PCem

Hello,

I'm not sure if this is kind of bug that can be reported here, but I decided to at least try.

I created a machine Epox P55-VA with Intel Pentium MMX 233, with 128 MB memory, S3 ViRGE/DX Voodoo 2 Graphics. I installed Windows 98 on this machine and decided to try to launch Pro Rally 2001 demo (it can be found here: https://www.gamepressure.com/download.asp?ID=27) which is probably unplayable on any NT systems (full version got some patches though but I don't own it).

After launching it and configuring to use Voodoo2 with Glide 3 graphics (other two configurations do worse than this), I'm getting past main menu and loading screen, but the game crashes few seconds after timer starts.
(To answer the question why I haven't tried other ones: first configuration gives awfully glitchy screen and second crashes PCem before main menu starts).

In pcem.log file I see only this: (value of course changes per each launch).
I recorded video with what actually happens:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxRxt5kUFYs

I tried this on three different PCs, if required I can provide specs.

Obviously, this game is not mentioned as supported in README, but I was wondering whether anything can be achieved here. If this is something that cannot be reported as bug, then please close this topic.
Regards.

Do you happen to have old hard to test the demo? I wonder what might happen in real hard. Quit to Windows desktop?

I forgot to mention that I was following mostly this tutorial when creating environment: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ro3nvM ... u0Wtu/view

omarsis81 wrote: ↑Fri 28 Jun, 2019 5:55 pm Do you happen to have old hard to test the demo? I wonder what might happen in real hard. Quit to Windows desktop?

Well, I have a "kind of" retro PC:
* Pentium IIIE, 800 MHz,
* Asus CUSL2-C,
* Intel Solano i815EP
* 256 MB RAM
* ATI Radeon 9600
* Windows 98 SE (same as in PCem)

As far as I remember, it simply worked without crashing at all, I was able to finish this "stage". However, it's difficult to compare Radeon graphics to Voodoo here. I'll definitely check it during the weekend and try to record it somehow.

The CMDFIFO crash indicates a failure at the Voodoo emulation level. Have you tried it with the voodoo recompiler disabled? Have you also tried it on Voodoo Graphics?

leilei wrote: ↑Fri 28 Jun, 2019 9:18 pm The CMDFIFO crash indicates a failure at the Voodoo emulation level. Have you tried it with the voodoo recompiler disabled? Have you also tried it on Voodoo Graphics?

Well, once I unticked it, nothing changes, sometimes log shows: Sometimes its about this: I recorded behaviour of the game with two other options available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQd4A4_h6ng

First one, well, "works" but graphical artifacts make it completely unplayable. Second does simply the same as Third one but crashes during game's launch.

Mtik333 wrote: ↑Sat 29 Jun, 2019 12:04 pm [

I recorded behaviour of the game with two other options available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQd4A4_h6ng

Here it works because you're running the game with the Virge card and NOT the Voodoo, and as leilei said, the problem relies on the Voodoo emulation
Also, I bet the Virge artifacts are real behavior, since the Virge was only meant for very early 3D like 1996 or 97. I'm surprised it could run a game from 2000 or 2001

Ok, so final conclusion is that I should leave this game for "real" retro-PC rather than emulation right? Thanks for help.

switching the CPU to WinChip2 interpreter might be a workaround as there's been a few rare times where the dynarec makes the Voodoo2 drivers get garbage.

leilei wrote: ↑Sat 29 Jun, 2019 9:46 pm switching the CPU to WinChip2 interpreter might be a workaround as there's been a few rare times where the dynarec makes the Voodoo2 drivers get garbage.

Well, I tried that as well but nothing changed at all, anyway thanks a lot for suggestion, I think there's nothing to achieve here and even if, doesn't make sense to waste time on that.