Beta Uae4All Additions

[john4p]

Addition VIII: Hardware-Scaling (via framebuffer)

Using SteveM's modified SDL lib our UAE4All now has hardware scaled screenmodes.
Thanks @sebt3 - LD_PRELOAD works fine to use the modified lib for UAE4All.

After selecting the M68K core you now get to select one of 7 screenmodes. Unfortunately they aren't changeable on-the-fly (due to UAE4All crashing when SDL_SetVideoMode is called more than once) so you have to quit and restart UAE4All if you want to use a different screenmode.
Also a resolution of 320x200 made UAE4All crash. Thus the lowest working (upscaled resolution) is 320x205 - still making games with a resolution of 320x200 almost fullscreen (without destroying their correct x:y-aspect ratio!).

The 7 screenmodes are:

• 1: 320x205 upscaled to 750x480
• 2: 320x216 upscaled to 712x480
• 3: 320x240 DOUBLED PIXELS to 640x480 (default mode without utilizing framebuffer)
• 4: 320x256 upscaled to 600x480 (standard PAL resolution)
• 5: 320x262 upscaled to 588x480 (slight overscan mode)
• 6: 320x205 upscaled to 800x480 (like screenmode 1 but slightly widestretched to use the Pandora's full screen)
• 7: 320x205 upscaled to 640x480 (for NTSC games)

Screenmode 1 is perfect for a lot of games (Beast I&III, Chaos Engine, Gods, Hunter, Lotus I-III, Paradroid 90, Speedball 2, Stunt Car Racer, SuperCars I, Wings, Wings of Fury and many more).
Screenmode 2 is perfect for Turrican I&II and Beast II.
Screenmode 3 is the default mode and doesn't use the framebuffer. It's best for a couple of games like Arcade Pool, SuperCars II, Turrican 3 and more.
Screenmode 4 is perfect for games using the 320x256 PAL resolution like All Terrain Racing, Battle Squadron PAL version, SWIV and many more.
Screenmode 5 is perfect for Pinball Dreams&Fantasies and Superfrog (they all use a little more height than the standard PAL resolution).
Screenmode 6 is like screenmode 1 (so use it for the same games) - only a little more widestretched to use the full screen of the Pandora.
Screenmode 7 is for some NTSC games like Arkanoid NTSC version and Battle Squadron NTSC version. Pixels are "taller than wide" in this mode.

Of course the ugly softstretched modes are gone for good now.

Touchscreen support probably only works correctly for screenmode 3 (the default doubled pixels non-hardware scaled mode).


Download the new version: http://www.filefront.com/17230287/uae4all.zip


Source: http://www.filefront.com/17231620/uae4all_pandora_src.zip

Well, I also use an enhanced run script which sets the mouse to left handed or right handed on first start (nubs) and tells you if the kickstart is missing

Quite handy - when I extracted a PND for testing purposes I took the kickstart-part and reused it in the later runme.shs (the nub selection dialog wasn't in there yet).

[...]installing to /usr/lib will most probably break sound for other apps which use SDL audio :-

Really fortunate that our UAE4All-port doesn't use SDL audio so sound is working fine with framebuffer.

 

[DaveC]

So does this mean all we have is that blurry godawful fractional scale filter mode now or is there still a 2X mode that retains sharpness? Why no 320 x 200 doubled to 640 x 400?

 

[john4p]

Maybe you should read the above post again...

 

[DaveC]

Maybe you should read the above post again...

Ok I take the post as saying everything uses blurr mode. I may be reading it wrong which is why I asked.

I don't know why you couldn't have left in the non-filtered non-hardware scale mode you had in before. It is fine to add these modes that you did but not sure why the other 2X mode couldn't have stayed in as an option too.

 

[EvilDragon]

Maybe you should read the above post again...

Ok I take the post as saying everything uses blurr mode. I may be reading it wrong which is why I asked.

I don't know why you couldn't have left in the non-filtered non-hardware scale mode you had in before. It is fine to add these modes that you did but not sure why the other 2X mode couldn't have stayed in as an option too.

Option 3 sounds like it doesn't blur?

 

[john4p]

Maybe you should read the above post again...

Ok I take the post as saying everything uses blurr mode. I may be reading it wrong which is why I asked.

I don't know why you couldn't have left in the non-filtered non-hardware scale mode you had in before. It is fine to add these modes that you did but not sure why the other 2X mode couldn't have stayed in as an option too.

Option 3 sounds like it doesn't blur?

Correct. Screenmode 3 (which is also selected by default in the initial dialog) is just the old doubled pixels mode (note the capital "DOUBLED" in the screenmodes-list above) which doesn't use the framebuffer.
Of course I didn't remove that - it's great.


Btw., each of the hardwarescaled modes is lightning fast (great work by notaz)! Faster than the doubled pixels mode: Paradroid 90 works fullspeed (and fullscreen if you wish) with frameskip 0 at 500MHz.
In doubled pixels mode you need frameskip 1 at 500MHz for that game (but doubled pixels mode is still fast - most other games work fullspeed with frameskip 0 at 500 MHz in doubled pixels mode, too).

 

[smoku]

In OpenGL you may request non-interpolated texture scaling, so with a bit of tweaking in SDL backend you can achieve sharp hardware pixel doubler.
(It's the default mode on N900)

 

[john4p]

Yeah well, our doubled pixels mode is still fast enough for fullspeed on every game (few need slight overclocking).
It's also sharp, crisp and has vibrant colors. It's the default mode on Pandora.

 

[DaveC]

Correct. Screenmode 3 (which is also selected by default in the initial dialog) is just the old doubled pixels mode (note the capital "DOUBLED" in the screenmodes-list above) which doesn't use the framebuffer.
Of course I didn't remove that - it's great.

•3: 320x240 DOUBLED to 640x480

Ok what confused me is the 320 x 240 to 640 x 480. Some Amiga games were 320 x 200 and if doubled it would not be 320 x 480 it would be 640 x 400. I guess you are referring to the frame buffer size and not the game screen res itself? Do you still have that screen shift mode for larger than 320 x 240 modes? that was cool.

Cool thanks for leaving that in then. So many other things are moving to a filter only screen with no option to disable.

 

[john4p]

You're right - 640x480 is actually 4x the resolution of 320x240. By "doubled" I meant doubled both in x- and y-direction.

UAE4All will keep this mode.

The screen shift (L-Trigger + dpad) works in every mode.

 

[smoku]

Yeah well, our doubled pixels mode is still fast enough for fullspeed on every game (few need slight overclocking).
It's also sharp, crisp and has vibrant colors. It's the default mode on Pandora.

I'm sorry I tried to help.
I will shut up now.

 

[john4p]

No, don't shut up - your help and suggestions are always appreciated.

It's just that for simple pixel-doubling OpenGL seems a bit unnecessary.

 

[EvilDragon]

PND'ed

I have to agree Turrican 2 looks kick ass with new scaler

I also like the slightly blurry look - it looks more the way it looked like on my 1084S now Cooool

 

[TitanUranus]

I really look forward to playing "Projext X" when I get my Pandora. Part of the reason I sold my Wiz was because the bottom of the screen was missing in UAE4all, so you couldn't see the damn power up bar, without that I lost faith in the Wiz and it's future and decided to invest in a Pandora (well, ok I admit only after a £5 double I'd bet won me £350).

 

[john4p]

^A 320x256- or 480x272-pixels screen (like the PSP) would have made the Wiz a much more appealing device.

PND'ed

Thanks.

I also like the slightly blurry look

I like the results of notaz' scaler, too.
Interpolation results in blur. Blur (or smoothness) like on TVs and Amiga monitors back then.

 

[DaveC]

^A 320x256- or 480x272-pixels screen (like the PSP) would have made the Wiz a much more appealing device.

PND'ed

Thanks.

I also like the slightly blurry look

I like the results of notaz' scaler, too.
Interpolation results in blur. Blur (or smoothness) like on TVs and Amiga monitors back then.

Amiga monitors were not that blurry unless it was busted. They were RGB and pretty sharp, unlike some old TV connected through an RF adapter.

This blurr is different, not like a CRT but like a blurry LCD, it just isn't the same.

 

[john4p]

This blurr is different, not like a CRT but like a blurry LCD, it just isn't the same.

Yes, it's not identical, but this LCD blur isn't as bad as the blur you'll see on a 19" LCD (using bilinear filtering) because our screen is tiny in comparison.

 

[Iorgy77]

If you ever used an amiga on a CRT PC multiscan monitor and compared it to a 1084/1080/1081 RGB monitor you would see the difference. CRT PC monitor would show the pixels a lot cleaner and sharper and blockier. I have no idea about the filters talked about here because I still have never even seen a real pandora let alone used uae4all...

 

[john4p]

I remember not being impressed when a friend showed me Prince of Persia, Xenon 2 and Monkey Island on his 286 PC.
Preferred the smoothness of my RGB Amiga monitor (where you didn't see the single pixels) over the blockiness of the PC screen.

 

[TitanUranus]

When I showed my sister a C64 game we used to play emulated on the PC she looked at the monitor and said "I don't remember it looking like so blocky" - I popped on some scanlines and she said "that's more like it". Maybe we could do with some scanlines for this emulator (personally I like big crisp chunky pixels, though maybe the C64 double sprite resolution takes it too far, like playing on a monitor with pixels made of LEGO).