fredag 26. oktober 2012

E-UAE SDL with Picasso96 driver!

E-UAE SDL with UAEGfx Picasso96 driver!
Hi again, fellow Amigans! This time i am writing about running the classic Amiga emulator E-UAE SDL version in Window mode and how to get the best possible performance and look.

Instead of using the RunInUAE which uses the whole screen to run classic Amiga applications and games, i found the SDL version of E-UAE that opens the emulator in Window mode from OS4Depot.net, along with the UAEConfig GUI that allows me to setup E-UAE the best possible way.

A Kickstart ROM from a classic Amiga hardware, or found from Cloanto's Amiga Forever CD was needed, along with some useful datas found in the Emulation drawer in SYS, which came in handy.

E-UAE configuration window seen above
Using the UAEConfig GUI to mount 4 partitions in E-UAE's Workbench 3.1 was quite easy. The config creates a "map" for all 4 partitions, which appears to be System, Work, Diverse and Spill, without disturbing the settings done for the OS4 partitions, by having the config to use these "maps". Very useful to keep it tidy and clean, but that's not the only thing i did with the configuration of E-UAE SDL.

A friend of mine told me that in order to get more speed and better graphic handling in Workbench 3.1 under E-UAE, Picasso96 driver for UAE called UAEGfx had to be installed. I firstly picked up the Lha C command from Aminet (the 68k version anyway) and Picasso96 68k version from the same site. I copied the packed archives into where the E-UAE was stored. The Lha was successfully copied into Workbench 3.1's C drawer. From Workbench 3.1's Shell, i managed to unpack the Picasso96.lha file into the same place the drawer was. Copied it further into the same place as Workbench 3.1, as the Picasso96Install drawer was now visible among the drawers in System. I clicked the Setup icon in Picasso96Install and followed the guide from the net about installing Picasso96 under Workbench 3.1 in E-UAE! When finished successfully, i rebooted the whole Amiga system and restarted E-UAE, and checked Screenmode in E-UAE! Voila! I could now use 16.7 million color in 32 bit mode in 640 x 480 using the UAEGfx driver, and it was filling up the whole E-UAE window nicely seen in first shot!

Shadow Of The Beast in E-UAE SDL!
While Workbench 3.1 was looking a lot fresher and a bit faster, it still had a way too "classic" look of it. One option is to get AmigaOS 3.9 and the AmigaSYS to really get a more modern look. It will therefore take some time to make classic Amiga emulation a close to a modern look and feel of an AmigaOS4 native system. Everything needs patience.

Performance of the E-UAE SDL on AmigaOne 500 with AmigaOS 4.1.5 might vary from very good and average to okay, depending on some games. Picasso96 helps a lot, but there might be some other useful tools and tweaks to install in the classic Amiga setup. Classic Amiga is not really my thing anymore. It's not quite the same native feeling as to running a classic Amiga hardware with classic AmigaOS. Keep in mind that E-UAE acts as a VIRTUAL classic Amiga.

There is one important thing missing in E-UAE, and that is the JIT-implementation. JIT stands for Just-In-Time and is the thing that will make Classic Amiga emulation really run as a true, native classic Amiga in any way! When that is in place, running E-UAE will finally be just as when you were running AmigaOS on your classic Amiga hardware the native way, as it was meant to be! But for now we have to make the best possible out of E-UAE.

Now it was time to test some classic Amiga games, so how did they perform?

Shadow Of The Beast was the first game to test, being 2 ADF disk files to let  UAEConfig run them. E-UAE SDL located these 2 ADF files and was loading the game. Took only a couple of seconds! Graphic, audio and music appeared just as they do on classic Amiga hardware! That was impressive, as UAEConfig was set to emulate a 68060 AGA Amiga with 2MB Chip and 16MB Fast, using Kickstart 3.1 ROM. Most impressive! The screenshot of Beast above speaks for itself.

Without a USB joystick, it was not possible for me to get into the game, so could not tell if the game ran smooth or not. Need to get myself a USB joystick. What is important here is that the game is fully compatible with the setup i used.


Fighting the way to top in IK+ in E-UAE SDL
Another fine game that had to be tested, was IK+ which is also known as International Karate +! This game ran smoothly with really nice graphic, audio and music just as supposed to, but of course without a joystick, i was not able to play it. Still the game would surely be great to play!

Yet another game was the Amiga version of Space Quest 2. Since the game was old and had simple graphic and audio, the game ran quite smoothly under E-UAE SDL. Another
cool, old game to play in E-UAE!


Vohaul's definitely back in SQ2 in E-UAE SDL!
Last but not least i managed to find the game Adventures Of Willy Beamish from Emuparadise. The game appeared as a couple of ADF files to run under UAEConfig.

Music played as supposed to and the graphic was really nice to look at. Took some time to load the game with the disk files. If the game was HD-only, it would be faster. The game was cool, with cool music and lovely cartoon graphic quality! Definitely worth testing out!


Willy Beamish bored at school in E-UAE SDL!

Well, this completes another fine blog for now! As for me using E-UAE. I'm not sure if i am keeping this emulator as the state of it is now.

Perhaps it IS useful to have, perhaps not. If i had AmigaOS 3.9 and AmigaSYS, it would probably be easier for me to say yes to keeping this emulator on my system.

I can only hope that future versions of E-UAE using JIT, will have MUI, AHI and such pre-installed into an AmigaOS 3.9 setup within such an Amiga emulator. I prefer to run such emulators in Window mode as an option, as in case with E-UAE SDL. Future versions should have an intergrated Application/Game Launcher for UAE where you can configure them to run fullscreen, as well as some other important and useful configurations without disturbing the main AmigaOS 3.9 in E-UAE running in Window mode. I'm sure the possibilities are many, so only time will show.

That's all for now! Enjoy the read and the pictures, and drop in a nice comment if you want to ;) See ya soon in another blog.

Written by:
Helge Kvalheim, Norway

 

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