--- uae/docs/FAQ 2018/04/24 16:38:51 1.1.1.2 +++ uae/docs/FAQ 2018/04/24 16:41:51 1.1.1.4 @@ -1,59 +1,70 @@ Some Frequently Asked Questions. Please read this carefully if you have problems. -Q: Where can I download a Kickstart ROM/Amiga games? -A: Read the docs again. You can't. It would be illegal to put a ROM image or - other copyrighted software on the net (yes, even if you once bought a - specific Amiga game and sold it together with the computer, downloading the - same game now would still be illegal. Sorry.) +** COMMON PROBLEMS -Q: When will version 1.0 come out, and what will be in it? -A: I have no idea. I don't give too much thought about the version numbers. - The only thing I can say about them is that they increase monotonically. I - also can't really say what features will be added. As many as useful, I - hope. - -Q: Will you support CyberGFX (or some other standard) to make the Workbench - run in a higher resolution? - Couldn't you use ARDI's CPU emulation to speed it up? -A: UAE is free software. It comes with sourcecode. ARDI's Executor, and as - far as I know all the Amiga graphics card "standards" are proprietary and - sold commercially. The companies that make these programs have no reason at - all to give away their code for free, because they wouldn't make any more - money if they did. - The only option for better graphics support is to rewrite the graphics - library with a native equivalent. That's a huge amount of work. - (yes, I really get asked this kind of thing! I don't know where people take - these ideas from). +Q: Sometimes, after UAE exits, there is no autorepeat for the keys! +A: Do "xset r on" (happens only in X, apparently mainly on Solaris boxes. + Dunno why.). [Should be fixed by now. Note that this always happens when + UAE crashes] -Q: Will there be any form of support for high-resolution graphics modes - (e.g. Workbench in 1024x768)? -A: I don't know yet. I hope so, but there are some technical difficulties. - There are several options how it might be implemented: - - reimplement all of the Amiga OS: Painful. No, it wouldn't suffice - just to rewrite graphics.library native as I once thought naively. - That wouldn't work. You'd need a native kernel (i.e. exec.library) - to get it to work because graphics and esp. intuition multitask - happily and that doesn't work in native emulation code yet. - (There are some bits and pieces in execlib.c, and it even occasionally - boots if you turn these on, so you may want to play with that if - you're a programmer) - - emulate graphics card hardware: _should_ be rather easy, once you get - chipset documentation (maybe steal from Linux/68k, I think they have - some support for graphics cards in their X server). You'd still need - some form of commercial support software, i.e. a CyberGFX or EGS driver - or whatever for the particular graphics card model that's emulated. +Q: When UAE starts up, it says "Illegal instruction: 4e7b". Why? +A: That's normal, it's just the Kickstart CPU type test. -Q: Does UAE run on the DEC Alpha/Sparcstations/SGIs/whatever? -A: UAE should run on all Unix systems that have at least X11R5 and a decent - C compiler installed. So the answer is probably yes. Just use the generic - Unix source and follow the instructions in README.UNIX to compile it. +Q: When UAE starts up, it says "Illegal instruction: 00f8" (many times). Why? +A: That's because your Kickstart ROM was compiled for the 68020. + (could also happen when there's a bug in UAE) + +Q: When UAE loads it says "Non-standard sync". +A: Your favourite game is copy-protected. There are ways to transfer such + disks, but it's complicated and I won't help you because it would be much + too time-consuming to figure out all sorts of copy-protection schemes. + I hope there will be a general solution some day, but for now you're + unlucky. + +Q: While it compiles, it says "xxx illegals generated" or "16 mismatches". + Is this a problem? +A: No. I can use this information to tell whether there is a problem, and + there isn't. + +Q: How can I produce an @ symbol (or any other sign)? On my PC keyboard it's + AltGr+Q, but that doesn't seem to work. +A: Look at the keyboard of your Amiga. Use the same combination that you would + need on a real Amiga. These combinations differ across countries. Make sure + you have loaded the right keyboard translation table for AmigaOS (e.g. in + Germany, make sure there's a "setmap de" command in the startup-sequence) + You can probably create a @ sign by pressing Alt+2, or Shift+2. + + +** INCOMPATIBILITIES + +Q: UAE does not work with my Kickstart 1.2 image. +A: You may need to turn off the harddisk and fastmem emulation with the "-a" + parameter. Kick 1.2 doesn't support the autoboot features that the harddisk + emulation requires. + You can tell that you are suffering from this problem if UAE gives you the + message "filesys_bput called". + +Q: What do I do if a game/demo/application doesn't work? +A: If you're trying to run a game or a demo, enable some slow RAM, and try + running it again. Some older software has compatability problems which + slow RAM can sometimes fix. If it's an application, check for obvious + things like Kickstart version requirements, RAM, etc. Also make sure the + software you're trying to run isn't for AGA equipped machines. + You can also try changing various other options, like the CPU type. For + games, sometimes "-C0c" will make it work. + + +** AMIGA DISKS, DISK IMAGES, HARDDISKS, CDROMS Q: Is it possible to read Amiga disks with a PC? -A: Ask that in comp.emulators.misc :-) The answer is: NO! Unless you invent - and build some extra hardware yourself, which no one appears to have done - yet. You'd also need some extra software driver; the whole setup would be - similar to the X1541 cable/software for C64 emulators. +A: No, and yes. No, with a standard PC it's impossible. However, with some + additional hardware (i.e. a new floppy controller) it is possible. I + currently know of two solutions, the AFR package which consists of a small + parallel port interface that you have to build yourself and some software, + and the Catweasel controller which is available as an ISA card and comes + with DOS software that can create disk files. I have a Catweasel here, and + it does in fact work. Q: Couldn't I attach an Amiga floppy drive to the PC somehow, and use that to read Amiga disks? @@ -61,8 +72,24 @@ A: You can attach Amiga (low-density) dr completely identical to PC drives. This won't help you, because the problem is not the drive, but the PC floppy controller. You have to live with it. +Q: But the PC can read 11-sector formats! +A: Yes, but those sectors look a little different to the hardware. + +Q: But the Amiga can read PC disks! +A: So what? + +Q: But the PC can read Atari ST disks! +A: So what? + Q: But... -A: No way. +A: No way. If you still are convinced that it must be possible, prove it. + Write a program to read Amiga disks with a standard PC controller, and I + will apologize in public. + +Q: How can I use DMS images? +A: Run DMS under UAE and use it just like you would on a real Amiga. + Decompressing a DMS file to DF0: will overwrite the .adf file that is + currently used to emulate df0:. Q: How can I transfer non-DOS disks that are used by many demos? A: With transdisk. The fact that they are unreadable by AmigaDOS does not @@ -92,77 +119,56 @@ A: With transdisk. The fact that they ar to them. The point is, it doesn't have to. It only has to make sense for the Workbench which tries to determine what files there are on a disk. If the Workbench can't find a filesystem it knows about on the disk, it will - be marked as a non-DOS disk. + be marked as a non-DOS disk (as opposed to an "unreadable" disk which you + get if the low-level format is different from the standard). Q: How can I change diskfiles? A: Your version of UAE may have a user interface (the X11 version does) which enables you to do this. Read your system-specific README file for details. - You can also use the UAE_CONTROL programs from the "amiga" subdirectory. - -Q: UAE does not work with my Kickstart 1.2 image. -A: You may need to turn off the harddisk and fastmem emulation with the "-a" - parameter. Kick 1.2 doesn't support the autoboot features that the harddisk - emulation requires. + You can also use the "uaectrl" programs from the "amiga" subdirectory. -Q: The "configure" script does not find Tcl/Tk, but I have it installed! -A: The script checks for an executable called "wish4.0". There is currently - no better test. Unfortunately, this executable is not always present, - even though Tk 4.0 is installed. If that is the case, find the "wish" - executable, go into the directory where you found it and type - "ln -s wish wish4.0" (provided you have write rights in that directory, - i.e. you are super-user). Then go back to the UAE directory, remove the - file config.cache and rerun "configure". That should do the trick. +Q: Why is the floppy emulation so slow, after all the disk image is on a + harddisk? +A: Because the disk rotation is emulated. This is necessary. Use the harddisk + emulation wherever possible. + +Q: +A: Don't use the hardfile. Use the filesystem emulation ("-m" option). + +Q: How can I read Amiga CD-ROMs? +A: With the harddisk emulation. Give UAE the parameter "-M CD:/cdrom" if you + are using a Linux system with the CD mounted at /cdrom, or "-m CD:D:\" if + you are using DOS and D: is your CD-ROM drive (and if you have a different + system you should be able to figure out what to do) Q: Is it possible to read Amiga harddisks with a PC? A: Yes. Linux 2.0 has an Amiga filesystem that can reportedly read Amiga OFS/FFS harddisks. Please don't ask for details, I didn't write the thing, - and I don't use it (yet). + and I don't use it (yet). I did use it to read .adf disk images, though. -Q: When UAE starts up, it says "Illegal instruction: 4e7b". Why? -A: That's normal, it's just the Kickstart CPU type test. -Q: When UAE starts up, it says "Illegal instruction: 00f8" (many times). Why? -A: That's because your Kickstart ROM was compiled for the 68020. - (could also happen when there's a bug in UAE) +** FUTURE PLANS -Q: When UAE loads it says "Non-standard sync". -A: Your favourite game is copy-protected. There are ways to transfer such - disks, but it's complicated and I won't help you because it would be much - too time-consuming to figure out all sorts of copy-protection schemes. - I hope there will be a general solution some day, but for now you're - unlucky. +Q: When will the next version come out, and what will be in it? +A: It will come out when it's done. -Q: While it compiles, it says "xxx illegals generated" or "16 mismatches". - Is this a problem? -A: No. I can use this information to tell whether there is a problem, and - there isn't. +Q: Will there be a shareware version or some registration fee for future + versions of UAE? +A: No. -Q: Why is there a blank area on the left side of the screen? -A: The Amiga can display graphics there, but usually doesn't because this - would disable some sprites. The area is only used by some overscan demos. - Normal screens are off-center. I'm not going to do anything about that. - If you can't stand it, you can try to use 320x200 or 640x480 resolution, - which will attempt to center the screen. This is near impossible to get - right for every program. If your screen doesn't fit in lower resolutions, - use 800x600. +Q: Couldn't you use ARDI's CPU emulation to speed it up? +A: UAE is free software. It comes with sourcecode. ARDI's Executor is + proprietary and sold commercially. ARDI has no reason at all to give away + their code for free, because they wouldn't make any more money if they did. + (yes, I really get asked this kind of thing! I don't know where people take + these ideas from). -Q: Benchmark program gives weird results. -A: Amiga programs run by the emulator think the Amiga timers can be used to - measure real time. But in UAE, they only measure "emulation time". Sysinfo, - for example, gives the same results on all machines. So don't run - benchmarks to test the emulator speed. - Some benchmarks also use tight loops of DIV or MUL instructions to measure - CPU speed, and in "emulation time" these instructions take as much time - as any other instructions, and you'll get much too high values. -Q: Wasn't this called the Unusable Amiga Emulator? -A: Yes. But no one thought the name was very fitting anymore, though. It was - only really appropriate for v0.1, which couldn't even boot. +** UAE SPEED -Q: Sometimes, after UAE exits, there is no autorepeat for the keys! -A: Do "xset r on" (happens only in X, apparently mainly on Solaris boxes. - Dunno why.). [Should be fixed by now. Note that this always happens when - UAE crashes] +Q: I don't get steady sound output! I only have a 486DX40, could this be + related? +A: Try a Pentium-II-300, these things are reported to do better. Q: Would it be possible to speed it up by emulating the CPU native on, say, a 68k Mac? @@ -178,8 +184,8 @@ A: I doubt it. I'm no PC graphics card e RAM in the graphics memory and that would most likely make everything painfully slow. -Q: How about adding special support for the GUS that uses hardware features - to speed up the sound emulation? +Q: How about adding special support for the GUS/other wavetable boards that + uses hardware features to speed up the sound emulation? A: Again, due to the differences in Amiga and PC (in this case: GUS) hardware, this isn't really feasible. You _might_ get something like this to work in some special cases (ProTracker modules might be a case that could be made @@ -225,47 +231,14 @@ A: Short answer: I disagree. either. Q: How fast is it? -A: This is the most difficult question to answer. The easy way to answer is - "It depends", but I'll try to do better. All timings I give here were - measured on my machine, a P90, using SVGAlib, with the FASTER_CPU and - DONT_WANT_SOUND options. Note that different versions of UAE generally run - at different speeds, so take these timings with a grain of salt. - The MC68000 emulation is more than twice as fast as a real A500. I measured - this by letting PowerPacker try to compress itself (it already was - compressed). It took UAE about 6 minutes, my A500 took about 15. You can - get about twice the speed of an A500 for this type of program (not much - graphics activity) or if you set the frame skip rate to a high value. - For games and demos, the CPU speed does not matter, but the average frame - time is important. UAE can calculate this automatically. The SVGAlib - version gives the number when you exit the emulator, to obtain the value - with the X version you need to interrupt it and type "c" in the debugger. - A real A500 has a constant frame time of 20ms (50 Hz). - If you have a game/demo that has lots of blitter activity, many copper/ - sprite effects, dual playfields and scrolling, no one can help you. - Fortunately, this case is extremely rare. Normal games that have a number - of blitter objects, scrolling and maybe some sprites run at 1/3-1/4 the - speed of an A500 in the worst case, some run at 1/2 the speed. Lowering - the frame rate helps enormously here, and at 1/5 frame rate, about - everything runs somewhere between 50% and 100% the speed of an A500. - This still isn't the full story (I bet you start to see why the question is - hard to answer). A real A500 without fast memory gets slowed down to about - half its speed in Hires 16 color mode. More bitplanes also slow UAE down, - but not quite as much, so it can be several times faster than an A500 in - that mode. - Finally, some remarks about the m68k->i386 code compiler that is available - in the Linux version of UAE. It shouldn't be used for games, it will - completely kill your frame rate. It's possible to use it for Workbench - applications, though, and the frame rate shouldn't be a problem in this - case. - I measured PowerPacker the same way as described above, and the time when - using the compiler is slightly above 1 minute (10-15 times an A500). With - the USER_PROGRAMS_BEHAVE option, it's as low as 40 seconds. I've also run - the BeachBall benchmark from AIBB 6.5. This takes around 10 minutes on an - A500, UAE is 3 times faster with the compiler. For some benchmarks that - use function calls heavily, the compiler isn't a win (although the current - version should no longer be slower like previous ones). I have little - "real world" data, please let me know if you made any experiences with the - compiler. +A: It depends. + For crunching files with PowerPacker, UAE is 17 times faster than my A500 + on my K6-233. + For playing Turrican I, it's running at about full speed (with sound). + For playing Turrican III, it is slightly slower than the A500. + For some (not many) demos, it's a fair bit slower than the A500. + Rule of thumb: Sound emulation really takes time; so do copper effects and + scrolling. If you don't need either, you're fine. Q: How can I make it faster? A: Run the emulator in the lowest screen mode (320x200), set it to 256 colors, @@ -273,19 +246,57 @@ A: Run the emulator in the lowest screen frame. Finally, disable sound (if you have a version that lets you compile your own executable, set "DONT_WANT_SOUND" in config.h). It won't look very nice, but it will run as fast as your machine allows. - If you are running the X version, make sure you have commented - DONT_WANT_SHM in config.h. This option is "safer", but makes the emulator - very slow. Even better, when you run configure, say "configure - --enable-dga" if your X server (XFree86 3.2 or higher) supports it. + If you are running the X version, make sure you use the "-T" option. Not + using this option is "safer", but makes the emulator very slow. Even better, + when you run configure, say "configure --enable-dga" if your X server + (XFree86 3.2 or higher) supports it. + It's especially important that you don't use 24 bit or 32 bit color modes. -Q: What do I do if a game/demo/application doesn't work? -A: If you're trying to run a game or a demo, enable some SLOW RAM, and try - running it again. Some older software has compatability problems which SLOW - RAM can sometimes fix. If it's an application, check for obvious things - like Kickstart version requirements, RAM, etc. Also make sure the software - you're trying to run isn't for AGA equipped machines. - -Q: Will there be a Windows version? -A: Several people have mailed me in the past that they had started porting - UAE to WinNT/Win95. I never heard from most of them again. I assume they - found out that Windows sucks hard. + +** MISCELLANEOUS + +Q: Do I need a real Amiga to use this program? +A: Yes, unless you have some other way of legally getting ROM files and system + software, such as the Cloanto Amiga Forever CD. + +Q: Where can I download a Kickstart ROM/Amiga games? +A: Read the docs again. You can't. It would be illegal to put a ROM image or + other copyrighted software on the net (yes, even if you once bought a + specific Amiga game and sold it together with the computer, downloading the + same game now would still be illegal. Sorry.) + +Q: Does UAE run on the DEC Alpha/Sparcstations/SGIs/whatever? +A: UAE should run on all Unix systems that have at least X11R5 and a decent + C compiler installed. So the answer is probably yes. Just use the generic + Unix source and follow the instructions in README.UNIX to compile it. + However, using GCC and the GNU binutils can improve your chances. + +Q: Why is there a blank area on the left side of the screen? +A: The Amiga can display graphics there, but usually doesn't because this + would disable some sprites. The area is only used by some overscan demos. + Normal screens are off-center. I'm not going to do anything about that. + If you can't stand it, you can try to use 320x200 or 640x480 resolution, + which will attempt to center the screen. This is near impossible to get + right for every program. If your screen doesn't fit in lower resolutions, + use 800x600. + +Q: Where is a complete summary of all command line switches ? +A: In the README files. You can also generate it yourself by typing: + uae -h > uae-help.txt + +Q: Benchmark program gives weird results. +A: Amiga programs run by the emulator think the Amiga timers can be used to + measure real time. But in UAE, they only measure "emulation time". Sysinfo, + for example, gives the same results on all machines. So don't run + benchmarks to test the emulator speed. + Some benchmarks also use tight loops of DIV or MUL instructions to measure + CPU speed, and in "emulation time" these instructions take as much time + as any other instructions, and you'll get much too high values. + If you enabled the "HAVE_RDTSC" option, running benchmarks makes some more + sense. Still not a lot, since there is a minimum speed that the benchmark + will report on every machine. The faster the machine, the more accurate + will your results be. + +Q: Wasn't this called the Unusable Amiga Emulator? +A: Yes. But no one thought the name was very fitting anymore, though. It was + only really appropriate for v0.1, which couldn't even boot.