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[MichaelVParent]

***UPDATED WITH WORKING LINKS TO DEMOS**

Hi everyone.

I'm mostly done with my new demo and had alot of fun making it.  My goal was a quick tech-demo to show what even the a 1000's could have been doing long before the Super-nintendo existed..  To that end, could any of you help me finish this?

The older demo: https://www.dropbox.com/s/86u0noic0m0zxyh/trans.zip?dl=0


The second, prettier demo:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fa94gaub11h39vc/a_demo.zip?dl=0

I need to:

1) make sure the screen placement is correct for 320x200 mode (is it full-screen?   is it centered and does the bottom HUD show up?)

2) verify that it can be successfully compiled (I don't have the compiler)

3) benchmark it running once compiled on an A500...(does it run at a decent frame-rate)?


I look forward to feedback and would love assistance in making even better demo's and would love to make a full game.

thanks,
Mike

[Sidewinder]

That is one AWESOME demo!!!  Incredible graphics!  I was able to compile it using the AMOS Pro compiler, but I am running under emulation so I wasn't able to get any real frame rates or anything.  It did run a bit slow in my emulation environment, but I don't know if this is because of my system or something else.  It was still very playable though.  Hopefully someone can try it out an a real A500.

[MichaelVParent]

Thanks for the kind words and the time you took to compile it.  Would you mind making the complied version availible so someone might be able to try it on an a500?

Also...did you emulate an A500 or an a1200? I need help making sure everythings placed right for a 320x200 screen.

thanks again.

[SamuraiCrow]

This may be a little off-topic but have you considered visiting the downloads area of this site and getting the full AmosPro 2.0 including the compiler?

[MichaelVParent]

off topic?  maybe.  Useful?  Definately!   I hadn't yet stumbled upon that.  Thanks

[rednova]

Dear Friend:

I just loved your demo, is really beautiful. Keep up the good work!!!

rednova

[SamuraiCrow]

The Demo looks good.  It would probably work better if my compiler was working.   

[MichaelVParent]

Thanks guys.

I'll try and get the compiler working on my emulator and release a compiled version when I get the chance...Has anyone been able to run it on an A500 (emulated or otherwise) and specifically in 320x200 mode?  I'm hoping the screen is places properly...especially the hud at the bottom.

[selur]

hello Holymonkey

Well, i'm afraid even after compiling this demo will run slowly on real A500.
There is too many moving, too big bobs.  AMOS is not able to handle things like this. However, graphics is very good and whole demo is very impresive.

[MichaelVParent]

Hi selur,

Thanks for the feedback and kind words.   Its a shame to hear about the performance on an A500.   I'll see about getting this demo coded in C or assembly to see how much better it can perform.   I owned an a500 for years and remember well games like Blood Money which certianly showed that the a500 has enough power to do such things at a good framerate.

By the way, does that mean you did compile it, and if so, can you send me that file?

Thanks,
Holymonkey (Mike)

[selur]

...nope i didn't.
I have no AMIGA working. Just made some AMOS graphics speed test in the past and I know that this kind of stuff will always be slow on basic machines (A500,A600).

But I didn't use any AMOS extensions. Maybe some  of them will speed up the graphics.

[Lonewolf10]

Yeah, there are certain extensions (can't remember which ones, sorry) that do work faster than the ones already in AMOS. Usually by better programming and no error checking!


Regards,
Lonewolf10

[SamuraiCrow]

@HolyMonkey
Some of the extensions speed up the graphics but none of them speed up the blitter.  The blitter on an A1200 or A4000 can be up to 4 times faster than an A500 and the A3000 is up to about twice as fast.

I think the AMCAF extension's Turbo Blit instructions take away some of the calling overhead of the blitting functions but they only speed up the main processor's actions.  The only way to speed up the blitter itself is by plotting opaque objects as icons rather than bobs.  The Amiga Blitter is rather slow compared to any modern blitters so avoid using it if you can use a 16-color sprite in its place.

In your demo I think the transparency effect requires use of the blitter so it can't be optimized further.  Likewise, you're using AMAL for most of the computations so that won't be much faster in C than AmosPro, unfortunately.  Amal may be a pain to work with but it is much faster than the equivalent Amos commands.

[skateblind]

Hi, I wanted to check out your demo, but the file you linked to is not hosted anymore. Could you re-host it please? If you add it as an attachment to your reply then I am sure one of the lads will host it here.

[MichaelVParent]

Hi skate,

Terribly sorry I got pulled away from amos fatory for quite some time... Here's a fresh links to my first demo:


https://www.dropbox.com/s/86u0noic0m0zxyh/trans.zip?dl=0

I'll send a lik to the second, prettier demo that was being discussed here as soon as I can hunt it down. ( I had switched web hosts and everythig was moved/mispaced)

Mike