Frame Buffer reads/writes...

[Tagrineth]

I was playing some PSX games earlier in ePSXe and remembered that they have 'swirl' effects (done using FB modification).

The last time I'd tried enabling FB read/modify in the PS graphics plugin I use was on my Kyro II, and needless to say the performance was really really bad.

But I was playing Tales of Phantasia and decided to turn them on, for laughs more than anything else.

Lo and behold! The frame rate stayed at 59.9 throughout the pre-battle 'swirl' effect - which was missing before enabling FB read/modify.

What are some N64 games where I could see if this is a normal thing for the R300 line, or if it's unique to PSX FB use, or even just unique to this game?

 

[Tagrineth]

Screenshot of ToP-PSX's swirl effect. Note the frame rate. And that the effect is missing with FB read/modify disabled.

 

[Tagrineth]

Another capture of the effect, the frame rate is still 59.9 and nearly the entire frame is being shifted.

 

[LD.]

Off the top of my head, you can try the Jigsaw puzzle games in Banjo-Kazooie / Banjo-Tooie for framebuffer effects. Or if you feel really daring, try playing Yoshi's Story which uses the framebuffer to render practically everything on screen except for the main sprites.

You'll need to use either Jabo's 1.5 or Rice's plugin.

 

[Tagrineth]

Hahaha! Great news here...

Notice the VI/sec rate?

Output isn't perfect though (no fruits on the border, for one). This is with Rice's Daedalus 4.5, framebuffer set to Copy&Back. The backgrounds are severely screwed with most of the other settings.

The speed is the same in all framebuffer modes, as far as I've tested.

This is using DX8.1... haven't tried OpenGL but I'll test that in a sec.

 

[Tagrineth]

Mmm... OpenGL is completely screwed.

Setting the framebuffer emulation to Disable gets this result:

 

[Tagrineth]

So basically, someone really should set up a plugin to use R300 properly This is one seriously badass chip.

And apparently the new CATALYST 3.2 drivers (which I haven't even installed yet!) offer huge boosts to framebuffer-based effects (on the order of 100% improvement).

(Edit: side note: I couldn't get Jabo's plugins to work correctly, but based on GoldenEye performance in 1964 with Jabo's set to Copy Buffers, I think Jabo uses pure software or something close to it to run FB effects)

 

[james.miller]

actually its closer to 500%. damn fine cards, arnt they?

 

[Tagrineth]

actually its closer to 500%. damn fine cards, arnt they?

I thought the 500% was for CAT 3.1 and then there's another 100% for CAT 3.2? Heh, maybe I have my versions mixed up. Again.

 

[nephalim]

In Jabo's 1.4 or earlier, turning FB emulation on brings everything to a crawl.

However, with 1.5, all of a sudden, miraculously (and by default, strangely,) framebuffer emulation magically worked without a noticable performance hit. What's up with that?

Ironically, I think my video card has some sort of framebuffer support. What makes this ironic is that it can't seem to get anything else right.

(Ati Mobility M4, Rage 128 based chipset)