Graphics Bug With Shanghai

[RodimusFVC]

Describe the bug
Most of the time, when I launch Shanghai (via WHDLoad), the title screen has garbled graphics - but once in a great while, it looks correct. I don't THINK this is a WHDLoad issue.. I think it's an initialization of the graphics mode that Shanghai's title screen is in.. This also impacts the game's 'win' screen where instead of seeing a dragon's eye floating around the screen, you see the mask image instead.

To Reproduce
Start the game... look at the screen.

Expected behavior
Expect the clear graphical screen...

Screenshots

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: Manjaro (Arch)

• Version 7.0.9, but it's prevalent as far back as the 5.x.x series.

Additional context
This is EXTREMELY low priority, but it might be a fun challenge if you're bored.

I've dug into it a bit, and tried different starting workbench resolutions, using RTG or not, etc... but nothing seems to make a difference.

If you want to reject this bug as indeterminate, that's ok - I've gotten used to not seeing the correct graphics. I sometimes wish it just worked correctly.

I do know that this same WHDLoad package works fine with WinUAE and does give the proper title screen (but the winning screen is still the mask graphics), so... nobody seems to have this fixed perfectly. :)

[RodimusFVC]

Also - just for fun - I copied my kickstart and workbench/games hdf files over to my Mister Pi - worked fine on the mister using the exact same setup/install. So it's not a WHDLoad issue, and it's not a problem with Shanghai... I haven't been able to WIN to see if the mask graphics show up instead of the dragon's eye.. but I can confirm this is some kind of emulation issue for the title screen at least. I know the original disk/game worked flawlessly on my original A2000, and the dump I submitted to CAPS is from that disk - which is identical to the one used to create the WHDLoad .... Just to rule out a few more things! I'll keep trying more ideas as I think of them, but... for now I'll focus on trying to win on the Mister and see if that is any better.

[giantclambake]

Can't recreate this ~ tried loading Shanghai_v1.2_1388.lha about a dozen times over the last couple of hours, and every single time the the main screen appears correctly..... this is using direct loading (amiberry Shanghai_v1.2_1388.lha)

Perhaps if you turn on logging and attach the logfile here it may show something..

[RodimusFVC]

Here you go...

amiberry.log

Hope that helps, but I didn't see anything that jumped out at me...

[giantclambake]

Ahh... you're using a Workbench setup ; I'm not sure where you would begin to look for this (too many variables).... maybe @midwan has an idea...

...personally, if amiberry runs a whdload title correctly using direct loading (seems to be the case with this title), I never bother with a Workbench setup to begin with ...ie; just open the .lha with amiberry and play the game on my linux desktop.

[RodimusFVC]

I had a long think about this in my sleep last night, and it occurred to me that the one major difference between my Mister, my actual A2000, and my Amiberry setup ... RTG. I use an emulated RTG board in Amiberry for higher resolutions, but Mister doesn't support that and my A2000 only has a flickerfixer.

So, I'm guessing there's something bugged in the transition between RTG and the graphics mode that Shanghai uses.

Best guess I have at this point.

[giantclambake]

Umm.... if you're using the P96 software, are you using the older (free) version from aminet, or the newest paid version (v3.5)?

[RodimusFVC]

I am using the older (free) package. I didn't have a real board, so I figured that was 'good enough'.... Mistake?

[giantclambake]

From the icomp page...

P96 allows the use of graphics cards in the Amiga computer. It can also be used to let an emulator use the native monitor resolution of the host computer.

...if you're into reading changelogs... https://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/P96

As said, lot of variables....and you have to start somewhere, so trying to eliminate P96 variables is something.

edit: scrubbed line, you're using 68040

[RodimusFVC]

Yup, I am using 040 emulation. I will attach my default.uae file if you want to see my standard config for this - not sure if that will help you replicate it or not - or if just reading it will give some hints on things.

default.uae.zip

[midwan]

Are you using JIT when running the game? That will usually cause issues in certain games.

[RodimusFVC]

Are you using JIT when running the game? That will usually cause issues in certain games.

No JIT - just 'more compatible'

[RodimusFVC]

[RodimusFVC]

fwiw, i bumped it down from the UAE device to the PAL device, in low res, and it still was garbled.

I'll try disabling RTG in the amiberry setup and see if that does anything exciting.