Ferazel's Wand

About SheepShaver, a PPC Mac emulator for Windows, MacOS X, and Linux that can run System 7.5.3 to MacOS 9.0.4.

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Elyus
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Re: Ferazel's Wand

Post by Elyus »

Ronald P. Regensburg, Quicktime 4.1.2 fixed the problem with Pillars of Garendall, and it seems to be working great so far. Thanks for the suggestion! By the way, I had to manually add "%20.zip" to the end of your link to the latest SheepShaver build before it would work. I wasn't sure if this was intended or not.

Myrd, Ferazel's Wand is running perfectly using these new builds. I am thrilled that you got it working; thank you!

katetheweirdo, you're welcome. Though my part in this has been small, I share your love for old gaming and have been thankful for the SheepShaver project and those who maintain it on many occasions.
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: Ferazel's Wand

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

Elyus wrote:By the way, I had to manually add "%20.zip" to the end of your link to the latest SheepShaver build before it would work. I wasn't sure if this was intended or not.
I accidentally left a space in the file name and in the link. Both corrected now. Thanks.
Jon God
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Re: Ferazel's Wand

Post by Jon God »

This is how Harry sounds to me:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1557969/harry_recording.mp3

(You'll need to wait a few seconds before the sound starts)
FerazelX
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Re: Ferazel's Wand

Post by FerazelX »

Cat_7, that build doesn't work. It acts like the framebuffer isn't there. (Ferazel's Wand quits, other Ambrosia titles complain)

The OS X build that Ronald posted seems to be fine, however.
kataetheweirdo
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Re: Ferazel's Wand

Post by kataetheweirdo »

FerazelX wrote:Cat_7, that build doesn't work. It acts like the framebuffer isn't there. (Ferazel's Wand quits, other Ambrosia titles complain)

The OS X build that Ronald posted seems to be fine, however.
I'm experiencing the same issue. It's likely a compile error in the Windows end, if anything.
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Cat_7
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Re: Ferazel's Wand

Post by Cat_7 »

@FerazelX
@kataetheweirdo

Is this still true for the latest build in first post in the SheepShaver for Windows thread? I downloaded the linked file and it runs perfectly. It automatically adjusts to 640x480 screen resolution, etc. I'm using the old world rom with an installation of Mac OS 8.6

If it doesn't work as it should, then there is nothing I can do to help. I just compile the binaries.

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Cat_7
kataetheweirdo
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Re: Ferazel's Wand

Post by kataetheweirdo »

The latest build is able to play Ferazel's Wand and Slithereens, Cat. I downloaded the Gamma Ramp Patch just a few minutes after you uploaded it, but it's been recompiled and the games work again. I've re-downloaded Sheepshaver and that seemed to do the trick.

So yeah, no more issues on this end, now that the two (three once I finally get to play EV:Nova) games run in the emulator.
jmclaus
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Re: Ferazel's Wand

Post by jmclaus »

I've gotten the game to work with the latest SheepShaver version (thanks everyone) on Windows, but whenever the game start it says the sound is unable to load. Other than that it's completely playable and I could do without the sound, but I think it really adds to the atmosphere. Does anyone know what the issue is?

Sorry if this has already been covered, but I couldn't seem to find it.
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: Ferazel's Wand

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

Mysh
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Re: Ferazel's Wand

Post by Mysh »

Hey. I've recently set up SheepShaver in an attempt to play Ferazel's Wand and am having some framerate issues. I've read up on the gamma fade issues and also FerazelX's problems mentioned earlier in this thread. I'm not having any issues with the fades, but in-game the frame rate is discouragingly slow. Everything in the startup screen and menus runs fine, but in actual gameplay it's choppy.

I'm running SheepShaver in Mountain Lion with OS 8.1 installed. QuickTime 4.1.2 is installed. I've allowed 512MB of RAM for SheepShaver and use all the same settings mentioned here:
Elyus wrote:In-game preferences:
Graphics: High Detail
Effects: Enhanced
Resolution Switching, Reuse saved game files, Reduce frame rate, and Allow background tasks are all unchecked.
InputSprocket is enabled under controls.
Sound Effects and Music are both checked.

Any ideas?
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: Ferazel's Wand

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

I tried the demo and it ran fine in 15 July 2012 SheepShaver build in Mountain Lion with MacOS 9.0.4. Default settings in the game's preferences with input sprockets off and resolution switching enabled. Did you try with input sprockets off and, while you had resolution switching disabled, did you make sure the game ran with the required monitor settings?
Mysh
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Re: Ferazel's Wand

Post by Mysh »

Thanks for the quick response!

Yes, I tested it out a few different ways just now according to your suggestions. I made sure SheepShaver had the latest build and set up Ferazel's Wand with resolution switching. Toggling input sprocket off and on didn't seem to change anything.

I have the full game installed from an actual CD-Rom [ported through to SS via disk image] as opposed to the demo version. I realized most others here had mentioned using the demo so I even tried downloading the trial from the Ambrosia site to test, and it still ran just as poorly. =[

Sorry to be a bother, but I'm running out of ideas.


EDIT:
You know I'm only noticing it now, but it may be that all of SheepShaver is running a bit slow. I haven't run too many other demanding applications, and I hadn't noticed any sluggishness until now, but I think I'll begin testing other media now—other games for instance—and see if it's not just Ferazel's Wand. I may have some bigger issues to deal with.


EDIT AGAIN:
Yep. After just a minute in Harry the Handsome Executive it was obvious framerate was an issue there as well. So now I guess the issue is find out how to get SheepShaver as a whole to run faster. I don't think it's processing time that's slowing it down, so I'm stumped. Is there another board or thread I could look into of people with similar problems? I'll go take a look now.
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Cat_7
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Re: Ferazel's Wand

Post by Cat_7 »

Hi,

Perhaps a silly question, but do you have the JIT compiler enabled? See point 5 in the setup guide:
http://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/she ... heepshaver

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Cat_7
Mysh
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Re: Ferazel's Wand

Post by Mysh »

Yes, it's enabled. Checked just now.
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: Ferazel's Wand

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

And in SheepShaver preferences the refresh rate is set to "Dynamic" as suggested in the setup guide?

Strange that you find SheepShaver slow. For many actions I find it faster than what I remember from executing them in the past on a real Mac. I do not know how Ferazel's Wand looked in the nineties on a real hardware Mac (I am not a gamer), but to me it appears quite fast in SheepShaver.
Mysh
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Re: Ferazel's Wand

Post by Mysh »

That did it!

Ah, egg on my face. I thought I had done a good job following the guide to the tee, but I had had the refresh rate set as low as 7.5 Hz. I set it to Dynamic and now everything looks great! Thanks!


I think I should note that the build of the external SheepShaver preference editor I have doesn't offer Dynamic as a setting for the refresh rate, but I found it in the preference box within SheepShaver itself. I don't know the significance of that is, and it didn't confuse me for too long, but it's worth note.


Anyway everything looks really fluid now, so problem solved!
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: Ferazel's Wand

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

Good to hear that the issue is solved.

The stand-alone prefs editor is older and is missing a couple of settings that the newer built-in editor has. You probably would not see a difference between refresh rate "Dynamic" and refresh rate "60Hz" that is available in the older prefs editor.
FuzzyPuffin
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Re: Ferazel's Wand

Post by FuzzyPuffin »

Sorry to reanimate this topic, but I can't seem to find the answer to this problem: I have the full version of Ferazel's Wand (the folder is copied over from an ancient OS 9 installation) which I have brought into Sheepshaver, but I don't have the Ferazel's Wand disk with me and I can't get past the CD check. How do I get around this? I have the original preferences file which I placed in Sheepshaver's preferences folder, but that did not do anything.
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adespoton
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Re: Ferazel's Wand

Post by adespoton »

Your best bet is to contact AmbrosiaSW (http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/ferazel/) and let them know that your registration isn't working anymore. They might have a suggestion.
FuzzyPuffin
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Re: Ferazel's Wand

Post by FuzzyPuffin »

Unfortunately the game had no cd key mechanism; they just sent you a CD. But I'll try and see what they say.
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: Ferazel's Wand

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

If the game checks for the CD to be present, you will either need the original CD or a disk image file created from that CD.
zaa
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Re: Ferazel's Wand

Post by zaa »

Hey,

I've been experimenting with this game on Windows 10 SheepShaver looking how to make it perform better for a recommended setup etc. The game plays background music via quicktime and I noticed that's causing a lot of overhead on many screens of the game even on modern PCs.
The framerate is very unstable in some sections of the game. Disabling QuickTime extensions gets rid of most of the problems at the cost of losing background music, runs at near stable 30fps like habnabit's frame by frame videos here.

If anyone else is having trouble with this games performance it's worth trying to boot with all extensions disabled. As a lazy workaround you could play the music files on your host machine.

Disabling Quicktime Powerplug slows the game down to a crawl (as expected) and the music doesn't even play. Disabling emulator audio doesn't have an effect even though the game says it's turning 'Sound Tool' off (sound effects?). So it's clearly the QuickTime emulation.
What's weird is I can run multiple instances of sheepshaver at the same time without performance being affected. The other one runs around full speed and the other is slow depending on quicktime setting. So I'm not sure how to reduce the overhead (each instance using about 9% of my CPU). Hardly noticing any performance difference when disabling/enabling features like JIT or VOSF or swapping between SheepShaver builds. I've previously emulated on a 5 years older PC, tested it again and the performance is pretty much the same even with the slower processor.

Maybe there's some conflict between the game and quicktime programs? (perhaps accurate). Wonder if there are any hacks around QuickTime performance if this is a common thing?

As mentioned earlier in this thread the game pulls some data about the emulated OS into its prefs file. I wonder if there's something strange going on there.
ps. the game asks for the cd whenever it cant find a prefs file in your system folder. Might also be doing it if it sees a change in the system specs (ie. you moved the game between systems)
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adespoton
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Re: Ferazel's Wand

Post by adespoton »

Which OS version and Quicktime version do you have installed? Sometimes game installers attempt to install incompatible Quicktime components.
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Cat_7
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Re: Ferazel's Wand

Post by Cat_7 »

Hi,

Perpaps you noticed that new SheepShaver/Basilisk builds for Windows are available that allow SDL to use hardware acceleration with direct3d or opengl.
It might improve performance, but I haven´t benchmarked it.

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Cat_7
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adespoton
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Re: Ferazel's Wand

Post by adespoton »

Cat_7 wrote: Mon May 31, 2021 6:49 pm Hi,

Perpaps you noticed that new SheepShaver/Basilisk builds for Windows are available that allow SDL to use hardware acceleration with direct3d or opengl.
It might improve performance, but I haven´t benchmarked it.

Best,
Cat_7
By "use hardware acceleration" are we saying that the emulator itself can use hardware acceleration, or that the emulated OS can use hardware acceleration? I'm assuming it's the first.
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