VistaPro on expanded/RTG systems

[Matt_H]

Having now spent the better part of the afternoon trying to get VistaPro to run on my system, I finally know why. The program throws up no errors, no errors, no shell output, nothing in SnoopDos. Nothing. The answer? My Workbench is set to an RTG/CGX screenmode. If I change it over to an Amiga native mode first, VistaPro starts right up, no problem. Not sure if this workaround was generally known previously, but I've spent years being unable to run VistaPro and finally decided to give it another try today. Success!

To make things a little easier, I put together a little script so that I don't need to go into the ScreenMode prefs utility every time I want to run the program. First, I saved a basic NTSC:High-Res Laced screenmode as a preset in my VistaPro directory (vistapro_screenmode.prefs).

Code: [Select]

ScreenMode vistapro_screenmode.prefs USE
Wait 5 ;you may need to adjust this higher depending on how quickly your WB resets
Stack 200000
VistaPro3.0
ScreenMode ENVARC:Sys/screenmode.prefs USE
Save the script in the VistaPro directory, slap an icon on it, set the default tool to IconX, and you're done.

The caveat is that by changing the screenmode, there needs to be a Workbench reset, so if you have any windows open that delay the reset, VistaPro will probably still fail to start. Could probably overcome this problem by replacing the Wait command with a looped command that checks the screenmode ID and breaks out of it when it returns a specific ID (i.e., matching the one in vistapro_screenmode.prefs). There's got to be a shell utility somewhere that does that.

Still, hopefully this saves some others some sanity, and if anyone knows a more elegant solution, please chime in!

[dschallock]

This is good information to know.
Question though: Couldn't you have used "newmode" and just saved the preset to never promote that screen?

[Matt_H]

@ dschallock

Interesting idea. NewMode isn't normally part of my system, so I didn't try it initially. But a quick test just now resulted in a crash :\

EDIT: Actually, let me clarify. A quick test to force promote it to NTSC High-Res Laced caused a crash. A quick test to never promote it resulted in the same inaction as simply clicking on the program icon.

[paul1981]

Vistalite is the same IIRC. Unless there's a monitor driver in 'Devs:Monitors' it will simply not run. Or perhaps I'm thinking of VistaPro here...anyway, if anyone has trouble running it then look no further than your monitor drivers.

[Matt_H]

@ paul1981

Unfortunately it's not a simple matter of what modes/monitors are available to the system. I've got NTSC, PAL, the Double modes, etc. all in Devs:Monitors, but VistaPro just chokes if the Workbench isn't actually set to one of those modes.

[dschallock]

@ paul1981

Unfortunately it's not a simple matter of what modes/monitors are available to the system. I've got NTSC, PAL, the Double modes, etc. all in Devs:Monitors, but VistaPro just chokes if the Workbench isn't actually set to one of those modes.

Oh I see.  It's checking what WB is set to and it wants to copy that. I am surprised forcing it via new mode to an appropriate screen mode didn't work,  but I guess it's just one of those oddities.

[paul1981]

@ paul1981

Unfortunately it's not a simple matter of what modes/monitors are available to the system. I've got NTSC, PAL, the Double modes, etc. all in Devs:Monitors, but VistaPro just chokes if the Workbench isn't actually set to one of those modes.

I see. I don't have a graphics card in my A1200, but I remember it not starting with no reason like you, and it was lack of a monitor driver (I was running PAL on a PAL Amiga) that was the issue. So putting the PAL driver in there made it work. And yes, you're correct in that it clones the WB screen mode. I suppose it's doing it in a system legal fashion, but an error message from the program wouldn't have hurt. Perhaps the author wasn't aware of this even?

[Matt_H]

Oh I see.  It's checking what WB is set to and it wants to copy that. I am surprised forcing it via new mode to an appropriate screen mode didn't work,  but I guess it's just one of those oddities.

I think that's pretty close. It doesn't attempt an exact clone of the WB screenmode, but it seems to want to open the 400px (NTSC) or 512px (PAL) version of whatever base screenmode is currently active. Not a great programming practice, but the fact that it doesn't throw up an error message when it fails to do so is a really not great programming practice . Still, it's from the pre-RTG era, so I understand the oversight. I'm surprised, though, because most pre-RTG programs will try to force open a specific mode, not an intuited variant of a mode.

But those mode promotion utilities are sneaky system hacks, so I know why they can cause unpredictable/unstable behavior.

[number6]

@thread

VistaPro V3.05 - Tutorial final version
and
How I finally got VistaPro 3.05 to work on my AmigaOne

Hopefully this will help users of AmigaOS4.x, but the methods outlined may well apply to AmigaOS3.x, so it's worth a read.
Which method works depends on several things, so I suggest not giving up since many alternatives are discussed.

Added: another method described here on Amiga.org:
Post #8

Good luck.

#6

[mbrantley]

Probably already covered and I have not read everything today.... but here is the method I use to run VistaPro. Solves the problem on both my AmigaOS 4.x machines and my classic Amigas with RTG cards.... copied from an old writeup I did....

"Getting the old landscape creation tool VistaPro to run proved challenging, but I found the answer in a long AmigaWorld thread. The two-prong solution: First, use a hex editor to alter the VistaPro executable by searching for the one instance of the term "Workbench" and replace it with "Fakebench." Then use a screenmode promotion utility (ModePro, or perhaps the Screens prefs editor in AOS4.x) to create a screen called Fakebench that mimics an old-style Amiga screen, and VistaPro will launch. I use the program, along with the companion MakePath, to make 3D fly-through landscape animations reminiscent of the Genesis animation from Star Trek II."

I suspect what is happening is some lazy method VistaPro used back in the day to determine whether it is running on a PAL or NTSC Amiga. Not sure that is the case, but that's my theory. If it finds Workbench running in some "strange" RTG mode instead, it just goes out of its mind.

VistaPro is great on my X1000 ... very fast renders of 24-bit images and image sequences (find MakePath!) in high-definition resolution. Just get some modern utility to assemble the frames, and you are golden.

I did not create this method of making VP work with an RTG Workbench, so not claiming credit. But have relied on it for years.

EDIT: Suspect number6's links got you to this method quicker than I could copy and paste and post.

[mbrantley]

This is worth copying and pasting too: "One behavior worth noting as it has existed on my VistaPro installations on three OS4 machines. If I run VistaPro and then immediately quit my computer will lock up tight as a drum within seconds. But if I quit the program after first doing some actual work (even just loading a DEM file), then I can exit cleanly without locking up."

Weird, but both repeatable and avoidable.