WinUAE 0.6.9 r13 Integrated GUI and Picasso96 Support - BETA 9 Brian_King@Mitel.com Please use the following type of template with all bug reports: 1. Amiga OS verions (kickstart and workbench) 2. Extensions running (MagicWB, NewIcons, DirOPUS, ToolManager, etc.) 3. Settings of Amiga that caused the problem 4. HostOS (Win95, Win95-OSR2, WinNT, etc.) 5. DirectX version 6. PC Graphics card and its drivers version FIXES/CHANGED: In Beta 9 - October 27, 1997 - IMPORTANT: Use Picasso96 1.29 rather than 1.30. 1.30 is broken. - Blitting in >8-bit was broken in Beta 8 - Incorrect colours on some systems should now be fixed - Advanced Page: "Slow Pixel Write" option no longer needed, the Picasso96 DirectDraw system has been re-engineered - Port Settings Page: Printer and Serial shouldn't be invisible while running UAE, just not selectable - Rectangle filling should now work flawlessly - Scroll-Lock again speeds up file-system accesses while in windowed mode - Stretched dialog box and About button crashes can be fixed by installing Dial-Up Networking and/or Internet Explorer on the Win95 system _____________________________________________________________________________ In Beta 8 - October 25, 1997 - Removed all resolution and display-mode restrictions. 24-bit modes are buggy and slower than 32-bit modes, so use them if you have problems. - Some DirectDraw drivers are broken, and don't let a Picasso-screen open as 8-bit (for example) if their Windows desktop resolution is greater than 8- bits per pixel. This used to cause me to display garbage all over the desktop. Now, I exit gracefully, with advice for the user to set their Windows desktop to 8-bit and try the problematic steps again. NOTE: This problem doesn't happen under WinNT, and is purely a result of broken DirectDraw drivers. Get the latest drivers for your card, and contact them if the problem persists. It happens on my AGP-based nVidia RIVA 128 card, and I'm not happy about it... - InvertRect() function when using Picasso screens was broken, and always fell back to the 68020 code to do things, instead of using DirectX. - CheckBoard (Picasso96 utility on Amiga side) now works when on an Amiga screen. - Configurations Page: Description field would be associated with the wrong configuration entries. - Port Settings Page: available again while the emulation is running, via the GUI. This allows you to change between joystick and mouse mode while running. - About Page: Cloanto Copyright mentions are now removed. - Display Settings Page: Width/Height of Amiga Window can now be custom-set in the GUI, and no longer restricted to *just* the DirectDraw display-modes available in the drop-down list. This is ONLY AVAILABLE FOR WINDOW MODE... - Advanced Page: Script-bit support removed, since it is too dangerous. NOTES: Some users have reported that ClassAct doesn't like my Picasso stuff, or perhaps Picasso96 in general. Removing "caprefs" from their startup sequence solved many problems. Additionally, I highly recommend using FastIPrefs instead of IPrefs. It makes alot of things faster and more stable. Try it please. I'm not including it in this archive, because I am unsure of its status. ______________________________________________________________________________ In Beta 7 - Fixed major bug in my new Picasso implementation regarding masks and blits. Things became REALLY slow when blitting things, because I was falling back to Picasso96-RTG functions on the Amiga-side in too many cases. Now, as in BETA 4, more things are happening within UAE on Intel, rather than within the "Amiga" itself. - Added .adz support to floppies requester. - Put the monitor driver back in the archive. In Beta 6 - Removed "Powered by Amiga" logo. It belongs on the packaging, not the application. - New UAEGFX.card library which goes in sys:Libs/Picasso96/ directory. - GUI allows user to select resolution for Amiga ECS emulation, so that games can be opened in a 320x240 screen (for example). - ZorroIII expansion support allows up to an additional 16-megs of RAM. No cmd-line option, though. - FloppyDisk related ejection/insertion optimized. - Can create blank-floppy disks using GUI while emulation is running. - FloppyDisk settings page is the default page of the GUI once UAE is running. - GUI has new "Advanced" settings page, which includes the adjustment for copper-settings (like the cmd-line option 'C'), a new "Slow Pixel Writes" option (see below), and a "Log Debug Information" option. - Yet more file-system bugs fixed. This seems to fix IPrefs and MUI related GURUs, and perhaps others. - Fix for some people having cursor remnants getting blitted around. This fix is with the new option "Slow Pixel Writes". This option will not be necessary in the future, because I'll fix the REAL problem. For now, it is a temporary work-around. - Obey mask-values of drawing-operations while in Picasso96 screens. This makes the Picasso96 modes slower, but more accurate. I *may* add a new option to the new Advanced settings page that allows you to "Ignore Mask Setting", in order to recover some speed. For now, however, accuracy is the default. TO DO: - add back the END+F1..F4 keyboard shortcuts for ejecting floppies. - fix lots of bugs. ======================================================================= NOTES: These are various FAQ type questions and answers about Picasso96 support. Q: Why does my backdrop picture for Workbench crash on a Picasso screen? A: There was a file-system related bug which caused problems. It is fixed in BETA 6. Q: Do I have to use the new integrated GUI A: No, just specify a command-line as per usual WinUAE operation, and the GUI is avoided. BE WARNED, some new commands may be GUI only, since the cmd-line interface is getting too complex (running out of letters, etc.). Q: How do I specify Picasso96 gfx-card (UAEGFX) memory? A: Use the new "-U n" cmd-line parameter where n is 1,2,4 or 8!!! megs, or just use the new integrated GUI under Startup/Memory settings. Q: Why is the speed increase so small? A: Even though alot of custom-chip stuff doesn't have to be done when using a Picasso96 screen, this only gives you a 25% boost in CPU emulation. However, this CPU-boost is coupled with faster gfx as well, so the perceived increase in speed isn't so bad... is it? HINT: Try setting the CPU Priority to be 1 if you're mainly going to use Workbench and Picasso screens. Q: How do I get resolutions higher than 640x480 and 16-bit colour? A: Wait a while. Once things have stabilized, and Picasso96 is available in other UAE ports (Bernd is working on it for the Linux version), I will uncripple this version. Look for an exciting alternative to this delay soon. Q: What took so long? A: I wanted to release the GUI *and* the Picasso96 support at the same time. Plus I have a life... sorta. Q: Does ShapeShifter work better now? A: Yes - at 8-bit 640x480 (for now). Additionally, the Amiga doesn't have to be using a hard-file now in order for ShapeShifter's FileDisks to work. I fixed this so that the Mac FileDisks can be on the normal Amiga mounted MSDOS/NTFS volumes. Q: I can't save configurations! A: You're using the old beta version. Use this new one instead, or create a directory called "Configurations" in the same directory as the uae.exe is located. Q: Where are the other versions (68000, etc.)? A: Coming soon.... honest! Installation Procedure: 1. Get the latest Picasso96.lha archive from somewhere. Aminet, Village- Tronic, Picasso96 home pages, Tim Gunn's web-page, etc. 2. Run its installer. IF YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW TO DO THIS, READ THE UAE FAQ! 3. Ignore its problem of not finding a gfx-card. This will be fixed soon. 4. Pick any gfx-card to install for. 5. Finish the installation. 6. Delete the not needed gfx-card driver that is sitting in devs:Monitors/ 7. Put the UAEGFX and UAEGFX.info files from this archive into devs:Monitors/ 8. Put the UAEGFX.card file into libs:Picasso96/ (which should exist from the P96 installation) 9. Reboot the Amiga 10. Your ScreenModes list should've grown with some new UAEGFX: modes. Hope this helps people.