Zerosquare

Check out the video (with sound) here (the scroller is smoother on real hardware ).

For those who don't read Yaronet, I've released a PC invitro for the RGC 2006 .

Yes, we'd have liked to meet you too We don't even have Internet access at the party place, so... Thanks !

I don't like that comment Why do I have the feeling you've played with the Alpine's debugger a lot ?

I'll have to sort the files a bit first I'll keep you updated.

As long as you keep the video timings compatible with TV standards, there should be no problem (beware with that -- you can easily fry some monitors with incorrects settings. I use a TV capture card for testing.) I guess you already know how to do the horizontal part, but just in case : set the PWIDTH field to 1 in the VMODE register to get about 690 pixels in 50 Hz, or 700 pixels in 60 Hz. It will work on all Jags. The vertical part is trickier. You need to enable interlacing to get 574 lines in 50 Hz, or 482 lines in 60 hz (note that the pixels won't be squares). I've written some not-yet-released code to initialize all video registers properly both for 50 Hz and 60 Hz (it's not present in the demos I released several months ago) and verified that the video signals are correct with a logic analyzer, but I put the project aside. What needs to be done is to check the compatibility with all Jag models, and figure out some OP-related things I haven't investigated yet. No major modifications are needed in the code. Apart from the video registers initialization, you have to take into account that you now have 50 or 60 interlaced, alternating half-images per second. This affects the way you setup the object list, and there's a little trick without which you'll only get half of the VBL interrupts. Remember also that the picture will be more "flickery" - some kind of graphics are particularily affected (sharp edges, etc.). I've not released mine yet, but I'm willing to share it with you. Symmetry of TNG can probably give you a hand also.

I've just started playing with the GPU, so apologies if this is well-known. If you read the doc carefully, you'll see that MOVEQ writes the destination register in cycle 2, unlike most instructions for which this happens in cycle 3. This is cool, because code like this doesn't cause a pipeline stall, even though we use r1 just after writing it : moveq #1, r1 or r1, r0 But this can be a trap too ! Remember this bug ? At the first glance this seems to only affect long-latency instructions such as LOAD... but because of the behaviour of MOVEQ, the following code doesn't work reliably either ! xor r1, r1 moveq #1, r1 So beware when you use MOVEQ...

Idem

Same thing Tout pareil

Dunno if you've noticed, but we've got a new member : swapd0 ! Welcome aboard, swapd0 !

Happy birthday ray !

C'est vrai ça ? Un grand ôÔ à Cooper aussi alors

Arf je suis en retard Excellent anniversaire au grand motivateur de Jagware et au spécialiste français de Super Burnout !

If you've registered, you can fix the problem yourself, that's what a wiki is all about

Because he hates maths, and likes bugs Maybe he simply forgot ?

In theory that's possible, but someone would need to write the drivers for the USB "glue" chip we're using.

[English] I've added more detailed info here. [Français] J'ai ajouté des informations plus détaillées ici.

[English] Since several persons requested more detailed info, here are the Catnip Cable features : A replacement for the BJL parallel cable The BJL protocol is handled internally, so the tranfers are reliable no matter the computer the Catnip Cable is connected to. The speed is currently about 50 kilobytes per second. This feature is completely independent of the JagCF, so it can be used by those who don't have it, or who wish to develop or use standard BJL homebrews. A high-speed serial port The Catnip cable can act as high-speed (up to 3 Mbaud), TTL-level serial port. It can be connected to the JagCF for real-time communication between a Jaguar and a computer, or used for your own applications. A JagCF updater Several major upgrades are planned for the JagCF ; the Catnip Cable will be necessary to enjoy the full potential of the card. An open system The Catnip Cable is a USB 1.1 device compatible with Windows (98 to XP) and Linux x86 (other platforms are being considered, but we can't promise anything). The software will be provided in source and compiled form, and the information needed to develop your own applications will be available. More... The firmware can be updated easily through USB, so future functionalities can be added without having to send the cable back to us. (Of course, firmware and software updates will be free.) [Français] Comme plusieurs personnes ont demandé des informations plus détaillées, voici les caractéristiques du Catnip Cable : Un remplacement du câble BJL parallèle Le protocole BJL est géré en interne, donc les transferts sont fiables quel que soit l'ordinateur sur lequel le Catnip Cable est connecté. La vitesse est actuellement d'environ 50 kilo-octets par seconde. Cette fonctionnalité est entièrement indépendante de la JagCF, elle peut donc être utilisée par ceux qui ne la possèdent pas, ou qui veulent développer ou utiliser des homebrew BJL standards. Un port série à haute vitesse Le Catnip Cable peut se comporter comme un port série à haute vitesse (3 Mbauds) à niveaux TTL. Il peut être connecté à la JagCF pour une communication en temps réel entre une Jaguar et un ordinateur, ou utilisé pour vos propres applications. Un moyen de mettre à jour la JagCF Plusieurs améliorations majeures sont prévues pour la JagCF ; le Catnip Cable sera nécessaire pour profiter au maximum du potentiel de la carte. Un système ouvert Le Catnip Cable est un périphérique USB 1.1 compatible avec Windows (de 98 à XP) et Linux x86 (d'autres plateformes sont à l'étude, mais nous ne pouvons rien promettre). Les logiciels seront fournis sous forme source et compilée, et les informations nécessaires pour développer vos propres applications seront disponibles. Plus... Le firmware peut être mis à jour facilement par USB, par conséquent des fonctionnalités futures pourront être ajoutées sans devoir nous renvoyer le câble. (Bien entendu, les mises à jour du firmware et des logiciels seront gratuites.)

Welcome Tyrant ! (nice avatar btw )

OK, three posts, but only two votes... please vote in addition to (or instead of) posting, it makes tracking easier. Thank you.

See here. (Sorry Raz - I created the topic on AtariAge because not all developers are Jagware members, so they cannot post replies here.)

I've posted the first draft of the API here.

No

I had not thought about it, but it should be easy to make a DLL out of the API, and use it in Visual Basic.