[Amiga] Amiberry + WHDLoad = Holy Grail - Amiberry's official thread

silentheaven83

Hi everybody, does anyone feel that games run a little faster then normal?
I'm loading LHA files using lastest version of Retropie and Amiberry built from source on a Rpi 3B+.

For example, in Kick Off when players enter the stadium there was a slowdown in original hardware and FS-UAE but not in Amiberry and the game feels faster overall.

In Street Fighter 2 fighters seem to move faster then normal. I'm not too good at the game but when I play in FS-UAE I can beat CPU in the first round of the first opponent, in Amiberry sometimes I can't even decide how to hit the CPU.

silentheaven83

I made a little video:

that compared to:

I thinks it's a little faster. Am I wrong?

Simrose

@nemo93 can you share your uae file for OnEscapee please. I have been trying all day to get that game loading. I'm using the hdf file which was made freeware.

Thanks
Sim

alchemist

Please help with common issue, hopefully.

I've RetroPie, all packages in lastest version (10/2020), AmiBerry build from source.

My game runs OK as LHA WHDLoad package. By public WHDLoad package database game also supports:

TRAINER TOOLTYPES:
Custom1=1 for unlimited lives

So, I want to set-up Custom1=1 for my game.
Is possible to create game-context file with this specific settings?

Where (what system path) is best place and how exactly it must look?

I'm sorry for this simple question but for is not ...
Thank you very much ...

nemo93

hello all!

@alchemist what game(s) are you trying to enable trainer(s) for please? Also what is the filename of the package you're trying to run? The very latest Amiberry releases (3.2+) will direct you to a Workbench page right after you launch a LHA package for you to select a trainer. This is true only if the package does have trainer enabled. If true then you could pick an item to enable depending on what's available. If you don't see that trainers page then it's likely you don't have latest Amiberry or package doesn't have any trainer available.

@Simrose here you for OnEscapee: https://pastebin.com/6ywGmRzw

@silentheaven83 if you got a feeling that a game is running faster than it should let's have a closer look then :) It occurs to me for the Body Blows serie. This might be due to the default settings applied by Amiberry and picked from the whdload_db.xml file. Yet let's first ensure you have at least the 3 marked Kickstarts in your Retropie BIOS directory as indicated on that page. Second can you please confirm the exact packages names you're using for Kick Off and SF2 please? If you are aware of other similar issue for other games please let me know.

alchemist

@nemo93 Yes, I'm sorry for incomplete question.

Amiberry 3.3 (2020-09-17) ; Game is R-Type, package: RType_v1.4.1_0940.lha [http://www.whdload.de/games/RType.html] .
By documentation it looks like this:

TRAINER TOOLTYPES:
Custom1=1 for unlimited lives
Custom2=1 for invulnerability

From other games I know that Workbench question for enabling trainers, but here it's different ....

Thank you all ...

nemo93

hi @alchemist no worries at all. Thanks for sharing more details. Indeed that game doesn't have any trainers (or "custom") detected by the script in charge of generating the whdload_db.xml file. I'll have a deeper look but I'm afraid there won't be any quick fix anytime soon. Meanwhile I've found that in case it helps => http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/cheats.php?id=918

alchemist

@nemo93 Hi, in meantime I found this solution:

In Amiberry Configuration GUI select: Configurations > Save
It creates new UAE file at: [config_root]/amiga/amiberry/conf (in my case: RType_v1.4.1_0940.uae)
edit RType_v1.4.1_0940.uae file and find line: "whdload_custom1" set it to 1 (by default set as whdload_custom1=0 ; bottom of file)
try it in game, should works :)

Reference of Custom configration - Amiberry Wiki: https://github.com/midwan/amiberry/wiki/WHDLoad-Auto-booting

nemo93

Awesome findings @alchemist! I have to apologize this turn as I completely forgot about this new behavior from Amiberry. Indeed it was possible to edit directly a temporary file to add/modify any "custom" config. Since 3.3 it's possible (and more elegant) to edit a config file instead. Exactly as you explained! Thanks for that and for reading the doc ;-) Glad to see it working!

EDIT: I've added a line about that into the 1st post. Thanks again.

che_don_john

Hi all, I'm running v4.5.13 on a Pi 3B+, and having some input lag on Amiberry.

Read through a few threads on input lag but none that I could find concern Amiberry, hence the new post.

It occurs with all games, and I've tried two different TVs of different sizes (both set to Game Mode). Amiberry has a Frameskip option but this just made it jittery.

Is there a 'run ahead' tweak I'm missing with this emulator? Or, any other suggestions? Thanks.

muldjord

@che_don_john There is no run-ahead in Amiberry. I don't know if there are other tweaks that might help though (maybe some frame buffering levels can be changed). Amiberry is based on WinUAE, so you might get some answers by searching on that. Stuff like this. Even though that thread is old, it's about stuff concerning input polling.

nemo93

hi @che_don_john! I'll have more questions for you :) Are you able to quantify the input lag please? How many seconds delay? Or is it more a "feeling" that you have? If you have some examples with some games (don't forget to report the names of the packages used) that would be great. Also do you have similar behavior on other emulator(s)?

I'd advise you to update Retropie to the latest version (4.7) and do the same with Amiberry (3.3) - update from source. Perhaps that would help.

To have your TV sets to rely on game mode is good.

Dwarfboysim

Have just updated to a Pi4. Downloaded the official RETROPIE Pi 4 image and loaded to an SDCARD

From my Pi3 I backed up the following:

bios Share
configs Share
roms Share

I have copied all these back onto the PI 4 and have everything 99% right with the exception of the Amiga and AMIBERRY. When I select any game from the list in emulation station and launch it (games stored as .lha files). I get a blank screen for a few seconds, then I get the grey to white then the classic amiga hand appears holding the disk for V1.3. Its like the path to the game has been lost.

If I press F12 and select one of the tweaked configs I have done for an LHA game. EG: Batman and load that then restart the game starts

Any help would be appreicated. I am assuming its a config file somewhere

Thanks
Dwarfboysim

yserra

Hi @Dwarfboysim, I had exactly the same issue when I migrated a few days ago from my Raspberry Pi 3B+ to a new Raspberry Pi 4B with a new Retropie 4.6 image but restoring all my bios / roms / configs folders from my previous configuration. Everything worked as expected, except Amiberry with WHDLoad games (.lha).
Well...
I deleted the /opt/retropie/configs/amiga folder (press F4 while in EmulationStation then type : sudo rm -R /opt/retropie/configs/amiga )
I reinstalled Amiberry from binary
And... the problem is gone!
WHLoad games are working again.

Apparently, they changed the command line arguments in the last Amiberry release. Maybe, it was the cause.

Dwarfboysim

@yserra thanks for the tip thats restored WHDLoad to working order. I have just tried GAUNTLET II and the part of AMIBERRY that does the parallel port joystick emulator doesnt appear to be working. Joysticks 1 and 2 work fine but the joysticks assigned to ports 3 and 4 in Amiberry via the Parallel interface will not respond in the game.

Any ideas?

nemo93

hi @dwarfboysim! I will recommend you first to update Amiberry from source (from Retropie Setup) to ensure you run the latest code which comes with many fixes and improvements. Also ensure to update the XML file if you can and to have the recommended Kickstart in your BIOS folder.

About your specific issue I have to say I never tried to play with parallel ports ;-( Therefore I can only point you to the doc here and here in the hope it will help. If after ensuring you have updated Amiberry + check your KS roms and still facing issue you'll have to open a ticket on Amiberry's Github directly.

Dwarfboysim

@nemo93 I have raised an issue on the GitHub

luckyluca

Does Amiberry use fuzzy logic or would I need to rename the .lha files to match the xml filenames exactly?

Also if matching the name exactly, does sha1 need to match as well or is it ignored?

Thanks!

nemo93

@luckyluca hi. The .lha filenames must match xml. Same goes with sha1. This is because some lha versions do require some specific parameters the newer versions do not (or vice-versa).

That's it only if you want automatic settings to be applied. If you don't mind (or don't care) it's fine renaming the lha the way you want (not recommended though!).

luckyluca

@nemo93

thanks, it makes sense and that's what I was afraid of.

In the end I wrote a pairing tool that compares all my files' sha1 against the xml, and renamed the roms accordingly when found.

One more question, I have a set which says amiga1200 and another that says just amiga, containing similar if not the same games.
Are there games that are compiled specifically for the 1200? (not too familiar with amiga?

🙏