Can I ask one of you Visual Studio savvy people a favour?

[MrThunderwing]

Hey everybody, can I ask one of you that knows how to compile Supermodel a big favour please? I installed an old GPU from an old PC into my Bartop arcade today (that was previously only running on the integrated graphics of the ancient PC inside it). Despite the age of both the PC and the GPU Supermodel's actually running pretty well on it, I was amazed. I want to try and get a 2 PC LAN running, but the problem is that all the new builds for download from the Supermodel frontpage with GM_Matthew's new simulated nwetwork included are all 64bit only and my barcade PC is 32 bit. Could somebody please compile me a 32 bit version with the new simulated netboard option in please? I would be eternally grateful! Thanks in advance!

[rokfpoewrkcpoqwkcp]

Jiterdomer has 64 & 32 bit compiles in his downloads. I assume they work.
https://www.supermodel3.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1206
They're 2 revisions behind, but those revisions are under the hood stuff, not affecting emulation.

[MrThunderwing]

Good thinking, I forgot about those. Unfortunately the x86 version in his most recent upload doesn't work for me on the 32 bit machine. The PC's actually saying the emulator from the x86 folder is actually a 64bit build (or at least it's suggesting it might be) I tried the one from the 64bit folder (just in case they'd been labeled the wrong way around), but got the same message. I tried one of the older downloads from the 'past builds' and got the same message.

I've realised on the build I got working the performance wasn't as great as I initially thought. My initial impression of Scud Race running OK was based on the attract mode seemingly running at a decent speed with only an odd bit of audio stutter now and then, but once I got properly in game it was apparent it was only running at about half speed. Derp. Oh well, that's pretty much the performance I was initially expecting from an aging dual core PC with a not particularly powerful 10 year old GPU (and I can't even recall how much ram it's got). Inserting the GPU does at least mean I've got a few slightly more modern games running properly now, like Streetfighter 4 and H2Overdrive. Oh, and I can now play Outrun 2 at it's proper 60fps max res and anti-aliased settings, where before I could only play it at 640x480 (at 30fps).

Anyway, having said all that, I'm still keen to try and get a link up working, just to see if it'll even work between my regular PC and the lagging barcade, so if someone could either point me in the direction of a working 32bit version with the simulated network or provide me with one, that would still be awesome!

[Bart]

I tried setting up 32-bit gcc. It's a bit of a pain to run because it requires modifying the PATH variable (otherwise things silently fail as gcc is unable to find some required DLLs). I emailed you a test build (not sure if it is the latest SVN). If it works, I'll checkout a fresh repo and build it again. I may add this to the build script sometime later this week if it works so that future snapshots include a 32-bit version as well.

[MrThunderwing]

Thanks for the email Bart, I've just replied. The version of Supermodel you sent me works, but I think the Network option in it either isn't working or is missing.

Edited: Yeah, the network definitely isn't working on that 32bit test build, I just tried a single system link up with it on my main PC and there's no communication happening between the 2 emulators, they both just immediately go into the 'cancelled network board not present' screen and I'm not getting the usual prompt from Windows firewall to allow communication between them.

[Ian]

32 bit builds fine under visual studio but for say xp support might need to build against an older platform toolset

[MrThunderwing]

32 bit builds fine under visual studio but for say xp support might need to build against an older platform toolset

Cheers Ian, the Barcade is running Windows 7 32bit (not quite so old it's using XP).

[rokfpoewrkcpoqwkcp]

I assume they work.

"Never ASSUME, because when you ASSUME, you make an ASS of U and ME."

Both Jitdomer's exe files seem to be 64 bit, as do the dlls. Dlls aren't even needed in a gcc build, which it appears to be. There is even an old (version 1) SDL.dll.

Anyway, good luck with the barcade network. -legacy3d should help with an old CPU.

[MrThunderwing]

I did try the -legacy3d option yesterday and I didn't really seem to notice any difference performance-wise (neither did changing the resolution back to native from the HD one I was using to match the monitor display). I might have to try and play around with the legacy option some more and see if there's a sweet spot PPC-wise, that chugs out a few more FPS. Mr Bart very kindly emailed me another 32bit build with the network option working, so got that up and running tonight. Even though it doesn't run full speed on the barcade, it's still pretty cool to see an actual multi PC Supermodel network running after all the single PC ones I've previously set-up.

[MrThunderwing]

Anyway, good luck with the barcade network. -legacy3d should help with an old CPU.

So,turns out I was being a bit of a plonker with the legacy 3d option when I'd tried to initially add it to my batch files. I'd put the command in as '-legacy-3d', so it wasn't working, which was why the games didn't look any different - herp de derp (I did think it was a bit odd that I couldn't see any difference in them..). With the legacy 3D option now working properly the games all seem to be running full speed now, so yay! Unfortunately the ancient PC in my barcade is now being a bit twatty and I keep intermittently getting an error saying the GPU driver has stopped responding and the games crash. Ugggh. Conventional wisdom would dictate that I'd just need to update the NVIDIA GPU drivers, but when I was initially setting the new (10 years old) GPU up all the current NVIDIA drivers that were so-say compatible with it, kept taking me to a black screen after installing, leading to multiple reboots in safe mode and uninstalling and I eventually had to download some from 2015 from a 3rd party site that were (initially at any rate) working. D'oh... Anyway, the fact I can get the games working full speed (most of the time) is pretty f'n awesome.

Now, one weird thing though is when I set a network up, I get quite considerable slowdown on both machines. When I'd previously got the slowdown before in link-up, I'd put it down to the fact my old PC couldn't handle the new Supermodel graphics engine and my more powerful i5 was keeping in sync with it. But both machines can play the games using the legacy 3D engine in full speed, so why would they get slowdown when linked? (And I've definitely got the SimulateNet = 1 option, so I'm not accidentally using the old network). I've tried with my regular PC using the new engine and the barcade using the legacy, and both machines using legacy and the result is the same - both run noticeably slow. Anyone encountered this setting up multiple PCs and happen to have a fix?

One other question, totally unrelated to any of that: Does anyone know of a way to get Supermodel lightgun games working nicely with digital controls? My arcade cabinet has two digital only arcade sticks. I've never ever had to configure anything control-wise with light gun stuff before, because I usually just play them with a mouse on my main PC. I've tried setting up the lightgun control like I do any control option with the -config-inputs command and pressing all the left/ridght/up/down stuff. Once you get in game though there's no fine control of the aiming reticule, you move the stick left, the reticule teleports to the far left side of the screen with no travel time in-between. Same if you press right or up or down. I've used Supermodel's calibration options before for configuring analog axes, like the pedals on my steering wheel, but I don't know how to fix this for a digital device.