Rendition card

[sharangad]

RReady September 25, 2024  (Alpha release)
[EDIT: Wrong build, do not download]
https://1drv.ms/u/c/5277ef8d4f2a9dcf/EU4...A?e=66N51k
OR
https://nirvtek.com/downloads/RReady.Alp...25.002.zip
MD5: 4de5601802af58cabc04a55077c04737
[/EDIT]

Fixes: Nascar 1999 Racing performance boost
MDK : Power up indictator on bottom right has correct background colour
Regressions: ICR2 may have audio pops. This is because of the Nascar fixes. This isn't going on to the store/sourceforge until I fix it.

If someone could confirm that they do get audio popping  in ICR2 it would be useful, to make sure it's not just my machines.

[sharangad]

There should be a new release out on the store, tomorrow. That won't do anything for ICR2, just a minor Nascar Racing 1999 fix. The other tweaks have been rolled back, because they were problematic.

There is a way to get a full framerate with ICR2 for replays and custom carsets (based on Cars95.2k). When the ICR2 splash screen appears, [ALT+TAB] back to the Dosbox console and then [ALT+TAB] back in. This should allow for full speed menus as well. The [ALT+X] demo mode (30 fps physics) seems to go nuts as well with the games own framerate indicator going over 100 fps.

The other thing that should help is setting
[cpu]
cycles= max 105%
(instead of cycles=auto)

I'm going to try and get a more permanent solution for the [ALT+TAB] fix.

[sharangad]

Upcoming optimisations for Speedy3D apps in the next release, everything should run at at least 30 fps:

- vQuake no static with Dosbox-Rendition, almost as fast as Dosbox-Staging-Rendition without embedding
- Rebel Moon, no slowdown
- ICR2 full frame with replays and carsets:

The sluggish cars95.2k carset at full speed:
https://youtu.be/nQT2-LStNnE

U.2024 carset at 30 fps:
https://youtu.be/bbrGdIRTOFA

Detroit Downtown HQ at a rock solid 30 fps with replay:
https://youtu.be/6aww5RbtniA

The optimisations are incomplete.

[sharangad]

This is an extremely alpha release, but it appears to be stable on both my machines with discrete GPUs. Integrated GPUs are completely no go with this release, at least for Nascar  and ICR2. The priority of Dosclient is set to be the same as dosbox and dosbox configures itself as being 'in focus' (even though dosclient is) on video mode change.

Performance feedback for this build would be useful, on my Sandy Bridge based i7 (2600) with a GTX660,  ICR2 and Nascar Racing 1999 is stable. The framerate isn't always 30 though, it dips with other cars. So feedback on stability and performance would be very nice. On faster machines a full framerate is possible.

[EDIT] Ignore this build
https://nirvtek.com/downloads/RReady.Alp...01.001.zip
MD5: b1f1c3fc896cb5e300b2ce01fa98032f

This is the build to test
https://nirvtek.com/downloads/RReady.Alp...003.004.7z
MD5: 89bfd9f38babf0e3b90ac3cf841bd882
[/EDIT]

- Significant performance improvements on machines with discrete GPUs (with dosbox-rendition, staging is only partially modified).
- Dosbox-rendition achieves vQuake performance parity with dosbox-staging-rendition.
- Rebel Moon should run at a solid 60 fps, all the time.
- Dosbox-staging-Rendition has some performance tweaks, but could be unstable. The stability fixes are not in place yet. This shouldn't be tested yet as the changes are incomplete.
- Keys being held down within dosbox on app exist *might* be fixed.

Whether this build lives or dies depends on your feedback. So please post your results.

[checkpoint10]

@sharangad I have been busy and unable to test your latest builds. I will try to get to this as soon as I can.

[sharangad]

@checkpoint10, there's no rush, test it when you can. It'll be interesting to see how well it runs. I think with a newer cpu than an i7 2600, it should run a lot better. On my Ryzen based machine it runs at a solid framerate.

[sharangad]

This build adds two new options:

https://nirvtek.com/downloads/RReady.Alp...003.004.7z
MD5: 89bfd9f38babf0e3b90ac3cf841bd882

[rendition]
highperformance = true|false (default:true)
picdma = true|false (default:false)

highperformance allows the new fast mode and picdma makes it threadsafe (but at the expense of performance).

[EDIT:October 8, 2024] Setting
[sdl]
priority = normal, normal
in dosbox.conf might be necessary
[/EDIT]


I would recommend testing it with highperfornance = true and picdma = false. If there're any stability issues in ICR2 or Nascar 1999, setting picdma = true to gauge performance would also be useful. (picdma = true is a death sentence for weaker CPUs).

[sharangad]

Untested RReady Alpha October 20, 2024

https://nirvtek.com/downloads/RReady.Alp...020.001.7z
MD5: 3eee5ef432ec73c43c2454719d7b710e

- Initial support for Eurofigher 2000+ in FIFO mode( DMA mode does not currently work reliably)
- Performance increases across the board by two new settings:
[rendition]
Highperformance=true
Picdma=true
And
[sdl]
Priority=normal, normal
(Previous DMA performance can be restored by setting both these to false. Threadsafe=true only has an effect if both these are set to false).
The new high-performance mode is extremely CPU intensive and might not work on older CPUs and might introduce audio static (random occasional pops).
- Custom car sets in ICR2 should be usable on most modern quad core or better systems.
- RebelMoon should sustain a solid 60 fps right throughout.
- RebelMoon chroma keying fixes: particle impact cloud sprites should render fully and not be clipped.
- FIFO mode memory write tweaks to support EF2000 in FIFO mode.
- Dosbox-Staging-Rendition has a full set of config settings under [rendition]. It also has performance improvements in ICR2. However it may have stability issues with Nascar Racing 1999R and possibly other apps. It does not currently support per-app config files.

This will be tested over the next 2 weeks and released to sourceforge and the Microsoft Store. Independent testing by a few other users would be useful. Just because it works for me doesn't mean it'll work for anyone else.

[checkpoint10]

Hi, I just briefly tested the version you posted. No issues, I was using the CART2K carset at Elkhart Lake HQ and performance seems fine even with all the cars.

My main issues remain that the game will not load carsets that use mips wider than 128px but that is an issue with the game, not the wrapper. And insufficient memory to use Detroit Downtown HQ with the CART2K carset, but again I don't think this can be corrected with the wrapper. Unless we have someone who is able to figure out how to patch the indycar.exe, I think we modders have to deal with the limitations to rework the carsets and tracks to use less memory and smaller textures.

[sharangad]

Hi, I just briefly tested the version you posted. No issues, I was using the CART2K carset at Elkhart Lake HQ and performance seems fine even with all the cars.

Thanks for that. I don't know why they capped texture sizes only in the Rendition version. I also haven't figured out how to report more than 4MB of Vram to the app yet.  A VESA call does report this, but most games seem to ignore this and use the environmental variable up to 4MB.

 Almost done with testing this release, hopefully I can push it out in next couple of days.