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2311 Bytes9 days ago

Hi, thanks a lot for the detailed report!

The cause is how the picture gets to the graphics card. Breathless renders a 320x240 image. With “RTG PAL”, “RTG Vollbild” and “RTG 4:3” this image is scaled up by the CPU to your Workbench resolution, and the whole frame is then sent over the Zorro bus. With a Workbench at 1920x1080 that is up to about 2 MB per frame, compared with roughly 40 to 60 KB per frame on AGA. So the rendering itself is just as fast, but the transfer to the card eats most of the frame time.

Version 1.2 improves this:

  • Only the part of the picture that actually changed is sent to the card.
  • The upscaling is much faster.
  • There is a new option “RTG schnell” (fast) in the startup requester. It looks like “RTG 4:3”, but uses a smaller 8 bit screen mode with the same aspect ratio as your Workbench (for example 640x480 for a 1024x768 Workbench). The card or monitor then does the rest of the scaling, so much less data goes over the bus.

What you can try:

  1. Use “RTG schnell” in V1.2.
  2. Or choose “RTG Auflösung...” and pick a small 8 bit mode such as 640x480 or 320x240. That is the fastest way.
  3. If “RTG schnell” finds no suitable smaller mode, you can add one in the Picasso96 settings (8 bit, for example 640x360 for a 16:9 Workbench).

Could you tell me which Workbench resolution you use and which option you chose in the requester? I’d be really interested in your fps with V1.2 and “RTG schnell” on the ZZ9000, and from your friends with the P-Vision.

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DaMi33008 days ago (1 edit)

Hi, thank you for explanation. It seems that the resolution of the workbench really does affect the frame rate on the graphics card. My default resolution is 800×600, 32-bit. When the game is running at this resolution, I get the following results:

  • RTG PAL - 10 fps
  • RTG Full Screen - 10 fps
  • RTG 4:3 - 10 fps
  • RTG schnell - black screen, I have to reboot
  • RTG Auflösung…
  • ZZ9000:1920×1080 8-bit - 10 fps
  • ZZ9000:320×200 8-bit - 10 fps
  • AGA - 25 fps

When I change the workbench resolution to ZZ9000:320×200 8bit, I get these results:

  • RTG PAL - 24 fps
  • RTG Vollbild - 24 fps
  • RTG 4:3 - 24 fps
  • RTG schnell - screen output ok - 24 fps
  • RTG Auflösung…
  • ZZ9000:1920×1080 8bit - 4,5 pfs
  • ZZ9000:320×200 8bit - 24 fps
  • AGA - 25 fps

I've also run into two other issues. When I go back to the game menu from the game, the sound—or rather, the music—gets messed up, and when I completely exit the game, the mouse cursor also acts up a bit, as shown in the image. I'm using your latest version, 1.2.

I didn't create the resolution myself.

I also tried the ZZ9000 resolution:

  • 640×480 8-bit - 14 fps
  • ZZ9000:320×240 8-bit – 23 fps

These values are the same whether I run the game at a resolution of 800×600, 640×480, or 320×240 (all via the graphics card).

Reply
2311 Bytes8 days ago

Hi, thanks a lot for testing so thoroughly, your numbers helped a lot!

They show exactly where the limit is. With a graphics card, the CPU is not the bottleneck but the amount of data that has to go over the Zorro bus to the card for every frame. 320x240 is about 77 KB per frame, 640x480 about 300 KB, 800x600 about 470 KB and 1920x1080 about 2 MB. Your results work out to roughly 8 to 9 MB/s, which is why the fps drop almost exactly with the resolution. That is also why the Workbench resolution only matters when the game uses it for its own screen.

Version 1.3 is now online:

  1. The black screen with “RTG schnell” is fixed. The game now only picks screen modes the card can really display. If the RTG screen still cannot be opened, it asks whether to continue with AGA instead of running invisibly, so no more reboot.
  2. WASD with mouselook is now the default control mode. If you already have a saved config, your old setting stays, so switch to FPS_WASD in the CONTROLS menu.

For the best speed on the ZZ9000, choose “RTG Auflösung...” and pick a 320x240 8 bit mode. That gives you the 23 to 24 fps you measured, which is about AGA level.

About the music and the mouse pointer, I would like to fix those too. Unfortunately the image you mentioned did not come through here. Could you upload it again, maybe to imgur? And a few questions:

  1. Music: what exactly happens? Wrong speed, wrong instruments, noise, or does it stop? Does it also happen with AGA, or only with RTG?
  2. Mouse pointer: is it garbled, invisible or in the wrong place? Does it go back to normal after a while, or only after a reboot?

Thanks again for your help!

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