ADFFS 2.63 beta

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JonAbbott
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ADFFS 2.63 beta

Post by JonAbbott »

ADFFS 2.63 beta on the dev site, along with an updated obey.zip. Unfortunately, the rushed release of 2.62 introduced some bugs which are hopefully now fixed in 2.63.

Boogie Buggy and some other games hung when launched because Service_ModeChange wasn't resetting VIDC20 HCR/VCR. Tracking of HCR/VCR was introduced in 2.62 to prevent resolution changes when HCR/VCR don't change, to fix flickering in games that change the visible resolution every frame.

Whilst testing Wizard Apprentice, I spotted some issues with DA2 when emulating RO3.5+ - in some cases the size and address were being restricted to RO3.11 restrictions. There was also an issue with Wimp_ClaimFreeMemory which wasn't failing the claim correctly, causing DSymphonyPlayer to fail.

Finally, the JIT wasn't releasing the Environment handlers when running executables, which caused memory corruption between 8000-8F00 when *RUNing an Absolute from BASIC.

The following games now work:
F1019301 Heroes of Might and Magic 2: The Succession Wars (2000) (R-Comp Interactive) (no boot script currently as the installer is Wimp based)
F1022001 KerBang! (1991) (Eterna)
F1022101 Labyrinth (2000) (Acornsoft)

The floppy images of KerBang! and Labyrinth have both been updated and are on the dev site.
JonAbbott
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Re: ADFFS 2.63 beta

Post by JonAbbott »

I forget to mention that I'm looking into an issue with the RTSupport code (the code that triggers the 50Hz blit) when the blitter is handling high res 8bit modes (eg MODE 21 / 28 / 32). It's seeing more VSync than there actually are, so RTSupport must be failing to call it at the correct times. This doesn't appear to affect the 50Hz blit, but does mean there's something wrong. In particular, I've noticed that when it counts extra VSync, DSymphonyPlayer sound is affected.
JonAbbott
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Re: ADFFS 2.63 beta

Post by JonAbbott »

JonAbbott wrote:I forget to mention that I'm looking into an issue with the RTSupport code (the code that triggers the 50Hz blit) when the blitter is handling high res 8bit modes (eg MODE 21 / 28 / 32)
Fixed in today's build. I've moved the IOC IR pin high to the end of the blit and added a second RTSupport routine that bring it back low soon after. The only game that uses it that I'm aware of (that I've not altered) is Tactic and I've confirmed that still works.

It doesn't fix the issue with DSymphonyPlayer; looking at the Module code it seems to have issues when the sound period goes below 96. The code itself assumes it's called at a regular rate, which it won't be as the buffer has to be topped up, so I need to modify the Module itself.
JonAbbott
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Re: ADFFS 2.63 beta

Post by JonAbbott »

Whilst getting KerBang! ready for release, I noticed the localised version of BASIC failed to load on ARMv3 but worked okay on ARMv4. I temporarily botched it to load and then noticed that certain CALL commands were causing register corruption.

Further investigation highlighted several issues with the TLB being flushed on ARMv3, which I managed to reproduce under emulation. Having fixed to the point it runs under emulation, it's still not working on physical.

Whilst investigating why BASIC hangs when loading, I also spotted an issue with the Message Filename, which wasn't being copied across...that also highlighted an issue with the localised BASIC.

In short, a small problem has cascaded into a lot of issues to resolve before KerBang! can be released.
Vanfanel
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Re: ADFFS 2.63 beta

Post by Vanfanel »

@Jon: I am back at ADFFS RISC OS testing.
How should I install Heroes 2? Manually I guess, but how? There's the BIN/CUE, ISO and ADFS images, and no instructions.
JonAbbott
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Re: ADFFS 2.63 beta

Post by JonAbbott »

Good to see you're back, I'll have a new build up soon with quite a few fixes.

You won't be able to test HoMM2 yet as I've not made the updated CDFaker available. You'd also need to install it on a RiscPC and copy the files across, then manually modify the !Run as I've not created a ZIP version.

I'll see what I can do over the weekend, in the meantime grab the CUE/BIN files. You won't need the ISO as it only contains the install files.
JonAbbott
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Re: ADFFS 2.63 beta

Post by JonAbbott »

The full zip of 2.63g is now on the dev site. CDFaker 1.01 can be found in development/cdfaker along with an Obey to mount a DOS partition as its unlikely you'll have enough space for many CD images if RISCOS is on an SD card - create a FAT32 partition in the SD card's free space within Windows and quick format it, then use the obey file to mount it within RISCOS.

HoMM2 ZIP is in untested/jaspp, you'll need to modify the CDFaker_Mount line in !Run to mount the F1019303/cue file. You'll also need to modify the filename in F1019303/cue to whatever you've called F1019303/bin.

CDFaker CD-Audio is work in progress, I still need to check its buffering ahead far enough ahead to avoid dropping audio frames, so may need to alter the buffer sizes and disk read-ahead size before public release.

Don't forgot to add a CD-ROM in Configure and add !CDFaker to the apps that are run.
Vanfanel
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Re: ADFFS 2.63 beta

Post by Vanfanel »

@Jon: I was testing 2.63g and:
- "Hero Quest" has stopped working (from floppy image and HDD install). Stalls on a black screen with white cursor.
- "The Cobald Seed" has also stopped working (a great game, this one!), crashes as soon as launched, with a Data Abort exception.
- "Wolfenstein 3D" hangs the whole system as soon as I press the "boot" button on ADFFS launcher.
- "Stunt Racer 2000" (SA version) shows an "internal abort on data transfer" on exit.

I have tested a lot of games and I have found these problems and regressions. Will do more testing on the following days.

Also, I tried HMM2: followed your instructions, but I get "Could not open filesystem" when trying to launch !Heroes2.
-I have a FAT32 partition with hmm2/cue and hmm2/bin on it. On hmm2/cue, the bin file is called hmm2/bin.
-I adjusted the CDFaker_Mount line on !Run inside !Heroes2 so it tries to mount hmm2/cue
-I have added a CD-ROM unit in configure.
-When I run the MountDOSPartition script, nothing seems to happen. Shouldn't a FAT32 partition appear on the lower icon bar?
-If I open a console (F12) and do "fat32fs:mount -fp3 :16", I get "could not open drive 16 (-20)". I suspect this is the problem, but I don't know what the solution could be.
JonAbbott
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Re: ADFFS 2.63 beta

Post by JonAbbott »

Vanfanel wrote:- "Hero Quest" has stopped working (from floppy image and HDD install). Stalls on a black screen with white cursor.
- "The Cobalt Seed" has also stopped working (a great game, this one!), crashes as soon as launched, with a Data Abort exception.
- "Wolfenstein 3D" hangs the whole system as soon as I press the "boot" button on ADFFS launcher.
- "Stunt Racer 2000" (SA version) shows an "internal abort on data transfer" on exit.

I have tested a lot of games and I have found these problems and regressions.
Looks like something broke in 2.63e, I'll investigate.
Vanfanel wrote:If I open a console (F12) and do "fat32fs:mount -fp3 :16", I get "could not open drive 16 (-20)". I suspect this is the problem, but I don't know what the solution could be.
First thing to try is update fat32fs, the Module will be in PreDesk.Fat32FS, if that doesn't fix it the partition number is possibly different, so try changing the mount line accordingly.
JonAbbott
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Re: ADFFS 2.63 beta

Post by JonAbbott »

JonAbbott wrote:
Vanfanel wrote:- "Hero Quest" has stopped working (from floppy image and HDD install). Stalls on a black screen with white cursor.
- "The Cobalt Seed" has also stopped working (a great game, this one!), crashes as soon as launched, with a Data Abort exception.
- "Wolfenstein 3D" hangs the whole system as soon as I press the "boot" button on ADFFS launcher.
- "Stunt Racer 2000" (SA version) shows an "internal abort on data transfer" on exit.
Looks like something broke in 2.63e, I'll investigate.
Fixed in todays build. There is an issue affecting Zalaga, but I believe that's specific to Zalaga and does not affect any other games.
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