Elvira \ Elvira II screen problem

[KamiLordus]

Hi @sonninnos I have a small request. Could you improve the aspect ratio for games: Elvira Elvira II The main screen is quite low for both games.

I use settings:

and 4:3 aspect ratio

[sonninnos]

Not going to be simple, since the games report that they are drawing that black area. Same happens with WinUAE, since the values come from the same place. So I'd have to change the logic completely to determine what area is empty. I do have done that already in VICE by comparing the colors to border color per line, since that emulator does not have any internal automatic mechanism for getting the values for the used screen area.

So for now manual cropping is the only option.

Edit: On a sidenote how in the heck do you have that playlist index counter in the bottom right corner in that core option page.. Not showing here.

[KamiLordus]

No problem. Manual cropping works fine. Regarding the playlist counter, it seems to me that it has always been there in the xmb menu. Most of my settings are standard. I use RA 1.15 stable, Win 11 and DX 11 driver for fronted. One more question, are there any chances for version 5.0 of Puae?

[sonninnos]

Here the playlist index is only in playlist pages..

And yes of course 5.0 is coming when I get to it.

[KamiLordus]

Here the playlist index is only in playlist pages..

Hmm, I just installed 1.15 nightly and it's the same: Maybe it's a bug. For me, the black frame inertion option does not want to appear in any menu, although I have a 240 hz monitor. The only thing left is to edit the cfg file.

And yes of course 5.0 is coming when I get to it.

Very good news

[sonninnos]

Looking at the XMB code it should be impossible for it to be elsewhere than playlists and explore list, and that is how it behaves here. Is it showing elsewhere too?

And hmm, BFI is only available for certain drivers, and the code says it is hidden only in "mobile" and Steam deck even if the video driver supports it. And vsync needs to be on.

[KamiLordus]

When you launch a game from a playlist, every menu has this (F1). For example, the shaders option.

The interesting thing is that when you select shaders from the quik menu, this index is no longer there

As for BFI, I have v-sync turned on. I also tried other graphics drivers and this option is not there.

edit: In the latest bild RA BFI works with gl, gl core, and vulkan, with DX 11/12 this option does not appear. Although I use it by editing the cfg file and it works :)

[sonninnos]

The index vanishes immediately here after entering the playlist item and beyond.

I guess d3d11/12 just miss the flag then if it works. Weird that the flag affects only the menu option and not the actual function.

# grep GFX_CTX_FLAGS_BLACK_FRAME_INSERTION -r
gfx/drivers/d3d8.c:   BIT32_SET(flags, GFX_CTX_FLAGS_BLACK_FRAME_INSERTION);
gfx/drivers/d3d9cg.c:   BIT32_SET(flags, GFX_CTX_FLAGS_BLACK_FRAME_INSERTION);
gfx/drivers/d3d9hlsl.c:   BIT32_SET(flags, GFX_CTX_FLAGS_BLACK_FRAME_INSERTION);
gfx/drivers/gl1.c:   BIT32_SET(flags, GFX_CTX_FLAGS_BLACK_FRAME_INSERTION);
gfx/drivers/gl2.c:   BIT32_SET(flags, GFX_CTX_FLAGS_BLACK_FRAME_INSERTION);
gfx/drivers/gl3.c:   BIT32_SET(flags, GFX_CTX_FLAGS_BLACK_FRAME_INSERTION);
gfx/drivers/metal.m:   BIT32_SET(flags, GFX_CTX_FLAGS_BLACK_FRAME_INSERTION);
gfx/drivers/vulkan.c:   BIT32_SET(flags, GFX_CTX_FLAGS_BLACK_FRAME_INSERTION);
gfx/video_defines.h:   GFX_CTX_FLAGS_BLACK_FRAME_INSERTION,
menu/menu_setting.c:               if (!on_deck && video_driver_test_all_flags(GFX_CTX_FLAGS_BLACK_FRAME_INSERTION))
menu/menu_setting.c:               if (video_driver_test_all_flags(GFX_CTX_FLAGS_BLACK_FRAME_INSERTION))

[KamiLordus]

Okay I found it. This playlist option disable index:

Edit: Ahh well it turns it off completely. So something is wrong.

Regarding BFI, will it be possible to fix this problem? It's not a big deal, but it would be nice to have this option available on dx11 without editing the files.

[sonninnos]

Well since it works with those drivers, it is very easy and trivial to add the missing flag to them.

I have no idea how I could replicate that index thing though, since I've tried all I can think of..

Edit: Are you sure neither d3d11 and 12 have any issues with it in action? Other drivers have extra stuff for disabling it in fast-forward and pause, so it isn't that simple after all. I guess you'd better add an issue about in RA repo, since I don't have a display I can even test it with properly.

[KamiLordus]

I've been testing BFI with dx11 for three weeks now and haven't noticed any issues. The exception here is the Flycast (Dremcast) core, I use it with the vulcan driver to enable shaders. When BFI is also on, the screen flickers horribly. Dx12 unfortunately I did not check. Thanks for the advice, I'll report it.

[sonninnos]

BTW the Elvira crop issue does not happen with floppy disk version (tried IPF). And it only works in A500 mode, and other models fail in various ways. Elvira 2 also requires disabling external floppy drives, but the empty area seems like a WHDLoad thing then, which makes it even more weird..

[KamiLordus]

I also checked the ipf game and you are absolutely right. It's the same on winuae. So it must be some problem with the whdload version.

[sonninnos]

Hah, I was trying to figure out if I could do anything about that vertical centering issue while sorting some other horizontal issues, and noticed that the WHDLoad version will center fine if you simply drag the startup greeting Workbench screen down (first AmigaDOS window and then Workbench) so that the crop changes before clicking RMB.

So the startup message is the culprit. Newer slave 1.3 did not fix it, but it did fix NTSC centering, which won't need the manual dragging.

[KamiLordus]

Thanks a lot for the tips. For both games I added the NTSC tooltip and the screen centering is now correct.