E-UAE amigfx update

For those who haven't noticed, on OS4Depot is a new AMIGFX build with driveclick sounds built-in.

In the upload queue (edit: now approved) is a build I just did now which adds the missing savestate/saverestore hotkeys (SDL build not affected when using rawkeys).

Enjoy!

Drive click sounds? Nice...

Whoops, left the old README in there. Doesn't matter.

The drive noises are also more accurate than those provided by RunInUAE, so I hope to support this version of E-UAE in the next release.

What about discussing with HunoPPC which seems to have a faster SDL implementation?
Read here : http://www.amigans.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1430

The SDL version of e-uae I uploaded will use a shared object library for libZ and libSDL, so if HunoPPC releases a .so, e-uae should be able to use it.

I doubt it'll be faster than the AMIGFX version though.

The only benefit of the SDL build is being able to use the P96 uaegfx driver, and toggling between fullscreen/windowed (this function is simply empty for AMIGFX. I could look into and see if I might be able to add it, but my skill-set in C is minimal).

@Elwood

AmiGFX version iw way faster than the SDL one (I told you so when I tested E-Uae on your Sam 460).

If we can avoid using SDL, just do it

@MickJT

Quote:

Is it just me, or does anybody else think it strange that an emulator would emulate a mechanical sound? I assume (I haven't updated yet in fear that it does, and it is not possible to switch this off) it doesn't also do the disk-thrashing noises when trying to load two files off the same floppy, so why do the clicking?

No other emulator includes mechanical noises, and I see no need for it. Otherwise DOSBox would be making a roaring CPU fan noise constantly, or ASp/FUSE would be including the noise of the user pressing PLAY on their cassette recorder and the healthy CLUNK of pressing STOP when it finishes loading, or the virtual tape ends.

It suggests that the author has run out of useful features to add, and didn't want to randomly shuffle options around or remove functionality (which is a particular company's way of dealing with the same problem)

Well, the driveclick noise is in it's basic form in 0.8.29-WIP4, and disabled, and lacking the sound data itself. I just enabled what was available. You can thank "Ole" for the source for that.

In WinUAE I expect it's improved. I don't use driveclick sounds myself, I use the leds instead, but I don't think it's strange for an emulator to emulate everything about a particular machine, including any noises it might make.

The tape noises actually sound like a good idea.

The point of driveclick noises in an emulator is so you know when data is being loaded from the disk, especially in cases where it can take a minute or so for anything to appear on the screen. It is far from useless.

@chris
No other emulator includes mechanical noises, and I see no need for it.
I don't know there-'Amigans Defender'-
All computers had fans and floppies and noise, but Amiga was the one and only that had the track disk device. That noise is kind of a trade mark itself; or did I miss a click here!!!!

@MickJT
You can thank "Ole" for the source for that.
Was that Olegil? Thanks for that!

Quote:

It also provides the opportunity to install the noclick utility to silence that annoying clicking.

Uh, is the emulated drive noise accurate enough that noclick works? That was a very useful utility.

Hans

Yes. NoClick works. I use "shutup" to do the same thing.

@Chris
You should try floppy drive noise emulation, before dismissing it. I saw it in WinUAE years ago, and it was a revelation! Not only is it nostalgic, but also it is actually very useful (you can tell whether a game is loading something or has simply crashed).

I agree, the first time I heard of it I thought it was nonsense but when I used it it was really nostalgic. It brought back memories from the disk-swapping days infront of the A500/A1200 and A4000D.

But if you hate it, turn it off......

It shall be used with the original diskdrive speed too which means slow disk readings anyway so I would say either use it for nostalgic reasons or turn it off and raise the diskdrive speed for faster loading.

@Elwood
Quote:


Imho he mean "brand new SDL engine of _game_" , not "brand new SDL itself".

@MickJT
Advantage of SDL port: as you remember you sent me your SDL recompile a while back (the one that is dynamically linked)and one thing I noticed is that it reproduces the smoothest possible scrolling of any other version.
I'm quite an expert when it comes to set emulators to mimic the original machines 1:1 (I did this on PC way before coming back to Amiga) I work with both advanced video options and emulator settings, and as everybody probably knows I'm not afraid to try all these settings on several different monitors (both LCD and CRT monitors and TVs).

Using AmiGFX (which returns correct audio without hiccups) there was no way whatsoever to get 100% rid of scrolling stuttering and screen tearing (I've tried everything).
The best I managed to get is "very sporadic" V-Sync problems coupled with very very sporadic micro-stuttering (all this only if coupled with a CRT and a native 320x256@150Hz screen mode) which is very good, however the SDL version you sent me goes one step ahead and it's just perfect.

Using the same screen set-up described above, going around in a multi directional scrolling game like Turrican for example (or any other for that matter) NEVER produce errors in scrolling smoothness or screen tearing, the screen scrolls at a constant silky smooth rate and stays always in one piece (no tearings ever under any condition).
Sadly sound reproduction is good only in 50% of the games on a SamFlex, hopefully better hardware will solve the problem.

My SDL port is a hell of a lot slower than the one from Richard Drummond. I can only put it down to the SDL he linked it with.

Even when I link with an old one on his site, it still is slower.

Also with the latest SDL there's these tiny little specks that appear randomly, like film dirt. Since the one I put on OS4Depot uses a shared lib, you should be able to put an older .so in an SObjs directory to work around that.

Also, I compiled a version with capsimage.device support. Sent it to ChrisH who never got back to me and kas1e who doesn't have any .ipf files.

I was too busy to test it before (no time to even run the binary at all) but I will test it shortly.

I've tested capsimage.device and it works fine. So there'll eventually be another 2 uploads to OS4Depot (amigfx and sdl) to enable ipf support.

I'm also making progress on allowing screenmode and window/fullscreen switching with amigfx without restarting e-uae.

Edit: Gave up on screenmode switching (including fullscreen/windowed). Spent hours on it, and it behaves weirdly, changing the palette when it feels like it (i.e sometimes it works fine). I tried everything I knew and basically add printf's (in this case write_log) to just about everywhere and all the values it prints are what I expect to see. I've tried wiping the pens, completely shutting down and re-opening the graphics subsystem, and printing values for each pen. I might take one last look tomorrow.

Spent many more hours searching through the code, to find in custom.c, notice_new_xcolors() which is exactly what was needed.

So, the next version will have .ipf support and screenmode/window/fullscreen switching.

Edit: Assuming I can get it to switch from windowed to fullscreen nicely.

Edit2: Fix0r3d.

great!

Thanks!

nexus.