Re: Ultima 7 cache off patch - u7dcp

Posted on 2017-10-24, 00:42

by

by vvbee

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

Nope, no evidence, as I have not looked at the code yet. This is just based on what bits the game seems to set to 0 based on your code replacement. By using EBX and only ANDing with 0xFE to clear only last byte you are effectively preserving top bits. I do want to make sure the patch doesn't screw …

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Re: Ultima 7 cache off patch - u7dcp

Posted on 2017-10-23, 19:45

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by vvbee

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

Is there evidence that the game cares about bits in cr0 apart from the first one? The bit 0 thing could indeed be for the unreal mode thing. Of course, we don't care if the game cares about cache for speed reasons, just whether it cares about it for data correctness. Not sure about serpent isle, …

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Re: Ultima 7 cache off patch - u7dcp

Posted on 2017-10-23, 17:36

by

by vvbee

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

There's an experimental version that patches the game to have cache off only if it had already been turned off, e.g. with setmul. [experimental version removed and made the official version]. In other words, it prevents the game from touching the cache setting at all. If you test it, might as well …

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Re: Ultima 7 cache off patch - u7dcp

Posted on 2017-10-23, 15:40

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by vvbee

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

If it's found to be working in general, I'll attach a more final version.

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U7DCP - Ultima VII DOS Cache Patch

Posted on 2017-10-23, 15:07

by

by vvbee

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

U7DCP - Ultima VII DOS Cache Patch. Stops Ultima VII: The Black Gate aka. Ultima 7 from enabling CPU cache on launch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2tyyWk766s - the game running on a 1.4 GHz CPU no worries. Note that U7DCP comes as is, no guarantees, no warranty, and it may or may not work as …

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Re: Friendliest CPU family for mid-90s "final" DOS-era games?

Posted on 2017-10-23, 02:57

by

by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

gdjacobs wrote: Ultima 7 can't disable TR12 register settings the way it can force L1 cache to turn on. Patch to force ultima 7 cache off. http://personal.inet.fi/muoti/eimuoti/u7dcp.zip. Based on gog's dos version, may or may not work on others.

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Re: The ultimate Ultima 7 machine

Posted on 2017-10-22, 15:46

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by vvbee

in Milliways

in Milliways

I had a look into this. It doesn't seem intentional, the game just tries to enter and leave protected mode. .. For the second sequence it is not so easy since "xor eax, eax" is a short way to set eax to zero which uses only 3 bytes. To set eax to 40000000h as necessary to disable cache we would …

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Re: Fast & silent windows 98 build w/ new and old parts

Posted on 2017-10-22, 02:17

by

by vvbee

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Strictly speaking this wasn't to be a dos build, but I wanted to know how ultima 7 would run on it. Seems it runs decent. I patched the game's mainmenu.exe to force cpu cache off, and with the cpu at 1400 mhz, speed in u7 seems comparable to a mid 486. Capture video with cache disabled and enabled, …

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Re: RallySportED, the track editor for the DOS game Rally-Sport

Posted on 2017-10-20, 22:36

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by vvbee

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

I rewrote the dos texture editor in assembly. I don't own a 386, but based on testing in pcem, the rewritten rsed_tex will run well on the slowest of 386 and up. I can turn the cycles down to about 450 in dosbox before notable cursor flicker appears, so in theory a 286 could run it. But it can't, …

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Re: Holding PS/2 connectors together

Posted on 2017-10-19, 16:44

by

by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you want to unplug the keyboard from the machine, you unplug it. If you want to unplug the dongle from the keyboard, which likely isn't very often, you nick the heatshrink where there's slack and peel it off. That's why you don't use adhesive heatshrink by the way.

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Re: Holding PS/2 connectors together

Posted on 2017-10-19, 15:26

by

by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

luckybob wrote: *scoffs derisively* Too easy? In that case, find a knot that pulls two ends together and go from there.

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Re: PcChips sucks!

Posted on 2017-10-18, 18:19

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by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

BitWrangler wrote: I quite like PCChips, I'm at a success rate of about 8 for 9 whereas gigabyte, I'm 0 for 3. I use a pc chips m577 and have no complaints.

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Re: Holding PS/2 connectors together

Posted on 2017-10-18, 15:25

by

by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Try heatshrink instead of tape for the dongle.

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Re: Project : "Madness", One retro PC to rule them all :)

Posted on 2017-10-17, 17:50

by

by vvbee

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Cool, pretty good. On a list of supercomputed dos render farms, I think this would place pretty high.

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Re: Project : "Madness", One retro PC to rule them all :)

Posted on 2017-10-17, 01:01

by

by vvbee

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Run path_bench in dos on it, PATH_BENCH - DOS path tracing CPU benchmark, and see what you end up with. Probably won't match the xeon in one-core perf, but who knows. No dos on the xeon machine though.

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Re: RallySportED, the track editor for the DOS game Rally-Sport

Posted on 2017-10-16, 17:39

by

by vvbee

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

I updated the dos file with some important fixes and a few smaller changes. CHANGELOG - rsed_ldr/rsedload.bat: lap records are perhaps now saved correctly - rsed_ldr: preview of the modified track now shown in the menu - rsed_cpu: added an in-game message to indicate the lap is being recorded, ties …

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Re: RallySportED, the track editor for the DOS game Rally-Sport

Posted on 2017-10-15, 04:59

by

by vvbee

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

I rewrote the dos track loader in assembly, used to be in c++. Without particular optimizations it runs 4x faster, is 8x smaller, and I put in some other improvements as well. Some documented and undocumented manifesto commands were removed, so depending on how long you've been making or collecting …

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Re: VGA Capture Thread

Posted on 2017-10-13, 00:48

by

by vvbee

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

The terms of use for VOGONS were provided in a link to you when you registered: http://www.vogons.org/ucp.php?mode=terms This is the privacy policy: http://www.vogons.org/ucp.php?mode=privacy No doubt, and I would've read them not intending to use vogons as a file host. In any case I couldn't see a …

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Re: VGA Capture Thread

Posted on 2017-10-12, 03:50

by

by vvbee

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

It's off the cuff beta software the rights of mine to which I've decided not to sign away unnecessarily. It wouldn't be in line with that decision to upload it onto a 3rd party host whose terms of service I don't know.

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Re: RallySportED, the track editor for the DOS game Rally-Sport

Posted on 2017-10-09, 04:23

by

by vvbee

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

I made a new track and called it herbmare. It stands for herb and nightmare. Break my lap record without taking shortcuts and you're doing ok. It's my 20th track since I released rallysported last november. I made the track in two evenings, so forget spit and polish, it's just fun driving with a bit …

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