ADFFS 2.71 beta

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Vanfanel
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Re: ADFFS 2.71 beta

Post by Vanfanel »

@Jon: I'd like to specially thank you for your work on the .r beta: I can go from a game to another without having to reboot anymore! There were some fatal combinations before, now fixed! Great work, and I believe 2.71 final will be the best version so far!

Some small problems that you may (or may not) like to fix before 2.71 final:
-HeroQuest is still hanging on the language selection screen
-Pandora's Box, as it's packed right now, is a "fake install", hence it asks for the second disk after the tittle screen, but pressing CTRL+SHIFT+F2 does not work. Maybe a "full" hdd install would be better. But I believe the game is stuck on the DISK 2 prompt anyway.
JonAbbott
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Re: ADFFS 2.71 beta

Post by JonAbbott »

Vanfanel wrote: Wed Jan 23, 2019 12:14 pm I can go from a game to another without having to reboot anymore!
Great, I still have a few more things to implement such as tracking open files, but it should hopefully now be more stable when terminating games.
Vanfanel wrote: Wed Jan 23, 2019 12:14 pm -HeroQuest is still hanging on the language selection screen
I'll investigate.
Vanfanel wrote: Wed Jan 23, 2019 12:14 pm -Pandora's Box, as it's packed right now, is a "fake install", hence it asks for the second disk after the tittle screen, but pressing CTRL+SHIFT+F2 does not work. Maybe a "full" hdd install would be better. But I believe the game is stuck on the DISK 2 prompt anyway.
That's the original release, which was floppy only. There is an issue with that package, which I've now fixed. If you update your package list and remove/redownload it, it should now work.

For the HD install version, grab the [SA] version instead.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I've put the Wizard Apprentice package up. CDFaker is installed as a dependency, but you'll have to either manually mount the ISO or put it into the !WizApp directory (named F1038601), as the package would be too large with it included.
Vanfanel
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Re: ADFFS 2.71 beta

Post by Vanfanel »

@Jon: Installed Pandora's Box SA version instead as you pointed, and it's a full HDD install as you said. Works better without disk swapping, yes.
Floppy version does work now, too.

Another game that's failing is Simon The Sorcerer: I get a text mode message saying "Can't find save dir". Strangely I'd say this game was working before... tried to reinstall the package with no luck.
JonAbbott
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Re: ADFFS 2.71 beta

Post by JonAbbott »

JonAbbott wrote: Wed Jan 23, 2019 5:08 pm
Vanfanel wrote: Wed Jan 23, 2019 12:14 pm -HeroQuest is still hanging on the language selection screen
I'll investigate.
I forgot I'd already investigated this back when we first discovered the issue in 2.69. It's being caused by Filecore stiffing when the game tries to load files while threaded under an IRQ.

The fix is to move the blitter away from the GPU VSync and into the VSync generation code, as its unthreaded at that point, but it introduces microstutter. It's possible I can fix that with some drastic changes to the way the blitter, frame swap and GPU VSync are handled.
Vanfanel wrote: Thu Jan 24, 2019 2:06 am Simon The Sorcerer: I get a text mode message saying "Can't find save dir". Strangely I'd say this game was working before... tried to reinstall the package with no luck.
Sounds like a packaging issue, I'll take a look.
JonAbbott
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Re: ADFFS 2.71 beta

Post by JonAbbott »

JonAbbott wrote: Thu Jan 24, 2019 7:41 am Sounds like a packaging issue, I'll take a look.
It is indeed a packaging issue. Blank directories aren't being included in the package. Quitting also leaves the machine in a bad state, so I'll see if I can figure out what's causing that as well.

Whilst on the subject of issues, Populous is reporting an ambiguous instruction on exit which I need to resolve and doesn't seem to work with USBJoystick loaded.
Vanfanel
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Re: ADFFS 2.71 beta

Post by Vanfanel »

@Jon: If fixing HeroQuest introduces stuttering, I would say just ignore that game. The game's not that good as to get stuttering in exchange... Smooth movement is the best feature for me in ADFFS! :D
JonAbbott
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Re: ADFFS 2.71 beta

Post by JonAbbott »

Vanfanel wrote: Thu Jan 24, 2019 11:29 am @Jon: If fixing HeroQuest introduces stuttering, I would say just ignore that game. The game's not that good as to get stuttering in exchange... Smooth movement is the best feature for me in ADFFS! :D
That's the reason I've not fixed it yet. I have one more thing to try, which I'll test over the weekend. If that fails, I'll look at adding a * command to switch the behaviour for just that game.

2.71s package is now up, as is a repackage of Simon the Sorcerer, so remove and redownload it. The game should now have a "Saves" directory and quitting/terminating it should close down the JIT cleanly.
Vanfanel
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Re: ADFFS 2.71 beta

Post by Vanfanel »

@Jon: Yes, Simon works now, no more complains with save dirs :)
The * command idea for HeroQuest sounds good!
Vanfanel
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Re: ADFFS 2.71 beta

Post by Vanfanel »

@Jon: I have discovered another problem between games. If you run "Simon the Sorcerer" and then exit and try to run "Alone in the Dark", it will fail.

Another game that has problems on quit is "Magnetoids":
-If you quit via CTRL+SHIFT+F12 it goes to a black screen (system is still running).
-If you quit via CTRL+ESC, it quits well, but trying to run it again, it fails.
richw
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Re: ADFFS 2.71 beta

Post by richw »

I am pretty impressed that it is even possible to cleanly exit and load something else. Back in the day, you would have to reboot, as there was always dirt left behind. I just assumed a reboot was sensible, particularly with all the hairy tricks ADFFS gets up to! I will try and do some tests without rebooting in future.
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