Elansar / Philia update for Firebee

[Orion_]

If you already bought my games "Elansar" for Firebee/CTPCI or "Philia: the sequel to Elansar" for Falcon, here is an update for Firebee/CT60.



For Elansar:
This update allows you to play in a GEM window under 16bits screen resolution.
The video intro quality has been greatly updated.

For Philia: the sequel to Elansar:
The game was Falcon only, but now you can play in a GEM window under 16bits screen resolution on Firebee or CT60.

Download the update here
Read the "Update.txt" file for more informations.

I updated my game packages on my itch.io store, now you have all the up to date versions when buying the game

[vido]

Hehe ... this is just great Orion!
I will test it (Elansar) tomorrow when I will have time.

If it works ok it is time also to purchase Philia

Thanks!

[Orion_]

I didn't incorporated this update in my whole game package on my website yet, I wanted to have feedback before doing so.
I hope it will work under MiNT (I don't have a CF card right now so i can't test), if it works for Elansar, it should work for Philia (it's almost the same system)

[vido]

I didn't incorporated this update in my whole game package on my website yet, I wanted to have feedback before doing so.
I hope it will work under MiNT (I don't have a CF card right now so i can't test), if it works for Elansar, it should work for Philia (it's almost the same system)

I had a little time to test Elansat under MiNT/XaAES and it is nicely playable. I like it!
But there is several issues:
- If the Elansar window is not topped the game should pause. Now if the other window is on top of the Elansar window it draws ist content over the top window.
- When the window is not the top one you can not bring it to top with clicking on the window. You have to top it with the taskbar, ...
- If you want action to be executed you have to push the mouse button about a second. It is not instant.
- It works great in 16 bit depth, but it doesnt work in 32 bit depth. Is it possible to make it work also in 32 bit depth? I use only 32 bit depth resolution as NetSurt renders pages faster in this resolution and I use NetSurf a lot.

This is all I found for now. It is just great to have GEM version as it can be played while you are doing tome other things on the computer!

[Orion_]

- If the Elansar window is not topped the game should pause. Now if the other window is on top of the Elansar window it draws ist content over the top window.
- When the window is not the top one you can not bring it to top with clicking on the window. You have to top it with the taskbar, ...

it seems that handling multitasking is more painful than I thought, I will look into this, thanks for the test.

- If you want action to be executed you have to push the mouse button about a second. It is not instant.

That is strange because, in the gem event loop I pause 0ms and check the button at each loop using graf_mkstate so it should be instant, at least it is under Monotask TOS.

- It works great in 16 bit depth, but it doesnt work in 32 bit depth. Is it possible to make it work also in 32 bit depth? I use only 32 bit depth resolution as NetSurt renders pages faster in this resolution and I use NetSurf a lot.

The game was originally made for 32bits, but: it is already slowish at the moment in 16bits mode (<20fps), so rendering in 32bits would mean twice as slow :/
Also, I could do a 32bits version, but Philia graphics was made for 16bits so it won't be playable in 32bits (unless I redo all the graphics, no conversion possible since I use pregenerated code for some graphics for speed), and it would be very slow too (scrolling at <10 fps is an horrible game experience)

[Orion_]

I just tried under MiNT/MyAes, and this is even worse than plain TOS, the speed is about 2 times slower, so imagine, playing in 32bits under MiNT would mean 5fps gameplay !
I begin to wonder if this GEM idea is a great idea for my games ...
Now that I know how to do double buffering on Firebee, I might revert back to plain 16bits fullscreen for better gameplay experience.

[vido]

I thinK GEM is great idea for Elansar and Philia. You can do both versions but this in not arcade game. You dont have to worry that much about FPS. Anyway seems like PCI backplane for the Radeon graphic card will be ready soon and I believe that will improve graphic speed.
It is sure for me that I will play Philia and Elansar more if there will be GEM version. Also if there would be only 5 FPS
XaAES is also a little faster as MyAES.
Also consider a 32bit graphics. That would mean a lot to me. Disk space is not a problem ...

[calimero]

I just bought Elansar... I will report status on CT60 and SuperVidel... it will only take some time to transfer files to Falcon.

[Orion_]

I just updated the update (same link)
The GEM version should now handle topped/bottomed window, and the game is suspended as soon as your mouse get out of the window.

For Firebee users:
I also included an update of the original Elansar app which plays in Fullscreen, it is now way faster and smoother (triple buffering, 16bits, direct mouse handling)
I also included a Fullscreen version of Philia ! same as Elansar, plays smoothly in 16bits triple buffering.
Both fullscreen version have no problem with AES interaction, and will restore the desktop screen perfectly. (while the previous version of Elansar didn't)

[vido]

I allreasy tried update of the update
It works as you described. Top/bottom of window works.
Original version restors resolutin perfectly.
Only missing feature now would be also 32bit version

Great (and fast) work!
Thanks!

[Orion_]

I updated my game packages on my itch.io store, now you have all the up to date versions when buying the game

[calimero]

oh, I just download, transfer to Falcon and unpack Elansar but older version...
and I get "not enough" memory!?! I have 14MB, I booted Falcon with ctrl and I always get "not enough memory" (I check with system info and there was 13MB free). I use Falcon with RGB monitor, maybe this make problem?

[Orion_]

I use Falcon with RGB monitor, maybe this make problem?

on Falcon you need a VGA screen, the game runs in 640x480 resolution
this update is not for stock Falcon version, only for CTPCI/Radeon/Supervidel or Firebee

[vido]

on Falcon you need a VGA screen, the game runs in 640x480 resolution
this update is not for stock Falcon version, only for CTPCI/Radeon/Supervidel or Firebee

GEM version should run also on Milan or Hades ... maybe even TT with graphic card?

[calimero]

I use Falcon with RGB monitor, maybe this make problem?

on Falcon you need a VGA screen, the game runs in 640x480 resolution
this update is not for stock Falcon version, only for CTPCI/Radeon/Supervidel or Firebee

hm... I just try it on RGB with overscan (768x480px) and still same error message.
Tomorrow I will try CT60/SuperVidel version...

[Orion_]

hm... I just try it on RGB with overscan (768x480px) and still same error message.

The game sets it's own videl value, and 768x480 is not a standard falcon setup, that's why I locked the game to VGA and not RGB
The original game for stock falcon is not GEM compatible, it's VGA only (read the game description)

[calimero]

hm... I just try it on RGB with overscan (768x480px) and still same error message.

The game sets it's own videl value, and 768x480 is not a standard falcon setup, that's why I locked the game to VGA and not RGB
The original game for stock falcon is not GEM compatible, it's VGA only (read the game description)

well I read README.TXT inside FALCON.ZIP archive and there is no mention of system requirements (monitor type or free RAM). There is only one instruction: "Starting the Game: From the GEM desktop, double click on the "Elansar.app" application." and maybe you could throw correct error message: "VGA only" instead "not enough free RAM"?

and today I will try CT60/SuperVidel version on VGA... (I insisted to try on RGB because all old-school Falcon stuff looks and works better on RGB).

[jfl]

I've just bought Philia (even though I haven't finished Elansar yet ) mainly to express my gratitude for your taking the time to make it FireBee compatible. I know how frustrating it is sometimes to develop for this somewhat incomplete machine and only with people like you who keep at it and force open discussions while facing problems will the FireBee be able to move forward and finally reach it's real potential.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to try these two games and, who knows, maybe I'll even figure out how the hell I'm supposed to solve Elensar

[Orion_]

calimero > on my itch.io store page of Elansar you can read in the description: "Compatibility: -Atari Falcon 030 (VGA 640x480, 2MB of free ram, 50MB of disk space)"
I know the error message is wrong, it's a bug I never corrected, it's because my falcon was always hooked at my VGA screen and I never use RGB.

jfl > thanks for your support I might port another game to the Firebee soon, who knows

[Mathias]

I´d like to buy Philia for my FireBee as well. Any chance to pay by wire transfer (no Paypal or Bitcoin here)?

[Orion_]

(no Paypal or Bitcoin here)?

You have a "pay with card" option (I think it use stripe).
Paypal is available in Austria and I think you can pay without a paypal account.

[MacFalcon]

Hey Orion,

great that you made the games GEM compatible! I like that Philia is now playable on the firebee... One more reason to use this nice machine on a regular base.

Thank you very much!!!!

Best regards,

Chris

[MacFalcon]

double post, sorry!

[jfl]

Slightly off-topic but I've noticed a couple of issues with the Linux version of Philia: the script to run the game isn't executable and the readme mentions the program needs freeglut3 and libopenal1 without mentioning it actually needs the 32-bits version of those libs. Apart from that the program runs fine.

On my FireBee I've found the speed quite acceptable, particularly the smooth scrolling.

[Orion_]

I've noticed a couple of issues with the Linux version of Philia: the script to run the game isn't executable and the readme mentions the program needs freeglut3 and libopenal1 without mentioning it actually needs the 32-bits version of those libs.

It's a ZIP file, and thus it won't retain any linux specific file attribute.
On my store page I specified "PC Linux (for x86 ...)"
The game was made on a 32bits linux machine and I didn't know that 64bits could later be an issue on linux (it's not on windows)
that's why I tend to not port anymore games on linux due to library issue, I'm not a linux guru :/