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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Gaming => Topic started by: motorollin on February 04, 2006, 03:44:03 PM

Title: Payback white screen
Post by: motorollin on February 04, 2006, 03:44:03 PM
I've just downloaded the Payback demo from Aminet. I enabled hardware acceleration and chose 1024x768 on my Voodoo. When I ran the game, a screen opened with a title bar, which was then decorated with a VisualPrefs gadget in the top right hand corner, and the machine reset. I disabled VisualPrefs and tried again, and this time the game ran without crashing but all I got on the display was a white screen. The game was running because I could hear sound. I rebooted and tried it at 640x480, and the same thing happened. I then tried a PAL screenmode and the game ran (but performance was crap). I tested the 1024x768 screenmode in Picasso96Mode and it displayed the testcard fine.

Anyone else had this problem?

Cheers

--
moto
Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: kas1e on February 04, 2006, 05:13:09 PM
Maybe wrong setting of envarc:mediator/mmu ? for ppc and 68k warp3d software, must be different settings.
Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: motorollin on February 04, 2006, 06:14:43 PM
What should I set it to?

--
moto
Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: kas1e on February 04, 2006, 06:24:42 PM
for 68k warp3d software, this env must be set to 'yes', for ppc warp3d stuff (like payback), env must be set to 'no'. btw, problems with 'white/black' screens - it is problem of this env usualy. hope this help.
Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: motorollin on February 05, 2006, 11:12:30 AM
Ok I just checked and I didn't have ENVARC:Mediator/MMU. I created the file using ED and entered the word YES in the file, and saved it. I rebooted and the same thing happened :-( Did I do it right?

--
moto
Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: motorollin on February 05, 2006, 11:16:53 AM
I don't know if Warp3D is installed. Do I need this?

--
moto
Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: nasty on February 05, 2006, 11:29:19 AM
Yip it sure does! payback warp and answers (http://www.apex-designs.net/payback_faq_amiga.html)
Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: humppa on February 05, 2006, 11:32:59 AM
Does Payback also support Warp3D on 68k - or is it PPC-exclusive?
Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: motorollin on February 05, 2006, 11:36:57 AM
Thanks Nasty. I just installed Warp3D from the Mediator CD and the same thing happened. I don't know if it's the version Apex are recommending though. I'll try their version in a bit. Do I also need the updated version of Payback to get it to work on a Mediator? Does that update require the full game or does it with with the demo?

--
moto
Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: nasty on February 05, 2006, 11:42:19 AM
Yea the update is only for the full version. The warp 3d 4.2 on the mediator is better than the payback version as it doesnt included the a3000/a4000 warp files which sometimes cause problems on the a1200.  I'll try and located the post on this boards and ill dig out my mediator settings just now

@ Humppa
Both
Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: motorollin on February 05, 2006, 11:56:23 AM
I did install the Warp3D version from the Apex web site and also the latest version of the demo. When I run any of the Warp3D demos, the same thing happens (just a white screen). So the problem would appear to be with the setup of the graphics card, not the game. A quick butchers at your Voodoo settings would probably help :-)

--
moto
Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: nasty on February 05, 2006, 12:16:07 PM
Prefs/Env-Archive/mediator

mmu=no
nocache=no
voodooint=yes
patchint=no
emulation=no
voodoomem=15
warp3d=yes

Prefs/Env-Archive/powerpc

memprot=0
debug=0
earlyterm=0
force=1
gfxaddress=$200000
hidewarning=0
seginfo=100
teminator=2

Prefs/Env-Archive/powerpc

amigavid= 15khz
blackswitching=no
debug=no
directcolormask=no
disableamigablitter=no
donotsetmmu=no
enablebootvga=no
experimental=yes
planaronlydipfduf=no
planestofast=yes
showmodes=all

Devs/monitors/voodoo icon

boardtypr=voodoo
borderblank=yes
bigsprite=no
softsprite=no
ingoremask=yes
displaychain=no
fakenativemodes=no
fontfix=no
granddirectaccess=no
memoryclock=166
overclock=no

thinks thats all my settings, got to make an update to this post in a second!

Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: motorollin on February 05, 2006, 12:18:24 PM
Is ENVARC:Mediator a directory or a file? On my system (68k) it's a directory, so I assumed the MMU=no has to go in a file called MMU with the word no in it? Or do I have to create a text file called Mediator with those settings in it?

--
moto
Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: nasty on February 05, 2006, 12:22:30 PM
Quote
On my system (68k) it's a directory, so I assumed the MMU=no has to go in a file called MMU with the word no in it?


yip thats right, so all the bold writing is a directory and each name e.g is what the file is called and the bit after the equals sign is what is in the txt file.

You might have to delete some warp3d files as one of the warp3d adds 6 files for the A3000/A4000 to your A1200 which can cause problems with running warp3d on your 1200
files that arent needed:
 GFX drivers for A3/4000:      
W3D_Picasso96.library 4.2 02 Feb 2002 Libs:Warp3D/GFXdrivers
W3D_Picasso96_PPC.library 4.2 02 Feb 2002 Libs:Warp3D/GFXdrivers
HW drivers for A3/4000:      
W3D_AvengerBE.library 4.2 13 Jul 2001 Libs:Warp3D/HWdrivers
W3D_AvengerBE_PPC.library 4.2 13 Jul 2001 Libs:Warp3D/HWdrivers
W3D_AvengerLE.library 4.2 13 Jul 2001 Libs:Warp3D/HWdrivers
W3D_AvengerLE_PPC.library 4.2 13 Jul 2001 Libs:Warp3D/HWdrivers

so its safe to delete all these files on your 1200. and if you want you can download and run medconfig from elbox
 Medconfig  Elbox (http://elbox.com/downloads_mediator.html)
Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: motorollin on February 05, 2006, 02:55:43 PM
Thanks Nasty, MedConfig fixed it. I just told it what hardware I'm using then accepted their recommended settings, and the game now displays. Unforunately the performance is crap. The game itself runs at (literally) one frame per second. This happens even in the lowest res hardware accelerated screenmode available :-( Any idea why it's so slow?

--
moto
Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: nasty on February 05, 2006, 03:11:50 PM
can you turn hardware acceleration off?
Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: motorollin on February 05, 2006, 05:23:17 PM
I've just tried that, and performace was *much* better. Even so, the game was only playable at 320x240. Presumably this is because performance is limited by my 040?

I don't understand why the hardware accelerated screenmodes perform so poorly. I thought Payback supported hardware accelerated graphics cards?

--
moto
Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: CLS2086 on February 06, 2006, 10:22:18 AM
Hi,
you need at least a 060/50 to get a nice working game in "Medium RES", whatever if you are in AGA or CGX.
To get better result you'll need a least CGX v4, PPC@210 and a GREX+Voodoo3 or a BVision on PPC bus.
Update your Picasso "system" too !
Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: motorollin on February 06, 2006, 10:54:10 AM
Quote
CLS2086 wrote:
Hi,
you need at least a 060/50 to get a nice working game in "Medium RES", whatever if you are in AGA or CGX.

That sucks :-( Makes me wonder why I bothered with the Voodoo :roll:

Thanks for clearing it up for me anyway.

--
moto
Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: Karlos on February 06, 2006, 11:36:49 AM
Quote

motorollin wrote:
Quote
CLS2086 wrote:
Hi,
you need at least a 060/50 to get a nice working game in "Medium RES", whatever if you are in AGA or CGX.

That sucks :-( Makes me wonder why I bothered with the Voodoo :roll:

Thanks for clearing it up for me anyway.

--
moto


OpenGL (or whatever 3D transformation and lighting engine was used) :-/ There's a huge chunk of software processing between the game and warp3d, rotating, clipping, lighting etc. You simply can't expect the 68K to set up triangles that fast. All the voodoo does in this case is to speed up the rasterization of triangles that were calculated and processed by the CPU.
Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: motorollin on February 06, 2006, 11:49:13 AM
Anyone want to donate an 060?

--
moto
Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: lorddef on February 06, 2006, 11:03:28 PM
I've got an 060/50 128Mb ram and a voodoo3, but payback has always performed {bleep}.

Basically if I use software rendering its reasonably fast, as soon as I enable hardware rendering it goes really really jerky.

Anyone got any ideas?
Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: Karlos on February 07, 2006, 11:25:49 AM
There are a lot of things that can slow down when hardware acceleration is enabled (ironic as that sounds).

There are certain rules to using HW acceleration. You need to lock the hardware for as short as possible but also as infrequently as possible (as the lock incurs an overhead). It can be tricky to get an ideal balance so it is common for people to just lock the hardware for a whole frame and only unlock it to refresh the display. Due to this, user settings can also influence things too, when the hardware is locked, multitasking and interrupts may also be disabled on some configurations. This can really chew the system up.

A utility called WarpPrefs allows you to easily access all of the relevant envarc settings.
Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: CLS2086 on February 07, 2006, 11:55:26 AM
Quote
Anyone want to donate an 060?

Good luck, its value is around 160/200 Euros on ebay, and if there is a PPC on the card : 200/350 Euros...
Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: lorddef on February 07, 2006, 12:19:46 PM
Cheers Karlos, I'll take a look at warp prefs, although I have tried a lot of different settings already.
Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: nasty on February 07, 2006, 12:20:54 PM
I'll give you ,my nice 060/240 if you go around and beat the crap out of the nvidia useless support people.


"Nvidia, the way it's meant to be played! but probably wont, since we cant make drivers that support our overpriced piece of crap cards!"
Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: motorollin on February 07, 2006, 12:50:16 PM
Quote
nasty wrote:
I'll give you ,my nice 060/240 if you go around and beat the crap out of the nvidia useless support people.

Will do  :-P

--
moto
Title: Re: Payback white screen
Post by: kas1e on February 07, 2006, 05:23:23 PM
btw, i do not have full payback cd, but i played demo of payback over ppc and hardware acceleration, and it is pretty fast (for amiga pretty fast :) ). config; voodoo3/a1200/060+ppcx266, etc.

i think best way to check fisrt warp3d installation, warp3d tests like gears run fast ? it must give over 27-30 fps on voodoo3. (try it run in console)