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Re: Slow STFM blitter oddness

Posted: 02 Jan 2020 21:03
by exxos
Thanks! I don't get why my machine is slow and not others then :cry: :cry:

Re: Slow STFM blitter oddness

Posted: 02 Jan 2020 22:40
by pixelpusher
exxos wrote: 02 Jan 2020 21:03 Thanks! I don't get why my machine is slow and not others then :cry: :cry:
If really you want to dig deeper into this, then please check if this slow-down happens with NVDI too and if it is reproducible in GEM_TEST too.

I could offer to check GB6' (runtime) use of OS calls with SysMon over the weekend (but only in an emulator, as I have no usb floopy drive for the PC yet and therefore can't transfer downloads to the real hardware). The comparision between the OS calls GEM_TEST and GB 6 use then should give a hint of which API functions are actually slowed down ...

Re: Slow STFM blitter oddness

Posted: 02 Jan 2020 22:48
by exxos
Problem is I am somewhat limited to floppies and I doubt NVDI would even fit on one :(

Re: Slow STFM blitter oddness

Posted: 02 Jan 2020 22:58
by pixelpusher
exxos wrote: 02 Jan 2020 22:48 Problem is I am somewhat limited to floppies and I doubt NVDI would even fit on one :(
It does, if you don't add vector fonts (for DD probably remove also screen drivers not needed on an ST and also no printer drivers) or use NVDI 2.5x - that one definitely fits on a DD disc.

Re: Slow STFM blitter oddness

Posted: 02 Jan 2020 23:01
by thorsten.otto
NVDI 2.51 should fit on a floppy

Re: Slow STFM blitter oddness

Posted: 03 Jan 2020 09:35
by czietz
What's fairly obvious is that your STFm is slow when text is involved, which is when the Blitter copies data (the individual glyphs) from ROM to screen.

For the record, my other STFm with Blitter and TOS 2.06:
IMG_3970.JPG

Re: Slow STFM blitter oddness

Posted: 03 Jan 2020 14:21
by exxos
I'm not having much luck with NVDI :roll:

It might be lack of RAM as I think this is only a 512K machine... ?

IMG_4789.JPG

EDIT:

Tried to find NVDI 2.5 and can't see it anywhere. I also swapped the GLUE,MMU,BLITTER for other chips and no change.

Re: Slow STFM blitter oddness

Posted: 03 Jan 2020 18:34
by pixelpusher
exxos wrote: 03 Jan 2020 14:21 Tried to find NVDI 2.5 and can't see it anywhere. I also swapped the GLUE,MMU,BLITTER for other chips and no change.
I have the original disc, but no USB floppy yet to transfer data to/from the PC ... - any recommendations which drive to buy and which to avoid? I checked a 1 MB STF with the UBE adapter that arrived today (thx!) + NVDI 2.5 and there's plenty of RAM free (512k RAM would be sufficient).

Re: Slow STFM blitter oddness

Posted: 03 Jan 2020 19:16
by exxos
pixelpusher wrote: 03 Jan 2020 18:34 any recommendations which drive to buy and which to avoid?
I'm still using good old internal floppy drives :) USB drives don't tend to do extended formats from what I understand, so they pretty useless for me.

Re: Slow STFM blitter oddness

Posted: 03 Jan 2020 19:45
by pixelpusher
exxos wrote: 03 Jan 2020 19:16
pixelpusher wrote: 03 Jan 2020 18:34 any recommendations which drive to buy and which to avoid?
I'm still using good old internal floppy drives :) USB drives don't tend to do extended formats from what I understand, so they pretty useless for me.
Then you're probably not using a current MB : -) - for many years neither Intel nor AMD have floppy support on their MB anymore (and I haven found a floppy controller PCIe 1x-card via Google - only USB based solutions).