Gaming Discussions

[sharangad]

Hi
I don't know whether legacy PC emulation belong in this forum, but here goes:

I'm working on a wrapper for the Rendition Verité V2200 (an old video card from the 90s). The Windows side of it is almost done and can run all 13 games though a few need DxWnd or dgVood's DirectDraw component. The DOS part is still being looked at.

I haven't had much too much feedback, especially from AMD GPU users:

Formula 1 '97

https://youtu.be/kFRRl686S94

Grand Prix Legends '96:

https://youtu.be/Rth5lU8zM2A 


SODA Offroad '96:

https://youtu.be/uiyCT3FMcQA 

Monster Truck Madness 2:

https://youtu.be/2Bom-ZSNiXw 

vQuake 2 (Quake 2)

https://youtu.be/qb1eYQ35iV0 

Sub Culture

https://youtu.be/f5JAAI6FYcE 

vHexen II (Hexen II)

https://youtu.be/w0hFT8umNQw 

MDK

https://youtu.be/Hgxik-rUWT4 

Die by the Sword

https://youtu.be/HUtbSuzfqqw 

Mech Warrior 2

https://youtu.be/QunN6dDEGPo 

Interstate '76 (Needs DxWnd

https://youtu.be/vfCLjEXMM1o 

Interstate '76 Nitro (Needs DxWnd)

https://youtu.be/aoZYEalJ8kk 

Heavy Gear

https://youtu.be/UdNUEEuFKts 

The last stable version of the wrapper can be found here:

November 22, 2023 (Fully tested watermarked store builld):

https://1drv.ms/u/s!As-dKk-N73dSlwUMo-Zu9Ad0nTvO
MD5: 787425d7a2838f199783f74303be1780

20 November 2023

- Ability to restrict VRAM by setting MaxVRAM=<nn>(Megabytes). The Golems in VH2.exe correctly change colour when VRAM is restricted to between 4-14 MB. Restricting VRAM will severely affect performance and is not recommended. It is also unsupported in other apps.
- RRosetta's renderer switching (using F1-F3) work correctly but for F3 (Direct3D) to work dgVoodo's directdraw/direct3d files need to be copied to the same folder as RRosetta.exe. OpenGL to RRedline switch to work.
- Screenshot capability in games such as WinDie.exe (save game image) or games which have a console command 'screenshot' should work (except VH2.exe. This application appear to do a copy to clipboard and does not currently work.). Screenshot is correctly downsampled now.
- End credits background textures in F1red.exe should work.
- Bilinear filtering (using shaders) is enforced for paletted textures.
- Memory safety checks removed. Should be as fast as before.

(This release is live on the Windows store as well without the watermark though it costs money)

The official thread can be found here:

https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=95721

I'd be really happy for feedback and sorry if this forum isn't the right place for it.

Thanks!

[sharangad]

ICR2 HUD issues fixed completely:

https://youtu.be/QF89PTjRW48 

Nascar 2/Nascar Racing 1999 Rear view mirror colour fix:

https://youtu.be/af-LFNsJxt0 

[sharangad]

Tomb Raider: Massive Chroma Keying improvments and Health+Oxygen bars

https://youtu.be/OblCSC89H8A 

[sharangad]

vQuake: Scourge of Armagon works with Dosbox/RReady

https://youtu.be/m8pDoayvmAg

(r_surfacelookup must be set to "0", just like for vQuake. This is a bug with the Dosbox/RReady and will be fixed.

[sharangad]

vQuake: Malice

https://youtu.be/8Gu70zcMk6Q 

r_surfacelookup must be set to "0", just like for vQuake. This is a bug with the Dosbox/RReady and will be fixed.

Dissolution of Eternity doesn't run for some reason. It will be fixed.

[EDIT]
vQuake: Malice Rendition V2100 vs RReady:

https://youtu.be/QnPLcb2OQvI 
[/EDIT]

[sharangad]

vQuake: Dissolution of Eternity

https://youtu.be/1P-NsMKDgmU 

r_surfacelookup must be set to "0", just like for vQuake. This is a bug with the Dosbox/RReady and will be fixed.

The quake.rc file contained in the pak file has an incompatibility with Dosbox/RReady. Adding a text file with name quake.rc with the text listed below will fix it for now:

// load the base configuration
exec default.cfg
// load the last saved configuration
exec config.cfg
// run a user script file if present
exec autoexec.cfg
// stuff command line statements
stuffcmds
// start demos if not allready running a server
startdemos demo1 demo2 demo3

[sharangad]

Setup guide for MDK with RReady (both Alpha and Microsoft Store):

https://youtu.be/iFSEsMDJBk8  

The textual description has details (at the bottom for Quake 2 and Hexen II) on how to set things up. It's very painful to make these videos, takes up a lot of time, but I'll try and post videos for Quake 2 and Hexen II.

[eebiii]

You are a machine! 

This is a crazy amount of work.

Great job!

[sharangad]

I started work on this 3 years ago, so I've had a lot of time.

Quake 2 Setup Guide

https://youtu.be/2aBBpB6dIBU

[sharangad]

Quake 2: Ground Zero

https://youtu.be/6pyp99Gal8k 

Finally getting around to test all the expansions.

vQuake2: The Reckoning
https://youtu.be/hqyheHp7Bck

[sharangad]

Hexen II Setup Guide

https://youtu.be/lHSWxzI6mMI 

[sharangad]

Here's yet endless split screen video of dosbox-rendition before and after embedding the wrapper. Some games show no change in performance or regress but vQuake sees significant performance improvements.

https://youtu.be/AYTnfiOlKPk 

[sharangad]

https://nirvtek.com/downloads/RReady.Alpha.20240908.001.zip
MD5: dc331c189d6148300d934679c8cdb18f

- Fixes r_surfacelookup "1" not working. The earlier betas should render, but r_surfacelookup "1" and earlier betas are not officially supported, yet. There may be bugs. Note enabling surfacelookup ("1") is slower than disabling it ("0"). This is true for vQuake 2 and vHexen II as well with RReady.
- vQuake 2 chroma keying and texture filtering is now shader based. This should fix pixelated textures in expansion pack "The Reckoning."
- RLauncher remembers the last tab and selected app in each and every tab between restarts.

This will be tested and released to the Store once it's validated.

The embedded code path has been abandoned. Only vQuake saw any improvement and with staging the improvements were minimal. Others regressed or ran the same.

[uniqrenders]

Thanks @mickyat2001

[sharangad]

[EDIT]
https://nirvtek.com/downloads/RReady.Alpha.20240909.003.zip 
MD5: 0b5930f7f08569653b385136a498744f

- Fixes random texture corruption with r_surfacelookup 1 (vQuake 1). On weaker CPUs (in modern terms) r_surfacelookup 1 will be faster, just like in Rendition's heyday.

[sharangad]

One final Quake engine video, this is the last one:

https://youtu.be/lQxZ1_tkFF8

The effects of v1k_surfacelookup/r_surfacelookup.

[sharangad]

vQuake cvars, by popular request (not on this forum):

https://youtu.be/4JuKIDU2CVM

And no more vQuake vids.

[sharangad]

I've tweaked Dosbox-Rendition's register access slightly while trying to get Eurofighter to run and noticed I can get Nascar 1999's framerates stable (Nascar 2 was already stable). Even managed to briefly get ICR2's replays going faster, but it turns out it was a random glitch somewhere.

I can even get it to run (slowly) on Intel UHD620 (2 real+2 virtual threads @ 2.1 GHz). Something it never did before.

https://youtu.be/p_kjcdNRbSw

EF2000 is still not quite there yet.

[sharangad]

MDK Improvements:
https://youtu.be/cwt4EH_Tld4

[sharangad]

RReady edge AA modes available:
https://youtu.be/71CD8Mik8u4

[sharangad]

RReady September 25, 2024

[EDIT: Wrong build, do not download]

https://1drv.ms/u/c/5277ef8d4f2a9dcf/EU4AKa49SFFFrr7nA0TYbdwBn-LkHnxc6wbRFW6IkHp67A?e=66N51k
OR
https://nirvtek.com/downloads/RReady.Alpha.20240925.002.zip
MD5: 4de5601802af58cabc04a55077c04737

[/EDIT]

Fixes: Nascar 1999 Racing performance boost
MDK : Power up indictator on bottom right has correct background colour
Regressions: ICR2 may have audio pops. This is because of the Nascar fixes. This isn't going on to the store/sourceforge until I fix it. If someone could confirm that they do get audio popping in ICR2 it would be useful, to make sure it's not just my machine.

[sharangad]

Another RReady compatible carset u.2024 in action:
(https://www.icr2.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1550)

https://youtu.be/bgKdjUxOF1Q

[sharangad]

RReady Alpha September 30, 2024 (Fully Tested Alpha release)
**************************************************
https://nirvtek.com/downloads/RReady.Alpha.20240930.001.zip
MD5: cede5fd862e0bf5d02ade7dc7417006d
- Nascar some texture clamping issues fixed
- MDK weapon power up blended background in HUD

The Nascar 1999 optimisations aren't there (they won't be necessary and the performance boost will be there in the next release without this)
and neither are the new vQuake engine edge AA shaders.

[sharangad]

Upcoming optimisations for Speedy3D apps in the next release, everything should run at at least 30 fps:

- vQuake no static with Dosbox-Rendition, almost as fast as Dosbox-Staging-Rendition without embedding
- Rebel Moon, no slowdown
- ICR2 full frame with replays and carsets:

The sluggish cars95.2k carset at full speed:
https://youtu.be/nQT2-LStNnE

U.2024 carset at 30 fps:
https://youtu.be/bbrGdIRTOFA

Detroit Downtown HQ at a rock solid 30 fps with replay:
https://youtu.be/6aww5RbtniA

The optimisations are incomplete.

[sharangad]

This build adds two new options:

https://nirvtek.com/downloads/RReady.Alpha.20241003.004.7z
MD5: 89bfd9f38babf0e3b90ac3cf841bd882

[rendition]
highperformance = true|false (default:true)
picdma = true|false (default:false)

highperformance allows the new fast mode and picdma makes it threadsafe (but at the expense of performance).

I would recommend testing it with highperfornance = true and picdma = false. If there're any stability issues in ICR2 or Nascar 1999, setting picdma = true to gauge performance would also be useful. (picdma = true is a death sentence for weaker CPUs).