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PCEm. Another PC emulator.

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Reply 302 of 1046, by ecksemmess

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SA1988 wrote:
about the S3 on PCem, the Bahamas64 is a better choice than the Number Nine 9FX 330. The Bahamas64 still has a few bugs, here I […]
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about the S3 on PCem, the Bahamas64 is a better choice than the Number Nine 9FX 330.
The Bahamas64 still has a few bugs, here I list them:
1. on Windows 3.1x, Write.exe has scrambled colors with the S3 Vision864 drivers in either 8bpp, 15bpp, 16bpp or 32bpp.
2. on both Windows 3.1x and 9x, 1600x1200 is not handled properly. (hmm, I wonder if the VPC S3 drivers can be put here :p)

Could you elaborate a bit on what the downside(s) of the 9FX is, relative to the Bahamas64? I've been using the 9FX and haven't noticed any problems, but would be interested to hear what you know about it.

Reply 303 of 1046, by SA1988

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ecksemmess wrote:
SA1988 wrote:
about the S3 on PCem, the Bahamas64 is a better choice than the Number Nine 9FX 330. The Bahamas64 still has a few bugs, here I […]
Show full quote

about the S3 on PCem, the Bahamas64 is a better choice than the Number Nine 9FX 330.
The Bahamas64 still has a few bugs, here I list them:
1. on Windows 3.1x, Write.exe has scrambled colors with the S3 Vision864 drivers in either 8bpp, 15bpp, 16bpp or 32bpp.
2. on both Windows 3.1x and 9x, 1600x1200 is not handled properly. (hmm, I wonder if the VPC S3 drivers can be put here :p)

Could you elaborate a bit on what the downside(s) of the 9FX is, relative to the Bahamas64? I've been using the 9FX and haven't noticed any problems, but would be interested to hear what you know about it.

at least, for me, the 9FX has slow cursor speed that makes also the emulator slow, just this (the higher the resolution is, the slower it will be with the 9fx, and this does not happen with the bahamas64)

Edit: scrolling in DOS/V in text-mode (Japanese DOS for PC/AT VGA adapters) is a bit busted, but the OS itself works perfectly

Reply 305 of 1046, by ecksemmess

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Just discovered a serious bug that really ought to be looked at before v8 is finalized, assuming anyone can reproduce it: when using CGA or MDA on any machine (only ibmpc and ami486 tested so far, but I assume most or all are affected), in D3D mode, a hard reset crashes PCem. Hercules and VGA/SVGA boards do not suffer from this problem, and all video options work fine if DDraw mode is used.

Also, a much more minor bug which is probably an easy fix: start with "Resizable window" off. Launch PCem, and turn "Resizable window" on. Exit PCem and re-launch. The window size changes to 4:3 (this happens regardless of what aspect ratio the "fullscreen stretch" is set to), and then if the user runs the host mouse pointer over PCem's menu headings (File/Disc/Settings/Misc), they move down and become partially obscured. DDraw vs. D3D seems to make no difference in this, nor does the system selection or configuration. If "resizable window" is turned back off, the window size immediately snaps back to what it usually is (which is normal behavior, I guess), and in the process the menu headings also return to normal. Actually, I kind of like the ability to maintain 4:3 in windowed mode--maybe this bug shouldn't be entirely fixed 😉

Reply 306 of 1046, by dondiego

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If you minimize and then maximize in no resizable window ddraw mode the emulator stops showing any output. At least you can press ALT+F to exit. By the way i can only emulate a 386DX33 at full speed on my machine (Athlon64 3500+).

LZDoom, ZDoom32, ZDoom LE
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Reply 307 of 1046, by ecksemmess

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dondiego wrote:

If you minimize and then maximize in no resizable window ddraw mode the emulator stops showing any output. At least you can press ALT+F to exit. By the way i can only emulate a 386DX33 at full speed on my machine (Athlon64 3500+).

If "resizable window" is off, you shouldn't be able to maximize at all. I've tried every combination of settings I can think of and I can't repro your issue, so it's probably specific to your host. Is anyone else getting the catastrophic crashing on hard reset with D3D mode + CGA/MDA video?

Reply 309 of 1046, by SarahWalker

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ecksemmess wrote:

when using CGA or MDA on any machine (only ibmpc and ami486 tested so far, but I assume most or all are affected), in D3D mode, a hard reset crashes PCem.

dondiego wrote:

If you minimize and then maximize in no resizable window ddraw mode the emulator stops showing any output.

I can't reproduce either of these issues.

Reply 310 of 1046, by therock247uk

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The one problem i have like in windows me when i tell it to use the ati driver it refuses to work and makes out something else is using the memory range if i change the memory range in the settings of the device in device mananger and reboot it then works fine... i had this problem with sound blaster back on either win 95 or 98se i forgot which. not sure if this is a bug of the emulator or if it just shows how broken hardware detection/installation is in older windows.

Reply 311 of 1046, by ecksemmess

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Since Sarah can't reproduce the D3D + CGA/MDA + Hard Reset crash, I've gone ahead and tried it out on another machine. Exact same problem: PCem totally wipes out as soon as it attempts to reset the emulated system. Also tried more different emulated machines/configurations (Hot-433, Award 430 VX), and it still doesn't seem to make any difference. Direct3D mode combined with CGA or MDA on any machine/configuration causes a crash upon Hard Reset. The bug clearly is not specific to my host, but may be OS-specific, as both of the PCs I tried run Windows 8.0. It isn't video card specific; one of the computers has Intel HD 4000 integrated video, whereas the other has a dedicated ATI board.

For all who read this, please take a moment and see if you can reproduce the symptoms. Use the standard PCem v8 distro from Sarah's site, pop PCem into D3D mode, switch video to CGA or MDA, and attempt a Hard Reset. It'll only take a second and will be very helpful for pinning down what might be triggering the crash. Please mention whether you experienced a crash or not, and specify your host OS and video hardware. Thanks! 😀

Edit: The IBM EGA appears to be affected as well, though I haven't been able to test it as fully.

Last edited by ecksemmess on 2014-01-03, 19:38. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 314 of 1046, by SA1988

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Sarah, I think I found a possible clue why Windows NT 3.1 doesn't work right on your emulator, it's probably related to the cdrom or ide in general, because I tried an NT beta from July 1992 and it worked perfectly there, but NT 3.1 RTM (with setupapp.exe patched to accept ATAPI CDROMs and ide-nt.zip), while it recognizes the cdrom with the ide-nt.zip unpacked and put in the cdinstall.img floppy image, it still doesn't go through the main install after "Insert Windows NT CD-ROM on Drive D:".
Seeing how NT works on MESS, you can try borrowing some code from there for your emulator 😀, just a suggestion and still, take your time if you want to implement it 😀.

Reply 315 of 1046, by Stiletto

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SA1988 wrote:

Seeing how NT works on MESS, you can try borrowing some code from there for your emulator 😀

Wellll seeing how the licenses are currently incompatible, probably not... 😉 "Borrowing ideas", on the other hand, is generally okay... Though Sarah seems perfectly fine to develop without such references...

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do the Fandango!" - Queen

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Reply 316 of 1046, by ecksemmess

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Cheers on the 8.1 release Sarah, it's wonderful to see how thoroughly you addressed all the various little things that I and others pointed out. The new memory configuration style is perfect!

Other than Sarah, no one has confirmed one way or the other whether they're experiencing the D3D + CGA/MDA(/EGA?) crashing on hard reset. Come on people, this is a pretty serious bug if it is in fact real. It's such a quick thing to test. I don't have access to a machine running anything other than Windows 8.0, and it would be particularly useful to hear that this bug occurs on another OS, or *doesn't* occur on a machine running Win8.0.

Reply 317 of 1046, by gerwin

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ecksemmess:
Windows XP 32-bit with Radeon 6450: crashes, BSOD mentioning an ATI dll.
Windows XP 32-bit with Intel HD Sandy Bridge Graphics: works fine.

Last edited by gerwin on 2014-01-06, 18:28. Edited 2 times in total.

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Reply 318 of 1046, by ecksemmess

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Thank you so much gerwin -- if you're experiencing the crash as well, then we can rule out the possibility of it being related to Windows 8.0. Are you on 32-bit or 64-bit XP? I've now tested it on 3 computers and all 3 have the problem, but I don't have access to a 32-bit system.

Edit: Thanks again, very helpful--the problem is clearly independent of both OS and 32 vs. 64-bit architecture, then. It sounds as though a large number of people should be able to corroborate this bug. Hopefully more will give it a try and chime in.

Reply 319 of 1046, by VileR

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Sarah:
Are there plans to add support for IBM 8514/XGA or TIGA chipsets (or compatibles), by any chance? could be useful for testing the odd piece of software that doesn't support the more common SVGA chipsets properly.

ecksemmess:
Tested the D3D/MDA/CGA hard reset thing on two machines -
- WinXP/32, GeForce 7300 SE: no crash
- Win7/64, GeForce GT 240: no crash

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