v17 compatibility & bug list

[G-Man]

Working:

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Solaris 2.5.1
	Shuttle HOT-557, Pentium 200MMX, 128MB RAM, IDE, ATI Graphics Pro Turbo (Mach64 GX)(4MB), SB 16, Microsoft 2-button mouse (serial)

Solaris 2.6
	Shuttle HOT-557, Pentium 200MMX, 128MB RAM, IDE, ATI Graphics Pro Turbo (Mach64 GX)(4MB), SB 16, Microsoft 2-button mouse (serial)

Solaris 7.0
	Shuttle HOT-557, Pentium 200MMX, 128MB RAM, IDE, ATI Graphics Pro Turbo (Mach64 GX)(4MB), SB 16, Microsoft 2-button mouse (serial)

[caiot5]

Well, hello Sarah (and of course other contributors), first things first: I want to thank you for your HUGE efforts of coding PCem.
I know that it is a really complex thing, and you guys (and girls) did an amazing job.
However I would just report that the Dynamic Recompiler of v17 looks completely broken (or kind of) on macOS.
All the machines that relies on Dynarec (such as Pentium-class machines) are REALLY slow.
I can confirm that without Dynarec it works the same (or better) than v16 did.
I know that there is no official support for macOS because the lack of interest on it and I know that you must have a ton of more important things to do instead of troubleshooting PCem for a OS that just a few PCem users actually use.
So it is just to report it.
I'll just keep using v16 for now.

Thanks, peace ^^
Caio

[digger]

Re: SeaBIOS: Back when I checked, it did support i440BX, so now that there's the GA686BX, maybe it could be added. Also given that it's open source, it should be easier to get good support than for closed-source legacy bioses. Finally, don't forget there's also an VGAbios. (don't know what does it emulate)

Re: FreeDOS: Obviously it requires the "legacy" one, since PCem emulates legacy hardware.

First of all: high, everyone! This is my first post in the PCem forum.

Anyway, about that VGA BIOS that is included with SeaBIOS: from what I have understood, it can be used as a generic alternative for when you build a coreboot image with a SeaBIOS payload for actual hardware, such as a laptop supported by coreboot. You can of course opt to extract the vendor-specific BIOS image from the laptop's factory-shipped BIOS before you replace it with coreboot, but that image would be a binary blob, so people who want their BIOS blob-free can opt to build their coreboot/SeaBIOS image with the open source VGA BIOS instead. The downside of that of course is that it only supports the generic IBM VGA functionality, since that is the lowest common denominator with which all VGA-compatible GPUs are compatible at the hardware register level. All SVGA and higher resolution VESA/VBE stuff would require custom BIOS code for each video chipset. But people who want a BIOS free of binary blobs usually don't mind, since they typically only need the BIOS to boot into the OS, at which point the OS-specific video drivers take over. General VGA compatibility is usually sufficient for that.

But all of this does mean that the open source VGA BIOS that is part of the SeaBIOS project is designed to also work with actual physical VGA-compatible video cards, not just emulated or virtualized ones.

A while back, I tried emulating a PC with an IBM VGA card in PCem, and booting it using the VGA BIOS from the SeaBIOS project, but I couldn't get it to work. I got a black screen. I'm not sure why it didn't work. One possible reason might be that the ROM image was compiled with modern x86 instructions that are not supported by older 386 and 486 CPUs.

Has anybody else been more successful with this? It would be quite useful if we could make available an open source generic VGA BIOS image with a license compatible with that of PCem. One that would be a drop-in replacement for the official IBM VGA BIOS that PCem of course doesn't include for legal reasons. It would be a significant step towards being able to distribute a fully functional and ready-to-use ROM image of an emulated (vintage or legacy) PC for use with PCem. All the other ingredients already seem to be there. SeaBIOS already works with some of the machine types that PCem can emulate. Combined with the XT-IDE BIOS and such a VGA BIOS, we'd be all set, right?

[EluanCM]

VGABios is not supposed to be used with "real" hardware, which is what PCem emulates (this is stated in its manual). Using it would require changes to PCem.

[UPerschke]

Banshee: Distorted character models, both with and without recompiler.
Voodoo2: Working, both with and without recompiler.
Voodoo3: Working

Cannot compare to a real Banshee.
Could not find any pics online for comparison either.

OS: Win98SE
DirectX: 7.0a

Voodoo2 driver

Voodoo2 Driver kit Version: 3.02.02
Glide Driver Version: 2.56.00.0459
Glide3 Driver Version: 3.03.00.0670
Voodoo2 D3D Driver Build Number: 4.12.01.1151
Voodoo2 Control Panel Applet: 4.12.01.0082
OpenGL(r) Driver Version: 1.0.0.0508 ICD

Voodoo3 driver

Voodoo3(tm) Driver kit: 1.07.00-WHQL
Voodoo3 DirectX(r) Driver Version: 4.12.01.0666
Voodoo3 Win9x 2D/3D Display Drivers: 4.12.01.0666
Glide(tm) 2.X Driver: 2.61.00.0658
Glide 3.X Driver: 3.10.00.0658
OpenGL(r) Driver Version: 1.0.0.0734 ICD

Banshee driver

Voodoo Banshee(tm) Driver kit: 1.04.00
Voodoo Banshee Win9x 2D/3D Display Drivers: 4.12.01.1222
Voodoo Banshee Glide(tm) 2.X Driver: 2.61.00.0518
Voodoo Banshee Glide 3.X Driver:3.10.00.0518
Voodoo Banshee Control Panel: 4.12.01.1552
OpenGL(r) Driver Version: 1.0.0.0508 ICD

Config

gameblaster = 0
gus = 0
ssi2001 = 0
voodoo = 0
model = fic_va503p
cpu_manufacturer = 0
cpu = 10
fpu = builtin
cpu_use_dynarec = 1
cpu_waitstates = 0
gfxcard = banshee
video_speed = 5
sndcard = sb16
cpu_speed = 21
disc_a =
disc_b =
hdd_controller = ide
mem_size = 131072
cdrom_drive = 200
cdrom_channel = 2
zip_channel = -1
hdc_sectors = 63
hdc_heads = 16
hdc_cylinders = 4096
hdd_sectors = 63
hdd_heads = 16
hdd_cylinders = 4096
hde_sectors = 0
hde_heads = 0
hde_cylinders = 0
hde_fn =
hdf_sectors = 0
hdf_heads = 0
hdf_cylinders = 0
hdf_fn =
hdg_sectors = 0
hdg_heads = 0
hdg_cylinders = 0
hdg_fn =
hdh_sectors = 0
hdh_heads = 0
hdh_cylinders = 0
hdh_fn =
hdi_sectors = 0
hdi_heads = 0
hdi_cylinders = 0
hdi_fn =
drive_a_type = 7
drive_b_type = 7
bpb_disable = 0
cd_speed = 48
cd_model = pcemcd
joystick_type = 3
mouse_type = 3
enable_sync = 1
netcard =
lpt1_device = none
vid_resize = 0
video_fullscreen_scale = 0
video_fullscreen_first = 1

[Joysticks]
joystick_0_nr = 2
joystick_1_nr = 0
joystick_0_axis_0 = 0
joystick_0_axis_1 = 1
joystick_0_button_0 = 0
joystick_0_button_1 = 1
joystick_0_button_2 = 2
joystick_0_button_3 = 3
joystick_0_button_4 = 4
joystick_0_button_5 = 5
joystick_0_button_6 = 6
joystick_0_button_7 = 7

[SDL2]
screenshot_format = png
screenshot_flash = 1
custom_width = 640
custom_height = 480
fullscreen = 0
fullscreen_mode = 0
scale = 1
scale_mode = 1
vsync = 0
focus_dim = 0
alternative_update_lock = 0
render_driver = auto

[GL3]
input_scale = 1.000000
input_stretch = 0
shader_refresh_rate = 0.000000

[GL3 Shaders]
shaders = 0

Screenshots

Voodoo2 player select.jpg (130.71 KiB) Viewed 21058 times

Voodoo2 ingame.jpg (138.89 KiB) Viewed 21058 times

Banshee player select.jpg (120.76 KiB) Viewed 21058 times

Banshee ingame 1.jpg (136.47 KiB) Viewed 21058 times

Banshee player select.jpg (120.76 KiB) Viewed 21058 times

Edit: Added Voodoo3 result + driver information

[UPerschke]

Banshee: OS freeze at start - Both main binary and f1config.exe
Voodoo2: Working, but presumably CPU bottlenecked

Recompiler: No difference if enabled or disabled
Ctrl+Alt+Del: No impact
Hard Reset: Working
OS: Win98SE
DirectX: 7.0a

Voodoo2 driver

Voodoo2 Driver kit Version: 3.02.02
Glide Driver Version: 2.56.00.0459
Glide3 Driver Version: 3.03.00.0670
Voodoo2 D3D Driver Build Number: 4.12.01.1151
Voodoo2 Control Panel Applet: 4.12.01.0082
OpenGL(r) Driver Version: 1.0.0.0508 ICD

Banshee driver

Voodoo Banshee(tm) Driver kit: 1.04.00
Voodoo Banshee Win9x 2D/3D Display Drivers: 4.12.01.1222
Voodoo Banshee Glide(tm) 2.X Driver: 2.61.00.0518
Voodoo Banshee Glide 3.X Driver:3.10.00.0518
Voodoo Banshee Control Panel: 4.12.01.1552
OpenGL(r) Driver Version: 1.0.0.0508 ICD]

Config

gameblaster = 0
gus = 0
ssi2001 = 0
voodoo = 0
model = fic_va503p
cpu_manufacturer = 0
cpu = 10
fpu = builtin
cpu_use_dynarec = 1
cpu_waitstates = 0
gfxcard = banshee
video_speed = 5
sndcard = sb16
cpu_speed = 21
disc_a =
disc_b =
hdd_controller = ide
mem_size = 131072
cdrom_drive = 200
cdrom_channel = 2
zip_channel = -1
hdc_sectors = 63
hdc_heads = 16
hdc_cylinders = 4096
hdd_sectors = 63
hdd_heads = 16
hdd_cylinders = 4096
hde_sectors = 0
hde_heads = 0
hde_cylinders = 0
hde_fn =
hdf_sectors = 0
hdf_heads = 0
hdf_cylinders = 0
hdf_fn =
hdg_sectors = 0
hdg_heads = 0
hdg_cylinders = 0
hdg_fn =
hdh_sectors = 0
hdh_heads = 0
hdh_cylinders = 0
hdh_fn =
hdi_sectors = 0
hdi_heads = 0
hdi_cylinders = 0
hdi_fn =
drive_a_type = 7
drive_b_type = 7
bpb_disable = 0
cd_speed = 48
cd_model = pcemcd
joystick_type = 3
mouse_type = 3
enable_sync = 1
netcard =
lpt1_device = none
vid_resize = 0
video_fullscreen_scale = 0
video_fullscreen_first = 1

[Joysticks]
joystick_0_nr = 2
joystick_1_nr = 0
joystick_0_axis_0 = 0
joystick_0_axis_1 = 1
joystick_0_button_0 = 0
joystick_0_button_1 = 1
joystick_0_button_2 = 2
joystick_0_button_3 = 3
joystick_0_button_4 = 4
joystick_0_button_5 = 5
joystick_0_button_6 = 6
joystick_0_button_7 = 7

[SDL2]
screenshot_format = png
screenshot_flash = 1
custom_width = 640
custom_height = 480
fullscreen = 0
fullscreen_mode = 0
scale = 1
scale_mode = 1
vsync = 0
focus_dim = 0
alternative_update_lock = 0
render_driver = auto

[GL3]
input_scale = 1.000000
input_stretch = 0
shader_refresh_rate = 0.000000

[GL3 Shaders]
shaders = 0

[UPerschke]

Banshee: OS freeze at start
Voodoo 2: Working

Same conditions as in my previous reply.

[UPerschke]

Banshee: Screen goes black then OS freeze (mouse cursor visible)
Voodoo 2: Working

Patch 3.3 was installed.

Otherwise same conditions as in my EA F1 Championship Season 2000 reply.

[amalahama]

Hi,

Trying Digital Integration Hind in 3dfx mode, it does not work, PCem closes unexpectedly and PCEM.LOG show the following error:

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voodoo_fb_writel : bad LFB format 00000014

model
[Super 7] FIC VA-503+
CPU: Pentium 166
Video: S3 Virge with Voodoo 1

[kode54]

I have the arm64 recompiler working on macOS, but I ran into a different issue:

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Application Specific Information:
*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInternalInconsistencyException', reason: 'NSWindow drag regions should only be invalidated on the Main Thread!'
abort() called
terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException

Just fyi, to get things working thus far:

1) I had to add an __APPLE__ case to the allocator to add MAP_JIT to the flags.
2) I had to add pthread_jit_write_protect_np(0/1) calls around blocks that wrote to the MAP_JIT memory, this function toggle is per thread, and the blocks default to execute but read-only.
3) I needed to regen the build files with autoreconf -i, and needed to doctor them.
4) The configure.ac needed to detect host_cpu of "arm" and set CPU=arm64. This should probably be specific to host darwin.
5) The build needed the off64_t overrides, since that doesn't exist here. Offsets seem to be 64 bit, though.
6) DEFAULT_INCLUDES needed to be changed to include /opt/homebrew/include, since somehow Homebrew doesn't override that for my environment.
7) codegen_allocator_clean_blocks needed a separate cache wipe function for macOS ARM: sys_cache_control(kCacheFunctionPrepareForExecution, &mem_block_
alloc[block->offset], MEM_BLOCK_SIZE);

The only issue seems to be that wxMac thing.

Incidentally, MAP_JIT is needed when building for 10.14 SDK and 10.14+ on Intel, too, but the pthread_jit function calls are not needed.

EDIT: I managed to make it run long enough to get into Windows 98 SE, by forcing it into fullscreen mode using ./pcem --fullscreen to run it. It seems to work, but it fails to run Final Reality with 3Dfx mode.

[El DOS]

Hi, all! My first post here will be a problem report - namely, I have issues with S3 card emulationon PCEM v17, installed from Gentoo repository.

Emulated HW:
- FIC VA-503+
- Mobile Pentium MMX 150, dynamic recompiler is always enabled for these CPUs
- 64 MB RAM
- Phoenix S3 Trio64 or S3 ViRGE/DX, 4MB VRAM, Fast VLB/PCI

Guest SW:
- MS-DOS 6.22 + Windows 3.11 for Workgroups (fresh install, no addons, no CONFIG.SYS / AUTOEXEC.BAT edits), resolution 1024x768, 64k colors, small fonts
- Critical Mass v1.0 game (you can use a free demo version to reproduce the problem, download the ZIP from here: https://archive.org/details/CriticalMass_1020)
- for S3 Trio64 - tried drivers 1.70.04 from http://www.mediafire.com/file/p2faljwg5 ... 4.zip/file
- for S3 ViRGE - tried drivers 1.05.05 and 1.05.09, got same results

Problem with S3 Trio64:
-trying to launch the MS DOS prompt from within Windows (icon in the Program Manager's Main group) locks the emulation (it freezes). No such problems with S3 ViRGE or with Windows VGA driver.

Problem with S3 ViRGE:
- Critical Mass game window is badly distorted (see the attached screenshot), looks like the 'x' coordinates of some operations are wrong. No such problems with S3 Trio64, or with Windows VGA driver.

I have tried to change various parts of the emulated system (like the CPU, screen mode, DR-DOS instead of MS-DOS, etc.), but results were always the same.

[mgtroyas]

Hello all,

I'm experiencing some texture corruption with Voodoo acceleration on Dungeon Keeper 2. Some textures momentarily are swapped to others also used ingame.

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Emulated HW:
Asus P/I-P55T2P4
Pentium MMX 233
64MB RAM
SoundBlaster AWE32
3dfx Voodoo3 3000 drivers V1.07.00 (but also with Voodoo2 and Banshee, with their respective latest stable drivers from falconfly.3dfx.pl)

Guest SW:
Windows 98 SE
Dungeon Keeper II 1.7 patch
D3D acceleration

I recorded a video as it's difficult to capture on a screenshot:
https://youtu.be/WGWuAF8wky4

If I run the game with software renderer (no D3D acceleration) it doesn't happen.

Edit: another image corruption, this case in Bio Menace (DOS game) running on Windows 98. Similar (but not same) happens on reboot to DOS from Win98 (perhaps happens on real hardware too?):
https://youtu.be/wK_eF6Lxl9A

[mgtroyas]

These last days I've been heavily tinkering with the Tandy 1000 computers series in PCEm, and noticed there's some problem with the speed at with some programs run. It's not CPU speed or model dependant, as I get the same result on a 1000 and 1000 HX (8088 4,77 to 16MHz) and a 1000 SL/2 (8086 7,16 to 16MHz).

For instance Arkanoid plays music ok but plays noticeably slower ingame. Here's a recording on a 1000 SL/2:
https://youtu.be/WqqcwYvuO4I

And here's Arkanoid on a real Tandy 1000:
https://youtu.be/er8SqeumsuA?t=620

I also tired a non-Tandy 8086 setup (Compaq Deskpro) and speed ingame is as in the video indeed.

Another game that demonstrates this is Indianapolis 500. The cronograph shows how the time pases slowly, taking about 3 real seconds per ingame second:
https://youtu.be/TvyAr-bZjs8

Time runs perfect on the Compaq.

Lastly, Bubble Bobble not only runs slower but also the music plays slower (BTW also keyboard input is not detected ingame):
https://youtu.be/dR_RPoXF6OQ

I've tried with and without internal HDD (from floppy), versions of MS-DOS 2.x and 3.x, and fail to see any relation.

[sndwv]

Hi all,

Not sure if this is the right topic to place this under, let me know and I'll edit or (re)move it.

I recently discovered PCem (v17) and tried a lot of games on it. Most worked great, but there were a couple that either crashed or showed the same issues consistently accross several different configs. I also tried several different video and 3d accelator driver versions and always tried incrementally patching the games to their latest available offical versions.

Main testing systems:

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Common:
- ASUS P/I-P55T2P4
- Intel Pentium 100/66 and Intel Pentium MMX 166

Win95 OSR2: 
- 64MB RAM
- ATI Video Xpression (Mach64 VT2)
- Voodoo Graphics
- Sound Blaster 16
- PCem CD 24x
- 2-button mouse (PS/2)

Win98SE: 
- 128MB RAM
- S3 ViRGE/DX
- Voodoo 2
- Sound Blaster AWE32 (8MB RAM)
- PCem CD 48x
- Microsoft Intellimouse (PS/2)

Issues encountered with PCem:

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Armor Command, Drakan, Midtown Madness, Spec Ops (Rangers Lead the Way), Urban Assault, Viper Racing
- Horizontal lines on top of textures (candy cane effect), some can be fixed by disabling mipmapping in-game if the option is available.

Apache (Longbow), Hind, (i)F-16 Fighting Falcon 3Dfx versions
- Crash / close PCem as soon as gameplay starts

Interstate '76 (Gold patch)
- Textures (on 2D and 3D objects) randomly get corrupted / switched around, even when limiting texture memory to 2MB and / or disabling SLI on Voodoo2

Possibly an issue with the game itself:

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Tom Clancy's SSN
- After choosing an install size, setup crashes with '_INS0432 casued an invalid page fault in module _WUTL95.DLL at 0137:00802fca'

Ecco the Dolphin
- Frequently crashes upon install with 'ECCOPLAY caused an invalid page fault in module KRNL386.EXE at 0002:00003cce' or 'insufficient memory' when starting Setup.exe directly.

Worked great (some slow due to underpowered cpu / host performance):

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- A-10 Cuba!
- AHX-1
- Banzai Bug
- Battery Check
- CART Precision Racing
- Civilization: Call to Power
- Clandestiny
- Comanche (3) Gold
- Dark Earth
- Dark Reign (+ Rise of the Shadowhand)
- Deadly Tide
- Demonstar
- Disney Classic Video Games (Lion King, Aladdin, Jungle Book)
- Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3
- Dune 2000
- Earthsiege 2
- EF2000 V2.0 (3dfx)
- Fatal Abyss
- Final Fantasy VII
- Future Cop LAPD
- G-Nome
- Hype: The Time Quest
- Hyperblade
- Jazz Jackrabbit 2
- JSF (Joint Strike Fighter)
- MechCommander / MechCommander Gold
- Metal Fatigue
- Microsoft Flight Simulator 98
- Motorhead
- Need for Speed II SE
- Need for Speed III Hot Pursuit
- Nuclear Strike
- Pitfall The Mayan Adventure
- Redline Racer
- Shadow Master
- Star Wars DroidWorks
- Star Ward Pit Droids
- Star Wars Rogue Squadron 3D
- Sinistar Unleashed
- Star Trek Generations
- Stupid Invaders
- Super Bubsy
- The Tone Rebellion
- Ultra Fighters
- Wing Commander The Kilrathi Saga
- War of the Worlds (Jeff Wayne's)

[eddman]

I was having issues with NFS II and glide and thought it might be a game compatibility issue with voodoo3. Just saw a post by Trackah123 in another thread and it seems to be caused by setting 4 threads for voodoo. Is this a known issue?

Video capture of the glitch: https://gofile.io/d/yHt1rD

Screenshot:

[unreal9010]

I was having issues with NFS II and glide and thought it might be a game compatibility issue with voodoo3. Just saw a post by Trackah123 in another thread and it seems to be caused by setting 4 threads for voodoo. Is this a known issue?

Video capture of the glitch: https://gofile.io/d/yHt1rD

Screenshot:

It happens to me as well when using glide mode with Voodoo 2. Currently, the only workaround is to set the number of render threads to 2.

[CryptidWorks]

Accessing the floppy drive with a blank disc image in it to format it and "burn" files is extermely slow in Windows 98SE.

Emulation speed remains 100% but it hangs for an extended period of time after every action

[paulojbe]

I'm also getting these beeps under Zappa.

I hear 2 tone beeps and when Windows 95 is starting up, I get 8 beeps. Looking at the Zappa manual I got this:

1 beep: Refresh failure. The memory refresh circuitry on the baseboard is faulty.
8 beeps: Display memory read/write error. The system video adapter is either missing or its memory is faulty. This is not a fatal error. (I'm using ATI mach64 gx)

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GA686BX, Pentium II 233, Voodoo3 3000, SB16, 256MB, Windows 98SE:

* - newly emulated games!!!

Works:
- Bejeweled
- Claw
- Daikatana
- Giants: Citizen Kabuto
- Monster Truck Madness
- Quake
- Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus
- Star Wars Jedi Academy

Bugs: 
- Chasm The Rift: Only VGA, no SVGA modes available
- Redline: Crashes to desktop when paletted textures are enabled
- Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee: DOS version hardlocks PCem at a black screen; Win version fine
- Operation Flashpoint: Fog bugs in Glide
- Star Trek Klingon Academy: 2D flickering

Unsure if real bugs:
- Sacrifice: visual polygon sorting glitches, may be driver issues as they don't occur under Windows 2000

Also after pasting this list, I just tried a Zappa P133+Mystique Win95 config and there's scary two tone beeps now! PODMMX200 can't boot Win95 on this anymore either.