gamex

munchy · 07-01-2011, 16:50:54

HI there,Iwas wondering if it is actually possible to add a screen capture function to gamex you know like snapit (which doesnt work alongside gamex as ive tried it the games dont load).It just seems that with save gamestate the possibility may already there? Or maybe useful for stot or similar competition.anyhow just ideas but i would certainly use it for printing for my own purposes.I have been having a play with a few games today and its something else to use gamex,nice touches too add notes for instance.IT feels like it has huge possibilities,very exciting :)Oh yes and its really nice to get instructions, and website with screenshots,tremendous work!!

Petari · 08-01-2011, 12:16:03

I did not plan screen capture. Mostly because I do all screen captures with Steem on PC. Only do video recordings with real Ataris.
But if you must capture screens on real Ataris, it is possible to add it. I can try it with couple of games under work currently - Outrun, Drakkhen ... General solution is not really possible, because it needs adding some code to every game launcher. What may be even problem in cases when all RAM under 512KB is tight filled.
Can you give some titles where you 'egerly' want it ? :-)

munchy · 08-01-2011, 14:22:41

HI There,What i was thinking was to be able to save images of the cartoon type characters in various games,save to sd card and print via steem.A real time option as i use my ste with my grandson on a nice widescreen television.so capture image put sd card into my laptop and print wirelessly via steem,and generally to have a bit of fun

.and then the benefit to offline competitions.But no matter i just thought it may be an easy addition to gamex.IT would be nice as you say for an experiment for a couple of titles though.
cheers

jvas · 08-01-2011, 18:20:04

Quote from: Petari on 08-01-2011, 12:16:03
I did not plan screen capture. Mostly because I do all screen captures with Steem on PC. Only do video recordings with real Ataris.
But if you must capture screens on real Ataris, it is possible to add it. I can try it with couple of games under work currently - Outrun, Drakkhen ... General solution is not really possible, because it needs adding some code to every game launcher. What may be even problem in cases when all RAM under 512KB is tight filled.
Can you give some titles where you 'egerly' want it ? :-)

Doesn't the memory snapshot - that gamex creates - contain the screen memory too? In that case it should be easy to extract it and save to file in a particular format ...

Petari · 10-01-2011, 14:14:11

Yes. One of ideas was to make small proggy which will save screenshot from saved snapshot. I will do it later.
Did screensave addition in 3 last adaptations: Outrun, Outrun Europe and Street Fighter. It is solved in 2 ways. By O.E. I added code to D15R_H5 (where is still some small space left), so later additions should be relative easy. Other 2 game works via GEMDOS, and using simple file functions for saving.
However, there are and will be cases where proper screensave is not possible in reality (without extra complex code). And it is right by Outrun Europa - where on-fly palette chage is used. May be more than 16 colors, what is not supported by picture file formats. Bigger problem is that saving would require special code for each game ... So, for such cases, and there is actually a lot (I guess some 20-40% of games) what uses it, use emulator for saving accurate screenshots.

Save goes in Degas PI1 format. With names increasing from 000 to 999. Please test it .

Petari · 12-01-2011, 14:57:51

Made simple proggy for saving screens from gamesave snapshots:

Get here: http://atari.8bitchip.info/astopensw.php

jvas · 12-01-2011, 15:43:20

Quote from: Petari on 12-01-2011, 14:57:51
Made simple proggy for saving screens from gamesave snapshots:

Get here: http://atari.8bitchip.info/astopensw.php

So it doesn't handle palette changes and other hacks that increase the number of colors on screen. Am I right?

Petari · 13-01-2011, 15:57:16

Quote from: jvas on 12-01-2011, 15:43:20
So it doesn't handle palette changes and other hacks that increase the number of colors on screen. Am I right?

Right. That's almost impossible to solve. Palette change is usually handled by timers, H-blank. So, would need some kind of emulation on Atari self. As said, using some emulator is the best way to make screenshots.

munchy · 15-01-2011, 16:10:44

Hi there,I have tried the 3 adaptations with screensave and this is what i get

streetfighter / unfortunately i cannot get past the 2nd screen in this game, no keypress or joystick/mouse press would take me into the game.However, screen save worked for this screen but am unable to test further

Outrun / saves the start screen [where you get gem menu options] perfectly.whilst in game if you initiate it it mucks the game up but actually saves the image.

OutrunE / As you say doesnt save the game images,well it does but i could not view them in xnview like i could the others

All images viewed in xnview for windows and as good as steems images,to my eyes anyway :)tested on Atari ste am confused about tos version i get 1.62 from some programs and 1.06 from gamex and hd driver!attatched to ultrsatan

Not yet tried the small image program.I wanted to show images but dont know how?

HTH,CHEERS

Petari · 16-01-2011, 16:13:11

I need details of your: hard disk driver exact version, hard disk/card , used interface/adapter, how disk is partitioned, what system (TOS/AHDI or DOS) ...

Streetfighter: I did not test it much. It may be some extra protection or just error in disk change code corrected for hard disk ...

Outrun: maybe problems with Hddriver .

Outrun Europa: I did no say that saves not images, but that saves not palette (colors) correct.
Should be viewable as others, as format is same - regular Degas PI1 format - length 32034 bytes.

TOS version is for sure 1.06 if my detection says it :-) But not much relevant - 1.06 and 1.62 differ very little.

Small program SCRFGXP will find screen in selected snapshot (GXP) file and immediately show it. Then may save it permanently with click on proper button and giving name at will. After it may select another GXP or exit prg

It should work with all saves from past and future . With mentioned possible problems with colors.

munchy · 16-01-2011, 20:33:05

Hello,

Hd driver 8.13
One kodak 512 sd card, hd driver, single partition tos/dos compatible
One sandisk card 1gb,4 partitions,hd driver,tos only

Used in ultrasatan,games tested on both kodak transfer card and tos only sandisk 1 gig card with identical results

A little more detail : with outrun after screensave i get a sound like sea waves

and either bombs or i get back to game screen but it flashes.

outrune,the images are saved correct size and format but xnviw did not recognise but recognised all other images

As far as the image extraction program i have not used it yet,slight crossed wires here :)i meant i wished to show the saved images from 3 adaptations on the forum but didnt know how

I originally intended to use your card images for adaptations and continue to add but i just havent been able to get them to work atari end as yet so continued with hd driver

Petari · 18-01-2011, 14:28:50

I made some updates, improvements. DL again 3 mentioned games + Street Fighter 2.
Now saving screens from STF and STF2 should be flawless. Outrun should save correct pictures, but don't try to save when mouse/joy. cursor is on (after save or entering settings). It will cause crash. The reason is likely some memory conflict with GEMDOS filesystem. And I will not waste time with it, as it is very rare case that game has such sloved settings. Just take care that click Continue before saving next screenshot. If want screen with menu active at all cost use screensave proggy for saving screens from snapshots - it works fine.
Outrun Europa: good colors from cutscenes, game init. In racing parts colors are saved not OK, as is explained.

Considering your problems: I checked games with Hddriver 7.80 and UltraSatam on Mega STE. Street Fighter worked well, and I reached level 3, so much was enough for me from STF1

Others worked well too. Maybe problem is Hddriver 8.13. I know that 8.20 is bad, what is mentioned on usage page. What works good by my tests is 7.80 and 8.23. I don't have other versions. And of course, take care that have enough free space on partition !

I observed however same problem with SD card partitioned with Hddriver to 1 x 511MB TOS/DOS compatible partition as earlier with my images posted on Megaupload. The problem is that Windows XP just from who know what reason destroys TOS checksum of bootsector, what results in not working autoboot on Atari. No data loss happens. Fixing is possible with reinstalling driver, but as I see permanent solution is to run fix proggy for it (on Atari). After what no more checksum destroying. :

http://atari.8bitchip.info/MBR_FIX.ZIP - run ACSI version from floppy on Atari with attached US and card in.

Don't know why you was not able to use my images - in any case it works much better and faster than with Hddriver .

Some images saved from games, converted to BMP with Atari ST screen viewer, then to PNG wotj Paint Shop pro :

Outrun Europa, very bad colors:

Little better, but still not correct:

But likely, it is best what is possible without MBs of code.

munchy · 19-01-2011, 22:42:21

Hi,

Thank you for reply,will take another look at games as soon as i get a chance.The mbr fix i have had no luck with i always get 2 bombs at boot if i have applied fix .I think my only chance is to apply driver manually[not using disk image].Its frustrating because as i have mentioned before i have used successfully an early version of your driver with satandisk.Judging by the size of the disk images i suspect it has changed quite a bit though.

Will be interested in driver package when available,keep up the good work

Petari · 22-01-2011, 13:51:20

Nothing crucial is changed in driver. I guess that something is wrong by you - considering disk image writings. Likely Windows problem. Is it Vista ?
Likely it screws some part of bootsector, and it causes bombs.
It would be good that you send me (post) image of bootsector after writing it on SD card. So I can see rhat exactly is changed. Write image on SD card, then remove it from reader, then put it back and then do imaging (write to file) of first 16 sectors of SD card. If can not post here mail me:
petari@8bitchip.info

Btw. what I wrote here about fixing was for with Hddriver partitioned TOS/DOS compatible SD card. And fixing tool worked well with it - as only thing what it does is setting of correct Atari boot checksum.

munchy · 23-01-2011, 20:38:38

OK,so whilst acting out above post ive finally got a working 2gb disk image

Its a bit hit and miss in that sometimes there is boot and sometimes not with ultrasatan but it is there.The reason for hit and miss i dont know but when it boots it works.I used your program drive image

Quotedo imaging (write to file) of first 16 sectors of SD card

I suppose not necessary now but how do i choose just first 16 sectors of image in drive image?

cheers