Altirra 3.10 released

[+CharlieChaplin]

And that is the joy of emulation and real hardware, they both have a place in our needs.

 

Everyone is a winner...

 

And now sing:

 

"Everyone's a winner, phaeron, that's the truth (yes, the truth)

Getting new stuff from you is such a thrill.

Everyone's a winner, phaeron, that's no lie (yes, no lie)

You never fail to satisfy (satisfy)"

Original: Everyone's a winner - Hot Chocolate (1978)

[phaeron]

Briefly browsed the docs and didn't find my answer.

 

Question: What is the Export button here for? It makes a small xxxxxx.pal file. But what can I do with it? Can I load this back somehow? Is this used with any specific application/utility?

 

Feature request: ability to add multiple custom palettes to the Preset box/dropdown.

Feature request: ability to import a previously exported palette.

 

The export button is for exporting a palette for use in other programs that just take a raw 256x3 color map. There is no corresponding import function because the color map doesn't contain the information Altirra needs. In particular, the artifacting modes need the original color parameters in order to separately render chroma and luma pre-correction. Also, when hardware effects acceleration is enabled, PAL artifacting mode also uses an extended range color encoding (-0.5 ... +1.5) to avoid color shifts due to RGB color clipping. Existing palette files generated from other sources often can't be mapped back into a form Altirra can use because they have weird non-linearities like a $00 color that's been hacked to be black and no longer consistent with the rest of the color map.

 

I have some ideas about exporting the color parameters to a file instead but haven't gotten around to doing so. Once that's in place, then it would be possible to set up a folder where color parameter files would become available as selectable profiles. That will probably be in post-3.20 timeframe as it relies on some other stuff I've been working on that I don't want to push into this dev line.

[Steel99]

Hi,

 

i have a problem setting up input map. I've read the help file information, but don't fully understand it.

 

I want to setup my xbox360 controller to use all buttons of Atari 5200 controller and tried to use the "flag" feature to achieve this, but it does not work as expected.

 

Attached is a screenshot of my setup.

 

The upper part with flag 1 off works fine, but the rest of the mappings including turbo does not work. I tested it with the built-in 5200 cartridge.

 

Can you tell me what is wrong with my setup?

 

Thanks!

 

[Mclaneinc]

Edit to remove OT...Keeping thread on track

Edited March 23, 2019 by Mclaneinc

[ascrnet]

Hi phaeron,

 

I would like this great emulator to have support for this type of joystick

 

Since it will help me make the work of converting games from a button to 2 or 3 easier.

 

in the real atari is PADDL0 = 1 or 228 and PADDL1 = 1 or 228, 1 not pressed and 228 pressed.

 

regards

[phaeron]

http://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-3.20-test18.zip
http://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-3.20-test18-src.zip

• AltirraOS 3.17: Fixed regression in 3.16 that caused some fine scrolling code to execute in screen open when it shouldn't.
• ATBasic 1.56: Fix for crash that occurred when hitting Break prior to startup banner.
• Fixed Input State and Console controller types not activating in input maps in 5200 mode.
• Added copy/paste escaping support: special keys like Invert and arrow keys can now be pasted with escape syntax in braces, i.e. {invert} and {left}. There is now also a copy escaped command that will use these escapes to produce keystrokes that can re-type those characters. ^ and + prefixes mean control and shift, i.e. {^tab} and {+tab}.
• The paddle knob (linear) input on paddles can now be driven digitally to use it as a switch input.

I want to setup my xbox360 controller to use all buttons of Atari 5200 controller and tried to use the "flag" feature to achieve this, but it does not work as expected.

This was a bug, it should be fixed now. The problem was that the emulator saw the "input state" and "console" controllers as computer-only, so they were disabled in 5200 mode. This is normally so that you can share an input map between 5200 and computer mode if you want, but those controller types weren't supposed to be disabled. They're now enabled in both modes.

 

You may still get some weird behavior since technically you have two 5200 controllers that are being switched off instead of inputs to the same controller, but that might be OK depending on how you use it.

I would like this great emulator to have support for this type of joystick

I've updated the paddle code to allow this. 2-button was already possible by using the mouse controller since its right mouse button input is wired that way, but there was no digital hookup for the second paddle input. You can now do this by binding a digital input source to Paddle Knob (linear). Grounding is enabled so you should be able to read it via ALLPOT in fast pot mode (this doesn't work for hookups that are only pull-up/open).

 

[ascrnet]

 

I've updated the paddle code to allow this. 2-button was already possible by using the mouse controller since its right mouse button input is wired that way, but there was no digital hookup for the second paddle input. You can now do this by binding a digital input source to Paddle Knob (linear). Grounding is enabled so you should be able to read it via ALLPOT in fast pot mode (this doesn't work for hookups that are only pull-up/open).

 

 

thank you very much for the answer, but it does not work for me using the paddle as mensions, but the mouse for a second button. the other thing that the atari xl-xe the values of the paddle it delivers is 1 to 228. but emulator delivers 0 to 228 that's fine?

I attached a photo of the test you do

 

regards

[Steel99]

This was a bug, it should be fixed now. The problem was that the emulator saw the "input state" and "console" controllers as computer-only, so they were disabled in 5200 mode. This is normally so that you can share an input map between 5200 and computer mode if you want, but those controller types weren't supposed to be disabled. They're now enabled in both modes.

 

You may still get some weird behavior since technically you have two 5200 controllers that are being switched off instead of inputs to the same controller, but that might be OK depending on how you use it.

 

 

phaeron, thanks for fixing this, but i think i have little more for you

 

Controller 1 works fine now with input state and console.

 

I made a copy of this input map to configure my controller 2 the same way except console. I changed ports to "2", but for Input State it does not save this setting, it jumps always back to port 1.

 

Another issue i found was that the autofire speed for button 1 and button 2 is different, both are configured the same speed 5. Button 2 is slower.

I don't know, if any game needs autofire on button 2, but i had one free to use, so what ....

[Mclaneinc]

Remember this bit

 

 

 

You may still get some weird behavior since technically you have two 5200 controllers that are being switched off instead of inputs to the same controller, but that might be OK depending on how you use it.

 

What you are doing is a bit Frankenstein in a way so you might get what Avery said but I'm sure he will look into it just in case..

 

Hope it all works in the end...Glad you read the docs, I found the input stuff with flags and states etc a little brain ache for my pea but thankfully there were excellent presets provided

Edited March 24, 2019 by Mclaneinc

[Mclaneinc]

Avery, control system for 5200 is acting wrongly, Xbox pad as 5200 taking ages to respond as is keyboard, XL mode fine..

Edited March 24, 2019 by Mclaneinc

[Steel99]

Remember this bit

 

 

What you are doing is a bit Frankenstein in a way so you might get what Avery said but I'm sure he will look into it just in case..

 

Hope it all works in the end...Glad you read the docs, I found the input stuff with flags and states etc a little brain ache for my pea but thankfully there were excellent presets provided

 

Yes, i had to read the docs several times to nearly understand

 

I use this emulator next to others within a frontend on my TV, so i want to avoid using keyboard if possible. For a game console this should work, of course not for computer emulators ....

5200 has a quite special controller with lots of buttons ..... i think they have this idea from Intellivision ....not so easy to get all buttons work with a pc gamepad. For this case the Altirra feature with flags is great.

[phaeron]

 

thank you very much for the answer, but it does not work for me using the paddle as mensions, but the mouse for a second button. the other thing that the atari xl-xe the values of the paddle it delivers is 1 to 228. but emulator delivers 0 to 228 that's fine?

I attached a photo of the test you do

Captura.PNG

 

Don't use the mouse controller, that was just an example of what currently was already available. It overlaps paddle A. Using both the mouse controller and the paddles will cause the two to fight over the paddle input and not work. You should use the joystick controller and both paddles to map the three buttons.

 

As for 0 vs. 1, I noticed that but will have to check on the real hardware. There's not much margin between the two so it may depend on the computer and the circuit hooked up to the paddles. Software should work with both as noise or timing may slightly alter the paddle values. Since your hardware grounds the paddle inputs, using fast pot scan mode and ALLPOT is possible and I would recommend doing so as this will remove a frame of latency.

 

 

phaeron, thanks for fixing this, but i think i have little more for you

 

Controller 1 works fine now with input state and console.

 

I made a copy of this input map to configure my controller 2 the same way except console. I changed ports to "2", but for Input State it does not save this setting, it jumps always back to port 1.

 

Another issue i found was that the autofire speed for button 1 and button 2 is different, both are configured the same speed 5. Button 2 is slower.

I don't know, if any game needs autofire on button 2, but i had one free to use, so what ....

 

The input state controller does not actually have a port since it does not plug into one of the controller ports. Just ignore that part. The two input state flags are global to the entire input map.

 

With regard to autofire, the UI is being misleading: auto-fire rate is fixed to toggle every 3 frames, or press-release every 6 frames. The reason for the top and bottom buttons acting differently on the 5200 is that they're read differently: the bottom button is wired directly to per-controller trigger inputs, while the top button is read through the keyboard logic that is multiplexed between the controllers. This means that the top button can't be read as fast and it also depends on how many controllers the game is cycling. The controller test ROM in Altirra polls all four controllers and thus shows a worse case.

 

Avery, control system for 5200 is acting wrongly, Xbox pad as 5200 taking ages to respond as is keyboard, XL mode fine..

 

If you mean the relative mappings, you'll need to adjust the speed and acceleration in the map to your liking. They are tuned on the low side by default under the assumption that if you're using a relative mapping you need precise control, and the preset is tuned for Missile Command. If you check the controller test, you'll notice it takes a couple of seconds to swing the controller all the way from one side to the other. If you're playing a game that needs fast directional input then you should be using an absolute mapping instead, where your inputs directly place the 5200 stick rather than moving it.

[phaeron]

http://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-3.20-test19.zip

http://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-3.20-test19-src.zip

 

• Fixed a regression that caused line breaks to be dropped on pasting.
• Adjusted pots to return min value 1 after some testing. (Paddles always returned 1 on the 800XLs and 130XE, Keyboard Controller returned 2-3 on XLs and 1-3 on XE.)
• Fixed a bug in the new digital pot inputs where they sometimes failed to update depending on the initial value.
• Another attempt at fixing some redraw bugs in the debugger history view.
• Alt+click can now also decode addresses in PEEK and POKE statements.

[ascrnet]

Hi phaeron,

 

first of all thank you very much for solving the problem of the paddles and all the help

 

Now if it works as expected, perform the following configuration following its advice.

 

All this adaptation works correctly on the real XL-XE hardware. I am very happy that I can now test in the emulator.

regards

[Xuel]

Hi phaeron,

 

first of all thank you very much for solving the problem of the paddles and all the help

 

Now if it works as expected, perform the following configuration following its advice.

Joy2b_A.PNG

 

All this adaptation works correctly on the real XL-XE hardware. I am very happy that I can now test in the emulator.

 

regards

 

This is very cool. I googled your joystick tester so I could try it. I thought others might like to try it as well. Hope you don't mind me sharing the links I found:

 

Forum post:

 

http://www.atariware.cl/aw/foro/viewtopic.php?f=4&p=20400#p20467

 

XEX on Github:

 

https://github.com/ascrnet/TestJoy2B/releases

 

Github project:

 

https://github.com/ascrnet/TestJoy2B

 

Great work! And thanks to phaeron for Altirra support.

[ascrnet]

 

This is very cool. I googled your joystick tester so I could try it. I thought others might like to try it as well. Hope you don't mind me sharing the links I found:

 

Forum post:

 

http://www.atariware.cl/aw/foro/viewtopic.php?f=4&p=20400#p20467

 

XEX on Github:

 

https://github.com/ascrnet/TestJoy2B/releases

 

Github project:

 

https://github.com/ascrnet/TestJoy2B

 

Great work! And thanks to phaeron for Altirra support.

 

No problem, the idea is to fully share the project. that's why everything is shared on github from the source of the test, modified games and a wiki with the hardware detail to be made.

 

Regards

[phaeron]

Joy2b_A.PNG

 

Side note, is that seriously how a non-US keyboard layout reports key names? I thought I was doing the right thing by requesting the localized key names from the OS, but those long ALL CAPS names don't look very good. They're mixed-case with the ENG_US keyboard layout, i.e. Left Arrow and Ctrl+Alt+S.

[ascrnet]

 

Side note, is that seriously how a non-US keyboard layout reports key names? I thought I was doing the right thing by requesting the localized key names from the OS, but those long ALL CAPS names don't look very good. They're mixed-case with the ENG_US keyboard layout, i.e. Left Arrow and Ctrl+Alt+S.

 

It's because of the language of the PC's operating system, which is Spanish.

 

regards

[Kyle22]

Try START | Control Panel | Regional and Language Options.

 

I will show you.

 

Look at the pictures.

 

Your version of Windows may be severely inferior to mine, but that shouldn't matter much. I find it here:

 

control.bmp

 

regional.bmp

 

regional1.bmp

 

It should be somewhere in this area on other versions. I only know where it is on XP, and where it SHOULD ALWAYS BE.

 

IM(Not so H O), Win 7 is barely tolerable, and anything after that is NOT WINDOWS ANYMORE.

 

 

Edit: Really, no .bmp support for inline viewing? I convert them all to .jpg.

Edited March 28, 2019 by Kyle22

[phaeron]

Thanks, but I'm personally way past XP, and it's not the regional setting that matters anyhow. It's the keyboard layout, which is selected elsewhere.

 

I'm somewhat familiar with this issue because someone once complained about this with VirtualDub and asked for the keyboard shortcuts to be displayed in English, which is probably the only time I've been asked to make a program less localized. But I hadn't realized the text looked so different (and long):

 

 

Altirra is just using the regular Windows API for retrieving the localized name of a key (GetKeyNameText), which gets the name from the keyboard driver. It seems that nobody else does, however, because I can't find another program that shows this text. Visual Studio, for instance, apparently has its own private localized strings for this and shows "Alt+Mayús.+O" instead. The names supplied by Windows are also all over the place, many being in ALL CAPS, but the Japanese keyboard is like US, some abbreviate the modifier keys while others spell them out in full, etc. It irks me a bit that one of the few places where I did bother with being localization-safe it comes up weird, which I why I was interested in hearing from a native speaker about whether this was expected.

 

But anyway, just a digression, we can go back to the Atari where everything is just ATASCII and keyboard layouts are just a pointer in page zero....

 

[Steel99]

 

The input state controller does not actually have a port since it does not plug into one of the controller ports. Just ignore that part. The two input state flags are global to the entire input map.

 

So, i still had some problems to get the second controller to work with input state flags. In the end i found out, that i can not use the same source to trigger the flag switch on both controllers. Now i use different source buttons for input states on each controller and it works. But i would prefer using the same mapping on both controllers ...but ok.

 

Thanks again for giving support.

[dmsc]

Hi!

 

Thanks, but I'm personally way past XP, and it's not the regional setting that matters anyhow. It's the keyboard layout, which is selected elsewhere.

 

I'm somewhat familiar with this issue because someone once complained about this with VirtualDub and asked for the keyboard shortcuts to be displayed in English, which is probably the only time I've been asked to make a program less localized. But I hadn't realized the text looked so different (and long):

 

en-es.png

 

Altirra is just using the regular Windows API for retrieving the localized name of a key (GetKeyNameText), which gets the name from the keyboard driver. It seems that nobody else does, however, because I can't find another program that shows this text. Visual Studio, for instance, apparently has its own private localized strings for this and shows "Alt+Mayús.+O" instead. The names supplied by Windows are also all over the place, many being in ALL CAPS, but the Japanese keyboard is like US, some abbreviate the modifier keys while others spell them out in full, etc. It irks me a bit that one of the few places where I did bother with being localization-safe it comes up weird, which I why I was interested in hearing from a native speaker about whether this was expected.

 

But anyway, just a digression, we can go back to the Atari where everything is just ATASCII and keyboard layouts are just a pointer in page zero....

Oh, the joys of windows localization... I think that people that localizes windows (at least to Spanish) don't really test the localization, and don't know exactly where the localized text will end up showing.

 

Actually, there are two different localization settings and keyboard layouts for Spanish language: Spain Spanish (as "Español de España" ) and Latin-America Spanish (mostly "Español de Mexico", copied to the rest of Latin-american countries). And at least here in Chile, most desktop computers use the Spain keyboard layout (that includes the "Ç" key for compatibility with Catalán) and are sold with Spain windows, and most notebook computers use Latin-america keyboard (that has the "{" and "}" keys) and are sold with Mexican windows. And there are a lot of people that don't know how to configure the keyboard, so simply adapt to the wrong key being printed in the keyboard...

 

This is how the Altirra menu looks with Spain locale, tried with both keyboards layouts and looks the same, and as you said, with US layout it looks great:

 

 

Note that most people here don't know which key is "MAYÚSCULAS", as the key is labeled with an up arrow and people tend to call it "flecha arriba" (up arrow), but the Caps-Lock key us labeled "Bloq Mayús", so people tend to press that key instead. Also, the key translated as "ENTRAR" is not labeled as such, is "⏎".

Edited March 28, 2019 by dmsc

[phaeron]

 

So, i still had some problems to get the second controller to work with input state flags. In the end i found out, that i can not use the same source to trigger the flag switch on both controllers. Now i use different source buttons for input states on each controller and it works. But i would prefer using the same mapping on both controllers ...but ok.

 

Thanks again for giving support.

 

I'm not sure what you're doing here. Are you trying to control 5200 port 1 and port 2 from the same input map, two different input maps bound to the same Xbox controller, or two input maps bound to separate Xbox controllers? You should not have two Input State controllers in the same input map driving the same flag, but double-binding a source key is fine, i.e. X button doing more than one thing when pressed. You can also drive one Input State controller from another by having the first one set a flag that the second one is conditional on; that's how I had the mega-Xbox input map originally set up.

[Steel99]

 

I'm not sure what you're doing here. Are you trying to control 5200 port 1 and port 2 from the same input map, two different input maps bound to the same Xbox controller, or two input maps bound to separate Xbox controllers? You should not have two Input State controllers in the same input map driving the same flag, but double-binding a source key is fine, i.e. X button doing more than one thing when pressed. You can also drive one Input State controller from another by having the first one set a flag that the second one is conditional on; that's how I had the mega-Xbox input map originally set up.

 

I did two input maps bound to separate xbox controllers. Attached you can see both input maps.

I first tried it, but as you described i can not use flag1 on both controllers, so i did use flag1 for controller1 and flag2 for controller2....that is ok.

But as you can see, i trigger the input state of controller1 by "Left trigger pressed" and the input state of controller2 by "Right trigger pressed". I would like it to work on both controllers the same, "Left trigger pressed".....and this did not work.

[Farb]

Hi all,

 

I'm seeing some weird behavior with a CAS file on Altirra 3.10 and 3.20-test19. If I boot 800, OS-B, BASIC RevC using "authentic" mode settings and try to CLOAD the tape, I get an ERROR 143. However, if I turn ON C: acceleration, the CAS file loads properly.

 

Any idea what might be causing this?

Telengard.zip