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hourloading756 · 3 years

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Zug Simulator Mac Os X

Chrome 4 (Mac Beta) Email. Apple Mail 2.x; Apple Mail 3.x; Apple Mail 4.x; Apple Mail 5.x; Apple Mail 7.x; Incredimail; Microsoft Entourage 2008; Outlook 2003; Outlook 2007; Outlook 2010; Outlook Express 6; Windows Live Mail; Windows Mail; Operating Systems. Mac OSX 10.9 (Mavericks) Mac OSX 10.7 (Lion) Mac OSX 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Mac OSX 10.5. OS’s that are supported include Windows, Linux and the latest Mac OS variants. With VirtualBox there is a free version. Now we’re going to look at how both of these would work in the scenario of if you wanted to use them to develop your app for iOS.

Zug Simulator Mac Os X 10 13 Download

Zug Simulator Mac Os X 10.8

Train Simulator Mac Os X Download

Do you like to play simulation games on macOS ? Flight Simulator has a very long history on Windows devices. Now we proudly present the version playable on Macbook and iMac. Yes, that’s right! Microsoft Flight Simulator Mac OS X can be downloaded from the button below and played on any macOS computer. We already played it and our verdict is outstanding. Microsoft Flight Simulator for macOS is one of the most good looking and complex games we ever played. The Azure AI is introduced for the first time in a flight simulator game, creating some breath-taking visuals. We strongly advise to try this game, you will be amazed!

Try also: Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1&2 Mac OS

Many critics state that Microsoft Flight Simulator is the best looking simulator of all times. We agree with that and you should download it now to convince yourself. Maybe you think that this game is hard to play, with many commands to remember. NO!… because you can set the the gameplay system from full manual to full automatic, based on your skills and experience. The live weather and the day/night systems offer a new level of reality in games. Each has its unique requirements and flight experience. Microsoft Flight Simulator Mac OS X will give you the chance to enjoy 20 planes and 30 real airports from all around the world. Because you will get the Premium Deluxe Edition, the following are included:

Diamond Aircraft DA40-TDI Diamond Aircraft DV20 Textron Aviation Beechcraft Baron G58 Textron Aviation Cessna 152 Aerobat Aviation Cessna 172 Skyhawk Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner Cirrus Aircraft SR22 Pipistrel Virus SW 121 Textron Aviation Cessna Citation Longitude Zlin Aviation Shock Ultra

Lg mobile support tool mac download. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (Netherlands) Cairo International Airport (Egypt) Cape Town International Airport (South Africa) O’Hare International Airport (USA) Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (Spain) Denver International Airport (USA) Dubai International Airport (United Arab Emirates) Frankfurt Airport (Germany) Heathrow Airport (United Kingdom) San Francisco International Airport (USA) Mac os theme for windows 7 64 bit free download.

Zug Simulator Mac Os X 10 13 Download

Microsoft Flight Simulator Mac OS X – Minimum System Requirements –

CPU:Intel Core i5-4460 / AMD Ryzen 3 1200

CPU Speed:2.1 GHz

RAM:6 GB

OS:OS X 10.10

Video Card:Radeon RX 570 / GeForce GTX 770

HDD Space:143 GB

NOTE: This game is FREE TO DOWNLOAD, but to get access to this game you need to create a FREE account (more details on the download page). In this way, you will receive any new additional content (if available) and a lot more games and software for your Macbook/iMac.

Zug Simulator Mac Os X 10.8

Can I play Microsoft Flight Simulator on Mac?

Microsoft Flight Simulator is a new generation of flying simulators and here you can find everything from light planes to wide-body jets, fly highly detailed and accurate aircraft. Here you can challenge your pilot skills against the challenges of night flying, real-time atmospheric simulation and live weather in a dynamic and living world. Sounds funny, doesn’t it? But unfortunately this game requires Windows and there is no version of Microsoft Flight Simulator for Mac OS. So our community is left without a ready to go version of the game. For the most people Mac OS is not associated with the real gaming experience. It goes without saying that mainly Mac OS devices are made for the study- and job-related purposes. But now it’s not a problem at all! There are a huge number of ways to run Windows games on this platform. It doesn’t matter which version of MacOS you use: Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, OS X; You can easily play Witcher 3, Counter Strike GO, Dota 2, Call of Duty: Warzone, APEX, Mount & Blade II Bannerlord, GTA V and other top games on your favorite platform. In this article you can find the way that suits you and that will respond to your needs. After reading it you will definitely find the best way to play Microsoft Flight Simulator on Mac OS and to challenge your pilot skills!

Article’s Guide

Run Microsoft Flight Simulator on Mac with Parallels

Parallels is the virtualization software that allows you to run Windows and Microsoft Flight Simulator on Mac OS with the help of virtualization. This program can be outlined for DirectX 11 support using Apple Metal. The meaning of it is that your Mac can render 3D graphics up to 15 percent faster than other programs. It will close you to the native gaming experience. Moreover, Parallels also supports new Sidecar features. This means you’ll be able to use Windows apps on an iPad when you’re using it as a second screen for your Mac, and it also includes improved Apple Pencil support. Furthermore, there is no need to reboot your device after the playing. So as you can see this program has a great variety of pros. Try it now!

You will be redirected to the purchasing page. The home version is enough to run the game. Note: the performance depends on the hardware of your device.

Play Microsoft Flight Simulator with Boot Camp

Boot Camp gives you an opportunity to launch Microsoft Flight Simulator on your Mac OS natively. All you need is to launch Boot Camp and install Windows with the help of this application. Then you can simply launch Windows and then run any game you need. However, this solution is not so fast, as Parallels, as Boot Camp requires a great amount of hard disk resources to work. So you need a very fast hard drive. Moreover, when you are done with the game and you need to return to Mac OS, you will have to reboot your device. So you should be ready to some performance issue while playing. If you are still not sure, we have one more solution for you!

Play Microsoft Flight Simulator with GeForce Now

GeForce Now is one of the best solutions to play Microsoft Flight Simulator on Mac OS. All you need is to purchase the subscription and already made gaming library. Technically, you rent a very powerful computer, which streams the gameplay right for you. Don’t be afraid of stutters and freezes – the hardware of these computers will perform any game with ultra settings. However, you need good internet speed to enjoy the gameplay. Still, if this solution doesn’t respond to your needs, try the next one!

FINAL WORDS: however, there are not all possible solutions to run Microsoft Flight Simulator on your favorite platform, but they are the best ones. GeForce Now can give you the best experience, but it requires a fast internet connection. Boot Camp is also OK, but it requires a lot of free disk space and its performance can vary. Parallels can be the best choice too, but it also depends on Mac’s hardware. If you have other opinion on this point or want to tell us about the really best way to play Windows PC games on a Mac, comment below! Thanks for your attention!

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Train Simulator Mac Os X Download

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lauramcdphotography · 4 years

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Stop Motion Technical

What are the four most important rules for creating stop motions?

DON'T bump the camera.

DON'T change your camera settings.

DON'T alter your lighting.

DO shoot some test frames.

DO try to complete each scene without interruption.

DO take more shots than you think you'll need.

What equipment do you need?

You need your props (subject of the video) could be food, an ornament etc, you need a tripod to stop any uneven or any bumpy photographs, you need a table or a steady surface to place your objects on and you may also use an app on your phone to control your camera settings so you don't have to touch your camera which may cause shaking.

What are the standard resolutions for (resolution Width x Height e.g. 6000 x 4000):

• a TV at home -

480p Standard 720x480

• HD (high Definition TV) -

The most common native resolution for a high-definition TV screen is 1920 x 1080.

• UHD (Ultra High Definition TV) -

3840 x 2160 (UHD) resolutions as standard

• a Laptop you use-

MacBook Air models introduced in 2018 or later. Native resolution: 2560 x 1600 at 227 pixels per inch.

• a Desktop PC you use-

19-inch screen (standard ratio): 1280 x 1024 pixels. 20-inch screen (standard ratio): 1600 x 1200 pixels.

• a top spec iMac-

The 5K 27-inch ‌iMac‌ has a resolution of 5120 by 2880, while the 4K 21.5-inch ‌iMac‌ has a resolution of 4096 x 2304, and both models feature 500 nits brightness and wide color support for vivid, vibrant colors and impeccable picture quality.

• a smart Phone you use?

The iPhone 8 Plus has a 5.5-inch screen, which isn't especially big by today's standards. The iPhone 8 Plus' resolution is 1,920 x 1,080 with a pixel density of 401ppi.

What does the term ‘Aspect Ratio’ mean?

The ratio of the width to the height of an image or screen.

For the below screens, what are the different aspect ratio’s?

• a TV at home-

All TVs sold today have an aspect ratio of 16:9, which means that if the width is divided into 16 equal parts, the height of the TV or picture should be 9 parts

• HD (high Definition TV)-

16:9 (1.77:1) is a widescreen aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9.

• UHD (Ultra High Definition TV)

On the television side, Ultra-High Definition (UHD) was developed using the same number of horizontal lines of resolution as 4K (2160), but using the standard HDTV aspect ratio of 16:9 (or about 1.78:1). So the full resolution of a UHD display is 3840 by 2160 (or 256 pixels narrower than Cinema 4K).9 Sept 2015.

• a Laptop you use

Most current Macbook laptops other than the 11" Air use 16:10.

• a Desktop PC you use

As of 2016, most computer monitors use widescreen displays with an aspect ratio of 16:9, although some portable PCs use narrower aspect ratios like 3:2 and 16:10 while some high-end desktop monitors have adopted ultrawide displays.

• a top spec iMac

The 27" iMac display has a physical size of approximately 23.5" x 13.2" which is 16:9 aspect ratio.

• a smart Phone you use?

iPhone 8 Plus - 736 × 414 (16:9)

What is the PPI for the below devices?

• a TV at home -

13.3"

PPI

262.25

Resolution -3200 x 1800

Device - Samsung Ativ Q

• HD (high Definition TV) -

A 24 inches display that shows a Full HD image (1920×1080) has a density equal to 91,79 PPI.

• UHD (Ultra High Definition TV)-

At 100% magnification, the 3840 x 2160 pixel UHD 4K resolution can be fully utilised, but the pixel density is around 140 ppi, and the pixel pitch is about 0.18 mm

• a Laptop you use

MacBook Air 11 11.6 1366x768 (135.094)

• a Desktop PC you use-

When it comes to PC displays, most products have a pixel density of about 96 ppi to match the display density of 96 dpi (dots per inch) which has been the standard for the Windows desktop UI.

• a top spec iMac

iMac 27 27 2560x1440 (108.786)

• a smart Phone you use?

iPhone 7/8 Plus 5.5 1920x1080 (400.528)

The number of Frames Per Second (FPS) can vary, research commonly used FPS for Stop Motion / Animation / Video and consider the effect this has visually?

Most moving images you watch are shot at 24 frames per second or thirty frames per second. Which give a smoother, more steady effect when watching your film. When you're shooting stop motion, you might not have time to shoot that many, but you can get away with shooting 12 frames per second or even 7-10 frames per second if you are okay with a little bit of a jerky style.

The most common use of Stop Motion is probably in Social Media, what are the recommended aspect ratios & Resolutions & FPS for the below:

• Instagram -

Videos should be vertical (not landscape) with an aspect ratio of 9:16. Videos should have a minimum frame rate of 30 FPS (frames per second) and minimum resolution of 720 pixels. The maximum file size is 4 GB.

• Facebook

Minimum width: 120 pixels

Supported aspect ratios: 16:9 (horizontal) to 9:16 (full portrait)

Facebook recommends uploading videos in .MP4 and .MOV format with H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan, and stereo AAC audio compression at 128kbps+. Videos can be up to 240 minutes long, up to 4GB large, and have a maximum frame rate of 30fps.

• YouTube

Content should be encoded and uploaded in the same frame rate it was recorded. Common frame rates include 24, 25, 30, 48, 50, 60 frames per second (other frame rates are also acceptable).

The standard aspect ratio for YouTube on a computer is 16:9.

Interlaced content should be deinterlaced before uploading.

• Vimeo

What would happen if you had too many pixels (resolution & PPI) when playing your Stop Motion on the above devices?

Instagram -

Instagram can often reduce the quality of your images during uploads for a wide number of reasons, but if you're looking to maintain quality then you should look to upload a high-quality, compressed JPEG file (max resolution: 1080 x 1350px) directly from your mobile or tablet to avoid any further compression.

Facebook -

Videos must be less than 240 minutes long. The longer your video is, the larger its file size will be. This may affect the quality of the video and the time it takes to upload. Lots of times I see people say they uploaded a 1080 video, and Facebook only lets them view it in 720.

While you can upload videos of virtually any aspect ratio, anything other than full portrait (9:16) will shrink your video and add unused space (colored gradient bars) to the top and bottom of the screen.

Youtube -

If you upload videos with a different aspect ratio, the player will “automatically frame them to ensure they are displayed correctly, without cropping or stretching, regardless of the size of the video or player.”For different aspects ratios, such as 9:16 (vertical videos on desktop browsers), YouTube will "add padding for optimal viewing. The padding is white by default, and dark gray when you use the Dark theme."

Vimeo -

If your footage exceeds 60 FPS, they will automatically reduce the frame rate.

Not all programs or websites can play back variable frame rate videos, and the audio can fall out-of-sync.

What does a TV do if it doesn’t have enough pixels & what is Photoshops equivalent?

In theory, the more pixels there are then the better the picture will be - as we will be able to see more detail.Now, you don't see each pixel at work as they are too small to see from a distance, but if you go up very close to your TV screen you will see how the image is built from this grid of small coloured dots. Any images that aren't actually in high-definition will just look slightly 'softer' and lack the sharpness you get with an HD image.The non-HD image will have always looked this way - it is just your new big-screen high-resolution TV that will highlight the low image resolution, and you will just notice it more.

Photoshop: Pixel Aspect Ratio: If you display rectangular pixels on a square-pixel monitor without alteration, images appear distorted; for example, circles distort into ovals. However, when displayed on a broadcast monitor, the images appear correctly proportioned because broadcast monitors use rectangular pixels.

When copying or importing images into a nonsquare pixel document, Photoshop automatically converts and scales the image to the pixel aspect ratio of the document. Images imported from Adobe Illustrator are also properly scaled.

How many pixels (resolution WxH e.g. 6000 x 4000) does your camera have:

Canon EOS 800D - 6000 × 4000 pixels

What is the resolution (WxH) of the recommended Stop Motion Brief?

1080 x 1920

What is the aspect ratio of the Brief submission?

Ratio 16:9

Draw a proportional sketch (or print from PhotoShop) of the difference between your camera aspect ratio and the brief submission.

How much of the image area do you need to crop out from your camera image

I had to crop about 1/3 of my full image out of the frame.

Does your camera allow you to change the aspect ratio so you can see the crop in camera when shooting?

My camera doesn't allow me to do this when shooting but when I view my images after I can use the crop tool to change the aspect ratio.

#preproduction #stopmotion

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gemmasianpowellphotography · 4 years

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Pre-Production-Stop Motion Technical

22.03.2021

What are the four most important rules for creating stop motions?

Get Inspired

Make a Plan

Shoot it with care and attention

Edit

What equipment is needed?

You don't have to work at a stop motion studio to have access to the gear you'll need. To get started, you'll only need a few key items: Camera: You can use a smartphone or digital camera (like a DSLR) as your capture device. Tripod: A stand or holster will help keep your camera steady as you take pictures.

What are the standard resolutions for:-

TV resolutions of 480i or 480p are considered standard definition. In these resolutions, the pixels are arranged 640 x 480. With this minimal number of pixels, images are less defined and appear “pixelated” (meaning you can see the individual pixels) the closer you get to the TV.

HD TV

The most common native resolution for a high-definition TV screen is 1920 x 1080. This will have a grid of 1,920 pixels across the screen (horizontal) and 1,080 pixels down the screen (vertical). In total, this means it has 2,073,600 individual pixels (1,920 x 1,080).

UHD TV

Resolution. Two resolutions are defined as UHDTV: UHDTV-1 is 3840 pixels wide by 2160 pixels tall (8.3 megapixels), which is four times as many pixels as the 1920 × 1080 (2.07 megapixels) of current 1080p HDTV (full HDTV). Also known as 2160p, and 4K UHD.

A Laptop

Display resolution is expressed using horizontal and vertical pixel counts. The most frequently used resolutions on laptop and 2-in-1 PCs nowadays are 1366-by-768 (also known as HD) and 1920-by-1080 (Full HD or 1080p). 1920-by-1080 is the most appropriate screen resolution for laptops

A Desktop PC

19-inch screen (standard ratio): 1280 x 1024 pixels. 20-inch screen (standard ratio): 1600 x 1200 pixels. 22-inch screen (widescreen): 1680 x 1050 pixels.

Top Range IMAC

Display: The $1,099 iMac has a 21.5-inch display with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels and can display millions of colors. By comparison, the 21.5-inch iMac with Retina display comes with a screen that has a 4096×2304 display that offers more image detail and can display billions of colors.

Samsung Galaxy S10E Smartphone

This is somewhat expected, as the S10e has a single 2280 x 1080 (438 ppi) resolution setting. Samsung sets this as the default for its flagship phones, but both the S10 and S10 Plus max out at 3040 x 1440 for a higher ~550 ppi.

What is ASPECT RATIO?

Aspect ratio describes the ratio between the width and height of an image or screen. A 1:1 aspect ratio, for example, is a square. The first number always refers to the width, and the second number refers to the height.

TV = 16:9 HDTV = 16:9 UHD TV = 1.78:1 A Laptop = 16:9 A Desktop PC = 16:9 for widescreens or 3:2 and 16:10 for standard. A Top Range IMAC = 16:9 and Samsung Galaxy S10E Smartphone = 19:9

What is the PPI for:

• a TV at home 80

• HD TV 92

• UHD TV 80

• A Laptop 104

• A Desktop PC 104

• A Top Range IMAC 218

• A Samsung Galaxy S10E Smartphone 438

https://youtu.be/heRuLp7CyTM - The Horse in Motion

The number of Frames Per Second (FPS) can vary, most moving images you watch are shot at 24 frames per second or thirty frames per second. When you're shooting stop motion, you might not have time to shoot that many, but you can get away with shooting 12 frames per second or even 7-10 frames per second if you are okay with a little bit of a jerky style.

The most common use of Stop Motion is probably in Social Media, what are the recommended aspect ratios & Resolutions & FPS for the below:

Instagram

Facebook

For optimal viewing on mobile, it's best to use vertical images with an aspect ratio of 4:5 and 1200 x 1500 px. For square images, opt for a resolution of 1080 x 1080px. And for vertical images use 1200 x 1500 px. The ideal Facebook video dimension is 720p (frame size of 1280px wide by 720px high). If you upload a video that's higher resolution than that, Facebook will downsize the video. If you let Facebook resize the video frame, you might lose some quality in the process.

Youtube

The correct aspect ratio for YouTube videos is 16:9. Similarly, the maximum permissible video size on the platform is 128GB, while the maximum video length is 12 hours. Videos should be in their native frame rates without resampling. For film sources, a 24 fps or 25 fps progressive master yields the best results. Typically, frame rates are set at 24, 25 or 30 frames per second. Please do not use resampling techniques since they can cause images to shudder and often result in lower quality video.

Vimeo

Your video's resolution can vary, but most videos will fit a standard definition (SD) resolution of 640 x 480 (4:3 aspect ratio) or 640 x 360 (16:9 aspect ratio), 720p HD resolution of 1280 x 720 (16:9 aspect ratio), or a 1080p HD resolution of 1920 × 1080 (16:9 aspect ratio). When preparing your video for upload, it’s best to maintain the video’s native frame rate when compressing your video. If your footage exceeds 60 FPS, we will automatically reduce the frame rate. Important: We recommend a constant frame rate throughout your entire video. Always choose “constant” frame rate instead of “variable” frame rate.

What does a TV do if it does not have enough pixels?

It downgrades the quality because it upscales the video (adjusts to the size of the screen, so it resamples). It tends to go soft, you lose sharpness.

How many pixels (resolution WxH e.g. 6000 x 4000) does your camera have:

Canon 2000d - 6000 x 4000

What is the resolution (WxH) of the recommended Stop Motion Brief?

1920x1080

What is the aspect ratio of the Brief submission?

16:9

Draw a proportional sketch (or print from PhotoShop) of the difference between your camera aspect ratio and the brief submission.

How much of the image area do you need to crop out from your camera image?

You crop the top and bottom of the image.

Does your camera allow you to change the aspect ratio so you can see the crop in camera when shooting?

#preproduction #stopmotion

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aurelliocheek · 4 years

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RESHOOT R: Driven by Passion

Richard Löwenstein about why releasing for Amiga almost makes sense.

What is the driving force behind someone who is developing games from an almost dead genre on a hardware platform which seems to have died about 25 years ago? Because that’s what I did! I released a horizontal scrolling shoot’ em-up called RESHOOT R on Amiga end of May 2019.

I invested roundabout 2,000 hours of a precious lifetime into developing. To understand the reasons behind this decision, let me rewind the calendar to the mid-1980s – a period where electronic gaming was, although in its infancy, already experiencing its first big transition. The first wave of consoles was being followed by more versatile programmable home computers, which lowered the entry-level for potential software architects massively. Everyone could now learn how to make games.

This is the time when my career in game development started. In 1985, at the age of 15, I finished developing Twinky goes hiking, the first of several successful commercial releases on the most classic of computer hardware platforms, the Commodore 64. Other titles like Persian Gulf Inferno followed. My career as a developer ended in 1991 when several loose contacts to magazine publishing houses strengthened and I was given the chance to become a member of the team of Amiga Joker, Germany’s leading games magazine by then.

Joining the editorial staff meant a great opportunity but also killed my game developer ambitions since both jobs are very time consuming, and I preferred to focus. Back then it was clear that I would not finish my most ambitious games project at that time: an elaborate shoot’ em-up for the Amiga-platform, an action game in the classic R-Type-style. It should have been a lighthouse project, a game more beautiful and faster than comparable products at the time.

RESHOOT R is designed to read map-files created with “Tiled“ and restart at the edited position immediately. That lowers turnaround times while designing and testing significantly.

I assumed that it’s comparably elaborate to develop games for Amiga, so much so that a classic one man show – common constellation on older 8-bit-systems – can hardly handle the job. The Amigas 16-bit-technology, though antique by modern standards, already enables quite sophisticated content. It takes trained specialists to take care of design, coding, pixels and music if the result was to be on par with the best games released in the heydays of the Amiga. Also, the Amiga was not very popular outside of Europe and therefore – unlike the Mega Drive – cannot confide on momentum from US- and Asia-based developers.

It felt like it was time to change that. I felt the fever for coding returning, decided to revive my old source code from 1991 and maybe develop it into the fully fleshed game I had envisioned about 25 years ago. Such a project is time consuming and not to be finished within a few hours. I calculated with an investment of three hours a day, four days a week, six months minimum. Such an enormous additional burden on the time account could not easily be reconciled with a regular job and a family. My approach: night shift. Get to bed at 10pm; wake myself at 2am; develop several hours undisturbed; return to bed and wake up with my family. Sounds crazy and it maybe is, but it works. But why, you may ask. The answer is simple. Passion. The implementation of a lifelong dream. I want to prove to myself that I can develop a high-quality Amiga game and maybe gain some attention and recognition. July 2015 marks the beginning of my project of heart.

RESHOOT R runs on the classic Amiga-models A1200, A4000 and CD32, as well as compatible emulators and recent Amiga-clones like Vampire V4.

Retro platform, modern tools Very quickly I realised that Amiga development no longer works like in 1991 for me. In recent years I managed a couple of iPhone developments and learned how to use modern software tools such as Xcode and Unity on Apple Mac. The Amiga can’t handle common features, like multiple monitor setup or version control. Therefore it was clear that I had to setup a cross-development system. My main tools:

iMac. The built-in Internet connection has to be mentioned, because in 1991 this was not yet available. Gathering and sharing information is so much simpler today!

Xcode. Mainly works a comfortable code editor with version control, code completion and text highlighting; features not yet invented in 1991

FS-UAE Amiga Emulator. Almost 100 percent compatible to the real hardware. Extraordinary built-in debugging capabilities

ASM Pro. Classic tool running on Amiga. Translates source code into pure and fast machine language. Switched to VASM-cross-development tool recently

Tiled: A very common map editor for all kinds of 2D-games. Allows comfortable placement of tiles and objects in separate layers. Code on Amiga read and interprets Tiles’ XML-data-exports for use in RESHOOT

Commodore Amiga 1200. Real retro hardware used to test code regularly. File transfer between iMac and Amiga works with SD card which both systems can read and write

Another integral part of the development environment is a virtual hard drive partition, which the iMac and Amiga both can access to share source code and data files. Some few self-written keyboard macros automate the interaction of Xcode on the Mac and the tools on the Amiga emulator. One press of the F1-key stores source code, activates FS-UAE, loads source code into ASM Pro, compiles and executes. This takes about one second. On the real retro hardware this would take approximately 30 seconds. Turnaround times of 1991 and 2019 cannot be compared.

RESHOOT R is available as digital download, in two CD-ROM-editions and even on classic 3.5 “disc shown here. Prices go from 29 to 54 Euros. Go to www.amigashop.org.

After establishing a working development environment, it took me some time to get back into thinking in Assembler language. To me, Assembler is still the purest form of coding because of it’s logical approach and direct access to the hardware. It’s fast, too. Much faster than anything if one knows how to handle it. The price for speed: Compared to C++ or C#, Assembler code looks rather abstract and unreadable, because it mainly consists of commands which provide memory access, logical operators and branches to control program flow. I should add that a dedicated game development environment comparable to Unity actually exists on Amiga, albeit much simpler. Also, like today’s modern operating systems, the Amiga OS provides libraries which handle visual, aural and input/output operations. But on classic hardware, processor cycles and memory are very precious. The Amiga libraries slow code down considerably, game development environments alike. Almost no reasonable games on the Amiga makes use of such features.

For my game it was inevitable to draw and move pixels as fast and memory-efficient as possible. I, therefore, did what most Amiga coders did in the heydays of the machine: switch off the OS and write custom code which fits the game like a glove. That’s what you need to do, if you want maximum performance on a 14 MHz machine with 2 MB of memory. These are the specs of the Amiga 1200, which is my favourite iteration of the Amiga-family and therefore became my target platform. I love this machine because of its elegant case containing considerably more processing power than the earlier Amiga models 500, 1000 and 2000. It was released just a few years prior to Commodore demise and therefore – like its console-cousin CD32 – did not manage to gain the same market share as the Amiga 500. Because of their versatility, the Amiga 1200, 4000 and CD32 seem to be on the rise now though. Prices for used models currently go through the roof.

The 2019 release RESHOOT R shows its creators have learned their lesson. It sets its focus on smooth gameplay with just some minor modern modifications. This resulted in very favourable reviews from Youtubers and the specialist press.

Don’t innovate too much At this stage, it occurred to me that – while I grew back into the code – I could modernise the game design. Why not incorporate new elements not seen before on Amiga? One idea was to add twitch gameplay with an endless structure. I imagined a kind of endless reaction test, fast and fluid as the Amiga classic Silkworm, mixed with elements of Japanese bullet-hell-shooters. The player’s survival would not be divided into many short chapters. Instead, there should be only one level and even a single life. Once the player’s spaceship hits an invader or a bullet: Game Over, score billing and new attempt. Just like Flappy Bird. That would be an interesting new alternative to Apydia, R-Type, Thunderforce IV, Last Resort and other classic horizontal shooters from the 80s and 90s that I found so intense and exciting.

It took me one year to finish developing RESHOOT – a game which I had started to work in the early 90s and which got its release in August 2016. It was not the high-quality shoot’ em-up I had in my brain at first. But it was proof that I can finish such a project. That seemed sufficient, especially as so many comparable projects fail to reach the finish line. RESHOOT was released physically on CD-ROM, simply because I wanted to feel the satisfaction of being able to touch the fruits of my labour with my hands. Within one year of development I learned a lot. So much so that, even before sending the ISO-image to the CD-ROM duplication facility, I started to work on a follow-up project. This was going to be the lighthouse project I had originally envisioned. I already had given birth to its name: RESHOOT R. The intention of the “R “mainly was to ignite discussions within the community about its meaning. I decided to invite the community to become involved in the development. Let people join the process, that means a serious investment of time and energy, but it’s important to gain attention. Also, this way I gathered feedback from RESHOOT-beta-testers very early and therefore knew I’d better change the game design for RESHOOT R fundamentally.

With RESHOOT, the intention was to use the basic shoot ‘em formula as a frame for mainly modern game design elements. This worked only partially. The endless gameplay got no love from the retro community. Therefore RESHOOT R got a total redesign. I planned it as a classic horizontal shoot’ em-up with a just handful of modern details, and focus on visual effects never seen before Amiga. The plan: classic stage-based structure with rising difficulty level, power-up-weapons, lots of change of pace, and narrative elements leading to a dramatic climax.

The 2016 release Reshoot tried to marry classic shoot’ em-up gameplay with modern elements. It rather failed. Customers seem to prefer old-school elements in games on retro platforms.

No more one-man-show Collaboration with pixel artist Kevin Saunders from Australia was a given. He did great work on RESHOOT and proved that he is a reliable guy. This is not to be taken for granted in a development scenario which is mainly driven by passion, not money. One of the main challenges while developing RESHOOT and RESHOOT R was to find and lead people who can actually pull through, who do not flake away after a couple of weeks or at the slightest sight of any obstacles. Kevin and I discussed visual ideas and quickly decided to ditch the very abstract and clean design of RESHOOT and instead go for a comparably natural approach, combining the fluid animation of 3D-rendered objects with the distinctive look of hand-crafted pixels.

The simultaneous use of music and sound-fx was inevitable. One needs to know that it was not common practice in the Amigas early years and is still difficult to implement nowadays since the Amiga only has four sound channels and can mix sounds only with severe constraints in the visual and gameplay department. But our ears are so used to a modern hearing experience, that anything less would not sound acceptable in 2019. To keep the music pumping while player projectile whoosh over the screen and the boss warcries after taking another hit, took weeks of detailed work.

Project leader Richard Löwenstein uses modern tools to develop a game for a platform which essentially debuted in 1985.

Also, the switch to a different kind of music proved to be very important for the enhanced experience that RESHOOT R provides. I ditched the unconventional chiptune-music of RESHOOT for a modern, fast pulsed musical accompaniment of very high technical quality, comparable to what you would expect to hear on modern hardware platforms. A quarter of system memory was reserved just for audio use. This way the digital samples, which the Amigas Paula-customchip reads from memory and outputs through its four audio channels, would sound natural and not scratchy like is so often the case in Amiga games.

While talking about music, I need to mention gamescom 2016 and the importance of attending such gatherings. It was this visit that laid the groundwork for the audio experience. While showing RESHOOT to the public audience, I got into talks with Martin Ahman. Martin is a DJ and composer interested in electronic music. He told me how keen he is to, once in a lifetime, have one of his pieces in an Amiga game. He did not have any Amiga related releases on its curriculum vitae at that time. But he convinced me that he knows what it takes by sending a piece which was pretty close to what I had envisioned. It all resulted in audio tracks which not only drove the gameplay forward but which were so good on their own that prior to release, we decided to produce a separate Soundtrack-CD with remixes from the German Remix Group and others. Like Kevin Saunders, Martin Ahman is aware of the limitations of classic hardware and creative enough to work around them for the best possible performance.

The challenge is to create a 3D-illusion through visual layering and move dozens of objects at the same time, with only a 14-Mhz-CPU and 2 MB RAM under the hood.

Three years in the making It took me a while to enhance and modify the existing RESHOOT-Engine to cope with the many additional elements planned for RESHOOT R: I wanted narrative breaks, a diversified and sometimes surprising attack choreography, and parent-children-related objects which can be multiplied and combined to form bigger boss-like objects. One of my main goals was to add full screen perspective scrolling to enhance the illusion of visual depth. This has never been done in Amiga game before. The Amiga does not contain any 3D-capabilities, no scaling or texture mapping. Only a very simple GPU called “Copper“ can switch video characteristics at segments of each scan line. Therefore all perspective visual effects need clever coding since they must only use a minimum of CPU cycles while adding a maximum of visual impact to the experience. Doing this while drawing up to 100 moving objects on screen and keeping a steady 50 Hertz framerate proofed to be a very special challenge. Even down to optimising single bytes within data structures and counting CPU cycles for maximised performance within program loops.

One year after the initial development started, the engine was ready for its public debut at gamescom 2017. I showed one playable level and gathered a ton of feedback and ideas. It took another two years to implement the best proposals. One of the most important modifications concerns the collision system. It now mirrors the hitbox-based behaviour found in modern shoot’ em-up-games on Xbox, PlayStation and Switch. The added particle system not only looks nice, but it also helps distinguish cosmetic background graphics from collidable stuff. The extra weapon system now not only rewards persevering players, who remember and collect power-ups, with enhanced destruction capabilities; but it also incorporates an innovative shield function for the players ship: The hit of an enemy bullet only takes away one power-up, unless the ship returns to its basic configuration and a bullet hit is fatal. All these modifications add tremendously to the game-flow and playability experience.

The challenge is to create a 3D-illusion and move dozens of objects with only a 14-Mhz-CPU and 2 MB RAM.

Community and media seem to agree. Favourable comments from Youtubers, excited reviews in specialist magazines and a number of editorial pieces – one of which was aired on the German public TV-channel ZDF – prove that RESHOOT R is not only a great Amiga game – it’s a great game on any platform. So it paid off emotionally. But did it work financially?

The Retro community is very creative, loyal and willing to buy games at prices comparable to modern console releases. The market is still very, very niche, though. This restricts sales but increases the visibility of each games release, provided its creators invest sufficient time and knowledge into community work and marketing. RESHOOT R is essentially a bet on the assumption that the retro games community grows like the vintage car scene did in the past 20 years. If this becomes true, the market might become serious in the near future. Games like RESHOOT R help create such a market. Because if they are good-looking and entertaining, they may be considered a viable alternative to products on modern platforms – not only for people who actually owned an Amiga 30 years ago but also for new customers wanting to experience this special retro flavour in the most authentic way. Future projects like Intellivisions Amico-console help putting the market into the limelight.

RESHOOT R is a retro community effort, with contributions from several experienced freelance artists.

So, my newly founded retro specialist label “spieleschreiber” has a serious foot in the door and the business model is well and truly scalable. Conversions of RESHOOT R for Steam, Switch and Mega Drive-platforms are on the cards. The next AAA-release for Amiga is already in development: The fast-paced vertical shoot’ em-up RESHOOT PROXIMA III will bring Truxton-like space chaos onto Amiga. The game debuted at the Amiga34-exhibition at the 12th October 2019 and will be released in 2020. Extrapolating from peoples interest at the show, this will be huge. Maybe it will even be the first Amiga game ever that gets successfully funded by a Kickstarter-campaign. Tanglewood, Phantom Gear and several other recent projects for the Mega Drive-platform have proven it can be done.

Richard Löwenstein Journalist and Game Developer

Richard developed games since 1985. At the end of 1991, he started an editorial career, became editor of Amiga Joker and PC Joker Magazine, founded a number of games magazines and wrote about games and its industry for several leading media outlets. In 2015 Richard returned to game development, released RESHOOT in 2016 and RESHOOT R in May 2019. More at www.spieleschreiber.de.

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aurelliocheek · 5 years

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RESHOOT R: Driven by Passion

Richard Löwenstein about why releasing for Amiga almost makes sense.

RESHOOT R is designed to read map-files created with “Tiled“ and restart at the edited position immediately. That lowers turnaround times while designing and testing significantly.

A new market emerges Fast forward to the summer of 2015. When I cleared up my cellar, what emerged were several Amiga home computers I had retired by the end of the 90s. One of them contained the source code of my old shoot’ em-up-project, which I had buried in 1991. As fate would have it, at the same time I wrote some pieces about the flourishing market for new games releases on the 8-bit-platform Commodore 64. Like vinyl and vintage cars, old games machines seemed to gain attention. Several indicators hinted for an emerging situation: mainly the growing number of retro related exhibitors at gamescom, and an increasing number of new games releases of professional quality not only on Commodore 64, but also on other platforms like Amstrad/Schneider CPC. My favourite vintage games platform – the Commodore Amiga – did not get its share of new releases though. That seemed strange because it used to be the most popular games platform in the very early 90s in Europe. It’s said to have sold about five million units in the EU-territory, still has loyal followers, and is very popular within the demo scene. I assumed that it’s comparably elaborate to develop games for Amiga, so much so that a classic one man show – common constellation on older 8-bit-systems – can hardly handle the job. The Amigas 16-bit-technology, though antique by modern standards, already enables quite sophisticated content. It takes trained specialists to take care of design, coding, pixels and music if the result was to be on par with the best games released in the heydays of the Amiga. Also, the Amiga was not very popular outside of Europe and therefore – unlike the Mega Drive – cannot confide on momentum from US- and Asia-based developers.