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).

[sharangad]

Setting
[sdl]
priority = normal, normal
in dosbox.conf might be necessary for:

[rendition]

highperformance = true

picdma = false

[sharangad]

Rebel Moon at a rock solid 60 fps (playthrough of the first level and part of the second):

https://youtu.be/_2MIBSVaza8

Two things:

The controls seem a bit laggy and I had a lock up partway through. 

Need to retest this quite a few times. Having software video capture running at the same time also seems to affect it.

[sharangad]

Eurofighter 2000+ (Rendition Renderer) stable in FIFO mode:

[EDIT2]
One final tweak, thick lines:
https://youtu.be/1tv574bxoM4 
[/EDIT2]

[EDIT] All rendering defects fixed:
https://youtu.be/ZSwOFEeIq14 
[/EDIT]

https://youtu.be/eIFL1FQfe-Q 

[sharangad]

For ICR2 fans, the upcoming Arlington track running with RReady, it's currently incomplete:
https://youtu.be/OexDpTVjA0w 

[sharangad]

And finally an obligatory vQuake performance improvement video:
https://youtu.be/1AqPS1_1qKs

The reason the now abandoned embedded codepath ran so well (for vQuake and everything else ran the same or slowed down) was because Dosclient was embedded into Dosbox, so the app had focus. It's explained in the video description.

[sharangad]

*************************************************
RReady Alpha October 23, 2024 (Fully tested release)
*************************************************
https://nirvtek.com/downloads/RReady.Alpha.20241023.001.7z 
MD5: 4538bc2b544cc8aa42a0769bf2975ab0

19 October 2024
- Initial support for Eur*figher 2000+ in FIFO mode( DMA mode does not currently work reliably)
- Performance increases across the board with two new settings:
[rendition]
Highperformance=true
Picdma=true
And
[sdl]
Priority=normal, normal
(Previous DMA performance can be restored by setting both these to false. Threadsafe=true only has an effect if both these are set to false).
The new high-performance mode is extremely CPU intensive and might not work on older CPUs and might introduce audio static (random occasional pops).
- Compatible custom car sets in ICR2 should be usable on most modern quad core or better systems.
- R*belMoon should sustain a solid 60 fps right throughout.
- R*belMoon chroma keying fixes: particle impact cloud sprites should render fully and not be clipped.
- FIFO mode memory write tweaks to support EF2000+ in FIFO mode.
- Dosbox-Staging-Rendition has a full set of config settings under [rendition]. It also has performance improvements in ICR2. However it may have stability issues with N*scar Racing 1999R and possibly other apps. It does not currently support per-app config files.
- N*scar Racing 1999 improved stability with Dosbox-Rendition.
- Dosbox-Rendition vQ*ake performance parity with Dosbox-Staging-Rendition.
- T*am Apache may have compatibility issues with cutscenes with the October updates to Windows 11/nvidia drivers.
*************************************************

[sharangad]

For ICR2 and Nascar

Frame interpolation test:
Try this:

https://nirvtek.com/downloads/RReady.Alpha.20241024.002.7z 

MD5: 2d1314b5161dcab85ca3cb6969351aec
[ignore this one]

https://nirvtek.com/downloads/RReady.Alpha.20241024.001.7z 

MD5: 6ea2798dec38f18a517e4fe6d8ac04c0
[/Ignore]

In the Dosbox folder rendition.cfg file add
interpolate=1

You may have to disable AA by hitting [ALT+A] in ICR2

Nascar Racing 1999 60 fps:

https://youtu.be/XWPUictfR3w 

ICR2 60 fps:

https://youtu.be/8FZCbh_tfS0 

[sharangad]

OBS seems to have an issue with 60 fps capture. Here're some screenshots of intermediate (even frames):

ICR2 Intermediate frame (Australia track)ICR2 (Downtown Detroit HQ) Intermediate frame

[sharangad]

The new windowed mode with sizing and aspect ration controls for all Rendition apps:

https://youtu.be/B-mqRt-XSlU 

[sharangad]

Frame generation at 60 fps, better capture with ShadowPlay, the frame rate does dip below 60 fps with it at time:
https://youtu.be/PVKElUBSDL8 

The intermediate frame should be visible in while advancing frame by frame.

[sharangad]

CGL (Creative Graphics Library) Battle Arena Toshinden (intro and menus only);
https://youtu.be/U5IWAKY-s9A 

[sharangad]

*************************************************
RReady Alpha November 19, 2024 (Fully tested release)
*************************************************

https://nirvtek.com/downloads/RReady.Alpha.20241119.001.7z 

MD5: 9f10a82d3bd689044ff1407c019b1931

19 November 2024
-Frame Generation support for select 30 fps DOS apps to run at 60 fps. (interpolate=1 in Rendition.cfg)
-Windowed mode support (this will allow alternate frame generation through "Lossless Scaling" (Steam, not-supplied) when a custom resolution less than the screen is used. Knocking one pixel off the horizontal resolution (i.e. 1919x1080x60 for 1080p) will work without any scaling artifacts in Lossless Scaling.
- Restores generic VESA support for non-Rendition apps in Dosbox-Rendition, such as setup.exe in TR1, for audio config.
-Adds Rendition 32 bit mode VESA support for CGL demo “21s Century Digital Boy.” The CGL 3D sections do not work currently.

[sharangad]

Grand Prix Legends frame interpolations:

https://youtu.be/diV0NRRVp1s 

[sharangad]

Die by the Sword with frame interpolation:
https://youtu.be/1meXQ2DAh04 

[sharangad]

vHexen II Golem fix with MaxVRAM (old news I know, but here's a video):
https://youtu.be/64pvPP2N57c 

[sharangad]

A pair of upcoming bug fixes for Whiplash:

https://youtu.be/DwFDoi4assI 

Eurofighter texture corruption when switching back and forth between the menu and the mission is also fixed. I'll do an alpha release soon. The store release won't get these yet for a few more weeks.