| Name | Savage |
| Description | Video Driver for ShapeShifter |
| Author/Group | Laszlo Torok |
| Price | Shareware (15USD, 10DM) |
| System Requirements | AmigaOS 3.0+, MMU, ShapeShifter 3.2+, lots of Fast RAM (AGA is recommended) |
I have now got ShapeShifter up and running - nothing like gaining a Mac for free (don't worry, I still prefer the Amiga side of things).
Lacking a graphics card though, I always thought I'd be stuck in 2 colours. Running in anything more was ridiculous, the refresh rate being more like a frame rate, and a low one at that too. But I should have known that Amiga programmers would prove me wrong.
I came across a whole load of video drivers for SS, and these were impressive. The most impressive was Savage. This was the unregistered version of course, and only supported the 256 colour mode, at a 512x384 resolution. The full version supports 16 colours, and also 15bit, and more importantly, higher resolutions. What the hell, I thought, and decided to register.
I am now running in 640x480 in 256 colours, and it is much better like this. Sure, a Mac is useable in 2 colours, but it isn't very nice. Even in 16 colours, the user-interface is very 2 dimensional, but everything looks much better in 256 colours. Sure, it's slower, but then real Macs are slower in 256 colours than in 2 colours (like all computers, of course).
An MMU is required, as it is used to detect which parts of the screen have changed, and thus need redrawing, to make it as quick as possible. As a result, the speed of the updates depends on how much of the screen has changed. That is, menu openings are very quick, but I imagine a full screen game, with everything updating, would be rather slow.
Then again, it is not as if '030 Macs are particularly swift in the graphics department. I am unable to provide any benchmarks, but from what I have seen, I would place my 50MHz '030 'Mac' about equivalent to a 16MHz '030 real Mac at least, regarding graphics speed. Benchmarks provided with Savage place a 50MHz '030 SS Mac at about 35% the graphics speed of a real Mac with 25MHz '040, which is reasonable considering that a 25MHz '040 can be up to twice as fast as the '030.
A lot of RAM is advisable, as it uses RAM to store certain stuff to speed things up. An 8bit 640x480 screen for example requires an extra 856K. I have 2MB Chip, and 8MB Fast. After booting AmigaOS, all my background programs and patches, running ShapeShifter, using Savage, and loading the Mac ROM into RAM, I can get about 3MB for my Mac... Thankfully, by booting with no startup-sequence, I can get over 5MBs, so it's not too bad.
The 4bit version is even faster, but I prefer the luxury of 256 colours. The 15bit driver uses HAM8, and is impressive. It is fast considering what it has to do, but sadly, too slow for practical uses, in my opinion. Still, it's nice to be able to do it.
I have not been able to test Savage with games - if you want to run Duke Nukem or whatever, I imagine a graphics card would still be advisable, but for general Mac useage, this driver is great. Anyone using ShapeShifter with AGA should get the full version NOW!
Mark
| Savage | |
| Speed | Superfast! - 95% |
| Interface | N/A |
| Documentation | Adequate - 80% |
| Features | 4/8/15 bit in several resolutions - 90% |
| Value For Money | Great - 90% |
Overall -92% | |