Altirra 3.10 released

[Mclaneinc]

I'm also loving all the new / old effects being added, things like the RF SIO emulation is seriously great, it adds so much to the feeling of the emulator for someone who has used the real hardware for a long period of time. Visually the quirky artifacting is also really loved by myself because that's how I remember it, I didn't have a wonderful S-Video mod etc, I just had RF initially and then composite so these funky artifacts really do add to the experience. Sure.it must be lovely for people using WP's etc to be able to read the text super clearly but I'm just an old school gamer / cheap hacker.

 

Maybe emulate a layer of dust on the screen where you didn't wipe it down for a while because you were too busy playing

 

(Twas a joke)

 

Altirra gives something to all of us no matter what you do on the system.

[pseudografx]

It is nice to have a look at, but just for a while. Longterm-wise, I prefer the rectangular unfiltered image, even if it is not the way it was back then. Also for development purposes, as it is easier to spot an error in an undistorted image.

[+DrVenkman]

It is nice to have a look at, but just for a while. Longterm-wise, I prefer the rectangular unfiltered image, even if it is not the way it was back then. Also for development purposes, as it is easier to spot an error in an undistorted image.

 

Are you kidding? This is great! It's just like using my real 1088XEL with my Commodore 1702 monitor.

 

 

 

 

Thanks, Avery!

[tschak909]

How do you set that up?!

 

-Thom

[+Stephen]

How do you set that up?!

 

-Thom

In the latest version (3.20 test 11), go to View, then "Adjust Screen Effects". Horizontal distortion does the top & bottom curvature, and "bloom" does the glowing effects. I believe if using test10 you must specify D3D11, but in test 11, those effects should also work using D3D9.

[tschak909]

Yup. I found it right after I posted. I am going to try and bring over some CG shaders as well (e.g. Lottes) to see how it goes.

-Thom

[pseudografx]

 

Are you kidding? This is great! It's just like using my real 1088XEL with my Commodore 1702 monitor.

 

Thanks, Avery!

Don't get me wrong - I'm glad Altira has such feature, just personally, I won't use it on daily basis.

[Mclaneinc]

Don't get me wrong - I'm glad Altira has such feature, just personally, I won't use it on daily basis.

 

That's all part of the goodness, there's bits that Devs and casual gamers and even old retro farts like me have available to use if wanted..Everyone is happy then..

 

Happy coding...

[gozar]

I'm loving the new display effects, I feel like I'm back on my old Magnavox monitor. As I was setting up a new machine under the new version I was wondering:

 

Is it possible to bundle up a profile with the support files it needs and share it? For example, letting someone put together a machine with the hardware and firmware, along with disks, and put that together as a file that can be shared. Right now, setting up a U1M machine with a hard drive is very intimidating.

[flashjazzcat]

I was thinking (since it has been suggested) of doing a video on setting up Altirra with U1MB, and since I already host the firmware files at atari8.co.uk, I'd be more than happy to put together some ready-to-run hard disk images as well.

[Wilheim]

One small observation I recently noticed: when Altirra loads an XEX file, and the INI address ($02e2-$02e3) are written with zeroes, it jumps to $0000. AFAIK, the DOS binary loading routines only jumps to INI only when the values are different to zero.

 

Hope this helps. Regards!

[Mclaneinc]

I'm loving the new display effects, I feel like I'm back on my old Magnavox monitor. As I was setting up a new machine under the new version I was wondering:

 

Is it possible to bundle up a profile with the support files it needs and share it? For example, letting someone put together a machine with the hardware and firmware, along with disks, and put that together as a file that can be shared. Right now, setting up a U1M machine with a hard drive is very intimidating.

 

Its certainly possible, the fields available in the profile options cover pretty much every aspect of what you want and then it could be exported as a registry key they just double click or as an ini for portable mode..

 

The only issue I can think of is that addresses to added rom files and other external content are saved as is so if the version of basic you use is in "C:\Altirra\Bios\Basic-C-.rom" then it will obviously expect it there on the other machine, that leaves 2 options, manually edit either the registry or the ini file if in portable mode. Not a super hard thing but depends who its being set up for..

 

If you edit a profile you will see the extra categories such as environment, Display etc which hold the settings for the filters and so on, they are not all ticked as you may only want a profile that changes the rom or the display etc and not want it to affect other profiles so it would be unticked and not saved...You pick and mix...The litlle hover box tells you what the category covers...

[_The Doctor__]

 

Are you kidding? This is great! It's just like using my real 1088XEL with my Commodore 1702 monitor.

 

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Thanks, Avery!

if any of my crt's looked like that I'd immediately clean the crap out of the screen with zero residue glass cleaner and dial in all the adjustment to bring it back into calibration. Glow shouldn't be blur, Razor sharp images with ever so light glass or phosphor glow. Not the dirty windshield haze in sunlight for sure.

[scotty]

I was thinking (since it has been suggested) of doing a video on setting up Altirra with U1MB, and since I already host the firmware files at atari8.co.uk, I'd be more than happy to put together some ready-to-run hard disk images as well.

Can you also do one on setting up the virtual 1088XEL with U1MB?

[+Nezgar]

Are you kidding? This is great! It's just like using my real 1088XEL with my Commodore 1702 monitor.

 

Interesting - It looks more like it's emulating a Sony/Trinitron/Aperture Grille CRT. (flat vertically, curved horizontally). My 1702 looks much less 'smooth' compared to a Sony PVM, and the front glass has curvature in both dimensions - apparently it has an "Inline Shadow Mask" - looks like this:

 

You can say it's emulating one of the best CRT's you can have (Better than a 1702), but I guess there's potential for further regression.

[Keatah]

Is it possible to bundle up a profile with the support files it needs and share it? For example, letting someone put together a machine with the hardware and firmware, along with disks, and put that together as a file that can be shared. Right now, setting up a U1M machine with a hard drive is very intimidating.

Just zip the whole shebang, files and folders, into one distro file.

 

..and in the Altirra.ini file you can specify the exact path of the roms or relative path.

 

For example on my vintage rig I have a basic Atari 800 setup in the following "C:" drive.

C:\Program Files\1_classic_system_emulation\a800

 

And in that folder I have a folder called SystemRoms.

And in there is ATARIOSB.ROM

 

So therefore my Altirra.ini file has an entry like this:

[user\Software\virtualdub.org\Altirra\Firmware\Available\F29E11C168126CBE]

"Name" = "Atari 400/800 OS-B NTSC"

"Path" = "SystemRoms\\ATARIOSB.ROM"

"Type" = "kernel800_osb"

"Flags" = 0

 

---

 

Either something like that or have the prospective user scan for firmware as a 1st step. Be sure and test everything because the early DOS conventions can be tediously tricky sometimes.

[+DrVenkman]

if any of my crt's looked like that I'd immediately clean the crap out of the screen with zero residue glass cleaner and dial in all the adjustment to bring it back into calibration. Glow shouldn't be blur, Razor sharp images with ever so light glass or phosphor glow. Not the dirty windshield haze in sunlight for sure.

In the words of that great American poet T. Swift, “Haters gonna hate, hate, hate ...”

[Keatah]

Initially when emulators first gained CRT effects, even as simple as scanlines, it's natural to go overboard and turn them up. As the years pass most everyone moderates the settings to where they're almost not even there. But there. Ya'know?

[Mclaneinc]

Yup, even though I'm in the other direction I know what you mean, I initially just liked bilinear filtering on emulators but then the filters came out and I tried them but they seemed so distorting of the image even on the lower settings that I left them off. With Altirra we got the Pal artifacting and that looked sweet and just recently I added scan lines but on a very small scale, with them and the screen shaping the picture just looks awesome.

 

But yes, the initial reaction I saw with people using filters was that the went WAY over the top and then slowly by slowly the setting was lowered and lowered until it was visible but just and for me that is the right setting, enough to see but not enough to ruin the memory...

[_The Doctor__]

Yeah I really do hate all those accidents people have because they can't clean their windshields or use defrosters/defoggers... some light hits it and they're blind while driving at high speeds or driving 20 mph in a 65 mph on the highway... all that twisted steel and mangled folks... it goes hand in hand with the optional 'blinkers' also known as directional indicator signal lamps/lights.. seems a lot of folks don't buy those cars with that 'option' installed. I don't think I'd replicate any of those practices either

But feel free to lets 5 people chain smoke in your car for about a year or so in the garage then take her out for a cruise in the morning sun on a damp cold day. It will look awesome!

I thought of how to express hate... did that work? It's almost as good as smokers screen for playing video games

In all honestly it is pretty bad though.

I'll stick with clean optics...
funny bunny slippers on
Real Genius..

Kent: My condolences on your meltdown, Knight.
Chris Knight: What meltdown, Kent?
Kent: I'm not saying you had one, because how would I know? But just in case you do.
Chris Knight: You slime!
Kent: It's your own fault, Knight. Didn't anyone ever tell you to make sure your optics are clean?

 

 

54:44 is where the lens is made like a tar covered dirty crt 56:33 is resulting meltdown

Edited January 18, 2019 by _The Doctor__

[+Stephen]

I may not agree with your screen settings, but mad props for the Real Genius reference. Jordan was just a goddess

[_The Doctor__]

I was always a stickler for the cleanest clearest display. Even my friends at Mack Trucks/Mack Printing were inspired by the use of the cleanest calibrated smallest dot pitch monitors with medium speed phosphors and nearly perfect linearity at the time, hence my love for certain JVC/NEC monitors and monitor class televisions... you would be surprised at how early a great display was to be had... it's a crazy thing... even goldstar made a couple decent tubes that other manufacturers used to make their sets with... The only things I ever saw look as terrible as that filter were some old toshibas and samsungs of that day...

Edited January 18, 2019 by _The Doctor__

[Mclaneinc]

Was a Sony Trintron person, well that and an old Bush at times...The Sony was fantastic...

[+Stephen]

Oh yeah. I am praying that we don't get an "out of convergence" filter setting, or tilt, trapezoid, etc. That is the only thing I prefer over modern LCD monitors. They may be blurry, slow to refresh, have shitty light output, and terrible blacks (not talking new OLED here), but man - even the cheapest one can draw a straight white checkerboard

[Wilheim]

Nice feature! I really like it!

 

I hope someday Altirra will also support FSK signals writing soon. That would be a great feature for some cassette XEX copiers we have in Chile that make use of them.