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Release of Amstrad Cpc Crtc Compendium (and Amazing Demo Rev 2021)

Started by Longshot, 08:36, 30 November 21

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Longshot

Hello all,
I have just published a new version of the Amazing Demo with an additional part that introduces a comprehensive document on the CRTC (and a few other peripheral circuits).

This demo is compatible with all CPCs, regardless of their CRTC.
For the moment, the Amstrad Cpc Crtc Compendium document is in only available in French, but an English version is under preparation.

Please be patient (or misuse Google Translate  ;) )

https://demozoo.org/productions/302806/
http://logonsystem.fr/down/ACCC2-FR.pdf
Rhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

eto

WOW!


>170 pages of information. I am deeply impressed!


Unfortunately can't be translated as Google only accepts documents up to 10MB. Would you be able to publish it as HTML on a Website? With that, we could all translate to whatever language we prefer.

dthrone

Looks amazing.  Eagerly anticipating the English version!  :)

XeNoMoRPH

your amstrad news source in spanish language : https://auamstrad.es

norecess464

For the people willing more details about what this release really means for the Amstrad community, I just updated my personal website with a dedicated news for this AMAZING effort from @Longshot / LOGON SYSTEM :)

http://norecess.cpcscene.net/news/raaaaahhhh-the-amazing-longshots-comeback
My personal website: https://norecess.cpcscene.net
My current project is Sonic GX, a remake of Sonic the Hedgehog for the awesome Amstrad GX-4000 game console!

HAL6128

Could you describe for a noob Z80 coder what happened here in short? I can see plenty of colors partly in Mode 2 (rasters?) In full screen. Even one line is separated in different colours. Impressive but I can't imagine the programming efforts behind.
...proudly supported Schnapps Demo, Pentomino and NQ-Music-Disc with GFX

Longshot

Hello,

QuoteCould you describe for a noob Z80 coder what happened here in short?

In the upper part of the screen, the logo is in graphic mode 0.
In this part, the video offset on each line is updated with the possibility of accessing the majority of the central RAM.

More generally the old techniques were often limited to less than 50% of the RAM, whereas it is now possible to use 100%.
The CRTC 0 and 2 also have the unique capability to do this more easily than the CRTC 1, 3, and 4; they therefore have access to more CPU during the line.
The lower part is of little technical interest.
These are effectively just color changes for PEN 0 and 1 on each line.

A more interesting section can be found in the 6th part of the demo, which uses the most popular technique on CPC.
Here, the video offset is also updated on each line, but this process can only access 12% of the RAM; however, more CPU is accessible during the line.
This technique now works on the CRTC 2, which did not use to be the case.

QuoteWould you be able to publish it as HTML on a Website?
I will do my best to provide the English version as soon as i can (I do not wish to make the document available in HTML).

Thanks XeNoMoRPH for the YouTube video.  ;D
Rhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

BSC

RAAAHHHHHHHHH! A (almost) new release by Longshot! The intro screen looks really good and I am so curious to read that documentation (once it has been translated into a normal language  :D ;) )
** My SID player/tracker AYAY Kaeppttn! on github **  Some CPC music and experiments ** Other music ** More music on scenestream (former nectarine) ** Some shaders ** Some Soundtrakker tunes ** Some tunes in Javascript

My hardware: ** Schneider CPC 464 with colour screen, 64k extension, 3" and 5,25 drives and more ** Amstrad CPC 6128 with M4 board, GreaseWeazle.

norecess464

Quote from: BSC on 23:03, 02 December 21RAAAHHHHHHHHH! A (almost) new release by Longshot!
On a personal note, I think that's fantastic to see old legends of the early 90s - yes, both of you, @BSC and @Longshot - still around in the community -- 30+ years later. :) :) :)
My personal website: https://norecess.cpcscene.net
My current project is Sonic GX, a remake of Sonic the Hedgehog for the awesome Amstrad GX-4000 game console!

TotO

"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

lmimmfn

I've translated 50 pages so far(just using Google translate with some tidy up admittedly with my crap french, pic grabbing and reformatting) , plan to finish it soon, its a word doc, might be exportable as pdf.
Will not make available without Longshot's permission(not my work but I was curious of the content)

Fascinating read tbh.
6128 for the win!!!

Longshot

I advise you to wait a little longer for version 1.2 to come out because I corrected some errors and added a lot of things (225 pages).
I will release the English version at the same time.
Rhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

lmimmfn

Quote from: Longshot on 23:53, 04 May 22I advise you to wait a little longer for version 1.2 to come out because I corrected some errors and added a lot of things (225 pages).
I will release the English version at the same time.
Ohh very nice, I was only translating for my own interest, as its been a while since OP, do you have any approximate release date of the English version?

If you're interested I can help with the English version of the 1.2 version, can send what I've done as example, was doing 17 pages per hour, language conversion, proof reading/ambiguity translation correction, redoing tables and charts.
I do write technical docs professionally to support my coding implementations, so I do have experience.

If I did help, I wouldn't be looking for any recognition or absolutely anything else, merely interested in spreading tech info.

Otherwise, no problem, very much look forward to the English version of 1.2.
Thanks
6128 for the win!!!

Longshot

Thank you for this proposal. ;D
I will send you a PM.
Rhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

Longshot

Hello all,

I have just published version 1.2 of the compendium.
http://logonsystem.fr/down/ACCC1.2-FR.pdf

This version corrects some errors and addresses more specialized subjects, with in particular chapters on the gate array (highlighting the differences between the models), or even the precise management of i/o and interrupts by the Z80a, as well as new techniques (RFD=Rupture For Dummies, CRTC 1A/1B, Vertical Scroll at 1/64th sub-pixel, Interlace, R2.JIT/R3.JIT, ...).

The SHAKER test module in version 2.1 is related to this document.
http://logonsystem.fr/down/shaker21.dsk

The latest version of Amspirit emulator is currently able to correctly satisfy almost all the tests.
Thanks to DManu for the considerable work he provided on his emulator.

The English version is being corrected by Mark.
Give him time because there is work. Mark, thank you very much for your proposal ! ;)
Rhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

Longshot

For those who have a CRTC 1, they can possibly run SHAKE21B.BIN, and then press the "O" key, in order to know if their CRTC is a CRTC 1-A or 1-B. Currently out of 7 CRTC 1 tested, 3 were 1-B.

SHAKE21B.BIN also contains the demonstration of sub-pixel vertical scrolling ("0" (zero) key) at 50Hz (1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64) which will only work on a monitor CTM and which would theoretically require a higher resolution than the best monitors can currently provide (in theory 272x64=17408 vertical pixels ;D )
Rhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

ThomH

Quote from: Longshot on 12:29, 26 May 22The English version is being corrected by Mark.
Give him time because there is work. Mark, thank you very much for your proposal ! ;)
I'm an emulator author who currently works as a developer, but before that career I was a writer and editor at a couple of different publishers, so drop me a line if you want any additional help. Otherwise I'll just keep my eyes peeled. Thanks in advance for putting so much effort into this!

Longshot

The English version of the compendium 1.2 is available here:
http://logonsystem.fr/down/ACCC1.2-EN.pdf
Many thanks to Marc for his remarkable work.

Version 1.3 will contain at least revisions to CRTC 2, 3 and 4 interlace chapters.
English and French versions will be released at the same time. ;)
Rhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

TotO

"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

lmimmfn

Quote from: Longshot on 09:50, 27 July 22The English version of the compendium 1.2 is available here:
http://logonsystem.fr/down/ACCC1.2-EN.pdf
Many thanks to Marc for his remarkable work.

Version 1.3 will contain at least revisions to CRTC 2, 3 and 4 interlace chapters.
English and French versions will be released at the same time. ;)
Thanks Serge

Quote from: TotO on 09:58, 27 July 2230 pages free
Lol, you made me panic, blank pages have been removed from the English version along with realignment of pages in the translation resulted in a reduced page count.
6128 for the win!!!

Longshot

Quote from: TotO on 09:58, 27 July 2230 pages free
??

Version 1.1: 173 pages
Version 1.2: 226 pages (French/English)
Rhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

TotO

226 -> 256

Just a "byte joke" about the free space left to add more content.
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

ThomH

Kneejerk comment only: "Note that the American (and Japanese) format was the NTSC (National Television System Committee) with a horizontal frequency of 17,734 kHz and vertical of 60 Hz." is definitely not right; it's around 15.734 Hz since the introduction of colour, having been 15,750 Hz before that.

... and if that's the biggest error in the book — a typo of '7' for '5' and use of a comma as a decimal point — then I think you're on extremely solid ground. Thanks for putting so much work into this!

Longshot

Thank you for this feedback.
I just corrected the error. I didn't know they changed the NTSC horizontal frequency to minimize interference between certain signals. (my source was wrong https://www.son-video.com/guide/les-standards-de-la-television).
I indicated the frequencies in Hz.
The point or the comma is definitely prohibited as a thousand separator. >:(

Do not hesitate to make other feedback if you notice other errors (there are some that I corrected in 1.3).

I re-uploaded the version with some corrections on cross-references that Winword had trashed.
Rhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

Longshot

The English version of the compendium 1.3 is available here:
http://logonsystem.fr/down/ACCC1.3-EN.pdf
Many thanks to Marc for his remarkable work.

In order to facilitate access to the results of the SHAKER tests, a portal was created:
https://shaker.logonsystem.fr/
Rhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

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