution used by the WB.

And you are correct, getting it to run in fullscreen is your best bet for more speed.

We did find that certain games (eg DiscWorld) seem to play MIDI better than some other games. If I ever get the time and energy I might port a faster MIDI engine over to ScummVM which could be used in both the RTG and AGA versions.

I cannot do anything else to make this RTG port faster, I only did this RTG version because it was very easy for me to do using the 68k SDL, my real interest is in AGA. Unfortunately the old 68k SDL is no longer maintained which means that this port isn't ever going to get any better


BTW Amiga Doom does not use MIDI (I should know, see the DOTT thread) so that's not a good comparision. I think the problem here is that the modern versions of ScummVM are targeted at more powerful hardware and so they don't have the same issues as the Amiga versions with things like MIDI playback and 16bit overlays.

[Mad-Matt]

Testing with Dott, Fullscreen does work ok in rtg version on my Bvision. Too slow though on 040/25 :/ scaler set to Normal (off)

[rockersuke]

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

BTW Amiga Doom does not use MIDI (I should know, see the DOTT thread) so that's not a good comparision. I think the problem here is that the modern versions of ScummVM are targeted at more powerful hardware and so they don't have the same issues as the Amiga versions with things like MIDI playback and 16bit overlays.

I'm the one to blame for mentioning ADoom at the ScummVM AGA thread which of course I did without the intention to cause any harm. But ADoom in fact does play MIDI files, I mean, the .mus files contained inside Doom wad files which are a slight variant of MIDI. And it does so using a MIDI engine, as stated in ADoom's docs. What's more, since Doom executable version 1.5 (and ADoom uses 1.9) you can use MIDI files directly in wad files without converting it to .mus.
Even if we still don't consider that as actually playing MIDI I made a little experiment last night. I downloaded and installed GMPLay from aminet. I left it playing a bunch of MIDI files as a background task and started ADoom, disabling all of its sound features (both sfxs and MIDI music) to avoid a sound conflict... and it worked! FPS average decreased from some 10-15 to 8-13, making the game hardly playable, but It still was going on.

Now, playing MIDI files without external hardware has always been considered as a real tricky business for any 680xx Amiga, even for 68060 based ones. Then again, a 50 MHz 68030 can play MIDI files using software synthesys and still have left some amount of resources to do other things, including playing Doom at a fair enough (given circumstances) speed.

I really am sorry and apologize if it seemed that my intention was either beeing dismissive of Amiga ScummVM's music performance or making unfair comparisions. My point was that it's not just lack of power on the processor side but, as Novacoder himself has quite acurately stated, the fact that the original ScummVM routines are meant to give optimal results with a later generation of CPUs what causes the poor MIDI output even when using an external card (as seem to be the case). This last bit suggests that perhaps there could be still an unexplored space for improvement. And then again, that doesn´t mean Novacoder should even think of it. As it is, Amiga ScummVM has reached far beyond than we were all expecting not long ago and has given us much more than we ever asked for, and of course, we'll never thank him enough for it .

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