VOGONS


First post, by danielc

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Hiya guys =)

Well i've done my fair share of searching and research, and was just wondering if there are any proven methods for DOSBox to run VESA graphics games with a decent performance.

Motherboard: Can't remember, it has the AMD 780G Chipset though.
Processor type and speed: AMD X2 5000+ @ 3GHz
Amount and type of RAM: DDR2-800MHz @ ~850MHz, 5-5-5-15
Video board w/ RAM amount and type: 9600GT 512MB GDDR3, latest 181.XX Forceware
Sound board: Onboard Realtek HiDef
Operating system: Server 2008 x64 (Vista Server)
Game name (and version, if applicable): Redneck Rampage, latest "Family Reunion" patched.
Description of problem: General low framerate in VESA modes, occassional "Hitching" when moving from one area to another, explosions, and other misc. "intensive" things
Sound mode used: SB16, 44.1KHz, 16-Bit, 32 Voices, HDMA enabled. All other things (GUS, Tandy, PC Speaker, MIDI) DISABLED.
Video mode (Software, OpenGL, Direct3D, or Glide, and resolution): OpenGL, DDraw, Overlay all tried, at original 640x480 VESA resolution
Version of emulator: DOSBox 0.72 Win32 (binary non-CVS)
Steps already attempted to solve the problem: Everything in the FAQ, Readme, searched for "VESA" on VOGONS, and the DOSBox Wiki

I understand that it is at the high-end of DOSBox gaming, in particular i'm trying the build game Redneck Rampage (I have the Family Reunion double CD pack).

The game installed and played fine, but I have to set the graphics mode to 640x480 (no higher) and using the fullresolution=original is a must for me - if I even set 800x600, with output=opengl or overlay or openglnb, it jerks up every now and then and has a shocking framerate. Even at this 640x480, the game is bearable to play at never reaching higher than 20~25fps.

So my question is, assuming this is a VESA graphics thing, are there any commandline tools or DOSBox config options that could help with this? Would changing soundblaster settings help at all too? They are currently at the 44100, 16-bit, max voices, via setup.exe, but anything lower doesnt seem to help with performance.

Is this really the best I could get? Thanks in advance.

Regards,
CosmicDan

Reply 2 of 7, by leileilol

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it'll be as slow on an equivelant Intel as well.
Remember, DOSBox is not quite the seamless transparent layer, and it does not take advantage of multi-cores. Not even a core i7 will help you run Armored Fist 2 either.

What's your ramsize? Redneck does not play well with DOSBox's 16mb default, so up that to 48 for less hitching.

Redneck was unrealistically designed and more like 'abuses' BUILD to wild limits with all of its hi-res sprites and such since it wasn't originally designed for such.

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long live PCem

Reply 3 of 7, by keropi

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Yeah, Readneck is a pretty heavy game, like Witchaven 2 , they run crap on pure DOS too... gog.com has a redneck package, I have bought it and it run well in 640x480 AFAIR, surelly this is a settings issue

🎵 🎧 PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 4 of 7, by danielc

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Ah cool, thanks guys =)

Yeah, Sydnicate Wars is pretty heavy too from what I remember. And it makes sense Redneck Rampage being a hog, it was released after Blood and by a different development studio than 3D Realms, so they prolly updated it themselves a bit. Blood runs great too, BTW.

I suppose it's bearable, oh well. And my RAM is set to the maximum of 63 (or is it 64?). core=dynamic and cycles=max is what I use for everything, and CPU usage is always between 40-45, so it's not even reaching the full 50 of a dual core. So it's not the issue there.

Yeah maybe i'll try one of the custom builds from those guys, or whatever. I might try it in my XP build too, which is a much lighter install (we all know that XP uses less resources than Vista).

Thanks guys!

Regards,
CosmicDan

Reply 5 of 7, by leileilol

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danielc wrote:

so they prolly updated it themselves a bit.

It should be noted that every BUILD engine licensee in the 90s never had access to the source code of the engine, ever. Not even 3D Realms. They worked from only .obj files and headers of the engine, though Xatrix got a head start by deriving off the game code Duke3D used.

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long live PCem

Reply 7 of 7, by sideburns

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I'm trying to get Redneck Rampage to run on a 1.9Ghz box (Dual core, but that's not important.) with 2 GB RAM. It's the GOG version, but I run Fedora 19, so it's running under wine. (I have the Linux DOSBox installed, but I don't think I can get RR to use that instead of the Windows version because of how it's packaged.) I've run the memory up to 48, and it's still a tad laggy, compared to what it used to be like when I ran it directly under DOS. And, we have a copy running under Windows (Also from GOG.) at a club I belong to, and it runs Just Right. I've already changed the config to read machine=vesa_nolfb because it was completely unplayable until I did. BTW, if it matters, I have nVidia graphics, and use the OEM drivers as repackaged by Fedora. (If that doesn't make sense, don't worry; it's just a matter of making them easier to update with new kernels.) Are there any other recommendations?