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| If you want to watch directly the video PRESS HERE.
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| If you want to download directly to your hd PRESS HERE.
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| A simple comment on video's webpage will be enough to motivate me :).
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| Thank you.
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Ladies and gents!

I've finally finished my project, after 1,5 month of hard work!

THE IDEA

The Amiga, represents a golden era of computer games. From time to time efforts have been made to visualize the impact it had on gamers. Various videos on YT (such as 100 Amiga games in 10 minutes) and video collections (Amiga Longplays) , include gaming footage or are consisted from fan made companies' tributes.
However, most of them suffer from:
1) Low res syndrome, that, that gets worse on =>19inch monitors' playback.
2) Excessive frame skipping.
3) Bad quality or no soundtrack at all.
4) Bad or no composition at all (footage thrown without consistency).
The above combination, literally destroys the image of the games presented. Especially us, Amiga dedicated gamers, who have passed countless hours in front of these games, can easily spot the difference!

THE COMPLETION

Having spent years behind joysticks plugged into our beloved computers, I've come to know most of the games by heart (like many of us). A lot of games had captured my imagination and I was always thinking about making a series of video footage to (re)present them, with the following in mind:
1) Cinematic feeling.
2) Video resampling to be compatible with HD resolutions.
3) Vivid presentation of the each game, meaning that the video would be designed by a gamer for gamers..

THE RESULT

The result can be found HERE (remember to louden the volume and activate HD playback).

You can also download the offline HD version HERE.

Video specs: MPEG-4 24bits/1920x1080@30FPS, H.264, BitRate~15000, AAC@256kbs/Stereo/48kHz/16Bit.

This episode was designed like a premiere of series, titled "Legends do not die", where as in the first episode we have a mixture from "All Star" moments along an introductory text.

NOTES

Please bear in mind that when it comes to video manipulation I am a complete noob, therefore do not expect a Steven Spielberg production! Frankly speaking, it was the first time that I 've worked with a compositor (Video Studio Pro X4), Video Effects (Adobe After Effects) and 3D (Cinema 4D) along with more software used. However, in the process I 've learned countless details around codec incompatibilities, software and hardware limitations. Nevertheless, this was a very creative process and I was getting the same feeling when I was opening, almost two decades ago, text editor in wb1.3 and let my imagtion take over!

CONTINUING

Although, as I've stated up above this is intended to become a series of videos (with an All Star 2 - coming next since I've deliberately left out a great portion of genres, games and companies, I am finding it very hard to continue, especially within this year:
1) It's very difficult for just one man to handle the whole project and create 4 minutes' long or more, of good quality gaming videos. Personally, it took me almost 1.5 month to complete it and it drained 100% of my free time.
2) The hardware I own (Core2Duo@2.4Ghz/3GB Ram), doesn't make up to my imagination and expectations! Countless time I've reach limitations since it was almost impossible to make a simple preview of my work or render, e.g. for 30 fps (1 sec), I needed 5 minutes of caching in After Effects, for raytracing in Cinema 4D, more complex enviroments/objects I would be needing around a week(!).
3) Countless software crashes (in conjunction with hardware limits), were forcing me over and over again to render a scene, which had already took me 5-6 hours, because e.g I was out of ram. These, repeated events caused my patience to reach zero.
4) My knowledge isn't sufficient to speed up the completion of the project. I was forced to read several tutorials, thus losing even more time, though I have to state that this was one (and the biggest) of the benefits.

FINAL WORDS

If you enjoyed the video, a simple comment on YT would be sufficient for a thank you :)


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* Btw, my respects go to the people behind CGI/3D etc, working in professional level. If one hasn't tried, can't understand the level of difficulty, in order to reach a certain degree of quality result. It consumes a lot of time and needs knowledge and talent (meaning everything that I lack of, LOL)

This is a VERY much needed app! I hope it matures fast and be able to install it and use it. Personally, I wouldn't mind to have it running in the background if it doesn't slow down performance at all.

Needless to say that althought I wouldn't considered myself as AOS4.x power user, I am not afraid if I mess things up and I would gladly participate in any beta tester phase :)

I am very interested to hear too.

However, I run some benchmarks (Q2/Q3 timedemos) and I get nearly the same performance that I had with U2+Acube's patches on a clean installation of U3 without previous ACube's patches.

If you go the way kas1e describes, then the final step, imho, will be a nocd OS4 binary of the game, so as to become fully portable.

However, I would opt for a more permanent solution. Exodus suffers the same problem as well. Perhaps we should report as bug or future request for OS4 in Hyperion's forum: a compatibility layer that will translate the analogue input of cd music to digital, something like software ide-to-sata. Because I am afraid that the more we dig to old 68k/cd games, the more we will encounter the same problem.

@spotUP

Yeah, I know, but scaling in high resolutions those sprites looks bad :P However, it is fairly playable and enjoyable at 800x600.

Here are my findings:

First of all I 've started by installing Napalm. At the end of the installation I got an error "unable to copyfiles". Checked the install drawer however and all seemed good. Any idea, anyone, why's that?

Secondly followed the instructions:

1) As for the game's speed, it starts by default value at 8 (maximum). If I reduce it at 6 and adjust scrolling response at 7, it feels good to me. Still, even clickboom's icon at the down right corner of the main menu, spins way too fast.

2) The ingame options' menu is unreachable via "esc" (it shows a ghost N letter).

3) I 've tried to save a game, the keyboard's input seems .. too fast. I typed "test" and all I got was "tttttteeeeeesssssssttttt", even though I was nearly touching the letters (tried several times with same result).

4) If I lose, I get two options "replay mission" and "return to main menu", however the latter looks messed up with another phrase that I cannot distinguish.

5) After restarting the game, at main menu I tried to load my save, but the word "tttteeessstt"" was again messed up.

6) I 've tried to load from ingame, and I got an error "game's structure is corrupted, please reinstall napaml", Perhaps it has to do with the copyfiles error a the installation?

7) Tried to launch the game once again and now I am unable to reach options either by pressing "esc" and "o".

* Note that sound (sfx) works. Would be nice however to listen to some music from the game in future release of the patch.

EDIT: Test machine: OS4.1.2 SamEp 667 Mhz, 512Mb Ram, M9.

Where can I find the new copystore.lha? I've tried googling it, search in os4depot and on aminet, without any luck whatsoever...

EDIT: I looked also in Amiupdate's homepage, it mentions it, but can't find any download link.

@ChrisH

There is a free engine reimplementation for Dune 2. It's called "Dune Legacy". The latest version for x86 Win/linux is here. The MorphOS port can be found here. I have tested the x86 one, and it's fully functional already (though the game must be run in really low resolution to look good).

@alkfil

Perhaps after you finish the patch of Napalm or when you are in the mood between tracing down bugs of it, you could take a look at this thread http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/v ... id=625542&forum=33#625547

On post 25, I state how far I went into installing this game. The errors I get should be trivial compared to the Napalm work you are doing right now.

Please look at the link and take it into consideration :)

Also check your pm for beta testing I sent yesterday, could find your e-mail, thanks!

Quote:



By dividing 5157692 with 3124 I get 1650,989756722151 on Win7 Calc.

@K-L

I have INTERRUPT=YES on Devs/Monitor. Are you sure you are getting 50 fps on stock Ep440, like mine (without Hyperclock)? I am running wb 1680x1050@32bit with compositing ON, I have 24MB of GFX ram left after boot. The game itself doesn't seem to consume any of it however, other than the 300MB of RAM. I am running the game on window mode (without anything other opened or running on the background) btw.

I 've overclocked my Sam at 773Mhz, 122Mhz FSB/PCI (cause higher configurations make my system unstable) and rerun the game. Overclocking had eliminated all lagging and raised fps rate at 35-37 (from 27-29), With overclocked system, the game is fully enjoyable.

@ChrisH

If and when you have time, can you check yourself as well, since we have the same system?

@HunoPPC

Fantastic work man!

EDIT: Well, I 've figured it out, in fullscreen mode I get around 55-61 fps. Is this performance difference from windowed to fullscreen normal?

I 've downloaded the windows version. My system is Win7 Ultimate 32bit with all latest patches/updates installed / Core2Duo@2.4Ghz, 3GB Ram, nVidia 9600 GT M 512Mb Ram (HP laptop connected via HDMI to a Samsung 19'' inch monitor).

Extracted archive and run the executable.

The good:

1) It recognized my 2 usb joypads automatically.

2) Had no problem with smoothness of the games. Really cool. Didn't notice any graphical glitches and the fps rate looked steady.

Some minor troubles:

1) I have a problem with the size of my ship and some of the enemies. In 1680x1050 resolution some look really - really small.

2) Run the executable for the first time and game's window appeared in my desktop. Went to "options" and I had to press again "Fullscreen" mode (though it looked like as it was already enabled). EDIT: Saw the config, it was windowsed mode by default, imho, it should be Fullscreen from the beginning.

3) The height of the game in Fullscreen 1680x1050 looks "cut-off" (think should display points/lives etc, but can't see it).

Some suggestions if you will:

1) Would be cool to have high res background images of the environment. In Fullscreen at high res desktop, background looks too much stretched. However, I don't know if that would result to slower pace because of the game's engine. EDIT: Never mind, I see that they are supported on registered versions :)

2) Would be nice to be able to display the fps rate (enabled/disabled via Options) on upper or bottom corner of the screen. EDIt: Never mind, I found how to do it, LOL. However, the command, could be implemented to the Options Menu.

3) More eye candy would be if the score of every ship you kill took the color of the ship: e.g. green 25 points, purple 25 points etc rather than constantly gray color.

4) Animation of ships looks smooth and slick. However, the special bomb attack could be rendered more "accurate"/detailed.

5) Finally, when enemy ships are heading suddenly in front of you, would be nice to make a small "aerodynamic" effect around them, in order to display that they are accelerating rapidly.

Overall:

A true hardcore vertical shoot 'em up. Steady fps rate, frenzy firefight, extremely cool music, nice cut-scenes between the battle. A game with spirit!

EDIT: I 've tested the Amiga version as well.

1) Does the game really needs 300MB of ram? I mean, I am almost out straight after boot when running the game, lol.

2) On above mentioned machine I get from 440-380 fps while the AOS4.1.u2/SamEp667Mhz, 512MB Ram, M9 I get around 029-027. Also, constant lags on screen spoil the fun. With high res background/registered version, will the performance degrade even more?

I 've watched your video of Lotus II, a rather demanding ECS game and fast paced as hell. It looked really slick (ingame). It must achieve 100% of the original speed (A500). Unfortunately the scrambled audio in the beginning ruins much of the experience for the time being. IMHO, when the audio driver will be released, you should make a video of Superfrog (the game that pushed to the max ECS according to T17). What about currently performance of AGA games (say Super Stardust)? Also, is there a way to show fps under uae/os4, like winuae does?

EDIT: I read some comments on other videos and it looks like that without JIT we can't achieve frameskip 0 for AGA games in 460.

@alkfil

Can't wait to play Napalm natively on OS4.x! Come on, you have work to do cause we will also need a high resolution pack afterwards :)

Really thanks for all your hard work! I hope that Napalm, will the your first for plenty of games' patches to come xD Can't wait to play it on my OS4 machine :)

Hello, watched the video and really enjoyed it, even though it was short, thanks!

However, I would strongly suggest to anyone who uploads a gaming video, to mention a) Hardware Specs (e.g. GFX -as you already did-, ram, HD speed etc) b) Any OS setting that we might need to take aware of (e.g what version of mGL are you running) and most importantly c) Detailed Settings of the game, as much as possible (resolution, 32/16bit, any other quality settings that you may have chosen in order to push the hardware etc).

Because I have seen some gaming videos of OS4.x compatible machines, that are somewhat "misleading", meaning that the author has lowered down all the settings of the game in order to achieve higher/smoother frame rates, but doesn't mentions it.

Well, that's a sad thought. Perhaps the key of Amigas' continuation is hidden inside the elixirium then :)

Still, if by "new blood" you mean young people as well (>25 of age), then it is a totally unrealistic goal imho. Certain ages, look after being on the hype of technology. Stuff that goes on currently on Android, Win7, Linux, Apple, x86 Quad Cores, >6GB of Ram, HD gaming, Pixel Perfect webpages, CSS 3.0, SLI, Smartphones, Kinetic devices etc.

And honestly, I am 100% with them. Remember how proud all were for the awesome blitter, copper, Superfrog, OCS, ECS and many other cool factors and bleeding edge stuff that we had?

Now, if "new blood" means attracking computer enthusiasts, then AmigaOS might stand a chance if the entry price is reduced more than 60-70%. 460ex is cool by costs 10 times more than the shitty smartphone that outperformed it in terms of usability, apps etc. Even a second hand 440ep/flex will cost 5-6 times more than X10. The X1000 is aimed at hardcore amigans (given the price). As I observe, Mac port of MorphOS (because it has been discussed as a solution for OS4.x as well), didn't help them to boost their market pool. Most registrations were done by MOS active users that moved on cheaper and more powerfull machines than Efika and PegII. Same people that posted and asked/offer help on various fora, still post. Extremely few newcomers unfortunately.

Perhaps, imho, a port of OS4.x on a mobile, low end (but still faster than what we have), ultra cheap, device (from tablet to smartphone and from netbook to laptop) is a step that Hyperion should consider from a business pov.

Then make the webpage :)

OS4 will never ever be sold to a wider audience. The same applies to MorphOS and AROS. These are niche and hobby OSes. We may hope that some day will expand their features to serve us better and have a good/great time when using them. However, the gap between modern OSes and AmigaOS (plus Amiga-like OSes) gets wider each day that passes by. Two days ago, I got my hands on a X10 Xperia Mini, it performed faster, better, had more apps and offered a way more richfull experience than all of the above OSes combined. And that was a comparison between Sam440ep/OS4.1.2 + MacG4/MOS2.7 + Dual Core/AROS vs a shitty 110 Euro Smartphone.

@nubechecorre

Yeap, so far, this is what I am doing also. Create multiple installations of GemRB, rename them, editing the cfg (and the .ini in case of Icewind Dale I). What version of IWD I do you use? The patched version, or the original? Game so far works without probs here (original cds used for extraction). Have you tried IWDII and Planetscape Torment? I get an error on the first one regarding chitin.key (the registry key) and game does not load.

@Phantom

Only Icewind Dale I & II yet. Didn't had the time testing rest of the games supported by GemRB during the weekend. I will be doing so, within this week. Starting by Baldur's Gate series.

However, I have another question for the Icewind Dale I. Should I use a patched version for the data or extract only the original files from the cd?

Seems, Andreas, is busy lately with all these porting stuff ;)

Hope when he has the time, to take another look at GemRB and clarify some questions :)