OS4.1 extra stuff

@ChrisH
Still messing about with RuninUAE and how I don't know how you managed but Superfrog on the SAM440ep is as fluid as the original!

Just the music skips a bit, I wonder if installing a separate PCI Soundblaster would help?!

Can they run in a window, sorry I have asked this before but I can't find it in the instructions or do I need a new pair of glasses?

@TheDaddy, regarding RunInUAE:
Running stuff in a window is NOT supported, because it would either be a TINY postage-stamp-sized window, or it run VERY slowly. Sorry. You can edit the UAE config file to achieve a window, but I do not advise nor support this.

WARNING! If you consider trying to connect USB cables to your internal motherboard sockets, BEWARE THAT YOU CAN FRY YOUR MOTHERBOARD. There are several different (and entirely incompatible) pin-outs for USB headers on motherboards, and you could end-up connecting power to ground = big bang and/or smoke . If you are not sure, then please don't even try.

Compositing gives you fancy window transparency & shadows + rounded corners on windows, but vastly increases video memory usage when you have lots of windows (or screens). It can be disabled in Prefs/GUI. I have Compositing enabled, but only for Workbench screen (which requires a little bit of magic to achieve).

You may also consider using 16-bit screenmodes (instead of 32-bit) to reduce video memory usage... I am using 32-bit, but I am "only" using a 1280*1024 resolution monitor (larger res use more memory).

P.S. Typing all this on my phone is jolly hard work, glad it has a real keyboard or it'd be impossible.

>>Running stuff in a window is NOT supported, because it would either be a TINY postage-stamp-sized window, or it run VERY slowly. Sorry.

That is ok. I just wondered as I think I saw someone's Workbench running old games in windows. Would it still be slow if you running a SAM460? Is it all down to cpu power?

I have finally managed to connect the front USB on my case to the headers on the SAM, they are working fine, I just had to connect the first 4 (there are two sets of 4 on the SAM instead of two set of 5 with one blanked out like on my pc).

>>Compositing gives you fancy window transparency & shadows + rounded corners on windows, but vastly increases video memory usage when you have lots of windows (or screens).

Thanks. I didn't know where to look, I might try disabling it. I think I asked this before, either here or on Hyps site, can you have Back and Forward buttons on our windows, this would prevent having hundreds of windows opened or having to close them.

>>You may also consider using 16-bit screenmodes (instead of 32-bit) to reduce video memory usage... I am using 32-bit, but I am "only" using a 1280*1024 resolution monitor (larger res use more memory).

Interesting, this sounds like a good compromise.

>>P.S. Typing all this on my phone is jolly hard work, glad it has a real keyboard or it'd be impossible.


Thanks again.

No Back/Forward on our windows, sorry.

@TheDaddy
Quote:
I think it was my video ? But there i use not CrhisH's RunInUAE, but Samo's GlUAE. GlUAE is some script file, which handle executing of .rc files, which are uae configs. Visually its the same "dbl-click on game icon and it runs".

Quote:
On peg2 even AGA games (such as slamtilt, aladding, kid chaos and super stardust) works fine in windowses. Through, to add, to make games you like works fine in window mode (without big-black areas at top/bottom/left/right areas), you need to tweaks configs for every game.

I have about 20 (all those popular aga) games and few demos (9fingers & technological deatch) configs for window mode, so if you need it , can upload it somethere.

Quote:
You can use Filler (os4depot) for that. In last year when i use os4, i almost never use plain wb windowses, only Filer all the time.

@TheDaddy
E-UAE seems to do the video scaling entirely in software, so it eats LOTS of CPU time. To make it perform less badly you'd have to have a high frame skip, or other tedious tweaks, which I think most users not want to bother with.

ANOTHER reason to avoid windowed is that E-UAE does not "grab" the mouse like WinUAE does, so trying to use the mouse will cause you to click outside the window, and so you can't control E-UAE until clicking on the window again.


All in all, window mode sucks, and not worth confusing/disappointing users (esp on the common Sam440s). If E-UAE was fixed/improved then that would change.

@ChrisH

>>E-UAE seems to do the video scaling entirely in software, so it eats LOTS of CPU time. To make it perform less badly you'd have to have a high frame skip, or other tedious tweaks, which I think most users not want to bother with.

Understood.

ANOTHER reason to avoid windowed is that E-UAE does not "grab" the mouse like WinUAE does, so trying to use the mouse will cause you to click outside the window, and so you can't control E-UAE until clicking on the window again.

Great!

>>All in all, window mode sucks, and not worth confusing/disappointing users (esp on the common Sam440s). If E-UAE was fixed/improved then that would change.

Agreed!
Thanks!

Quote:With Workbench, that's not the concept. Each window is closely related to the directory it displays. So it wouldn't make sense to click a back arrow on a particular window and expect it to suddenly change its relationship to another directory.

You can avoid some of the window clutter by using the Right Amiga key as a qualifier to close the parent window while opening a child window. Then you can use the menu item for opening the parent drawer when you want to go back up there. These and other useful tricks can be learnt by clicking the WBHelp lightbulb in your AmiDock.

BTW, I believe Filer gives you a window paradigm more like what you seem to be after, you might want to check it out.

Best regards,

Niels

I understand, that makes sense, it is just the "commodity" of going backwards and forwards, so you open a window copy something and go back to past it but it's not a big deal.

Does filer make massive changes to Workbench and can it be reversed? I don't want to mess up my installation.

Oh and my memory is always displayed as 512MB! It doesn't show how much is left, it's always 512MB!

Quote:It doesn't change anything at all. You start it, and it gives you the possibility to open windows ("listers") for the drawers you want, and copy stuff between then, navigate etc. Workbench is still functioning behind/next to it. And as soon as you stop Filer, you're back where you were. So no worries.

Quote:Could you try copying and pasting here the string shown in your Workbench prefs for Screen title format? I.e. click inside the field and hit Right Amiga-C, then paste it in your post here with Right Amiga-V. You have probably just used the wrong placeholder for one of the numbers.

Best regards,

Niels

Hi Niels,

Do you mean this:


AmigaOS %r running on %c with %mftmMB Memory, ATI M9 %mgm MB free, %mm MB Memory free

Thanks!

Forgot to ask...

Graphically what runs on OS4?

I remember using DPaint but my favourite was PPaint, ImageFX? Any new 2D/3D programs that run natively on OS4?

Thanks!

DPaint doesn't run AFAIK, but PersonalPaint works and I think I've heard that ImageFX also works, at least somewhat.

Quote:
more than you might imagine. for example i have perfectpaint, personal paint, imagefx, photogenics, arteffect, fxpaint, grafx2, amifig, aladdin4D, and others running quite happily on my SAM.

check the 'images' section of this site. i just uploaded two screenshots of arteffect and fxpaint, actually. some are a bit tricky, though. for example, with ppaint, i've always had to force the screen resolution via the 'screens' prefs tool. with imagefx i had to use the third-party installer on os4depot, and arteffect has problems drawing part of its windows when compositing is on.

but with those little niggles out of the way, you'll find even on our lowly SAMs, these programs fly in comparison with classic kit. let me know if you're curious about anything in particular: i'll try and test it out on my end for you.

-- eliyahu

Thanks, I'll start downloading/installing...so much to do!

Quote:Yep, that's it.

The codes following the percentage signs have been inserted by choosing the various options in the popup window. You have as the first (memory-related) one "%mftm", which corresponds to Memory Fast Total MB, i.e. it shows the amount of (fast) memory installed, measured in megabytes. You might want to change that to "%mfm", which means Memory Fast (free) MB, i.e. the amount of (fast) memory currently unused.

As for the other codes, "%mgm" means Memory on Graphics gard (video memory) (free) MB, and "%mm" means Memory (all) (free) MB. The latter will probably give you the same number as the "%mfm", since there is no distinction between fast memory and any memory on NG Amigas. So you could probably lose that part of the string.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Niels

Thanks, that really helps. Is chip ram still present? I remember having 2MB Chip and 256MB on my 1200.

@thedaddy
Some tested SW:
http://www.blitterwolf.com/testing.html
http://www.intuitionbase.com/ossoftware.php

Cool, that is a good list!

Quote:Only on Classic Amigas. NG Amigas don't see RAM as different types (except of course video RAM, i.e. the RAM onboard the graphics card).

Best regards,

Niels