Picasso96Modes in the MinimigAGA Core​

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Don't Panic. Please wash hands.
  • for stability reasons

    Not exactly - the "second channel" sacrifices the alternate status and reset registers for a second set of the first eight registers. However, the "official" number of registers for an IDE drive is ten. It's just that the original driver happens to only use the first eight registers.

  • So I have now tried various changes in my startup-sequence in the integration with AtapiMagic. The hard disk files that are integrated as master and slave on the secondary IDE were never displayed on the workbench. Couldn't that indicate a bug in the MinimigAGACore?

  • Sorry for not seeing your post on eab (I stopped participating there a while back.)


    I'm no expert on using loadmodule / OS3.2 - but it will accept multiple modules on one line, so after modification your startup-sequence snippet would read:

    Code
    1. Version exec.library version 47 >NIL:
    2. If Warn
    3. LoadModule libs:modules/atapimagic L:System-Startup ROMUPDATE
    4. else
    5. Loadmodule libs:modules/atapimagic
    6. EndIf

    Once Workbench has booted you can check that atapimagic is properly installed by opening a shell and typing:

    > loadmodule list


    Once you have secondary drives mounted in the menu, you should be able to see them in HDToolbox.


    If your primary slave device is mounted in "Disk image" rather than "Filesystem" mode, then it will have a RigidDiskBlock (equivalent to the MasterBootRecord on a DOS drive) - and that block may have the "RDBF_Last" flag set. If so, the Amiga won't bother looking for any other drives after mounting that one. The cure for this is just to run HDToolbox. It will prompt you that drives have been added or removed, and make the necessary change to the primary slave device - so just click that device followed by "Save changes to drive".


    Don't try and save changes to drive for any drives mounted in "Filesystem" mode - the RDB for such devices is faked on the fly, so there's nowhere to save it to.


    (For convenience, the Minimig does automtically remove the RDBF_Last flasg on the primary master device's RDB, to avoid having to go through theses steps - I will look at making it do the same for other units.

  • Hello Alastair,
    after I edited my startup-sequence according to your instructions, "loadmodule list" outputs this:


    ATAPIismajik atapimagic 47.1 (14.12.2019)


    What the first entry "ATAPIismajik" means is not clear to me.


    All four hard files are integrated as a "disk image". After starting the HDToolbox, I was informed that there would be new HDDs. I then saved the hard drives that had "changed". After a restart, all four hard drives are now available. Thank you!!! :-)

  • What the first entry "ATAPIismajik" means is not clear to me.


    All four hard files are integrated as a "disk image". After starting the HDToolbox, I was informed that there would be new HDDs. I then saved the hard drives that had "changed". After a restart, all four hard drives are now available. Thank you!!! :-)

    "ATAPIismajik" is just the module's internal name - I'm not sure why it's different from the filename, but it doesn't matter - as long as it gets loaded!


    Glad to hear the problem's solved - have fun! :)

  • MinimigAGA_TC64V1_20210726 with AmigaOS 3.2 + RTG with Picasso96 V3.1.2. The files "Minimig", "PAL" and "NTSC" are located in the folder "Devs / Monitors".


    Hello, while browsing through my WHDLoad collection I noticed that many games are displayed properly, such as Amberstar here





    others, such as Beneath a Steel Sky, have a split screen.




    "Beneath a Steel Sky" runs flawlessly on my Amiga 1200 with Indivision and on the RPi4 with amiberry + RTG with Picasso96 V3.1.2.


    Where is the mistake?


    Cheers

    SID-6581

  • Thank you for your quick feedback!
    But no, that didn't really improved the picture. ;-)




    Cheers

    SID-6581



    PS: I use the mechanical keyboard SteelSeries 6Gv2, the joystick VS-7000, the Logitech Z533 2.1 sound system on my TC64V1 and can highly recommend this products to you. Alternatively, the Cherry G80-3000 mechanical keyboard is also ideal.

  • Thank you for your quick feedback!
    But no, that didn't really improved the picture. ;-)

    Hmmm, that's strange. I can reproduce the problem here with the latest core from RetroRamblings, but it goes away if I use the version I posted above.

    Could you try updating the minimig.card driver file from the attached utils disk, please? (This version also allows you to set a VIDEOMEMORY tooltype if you want to devote less memory to the RTG system.)


    If the problem still happens, could you possibly test with an earlier version of P96? (I'm testing with 3.1.0 - I don't have 3.1.2 yet.)

    PS: I use the mechanical keyboard SteelSeries 6Gv2, the joystick VS-7000, the Logitech Z533 2.1 sound system on my TC64V1 and can highly recommend this products to you. Alternatively, the Cherry G80-3000 mechanical keyboard is also ideal.

    It's nice to see a mech keyboard that isn't an ANSI layout. I have an ergo keyboard in ANSI format and while it's OK, it's taught me not to compromise on layout - all my keyboards from now on will be ISO!

  • Great Alastair,
    after copying the file "minimig.card" from the MinimigUtilities diskette to "SYS:libs/picasso96/", "Beneath a Steel Sky" runs correctly with the driver Picasso96 V3.12.



    I also entered VIDEOMEMORY=4 in the tooltypes of the Minimig monitor driver. However, the error has also been corrected without this setting. How many megabytes of video memory do you think is optimal?


    Thanks
    SID-6581

  • It's nice to see a mech keyboard that isn't an ANSI layout. I have an ergo keyboard in ANSI format and while it's OK, it's taught me not to compromise on layout - all my keyboards from now on will be ISO!

    It was not that easy to find a mechanical keyboard that was PS/2 compatible. During my research I only found the SteelSeries 6Gv2 and the Cherry G80-3000. Both keyboards can also be operated via the USB port. I use the Cherry G80-3000 keyboard on my RPi4 to have no longer stutters in DOS games under RetroPie.

  • Great Alastair,
    after copying the file "minimig.card" from the MinimigUtilities diskette to "SYS:libs/picasso96/", "Beneath a Steel Sky" runs correctly with the driver Picasso96 V3.12.


    I also entered VIDEOMEMORY=4 in the tooltypes of the Minimig monitor driver. However, the error has also been corrected without this setting. How many megabytes of video memory do you think is optimal?

    That's great news! Thanks for testing.


    4 meg is the default, and you'll need that much if you want to use screen dragging with 1024x768 16-bit screens. I'd leave it there unless you find yourself needing a bit of extra free memory for whatever software you're using.


    It was not that easy to find a mechanical keyboard that was PS/2 compatible. During my research I only found the SteelSeries 6Gv2 and the Cherry G80-3000. Both keyboards can also be operated via the USB port. I use the Cherry G80-3000 keyboard on my RPi4 to have no longer stutters in DOS games under RetroPie.

    Espen discovered that WASDKeys keyboards are PS/2 compatible, but only if you use an older firmware. (I did need to adjust the Minimig PS/2 keyboard handling for them to work well, though - the core was emitting a constant stream of LED update events, instead of only sending them when the LED states had changed - and the WASDKeys keyboard firmware doesn't like that!)


    I'm more or less resigned to the fact that if I want a keyboard which has everything I want (ISO, curved ergo layout, tactile switches with minimal pretravel) I'm going to have to build it myself!

  • I'm more or less resigned to the fact that if I want a keyboard which has everything I want (ISO, curved ergo layout, tactile switches with minimal pretravel) I'm going to have to build it myself!

    Obviously you already have very specific ideas, that's good. If you are still of the opinion that your idea is so good that others would buy such a keyboard, you have two options:


    1. Get in touch with keyboard manufacturers and see if they are enthusiastic about your idea. Typically, a keyboard manufacturer should be interested in new ideas.


    or


    2. Really produce such a keyboard yourself; maybe in a Kickstarter project.

  • 4 meg is the default, and you'll need that much if you want to use screen dragging with 1024x768 16-bit screens. I'd leave it there unless you find yourself needing a bit of extra free memory for whatever software you're using.

    The minimig-monitor driver always sets 4MB as standard so that the variable "VIDEOMEMORY" must only be set when you want to have more than 4MB graphics card storage? Have I understood that correctly?

  • The minimig-monitor driver always sets 4MB as standard so that the variable "VIDEOMEMORY" must only be set when you want to have more than 4MB graphics card storage? Have I understood that correctly?

    4 meg is the default, and I don't imagine you'd need more than that.


    It's more likely that you might want to reduce it, to 2 or 3, so that you have more system memory available for the applications you're running.

  • 4 meg is the default, and I don't imagine you'd need more than that.


    It's more likely that you might want to reduce it, to 2 or 3, so that you have more system memory available for the applications you're running.

    Thanks for the information. I use the screen mode "Minimig: 800x600 16 Bit" on my TC64V1 and under amiberry on my RPi 4 the screen mode "UAE: 800x600 32 Bit BGRA". How much MB of graphics memory would I need for each?

  • How much MB of graphics memory would I need for each?

    How about punching that into a calculator? 800x600 at 16 bits is 937.5 KBytes and twice that for a 32-bit screen mode. That's video memory only. Note that P96 reserves the same amount of fastmem for each opened screen.

  • All useful screenmodes supported by the Minimig RTG will fit comfortably within 2 meg - but if you want to use screen dragging there has to be room for two full screens - hence the default of 4 meg.


    If you're not worried about being able to drag 1024x768 16-bit screens then there's no problem with using 3, or even 2 meg - though I think flipping between multiple screens will be a bit faster if they all fit in the video memory simultaneously.

  • Like this?


    For 16 Bit: 800 * 600 / 1024 * 2 = 0,9375 MB


    For 24 Bit: 800 * 600 / 1024 * 3 = 1,40625 MB


    For 32 Bit: 800 * 600 / 1024 * 4 = 1,875 MB


    Result: 2 MB VIDEOMEMORY should be enough when using a resolution of 800x600. Since we all love screendragging, we need 2 MB extra VIDEOMEMORY, so after all 4MB VIDEOMEMORY should be used.

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