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Running Games and Apps.

Heroes of MM II (Shapeshifter)page  1 2 

Chris T.

Posts 136
11 May 2020 20:14


I am wondering why this Game does not work fully. When I having a combat, the game freezes right away although everthing except combat worked out so far. Does somebody recognized the same issue?
Any solution? Best regards!


Chris T.

Posts 136
15 May 2020 13:07


Does nobody Play Heroes of Might & Magic II on the shapeshifter EMU on the VAMPIRE? Please check it out...Thanks alot.


Pat 3657

Posts 50
19 May 2020 16:47


Didn't try playing Heroes of Might & Magic, but...
IMHO instable systems show first with Shapeshifter.
There are reported issues with Mac emulation on V2. V2s FPU has a lower presision than MacOS expects (due to space restrictions on the FPGA, so no fix for that).

You may try the following:
- your vampire may need a power fix.
- Use a slower vampire firmware (x10) if available.
- Use vcontrol to disable the fpu (vcontrol FPU 0)
- Use vcontrol to disable superscalar (vcontrol superscalar 0)
The later two decrease performance of the CPU, yet your "Mac" will still be fast enough...



Stefano Briccolani

Posts 586
19 May 2020 17:13


There's some issues on Mac emulation for sure.. Both dark forces and Photoshop 4 worked ok on pre-fpu cores (there are videos from Cr0m that testify this..
I tried vcontrol fpu 0 but didn't resolve.




Chris T.

Posts 136
19 May 2020 17:23


Pat, Thanks alot for the advice. I will check it out and let you know.



Pat 3657

Posts 50
19 May 2020 21:26


Stefano Briccolani wrote:

There's some issues on Mac emulation for sure.. Both dark forces and Photoshop 4 worked ok on pre-fpu cores (there are videos from Cr0m that testify this..
  I tried vcontrol fpu 0 but didn't resolve.
 
 

In the thread about Gold2.12 one of the team members (I guess) mentioned a debug tool called ForceATTN. This should hide the FPU completely, but I can't find it anywhere...


Henrich Raduska

Posts 62
19 May 2020 22:45


ForceATTN_844F and FakeCPU are in C: (Coffin r56)


Chris T.

Posts 136
21 May 2020 12:24


Pat 3657 wrote:

 
  You may try the following:
  - your vampire may need a power fix.
  - Use a slower vampire firmware (x10) if available.
  - Use vcontrol to disable the fpu (vcontrol FPU 0)
  - Use vcontrol to disable superscalar (vcontrol superscalar 0)
  The later two decrease performance of the CPU, yet your "Mac" will still be fast enough...
 
  I have tried obove, but I was not able to  start the game...any other suggestion? I have the power fixes and no other stability issues...well or I do not remember right now. :)
 

 


Pat 3657

Posts 50
21 May 2020 22:53


It seems disabling the FPU is the way to go. Try ForceATTN which can be found in Coffin R56.

Unfortunately there is no other source for this program AFAIK.
Maybe someone aka the author can put it on Aminet - or any other place where you don't have to download 16GB?



Henrich Raduska

Posts 62
21 May 2020 23:39


FakeCpu is, by my opinion, better solution.
EXTERNAL LINK  Today is Mac emulation on V1200 unusable without switching off FPU and run SoftFpu Control panel. Many MAC programs (including parts of MAC OS) crash or gives wrong results (overflow or 0). Norton SysInfo crash entire machine to black screens, MacBench v3 & v4 shows wrong benchmark results and overwite texts with rubbish.


Stefano Briccolani

Posts 586
22 May 2020 03:53


@Henrich
FakeCpu will surely ask a specific CPU to "simulate". What's the better for Mac emulation (030 without FPU??)

SoftFPU control panel is an application on standard Mac System 7.4 or is to be found elsewhere (I'm no Mac expert)?

Thank you


Gernt Gerloff

Posts 49
22 May 2020 08:43


EXTERNAL LINK 
but Heroes of MM II does not need an FPU, it runs here perfectly well (68ec040) without any FPU emulation


Henrich Raduska

Posts 62
22 May 2020 08:47


Usage: FakeCPU [NOFPU 68881 68882 FPU040 FPU040+882]
With FakeCPU You can "switch ON", FPU back without reboot or experiment with different types of FPU.

SoftFpu is not from Apple and is not standard part of MAC OS. It's freeware since 3.07. Performance boost in both emulators is about 50x over NOFPU. (Norton Sysinfo 3.1)
Just click on it and read info about author. :-) 


Henrich Raduska

Posts 62
22 May 2020 08:51


Gernt Gerloff wrote:

     
    But Heroes of MM II does not need an FPU, it runs here perfectly well (68ec040) without any FPU emulation
     

     
      But Apple OS NEEDS known FPU or emulation or NOFPU. With V1200 GOLD 2.12 FPU not functioning properly.:-(
It looks like Apple is using FPUs (if any) in parallel with 68k for acceleration.
Trust me, my A1200 crash over 100x during last week.

 
 


Gernt Gerloff

Posts 49
22 May 2020 08:58


Henrich Raduska wrote:

Gernt Gerloff wrote:

   
    But Heroes of MM II does not need an FPU, it runs here perfectly well (68ec040) without any FPU emulation
   

   
    But Apple OS NEEDS known FPU or emulation. With V1200 GOLD 2.12 FPU not functioning properly.:-(

No it does not, I was speaking about a real 68k Mac, I own, with a 68ec040. Even without any software FPU, most software just works. Yes with SoftwareFPU some more software is working, some software is running faster.
But Heroes of the Might and Magic II seems not to profit from it, I can not see any difference play that game, with or without FPU emulation (speed wise or stable wise).



Henrich Raduska

Posts 62
22 May 2020 09:02


But in V1200 is FPU. Emulated MAC detects it, use FPU routines for various part of system and gets incorrect results from them.
    During start, MAC ROM test if FPU is present and decide which routines will be in use, with or without FPU.
    FPU in V1200 is unknown type for MAC OS.
  In coffin r56 I found one old ROM (512k) from MAC IIsi, with it some programs work better, but still not perfectly.


Gernt Gerloff

Posts 49
22 May 2020 09:10


Henrich Raduska wrote:

But in V1200 is FPU. Emulated MAC detects it, use FPU routines for various part of system and obtain unapropriate results.
  During start, MAC ROM test if FPU is present and decide which routines will be in use, with or without FPU.
  FPU in V1200 is unknown type for MAC OS.

btw. not only on start, it also checks it on Installation! you have to install it with no-FPU setting as well or you later get big problems. I once tried to transfer my MacOS8 from my (Performa) 68030 with FPU to my (PowerBook) 68030 without FPU, it does NOT work, you have to reinstall.

but maybe one should demand the FPU should be compatible or removed.


Henrich Raduska

Posts 62
22 May 2020 09:19


I installed MAC OS more than twenty years ago on my A4000T with CS 060 + PPC604, I don't remember if he asked when installing on FPU, and if so, he certainly didn't give me a choice of 060. I still use those hardfiles. I'll try what the shutdown of the FPU will do there with the system installed.


Stefano Briccolani

Posts 586
22 May 2020 09:53


I think that disabling fpu can be enough to run majority of software on Mac (I'm interested on dark forces and Photoshop 4).
So the magic could be:
disable fpu with ForceATTN or FakeCpu.
Install System 7
Install software.
Then start ForceATTN or FakeCpu every time I want to start Mac emu.
Is this correct? (I doubt this tools are reset-resistant)


Henrich Raduska

Posts 62
22 May 2020 10:03


ForceATTN is softreset-resistant (reset from keyboard).

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