Author Topic: JavaCPC Desktop available as BETA! (Read 76293 times)

Devilmarkus · « **Reply #300 on:** 23:55, 22 July 11 »

Thanks for your feedback, chrd.

Version 6.7 is already very old & outdated.
Since I applied a complete desktop system and many new features, the emulator is not longer hosted on Sourceforge.

Also the actual version is meant to be used on Windows systems only, because it uses a few command line based Windows-Tools.
(It could work also on Mac OS when you start the .jar file! but will not support the features like DSKUtil, CDT/DSK transfer tools etc...)
You should also make sure, that you launch it with -xms set.
e.g. java -Xms768m -jar javacpc.jar

You can download and test the actual beta here:
Download 2011-07-14 beta

chrd · « **Reply #301 on:** 01:36, 23 July 11 »

Quote from: Devilmarkus on 23:55, 22 July 11

Thanks for your feedback, chrd.

Version 6.7 is already very old & outdated.
Since I applied a complete desktop system and many new features, the emulator is not longer hosted on Sourceforge.

Also the actual version is meant to be used on Windows systems only, because it uses a few command line based Windows-Tools.
(It could work also on Mac OS when you start the .jar file! but will not support the features like DSKUtil, CDT/DSK transfer tools etc...)
You should also make sure, that you launch it with -xms set.
e.g. java -Xms768m -jar javacpc.jar

You can download and test the actual beta here:
Download 2011-07-14 beta

Thanks!
I can confirm that this JavaCPC version is working perfectly fine (apart from the missing features) on OS X 10.6.8.
java -version:

java version "1.6.0_24"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_24-b07-334-10M3326)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 19.1-b02-334, mixed mode)

MiguelSky · « **Reply #302 on:** 03:19, 23 July 11 »

Quote from: Devilmarkus on 22:45, 13 July 11

No... Until I can't extract the files from a CDT its not possible

Some applications as Spectrum Taper can do it. Perhaps you could start to seek there

Devilmarkus · « **Reply #303 on:** 12:39, 23 July 11 »

Quote from: MiguelSky on 03:19, 23 July 11

Some applications as Spectrum Taper can do it. Perhaps you could start to seek there

I already searched there.
But no tool is good for my requirements...

mahlemiut · « **Reply #304 on:** 04:08, 06 August 11 »

Update on running Java CPC under Linux...

Uninstalled Pulseaudio, now it will run at 51(?) FPS. But only if it is to 44100Hz. Any other setting goes back to 5FPS. Also, there is no AY output. Drive noises, SP0256 output, and so on do work well.

When running slow, either with or without Pulseaudio, the console output shows constant "resync: start = 0" messages.

Devilmarkus · « **Reply #305 on:** 16:26, 20 August 11 »

A few people have shown me a link to an emulator, which has a "screen lens effect" (Forgot the link, sorry...)
Well I tried to code that, too, but with only 1-2fps it's not really fun!

Gryzor · « **Reply #306 on:** 16:49, 20 August 11 »

Mmmm...not very realistic I'm afraid... Maybe the lack of scanlines?

MaV · « **Reply #307 on:** 18:35, 20 August 11 »

You lack the border, and the screen lens effect is not as big on a monitor as shown in your example.

I also don't think that such an effect is justified as it adds little value to the retro quality of the CPC image, especially since such algorithms are quite costly on the java platform. The OS X terminal emulation in the other thread is compiled natively for sure.

Gryzor · « **Reply #308 on:** 19:34, 20 August 11 »

Well, give him a break, it was a first effort

Devilmarkus · « **Reply #309 on:** 22:24, 20 August 11 »

Don't need a break because I already abandoned this crap...

Devilmarkus · « **Reply #310 on:** 23:02, 20 August 11 »

But the CTM-phosphor emulation I like:

Of course it's not the closest result but it's coded in pure java without any accelerators!

Morn · « **Reply #311 on:** 01:04, 21 August 11 »

Yes, good phosphor emulation is definitely more important. By default the CPC screen has such wide borders that the curvature effect is fairly minimal anyway.

And I suspect Cathode uses a textured OpenGL surface for the curved screen, so of course its frame rate is much better--the "screen bending" effect is not done by the CPU but the GPU. And yet the program is still a total CPU hog according to the YouTube comments.

MaV · « **Reply #312 on:** 01:16, 21 August 11 »

Quote from: Morn on 01:04, 21 August 11

And I suspect Cathode uses a textured OpenGL surface for the curved screen, so of course its frame rate is much better--the "screen bending" effect is not done by the CPU but the GPU. And yet the program is still a total CPU hog according to the YouTube comments.

I can imagine that. It expects a better graphics chip in the Mac, so the Intel-chips and even some better ones won't work.

The effect looks very nice, but I need a responsive system.

mahlemiut · « **Reply #313 on:** 01:54, 21 August 11 »

You could try fiddling with the HLSL effects in MESS, you can get some nice output from that, provided you have a reasonably powerful video card (Pixel Shaders 3.0 or later recommended, Windows only, but runs well under Wine).

Morn · « **Reply #314 on:** 18:37, 21 August 11 »

Those HLSL-based CRT effects look pretty nice indeed! Here's an example with MAME, not MESS. Could really have fooled me into thinking this was filmed off an arcade CRT.

This is also good news for arcade enthusiasts, because finding replacement CRTs is becoming more and more problematic for them apparently.

[youtube]hvPNZTBl2ao[/youtube]

Devilmarkus · « **Reply #315 on:** 20:01, 21 August 11 »

The biggest problem to realize such effects is:
The emulated systems have a screen resolution of 320x240 (or so) so it's easy to resize this screen to a triple size.
There you can add easily new rendered dots, lines etc...
But the CPC uses at least 768x272 pixels.
There it's much harder to add additional pixels.
I am doing the same method as its used in DosBox.
I also use just 384x272 pixels, and stretch them to double (768x544)
So I can re-render each pixel to a new 2x2 dot.
{R}{G}
{B}{L}

This demonstrates a single CPC dot in MODE 1.

I split this pixel into R,G, B and also L (RGB as its by default)

Thus, a MODE 2 screen looks more weird of course.I also can't use any hardware accelerators (jogl, or similar) to improve the speed, so really just some tricky algorithms can do the effects I made in JavaCPC.

WinApe for example:

I am sure, the PAL effect is done with usage of Direct-X accelerated routines...

Gryzor · « **Reply #316 on:** 22:05, 21 August 11 »

Unfortunately that MAME filter doesn't come near the real stuff... I hope my arcade cab's CRT lasts for many years to come!

Devilmarkus · « **Reply #317 on:** 12:48, 02 September 11 »

Thanks to Antonio Villena, JavaCPC will be able soon, to playback a modified .TAP format as tape image:

[youtube]ILVPGEExMEQ[/youtube]

I will also add a converter which can convert CDT images to .TAP format.
Sadly the .TAP work only with unprotected CDTs...

Gryzor · « **Reply #318 on:** 12:52, 02 September 11 »

Thanks to Antonio Villena, JavaCPC will be able soon, to playback a modified .TAP format as tape image:

[youtube]ILVPGEExMEQ[/youtube]

I will also add a converter which can convert CDT images to .TAP format.
Sadly the .TAP work only with unprotected CDTs...

Maybe a silly question and maybe it's been answered before (did a short search), but: how were tapes protected? It *was* just sound after all... No damaged sectors, no weird layouts, no strange disk formats...

Devilmarkus · « **Reply #319 on:** 12:55, 02 September 11 »

They can be protected by binary routines.
Speedlock for example resets your CPC when the tape speed it a few µS too slow or too fast.

But there are several protection methods...

Gryzor · « **Reply #320 on:** 12:56, 02 September 11 »

So, for instance, if you got a really hi-end double-decker you can copy a Speedlock protection theoretically?

Devilmarkus · « **Reply #321 on:** 12:59, 02 September 11 »

Sure, why not?

Gryzor · « **Reply #322 on:** 13:06, 02 September 11 »

Ok, I see. I realised MacDeath has put together a nice category (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Category:Copy_Protection) but there's not much info... maybe an interesting topic!

Executioner · « **Reply #323 on:** 06:24, 05 September 11 »

WinApe for example:

I am sure, the PAL effect is done with usage of Direct-X accelerated routines...

Nah, just RGB averaging with alternate half-bright for scan lines.

Devilmarkus · « **Reply #324 on:** 22:58, 05 September 11 »

Quote from: Executioner on 06:24, 05 September 11

Nah, just RGB averaging with alternate half-bright for scan lines.

Humm yes...
It's a quite fast rendering method.
Thanks to demoniak, who told me how this can be done, I adapted it:

News:

Author Topic: JavaCPC Desktop available as BETA! (Read 76293 times)