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TOPIC: Beta help needed

Beta help needed 4 years, 9 months ago #4490

I'd appreciate if you could try the attached beta build of KiGB. It uses my new Metal rendering code.

www.bannister.org/beta.zip

Note that it will not work with the current release version of Emulator Enhancer (this is expected) but all other functionality should behave properly.

Feedback would be appreciated.

Re: Beta help needed 4 years, 9 months ago #4491

Will it work on non-Metal supported machines? Do you even want it tested on such a setup?

Re: Beta help needed 4 years, 9 months ago #4492

It won't, but it'd be good to know if you get a useful error message now rather than a crash (you should...)

Re: Beta help needed 4 years, 9 months ago #4493

Unable to start.

This emulator requires a Mac that supports the Metal API.

Yup, a useful error message! Stand by for a test on supported hardware...
Last Edit: 4 years, 9 months ago by Squirrel.

Re: Beta help needed 4 years, 9 months ago #4494

This beta version of KiGB is working fine so far.

I'm using the opening of Lufia 3 (GBC) to test performance.
Graphics are setup to use HQ3X.
Testing was done with the Fast Foward button held down.

Machines:
MacBook Air 2017: OSX 10.14.5 - i5-5350U @ 1.8 GHz - Intel HD Graphics 6000 (the only machine that can run the beta)
MacBook Air 2010: OSX 10.13.6 - Core2 Duo SL9400 @ 1.86 GHz - NVidia GeForce 320M (can't run the beta)
PowerMac G5 Quad: OSX 10.5.8 - PPC 970MP @ 2.5 GHz - NVidia GeForce 6600

2017 Air with the beta: 360-380 FPS
2017 Air with the official 2.0.6 release: 450-470 FPS
2010 Air with the official 2.0.6 release: 510-550 FPS
PowerMac with the official 2.0.5 release & registered Emulator Enhancer 2: 330-360 FPS

Looks like the Metal renderer is giving a hit to performance.

And holy crap, why is that old Air getting the best frame rates? Is it the GPU?
To be fair to the PowerMac, it's running tons of programs right now and has CPU throttling enabled, while the Airs had nothing else running.

Re: Beta help needed 4 years, 9 months ago #4495

This is what I get when i run it -


Attachment C:\fakepath\Screen Shot .png not found




Never mind attachments are not working.
Last Edit: 4 years, 9 months ago by Aeros. Reason: attachments are not working

Re: Beta help needed 4 years, 9 months ago #4496

Thanks.

The performance penalty with Metal is because 16bpp textures are not supported on macOS devices, and that’s what my projects use. As such there’s now a 16-32 conversion followed by a 32bpp transfer (which is twice as much data as 16bpp).

Re: Beta help needed 4 years, 9 months ago #4497

Richard Bannister wrote:
Thanks.

The performance penalty with Metal is because 16bpp textures are not supported on macOS devices, and that’s what my projects use. As such there’s now a 16-32 conversion followed by a 32bpp transfer (which is twice as much data as 16bpp).


Hrm. This may explain why GoG only remade the original Diablo for Windows and not OS X. That game uses OpenGL on OS X and definitely doesn't use 32bpp textures. The whole thing would have to be redone from scratch to modernize it unlike on Windows.

This certainly doesn't bode well for old games being ported to Metal.

Re: Beta help needed 4 years, 9 months ago #4499

Doing a 16-32bpp conversion is very straight forward and not particularly expensive. On modern hardware you won't notice it when it's done on the fly. It's only an issue for older machines. I'm still getting >100fps in all my emulators on a 2008 Mac Pro, so anything newer should have no issues at all.

Re: Beta help needed 4 years, 9 months ago #4500

Richard Bannister wrote:
Doing a 16-32bpp conversion is very straight forward and not particularly expensive. On modern hardware you won't notice it when it's done on the fly. It's only an issue for older machines. I'm still getting >100fps in all my emulators on a 2008 Mac Pro, so anything newer should have no issues at all.


From a dev perspective, what do you think of the move to Metal?

Re: Beta help needed 4 years, 9 months ago #4501

jetboy wrote:
From a dev perspective, what do you think of the move to Metal?


From my perspective it's a step backward – as it gives me increased minimum system requirements and a significant performance hit for no change in end user experience (though it's worth remembering that my use of video is very limited – it's just one texture updated sixty times per second).

That said, there was a time when I used direct-to-screen blitting, and OpenGL represented a major performance hit in comparison. I guess in ten years time something else will come along to ensure that everyone has a reason to upgrade their hardware again
Last Edit: 4 years, 9 months ago by Richard Bannister.

Re: Beta help needed 4 years, 6 months ago #4505

I now have a Metal-capable Mac (2018 Mac Mini with an eGPU carrying an RX Vega 64).

Is the beta still running? (I note the link is now down).

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