WinUAE 0.8.23 Released

[StevenJGore]

I notice that WinUAE 0.8.23 has been released. Not had chance to try it yet though.

Bugs fixed:

- mousebutton getting stuck randomly when WinUAE lost focus
- floppy drives' state was not restored fully
- fixed crash when switching from 68000 to JIT-mode
- bsdsocket browser freezes/slowdowns
- SPTI CDROM media change detection
- parallel port joystick adapter works properly again
- saving state in ce-mode with blitter active created broken state files
- serial port/MIDI randomly lost received characters

New features:

- maprom emulation (BlizKick support)
- first CDROM is always uaescsi.device unit zero, second is zero etc.. and then
  other non-CDROM SCSI devices.
- improved priority settings
- improved filter options
- compatibility improvements
- bsdsocket emulation improved (Jabberwocky)
- faster Picasso96 solid window moves
- improved AHI emulation
- IRQ level 7 shortcut in input-tab
- percentage of CPU in use -meter added next to FPS-counter
- immediate state save (no need to exit the GUI anymore)
- dropped release numbers

This gets better and better with each release (even for such small increments in version number) and it is now extremely stable, at least on my system.

I'm interested to know what else is planned for WinUAE before 1.0 is reached, and also what peoples wish-lists are for WinUAE?

Me? I'd like 060 and PPC emulation, and improved CD32 emulation with FMV cartridge emulation (ie. be able to play Philip's Digital Video CD's and be able to view the Cannon Fodder FMV intro!) Not much to ask really!  :-D

Steve.

[mikeymike]

AFAIC WinUAE was suitable for having 1.0 release status long ago :-)

[Ross_Geller]

I was just about to write a message saying that winuae.net still listed that as the WIP features, but they went and changed the page on me as I was writing the message! :-D

Thanks for the heads up Steven.  That maprom emulation looks mighty nice... ok, ok, it all looks mighty nice!

I have to wonder what level of emulation they're expecting to achieve for version 1, they must be getting very close, by anyone's definition.

And My wishlist?  Improved Paula emulation so that I can use my current Octamed Soundstudio again (the PC version just doesn't feel the same)... although, isn't there a patch for the Amiga OS that redirects paula's output to AHI? hmm, might have to go find that :-)
Oh, and support for multiple monitors, WinUAE refuses to open in fullscreen on my second monitor, which is connected to a Radeon 9000 Pro.  It would be nice to have one screen running Windows and the other running Workbench in harmony... a guy can dream :-P

[bhoggett]

It looks like WinUAE has taken over the mantle of "UAE core" so far held by the Linux version. Well, it did that a while ago, but it seems that with the drop of release numbers it's now "official".

Let's hope Rich Drummond's improvements to the Linux version is the start of a catch-up phase (speaking as a Linux user).

 ;-)

[StevenJGore]

It would be nice to have one screen running Windows and the other running Workbench in harmony

That sounds really cool! The best of both worlds!

[Mad-Matt]

What exactly is Maprom emulation ment to achieve in Winuae ? Everything is mapped in the same pc memory so i cant see any chance of a speed increase ?

[pjhutch]

I would like to see:
a) MMU emulation
b) USB emulation
c) PC disk image emulation for PCTask, PCx apps

PS, I will be starting on new help file shortly.
(See http://www.pcguru.plus.com/uae_faq.html)

[bloodline]

StevenJGore wrote:
I notice that WinUAE 0.8.23 has been released. Not had chance to try it yet though.

Bugs fixed:

- mousebutton getting stuck randomly when WinUAE lost focus
- floppy drives' state was not restored fully
- fixed crash when switching from 68000 to JIT-mode
- bsdsocket browser freezes/slowdowns
- SPTI CDROM media change detection
- parallel port joystick adapter works properly again
- saving state in ce-mode with blitter active created broken state files
- serial port/MIDI randomly lost received characters

New features:

- maprom emulation (BlizKick support)
- first CDROM is always uaescsi.device unit zero, second is zero etc.. and then
  other non-CDROM SCSI devices.
- improved priority settings
- improved filter options
- compatibility improvements
- bsdsocket emulation improved (Jabberwocky)
- faster Picasso96 solid window moves
- improved AHI emulation
- IRQ level 7 shortcut in input-tab
- percentage of CPU in use -meter added next to FPS-counter
- immediate state save (no need to exit the GUI anymore)
- dropped release numbers

This gets better and better with each release (even for such small increments in version number) and it is now extremely stable, at least on my system.

I'm interested to know what else is planned for WinUAE before 1.0 is reached, and also what peoples wish-lists are for WinUAE?

Me? I'd like 060 and PPC emulation, and improved CD32 emulation with FMV cartridge emulation (ie. be able to play Philip's Digital Video CD's and be able to view the Cannon Fodder FMV intro!) Not much to ask really!  :-D

Steve.

PPC emualtion isn't really worth it, but I'd like to see it too.

060 emulation is pointless since the 060 is just a faster 040... and UAE is alreaady a faster than the fastest 060.

You want FMV (MPEG1) emulation on an Emualtor? I don't really understand why!!! You PC will do a much better job/has more software for MPEG play back...


-EDIT-
What I would really like to see in WinUAE is no need for an AmigaROM Kickstart.

That is to say get AROS 68K to the point where it can boot UAE :-D

[StevenJGore]

060 emulation is pointless since the 060 is just a faster 040... and UAE is alreaady a faster than the fastest 060

Good point!

You want FMV (MPEG1) emulation on an Emualtor? I don't really understand why!!! You PC will do a much better job/has more software for MPEG play back...

Ah... but PC software (PowerDVD, WMP9, WinDVD etc) won't recognise/play non-standard VCD's such as Philips Digital Video discs (which IIRC are yellow-standard and not white-standard, or something like that!) It was supposed to be a format unique to Philips CDI machines, which Commodore "accidentally" provided compatibility for with the FMV module (therefore significantly increasing the number of films available for the CD32)!!! Besides, I want the Cannon Fodder FMV intro to work!

[bloodline]

Ah... but PC software (PowerDVD, WMP9, WinDVD etc) won't recognise/play non-standard VCD's such as Philips Digital Video discs (which IIRC are yellow-standard and not white-standard, or something like that!) It was supposed to be a format unique to Philips CDI machines, which Commodore "accidentally" provided compatibility for with the FMV module (therefore significantly increasing the number of films available for the CD32)!!! Besides, I want the Cannon Fodder FMV intro to work!
 

IS the PC CD/DVD able to read "yellow" standard then?

I think you might want to look for a CD-i emulator :-D

I'm sure if you can read the CD's then you find the MPEG files and run them.

[Chunder]

bloodline wrote:
060 emulation is pointless since the 060 is just a faster 040... and UAE is alreaady a faster than the fastest 060.

You want FMV (MPEG1) emulation on an Emualtor? I don't really understand why!!! You PC will do a much better job/has more software for MPEG play back...

Hmm... emulation of these things would - as you state - be pretty pointless.
It would, however, be rather useful if UAE could a) spoof itself to have an 060 CPU (so that any software that version checks to this will work... is there anything? ISTR Freespace is 060 or PPC?) and b) if it could "redirect" the FMV playback to the Windows codecs, or something; being able to watch the CD32 intros properly would be cool :-)

[StevenJGore]

IS the PC CD/DVD able to read "yellow" standard then?

Yes and no...

I'm sure if you can read the CD's then you find the MPEG files and run them.

...that's the problem. The CD's are readable (directories and other files), but the mpg files are not readable (not from within Windows anyway). It's a complete guess, but it seems that the fmv/mpg video is stored on separate tracks to the data tracks, a bit like mixed-mode audio/data CD's. Inspecting the Cannon Fodder CD32 CD in either Windows or Workbench does not show that there is any FMV/MPG on the CD. It was only when I played Cannon Fodder on my CD32 with an FMV module when I got the shock of my life because of the full-screen video intro!

if it could "redirect" the FMV playback to the Windows codecs, or something; being able to watch the CD32 intros properly would be cool

Sounds good!

[bloodline]

Chunder wrote:

bloodline wrote:
060 emulation is pointless since the 060 is just a faster 040... and UAE is alreaady a faster than the fastest 060.

You want FMV (MPEG1) emulation on an Emualtor? I don't really understand why!!! You PC will do a much better job/has more software for MPEG play back...

Hmm... emulation of these things would - as you state - be pretty pointless.
It would, however, be rather useful if UAE could a) spoof itself to have an 060 CPU (so that any software that version checks to this will work... is there anything? ISTR Freespace is 060 or PPC?) and b) if it could "redirect" the FMV playback to the Windows codecs, or something; being able to watch the CD32 intros properly would be cool :-)

yes an 060 spoof would be VERY good... it would also be cool to have a 68UAE CPU spoof, so that programs have an easy way to check for UAE :-)

[bhoggett]

@Chunder

It would, however, be rather useful if UAE could a) spoof itself to have an 060 CPU (so that any software that version checks to this will work... is there anything? ISTR Freespace is 060 or PPC?)

Nah. It's just the way people describe the specs, in this case Freespace is not recommended for anything less than the speed of an 060, but it works fine - much better in fact - under 040 emulation.

I think you'll find that there are very few if any programs that actually check for an 060 specifically and don't have 040 versions available.

[SilvrDrgn]

bloodline wrote:

060 emulation is pointless since the 060 is just a faster 040

Uuummmm, no ... it's not.  060 is superscalar architecture while 040 is not, 8K caches versus 4K caches, bus snooping, execs 3 instructions/clock, etc......

See these two pages for comparison:
Motorola 68040
Motorola 68060

... and UAE is alreaady a faster than the fastest 060.

I'll agree with you on that point.  :-)

What I would really like to see in WinUAE is no need for an AmigaROM Kickstart.

Probably will never happen due to legal/copyright issues.