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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Gaming => Topic started by: Venkman on November 23, 2003, 07:32:13 PM
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I've been trying to play Frontier Elite 2 on my A1200 thinking that it would run pretty smoothly. To my horror I have found that it runs exactly the same as my old A500 - ie slow and jerky :-(. Anyone have any idea of why this is? And can it be rectified?
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I think it's down to software design, so without the sourcecode, not possible to be rectified.
IIRC it ran at an odd speed on my A1200/040/40, I don't think everything was in sync (like sound events happening before they're supposed to).
I was REALLY disappointed with F1 Grand Prix running just as jerkily on my A1200, but it seems to be that the guys who wrote it think that slow frame rates are a sign of realism or something... GP3 on the PC is frame limited to 25fps... impressive looking it is not. I did some debugging on it and found that Direct3D is using hardware acceleration, but it looks so awful, there's no difference to running in software.
I've had a quick look at the screenshots of GP4 and it looks just the same, so I'm not touching that with a bargepole.
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I think there was also an AGA version of Frontier. The OCS version run allright on my 040 as far as I can remember. You could also try the whdload installer.
As far as the F1GP is concerned, there was a patch that enabled it to run at higher framerates on better processors and it was a great improvement (I think it was on Aminet)
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I was REALLY disappointed with F1 Grand Prix running just as jerkily on my A1200, but it seems to be that the guys who wrote it think that slow frame rates are a sign of realism or something...
Well, it was to get the most out of limited hardware. If you don't have to compute real-time vs. frames drawn, you can use those cycles to make a better game for the lowest common denominator.
I don't think there were any patches to help Elite 2. :-(
For F1GP, though... As stated, there is a framerate patch. There are also analog control patches, so you can properly use an Amiga analog joystick if you have one. There are also patches to disable that stupid "steering assist" feature that automatically rams you into the pit wall if you are passing on the inside of last corner on several of the tracks. Even updated roster and car patches. With all the data available for that game, it can be quite a boost. It can breathe some new life into an otherwise dated game.
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The old Elite 2 (OCS) seems to run OK on my 1200/040...
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Frontier is a strange program. The original game runs at the same speed on my 1200/060 and my CD32/020.
WHDLoad-ified on the 1200, it's easily 3 times as fast. I can't explain it.
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@Mat_H
That's thanks to the people who make the installs.
Here is part of the install's features taken from the ReadMe file.
Features:
- Uses WHDLoad+KickDOS+new 3.1 kicker
- Quit key: numerical '*' or QUITKEY
- Save/load games from HD
- Program/Stack in fastmem/all caches set for optimal speed
etc
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I have this game but have never played it. :-?
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I have found that Frontier will run slow as hell when it runs on chipmem. If I ever removed the SIMM from my accelerator, it would run as smoothly as quake on a 68020, while it would fly with two megs of fastmem. :-?