Hmmm, well it's been quite some time since I last played it on a 486DX2/66 or 100 (Back in 1996, IIRC).

Are you using Timesync? This adjusts the cycles in DosBox automagically increasing/decreasing the cycles as needed. It's likely that this would fix your problem. I'll see if I can test Arena today.

Timesync does make a difference but it doesn't eliminate the extreme polarities. Also, when I have timesync enabled it will often bring my CPU usage over 50% (which I believe on a HT CPU is equal to 100%). Timesync also doesn't really choose the appropriate CPU cycles because NPCs animations will be much too fast.

I don't remember Arena being that way with speeds in DOSBox or otherwise. Are you sure you're running the latest patch version for Arena?

I just tried it and it does what he says. (Dunno what ver of Arena I have, haven't checked).

In Dyanmic in the dungeon I'm using 30,000 cycles and eating up 99%.
In Dynamic core in the town I'm using 30,000 cycles and eating up 60% processor.

The NPC's and your character move super fast. Best fix I have so far is to switch to "Normal" core by hitting
Ctrl +1 when you enter a town and then switching back to Dynamic core in the Dungeons by htting Ctrl +3.

This seems to work for me.

I was going to see how well it works on my host system but I don't have any EMS (ye ol' EMS mobo problem) and I don't feel like rebooting to fix it right now.

It could be the particular CVS build you're using, as using a vanilla CVS build and the floppy version of Arena I really don't see what you're describing. Then again, 30,000 cycles on dynamic seems just a tad high for my system in large towns and dungeons (gets a little choppy).

I'm using ykhwong's. I'll just straight CVS later.

I'm using v1.06 of Arena.

Found out that the game has a slowdown function but it isn't very well implemented and not worth using. (Better to switch between Dynamic and Normal Core) If anyone wants to try it press the "+" or "-" keys to increase/decrease internal game speed. As I said it doesn't work very well tho.

Yeah, there's also a command line parameter for it so you can start with a specific setting, but I've never used either.

I'm using v1.07 (CD Version) but I doubt that makes much of a difference - I have the same problem in 1.06 I'm using CVS version of DOSBox. I wasn't aware that you could change CPU core using hotkeys. Whether I use dynamic or normal, however, I will still have either slow speeds in the heart of a town and normal speeds on the outsides of the town near the walls (or indoors) OR I'll have smooth speeds inside the heart of a town and super-fast speeds near the walls. Just try it - go inside an alleyway inside a city, between a few buildings and swing your sword about. Then go out towards the city gates and swing it, it'll be much faster.

Is there a better version of DOSBox?

I don't think changing core via hotkeys is supported in vanilla CVS - I think it's an unofficial patch specific to either Gulikoza's and/or Ykhwong's build.

I do notice that the game is slower in large areas due to the fact that it's using a lot of CPU power, but nothing ever seems to move "super fast" for me - just smooth or not. The best thing to do to combat this is lower the detail setting in the game because I know that (like when I used to play on a 386DX33) it's due to my CPU not being powerful enough to emulate the game at full detail.

3200 ghZ isn't powerful enough? The thing is I CAN get it to be smooth in the heart of a town but it will be TOO fast if I go to a less stressful area like inside a building or on the outer parts of a town like around the city walls. So I don't think it's the processor. Like I said, it's as if you turned down the settings in Vivec (Morrowind) and it corrected your video lag but then made the game much too fast in Seyda Neen. =/

I would try using the AEP Emulatiuon/CVS Compile build instead of Gulikoza or Ykhwong before giving up. I'm wondering if it's one of those unofficial timesync patches or something that's screwing it up.

I use this version of DOSBOX

http://home.amis.net/lkslavi/dosbox/dosboxcvs-051009.zip

Which one is that?

That's Gulikoza's build. Try this one instead: http://cvscompile.aep-emu.de/dosbox.htm

When I click on the download button in that link it brings me to a page with this message.

Access forbidden!

You tried to download a file from AEP Emulation Page, but we couldn't verify that you actually came from AEP.

Possible reasons:
- Someone is using our Downloads - we don't like this, traffic costs money
- Your firewall is blocking your referer - without referer we can't identify you, sorry

Possible solutions:
- If you came here from another page, go to http://www.aep-emu.de and start your download from there.
- If your firewall is blocking your referer, disable referer blocking.

Thanks 😀[/i

So I go to the page in "Possible solutions" and most of it's in german, so I can barely navigate my way around. When I do find the DOSBOX download on there it's version .63. If you could give me a link that direct opens up the zip/download for the CVS Compile Build I would be most appreciative.

Thanks in advance.

What you just posted says that the server does not allow direct links.

Well, CVS Compile isn't at http://www.aep-emu.de. Can someone tell me where I can find it?

Someone should mention the obvious thing, going to http://cvscompile.aep-emu.de/ and clicking "dosbox" . I hope someone does that soon. 😉

Ah ha! It WAS my firewall that was stopping me from downloading it! I'll try this and let you all know if I have the same problem. - Ehm...let's see...when I download it from there it basically gives me DOSBOX v.63 ...and there's no .config file either....

hmm not using a weird download manager or so ?
it downloads fine at my place.