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Sheddy

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Posts posted by Sheddy

    Images generated by RastaConverter

    in Atari 8-Bit Computers

    Posted

    On 4/18/2024 at 6:56 AM, ilmenit said:

    sure, I will add the command line to a window title.

    I will return to previous naming (without 32) so the 32bit version will work with the Larek's GUI. There is also this super simple GUI library for SDL2 https://github.com/rxi/microui/tree/master that could allow to make a proper UI (not just a launcher) for the RC. Will consider trying it, but if we have C++ developers here, any help is welcome!

    Since the release C++ also added a multi-threading to the language natively, so dependency on pthreads could be removed, but I think it's not a priority for now.

    Generally the code got super optimized for speed by @phaeronwith caching of intermediate results for reuse which now makes it harder to introduce changes (like addition of 5 color char-mode instead of 4 color bitmap). To make it possible the code will need to be significantly reorganized.

    Oh, I also forgot to add a Generator folder to the release on Github, will add it in the next release.

    Great news! Thanks

     

    Just to add about generator folder to everyone that you can just copy the generator folder to beta9 version from one of the older versions as that hasn't changed.

    Images generated by RastaConverter

    in Atari 8-Bit Computers

    Posted

    Great you got a 64 bit version working!

     

    I'm testing beta8 version with 8 threads and 100000 solutions (yeah, that probably is dumb) on a picture that's been running days now. It did start around 1GB memory usage, but it's surpassed 3GB now. However, with /continue it is no big deal from previous experience if RastaConverter stops - The memory use starts off low again and continues with no seeming issues.

     

    7 hours ago, ilmenit said:

    FYI, I just implemented proposed previously Diversified Late Acceptance Search https://arxiv.org/pdf/1806.09328.pdf and to my surprise it works worse than LAHC in case of RC. The reason is that with multi-threading in LAHC all threads modify the same "best picture", while in DLAS each thread modify a own "non-best picture" (Diversified part of the algorithm). However, because of diversity the CACHE_SIZE_LIMIT kicks leading to mitigation of performance gain. I then tried to reorganize the code in a way that all threads will modify a shared "non-best picture", however this requires extra synchronization of threads to use common array of past solutions, which again leads to mitigation of gain. Additionally, the multi-threading code for it is even more hard to read and would probably prevent further improvements. There are some new algorithms like https://www.uni-due.de/mvmo/ that should work better in multi-threaded optimization, so are to be tested in the future. 

    On the other hand I found out that the cache can be reduced to 1/4 (16MB from 64MB per thread) without speed decrease, and even could lead to increase if /s number of solutions is small. For big ones (over 5K, 10K) the bigger cache could be more beneficial. I'll make it configurable from the command line, but by default lowered to 16MB.

     

    Not Ilmenit's problem but RCGUI may behave weirdly with beta9? Will fiddle to see what works nicely or not (apart from renaming executable to RastaConverter.exe)

    • Like 2

    Images generated by RastaConverter

    in Atari 8-Bit Computers

    Posted · Edited by Sheddy

    There definitely seems to be diminishing returns on just adding more threads to process a single picture. 

    I wonder now how sane it is to default the GUI to the number of threads of the CPU especially for a 32 bit program. The memory usage continues to slowly grow too the longer it runs (which is slightly concerning, but may be the expected caching behavior). In another year or so CPUs will have thread counts that will easily eat the max 4GB.

    Images generated by RastaConverter

    in Atari 8-Bit Computers

    Posted

    5 hours ago, Sheddy said:

    I don't know why the converter may crash with more threads unfortunately. Didn't touch that code. Wonder if beta7 has the same trouble?

     

    The speed could depend on caching the solutions for scan lines. I've noticed things often start slow with large number of solutions selected but things speed up as they "converge" more. That's only an observation  as I don't really understand the hill climbing algorithms or caching parts of the program myself (yet! Maybe one day I'll get there)

     

    Maybe it doesn't like a mix of P cores and E cores. intel thread director could highlight something

     

    It's only a 32 bit program (couldn't make a 64 bit build) possibly some windows 32 bit restriction. Can't say I've seen it use loads of memory though 

     

     

     

    OK, it is running out of memory with that many cores (threads). I was able to recreate it by specifying 32 threads on the command line

    32-bit Windows programs can usually only use 2GB and task manager showed it going up to about this before RastaConverter died.

    Have just learned there is a compiler/linker option which allows 4GB though: /LARGEADDRESSAWARE

    @Stephen The 32 thread test worked after compiling Beta8 with that option and I've attached it here if anyone wants to try it.

     

    RastaConverter.exe

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 3

    Images generated by RastaConverter

    in Atari 8-Bit Computers

    Posted · Edited by Sheddy

    I don't know why the converter may crash with more threads unfortunately. Didn't touch that code. Wonder if beta7 has the same trouble?

     

    The speed could depend on caching the solutions for scan lines. I've noticed things often start slow with large number of solutions selected but things speed up as they "converge" more. That's only an observation  as I don't really understand the hill climbing algorithms or caching parts of the program myself (yet! Maybe one day I'll get there)

     

    Maybe it doesn't like a mix of P cores and E cores. intel thread director could highlight something

     

    It's only a 32 bit program (couldn't make a 64 bit build) possibly some windows 32 bit restriction. Can't say I've seen it use loads of memory though 

     

     

     

    • Thanks 1

    Images generated by RastaConverter

    in Atari 8-Bit Computers

    Posted

    2 hours ago, GravityWorm said:

    He calls himself Larkadiusz, AR Soft is his company. I know because I played his game Laura (on emulator, Atari800)... A difficult game! And I finished Dune 2 (PC VGA) with no dead soldiers! So i can tell what a difficult game is!

    Yep, that's him. He has done tons of Atari stuff over the years. Laura is really good, but I admit I didn't play much.

     

    @BeeblebroxThe problem that the new version fixes is if you have a processor with more than 16 cores, (which more and more processors are doing these days of course). It errors when you run the GUI and you can't get more than 16 cores working on the conversion. 

    • Thanks 1

    Images generated by RastaConverter

    in Atari 8-Bit Computers

    Posted · Edited by Sheddy

    RCGUI.exe high core processor fix

     

    Arsoft made the nice GUI front end for RastaConverter Windows users many years ago, but no longer has the source code. 

     

    The attached is a fixed version though which you can copy into your RastaConverter folder to replace the existing one if you have the problem. 

     

    Thanks to @Stephen and my brother Ben who knew the .net/vb.net/c# to make it work again after messy decompile due to no source code

     

     

    RCGUI.zip

    • Like 4
    • Thanks 4

    @user cannot receive messages

    in Forum Questions and Answers

    Posted · Edited by Sheddy
    Mistake on my part

    Hi Mods, Al,

    Every private message I'm trying to send people is giving the above error. I know the message can mean their mail box is full but it does the same for everyone I tried including to myself. Maybe my account is broken (or I need to buy a proper subscription again!)

    Any advice please?

     

    Thanks

    Kind regards

    Chris 

     

    Um, nevermind, I shouldn't put an @ in front of the name in private messages like elsewhere. My bad.

    Images generated by RastaConverter

    in Atari 8-Bit Computers

    Posted · Edited by Sheddy

    So when you try and run it, it just immediately crashes sometimes, but usually it runs fine. Weird! Maybe see if you can use @ivopLinux version. You'd probably need similar instructions to make it as @dmsc for your system. (Unless someone has already compiled a version for your Linux distro they can send you)

    • Like 1

    Images generated by RastaConverter

    in Atari 8-Bit Computers

    Posted

    33 minutes ago, Stephen said:

    While going through some old folders (and trying to fix an annoying issue with Rasta GUI), I came across a beta 7 ZIP, which had extended feature support (and were labelled as "fast builds").  Do you know if these changes have been merged in?  The files in questions were titled "RastaConverterBeta7.icl17.SSE2.exe", and "RastaConverterBeta7.icl17.AVX512.exe".  I do not have the source, only the exes.

    they look familiar. I remember sharing those quite a few years ago now. I had got a trial version of the Intel Compiler to try learning something. That didn't work out, but I played with various processor options  and Profile Guided Optimization for RastaConverter. There weren't any changes over beta7, but the compiler just did an outstanding optimization for speed on the code.  The Intel compiler isn't the same anymore (but is free) and I can't get Profile Guided Optimization to work with RastaConverter and Visual Studio anymore. But it has been compiled with the best settings I could find for speed.

    • Thanks 1

    Images generated by RastaConverter

    in Atari 8-Bit Computers

    Posted

    7 hours ago, dmsc said:

    Hi!

     

    I have a branch that compiles in my Debian Linux, you need to install liballegro4-dev and libfreeimage-dev before compilation: https://github.com/dmsc/RastaConverter/tree/linux-compile

      

    # Install libraries
sudo apt install liballegro4-dev libfreeimage-dev g++ make

# Clone repo and checkout branch
git clone https://github.com/dmsc/RastaConverter
cd RastaConverter/
git checkout linux-compile

# Compile
cd src
make

     

    Have Fun!

     

    At some point I hope Ilmenit will be able to merge the new version source code changes into his GitHub repository if things look ok.

    • Like 1

    Images generated by RastaConverter

    in Atari 8-Bit Computers

    Posted

    11 hours ago, Stephen said:

    Thanks!  I will try this.

     

    While you guys are in there tweaking thing, can you please fix the following error:
      

    System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: InvalidArgument=Value of '23' is not valid for 'index'.
Parameter name: index
   at System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox.ObjectCollection.get_Item(Int32 index)
   at RCGUI.frmRCGUI.frmRCGUI_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e)

    The program works, but this error happens on every launch.  I am on Windows 11 FWIW.  I think there may be an invalid control or dropdown being referenced when the GUI initializes.

    I think that error is coming from the separate GUI front end program. Are you able to try same options from command line to confirm?

    Unfortunately I don't know anyone who has the source code for the front end.

    • Thanks 1

    Images generated by RastaConverter

    in Atari 8-Bit Computers

    Posted · Edited by Sheddy

    RastaConverter Beta8 Testing

     

    I've been messaging people who might know a bit about the RastaConverter source code to see if some simple hack or work-around could be done to help stop those ugly horizontal line artefacts it does sometimes which only show up when viewed on real Ataris or modern emulators

     

    After being pointed to an idea in the right kind of direction and place (thanks @phaeron) I've done a small hack to the Evaluator function which I'm getting some feedback from @ilmenitabout. The idea (which has been suggested by others in the past too) avoids a complete rewrite of some things, and makes RastaConverter give a bad score to scan lines that meet certain fairly simple conditions instead.

     

    In the meanwhile I've been trying it out myself with some good results, and as you can see here recently, have let @Atari8man2004 have at it, as he has a powerful rig and lots of pictures on the go, so would likely notice any problems sooner than most. So far so good by the looks of it! Thanks very much for testing.

     

    So sharing it with you all here now. @ilmenit has been kind enough to try getting his RastaConverter development environment set up again to check things out properly, which we've both found is unfortunately a pain to get working now on newer environments due to the age of the libraries and things used originally. Although it is only quite small changes, please let me know if you come across any new weirdness with this version, as it is very possible for me to have made mistakes with this, not being too familiar with the codebase or C++ (learning a lot from trying this)

     

    Thanks to @drpeter for managing to find an example of a wrongly self overlapped player and of course for highlighting the artefact issues in the first place, what causes them at a deep level and how to try and fix them (building on @phaeron findings in his Altirra Hardware Reference manual, making Altirra more accurate, and prompted at least partly by... what RastaConverter actually shows on a real Atari) 

     

    Kind Regards

    Sheddy

     

     

    sheddy_ding.png

    RastaConverterBeta8.zip sheddy_ding.xex

    • Like 3
    • Thanks 9

    Images generated by RastaConverter

    in Atari 8-Bit Computers

    Posted

    On 2/24/2024 at 5:27 PM, Sheddy said:

     

    RastaSlide 4.3 - RastaConverter Slide Show Maker and Tools

     

    Changes in version 4.3
    - Compiled with old GO version 1.20.14 which is the last that works with Windows 7
    - Early version of tool to help recreate some files for RastaConverter /continue

     

    @MrFish Hopefully this should work for you

     

    sheddy_opal_sea_turtle.png

    RastaSlide 4.3.zip 5.12 MB · 15 downloads sheddy_opal_sea_turtle.xex 22.1 kB · 11 downloads

     

    4 hours ago, dhor said:

    I would love to see huge GFX slideshow, with music on 2 channels and pictures being loaded from the disk (and some propaganda text in between :)).  Maybe is there any? Otherwise, all those damn good conversions will be forgoten in couple years.

     

    Yeah, I know, no music, but it has the rest covered.

     

    • Like 5

    Images generated by RastaConverter

    in Atari 8-Bit Computers

    Posted

    On 2/20/2024 at 6:57 PM, MrFish said:

     

    I'm getting the following error when I attempt to use the color remap batch file from RastaSlide 4.2.

     

    rastaslide42error.thumb.png.7f8e23a431e6d41d76e5f12915b43b30.png

     

    [Edit]

    I should note here, I'm running Windows 7 64-bit.

     

     

    RastaSlide 4.3 - RastaConverter Slide Show Maker and Tools

     

    Changes in version 4.3
    - Compiled with old GO version 1.20.14 which is the last that works with Windows 7
    - Early version of tool to help recreate some files for RastaConverter /continue

     

    @MrFish Hopefully this should work for you

     

    sheddy_opal_sea_turtle.png

    RastaSlide 4.3.zip sheddy_opal_sea_turtle.xex

    • Like 4
    • Thanks 3
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