Chameleon Core update 9n released

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Don't Panic. Please wash hands.
  • Another month passed, another update is due!


    This one adds some missing features to the builtin ML-monitor, which is now feature complete too.


    The changes in detail:

    Code
    1. Menu System:
    2. - added some Monitor features:
    3. - The monitor now allows to scroll forward/backward with some commands by
    4. using the cursor keys (line by line) or F1/F7 (page by page).
    5. - added 'i' command to show/edit memory as screencode
    6. - added 'j' command to show/edit memory as petscii


    As always get the update on the Chameleon wiki page.


    Have fun!

  • I've tried a few cores like the Amiga core where you can turn off the scandoubler and use 15KHz mode. And I know several other cores can do this aswell. Would this be possible to implement for the C64 core?

  • i noticed the new c16 core uses 720x576 aswell. This resolution fills the screen and shows the correct aspect ratio for pal. This should really be an option for the c64 core. Aswell as the option to turn off the scandoubler

  • My benq bl702a and bl912 monitors automatically defaults to 720x576 for this and minimig core. So your monitor probably dont reckognize this resolution and switches to 800x600 instead

  • So your monitor probably dont reckognize this resolution and switches to 800x600 instead

    That would be my guess. The scandoubler's output isn't going to match a standard VESA mode, so a monitor that doesn't recognise 576p is probably going to round up to the next nearest plausible resolution.


    (With my ports of MiST cores you can enable/disable the internal scandoubler by holding down the menu or F12 button for more than 1 second.)

  • OK, holding the menu button the monitor switches to a black screen and shows a 15kHz mode (which it can not display)

    yeah, you need a 15KHz compatible monitor for it to work. My BenQ BL702As and BL912 runs 15KHz just fine. You can also use 15KHz compatible CRT monitors or old CRT TVs. VGA to RGB/RGB scart should work just fine.


    (With my ports of MiST cores you can enable/disable the internal scandoubler by holding down the menu or F12 button for more than 1 second.)

    I just became aware of this quite recently. It's a very nice feature. Would love to have it for the TC64/TC64 V2 C64 core aswell. Aswell as 720x576 of course.

  • Quote

    720x576

    I wonder if anyone can find out some more details on the modes those cores are using (*)... i am playing around with it atm, but so far none of my monitors can make sense of it :/ (*) vertical frequency at least would help, perhaps also the resolution of the (emulated) image they are displaying.


    Edit: checked the Datasheet of those two BenQ monitors... both dont officially support those things, so buying one would be a gamble (and... quite a bit too expensive :))

  • I wonder if anyone can find out some more details on the modes those cores are using (*)... i am playing around with it atm, but so far none of my monitors can make sense of it :/ (*) vertical frequency at least would help, perhaps also the resolution of the (emulated) image they are displaying.

    These cores aren't doing any upscaling or framerate conversion - when the scandoubler's disabled they're aiming to output the same signal as the original machine - i.e. PAL or NTSC. Some monitors are happy to display that, many are not.


    The scandoubler doesn't touch the vertical frequency, it simply buffers a line of video along with its sync pulses and spits it out again twice at double the speed. So if the original core's emitting PAL 576i (or more likley 288p), the scandoubled signal will be 50Hz vertical, 31.25ish KHz horizontal, and should be recognised as 720x576 (otherwise known as 576p) if the monitor supports that mode. If the monitor doesn't support that mode it'll either display nothing or make a best guess (most likely 800x600) which then might or might not be scaled correctly.

  • Interesting... can you tell the exact timing too? I calculated (with a tool called "umc") a VGA mode for a 720x576x50 mode, and the result is nowhere close to 31kHz vertical frequency


    Code
    1. Modeline "720x576x50.20" 26.807603 720 736 808 896 576 580 584 596 -HSync +VSync

    None of my monitors can make sense of this, its detected as 640x480 and half the image does not show.


    However, the same resolution at 72Hz:

    Code
    1. Modeline "720x576x72.00" 41.052672 720 760 832 944 576 580 584 604 -HSync +VSync

    is detected as 800x600 and i can make the monitor show the entire screen content.


    Or perhaps there is another tool for this that will let me pick a specific vertical frequency(umc tries to do something that is as close to "VESA" as possible, i guess)? *shrug*

  • cool, after some tweaking i found

    Code
    1. ModeLine "720x576@50.20" 27 720 732 795 864 576 580 584 622 -hsync -vsync

    Which works nicely even with vicii-sync on. The picture still looks a bit strange to me, perhaps because i am using a 5:4 monitor, perhaps because there is a bit more vertical border than on my 1701. But it looks like i can add this mode for next update - cheers

  • Interesting... can you tell the exact timing too? I calculated (with a tool called "umc") a VGA mode for a 720x576x50 mode, and the result is nowhere close to 31kHz vertical frequency


    Code
    1. Modeline "720x576x50.20" 26.807603 720 736 808 896 576 580 584 596 -HSync +VSync

    None of my monitors can make sense of this, its detected as 640x480 and half the image does not show.

    I've just looked at the video code of the C16 core to try and figure out a matching modeline. The borders make it a bit tricky, but I think the following is plausible:

    Code
    1. Modeline "720x576x50" 28.38 720 732 798 912 576 580 586 625 -HSync -VSync

    Try different permutations of the sync signals, too - both those and the width of the vsync pulse carry information that the monitor may or may not take any notice of.


    (Without the scandoubler, the pixel clock and vertical values would all be halved and the horizontal values would stay the same.)


    Edit: Ah - I see you've figured it out - nice one! :D

  • 720x576 sounds very nice. For whats it's worth, i use this resolution on my indivision ecs v2 and seems to give me the best result with vsync enabled on atleast my iiyama syncmaster and lc-power game monitors.

    I

  • Found disk swapping issues with several Demos. I didn't note the names because this was some time ago. But I have found one now after starting some testing. It's the demo 'Trick and Treat'. Comes with four d64 images.


    When it tells me to insert the next disk I go out to the file browser and insert the next disk then back again and nothing happens. Have tested with Vice in windows and here the disk swapping works fine. Had this issue with several demos thus far.


    I am testing with the TC64 V2 and the 9n firmware.

  • Please note that "going into the browser" always means that the C64 is going into a "freeze" state. Many demos don't like to be "frozen", as re-starting is not always 100% cycle-exact. That's exactly why we have introduced the change-list feature.

  • Please note that "going into the browser" always means that the C64 is going into a "freeze" state. Many demos don't like to be "frozen", as re-starting is not always 100% cycle-exact. That's exactly why we have introduced the change-list feature.

    I will try to remember this. Sometimes it can be long periods between each time I do the change-list feature, and I always forget how to do it. I always forget I have to set the left button to Drive 1 or 2 to make this work. For most games, and many demos it seems to work fine just exiting to the menu to change disks. Another thing I will try to remember (which I am better at remembering) is that some software must be loaded from the basic screen instead of the file menu

  • The last reply was more than 365 days ago, this thread is most likely obsolete. It is recommended to create a new thread instead.