Smoother pointer movement with CyberGraphX or Picasso96?

[patrik]

Hi everyone!

Just got myself my very first graphics-card for an Amiga. It is great except one thing - the pointer doesnt seem to have its update locked to the vertical retrace as it is when using AGA. Its movement is quite sluggish, just like in UAE with Picasso96. Can this "pointer-update-rate" be changed in some way so I may enjoy smooth moving pointers as with AGA?


/Patrik

[Karlos]

Is it a software pointer? The pointer on my BVision is prefectly smooth, even at 1600x1200@75Hz...

[patrik]

@Karlos:

Actually I dont know for sure, but it looks like it is a hardware-pointer as it only seem to support 4 colors and one of them is transparent .

The graphic-card is a CyberVision64 and I am using CyberGraphX 4.0.

Anyhow, it feels exactly like when I am using Picasso96 in WinUAE - the pointer moves very smooth in Windows, but in UAE it feels like 60 updates per second or something similar.

(edit):
Btw, it doesnt matter what resolution I use, the movement-feeling is exactly the same.


/Patrik

[Karlos]

Hmm...

I looked at my settings, pretty sure its a hardware mouse also. I do have mouse speed set maximum and acceleration enabled however.

Incidentally, you should get the CGX 4.2 update as you own 4.0...

[patrik]

@Karlos:

I will try to update later. I guess the update requires me to insert the CyberGraphX 4.0 CD and with no CD-ROM installed at the moment... .

Tried the acceleration and maximum speed setting, but that didnt help. The thing that nags me is not the speed the mouse-pointer moves at, but the fact that it doesnt feel like it moves smooth... like it isnt redrawn often enough, or if it is a hardware pointer (as it should be) - its position isnt updated often enough.


/Patrik

[Karlos]

It is possible the pointer refresh is tied into some native graphics code. I'd expect it to be up to the actual monitor driver to patch the pointer code rather than the main cgx library since its obviously a hardware dependent feature.

I've never noticed a problem on the bvision, but UAE is a bit sluggish here too...

[lempkee]

gmm weird...i have seen this prob on several machines , but mine moves darn good ....

i have a mediator with p96 ...

but i have a 2? color pointer....erm the preset one in 3.9...  no need for a 16mill color pointer now is it?

[that_punk_guy]

Feel free to shoot me if I'm off the mark, but...

How good is your mouse? I don't know if you've seen the Beetle Mouse entry in the Images section, but whoever posted that mentioned that after buying a graphics card, his/her beloved Beetle Mouse no longer worked smoothly enough for effective use. I don't know the technical details behind mouse resolution and things though... Just trying to find that image and the comments now...

[that_punk_guy]

It's here

It was a sad day a year later when the Cybervision 64 and scan doubler
came in. While the computer was improved, design limitations in Beetle
Mouse were made glaringly apparent. Beetle Mouse's mouseing skills were
not up to the 800x600 playing filed, it's pointer jumped and jittered,
it caused the User much frustration. Beetle Mouse was retired to the
A1200 bag, replace by a logitech Mouse and Tupulo interface with better
skills.

[that_punk_guy]

...uh, did I just inadvertantly insult everybody's mothers?

[Karlos]

I'm still using my old logic 3 speedmouse (the one that you could switch between amiga/atari). Just as smooth now as before getting my gfx card. Never a problem apart from the gadual build up of mung that you have to clean off the rollers occasionally...

[Jose]

I also have a logic3 one..great mouse... the right button doesn't work sometimes though...

[Karlos]

Patrick

Using the CGXMode preferences, see if you can define a 60Hz mode (for testing purposes). If it turns out that your pointer is sync'd to some custom chip timing signal, it should be smooth. However, your eyes will hate you for it :-)

[patrik]

@that_punk_guy:
I have tried the mouse-theory now. Before, when using AGA I used Euro72 (640x400@70Hz), so I created an identical mode for the graphic-card and set up two monitors to the Amiga - one for the graphic-card and one for the AGA. When comparing the mouse movement between those two screens the movement on the graphic-card screen is still sluggish and on the AGA-screen it moves smooooth as ice :-/.

@lempkee:
Do you know what configurations any of these sluggish-move-movement-impaired-relatives of mine were using?


@Karlos:
Tried a 60Hz mode, but the same sluggish feeling was there. Got curious if it synced with the 50Hz mains or something (a PAL Amiga), but I had some problems getting a 50Hz mode to work so I tried a 100Hz mode and the mouse felt more synced than ever, though still sluggish compared to when using AGA.


/Patrik

[Framiga]

Hi patrik

on wich Amiga, have you installed the CV64?

There is a jumper for SB rev9 compatibility that enables the "slow Zorro mode".

Have you the CV64 user manual?

Ciao

-edit- it is JP1 and with SB11 must be OPEN

Have your CV64 2 or 4 MB of VRAM?