Here it is - the first in-development footage of the much-requested #Amiga OCS/ECS conversion of my #AtariSTE game FASTER. Weird/unexpected chipset behaviours and optimisation challenges are slowing things down somewhat, so no plans to talk about a release date just yet!

FASTER for #Commodore #Amiga - a new WIP 50fps racer being ported from the existing Atari STE version. Game now playable with joystick. Lots of work left - HUD not implemented, no sound and tons of optimisation required to match the STE version. Very happy with progress though!

Absolutely awesome. I wonder if there's anything specific to the Megadrive/Genesis hardware that makes this easier to accomplish than it would be on the Amiga or ST?

FASTER for #Amiga OCS/ECS: I never imagined saying this in a million years, but I seem to be struggling to get the performance I need out of the blitter, and I don't even have all the stuff on screen yet! Anybody know a faster way of rendering bobs than the cookie cutter method?

At 18 years old, around about 1990/91 and just a few years into learning 3D graphics I worked with a friend, the late Jose Commins to create our first 3D world on the Atari ST. It might seem primitive and crude, but this was a foundational step for me from there to #NoMansSky

youtu.be/Ff3aqpPKLNE?si… Finally, the last part in #TheUltimateArena documentary has been released. In this final part we dissect the creation of the #AtariFalcon version, and follow Théo on his journey all the way up to the release of the game at the beginning of 1996.

A question for #Amiga coders. I've updated my copper list such that the top 60 lines use 2 bitplanes and the remainder use 4 bitplanes, by changing the BPU bits of BPLCON0. Will this free up DMA time in a similar way to completely disabling bitplane DMA on those lines?

Another question for #Amiga coders. I can draw these 9 scanlines of status captions either as 2 bitplanes, or 1 bitplane overlaid with all 8 hardware sprites. Timing-wise, Grok suggests that both options would be very similar, so I'm inclined to go with 2 bitplanes. Thoughts?

FASTER for #Amiga OCS/ECS: still getting the right foundations in place to build upon. Switched to interleaved bitplanes to allow single-pass bob drawing. Considering best use of Copper and HW sprites to maximise framerate. Be assured: this is no lazy STE->Amiga conversion!😄

atarilegend.com/interviews/81 Here is the #interview I conducted a year ago with T.R.Buz. It may seem a bit chaotic, as the exchanges between Théo and me spanned several weeks, but I didn’t want any details to be lost to time. Read all about the creation of The Ultimate Arena here.

FASTER for #Amiga OCS/ECS: copper sky gradient is now in, enabling reduced bitplane count in parts of screen for better performance. Still frame drops when screen busy but hoping to sort with optimisation. Next up: status display and speedo, using a mix of HW sprites and bobs.

The rotating minimap is actually a test for the chunky-to-planar code I'm experimenting with. At 64x32 pixels, it takes exactly 10ms per frame to render on an 8MHz Atari ST. The dithering is integrated in the c2p routine and I like how it makes the 2x pixel scaling less obvious.

FASTER for #Amiga OCS/ECS: Following much head scratching, the speedo in the bottom right has been switched from BoBs to hardware sprites, giving a nice performance boost and other cool benefits that I'll come to later. I did say this would be no lazy STE->Amiga conversion. 😄

FASTER for #Amiga OCS/ECS: currently adding in bobs for top status display. Time digits will be hardware sprites. As with the STE version that came before it, each new feature requires a load of optimisation work in other areas to hold onto that all-important 50fps framerate!

FASTER for #Amiga OCS/ECS: currently adding in some features that had to be left out of the STE version because they were too CPU intensive. This depth-cueing effect on the ground/road surface is a good example. I don't love everything about the Amiga, but I love the Copper! 😁

FASTER for #Amiga OCS/ECS: switched over to single pass (rather than 4 pass) rendering for car and scenery bobs, giving a noticeable increase in performance. Further evidence for any existing doubters out there that this is definitely not a lazy port from the ST! 😄

Here's a very informal comparison between the existing #AtariSTE version of FASTER and the (WIP) #Amiga OCS/ECS version, because I know you guys love this kind of thing. 😄 Atari left, Amiga right.

Has DOOM ever been ported to the Atari ST? #retrogaming

DOOM on Atari ST. Got better dithering results now with much less distracting noise. I'll just post a couple of screenshots for you to enjoy. Disclaimer: still running on emulated Atari STE with 8MB of RAM accelerated to ludicrous speed(TM). Don't expect a playable game yet :-)

DOOM on Atari ST! To be fair, an emulated one with a 32MHz Motorola 68060. The memory limit is now down to 4MB so this could actually run on real hardware. Let's start optimization from here.