I *think* this issue was already reported and fixed in SVN. Qbix should know 😀

If that fails you can try changing your capture folder to another drive partition assuming you have one of course.

Yup use another drive.

Also use DDRAW or OPENGL and don't have DOUBLE BUFFERING enabled.

Why would changing the capture drive make a difference? I mean, the game isn't loading stuff constantly from the hard drive. It's like a meg or so.

Also, I'm stuck on Surface because my video card is godawfully slow and anything but that will make the video blurry.

Why would changing the capture drive make a difference?

What about trying it instead of questioning the recommendations?

Also the first reply may be the most interesting one anyways.

I'm stuck on Surface because my video card is godawfully slow and anything but that will make the video blurry.

The recording is unaffected and yes, there are cheap up to date graphics
cards available almost everywhere.

Foxhack wrote:

Why would changing the capture drive make a difference?

Fragmentation? Cache speed?

Foxhack wrote:

Also, I'm stuck on Surface because my video card is godawfully slow and anything but that will make the video blurry.

No it won't. AVI captures in DOSBox don't take your output mode or scaler into account at all. The "slowness" of your video card is probably because of nvidia's poor palette handling. You can safely play in ddraw or opengl instead without blur in the video.

wd wrote:

Why would changing the capture drive make a difference?

What about trying it instead of questioning the recommendations?

... because I wanted to know why it would make a difference. As in, why does the performance improve. Or something. Jeez. 🙁

Also, I can't afford a new video card. I don't have much spare money after bills. Or a stable job, but that's neither here or there. Not everyone lives in a country where cheap computer parts are easy to acquire...

And leilelol, in regards to blurry video, I meant the image on the DOSBox window, not the actual video being recorded. This card isn't just bad, it doesn't work well with the latest drivers since it's kinda old, and I don't think testing different driver packs just to see which ones work well is worth the hassle. Even simple stuff like a video in VideoLan looks awful when scaled with this card.

Since my original question has been answered, I suppose there's nothing left for me to do but wait for the next DOSBox release. Thanks for your help.

Foxhack wrote:

Also, I can't afford a new video card.

It's nVidia - it's new enough (Geforce+) to make fullcreen surface output so slow. Maybe you should stick to windowed mode or a non-surface output, it'll most likely be the fastest there since they aren't 8-bit color (and 8-bit color with nvidia hardware is a real performance regression). I don't even think waiting for a new DOSBox will be a solution. A new video card won't help you, either (well at least a new one that is nvidia 😉 ).

DOSBox doesn't even demand a powerful video card at all - even onboard 1mb SVGA is enough for surface. 😀

I am using Windowed mode. This thing just likes to blur anything that isn't 1x scale for no reason at all. This card is good for an emergency Windows reinstall or something, but I HATE IT.

But, family obligations come before gaming, so I'm stuck with this for who knows how much longer.

My netbook runs DOSBox just fine!

If you are using openGL, make sure you select that other option (OPENGLNB) which doesn't use bilinear filtering for smoothing out things.

I'm using Surface, but I'll give OPENGLNB a shot.

Edit:
Okay. I changed output to OpenGLNB, and it looks like I didn't get any slowdowns this time. I recorded a video for three and a half minutes and didn't notice any slowdowns, but I'll test with other games later.

So now I'm confused - was the issue caused by the output I was using?

did you read the first reply ? that might help as well ?
Although the issue was really slowing dosbox down if you recorded a long time.

So now I'm confused - was the issue caused by the output I was using?

So you finally changed the output and it was faster and now you're confused?
Do you really need an in-depth analysis of that?

And please don't call me Jeez again, that's a secret.

Qbix wrote:

did you read the first reply ? that might help as well ?
Although the issue was really slowing dosbox down if you recorded a long time.

I did read the first reply. I know the problem has been fixed in the latest SVN build. But I'll just wait for the next stable release, since it's you know, stable and won't melt my monitor or call up an ancient deity. 😐 😵