Aemulor

Chris

Did you find a copy of MathGreek for Impression? I found a floppy disk with MathGreek and NewHall fonts this afternoon when rummaging in the loft.

Regards

Peter

“Maybe ADFFS will help in the far and distant future – not sure if 26bit emulation is even planned though.”

The plan is to simulate a RO3.1/ARM3 environment on the Pi, but I expect Aemulor to get there before we do, as it has several years head start, particularity around the chipset emulation..

ADFFS on the Pi will be game centric and free, as will the games the project has rights too. We’ve made a start on the sound tracker emulation and VIDC1 / RO3.1 memory map are getting there. The next big step is VIDC20 translation to the Pi.

Although the project has been quiet over the past few months, a heck of a lot has gone on in the background particularity around translation of game modes to modern monitors and VIDC1 translation to VIDC20.

Unfortunately for Pi fans, the bulk of what’s gone on is to get RO3.1 games working on RO3.71, although its all being done in a 32bit/RO5 compliant fashion so will eventually work on the Pi. The only specific Pi changes have been around remediating the Pi’s VSync issue, this is now fixed in the latest RO5 build thanks to Jeffrey Lee’s hard work.

Regards ArcEm’s VSync issue, I’m sure there’s a technical reason for pass-thru not being implemented, as its simply a case of triggering the event on the chip emulation and letting the OS do the rest. It’s open source…someone should look into it if its required.

Did you find a copy of MathGreek for Impression?

Yes thanks. I have a lot of fonts on my Virtual Risc PC including MathGreek, NewHall, Churchill etc. but what’s difficult is remembering where I got them from… I also have !effTTT so I can convert TrueType fonts from Windoze to Acorn format (e.g. Arial). I think Churchill was with AcornDTP but I’m not sure.

I don’t think it was an Acorn DTP font – I did loads of teaching materials on my old A3000 from 1990 onwards with Acorn DTP. The amount of floppy disc swapping involved in using Acorn DTP without a hard-disc drive sticks in my memory :) I read somewhere (apdl/riscworld?) that it was one of several new fonts included by RiscOS for their Select 4 scheme to add to the range of fonts started by Acorn.

AemulorPro is totally busted with the latest version of the ROM (on a pandaboard ES). I have a feeling this is known about.
However there are a few games that work well on aemulorPro that don’t work on ArcEm. (Heroes of Might and Magic 2, Spheres of chaos 2)

Maybe I’m just lucky, but I’ve not seen any tearing issues on arcem. There are only a couple of games that I’ve got issues with, and I’ve now got most of the old classics. (Saloon cars is one :-( but Stunt Racer 2000 works amazingly well!)
It maybe that I’m running at 40Hz? (My screen resolution is 1920×1200, so any higher Hz causes colour weirdness)

Are you using a ROM from here?

Aemulor Pro works just fine for me – we were using it last Saturday to demonstrate Impression X at the show.

What do you mean by colour weirdness?

You should be able to get to 46Hz at that resolution at least – in fact Chris Gransden was easily running at 50Hz on his PandaBoard ES on my stand last Saturday.

Further proof perhaps that there’s a variation in the behaviour of OMAP4460s

Here’s the MDF entry I use which is fine at 50Hz. If you get problems changing the ‘pixel_rate:’ to ‘112000’ gives 46Hz.

# 1920 x 1200 (50Hz)
startmode
mode_name:1920 x 1200
x_res:1920
y_res:1200
pixel_rate:121500
h_timings:44,2,0,1920,0,2
v_timings:5,4,0,1200,0,36
sync_pol:3
endmode

I was just about to ask you for that MDF Chris!

Many thanks works just fine on this machine :-)

On the Pandaboard at higher refresh rates (60Hz+) images get a strange banding on them. It’s only noticable on jpg’s such as a nice backdrop or for example on BBC news website images.
It seems to be certain colours trigger the problem, or a large number of colours in an image maybe????
I’ve not fiddled around too much, as 40Hz seemed ok lazyness kicked in! But I’ll give the 50Hz a go! Cheers!
Get the weird colour problem at 47Hz :-(

I used the development ROM from here yes.
If I use an older ROM it works fine no problems, if I use a newer one it fires out a whole load of strange error messages.

The video processor needs more work on it – generally 1920×1200 @ 60Hz you get odd turquoise pixelation. This is something that really should be sorted out.

Unfortunately the OMAP4 ROM is in a state of flux at the moment – the dev build here is missing quite a few bits. There are a few of us that are trying to resolve the situation though.

I have Aemulor Pro version 2.33 running on my Pandaboard ES, residing in $.!Boot.Choices.PreDesk, using OS 5.19 (25-Feb-13) with no problems. I can stop it ansd restart it.

If I upgrade to today’s ROM OS 5.19 (29-Apr-13) then I get an error ‘Abort on Data Transfer at &201B47E0’ during the boot process (which does not appear if I remove Aemulor Pro from PreDesk but does still appear even if I rename the module to !!!AemulorPro). After acceptng and ignoring the error, the desktop starts with the Aemulor icon on the icon bar and things like Impression Style work OK. If I then quit Aemulor, I get the same abort message at &201B47E0 but ignoring the error seems to work and the Aemulor Pro icon disappears (see below for register dump).

If I then double-click the Aemulor Pro module to restart it I get an error " ‘%’ in module title".

Note that removing Aemulor Pro from PreDesk and only running the Aemulor Pro module when I need it [or putting it in $.!Boot.Choices.Boot.Tasks instaed of PreDesk], after the desktop has started up, I can start it and stop it, again and again, with no problems with today’s ROM.

*showregs
Register dump (stored at &2000B7D0) is:
R0  = FB014355 R1  = FB014355 R2  = 00000001 R3  = 00400000
R4  = 05300000 R5  = 04F00000 R6  = 00000001 R7  = 00000030
R8  = FB400008 R9  = 201AECF0 R10 = 00000FF0 R11 = 201F3B1C
R12 = 201B47B8 R13 = FA207E54 R14 = 201ADA78 R15 = 201B47E0
Mode SVC32 flags set: nZCvqjggggeAift        PSR = 60000113
*modules
No. Position Workspace Name
  1 FC01F390 00000000  UtilityModule
  2 FC0406D4 20000014  PCI
  3 FC0425DC 200001D4  FileSwitch
  4 FC04F648 20001694  ResourceFS
  5 FC050330 200016D4  TerritoryManager
  6 FC052838 00000000  Messages
  7 FC1118EC 200017D4  MessageTrans
  8 FC112CD8 200035B4  UK
  9 FC1148CC 20003E54  WindowManager
 10 FC1300B4 2019CCB4  TaskManager
 11 FC133FD8 00000000  Desktop
 12 FC134C40 00000000  SharedCLibrary
 13 FC168CA4 200094B4  OMAPVideo
 14 FC16C670 00000000  BASIC
 15 FC17C190 00000000  BASIC64
 16 FC189FC4 2000B0B4  BASICTrans
 17 FC18AD90 2000B714  BufferManager
 18 FC18C008 20182094  ColourTrans
 19 FC190204 2000B734  Debugger
 20 FC195294 2000B9D4  DeviceFS
 21 FC197788 2000BB14  Portable
 22 FC19805C 2000BCF4  RTSupport
 23 FC19B348 2000E3B4  USBDriver
 24 FC1A6F50 20012194  EHCIDriver
 25 FC1AC90C 2019C3B4  DisplayManager
 26 FC1AE650 20015474  DMAManager
 27 FC1B15C0 20016374  DragASprite
 28 FC1B2728 00000000  DragAnObject
 29 FC1B2C4C 200163B4  Draw
 30 FC1B5F84 2006E8B4  FileCore%SDFS
    FC1B5F84 2002A074  FileCore%SCSI
    FC1B5F84 00000000  FileCore%Base
 31 FC1C9C70 2027C9B4  Filer
 32 FC1D2D88 20016554  FilerSWIs
 33 FC1D3078 20016654  FSLock
 34 FC1D4220 200169B4  FontManager
 35 FC1E45AC 20017894  FPEmulator
 36 FC1EAB04 200179F4  VFPSupport
 37 FC1EB784 20017A54  Free
 38 FC1ECF74 200183B4  Hourglass
 39 FC1ED9F0 200184B4  IIC
 40 FC1EE0A4 200184F4  International
 41 FC1F437C 20018514  InternationalKeyboard
 42 FC207344 20018574  InverseTable
 43 FC20DE14 00000000  NetFiler
 44 FC21211C 20018994  NetStatus
 45 FC212478 202AEA94  Obey
 46 FC212E0C 200189B4  Pinboard
 47 FC218A14 20019694  PipeFS
 48 FC219E98 00000000  RAMFSFiler
 49 FC21AD64 2019F094  ResourceFiler
 50 FC21B528 00000000  ROMFonts
 51 FC26F558 200032D4  ScreenBlanker
 52 FC26FEC0 200196F4  ScrSaver
 53 FC270798 20180A74  Serial%1
    FC270798 201808F4  Serial%2
    FC270798 20180774  Serial%3
    FC270798 00000000  Serial%Base
 54 FC2722EC 20003054  SerialDeviceSupport
 55 FC2729CC 20277F54  ShellCLI
 56 FC27303C 2001A934  SoundDMA
 57 FC274C80 2001AE54  SoundControl
 58 FC276124 2001C2F4  SoundChannels
 59 FC277930 2001E4B4  SoundScheduler
 60 FC278214 200204D4  SpriteExtend
 61 FC28B210 00000000  SpriteUtils
 62 FC28B800 200233D4  Squash
 63 FC28D1D0 00000000  SuperSample
 64 FC28DAF0 20023294  SystemDevices
 65 FC28E92C 20023474  TaskWindow
 66 FC290FE8 00000000  WindowUtils
 67 FC291050 200234B4  FilterManager
 68 FC2924D4 20023554  WaveSynth
 69 FC292FC0 20023C34  StringLib
 70 FC293A94 20024454  Percussion
 71 FC294658 20024D74  SharedSound
 72 FC296250 00000000  Filer_Action
 73 FC29D524 20025E14  DOSFS
 74 FC2A90B4 20027194  SCSIdriver
 75 FC2ACDB8 20028874  SCSISoftUSB
 76 FC2B08DC 20029DD4  SCSIFS
 77 FC2B2194 2029B3B4  SCSIFiler
 78 FC2B68E8 2006B574  SDIODriver
 79 FC2BF98C 2006CFB4  SDFS
 80 FC2C33D4 2029BED4  SDFSFiler
 81 FC2C7600 200AFFD4  ColourPicker
 82 FC2D5454 200B5E74  ScreenModes
 83 FC2D75D0 200B70F4  DrawFile
 84 FC2DCFF0 200B8D14  BootCommands
 85 FC2DF824 00000000  AUNMsgs
 86 FC2E6FCC 2001A8D4  MbufManager
 87 FC2E9828 20103394  Internet
 88 FC30ADFC 201076B4  Resolver
 89 FC316354 00000000  BootNet
 90 FC32A550 2010D7D4  MimeMap
 91 FC32B76C 2010E914  LanManFS
 92 FC3403AC 20119874  EtherUSB
 93 FC34B1F0 2011ADB4  DHCP
 94 FC34FF08 00000000  !Edit
 95 FC3529EC 00000000  !Draw
 96 FC37C654 00000000  !Paint
 97 FC392B48 00000000  !Alarm
 98 FC3A0018 00000000  !Chars
 99 FC3A0F94 00000000  !Help
100 FC3A380C 2011D854  TinyStubs
101 FC3A5344 2011ECF4  Toolbox
102 FC3A9ECC 20120394  Window
103 FC3B8158 20121ED4  ToolAction
104 FC3B9868 20123074  Menu
105 FC3BD904 20124594  Iconbar
106 FC3C02B8 20125A94  ColourDbox
107 FC3C3178 20126EB4  ColourMenu
108 FC3C5E6C 20128534  DCS
109 FC3C81F4 20129934  FileInfo
110 FC3CAD28 2012AE34  FontDbox
111 FC3CEAB8 2012C474  FontMenu
112 FC3D13AC 2012D954  PrintDbox
113 FC3D50B4 2012EE74  ProgInfo
114 FC3D81DC 20130394  SaveAs
115 FC3DBB34 201319F4  Scale
116 FC3DE130 20132DB4  TextGadgets
117 FC3E7F08 20134914  CDFSDriver
118 FC3E93EC 20135554  CDFSSoftSCSI
119 FC3EB8E4 201387D4  CDFS
120 FC3EF904 2029C9F4  CDFSFiler
121 FC3F2554 00000101  UnSqueezeAIF
122 201A0574 DEADDEAD  Aemulor
123 FC3167BC 20196994  Freeway
124 FC31A92C 20198DB4  ShareFS
125 202863D4 2027EDD4  Fat32fs
126 202B05D4 202B9B34  ARMBasicEditor
127 20366A34 00000000  ObeySupport
128 2033CE74 202980B4  NetTime

@Chris: with RISC OS 5.21 same results. Also the emulator occasionally hangs with alignment traps on.
Do you have a RO5.19 ROM that works ok? I would like to test that on my Panda and perhaps trace back the cause.

I think the cause is the SWI vector (used by Aemulor and by something else) and the work around is to start Aemulor from !Boot.Choices.Boot.Tasks rather than PreDesk. This seems to work OK on my Pandaboard ES with RISC OS 5.21.

When starting aemulor from the desktop it runs, but you cannot use Configuration→Screen.
That will cause the same error. The SWI vector seems the most logical cause since using the configuration is not tied to Aemulor. It might be possible that Aemulor traps the SWI because it is related to screen mode.
I run in 1920×1080 16M which is more than the memory Amulor reserves for screen. Perhaps that is related?
Adrian has been through a lot and I don’t expect him to jump in on this. For now it is mainly a minor nuisance. If and when he finds energy and time to look into this he surely will fix this.