Breakthrough for the ao486 core announced - Cache

[rhester72]

Yes, yes, yes, and yes.

[Chris23235]

Same for me and a lot of yes

[Caldor]

Cache41 seems to make it impossible to boot AO486. It wont recognize boot sectors whether its floppy or hdd.

[bertnorg]

Caldor use new mister main

[Caldor]

Caldor use new mister main

I am using the one included with Cache41, that is the newest one I can find. I do not have my desktop setup right now so I cannot build a newer one.

Are you saying cache 41 works for you? Maybe you are not using the newest MiSTer main or did you build one that is newer than the one included with Cache 41?

[bertnorg]

i use the one in Cache41.
if i override the mister main it does not always work, try to remove it and then copy it over

[bertnorg]

try this one https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vFKFeY ... sp=sharing

[Chris23235]

Cache41 works for me with the Mister Main from the Cache41 archive.

[tlaloc]

Cache41 seems to make it impossible to boot AO486. It wont recognize boot sectors whether its floppy or hdd.

Try building a setup from scratch, as was provided on another thread for you here:
viewtopic.php?p=7308#p7308

Also, make certain that the 'System Settings' reflect a date of 2020-08-07 for MISTER (I have also had it happen to me where I transferred the file over, but it didn't always overwrite the previous file [as user 'bertnorg' had also mentioned] resulting in the weirdest errors):

2020-08-08 10_12_28-20200808_100544_edit.png (387.58 KiB) Viewed 8322 times

[jordi]

I've seen this strange scroll artifacts on 2d games

See right part of the screen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVMoYMJb3hk

It's strange as it only happens on horizontal scrolling.

[Q47]

I've seen this strange scroll artifacts on 2d games

See right part of the screen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVMoYMJb3hk

It's strange as it only happens on horizontal scrolling.

This is just hw/coding limitation of that era. Video under explains this on NES. Why you see it is simply because your screen doesn't do overscan anymore as CRTs did back in the day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfrNnwJrujw

[IAmParadox]

what's actually funny, is ID software recreated SM3 for the PC to show Nintendo that they could port NES games to PC (which had horrible horizontal scrolling capabilities, at the time, which ID figured out how to get around) when they were rejected by Nintendo, they went on to create Commander Keen....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YWD6Y9FUuw

[Caldor]

try this one https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vFKFeY ... sp=sharing

This one works for me. Both of them have the same date in the overlay. They do not have the same size. Did you build this yourself?

I do not have my desktop right now and this laptop only has Windows 7 so I cannot build the MiSTer main myself. But with this one working, I can use Cache 41

[ZigZag]

With the new MiSTer files for cache 41 my monitor says "signal out of range" (set at stock 800x600@60). Even main menu isn't displaying.

[cursedverses]

Hey Zigzag, I had that when I didn't have the current BIOS files in the /ao486 directory on the SD card. Do you have that?

[JimBobMcGee]

With the new MiSTer files for cache 41 my monitor says "signal out of range" (set at stock 800x600@60). Even main menu isn't displaying.

You might have to set AO486 to variable sync. I did that for mine and it worked perfectly after that.

To the previous posts about overwriting the Main Mister file, that also fixed my booting errors.

[jordi]

I've seen this strange scroll artifacts on 2d games

See right part of the screen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVMoYMJb3hk

It's strange as it only happens on horizontal scrolling.

This is just hw/coding limitation of that era. Video under explains this on NES. Why you see it is simply because your screen doesn't do overscan anymore as CRTs did back in the day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfrNnwJrujw

oh that's strange, but you could see any walkthrough and the effect might appear but less visible.
It's like in your mario video, it has an effect but it is almost unnoticeable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKHUOKVzo0Q

Then it might be interesting to be able to cut the right part of the screen.

[ZigZag]

The "out of sync" issue with cache 41 wasn't limited to ao486 core - the actual menu screen wasn't showing after turning the MiSTer on so I couldn't see anything to actually access ao486 or anything else! Changing back to the old MiSTer file sorts the menu out, but cache 41 complains it can't see any boot devices.

EDIT: Oh yeah, forgot to say I have latest bios files. Thanks for the replies.

[tontonkaloun]

The "out of sync" issue with cache 41 wasn't limited to ao486 core - the actual menu screen wasn't showing after turning the MiSTer on so I couldn't see anything to actually access ao486 or anything else! Changing back to the old MiSTer file sorts the menu out, but cache 41 complains it can't see any boot devices.

EDIT: Oh yeah, forgot to say I have latest bios files. Thanks for the replies.

For me, you have not put the correct main Mister file on your SD, it is in the archive with the core file.
The black screen is that it is missing or corrupt.
The Core that does not boot to HD is that it is not the correct version.

[ZigZag]

The "out of sync" issue with cache 41 wasn't limited to ao486 core - the actual menu screen wasn't showing after turning the MiSTer on so I couldn't see anything to actually access ao486 or anything else! Changing back to the old MiSTer file sorts the menu out, but cache 41 complains it can't see any boot devices.

EDIT: Oh yeah, forgot to say I have latest bios files. Thanks for the replies.

For me, you have not put the correct main Mister file on your SD, it is in the archive with the core file.
The black screen is that it is missing or corrupt.
The Core that does not boot to HD is that it is not the correct version.

Yep, should've trusted myself, I'm quite familiar with this kind of thing. Just got out of my bed to triple check I hadn't made any errors (like the OCD twat that I am). I extracted the files again, copied the MiSTer file from the archive over again (having renamed the old one as backup - again). No menu screen, input out if sync. Had to remote connect to mister & revert to the backup (so I guess its just screen output that's not working, at least when set to 800x600@60). No idea if the menu works with other screen resolutions, might try that tomorrow (later today I mean).

[tontonkaloun]

The "out of sync" issue with cache 41 wasn't limited to ao486 core - the actual menu screen wasn't showing after turning the MiSTer on so I couldn't see anything to actually access ao486 or anything else! Changing back to the old MiSTer file sorts the menu out, but cache 41 complains it can't see any boot devices.

EDIT: Oh yeah, forgot to say I have latest bios files. Thanks for the replies.

For me, you have not put the correct main Mister file on your SD, it is in the archive with the core file.
The black screen is that it is missing or corrupt.
The Core that does not boot to HD is that it is not the correct version.

Yep, should've trusted myself, I'm quite familiar with this kind of thing. Just got out of my bed to triple check I hadn't made any errors (like the OCD twat that I am). I extracted the files again, copied the MiSTer file from the archive over again (having renamed the old one as backup - again). No menu screen, input out if sync. Had to remote connect to mister & revert to the backup (so I guess its just screen output that's not working, at least when set to 800x600@60). No idea if the menu works with other screen resolutions, might try that tomorrow (later today I mean).

To follow your idea, I tested your resolution and it works for me
We are all the same, I would have got up too !!

[ZigZag]

Maybe it's something to do with me having activated the VGA scaler in order to be able to use filters. If this had the internal filters I'd just use HQ2X. This monitor is prety damn robust when it comes to displaying signals (I did have it set for 1600x1200@60 over VGA but the ao486 core looks nicer with 800x600). It's the HP LP2065 monitor. Unfortunately my HDMI is bust or I'd try it on the TV. I still can using VGA but it means arseing around with the cables! I'll just stick to cache 37 for now since I managed to install 98lite on it and it wasn't working properly in cache 40. Hopefully whatever changed that is causing the MiSTer to mess with my monitor sync will get fixed in a later release.

[SavageX]

Hmmm... for some people Cache 37 seems to be more stable than later iterations (at least judging from e.g. viewtopic.php?f=13&t=918 saying "(cache 37 tested -40 failed)"). I think versions beyond Cache 37 are including the last round of Cache performance tweaks and I wonder if that has interesting side-effects...

[IAmParadox]

Maybe it's something to do with me having activated the VGA scaler in order to be able to use filters. If this had the internal filters I'd just use HQ2X. This monitor is prety damn robust when it comes to displaying signals (I did have it set for 1600x1200@60 over VGA but the ao486 core looks nicer with 800x600). It's the HP LP2065 monitor. Unfortunately my HDMI is bust or I'd try it on the TV. I still can using VGA but it means arseing around with the cables! I'll just stick to cache 37 for now since I managed to install 98lite on it and it wasn't working properly in cache 40. Hopefully whatever changed that is causing the MiSTer to mess with my monitor sync will get fixed in a later release.

Mister.ini
vsync_adjust=0

worked for me.

[Caldor]

I made a build of the latest updates:

ao486_caldor_cache42b.7z

(2.05 MiB) Downloaded 173 times

The MiSTer main got updated with the Sorgelig comment: ao486: fix midi flag. (its currently 8 hours old)

AO486 got updated with these comments:
temp commit with low slack. - 18 hours ago
uart: fixes in mpu mode. - 12 hours ago
uart: don't use fifo in mpu mode. - 10 hours ago
Move 100MHz to debug menu. - 10 hours ago

I think Sorg is getting ready to make an official release soon. Much of this seems to be fixing and polishing minor things.

A feature I think could be nice to see, would be an option to support two GPU bioses. Mainly because Game Wizard 32 Pro works with the original VGA bios that the release is using, but not with the new VGA bios on the dev branch or the new SVGA/VESA bios. I have not found any other reason to sometimes want to use the old VGA bios, but since its the case with GW32Pro, I am guessing it might also be the case with other things.

[AntialiasedPixel]

I made a build of the latest updates:
ao486_caldor_cache42b.7z

I can't seem to get this one to boot up, but I haven't tried the beta core since one of the early ones. I've tried booting from floppy images, various vhds (including the freedos 1.3 one), swapping the floppy/hdd boot order and it always finds no boot devices. Any ideas on what I could be missing?

[tlaloc]

I made a build of the latest updates:
ao486_caldor_cache42b.7z

I can't seem to get this one to boot up, but I haven't tried the beta core since one of the early ones. I've tried booting from floppy images, various vhds (including the freedos 1.3 one), swapping the floppy/hdd boot order and it always finds no boot devices. Any ideas on what I could be missing?

It looks like the last two commits are getting strange errors related to UART, I noticed MIDI wasn't switching between MUNT & FluidSynth as well the last functioning commit (i.e. 'ao486_Cache41_9c63fe4.zip' [Add simulation framework for modelsim for both caches and cpu test])

The people that know better mention it in this 'Why OpenCore Plus UART?' thread:
viewtopic.php?p=7691#p7691

For now, if you want to hear really funky MIDI sounds coming out the MiSTer, download either of the two most recent commits and switch between MUNT and Fluidsynth... making sure to toggle between the "UART BAUD' speed of 31250 and the usual 38400 that the [now outdated?] MIDI-Link guide recommends specifically for ao486 (conflicting with a recent commit 06092fc, which I believe says we are to now use 31250 like the one recommended for the minimig - as mentioned in the below guide?):
https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/MidiLink_MiSTer


So yeah, if you want funky MIDI thrown in dissarray, pickup the following two most recent commits 100432e & cf9e20f:
ao486_Cache42_100432e.zip
ao486_Cache43_cf9e20f.zip

Otherwise, stick with the tried and true commit 9c63fe4/'ao486_Cache41_9c63fe4.zip' to be able to switch it up without hearing the MIDI all mixed up, which can be fun for a minute

[Caldor]

I made a build of the latest updates:
ao486_caldor_cache42b.7z

I can't seem to get this one to boot up, but I haven't tried the beta core since one of the early ones. I've tried booting from floppy images, various vhds (including the freedos 1.3 one), swapping the floppy/hdd boot order and it always finds no boot devices. Any ideas on what I could be missing?

Boots for me, but remember to use the bioses, the new mister file and the rbf core file.

I made a build of the latest updates:
ao486_caldor_cache42b.7z

I can't seem to get this one to boot up, but I haven't tried the beta core since one of the early ones. I've tried booting from floppy images, various vhds (including the freedos 1.3 one), swapping the floppy/hdd boot order and it always finds no boot devices. Any ideas on what I could be missing?

It looks like the last two commits are getting strange errors related to UART, I noticed MIDI wasn't switching between MUNT & FluidSynth as well the last functioning commit (i.e. 'ao486_Cache41_9c63fe4.zip' [Add simulation framework for modelsim for both caches and cpu test])

The people that know better mention it in this 'Why OpenCore Plus UART?' thread:
viewtopic.php?p=7691#p7691

For now, if you want to hear really funky MIDI sounds coming out the MiSTer, download either of the two most recent commits and switch between MUNT and Fluidsynth... making sure to toggle between the "UART BAUD' speed of 31250 and the usual 38400 that the [now outdated?] MIDI-Link guide recommends specifically for ao486 (conflicting with a recent commit 06092fc, which I believe says we are to now use 31250 like the one recommended for the minimig - as mentioned in the below guide?):
https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/MidiLink_MiSTer


So yeah, if you want funky MIDI thrown in dissarray, pickup the following two most recent commits 100432e & cf9e20f:
ao486_Cache42_100432e.zip
ao486_Cache43_cf9e20f.zip

Otherwise, stick with the tried and true commit 9c63fe4/'ao486_Cache41_9c63fe4.zip' to be able to switch it up without hearing the MIDI all mixed up, which can be fun for a minute

Cache43 was released after my post, so it most likely has whatever I have put in my zip and more.

[jordi]

cache43 looks to have broken keyboard input. Doing a 'keyb sp' does not fix it.
I didn't updated again the Mister file, I'm not sure if it's required again.

[AntialiasedPixel]

Found the issue I was having. Switched ftp apps recently and in the config it had a setting to transfer files with no extension as ascii. Used Binary for "MiSTer" file and it's working now.