DOSBox Graphics Efficiency \ VOGONS

DOSBox Graphics Efficiency

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First post, by the Vrb

Posted on 2005-08-05, 23:31

the Vrb Offline

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Rank: Newbie
Posts: 2
Joined: 2005-07-30, 03:26

I have tweaked my dosbox so that it runs well and uses not very much of my CPU, it never really spikes above 30% usage. However, in some levels of "X-Wing" the graphics lag horribly. Or it lags if you turn on extra graphics such as "space debris" or especially for "engine glow."

Turning up the cycles anything past 5000 makes it seem to lag more even though my CPU usage wont max out until at least 8000 cycles. I would be willing to make my CPU usage higher to get nicely flowing graphics but that doesn't seem to accomplish anything. I don't want to buy a graphics card for one game and that shouldn't make a difference anyway because the game ran quite nicely on my old-crappy-slow-as-sin computer with no graphics card.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Reply 1 of 2, by Kippesoep

Posted on 2005-08-05, 23:45

Kippesoep Offline

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Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1024
Joined: 2005-05-04, 22:36
Location: Netherlands

Every PC has a "graphics card" (either separate or built onto the motherboard), otherwise you wouldn't have any display at all.

If the delay is caused by complicated graphics, you can try increasing the frameskip (Ctrl-F8) to see if that helps. Sometimes performance can be improved by actually lowering the number of cycles. I haven't tried X-wing in DOSBox yet, but maybe it runs with the dynamic core, which may help the speed. Another thing to try is different input methods (mouse/keyboard/joystick).

Finally, as you haven't posted any details on your system or even the DOSBox version you are using, it's not possible to tell, but maybe your computer simply isn't fast enough to handle X-wing in DOSBox.

Reply 2 of 2, by HunterZ

Posted on 2005-08-05, 23:50

HunterZ Offline

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Posts: 6171
Joined: 2003-01-31, 19:04
Location: Seattle

Make sure you're using the dynamic core. With the dynamic core I can get into the 20000+ range on cycles on my Athlon XP 3200+

Try different rendering outputs in case one is faster on your video hardware, and make sure you have the latest drivers installed (as Kippesoep said, even if you don't have a dedicated graphics card, you still have a graphics chip on your motherboard that needs drivers in Windows).

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