VICE 2.2 has been released

[eslapion]

Turn double size off and on again and it looks like before.

Doesn't change anything at all here...

added edit:
I see what effect this is supposed to have if you run xVIC in a window... it forces the window to have the right size but it does nothing if you run in fullscreen at a custom resolution.

The old VICE would crop the excess pixels that would not fit in the selected resolution, the new one scales to fit and there is no way to disable that and go back to cropping.

A custom resolution of 856x480 and cropping the edges (like ordinary TVs do) is what made VICE look so exactly like the real thing and now I can't get it anymore.

added edit 2:
Its interesting that I would get a similar result by choosing "PAL emulation" and a higher resolution but its still not quite as crisp and sharp as what I used to have.

Also, in order to get the right aspect ratio, I have to use PAL emulation along with NTSC video standard...

[nojoopa]

I see what effect this is supposed to have if you run xVIC in a window... it forces the window to have the right size but it does nothing if you run in fullscreen at a custom resolution.

The old VICE would crop the excess pixels that would not fit in the selected resolution, the new one scales to fit and there is no way to disable that and go back to cropping.

A custom resolution of 856x480 and cropping the edges (like ordinary TVs do) is what made VICE look so exactly like the real thing and now I can't get it anymore.

Start with

Code: Select all

xvic -dx9disable

(or manually edit the similarly named entry in vice.ini) to use the old DirectDraw video code. This should have been documented somewhere... oh well, maybe next version

[eslapion]

Start with

Code: Select all

xvic -dx9disable

(or manually edit the similarly named entry in vice.ini) to use the old DirectDraw video code. This should have been documented somewhere... oh well, maybe next version

YESSS!!! Problem solved!

BUT, there is a little caveat here. You must absolutely select "render to primary DX surface" or you get the following error message:

Code: Select all

An unexpected error occured. Received singnal 11 ().

[rhurst]

Another useful feature is using OpenCBM with VICE; you can read more about my experiences with it here.

Floppy anyone?

[GreyGhost]

Anyone else having trouble loading older version snapshots? Is this already documented. Did I miss it?

Also what would be my options for updating those files?

[nojoopa]

Anyone else having trouble loading older version snapshots? Is this already documented. Did I miss it?

Due to the extensive changes in the VIC-I emulation and cartridge system between 2.1 and 2.2, the snapshot format had to be changed in order to have it work with the new code. This is the price of progress... Probably should have mentioned this in the NEWS. There should be a error message about snapshot version mismatch, but perhaps that's buried in vice.log.

In case someone is curious on the differences, see here, here and src/vic20/cart/*.c.

We could have attempted to add some sort of backward compatibility, but it would have been tedious and in my humble opinion the time/effort is better spent on fixing/improving other things. We do try to maintain compatibility with these sorts of things, but emulation accuracy has much higher priority.

Also what would be my options for updating those files?

Unless someone whips up a snapshot converter (should be feasible using the info above, but still a lot of work), pretty slim. Sorry about obsoleting your snapshots, but I wouldn't hesitate to do it again in 2.3 if it is necessary (which is fortunately very unlikely).

[nojoopa]

(double post, continuing the theme)

...and the other price of progress being regressions. When adding emulation for the "jump down by one line" phenomenon on PAL when doing "poke 36864,0", the last part of Vicual MMIX NTSC started to jitter. The bug was confirmed too late to fix for 2.2, and we still don't know how it really works on NTSC.

My (current) theory is that the same happens on NTSC during the raster line number change (cycle 37 vs. PAL cycle 0), but have no way of testing it. This is the perfect example of why we need NTSC expertise and "testprogs" that test/measure/show these kinds of things.

Summary: beware, there is at least one NTSC regression in 2.2. Sorry about that.

[ral-clan]

Maybe I am noticing the same problem as Eslapion. I enable the -dx9disable and it did work as stated, but I appreciate the new correct screen ratio of VICE2.2, so I switched back.

However, with VICE2.2's upscaling/aliasing routines, the "doublescan" feature doesn't seem to have any effect. I usually shut it off to get authentic looking "tv scan-lines". But now everything just appears doublescanned, even when I shut this feature off (no effect).

[carlsson]

Hm, doesn't anyone of the VIC-20 demo coders or VICE developers for that matter have a NTSC VIC-20? Several of us mortals have, but even with the hardware at hand it could be hard to determine what to look for and make test programs.

Previously I offered tlr to borrow my NTSC VIC if he thought it would help him find anything odd. Of course if I got told what to do and look for, I could try to help too, but I suppose there are an unknown number of steps required to take to nail down and document actual behavior.

[xlar54]

Can someone tell me how to use this remote monitor feature?