ADFFS 2.84 public beta

[JonAbbott]

I've not managed to test on my Pi as yet, but on the a3010 the game now seems to work at the correct speed as well as the sound being correct now on hostages. I compared it to running directly via disk and they sounded identical. Previously it was missing a few notes and the pitch was off.

In the latest obey.zip, I've added HD install instructions and modified the script (F1020101) to patch the game speed when its HD installed.

[JonAbbott]

Updated build in the OP with adjustments to the way overlays are created and updated, so it now fully complies with the restrictions on overlays.

Despite the changes, I'm still seeing overlay issues that I've previously reported (ie machine locks, overlays not being displayed, banks not being mapped etc) so your mileage may vary.

-About the Alone in the Dark pitch issue: seems to affect the fighting voices, and yes, it happens even if the game is run after a fresh boot.

I can't reproduce this issue, try preventing !Boot from running (mash ESC during boot) to rule out other software altering the pitch.

Would it be possible to have PC-conversion games centred instead of them being displayed with a thick black bar under the image?

Until I can figure out a better solution, you can switch between aspect ratios via CTRL+SHIFT+5 / 8. It's not technically doing it correctly as it should probably stretch the pixel height to match the PC original, but has the effect you're after.

-Another game that hangs on different places with WiFi on (hangs on the controls explanation screen, in-game, etc...) is Thundermonk.

I'm now seeing similar issues with many games randomly locking if I leave them on their demo loops, that don't occur if I don't load a WiFi stack.

I suspect a bug in RISC OS 5.30 as I'm also seeing random lockups and crashes if I leave the OS alone for any extended period of time.

[Vanfanel]

@Jon: From now on, I will leave WiFi OFF for now to do ADFFS tests so I don't complicate the results with the WiFi-related problems.

Now for the tests with the latest ADFFS games:

-Both Alone in the Dark and Fireball II seem to hang on a black screen now most of the times. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't (most times they don't).

-Another game that goes into black-screen mode most of the times I try to run it is Wolfenstein 3D (32bit)

Also, the aspect ratio thing with CTRL+SHIFT+5 / 8 is fantastic for Alone in the Dark! Is there a way to get that done on launch? Something I can add on the game script or similar.

EDIT: Those games that boot to a black screen seem to run after a while waiting on the black screen... Maybe it's the bug you mentioned on the other thread? Very confusing bug

EDIT2: Sometimes, it takes a LONG time on the black screen! Like 5-10 min...

[JonAbbott]

@Jon: From now on, I will leave WiFi OFF for now to do ADFFS tests so I don't complicate the results with the WiFi-related problems.

Probably wise. *RMKill WLanBWFM before running a game, the desktop app can be left running.

-Both Alone in the Dark and Fireball II seem to hang on a black screen now most of the times. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't (most times they don't).

-Another game that goes into black-screen mode most of the times I try to run it is Wolfenstein 3D (32bit)

EDIT: Those games that boot to a black screen seem to run after a while waiting on the black screen... Maybe it's the bug you mentioned on the other thread? Very confusing bug

EDIT2: Sometimes, it takes a LONG time on the black screen! Like 5-10 min...

Whilst investigating the WiFi issue, I noticed BCMVideo wasn't always mapping the overlay bank into memory - which may be why the screen is blank as the blitter checks and exits if its not valid. I've yet to see if there's a workaround.

Also, the aspect ratio thing with CTRL+SHIFT+5 / 8 is fantastic for Alone in the Dark! Is there a way to get that done on launch? Something I can add on the game script or similar.

I started listing games with non-standard aspect ratios, I need to go through them and cut the list down to just games that don't adjust VIDC and from that figure out which aspect ratios are required and the best way to handle them.

The key combination was a quick hack for testing, which I'll remove once its automated.

[JonAbbott]

Updated build in the OP.

-Both Alone in the Dark and Fireball II seem to hang on a black screen now most of the times. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't (most times they don't).

-Another game that goes into black-screen mode most of the times I try to run it is Wolfenstein 3D (32bit)

See if this build helps. It now repeatedly maps the overlay banks into memory at every VSync, if it's previously failed (issue reported here).

I've noticed Diggers isn't being scaled to fill the screen with the Overlay build, which I'm look into.

[Vanfanel]

Updated build in the OP.

-Both Alone in the Dark and Fireball II seem to hang on a black screen now most of the times. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't (most times they don't).

-Another game that goes into black-screen mode most of the times I try to run it is Wolfenstein 3D (32bit)

See if this build helps. It now repeatedly maps the overlay banks into memory at every VSync, if it's previously failed (issue reported here).

I've noticed Diggers isn't being scaled to fill the screen with the Overlay build, which I'm look into.

Yes, this new build helps with Alone in the Dark and with Wolfenstein 3D, but Fireball II now hangs at the "(C) Cambride International Software 1990" screen, seemingly forever.

[JonAbbott]

Fireball II now hangs at the "(C) Cambride International Software 1990" screen, seemingly forever.

That's a bug in the original game's !Run, which carried over and is now showing up where I fixed a bug in the way ADFFS worked out the page size. The game relies on 32K pages to allocate the correct amount of Appspace, as a consequence it's allocating 8K too little with the Pi's 4K pages.

It will be corrected in the next update, but in the meantime you can grab the latest obey.zip

[Vanfanel]

@Jon: Ah, yes! With latest obey.zip, Fireball II works great!

I'll be testing auto-ratio correction for 200 lines games when it's ready!

[Vanfanel]

@Jon: Also, some games like Lemmings and Flashback have somewhat strange colors/palettes: specially noticeable on fade-to-black transitions, and in Lemmings ground tiles which look too red-ish.

[JonAbbott]

some games like Lemmings and Flashback have somewhat strange colors/palettes: specially noticeable on fade-to-black transitions, and in Lemmings ground tiles which look too red-ish.

That will be the gamma correction:

• VIDC1 and GraphicsV palette entries are now gamma corrected when emulating pre-RISC OS 3.5

...which is an offshoot of this stardot thread discussing how the deficiencies in the default Arc colour palette required monitor adjustment at the time.

When I implemented, I couldn't find the colour calibrator to read the RGB exactly, so I eyeballed it against my A310, with the monitor adjusted accordingly. So the RGB curves are currently a guess and undoubtedly wrong.

Ironically I was looking at the colour calibrator yesterday thinking "I really need to measure and set those gamma curves correctly"

EDIT: The gamma table was set to something I was testing. I'll reset it to the linear table in the next build.