IDV AGA MK3 4000-D- Graffiti and HDMI audio issues

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Don't Panic. Please wash hands.

    Hello icomp support!


    Brand new card received and everything appears to be working out of the box except the following issues:


    (i.) HDMI audio - sometimes no sound when starting a WHDload game. Reloading the game once or twice can fix the problem.


    (ii.) Grafitti NTSC mode is not working?


    When "DoomAttack AIO" is configured to use the Graffiti NTSC mode with the Graffiti C2P, the display shows the raw undecoded graphics. The IDV on-screen-overlay does show Graffiti mode detected. I note that changing the Workbench Overscan preferences can affect the degree of corruption. I note the following website saying it needs to be aligned to pixel boundaries divisible by 8 e.g. 0, 8, 16 etc. I have not been able to find a setting that works.


    http://cd.textfiles.com/amigam…tersoft/orig/graffiti.htm

    If configured to use Graffiti PAL mode, it works.

    If I use the official Graffiti test viewer to view the test image, it does open the image of the cat in a PAL screenmode.


    Is this a DoomAttack software issue or IDV firmware issue?


    I do hope the NTSC issue can be resolved due to the higher framerate performance.


    Thanks!

    This might be a simple settings issue of the WB: Graffiti requires the source screen to be centered at an X-Position that is divisable by 8. This appears to be the case for your PAL setting, but you might want to double-check that for NTSC:


    - choose NTSC in your screenmode prefs

    - go to "overscan" and make sure that you save a position where the X-offset is divisable by 8


    The Graffiti emulation (and the real hardware) does not look at the mode, so if this does not fix it, the software is probably at fault.

    Ok, I have now tried with NEMAC4 as it was a commercial release as opposed to the Amiga community ports of Doom. Unfortunately the results are worse, undecoded colour with PAL or NTSC Graffiti modes.


    I would like to know what software do you use to test Graffiti functionality?


    My setup:

    4000D Rev. B / KS 3.1 / OS 3.9 / 040 MMU+FPU / 2M Chip / 16M Fast.

    I am using the same disk. So the current situation for my 4000D is:


    Official demo disk - picture and demo's all work in PAL mode. There is no NTSC picture file or demo.

    Nemac IV - commercial game NTSC and PAL both not working.

    DoomAttack-AIO - PAL working. NTSC - not working.


    Any suggestion as to the next step? There isn't much other software. I also have not managed to get Shapeshifter working with Graffiti EVD.

    Since Graffiti works on a line-by-line basis, there should be no difference between PAL and NTSC. I really have no explanation for this. The Graffiti code is known-good from Indivision ECS V2, which has been on the market for even longer.


    Did you update to the latest Indivision firmware?

    Quote from @mi9a

    Can you team try the software I listed on a 4000D ?

    We currently don't have the manpower for that - too many people on sick leave. Please do the firmware update first. If I remember right, one of the last changes was a fix in the Graffiti emulation. Config tool V1.9 contains the latest firmware, just run that and choose "firmware update" from the drop-down menu.

    I have updated firmware and unfortunately there is no change.


    After doing some research I believe I have found something which hints at a potential root cause...


    From NEMAC IV documentation,


    "GRA-WINLEFT <x> is the only one command for Graffiti. This hardware may possibly need another screen position in horizontal direction. Our prototype needed often another value than it is written in the documentation"


    My install config defaulted to a value of 2, I changed GRA-WINLEFT to 0 and Grafitti PAL:High Res mode works in PAL. However, it is only partially functional. For 1x1, 1x2 and 2x2 pixel mode it works most of the time. Sometimes there is a flashing orange horizontal line at the top and bottom of the screen. Other times changing menus leads to corruption i.e. colour decoded incorrectly or screen graphics flashing etc. 2x1 mode immediately leads to graphical corruption. It can be described as "vertical interlace", i.e. alternate vertical lines of corrupted graphics and correctly decoded graphics. A value of 8 also works with the same side effects.


    If Icomp has not tested with other software, but purely on with the Grafitti demo test/dev disk that may be an aggravating issue. In otherwords IDV3 meets the official specifications, but on a practical term other third party software does not (due to having to cope with variance in the original hardware?) and thus IDV3 has it problems decoding the colour?


    Perhaps there is a need for some kind of extended "live mode" functionality e.g. key presses to allow the position where the IDV3 starts decoding the Grafitti colour information to be found?


    Grafitti NTSC remains a failure on my system.


    The HDMI audio problems I mentioned at the start I will start a separate thread of discussion.

    @Peter is back from sick leave, but still on reduced hours. He has this issue on the todo list. There is a chance that NTSC is buggy, as the Graffiti emulation may be working at the wrong spot in the pixel chain (NTSC requires correcting the X-position of every other line, and the Graffiti emulation belongs *after* that - Peter is about to check that).


    In terms of "wider pixels", there is literally no difference on the hardware side, and there is also no "variation" of the original hardware. If the programmers of Nemac IV had trouble, they never contacted me about it, and I have to suspect a misunderstanding of the Graffiti documentation. I know it can be confusing to send the command block with 4 bit planes and then reducing the number of bit planes to 2 for wider pixels. We never published an example for that.

    Quote from @mi9a

    Perhaps there is a need for some kind of extended "live mode" functionality e.g. key presses to allow the position where the IDV3 starts decoding the Grafitti colour information to be found?

    Sounds like a solution to a problem where the source is in a different place (aka "hack"). I prefer to avoid such an approach if we can.

    Hi,


    I've created a fix for the Graffiti emulation in NTSC modes. Copy the rbf file contained in the archive to your Amiga and flash with the configuration tool by using the firmware menu (right button to use menu) then select "Flash firmware file..." and select the rbf file.

    Version of the firmware is 2021 11 04


    agamk3_20211104.zip


    Let us know if this solves the observed problem.

    Ok there is a definitive improvement....


    NEMAC 4

    NTSC - now the image is "viewable". Every 8 ? pixels across there is a vertical bar where the colour is incorrectly decoded.

    PAL - "working" i.e. as some artefacts as previousy described.


    DoomAttack AIO

    NTSC - titlescreen similar "viewable" - similar to NEMAC 4. In game graphics can be made out, but colours all wrong and flickering.

    PAL - working.


    I will get some screenshots...

    NTSC - I have tried 0, 8 and default 72 in Overscan settings - they give the partial picture with the latest test firmware. Anything else 1..7 either gives black screen or total corruption.


    For PAL, default 72 - no problem with DoomAttack. Nemac IV a qualified OK as described in prior posts.

    I didn't notice there was an updated software at the end of '22. Alas it still has not solved my problem.. I can confirm I am running 1.11 of the config. program, firmware 20210108.


    NTSC overscan offset tried 0,0 and 0,8

    DoomAttack AIO from Aminet

    - NTSC problem screen same as previously posted.

    - PAL no problems.


    This is the only thing stopping this card being near perfect :( HDMI audio is working fine ;)

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

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