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Documentation about the Vampire hardware

Vampire V4SA - Some Questions...page  1 2 

Neil Shacklady

Posts 29
24 Dec 2019 16:36


Hi - I was lucky enough to receive my V4SA yesterday from Vesalia.  Having fired her up with Coffin r55 I have some initial queries:

I'm getting snow like interference on the screen at any resolution above 640x480.  E.g. at 1280x720 the picture is sharp and crisp but has speckles of colour flashing across it.  From the FAQ section of the Wiki I believe this could mean I need a DIGITAL-VIDEO repeater - is that right?  I also thought it could perhaps be a PSU issue as I'm using my own plug whilst I wait for a EU to UK converter so that I can use the one provided.

Re: RTG to PAL screen switching.  If I have a RTG workbench setup of 1280x720 and then run a WHDLoad game it appears that the default behaviour is for the Vamp to stretch the PAL image to 1280x720 resolution instead of promoting the true PAL resolution (i.e. I'd expect the game to run in 4:3 or 5:4 ratio).  Or am I missing something here?

Cheers, Neil.


Martin White

Posts 85
24 Dec 2019 17:10


I can confirm that the interference won't go away if you use the supplied PSU. I'm using a EU->UK adapter from Poundland with the original PSU and I'm still gettting it in a some modes (note, I can get very few modes to work).
 
You're doing better than me however, I've only managed to get one mode to work so far and it's not as high as 1280x720. After tweaking the P96 mode for 848x480@60 I was able to get that one to work. It flickers like crazy when workbench first comes up but settles down after 30 seconds or so.
 
That's as far as I've got so far. I'm wondering if the SAGA drivers need updating in Coffin R55? But that's another challenge entirely without floppy or network.


Kyle Blake
(Needs Verification)
Posts 108/ 1
24 Dec 2019 17:14


What display are you using? As far as I know vampire puts out same resolution as the chipset does. If stretching is happening is it your TV doing it?

I have a sony with a button to change 4:3/16:9 on the remote


Neil Shacklady

Posts 29
24 Dec 2019 17:43


Kyle Blake wrote:

What display are you using? As far as I know vampire puts out same resolution as the chipset does. If stretching is happening is it your TV doing it?
 
  I have a sony with a button to change 4:3/16:9 on the remote

Hi - good point, will check but sure my screen has that frunction.  its a Samsung S24F356.


Neil Shacklady

Posts 29
24 Dec 2019 17:45


Martin White wrote:

I'm wondering if the SAGA drivers need updating in Coffin R55? But that's another challenge entirely without floppy or network.

I checked the Apollo Wiki and it looks like the SAGA drivers are up to date in r55.  Think I'll need to buy and try one of these DIGITAL-VIDEO Repeaters :\



Martin White

Posts 85
24 Dec 2019 19:52


I updated the drivers anyway. There is for sure a new "vampiregfx.card" file on the slack support channel. The filesize is considerably bigger.

Again, made no difference though. The last thing is that I'm being told to update my core. Not having a USB blaster though is going to stand in the way of doing that.

Not overly sure what more i can do now. I don't really want to be buying even more gizmos to go with the standalone unit.


Vojin Vidanovic
(Needs Verification)
Posts 1916/ 1
24 Dec 2019 20:10


Martin White wrote:

      Again, made no difference though. The last thing is that I'm being told to update my core. Not having a USB blaster though is going to stand in the way of doing that.
   

   
    My 2 cents - dont loose hope. Others may have other solutions. The given info on support channels, IRC or Slack is always better then my answer. I am just trying to walk in your shoes, as good social worker :)
   
    Core Update:
    Wait for an AmigaOS .exe to come by a bit later - there is a way to update core with no Blaster. Hope you have Coffin or AROS preinstalled.
   
    PIC:
    Its not always the drivers, monitor/TV needs to be able to produce tricky Hz displays, which are not standard, like multisync monitors used to.
   
    Also, its not "going highest res HD/4k" thing, but contrary, displaying old and tricky mods. Its not something that could be predefined, as we are no longer using single VDU (like old Commodore multi-sync monitors 1084s+ were) or PAL TVs adjusted to retro demands.
   
    DIGITAL-VIDEO repeaters/signal enhancers helped in case you dont want to change your VDU and it is unable to display modes correctly, but are not guaranteed solution.
 
 
Neil Shacklady wrote:
 
    Re: RTG to PAL screen switching.  If I have a RTG workbench setup of 1280x720 and then run a WHDLoad game it appears that the default behaviour is for the Vamp to stretch the PAL image to 1280x720 resolution instead of promoting the true PAL resolution (i.e. I'd expect the game to run in 4:3 or 5:4 ratio).  Or am I missing something here?
   
    Cheers, Neil.
 

 
  No, you are not, picture is stretched. If it really went to native 320x200 32-64 col/256 on AGA or 640x480 most games are made in, its likely your modern TV would not be able display it. (there are models that can, but not a std).
  And it would be in 4:3. If your TV can, I believe WHDLoad slave can be set to change mode to real original PAL.


Martin White

Posts 85
24 Dec 2019 21:18


I can't speak for the OP obviously but while there is quite a lot to find frustrating right now, I can also see that this system is going to be very, very good even compared to my 68060@100Mhz machine. The speed of the IDE alone makes it very smooth.

Just need a little more patience :)


Vojin Vidanovic
(Needs Verification)
Posts 1916/ 1
24 Dec 2019 22:20


Martin White wrote:

  Just need a little more patience :)

Exactly. You ARE the early adopters, with FPGA Core, Drivers and AROS support being all WIP. Things can only be better, and thanks to FPGA are not carved in stone.


Neil Shacklady

Posts 29
25 Dec 2019 00:39


Yep totally agree, Vampire V4SA is a journey not a destination and I'm happy to be along for the ride. Also, managed to fix my snow interference issue in P96Mode settings :)


Martin White

Posts 85
25 Dec 2019 01:52


What did you do?

I've managed to get quite a few video modes going now but I'm having to do things that I don't think I should have to do. For example, I'm currently running at 1024x576 but to do so I've had to push the framerate down to 40Hz. I'm using a variable refresh rate monitor that fortunately can manage that but I'm concious that none of my other monitors will handle it.

Also the V4 can, according to the instructions maintain 60Hz at up to 1280x720 so I guess maybe the currently shipping units have slightly out of date cores on them? I'm guessing there though.

I've had a LOT of crashes along the way too. It seems pretty common for the video to black out permanently requiring the power to be pulled and also for the sound to go until a power cycle too.


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
25 Dec 2019 08:39


Let us again clearly state that the V4SA is right now "early adopter" level.

Status today is:

Our biggest limitation is right now slow production.
We produce each month a batch and carefully test each card.

USB Mice are automagically translated into AMIGA chipset/AMIGA protocol.
This works excellently and all old AMIGA software works.
Not all USB Mice on the market are supported today.
A list with test working mice is available.

USB Keyboard are automagically translated into AMIGA chipset/AMIGA protocol.
This works excellently and all old AMIGA software works.
The CAPS-LOCK is today not correctly working.
Also not all USB Keyboard on the market are supported today.
A list with test working keyboards is available.

USB Data Exchange like USB-Stick is currently not supported.
Please use SDCard for swapping files today.

Our new developed Ethernet Chip is basically working in internal tests. The driver for it is not done yet.
This is aimed to be finished in some month.
You can access with the V4SA internet today using the V500 Ethernet module plugged in the V4.

SDCard works great for Data-Exchange and also for loading Kickstart-ROM from. There is today no OS support to load a WB from SD.

PAL/NTSC Games. Those generally work very good.
For WHDLOAD the tooltype "ExpChip" is recommended.
While the vast majority of games work, a few have still issues.
We work on this and our goal is to continuously improve this.
We appreciate feedback on games with glitches.

RTG Video. RTG Video generally works very good and very fast.
When switching resolutions it today can happen that the "audio-sync" of the output signal gets confused and depending TV-model some models loose then audio.
We work on this and look forward to fix this soon with a new driver release.

We develop Core updates regularly, each week.
The Core updates come as JIC Blaster files at the moment.
A USB-Blaster is recommended to participate here.

For those not having Blasters we want to release EXE update file soon too.

While the new AMIGA AROS Operating-system is generally from basis pretty good there are a few areas which need be polished and improved. We work on this together with the great guys from the AROS team. This is a lot to do and realistically we should have the right expectations here that it will take some month until its really polished.




Neil Shacklady

Posts 29
25 Dec 2019 10:00


Martin White wrote:

What did you do?

I had a play with the Clock MHz in P96Mode (after viewing a video by Cotter on YouTube) and found that 58.33MHz works perfectly with my Samsung screen at 1280x720.

Merry Christmas everyone... time to put the Vampire down for a bit :)



Kyle Blake
(Needs Verification)
Posts 108/ 1
25 Dec 2019 13:30


Vojin Vidanovic wrote:

No, you are not, picture is stretched. If it really went to native 320x200 32-64 col/256 on AGA or 640x480 most games are made in, its likely your modern TV would not be able display it. (there are models that can, but not a std).
    And it would be in 4:3. If your TV can, I believe WHDLoad slave can be set to change mode to real original PAL.
 

 
  This sounds quite crazy - that a TV couldn't display standard PAL/NTSC resolutions. And also, no, there's no magic tooltype that can make WHDLoad slaves load a game in a different screenmode. That's not real.


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
25 Dec 2019 13:35


Kyle Blake wrote:

Vojin Vidanovic wrote:

  No, you are not, picture is stretched. If it really went to native 320x200 32-64 col/256 on AGA or 640x480 most games are made in, its likely your modern TV would not be able display it. (there are models that can, but not a std).
      And it would be in 4:3. If your TV can, I believe WHDLoad slave can be set to change mode to real original PAL.
 

 
  This sounds quite crazy - that a TV couldn't display standard PAL/NTSC resolutions. And also, no, there's no magic tooltype that can make WHDLoad slaves load a game in a different screenmode. That's not real.

Every TV can display the PAL games.
Also correctly - just select 4:3 in your TV settings.



Vojin Vidanovic
(Needs Verification)
Posts 1916/ 1
25 Dec 2019 13:41


Kyle Blake wrote:

  This sounds quite crazy - that a TV couldn't display standard PAL/NTSC resolutions. And also, no, there's no magic tooltype that can make WHDLoad slaves load a game in a different screenmode. That's not real.

There Are screen mode promo tools for AmigaOS, my Bad.

See abilities of your TV. Sometimes limit Is Hz in some resolutions, sometimes resolutions range, not overal Pal. Old low resolutions.

And yes, v2s used to have weak outpout in higher resolutions, I throught that This Has been eliminated in late v2 and all v4 models. Repeaters and signal strenghteners.




Kyle Blake
(Needs Verification)
Posts 108/ 1
25 Dec 2019 23:13


Gunnar von Boehn wrote:

Kyle Blake wrote:

 
Vojin Vidanovic wrote:

  No, you are not, picture is stretched. If it really went to native 320x200 32-64 col/256 on AGA or 640x480 most games are made in, its likely your modern TV would not be able display it. (there are models that can, but not a std).
      And it would be in 4:3. If your TV can, I believe WHDLoad slave can be set to change mode to real original PAL.
   

   
    This sounds quite crazy - that a TV couldn't display standard PAL/NTSC resolutions. And also, no, there's no magic tooltype that can make WHDLoad slaves load a game in a different screenmode. That's not real.
 

 
  Every TV can display the PAL games.
  Also correctly - just select 4:3 in your TV settings.
 

exactly. I've no idea why this guy thinks they can't.



Eric Gus

Posts 477
26 Dec 2019 09:30


Kyle Blake wrote:

 
Gunnar von Boehn wrote:

 
Kyle Blake wrote:

   
Vojin Vidanovic wrote:

    No, you are not, picture is stretched. If it really went to native 320x200 32-64 col/256 on AGA or 640x480 most games are made in, its likely your modern TV would not be able display it. (there are models that can, but not a std).
        And it would be in 4:3. If your TV can, I believe WHDLoad slave can be set to change mode to real original PAL.
     

     
      This sounds quite crazy - that a TV couldn't display standard PAL/NTSC resolutions. And also, no, there's no magic tooltype that can make WHDLoad slaves load a game in a different screenmode. That's not real.
   

   
    Every TV can display the PAL games.
    Also correctly - just select 4:3 in your TV settings.
   
 

 
  exactly. I've no idea why this guy thinks they can't.
 
 

 
  There ARE some US Tvs that dont work with PAL modes.. this cropped up with the Ultimate64 shipped to people in the USA and some televisions did not support PAL display modes (despite the standard dictating it).. weird I know but here were are ..


Vojin Vidanovic
(Needs Verification)
Posts 1916/ 1
26 Dec 2019 09:59


eric gus wrote:

    There ARE some US Tvs that dont work with PAL modes.. this cropped up with the Ultimate64 shipped to people in the USA and some televisions did not support PAL display modes (despite the standard dictating it).. weird I know but here were are ..
 

 
  PAL was just mentioned as low resolution ECS/AGA resolution outpout, to differ it from pure RTG signal, bad wording. Overall PAL/NTSC war has ended and most TVs can work anywhere.
 
  Point is, as I wrote, NOT ALL TVs have resolution range to display everything AmigaOS and Vamp can send.
 
  Like VDU message "out of range".
 


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
26 Dec 2019 10:41


Vojin Vidanovic wrote:

 
eric gus wrote:

    There ARE some US Tvs that dont work with PAL modes..
 


 
I think this is "fake news".
 
I think the more correct report would be:
PAL is a standard and there are some "versions" of it.
And some devices send "their own interpretation" of the standard - and it could be that not all TV accept funky/strange version which are "inspired by PAL".
 
In other words it might be simply true that all TV worldwide will accept one correct PAL.

Bu the discussion whether some C64 remake does send broken PAL signal is very off-topic in an V4-Question thread.

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