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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Gaming => Topic started by: blakespot on May 16, 2020, 03:51:10 AM
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I launched Zeewolf 2 on my A2000 '020 w/ 2MB 32-bit FAST RAM and 4MB 16-bit FAST RAM. It is FAR faster using an ADF than the WHDLoad image. Is part of the point of WHDLoad to eliminate any accelerator advantage? Why would that be?
bp
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Maybe you have a generic WHDload icon for Zeewolf with CPU cache turned off.
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Maybe preload is on.
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I checked that right off - not the case. And the notes talk about cache optimizations, etc. Cache not turned off.
And as for preload - why would that matter for frame rate?
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Gooday Blake.... I'm sure you already checked the slave on WHDLoad however, I'll link it here. May be some useful info.
http://whdload.de/games/Zeewolf2.html
You would surely get a response to your question over at EAB as all the WHDLoad experts are over there! 8)
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Check this out. I took a video of the game running in 3 different states:
Floppy - 68000 w/ 1MB CHIP, 4MB FAST
Floppy - 14.3MHz 68020 w/ 1MB CHIP, 2MB 32-bit FAST RAM, 4MB 16-bit FAST RAM
WHDLoad - 14.3MHz 68020 w/ 1MB CHIP, 2MB 32-bit FAST RAM, 4MB 16-bit FAST RAM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXs0AX9LlEI
Note the WHDLoad notes shown on video before the WHDLoad example plays. How is it as slow (slower?) than the 68000-only floppy run? Makes me question the whole WHDLoad situation. My "floppy" is a HxC2001.
Thanks for having a look.
bp
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You haven 't got preload enabled.
From the manual
Preload/S
If this option is enabled, WHDLoad will load as many files and disk images as possible into memory at startup. If during preload the free memory is not sufficient for a file preloading will stop. Then only a part of the files are preloaded. This increases performance when the installed program is running, because it avoids switching to the OS to load data directly from the harddisk. This option should be enabled always.
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You haven 't got preload enabled.
From the manual
Preload/S
If this option is enabled, WHDLoad will load as many files and disk images as possible into memory at startup. If during preload the free memory is not sufficient for a file preloading will stop. Then only a part of the files are preloaded. This increases performance when the installed program is running, because it avoids switching to the OS to load data directly from the harddisk. This option should be enabled always.
It was on. User x303, up in the thread, said "maybe preload is on." I have no idea why preload would cause it to be slower, so I turned it off. It was on. Preload makes no difference -- same speed during gameplay either way. Preload is not the issue.
bp
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Indeed, preload has nothing to do with framerate.
I had this issue with Lotus 2 on every Amiga I checked.
The gameplay was slower.
Same goes for SWOS. When you reached the goalposts then everything slowed down. (not anymore though but I had this for over a decade)
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It isn't in your video, hence the suggestion.
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It's unfortunate this seems to happen with some titles. Now I am compelled to check every WHDLoad game against a floppy image of same on my A2000 '020. Yea, it's only a 14.3MHz '020 -- but it has some 32-bit FAST RAM, the MMU, and the '881 FPU -- the only advantage a '030 would have over it is a 256 byte data cache (the '020 has only a 256-byte instruction cache). So the difference in performance is worth thinking about.
bp
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Try it with WHDLoad v16, which was current at the time the slave was written. Despite the claimed performance tweaks in the readme, I suspect there's a bug hindering performance, possibly triggered by changes in newer WHDLoad versions.
Also try the CACHE tooltype to force-enable that feature. I was also going to suggest the MMU tooltype (which is related to cache performance) but the docs (http://whdload.de/docs/en/mmu.html#usercontrol) say the external MMU on the 2620 (I assume that's your accelerator judging by the boot menu) isn't supported. But try it anyway. ;)