Breakthrough for the ao486 core announced - Cache

[kathleen]

Thank you @bbond007, it is exactly the one I used. I've maybe to reinstall Win 3.11 from scratch.
But before I do so, there is something else maybe that I'm doing wrong, because I've just realized that after launching univbe it get this and I'm not sure seeing this that the card even under Ms-Dos is well recongnised/set :

[bazza_12]

I get the same, Kathleen, but it does work with a few more programs than it did before. SimCity2000 now works.

[kathleen]

Thank you bazza_12, so my set-up seems to be correct. need to figure out why windows do not want to display more than 16 colors then. Will make a new installation.... tomorrow will see.

[Caldor]

Windows 95 and 98 also use the ET4000 driver instead of the ET4000/W32 driver. Its strange since it should be the ET4000/W32 bios we are using.

Also... Cache28 just got uploaded. Seems we got 4 button joystick support and Gravis Pro support.

[Reed_Solomon]

Seems we got 4 button joystick support and Gravis Pro support.

Does this mean if you have something like a SNES controller attached, to the game running on the PC it will appear as a Gravis?

[Caldor]

Seems we got 4 button joystick support and Gravis Pro support.

Does this mean if you have something like a SNES controller attached, to the game running on the PC it will appear as a Gravis?

I am guessing that is what will happen. Not sure what would be a good game to test it with though. Lost Vikings?

[Chris23235]

I am having a hard time to get any more then 256 colours in Windows 95 over HDMI.
Not sure what I do wrong, I have the Tseng ET4000 driver installed. I tried different monitors (SVGA 640*480, SVGA 800*600, Plug & Play Monitor), but the result is always the same, after the necessary restart I get the message that my adapter settings are incorrect and Windows 95 falls back to 256 colours.
I get resolutions up to 1024*768, but only in 256 colours.

[Reed_Solomon]

I am guessing that is what will happen. Not sure what would be a good game to test it with though. Lost Vikings?

I know Commander Keen 4 does the autodetect for gravis gamepad. Probably a good amount of ID software games of that era do.

[Chris23235]

Cache28 breaks the 256 colour mode in Windows 95 for me, it's fine in Cache27, but in Cache28 lots of graphical artifacts are produced once I move the mouse pointer.

[rsn8887]

Cache28 breaks the 256 colour mode in Windows 95 for me, it's fine in Cache27, but in Cache28 lots of graphical artifacts are produced once I move the mouse pointer.

It still works for me. I just tried switching Windows 95 to 640x480 256 colors using Cache28, no artifacts or problems moving mouse and windows around. Did you update boot0.rom? There‘s a new one from today or so on github dev branch in releases folder.

[flynnsbit]

I have begun testing 27 and I do not seem to have had any issues with 100Mhz yet. I have not even lowered it from 100Mhz so far. Tried running Settlers 2 and Shadow Warrior.

Can you try Windows 98, at 100Mhz with 256MB of memory set and see if you can set 800x600 256 colors or more? On 27.

Ahh... Windows 98 stopped working for me with cache... 24 I think. It does seem to have more errors at 100hz and it might help lowering it to 90hz, but overall, it seems with Windows 98 its going to throw some pretty nasty errors pretty much no matter what you do. Windows 95 is more stable, but tried installing DirectX 8 and I began getting one of the errors from Windows 98 where it fills the top of the screen with a bunch of colors.

Windows 98 second edition does say it needs FPU, which this core does not have... not sure if that is the cause of any of this. I am not sure exactly why it wants FPU, but I only got even close to installing Windows 98 using some commands to bypass system checks during the installation.

Okay exactly the same experience, Good that it's not just me. No big deal. W95 does seem pretty stable to me. I would like to get a VHD setup that can run Diablo just to see it working on the MiSTer. That was one of the only reasons I did the 98 install. That and for the fun of it,

[Coffea]

This has gone from being one of the most addictive, frustrating and masochistic cores to be one of the most fun by far, certainly not what I was planning on using when I got a DE10nano. I am seriously considering building MiSTer into an actual vintage laptop chassis and calling my daily drive ... battery life to die for!

I really feels very close to a couple of actual machines I practically lived on in the late 90s only so much faster disk access.

Need to do some actual bechmarking side by side with my real 486DX50, a truely possessed machine that feeds on misery and blood. That should be amusing if nothing else (if anyone has any recommended torture tests?)

My wish List has gone from "omg please why is tis even a thing" to :
Mount CD images (ISO, BinCue) mainly for OS setup convince.
Mount ZIPs as Disk Images, again, convenience.
Weaksauce FPU - Just has to respond with "hi! I'm doing my best!" actual performance immaterial.
COM2 over SNAC ? (for real hardware, palm pilots, stuff)
USB Port over SNAC .. bad idea .. very bad idea.
A physical ISA Slot .. just one .. i know going to be impossible. You may laugh.

[FPGAzumSpass]

100Mhz is NOT STABLE!
You can try it, but it can crash any second in any of the debug builds.
There is no point in discussing it from a current point of view.

There is not even proof that 90Mhz will always work stable on all boards/debug builds.

If you get a crash and it doesn't happen with lower frequency, then don't use the higher one or don't use the rbf.

[SuperBabyHix]

I've played through the first 4 levels of Rise of the Triad with the cache28 build and everything plays great. FM music and SB sound effects work great now. I also booted into Windows 95 and 800x600 16-bit color is working fine as well. I also tried 1024x768 8-bit color without issue. Strangely switching from 800x600x16bit to 1024x768x8bit worked fine, but cheanging back to 800x600x16bit locked up my Mister. Couldn't bring up the OSD at all nor did ctrl-alt-del work.

Some DOS Vesa apps that I have found to work are Scorched Earth at 640x480 and the PC Player benchmark at 640x480 (got an amazing 4.2 fps). Descent and Warcraft 2 still fail.

[ericgus09]

I hope someone is keeping notes .. after 14 pages of trying (but failing) to keep up with this thread .. I wait for a summary when all the dust has settled .. .. looks amazing, wish I had the time to jump in and play around too.. (life getting in the way -- as usual)

[Caldor]

This has gone from being one of the most addictive, frustrating and masochistic cores to be one of the most fun by far, certainly not what I was planning on using when I got a DE10nano. I am seriously considering building MiSTer into an actual vintage laptop chassis and calling my daily drive ... battery life to die for!

I really feels very close to a couple of actual machines I practically lived on in the late 90s only so much faster disk access.

Need to do some actual bechmarking side by side with my real 486DX50, a truely possessed machine that feeds on misery and blood. That should be amusing if nothing else (if anyone has any recommended torture tests?)

My wish List has gone from "omg please why is tis even a thing" to :
Mount CD images (ISO, BinCue) mainly for OS setup convince.
Mount ZIPs as Disk Images, again, convenience.
Weaksauce FPU - Just has to respond with "hi! I'm doing my best!" actual performance immaterial.
COM2 over SNAC ? (for real hardware, palm pilots, stuff)
USB Port over SNAC .. bad idea .. very bad idea.
A physical ISA Slot .. just one .. i know going to be impossible. You may laugh.

Not sure its possible to make a weak FPU. The games that need it, will need it to return pretty specific data. When it comes to installing Windows 98 there is a command that can be used that makes the installation skip requirement tests like the FPU check. With a game like Quake or anything that tries to use the FPU, unless it does what its supposed to, it will probably make it a buggy mess. On the other hand, I have read about Pentium CPUs having "the best FPU" or at least much better than the DX FPUs of the 386 and 486 cores, so I guess they can vary in quality... also much of the basis of AO486 that made it possible to run as more than a 286 was Bochs x86. I read it mentioned somewhere that some of the emulation code it uses was converted using some mappers or something, to make the FPGA use it to model its "hardware". Which I find interesting, because Bochs x86 should also support FPU and Pentium, even MMX and 3DNow, so I guess we might see the same trick used for other features of AO486 get used to help with some sort of FPU support and maybe other features as well. Oh yeah, it even has 3DFX, but I suspect the DE10 will have fun out of room before we get there and even if it has the room... I doubt it will be some automatic conversion script that will be enough to make it work.

COM2 over Snac would be pretty awesome, also for extra mouse support so that we could play Lemmings and The Settlers 1+2 in two player mode. That is the trick these games used to support two mouse controllers, one PS/2 mouse and one serial mouse.

[tontonkaloun]

I am having a hard time to get any more then 256 colours in Windows 95 over HDMI.
Not sure what I do wrong, I have the Tseng ET4000 driver installed. I tried different monitors (SVGA 640*480, SVGA 800*600, Plug & Play Monitor), but the result is always the same, after the necessary restart I get the message that my adapter settings are incorrect and Windows 95 falls back to 256 colours.
I get resolutions up to 1024*768, but only in 256 colours.

It's your boot1.rom that needs to be changed

[Caldor]

100Mhz is NOT STABLE!
You can try it, but it can crash any second in any of the debug builds.
There is no point in discussing it from a current point of view.

There is not even proof that 90Mhz will always work stable on all boards/debug builds.

If you get a crash and it doesn't happen with lower frequency, then don't use the higher one or don't use the rbf.

Well, we are just testing and trying stuff. Nothing much of it is to be expected to be stable, so we just try to see what works. Game Wizard has stopped working, and that should not have to do with the speed of the CPU, it fails whether its 30mhz or 100mhz. 100mhz still works quite well for a lot of games.

Its the tinkering I probably like the most about the retro-stuff. When I am able to play the games and such, I usually end up not completing them, just trying them and seeing how well they run.

But thank you for your work on this. Its very exciting to follow its development.

[kathleen]

For those like me who are interested to run Windows 3.11, I finally managed to get W3.11 running with the ET4000 driver and in 32k colors
To do so here is my setup:
Core : Cache_28 running at 90Mhz (tried at 100Mhz, worked also but I just tested a couple of minutes just to see, will make longer run later on)
Latest Boot0 & Boot1 available
The W3.11 ET4000 driver attached

[Chris23235]

I am having a hard time to get any more then 256 colours in Windows 95 over HDMI.
Not sure what I do wrong, I have the Tseng ET4000 driver installed. I tried different monitors (SVGA 640*480, SVGA 800*600, Plug & Play Monitor), but the result is always the same, after the necessary restart I get the message that my adapter settings are incorrect and Windows 95 falls back to 256 colours.
I get resolutions up to 1024*768, but only in 256 colours.

It's your boot1.rom that needs to be changed

Thanks, that did the trick- I assumed I had the right boot1.rom, because changing the resolution worked.

It seems I had a Bios for a 1 MB ET4000, now on boot it says 2 MB, but in Windows 95 it is still 1 MB.

Cache28 breaks the 256 colour mode in Windows 95 for me, it's fine in Cache27, but in Cache28 lots of graphical artifacts are produced once I move the mouse pointer.

It still works for me. I just tried switching Windows 95 to 640x480 256 colors using Cache28, no artifacts or problems moving mouse and windows around. Did you update boot0.rom? There‘s a new one from today or so on github dev branch in releases folder.

The boot0.rom seems to have solved the issue, I had the corruption one time again while shutting down, but otherwise it works again.

[Caldor]

Thanks, that did the trick- I assumed I had the right boot1.rom, because changing the resolution worked.

It seems I had a Bios for a 1 MB ET4000, now on boot it says 2 MB, but in Windows 95 it is still 1 MB.

Cache28 breaks the 256 colour mode in Windows 95 for me, it's fine in Cache27, but in Cache28 lots of graphical artifacts are produced once I move the mouse pointer.

It still works for me. I just tried switching Windows 95 to 640x480 256 colors using Cache28, no artifacts or problems moving mouse and windows around. Did you update boot0.rom? There‘s a new one from today or so on github dev branch in releases folder.

The boot0.rom seems to have solved the issue, I had the corruption one time again while shutting down, but otherwise it works again.

Which boot1 file are you using now? The one from the git? Because that is not the one I have been using, and I noticed the git one that got uploaded about 10 days ago is a bit larger than the one I am using.

[Beeble]

Thank you, both for answering and your efforts with the Freeware VHD.

Is it a common issuen with 27 and not being able to run in 100Mhz?

I have begun testing 27 and I do not seem to have had any issues with 100Mhz yet. I have not even lowered it from 100Mhz so far. Tried running Settlers 2 and Shadow Warrior.

Can you try Windows 98, at 100Mhz with 256MB of memory set and see if you can set 800x600 256 colors or more? On 27.

When Setting 100Mhz the system freezes, "Reset and apply HDD" only results in a black screen.

I changed the Mister file together with the ao 27 rbf. I think I have the right bios, VESA title did start on 26 (on 100Mhz), haven´t tried with 27 yet to run VESA.

[Beeble]

Aehm, did the Boot0.rom changed in the process?

[Caldor]

I have begun testing 27 and I do not seem to have had any issues with 100Mhz yet. I have not even lowered it from 100Mhz so far. Tried running Settlers 2 and Shadow Warrior.

Can you try Windows 98, at 100Mhz with 256MB of memory set and see if you can set 800x600 256 colors or more? On 27.

When Setting 100Mhz the system freezes, "Reset and apply HDD" only results in a black screen.

I changed the Mister file together with the ao 27 rbf. I think I have the right bios, VESA title did start on 26 (on 100Mhz), haven´t tried with 27 yet to run VESA.

Pretty sure resetting can result in a black screen ever since... cache20 even? Just reset 2-3 more times until it does reset. Cache28 got released and it sounds like it needs a new boot0 file from the git. I am not sure what the correct boot1 file is now, whether its the one from the git or the one I linked earlier. The one I linked should be the right one for cache24 to 26, but not sure about cache27. Seems to work though.

[Chris23235]

Thanks, that did the trick- I assumed I had the right boot1.rom, because changing the resolution worked.

It seems I had a Bios for a 1 MB ET4000, now on boot it says 2 MB, but in Windows 95 it is still 1 MB.

It still works for me. I just tried switching Windows 95 to 640x480 256 colors using Cache28, no artifacts or problems moving mouse and windows around. Did you update boot0.rom? There‘s a new one from today or so on github dev branch in releases folder.

The boot0.rom seems to have solved the issue, I had the corruption one time again while shutting down, but otherwise it works again.

Which boot1 file are you using now? The one from the git? Because that is not the one I have been using, and I noticed the git one that got uploaded about 10 days ago is a bit larger than the one I am using.

I am now using the one that tontonkaloun mentioned earlier. I guess the problem with the graphical corruption was because of the changed boot0.rom. With the new one it works again. The boot1.rom fixed the 16 Bit colour depth problem.

[flynnsbit]

This has gone from being one of the most addictive, frustrating and masochistic cores to be one of the most fun by far, certainly not what I was planning on using when I got a DE10nano. I am seriously considering building MiSTer into an actual vintage laptop chassis and calling my daily drive ... battery life to die for!

I really feels very close to a couple of actual machines I practically lived on in the late 90s only so much faster disk access.

Need to do some actual bechmarking side by side with my real 486DX50, a truely possessed machine that feeds on misery and blood. That should be amusing if nothing else (if anyone has any recommended torture tests?)

My wish List has gone from "omg please why is tis even a thing" to :
Mount CD images (ISO, BinCue) mainly for OS setup convince.
Mount ZIPs as Disk Images, again, convenience.
Weaksauce FPU - Just has to respond with "hi! I'm doing my best!" actual performance immaterial.
COM2 over SNAC ? (for real hardware, palm pilots, stuff)
USB Port over SNAC .. bad idea .. very bad idea.
A physical ISA Slot .. just one .. i know going to be impossible. You may laugh.

Not sure its possible to make a weak FPU. The games that need it, will need it to return pretty specific data. When it comes to installing Windows 98 there is a command that can be used that makes the installation skip requirement tests like the FPU check. With a game like Quake or anything that tries to use the FPU, unless it does what its supposed to, it will probably make it a buggy mess. On the other hand, I have read about Pentium CPUs having "the best FPU" or at least much better than the DX FPUs of the 386 and 486 cores, so I guess they can vary in quality... also much of the basis of AO486 that made it possible to run as more than a 286 was Bochs x86. I read it mentioned somewhere that some of the emulation code it uses was converted using some mappers or something, to make the FPGA use it to model its "hardware". Which I find interesting, because Bochs x86 should also support FPU and Pentium, even MMX and 3DNow, so I guess we might see the same trick used for other features of AO486 get used to help with some sort of FPU support and maybe other features as well. Oh yeah, it even has 3DFX, but I suspect the DE10 will have fun out of room before we get there and even if it has the room... I doubt it will be some automatic conversion script that will be enough to make it work.

COM2 over Snac would be pretty awesome, also for extra mouse support so that we could play Lemmings and The Settlers 1+2 in two player mode. That is the trick these games used to support two mouse controllers, one PS/2 mouse and one serial mouse.

If you really really want a weak FPU you can always use Q87. That's how I got Quake to run.

[flynnsbit]

COM2 over Snac would be pretty awesome, also for extra mouse support so that we could play Lemmings and The Settlers 1+2 in two player mode. That is the trick these games used to support two mouse controllers, one PS/2 mouse and one serial mouse.

This would complete the core for me. Having access to hardware serial interfaces in AO486 would be awesome.

[Cebion]

I seem to have issues mounting disks after Dos 6.22 has loaded. On startup with a bootdisk works just fine.
Can someone verify on Cache 28?

[kathleen]

I do have DOS 6.22 installed under cache28 and no issue to mount disks

[tontonkaloun]

I seem to have issues mounting disks after Dos 6.22 has loaded. On startup with a bootdisk works just fine.
Can someone verify on Cache 28?

With QEMM?
try disabling smartdrv if it's in your autoexec.bat !!