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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Gaming => Topic started by: Karlos on August 07, 2022, 03:27:36 PM

Title: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: Karlos on August 07, 2022, 03:27:36 PM
For those that aren't aware of it, pipper on EAB has gotten the AB3D2 source code into a buildable state. I remember trying this over 20 years ago and remember it being a real pain in the rear.

Please see the original thread on EAB here https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=111090



Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: utri007 on August 08, 2022, 10:27:28 PM
great! hopefully this allows faster and more stable exes and maybe one day 1x1 AB3D
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: BozzerBigD on August 08, 2022, 10:35:14 PM
Quote
...and maybe one day 1x1 AB3D

Too late! We already have Project Osiris! Link = https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=67666 (https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=67666)
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: utri007 on August 08, 2022, 10:37:13 PM
that doesn't work with Amigas. It requires PC.
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: BozzerBigD on August 08, 2022, 11:26:15 PM
So what? It remasters AB3D perfectly. Zool, Superfrog and now Alien Breed 3D; none of these remakes work on the Amiga!
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: utri007 on August 09, 2022, 08:08:11 AM
This is forum for a Amiga hobby, so is reasonable to think that people want to do "things" with real gear.

So possible remastered AB3D for Amiga is nice news and maybe parts of Osiris could be used to make it happen.
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: Gryfon on August 09, 2022, 08:34:13 AM
So what?  Good grief what we have to plow through on these forums these days. I’m not wanting to run it on a PeeCee.  This is an -Amiga- forum, that’s great the whole point. 

That’s what.

So what? It remasters AB3D perfectly. Zool, Superfrog and now Alien Breed 3D; none of these remakes work on the Amiga!
[/quote
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: Karlos on August 09, 2022, 10:05:57 AM
Quote
maybe one day 1x1 AB3D

I think you are out of luck there. AB3D renders 12-bit RGB directly, relying on the peculiarities of it's chunky copper screen. Only an RTG version using an RGB display mode is going to reproduce it properly at higher resolution.
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: BozzerBigD on August 09, 2022, 02:30:25 PM
@Gryfon

The comment was...

Quote
...and maybe one day 1x1 AB3D

I assume that would involve porting the AB3D levels into an upgraded AB3D2 engine. I am asking what the point of that would be when we can play Project Osiris today? Why not port Project Osiris to AmigaNG systems instead?
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: Karlos on August 09, 2022, 04:05:07 PM
@BigD

Nope. If you want 1x1 AB3D, and you want it to look correct, you need to use RGB. The original game doesn't use C2P and uses 12-bit RGB. Your closest match is 15-bit RGB on a graphics card. If you can also generate the extra 1 bit of precision per channel, it would look pretty nice.
 
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: BozzerBigD on August 10, 2022, 12:20:04 AM
Yes, we all know AB3D was a special case with its screenmode however AB3D2 looked more standard and there was even an RTG patch that might be cleaned up and enhanced now! Therefore, as I said the suggestion seems to be to  port the first games level to the second games 'fixed and enhanced' engine!

My statement is "great but why not just port Project Osiris to AmigaNG?"
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: Karlos on August 10, 2022, 01:30:54 AM
@BigD

Perhaps because not everyone that wishes for an improved AB3D experience has, or wants, an NG system.
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: Karlos on August 10, 2022, 01:33:58 AM
My interest in AB3D2 is on the RTG side actually. One thing I am keen to investigate is whether or not it can be adapted to render directly to an RGB display without the reduction to 256 step. Given all the shading and lighting effects the game uses, it doesn't seem an unreasonable objective.
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: BozzerBigD on August 10, 2022, 07:54:23 PM
@Karlos

Quote
Perhaps because not everyone that wishes for an improved AB3D experience has, or wants, an NG system.

Well that seems the best way to port an updated version on an 'Amiga'. The source code recompile is for AB3D2 not the first game so it would involve reimplementing the first game's levels in the AB3D2 engine! That has already been achieved with Project Osiris so port it to AmigaNG or play it on the PC. Alternatively, the original is included bundled with THE500 Amiga with save states and the intro music missing from the original release! Is that a substantial enough 'upgrade' for you?  ::)
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: utri007 on August 10, 2022, 08:58:57 PM
I would like to have AB3D II - TKG for NG systems and for more reliable 68k port. I'm interested both.

Is it possible to compile it to OS4 with current sources? 
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: Karlos on August 11, 2022, 01:55:29 AM
@utri007
Quote
Is it possible to compile it to OS4 with current sources?

No. Moreover, if you want to get really technical it's not possible to compile it, period. It's written entirely in 68020 integer mode assembler, so there's no compilation to be done (having said that, pipper's build process uses the linker from a GCC cross compiler).

The way to make it NG friendly is to make it OS friendly and remove direct dependency on AGA, Paula, etc. then let emulation do the rest.
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: Karlos on August 15, 2022, 08:02:15 PM
Blasting like it's 1996!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qoA2IykmBc
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: Karlos on August 27, 2022, 10:39:46 AM
Drifting floor texture bug fixed.

Playthrough of modded level B https://youtu.be/JH6HYQ49604
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: Karlos on August 31, 2022, 12:41:56 AM
Update pushed, now includes the latest build of the engine binary from pipper's repo, so all you need to do is download the mod and you're good to go.
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: amigakit on August 31, 2022, 09:04:44 AM
Brings back many happy memories

Thanks for the update.
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: Karlos on August 31, 2022, 03:28:15 PM
Brings back many happy memories

Thanks for the update.

I've often felt that game got a bum rap from history. On release in 1996 it was clear to me that the engine was the best of all the "doom clones" of the day but had hardware requirements to match. It was playable for me, on a 68040 at 2/3 size, but not fullscreen. I could only wonder how it fared on the 68030 boards of the day. The game itself had issues. It felt rushed and unfinished. It didn't live up to the level design of its predecessor. All of these different factors combined to take the shine off what was a remarkable technical achievement, especially given that most of the software was written in assembler by one person.
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: utri007 on August 31, 2022, 06:47:27 PM
When I download from Git, I get 50mb files with lots of files.

Where is actual game?
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: Karlos on August 31, 2022, 07:36:55 PM
When I download from Git, I get 50mb files with lots of files.

Where is actual game?

Which repo are you downloading? It sounds like you may be downloading the engine repo.

This is now the only repo you need to play the mod: https://github.com/0xABADCAFE/karlos-tkg

The game is located in the Game directory. All you need to do is double click the KarlosTKG icon.

All the editing assets and original editors are in the Editors directory. Feel free to ignore those. This is an active project (after a 25 year break), having these in GitHub is extremely handy.
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: utri007 on September 02, 2022, 06:16:37 AM
@Karlos, thanks for a patience.

It works nicely with my Apollo 68060 machine, but gives guru with Blizzard 68060.
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: Karlos on September 02, 2022, 10:43:21 AM
@utri007

Does it guru during initial load up of the application or does it happen randomly during play?

There is a bug in the engine already identified that appears to be an illegal memory access relating to opening the screen. This is totally reproducible in UAE where the binary won't start without allocating "32-bit chip ram" (a new class of chip ram not related to the original 2-8MB setting, lives in a different address range). Allocating that memory likely prevents a bus error from the access.
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: utri007 on September 02, 2022, 02:48:35 PM
@Karlos

It does guru before menus.
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: Karlos on September 02, 2022, 06:51:01 PM
@Karlos

It does guru before menus.

Ok, I think this is the same issue as UAE then.
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: Karlos on September 02, 2022, 06:53:49 PM
You could try SystemPatch: https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=1562755#post1562755a

Other than the processor cards, what else is different between the two machines?

Could you include a showconfig output for each one?
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: utri007 on September 03, 2022, 11:44:43 AM
Quote
Other than the processor cards, what else is different between the two machines?

OS is cloned, so it is practically same. Both has MMUlibs and it's 68060 library.

Apollo:

PROCESSOR:   CPU 68060/FPU 68882/MMU 68060
CUSTOM CHIPS:   AGA PAL Alice R2 (ID=$0023), AGA Lisa (ID=$00F8)
VERS:   Kickstart version 46.65535, Exec version 46.45, Disk version 45.194
RAM:   Node type $A, Attributes $505 (FAST), at $1080420-$4FFFFFF ~63.5MB
   Node type $A, Attributes $703 (CHIP), at $4000-$1FFFFF ~2.0MB
BOARDS:
 Apollo A xx30-60 Turbo:   Prod=8738/35($2222/$23) (@$EA0000 128KB)
 ProDev/XPert Merlin Board:   Prod=2117/4($845/$4) (@$E90000 64KB)
 ProDev/XPert Merlin Memory:   Prod=2117/3($845/$3) (@$200000 2MB)
 PLP Ltd Delfina Lite SoundCard:   Prod=14501/1($38A5/$1) (@$EC0000 64KB)
 Board (unidentified):   Prod=4626/23($1212/$17) (@$ED0000 64KB)


Blizzard

PROCESSOR:   CPU 68060/FPU 68882/MMU 68060
CUSTOM CHIPS:   AGA PAL Alice R2 (ID=$0023), AGA Lisa (ID=$00F8)
VERS:   Kickstart version 46.65535, Exec version 46.45, Disk version 45.194
RAM:   Node type $A, Attributes $5 (FAST), at $68000000-$6BFFFFFF 64.0MB
   Node type $A, Attributes $703 (CHIP), at $4000-$1FFFFF ~2.0MB
BOARDS:
 Phase 5 Digital Products Blizzard 12x0:   Prod=8512/17($2140/$11) (@$EA0000 128KB)
 Board + ROM (HD?) (unidentified):   Prod=2206/66($89E/$42) (@$E90000 64KB)
 Great Valley Products Spectrum Memory:   Prod=2193/1($891/$1) (@$200000 2MB)
 Great Valley Products Spectrum:   Prod=2193/2($891/$2) (@$EC0000 64KB)
 Board (unidentified):   Prod=5010/1($1392/$1) (@$ED0000 64KB)
 Board (unidentified):   Prod=4626/23($1212/$17) (@$EE0000 64KB)


Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: Karlos on September 03, 2022, 12:55:43 PM
Thanks. The showconfig output supports the hypothesis that a memory access in a particular address space is the culprit
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: BozzerBigD on September 03, 2022, 01:11:39 PM
@utri007

Does it guru during initial load up of the application or does it happen randomly during play?

There is a bug in the engine already identified that appears to be an illegal memory access relating to opening the screen. This is totally reproducible in UAE where the binary won't start without allocating "32-bit chip ram" (a new class of chip ram not related to the original 2-8MB setting, lives in a different address range). Allocating that memory likely prevents a bus error from the access.

Crashes my Cyberstorm 060 AGA Amiga on loading too. Under OS3.1, OS3.5 and OS3.9. Just a white screen lock up under 3.1 but crashes and reboots under 3.5 and 3.9.

(https://i.postimg.cc/44H7rg2y/20220903-Show-Config-Big-D060-Rig.jpg)
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: Karlos on September 03, 2022, 02:43:45 PM
Can you include a showconfig output?
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: BozzerBigD on September 03, 2022, 04:16:20 PM
Can you include a showconfig output?

Done see above.
Title: Re: Updated Alien Breed 3D 2
Post by: Karlos on April 13, 2023, 05:23:49 AM
For anyone interested, the latest builds are achieving a consistent 10-15 FPS on 68030 (ACA1230 @ 56MHz) in 1x1 at the default 2/3 screen size now, with peaks of 18. For a Blizzard 1260 @ 50MHz that rises to 20-25 with peaks of 30.

Other things of interest:
- Fullscreen floor/ceiling textures are now the same relative scale as they are in 2/3 size. This was a bug since the original game.
- Last traces of floor wobble eliminated.
- Keymap changes to assist emulators and other machines without an Amiga numeric pad: F10 for screen size F9 for pixel mode (1x1 or 1x2 only at this time)
- F8 can be used to simplify the lighting model (temporary key binding, will be combined with the current dynamic lights option on F4 later). This can give a significant performance boost at the cost of some reduction in lighting complexity.

To get the latest build, see: https://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=1608647&postcount=2007