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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

A new version of the Compendium (v1.4, 269 pages) is available here:
http://logonsystem.fr/down/ACCC1.4-FR.pdf

The English version is under review.
Thanks to Marc for his remarkable work.
BSC, be patient ;D !!

The chapters relating to the "Interlace" mode, as well as several concepts relating to the VSYNC signal (e.g. a single-line lag in certain situations), have all been reviewed in depth.

The chapter on "tips & tricks" has been largely enriched (10 sub-chapters).

A new chapter dedicated to "fixed-time development techniques" has been added.

These techniques are one of the cornerstones of the work carried out to create the Compendium.

This new chapter is also a way to introduce the use of a CPU calculation function, described in the document.

SHAKER 2.3,  developed with the help of this calculator, is available on the logon system portal.
( 80 kb with 4 modules).

Results of the SHAKER 2.2 tests can be accessed here: https://shaker.logonsystem.fr/

I would like to take this opportunity to thank DManu for our positive, collaborative work.
Much more accurate than any other CPC emulator, AMSPIRIT perfectly simulates the "Gate Array/Z80/CRTC" trio of the old generations of CPCS for CRTCs 0, 1, 2, and 4, including all of the "Interlace" functions (unjustly ignored so far ;) ).
Rhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

andycadley

Cool. Looking forward to an English translation as the French is a bit beyond me. Really good technical documentation though. Hopefully we'll end up with definitive docs of how the different CRTC variants work and get better emulation and even more cool tricks as a result.

GUNHED

Great thing for people who want to get into CPC coding more seriously.  :) :) :)
http://futureos.de --> Get the revolutionary FutureOS (Update: 2023.11.30)
http://futureos.cpc-live.com/files/LambdaSpeak_RSX_by_TFM.zip --> Get the RSX-ROM for LambdaSpeak :-) (Updated: 2021.12.26)

SerErris

Quote from: Longshot on 19:12, 12 January 23Hello

A new version of the Compendium (v1.4, 269 pages) is available here:
http://logonsystem.fr/down/ACCC1.4-FR.pdf

The English version is under review.
Thanks to Marc for his remarkable work.
BSC, be patient ;D !!

Are we there yet ? ...  ;D
Proud owner of 2 Schneider CPC 464, 1 Schneider CPC 6128, GT65 and lots of books
Still learning all the details on how things work.

BSC

** 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.

martin464

Learning French is easier than programming crtc, by the time you know crtc coding you will know all the French swear words too!
CPC 464 - 212387 K31-4Z

"One essential object is to choose that arrangement which shall tend to reduce to a minimum the time necessary for completing the calculation." Ada Lovelace

Animalgril987


Apollo

Quote from: martin464 on 10:36, 19 January 23Learning French is easier than programming crtc, by the time you know crtc coding you will know all the French swear words too!
Learning French for 3 years as 3rd language in school, I disagree respectfully! :laugh:
CPC - My beloved first computer!

zhulien

Dragonbreed Wetware announced their second demo would include the first example of vertical rasters - but the demo never came out (as far as I know) - are you aware of that and is it possible?

megachur

Hello,

Is it what you called 'vertical raster' ?

example : https://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=9101


Technicaly : The rasters are only horizontal. but we can get pixels on the screen that look like vertical rasters ;-)!

example : https://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=7743

redbox

Quote from: zhulien on 16:57, 17 February 23Dragonbreed Wetware announced their second demo would include the first example of vertical rasters - but the demo never came out (as far as I know) - are you aware of that and is it possible?
I think they meant vertical rupture.

Maybe you could ask PowerHowse from Dragonbreed?

Longshot

Hello

A new version of the Compendium (v1.5, 282 pages) is available here:
http://logonsystem.fr/down/ACCC1.5-EN.pdf
http://logonsystem.fr/down/ACCC1.5-FR.pdf

The document updates for version 1.4 and 1.5 in English have not yet been checked and corrected by Marc.
Thank you for your indulgence.

I will put online the version corrected by Marc once available.

The chapters relating to synchronization have been reviewed in depth, in particular on the nature of the CSYNC signal sent to the monitor by the GATE ARRAY.

The chapter on the states of CRTC's 3 & 4 has been updated with the identification of new states.

SHAKER 2.4 will soon be available on the Logon portal (....Be patient ).

SHAKER now demonstrates that it is possible to achieve smooth horizontal hardware scrolling in 1 pixel mode 0 and 1 pixel mode 1 without resorting to double buffering.

Results of the SHAKER 2.2 tests can be accessed here: https://shaker.logonsystem.fr/ 

 
The next version of the Amspirit emulator, developed by @DManu, reaches new heights of precision.
Amspirit should in particular consider the work on the composite signal and its management by the CTM. 
No emulator until now was able to handle an in-line CSYNC. ;)
Rhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

GUNHED

Thanks for putting lots of work and effort in it!!!  :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
http://futureos.de --> Get the revolutionary FutureOS (Update: 2023.11.30)
http://futureos.cpc-live.com/files/LambdaSpeak_RSX_by_TFM.zip --> Get the RSX-ROM for LambdaSpeak :-) (Updated: 2021.12.26)

Longshot

SHAKER 2.4 is now available on the Logon portal:
http://logonsystem.fr/html/downloadlogon.htm

The add-on disk (SHAKER_ADDON.DSK) contains two little programs:

- An example of a vertical rupture for all crtc's (already presented with 2.1).
- An example of an hardware horizontal scroll at the pixel level in graphics mode 1.
Rhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

Anthony Flack


SyX

For game developing, of course there is a catch, you need to sustain the fx in every scanline that you want that fx.

Aside of that, you need extreme timming accuracy, because you need to set R3 = 5 and then R3 = 6 during the HSync period (that simulate the display shift per one pixel).

Of course, you can not forget, that your screen is going to shake one pixel  in horizontal, then you need to blank those columns if you can not hide them outside the screen borders (take a look to the AMAZING Relentless in Winape with "show interrupts" enabled).

And last, if you are using a HUD after the scroll zone, then you need a few scanlines between the zones for letting the CRTC resynchronize again and the start of your HUD is not shifted by the display resynchronization.

It is not impossible, but your engine need to be built around these limitations.

SerErris

Proud owner of 2 Schneider CPC 464, 1 Schneider CPC 6128, GT65 and lots of books
Still learning all the details on how things work.

SerErris

Proud owner of 2 Schneider CPC 464, 1 Schneider CPC 6128, GT65 and lots of books
Still learning all the details on how things work.

Longshot

Quote from: SerErris on 11:17, 25 July 23@Longshot it looks like that logonsystem.fr is down?

I am getting this page:

Sorry about that. I am changing providers.

You can download version 1.5 here.
http://logon.system.free.fr/down/ACCC1.5-EN.pdf
Rhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

SerErris

Nothing to apologize .. Thanks for providing the document and the link.

Actually thanks for doing the hard work on all of that. Really one of the best documents for the CPC in its entirety.
Proud owner of 2 Schneider CPC 464, 1 Schneider CPC 6128, GT65 and lots of books
Still learning all the details on how things work.

Longshot

Rhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

Longshot

A new version of the Compendium (v1.6, 284 pages) is available here:
http://logon.system.free.fr/down/ACCC1.6-EN.pdf
http://logon.system.free.fr/down/ACCC1.6-FR.pdf

(cannot edit my previous message to correct the link :o )
Rhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

slingshot

I'm reading the English translated version of the docs, it's a lot of knowledge in one place.
I have some difficulty about understanding R.F.D. (chapter 11.5).
It says
"It is important to note however that if the condition C0=R1 is not met (because R1>R0), then the
condition C9=R9 is enough to deactivate the update of VMA with R12/R13. It is therefore not
enough for R1>R0 to be able to modify the offset on each line."
However the DSC4 demo sets only R5 once in a frame, but C9=R9 condition happens a lot (R9=07), and RFD still should not turn off (as it would break the demo).
So in this demo, what would be the deactivate condition? Isn't C9=R9 should be C9=R9 _and_ C4=R4?

Apollo

I just wanted to say a really heart felt "THANK YOU!" to Longshot and everybody else who might be involved in that project!  8)

I really learned a lot reading through it, even when not everything made complete sense to me and may need some code testing to fully grasp how that all plays together.
But this is one of the best and most detailed documentation for a retro computer I ever read!

THANK YOU!

CPC - My beloved first computer!

Longshot

@Appolo: Thank you for your appreciation. It's encouraging to have positive feedback on my work. ;D

@slingshot: I think that the "sick mode" that you apply is nonsense.
This explains the regressions you encounter on Mist with other demos.
"Sick mode" is the simple observation of a phenomenon that remained unexplained until the Compendium.
In effect, an unexplained phenomenon had been detected when setting R5>0 on C0=R0.

The Compendium explains and documents all of the CRTC logic behind this bug since version 1.2.
This has given rise to a new technique called RFD that allows you to modify the offset on each line on the CRTC 1.
The answer to your question is found in the sentence following the one you quoted.
You just need to read the chapter completely to understand how it works.
This is how DManu78 implemented it correctly in Amspirit.

Version 1.7 of the document is available at https://shaker.logonsystem.eu
Rhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

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