Altirra 4.00 released

[rudla]

Hi!

I have some small (i believe ?) improvement ideas.

1. Would it be possible to support full expressions in the memory window (both address and the width), in the same manner as watches work. That way we can write something like dw $58 and see the screen memory (and see it correctly even if the content of $58 has been modified).

2. Commands, that add/remove a watch in the watch window. It would be useful for example in .atdbg file.

 

 

[rdefabri]

I think I'm becoming an old curmudgeon, but I can't seem to get Atari BASIC to boot on Altirra 4.10.  I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but I thought in the past it was simply attaching a cartridge and/or configuring the system to load BASIC.

 

I'm getting the "boot error" message, even though no disk images are attached...

[Mclaneinc]

See what the default Basic cart image in the Firmware manager..

[rdefabri]

6 minutes ago, Mclaneinc said:

See what the default Basic cart image in the Firmware manager..

Is was 400/800 OS-A, so I switched to OS-B, and that worked...not sure why, but then I don't have an OS-A ROM, so maybe that was it?

 

Thanks!

[Mclaneinc]

my pleasure..

[Ricky Spanish]

Altirra is also perfect for testing what works and what doesn't. If it doesn't work on Altirra chances are it won't with real hardware. For instance I was getting some errors on real hardware, which Altirra duplicated exactly. So far that holds true. Shows just how accurate Altirra can be ! 

[Ricky Spanish]

On 5/12/2022 at 4:12 PM, Ricky Spanish said:

Does supersalt play nice with Altirra ? Tried it, got these:

Specs:

Base system    NTSC 1200XL (256K)
Additional Devices    1050 disk drive (full emulation), R-Time 8
OS Firmware    Atari 1200XL OS rev. 11 [1A1D7B1B]
Mounted Images    Disk: OSS BASIC XE - Extension.atr [6F91375D]
Disk: basic_programs.atr [37AB3B3E]
Cartridge: SuperSALT.rom.bin.zip!SuperSALT.rom.bin [0D99E328]

 

Exact same errors in the real 1200XL w/o the modified 810 box (errors were expected). Only difference is 64K ram, S-Drive Max,  OS rev. 10. Testament to how insanely accurate Avery's emulator is.

[Keatah]

Can someone briefly explain why this image of LodeRunner has such an ugly palette? I heard it was because it's using CTIA artifacting instead of GTIA artifacting. Is there such a thing?

 

LODERUN.ATR

Using these default palette settings.. And Artifacting set to hight/NTSC.

 

 

But when I use THESE settings, I get a much more realistic result.

 

If there is such a thing as a difference in CTIA vs GTIA artifacting, maybe we could get a tick box for it?

[+MrFish]

2 hours ago, Keatah said:

If there is such a thing as a difference in CTIA vs GTIA artifacting, maybe we could get a tick box for it?

There's a check box for CTIA in the Configure System dialogue under the Computer -> System entry.

 

[phaeron]

Artifacting colors differ not only by CTIA/GTIA, but also the computer model. 800XL vs. 130XE is about 90 degrees apart, for instance.

 

They can also differ by display device. I have seen the same 800 computer display different artifacting colors on a CRT vs. an LCD or capture device. The chroma signal strength is weaker on some models and this can lead to very high saturation on the artifacted colors.

 

[Keatah]

6 hours ago, MrFish said:

There's a check box for CTIA in the Configure System dialogue under the Computer -> System entry.

Not sure that affected anything in Lode Runner or anything with artifacting. Did you actually try that out? Would there be a prerequisite option that has to be set in conjunction with it?

 

I was able to get what I believe to be correct colors just by selecting 0% for saturation and adjusting the phase till it looked right. But what about the lines at the bottom with the score? Those are not generated by artifacting and now look wrong, shades of grey. Of course rebooting to play something else plays in b/w, till I turn up the saturation again.

 

Don't mind playing with the settings. Just want to be sure I'm doing it the right way for maximum possible accuracy. First world problems, I get it..

Edited August 27, 2022 by Keatah

[+MrFish]

41 minutes ago, Keatah said:

Not sure that affected anything in Lode Runner or anything with artifacting. Did you actually try that out? Would there be a prerequisite option that has to be set in conjunction with it?

I just know the setting is there, that's all. I'd heard before about the things @phaeron mentioned (and seen some of the things myself on real hardware, such as various models having differences in artifacting). I usually go for the orange and blue you showed above, as that's how I always remembered my 130XE looking back in the day. But I've never messed with the CTIA setting myself, as I've never felt the need to change the artifacting I was already getting.

 

[Keatah]

According to the pop-up note, the CTIA box only controls whether the extra GTIA modes are present or not. As some early proggies want the CTIA specifically. Doesn't mention any difference in artifacting. And I couldn't observe any.

 

I know the whole color thing is bit tricky sometimes and has there's differences between the machines.

 

It's easy to get the orange/blue look, it's like that on the Apple II also. But in getting that look, I lose color at the very bottom on the "score" "men" "level" text. Think the lettering there should be color. Or not?

[phaeron]

I just realized that you're changing the main hue control as part of this tweaking. Don't do that; if you look to the right of the color palette you'll notice that the GR.0 screen has turned purple. You want to adjust the artifacting phase and saturation values instead. For the CTIA phase shift, you only need to adjust the artifacting phase by about 90 degrees. The 800 also has a weaker chroma signal than the XL and XE machines, which you'll need to simulate by raising the artifacting saturation (which is actually chroma strength, but presented as the inverse as that is more understandable).

 

As for matching colors, do keep in mind that this version of Lode Runner sets the background color to $50, and thus it's expected to be dark red/purple. This also affects the artifacted colors due to blending. Trying to tune the colors to match the Apple II version isn't going to work because the colors aren't the same. The background color would need to be $00 instead for that, since the Apple II has no other way of generating color.

 

The artifacting phase value sets one of the two colors that appears with pure artifacting, where no hue is present and only luminance is changing. When hue is also present, then the artifacted color is more complex as it is the result of the sum of the hue and artifacted colors, skewing the resulting colors. The impact of this is that you should either tune the artifacting colors without hue present, or tune the non-artifacted palette first before attempting to tune the blended colors.

 

The COLORMAP tool on the Altirra Additions disk displays these blended artifacted colors on the left side so you can see the result. Note that these blended colors tend to be very saturated, and will often clamp out unless you darken the entire palette with the intensity setting or have HDR enabled, especially for intense blues or purples. It can be necessary to pull white down to as low as 50% of the monitor's capability in order to leave enough headroom for these colors. Additionally, in HDR mode the emulator can also take advantage of displays that have wider than sRGB gamuts to further assist in reproducing these colors, which can't be achieved just by lowering the palette intensity and raising the monitor brightness.

 

[Mclaneinc]

I tend to find the artifacted orange / going to red and blue to be what developers meant you to see. I say this because that's what games like AE have on their box art photo's. Obviously machines and memories of individuals machines may vary but I'm sure that set of colours is what devs wanted.

[+MrFish]

This is what Lode runner looks like for an 800XL with my normal palette / artifacting settings.

 

 

 

 

[+MrFish]

6 hours ago, phaeron said:

I just realized that you're changing the main hue control as part of this tweaking. Don't do that; if you look to the right of the color palette you'll notice that the GR.0 screen has turned purple. You want to adjust the artifacting phase and saturation values instead. For the CTIA phase shift, you only need to adjust the artifacting phase by about 90 degrees. The 800 also has a weaker chroma signal than the XL and XE machines, which you'll need to simulate by raising the artifacting saturation (which is actually chroma strength, but presented as the inverse as that is more understandable).

 

As for matching colors, do keep in mind that this version of Lode Runner sets the background color to $50, and thus it's expected to be dark red/purple. This also affects the artifacted colors due to blending. Trying to tune the colors to match the Apple II version isn't going to work because the colors aren't the same. The background color would need to be $00 instead for that, since the Apple II has no other way of generating color.

Yeah, it'd been a while since I played Lode Runner. So, I didn't realize he'd changed the main hue control. I'm only getting artifacting colors similar to what he has for games that have a black background. So, this is what Ultima looks like, for instance, on my setup.

 

 

 

 

[phaeron]

https://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-4.10-test18.zip
https://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-4.10-test18-src.7z

• XF551: Added missing IN A,BUS instruction preventing some modified firmware images from running.
• Added firmware detection for XF551 rev. 7.4/7.7 and US Doubler rev. L.
• Added 800 speaker emulation.
• Fixed a bug with the the speaker volume override in Advanced Configuration getting overwritten with stereo POKEYs enabled.
• Updated to latest Windows 11 SDK and removed macOS Wine64 crash workaround that should no longer be needed. Please indicate if this build starts crashing with that issue again.
• Disabled options in Configure Systems now still show their state.
• Added custom dark mode rendering support for checkboxes and radio buttons.

The 800 speaker emulation (Configure System > Outputs > Audio > Simulate console speaker) modifies the sound rendering of console speaker sounds to simulate the acoustics of the 2" speaker inside of the 800's case, which has some significant muffling and resonance. It's implemented by FFT convolution of the raw output with a step impulse that I recorded from an 800 with a microphone.

[Mclaneinc]

Excellent...Thanks Avery..

[xxl]

24 minutes ago, phaeron said:

The 800 speaker emulation

beeper with 800 sounds much better than the one mixed to audio in xl / xe service !!! it's unfair 😕

[+MrFish]

5 minutes ago, xxl said:

beeper with 800 sounds much better than the one mixed to audio in xl / xe service !!! it's unfair 😕

Not for everything. Test "Try This Tone" and you'll see what I mean.

 

[Mclaneinc]

Nightmisson and Rescue at 94, what others?

[xxl]

14 minutes ago, MrFish said:

Not for everything. Test "Try This Tone" and you'll see what I mean.

but that engine uses the memory arrays that are under the ROM and in 800 there is nothing there, so it reads garbage ...

[+MrFish]

27 minutes ago, xxl said:

but that engine uses the memory arrays that are under the ROM and in 800 there is nothing there, so it reads garbage ...

I see.

 

I guess in that case it would be useful for the speaker emulation to work with XL/XE machines; although, something like that probably (I suppose) poses some problem for how GTIA sound output is emulated by Altirra for the different series of machines.

 

[phaeron]

32 minutes ago, MrFish said:

I guess in that case it would be useful for the speaker emulation to work with XL/XE machines; although, something like that probably (I suppose) poses some problem for how GTIA sound output is emulated by Altirra for the different series of machines.

The only issue with speaker emulation for XL/XE machines is that it would be emulating a hardware configuration that doesn't exist. There is no XL/XE machine with an internal console speaker. But otherwise, the only reason you can't enable the speaker emulation in XL/XE mode in Altirra is that I put in a check to force disable it.