The X68000 games porting experiment

[Eero Tamminen]

If all the libc / OS functions are used only at game start, I don't see how MiNT could make the game play faster. Multitasking definitely doesn't make it faster.

[christos]

I think the 060 issue has to do with the 060 caches. Are they off in TOS?

[ctirad]

Most probably he has CPU cache set to "delayed" in the CT6x CPX configuration. The Mint just reanables it, but TOS doesn't. This is a common misconfiguration.

[dml]

...The compiler knows that the register holds the constant value $eb8000 and so the optimisation is completely legal. Using a different address in D4 which is not aligned at 256 bytes will result in corrupted sprites. So I just replaced that instruction with a simple "clr.b" to fix it.

Thanks for explaining your fun with that - keep the bits and pieces flowing

[Anima]

Here's a new test release of Cho Ren Sha for the Atari Falcon 030. It's still not optimized in any way and even slower than the last one but I would like to see some numbers (or videos) running it on MC68060 machines again.

[EvilFranky]

I'll try and give it a go later mate

[joska]

This is not the Fast-RAM friendly version, right? Because it exits immediately with a "Can't allocate memory" on my Falcon/AB.

[Anima]

This is not the Fast-RAM friendly version, right? Because it exits immediately with a "Can't allocate memory" on my Falcon/AB.

Yes, it's still not optimal for accelerated machines. ChoRenSha uses an own malloc functionality and requests memory chunks from right above the program end address. So what I need to do is to check the maximum size of this area for a proper use of Mshrink. Then I can use Mxalloc to reserve ST-RAM for sound and graphics and copy the sample data / screen buffer to it.

[jury]

Here's a new test release of Cho Ren Sha for the Atari Falcon 030. It's still not optimized in any way and even slower than the last one but I would like to see some numbers (or videos) running it on MC68060 machines again.

No video ( I will try to do one later, but the chances I will success are rather close to zero ) but I have tried this version and it seems quite few times slower the the version I tried last time ( the one from 24th Oct )
Test machine: F030 + CT63 ( @95MHz ) + SV

[Anima]

No video ( I will try to do one later, but the chances I will success are rather close to zero ) but I have tried this version and it seems quite few times slower the the version I tried last time ( its the one from 24th Oct )
Machine tested: F030 + CT63 ( @95MHz ) + SV

Thanks. Ok, so there's no need to record a video. Actually I am preparing a version which will run in Fast-RAM. Every other approach seems to be useless.

[cafealpha]

Hello Anima, your portage of Cho Ren Sha really looks great !
I don't own any Atari Falcon to test it, but the youtube videos I can see about it are really stunning.
It doesn't seems that original sources of this game are available, so does it means you wrote this Atari version from scratch ??

[Anima]

It doesn't seems that original sources of this game are available, so does it means you wrote this Atari version from scratch ??

Well, it's more like a disassembled original game with some emulation routines added to it.

[cafealpha]

Well, it's more like a disassembled original game with some emulation routines added to it.

Oh I see, thank you for the informations !
So there is definitely no sources available for this game ... too bad it can't be easily ported on other platform.
Please keep the good work on Atari

[Anima]

Short update: a first test version now works on ARAnyM JIT. I just wanted to check out the compatibility of the main game code utilising Fast-RAM for the accelerated machine targets.

[CiH]

Short update: a first test version now works on ARAnyM JIT. I just wanted to check out the compatibility of the main game code utilising Fast-RAM for the accelerated machine targets.

Bloody hell, that's just about finished!

[EvilFranky]

Short update: a first test version now works on ARAnyM JIT. I just wanted to check out the compatibility of the main game code utilising Fast-RAM for the accelerated machine targets.

Incredible.

Can you give some details as to the progress you have made since the last video? Is that still 8bpp?? Looks a lot more.

[dml]

Yes that's really impressive.

[NGF]

Very nice! Is that new backgrounds you have made?

[qq1975b]

Looks great!

[Anima]

Can you give some details as to the progress you have made since the last video? Is that still 8bpp?? Looks a lot more.

The recent improvements were mostly code changes for accelerated machines. Especially utilising the Fast-RAM was an important goal. Unfortunately I have no real hardware to test this feature so I was trying it on ARAnyM. Hope that the result will work on MC68060 powered machines as well.

The current port for the Atari Falcon030 still uses the direct colour mode. A bitmap mode was never implemented at all yet. Also there are some things which makes using a bitmap sprite engine quite difficult.

Very nice! Is that new backgrounds you have made?

It's a background I've found in the Internet. I have chosen it instead of the original because I think it's quite annoying.

[EvilFranky]

Can you give some details as to the progress you have made since the last video? Is that still 8bpp?? Looks a lot more.

The recent improvements were mostly code changes for accelerated machines. Especially utilising the Fast-RAM was an important goal. Unfortunately I have no real hardware to test this feature so I was trying it on ARAnyM. Hope that the result will work on MC68060 powered machines as well.

The current port for the Atari Falcon030 still uses the direct colour mode. A bitmap mode was never implemented at all yet. Also there are some things which makes using a bitmap sprite engine quite difficult.

Very nice! Is that new backgrounds you have made?

It's a background I've found in the Internet. I have chosen it instead of the original because I think it's quite annoying.

I have some spare time tomorrow. Is there anything you want testing on a real 68060?

[Anima]

Another update: a new binary of Cho Ren Sha 68k for the Atari Falcon030 is now available for download. Please note: this version is only for fast Falcons like MC68060 powered devices (or the ARAnyM JIT emulator). It uses the Fast-RAM where available and so it should work on machines with 4 MB ST-RAM as well.

Please let me know if you have problems.

I have some spare time tomorrow. Is there anything you want testing on a real 68060?

Yeah, that would be nice. I would like to know if the program recognises your machine properly and how fast the game runs on it, also if the sound works properly. Thanks in advance!

[NGF]

Very nice! Is that new backgrounds you have made?

It's a background I've found in the Internet. I have chosen it instead of the original because I think it's quite annoying.

Yes I concur. I didn't like the original backgrounds in the game at all so the background you found improves the game.

[EvilFranky]

Another update: a new binary of Cho Ren Sha 68k for the Atari Falcon030 is now available for download. Please note: this version is only for fast Falcons like MC68060 powered devices (or the ARAnyM JIT emulator). It uses the Fast-RAM where available and so it should work on machines with 4 MB ST-RAM as well.

Please let me know if you have problems.

I have some spare time tomorrow. Is there anything you want testing on a real 68060?

Yeah, that would be nice. I would like to know if the program recognises your machine properly and how fast the game runs on it, also if the sound works properly. Thanks in advance!

OK bad news I'm afraid Anima.

I can't get the game to run at all under 68060 mode. I tried like I did when I made that video a couple of weeks ago, so my method hasn't changed.

68060 + MINT = Detected as 060 with FastRAM, hit space then just a black screen.
68060 + TOS = Detected as 060 with FastRAM, hit space then just the background image, nothing else happens.
68030 + TOS = Detected as 030, hit space and the game runs as expected.

I had even hooked the Falcon up to my 55" VT65 Plasma to make a video and give it a 'wow' factor haha

[shoggoth]

A simple way to accelerate this on the SuperVidel would be to just add 0xA000000 to your framebuffer pointer. This means you'll be rendering graphics directly to the snooped STRAM area of the SuperVidel VRAM. Make sure to check for the SupV-cookie first.

You could also switch to 8bb chunky : VsetMode(COL40 | VERTFLAG | VGA | 7);

The superblitter is probably better for bigger sprites / color depths.

EDIT: About 040/060 compatibility... do you flush the caches properly? (On FreeMiNT, I suggest using Ssystem() for that).