Magic Carpet

possibly Falcon 3

A bit offtopic, but what kind of CPU power would be able to natively run Terminal Velocity in 30+ fps in VGA/SVGA on high and low settings respectively? Because my netbook emulates roughly a 486 in DosBox on max cycles and while the game runs ok it still chops visibly a bit even on lowest settings, honestly it seems to me that it is faster on the "Pentium" graphical settings than the "486" ones?

In Windows XP directly it runs, with VDMSound even with music, but SVGA mode produces a program crash and garbled screen, while the VGA version runs full speed, but juddery (like screen vibrating up and down).

I'm sorry for putting this here, but I didn't want to make a new thread.

Quake is not necessarily a good comparative game. It is highly optimized for Intel P5 specifically.

Davros wrote:

possibly Falcon 3

Only needs FPU if you use the most sophisticated flight model mode. But that mode is said to be buggy and undesirable.

m1so wrote:

A bit offtopic, but what kind of CPU power would be able to natively run Terminal Velocity in 30+ fps in VGA/SVGA on high and low settings respectively? Because my netbook emulates roughly a 486 in DosBox on max cycles and while the game runs ok it still chops visibly a bit even on lowest settings, honestly it seems to me that it is faster on the "Pentium" graphical settings than the "486" ones?

In Windows XP directly it runs, with VDMSound even with music, but SVGA mode produces a program crash and garbled screen, while the VGA version runs full speed, but juddery (like screen vibrating up and down).

I'm sorry for putting this here, but I didn't want to make a new thread.

Try NOLFB in NTVDM. I think it will fix your SVGA problem.

DOSBOX is vastly more demanding because it emulates so much. NTVDM virtualizes a lot but is of course quirky with games. Terminal Velocity needs midrange Pentium performance for SVGA to run well. I think you need around 2 GHz A64/PentiumM CPU speed to get there.

So a Pentium 75 Mhz or 90 Mhz would be good enough to run smooth in VGA? I tried NOLFB, same garbled screen in SVGA, same juddering in VGA. I mostly solved the lag problem in Dosbox through, by turning everything down (it turned out that it DOES actually run better with the "486" settings). There is some little lag in bigger explosions, but otherwise very nice. Obviously, this is VGA, I didn't even try SVGA in Dosbox. God, the game is addictive like crack.

I used to play the game on a 486 pretty well so any Pentium should be fine for VGA mode.

Alternatively you could get Fury 3 or Hellbender which are Windows 95 games. Terminal Velocity sequels. One even has optional early D3D acceleration (D3D3?) but I don't know if that would work anymore. Your netbook would rock those native Windows games.

swaaye wrote:

Quake is not necessarily a good comparative game. It is highly optimized for Intel P5 specifically.

Davros wrote:

possibly Falcon 3

Only needs FPU if you use the most sophisticated flight model mode. But that mode is said to be buggy and undesirable.

Wait, so I'm not the only one who experienced joystick sensitivity problem with Falcon 3.0's hi-fidelity model?

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:

Wait, so I'm not the only one who experienced joystick sensitivity problem with Falcon 3.0's hi-fidelity model?

I don't know about Dosbox but the high fidelity flight model actually has funky quirks that make it not so much hi-fi.

http://dlh.net/chtdb/chtview.php?lang=ger&typ … p=e1847&page=10

7.1 FALCON 3.0 HIGH FIDELITY FLIGHT MODEL […]
Show full quote

7.1 FALCON 3.0 HIGH FIDELITY FLIGHT MODEL

The high-fidelity flight model in Falcon 3.0 was originally
developed for ASAT, or Advanced Situational Awareness Trainer,
which was an air intercept trainer for the USAF. Its inclusion in
Falcon 3.0 has generated many questions as to how it behaves. The
following remarks are applicable to the
high-fidelity flight model in all versions of Falcon 3.0:

- Hi-fi flight model does not function at airspeeds under approx
270 knots. Below this, the player's aircraft is controlled by the
complex flight model. There is a noticeable transition when this
airspeed threshold is crossed.
- Hi-fi flight models weight limitations somewhat, in that planes
loaded in excess of 32,000 pounds will crash as soon as they
exceed 270 knots in a takeoff.
- Hi-fi flight model doesn't model G limitations (nor does
Complex), so you can pull 9 G's with a full load of fuel and
ordnance. However, you'll lose airspeed in the turn, until you
cross below the 270 knot threshold and re-enter Complex flight
model. If you stay in a turn, you can yo-yo between the two
flight models indefinitely.
- Hi-fi flight model doesn't model drag effects; you can travel
at 450 knots at zero throttle indefinitely.
- Hi-fi flight model's airbrakes are dramatically more effective
than those in Complex flight model.
- Hi-fi flight model causes your F16 to travel at least 40 knots
faster Complex flight model at the same throttle settings

Note that wingmen, enemies, and your plane in Autopilot always
use Complex flight model, not Hi-fi.

swaaye wrote:

I don't know about Dosbox but the high fidelity flight model actually has funky quirks that make it not so much hi-fi. […]
Show full quote

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:

Wait, so I'm not the only one who experienced joystick sensitivity problem with Falcon 3.0's hi-fidelity model?

I don't know about Dosbox but the high fidelity flight model actually has funky quirks that make it not so much hi-fi.

http://dlh.net/chtdb/chtview.php?lang=ger&typ … p=e1847&page=10

7.1 FALCON 3.0 HIGH FIDELITY FLIGHT MODEL […]
Show full quote

7.1 FALCON 3.0 HIGH FIDELITY FLIGHT MODEL

The high-fidelity flight model in Falcon 3.0 was originally
developed for ASAT, or Advanced Situational Awareness Trainer,
which was an air intercept trainer for the USAF. Its inclusion in
Falcon 3.0 has generated many questions as to how it behaves. The
following remarks are applicable to the
high-fidelity flight model in all versions of Falcon 3.0:

- Hi-fi flight model does not function at airspeeds under approx
270 knots. Below this, the player's aircraft is controlled by the
complex flight model. There is a noticeable transition when this
airspeed threshold is crossed.
- Hi-fi flight models weight limitations somewhat, in that planes
loaded in excess of 32,000 pounds will crash as soon as they
exceed 270 knots in a takeoff.
- Hi-fi flight model doesn't model G limitations (nor does
Complex), so you can pull 9 G's with a full load of fuel and
ordnance. However, you'll lose airspeed in the turn, until you
cross below the 270 knot threshold and re-enter Complex flight
model. If you stay in a turn, you can yo-yo between the two
flight models indefinitely.
- Hi-fi flight model doesn't model drag effects; you can travel
at 450 knots at zero throttle indefinitely.
- Hi-fi flight model's airbrakes are dramatically more effective
than those in Complex flight model.
- Hi-fi flight model causes your F16 to travel at least 40 knots
faster Complex flight model at the same throttle settings

Note that wingmen, enemies, and your plane in Autopilot always
use Complex flight model, not Hi-fi.

I see.

Well in my case, (a) the roll rate becomes unmanageably fast, (b) I also suffer from roll inertia. That is, the plane keep rolling despite I have centered the joystick.

The roll inertia puzzles me. I'm not an F-16 pilot, then I don't know the flight characteristics of a real F-16. But I believe a real F-16 does not suffer from roll inertia. Isn't the fly-by-wire supposed to help the pilot stabilize the aircraft?

Thanks for the Fury3 and Hellbender tips, but I already played these 2 games and found them bland, missing some fun elements such as the tunnels (or at least I haven't found one), that spice up Terminal Velocity. I mostly solved the lag anyways, so I guess perfect fps will wait until my i7 rig with Dosbox (and many games both old and new) or until I build a Pentium/K5 rig (if these old games depend on the ALU rather than FPU I guess the lower FPU performance of K5 won't matter, plus I'd like to build something a bit "exotic").

BTW, by any chance folks, anyone knoe how to save your progress in Terminal Velocity?

I gave Fury 3 a second chance and it's pretty fun, do I have to switch to 256 colors even on a modern netbook cause of some weird bug I didn't yet see or does the warning only apply for really old machines?

swaaye wrote:

Alternatively you could get Fury 3 or Hellbender which are Windows 95 games. Terminal Velocity sequels. One even has optional early D3D acceleration (D3D3?) but I don't know if that would work anymore. Your netbook would rock those native Windows games.

Hellbender can be set to use D3D (standard is software renderer). I don't know about current systems, it worked on XP with a Radeon 9000. I'd guess it's not very picky/demanding. Since the demo is still available one can easily try.

m1so wrote:

BTW, by any chance folks, anyone knoe how to save your progress in Terminal Velocity?

According to the manual it's F2 for save and F3 for restore.