Wolfenstein 3D Problems

About BasiliskII, a 68k Mac emulator for Windows, MacOSX, and Linux that can run System 7.x through MacOS 8.1.

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thequestionmaniac
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Wolfenstein 3D Problems

Post by thequestionmaniac »

So I got Wolfenstein 3D on Baslilsk II running, and I was very excited to play. Then I found this
https://www.mediafire.com/?n9wfne1wq6byh5w
So can anybody help me for this
Is it the emulators fault or the games fault?
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ClockWise
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Re: Wolfenstein 3D Problems

Post by ClockWise »

Might be worth asking the same question on Macintosh Garden, as you are more likely to encounter members who have played this particular game in an emulator. I would test for you, but sadly am away from a computer with Basilisk II installed right now.
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24bit
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Re: Wolfenstein 3D Problems

Post by 24bit »

I´m getting nearly the same error in Basilisk II 1.0, Mac OS X port 19, MacOS 10.6 (32bit).
Anyway, the game seems to run without graphical glitch in SheepShaver 2.4.20120715, 10.6 (32bit)

Edit:
SheepShaver is the one for Wolf 3D, as BII in 10.10 does not play it correctly either.

After some short trials, it seems that BII builds with the Just In Time compiler miss to render the Wolf 3D screens all right.
This does not seem to be a JIT issue, as BII with JIT disabled misbehaves just the same.
Something may have been rolled into the code at that time, which messes up the graphics.
For me only the famous BII build 142 for Windows is running the game as it should.
BTW, MiniVMacII shows the same graphics error as newer BII builds.

So, its maybe some programmer´s "fault" optimizing and modernizing the BII code. :)
Adam P
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Re: Wolfenstein 3D Problems

Post by Adam P »

Wolfenstein 3D uses floating-point calculations to build the trig tables (needed for rendering and movement), which if these fail (namely with Mini vMac), the game will render horribly and eventually crash.

Try turning 68K FPU emulation off ("fpu false").
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adespoton
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Re: Wolfenstein 3D Problems

Post by adespoton »

Would the SoftwareFPU extension fix this?
Adam P
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Re: Wolfenstein 3D Problems

Post by Adam P »

SoftwareFPU is not necessary here. Wolfenstein 3D uses the software-based SANE (Standard Apple Numerics Environment) for floating-point calculations. The problem lies in the fact that SANE utilizes the FPU when it’s available, so the bugs in an FPU can be reflected anywhere floating-point calculations are made.

In this case, try turning off the FPU or JIT-FPU in the Basilisk II or SheepShaver preferences, and see what happens.
enryfox
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Re: Wolfenstein 3D Problems

Post by enryfox »

Setting the CPU to 68030 (without FPU) fixes the rendering issues. Is there any real drawback with disabling FPU ?

thanks
bye
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adespoton
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Re: Wolfenstein 3D Problems

Post by adespoton »

It runs slower :roll:

Under emulation, I can't see any downside to avoiding FPU where it isn't needed; it was meant to speed up floating point operations by offloading them to a dedicated processor instead of clogging up the CPU with a bunch of math.

Since an MC68030 can be emulated at considerably higher speeds than it ever ran, this isn't an issue for any software that has an 030 compatible mode.
enryfox
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Re: Wolfenstein 3D Problems

Post by enryfox »

adespoton wrote:It runs slower :roll:
Yes indeed without FPU, math benchmarks are much slower (310 vs 1700 using 68LC040). Anyway frame rate of the game is more than enough and it is very smooth.
Maybe because the emulated mac is a hundred time faster than a 40 MHz 68K :lol:

regards
bye
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