fujidude Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 Well yes. So I hereby demand they be taught a lesson. Make Altirra command-line driven only. Make it so you have to type everything in backwards. That'll teach 'em to read the manual for sure! Yeah! Everyone should visit AA (and the rest of the web) with the Lynx browser too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujidude Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 Altirra defaults to 64K sectors for the flash emulation for sic and u1mb. There is an option to use 4K ones. What would be the pros and cons of one type vs. the other? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 (edited) Altirra defaults to 64K sectors for the flash emulation for sic and u1mb. There is an option to use 4K ones. What would be the pros and cons of one type vs. the other? From the point of view of a flashing tool (e.g. UFLASH), 4KB sectors make changing the content of small areas of the flash ROM a little easier. If you want to alter 2KB of data on a 64KB sector flash ROM, you have to completely erase 64KB and reprogram it. UFLASH caches 64KB of data in this case (hence its requirement of extended RAM), amends the 2KB chunk, then writes all 64KB to the erased sector, which takes time. Think of a sector as the smallest irreducible area of erasable data. With a 4KB sector flash ROM, the flash tool only needs to cache 4KB of data and flash 4KB back. So, when flashing small areas of the chip, flash ROMs with 4KB sectors take less time to edit. In real hardware situations, various flash ROMs can behave a little differently on the bus (think: Ultimate 1MB), so sometimes there's mileage to be gained from replacing a 4KB sector flash ROM with a 64KB sector chip, despite the fact that on the face of it, the larger sectors are less efficient. As far as Altirra goes, being able to pick either sector size (as well as being able to choose from a range of vendor and device IDs) is great for testing. Edited April 7, 2016 by flashjazzcat 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujidude Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 Thanks for the info FJC. I had previously been switching it to 4K sectors for similar rational (suspected characteristics might be like that but didn't know). I'll continue my practice of 4K. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmitry Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 Basic rule of user interface design: Users don't read. hehe, that struck my funny bone. Imho, a "rule of user interface design" might be something like "[design on the assumption that] Users don't read." As worded, it's more of a judgement than a design rule. As a recent user of Altirra, my reaction is, ouch. True, but ouch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujidude Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 (edited) hehe, that struck my funny bone. Imho, a "rule of user interface design" might be something like "[design on the assumption that] Users don't read." As worded, it's more of a judgement than a design rule. As a recent user of Altirra, my reaction is, ouch. True, but ouch. I certainly can see where you are coming from, but I take it slightly different. I see it more as a "tongue in cheek" attention getter, that is really intended for the specific audience of developers rather than end users. Therefore it doesn't have the intention or ability to insult like the literal meaning of the words on their own would have. Context is everything. Edited April 8, 2016 by fujidude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phaeron Posted April 8, 2016 Author Share Posted April 8, 2016 Update:http://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-2.80-test28.ziphttp://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-2.80-test28-src.zip Shift+F1 is now connected to cycle quick maps by default. (You may need to reset keyboard shortcuts to see this.) Fixed 5200 trackball when bound to mouse move inputs; it should now act like a real trackball instead of a drunk joystick. Try Missile Command with this. Is this related to the fact that there are two versions of the same CX80 trackball controller? In true trackball mode, earlier models send a pattern compatible with the old CX22 trackball controller, while later are compatible to ST mouse. There is no visible difference between versions, except that games work or don't. No. That's a difference in emulated controller, this is a difference in mapping keyboard/gamepad to the controller. Altirra defaults to 64K sectors for the flash emulation for sic and u1mb. There is an option to use 4K ones. What would be the pros and cons of one type vs. the other? fjc already touched on the difference that the flash sector size can make, but there is another important factor. Flash chips in the range used for Atari hardware don't actually report their sector size directly, or even their total size. They only identify themselves by manufacturer/device ID pairs that have to be looked up in a table in the flasher. This means that a flashing program doesn't know the sector size for a flash chip that was introduced after the flasher was created. At that point, there are two choices: fail out with an error, or ask the user to try to pick a similar chip that the flasher does know about and hope they're close enough. Flash commands are standardized enough that they usually aren't a problem, but the sector size is not on the chip and requires looking up the datasheet. That's assuming you can even get to the chip to read its model number and that it isn't in a glued cartridge with opaque or fogged plastic. An example of where this becomes necessary even with the same sector size is that sometimes you can find flasher disk images around the Internet for flashable hardware like AtariMax or SIC! carts, U1MB, etc. that were made with older versions of flashing software. You find an image that was made when the cartridges were shipped with, say, Am29F040B chips, and the flash fails on the newer cart you just got that uses a BM29F040 because the flasher is too old to know about it. The chips are similar enough that the flash would probably work fine, but the flasher has no way to know that just from the IDs. hehe, that struck my funny bone. Imho, a "rule of user interface design" might be something like "[design on the assumption that] Users don't read."As worded, it's more of a judgement than a design rule.As a recent user of Altirra, my reaction is, ouch. True, but ouch. It's blunt, but it's intentionally stronger than a suggestion. It's more like a state of the universe. It's not that users are stupid -- as the article explains, the advanced users won't read either. Heck, half the time I don't even read the text in popups in my own emulator. That's not to say that the other extreme is any good, mind you. I'm not fond of the fad of making UIs out of hieroglyphics and terse word riddles... and then there's the famous Windows 10 "something happened" incident. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 That's not to say that the other extreme is any good, mind you. I'm not fond of the fad of making UIs out of hieroglyphics and terse word riddles... and then there's the famous Windows 10 "something happened" incident. The main incident is that they released the damn thing! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujidude Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 The main incident is that they released the damn thing! I actually think it fixed the mistake of 8.x. On 8, and even 8.1, I couldn't stand them on the desktop without using "Classic Shell." With 10 and the return of the "start" button/menu, and the easy way to switch between tablet and desktop modes, I uninstalled Classic Shell and am reasonably happy with 10. I have to say though, that I like the way an OS like Linux Mint works better though. It's just that some software I run really just runs on Win. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morelenmir Posted April 9, 2016 Share Posted April 9, 2016 I and tens of thousands of other nVidia users are still suffering either the full 'black screen' crash or the less minor device-driver reboot errors due to problems in their display code which they seemingly have no interest in putting right. Obviously in the former case there is nothing that can be done as the whole machine locks up and must be physically reset. However - firefox, outlook and most games seem able to recover from the less dire brief black-screen which then immediately restarts the display. Sadly Altirra crashes to the desktop, losing everything not saved. Is there any way you could make it more resilient to this error Avery? It is causing me to tear out a lot of my already all-too-thin hair right now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phaeron Posted April 9, 2016 Author Share Posted April 9, 2016 I run on NVIDIA and haven't seen this problem. I'd need the AltirraCrash.mdmp file to start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted April 9, 2016 Share Posted April 9, 2016 All of the above reminds me more and more every day why I only run Windows XP. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panther Posted April 9, 2016 Share Posted April 9, 2016 I've nVidia cards on all my PCs and haven't had any such problems with any applications. Perhaps it's specific with some other particular hardware or software? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted April 9, 2016 Share Posted April 9, 2016 I get the occasional driver restart but never noticed it affecting Altirra. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujidude Posted April 9, 2016 Share Posted April 9, 2016 I use NVIDIA on Win 10 and don't have any graphics driver issues at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted April 9, 2016 Share Posted April 9, 2016 (edited) I'm using a NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE on Windows XP and I get a Black Screen, then reboot quite often when launching Altirra. Probably 3 out of 5 times... I don't show a AltirraCrash.mdmp file in the Altirra folder. Edited April 9, 2016 by AtariGeezer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phaeron Posted April 9, 2016 Author Share Posted April 9, 2016 That would be a full-on driver crash. I can't do anything about that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted April 9, 2016 Share Posted April 9, 2016 That's cool, I'll just continue using as is Or break out my Dell laptop and see how that goes... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted April 9, 2016 Share Posted April 9, 2016 I'm using a NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE on Windows XP and I get a Black Screen, then reboot quite often when launching Altirra. Probably 3 out of 5 times... I don't show a AltirraCrash.mdmp file in the Altirra folder. Try using an older or newer version of the driver. Sometimes that helps. Also, I have seen bad capacitors on a video card cause a bluescreen and/or reboot (only when playing video in that particular case). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujidude Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 Or... try experimenting with TOOLS->OPTIONS->DISPLAY to see if changing what portions of the driver get used makes a difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujidude Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 (edited) I'm having an issue that seems to have cropped up somewhere from test 21 - 28. I say that because I didn't have the issue with t20 but I do with T28. Anyway, the issue is in regards to the VBXE FX core. The SDX 4.47 TK driver S_VBXE.SYS now gives me this error: S__VBXE not loaded Not VBXE/FX>=1.21 I have the option in Altirra checked to emulate VBXE/FX 1.24 core. It used to work fine. It's like the driver doesn't properly recognize the emulated VBXE now. I also am starting from a scratch .ini file too in case anyone is wondering. I'm running on Win 10 x64. I do not have the option checked to use the VBXE for memory expansion (and did not used to either). Edited April 10, 2016 by fujidude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 I'd go with hardware/capacitors, AFTER you've tried a few different drivers. Try Forceware vs non-forceware. Different families of drivers can make a difference here. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phaeron Posted April 10, 2016 Author Share Posted April 10, 2016 Update:http://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-2.80-test29.ziphttp://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-2.80-test29-src.zip Fixed a nasty bug in the display code that was causing the display window to occasionally disappear. This previously had only shown up with the Direct3D 11 driver while stopped in the debugger, but it started happening 100% on Windows 10 Insider Preview build 14316 with the Direct3D 9 driver. Tracked it down to a hack in the window code and replaced it with another hack that seems to work better. If this stays stable I might be able to switch the default to D3D11. Added a controller test to the 5200 cart that's used to when no cart is inserted. The controller test supports both joysticks and trackballs and the movement display will change when a different controller type is plugged in. It's attached in case anyone gets bored and can try it on real hardware; I tried it on some other 5200 emulators and had surprisingly bad luck. This controller test also exposed some bugs in the 5200 controller handling. As a result, test-29 should now be much more stable with multiple controllers, particularly in the keypads. Also, fixed a regression from the previous build that broke relative controls for non-trackball 5200 controllers. I'm having an issue that seems to have cropped up somewhere from test 21 - 28. I say that because I didn't have the issue with t20 but I do with T28. Anyway, the issue is in regards to the VBXE FX core. The SDX 4.47 TK driver S_VBXE.SYS now gives me this error: S__VBXE not loaded Not VBXE/FX>=1.21 I have the option in Altirra checked to emulate VBXE/FX 1.24 core. It used to work fine. It's like the driver doesn't properly recognize the emulated VBXE now. I also am starting from a scratch .ini file too in case anyone is wondering. I'm running on Win 10 x64. I do not have the option checked to use the VBXE for memory expansion (and did not used to either). I haven't been able to reproduce this. Make sure you don't have another device installed that conflicts with the $D6xx/D7xx pages, such as a BlackBox. nocartridge.rom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 @phaeron, If you default to DirectX 11, will that cause a problem with us DX9 users? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 Try using an older or newer version of the driver. Sometimes that helps. Also, I have seen bad capacitors on a video card cause a bluescreen and/or reboot (only when playing video in that particular case). Tried a new version, same result. Or... try experimenting with TOOLS->OPTIONS->DISPLAY to see if changing what portions of the driver get used makes a difference. Did that already, no change. Altirra runs fine from a fresh boot, but trying to run again after a few minutes after closing, blam-o... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.