Post by One Joyful DAy in Rogue Football CardGame - AmiGameJam jam comments

AmiGameJam 2024 » Entries » Rogue Football CardGame - AmiGameJam

Viewing post in Rogue Football CardGame - AmiGameJam jam comments

I have only tested the PCX64 version, none of the others, so I hope the PPC ports don't have that black window too, I am also wondering why is it doing that. Only thing I can figure where it should display a black window is if the Debug Window would be started, in which case there should read something in that black window. And at least when I run the game myself, I don't get any debug printing out, and there shouldn't be any debug printing that only AOS3 would activate.

That the PCx64 version is not working is strange. How does it not work? Does it give some error?

I just downloaded all those bundles and the separate PCx64 version, and they all work on my machine.

There is a known issue with double or more monitor setups, where it shows either a black screen or doesn't show anything. Depending which one happens, you can get around it by using: ALT + F4, or WINDOWS + SHIFT + RIGHT.

However, you should have seen a message about this double monitor issue when you started the game.

It would be great to get that double monitor issue fixed properly, for it seems to be with Hollywood itself somehow and many seem to be encountering it, but problem is that neither me or Andreas (Hollywood dev) are able to reproduce it.

By the way, you did notice that I sent new versions yesterday bit before the submissions deadline? Now it asks at beginning in what screenmode to open the game.

Dont know if this helps or not with AOS3 version, but it was like a best guess shot.

And thanks a lot for reporting all this. I think I need to set emulator environment up myself to test the AOS3 version myself too. But as already said, AOS3 version isn't really there as a version to use, but rather for those who might want to use emulators or those who want to play this in year 2050 with their newest fastest classic.

Like Reply

amigalive20 days ago (1 edit)

Great work! seems you fixed that foreground window from opening in the OS3 version!

I also found a workaround for the previous version, for historical reasons I will give you the details.
Full Screen modes (using either of MODEREQUESTER ASKDISPLAYMODE AUTOFULLSCREEN FULLSCREEN )
always had the black Hollywood foreground window of 800x600 which covered most of the playable area and was bringing the window in the foreground with clicking in the bounds area of the window (even when it wasn't visible) and clicking outside of the area was making it disappear again. The window was fixed size and at center position and wouldnt resize in any of the fullscreen modes, so could only play at higher resolutions than 800x600 by clicking at the far edges to send it in the background again.

Using the following parameters allowed that window to shrink to 1 pixel and allowed the game to be playable:
-WINDOW -WINHEIGHT=1 -WINWIDTH=1 -BORDERLESS

Window modes were much slower in performance so Im grateful you resolved that issue.

PCx64:
Actually I have 3 monitors, and one is a TV (as 3rd) in another area, so the Hollywood window was opening there..
Brought the window to my main monitor with resolution 1920x1080 and selected "Full screen (best fit)" and I get the error:
Error opening screen!
File: main.hws (current line 28: in function: OpenDisplay)

Choosing the "Window" option it opens up a taskbar app "AI Kills All Humans" but there is no display.

Choosing "manual mode", I choose a resolution and I indeed need to bring the window over to the main screen, but it only shows black.
Also it seems to be showing only the low screen resolutions of my 2nd monitor which is also set to portrait mode: 1024x1280, 480x640 etc.
And doesnt show any of my other monitor resolutions which have higher resolutions (1920x1080, 1680x1050).

Like Reply

One Joyful DAy20 days ago

This is great feedback!

I passed this info to Hollywood forum of the tipic: https://forums.hollywood-mal.com/viewtopic.php?p=21468#p21468 so Andreas can take a look at this and perhaps get some idea what the problem is. Maybe you can even jump in and join the conversation to help fix this bug.

This is actually first time that someone reports it doesn't work at all, and that crash too, so this might help giving idea where the problem lies at.

For everyone else it has worked after they have either used ALT + F4 or that WINDOWS + SHIFT + RIGHT.

I think other one moves to other monitor or something like that, about the other ones purpose I am not sure, but I think black window issue was fixed with that WINDOWS + SHIFT + RIGHT.

By the way, you mentioned it had jumped to TV monitor, so did you even see the text displayed telling about this bug?

For so far to my understanding others have seen that message, while after that it might become either black screen or disappear.

I think it was after they select the screenmode that it either shows blackscreen or disappears, not before that.

Like Reply

amigalive20 days ago (1 edit)

Yes, the window writes about the bug exactly as in your text. I bring the window over to the left where my main monitor is and click left mouse button to continue.. perhaps I am confusing it by moving it from 3rd monitor to main.

My current setup is like this

Left to right

Left Main 1920x1080, Middle 1024x1280 (portrait), Right TV 1920x1080

Like Reply

amigalive20 days ago (2 edits)

For the AO3
Would you be able to remove that AskDisplayMode feature ? if I set the mode manually using the moderequester or autofullscreen,
I now get another popup requesting desired display mode. Seems as if AskDisplayMode is forced now.
We can however include this option in the icon info as a ToolType row which imo can be easily removed/adjusted if needed.
Also, if I set the AskDisplayMode in the tooltype now, I get a menu twice to select display modes.

One more thing I noticed now with this last AO3 version, is that choosing resolutions 1024x768 or 1280x1024 or above, do not have any benefit, as the game resolution remains at 800x600 and is aligned top left of the screen.

Like Reply

One Joyful DAy20 days ago

Yeah, it can be done and actually Andreas have even recommended not to use the ask mode anymore since he thinks it is bit old and might not be completely compatible anymore.

However, since I didn't know what to do and deadline was closing, I figured it was best option to hopefully get it to work on AOS3 by putting that Ask requester there so that at least one of the options would work. But it can be removed.

I think I will make a question to Hollywood forum for someone to explain a bit more about those Display options, since I am actually not sure what I should use, and after I get reply I can make an update which would use the option that they suggest to do.

I haven't really paid much attention to that yet, as I actually have a plan to make my own screen selector system, where user can more freely choose different options for the display. For example, there is option to do scaling either smooth or not, but I don't see an option how user could choose it through requester system, so I am planning on adding my own system where user is asked whether he wants to use smooth scaling or not. Point being, that it should be slow as it is already on Amigas, but if someone has enough power etc. maybe they wish to use the smooth scale for better looks.

Also, the major reason for my own system is that I am planning to make a system where user can choose some different resolution in such way that all the graphics are then converted to that screen resolution, meaning that it wouldn't need to do any scaling during the game.

That while the game by default is 1920x1080, you can choose to remake all the graphics to for example 800x600, and if you then play the game using 800x600, it would be using those new 800x600 graphics instead of the original ones, and this way there would be no need for scaling. I trust this will make the game work at decent speed on at least PPC Amigas. I doubt Classic would be able to handle it even then, unless maybe in 320x256 or something.

I have partially implemented that system there already, but didn't have time to fix it for this AmiGameJam yet, as was barely able to make this playable even. I plan to have much more stuff in this still.

Like Reply

amigalive20 days ago

I would suggest having the options in a readme.txt and most useful options included but commented out in the Workbench icon as tooltypes.
The only difference is that the tooltype doesnt need the dash prefix, as from command line it does:
ex: "RogueFootballCardGame AOS3.exe" -WINDOW -WINHEIGHT=1 -WINWIDTH=1 -BORDERLESS

BTW I bundled your game with other games to be available on AmigaLive desktop app (downloadable from amigalive.com) you can find the game under the configuration "AmiGameJam 2024" so we can test them all easily.
I did a trick to throttle the CPU just before launching your game and revert it just before returning to the main menu.
Let me know what you think.

PS. Your submission doesn't have a main image in the entries page. https://itch.io/jam/amigamejam/entries

Like Reply

One Joyful DAy19 days ago

Thanks for adding to that AmigaLive.

So how does that system actually work? I mean, it reads A4000 68040, but I guess that is not actually emulating the real speed of A4000/040 machine? Or is it? For that game seems to be working too fast for it to be on actual existing 68040? For my understanding is that due to scaling currently happening, it should be tough even for X5000 to run it since it will be done on CPU on Amigas. PCs have no problem since they use GFX cards for that, but Hollywood to my understanding doesn't have similar support to GFX cards in Amigas, hence reverting to raw CPU.

Like Reply

One Joyful DAy19 days ago

Just realised I have misunderstood word "Throttle" all this time. Didnt understand what you said about Throttling CPU, until checked from dictionary the meaning.

So how much did you speed it up? As in, is it now something like 040/2500 instead of 040/25? or do you have any idea?

Like Reply

amigalive19 days ago (1 edit)

The configuration is set to a A4000 68040 with 256MB and a 4MB Picasso IV RTG (your game required 128MB not to cause the weird crashes so I took it a step more)
I am using a MUI requester, and when the user selects to run your game the script enables JIT using uae-configuration tool and throttles the CPU to 32000 (I think most computers these days can handle a 24000 I dont use Max settings because it will desync netplay as this is used for streaming and multiplayer, same reason I dont use UAEGFX but Picasso IV).
Then the script pushes another startup file and reboots.. then the new startup loads the game, when you exit the game with ESC the startup script continues and disables JIT, sets the throttle to 0.0, removes itself from startup and reboots.
This makes it run with normal performance for the other games in the list.

Using an 060 CPU would not benefit the emulation as it requires another plugin (not included yet with AmigaLive) and its also costly in CPU on the host performance without benefiting much in speed due to how emulation works, that's why I am throttling an 040 to achieve faster speeds. The instruction sets of an 060 are rarely used and I believe when devs compile for 060 they also do for 040 and 020 systems.

PS. Does the game have music or sound? I havnt configured the AHI device, so if its missing let me know and I can check.

Like Reply

One Joyful DAy19 days ago

No, it is soundless at this point still.

Like Reply