Used -showcycles parameter with dosbox, it shows cycles and fps. Just tried with Fraps now and... you're right, fps are in 12-20 range, also tried with Screamer 2 3dfx and range was 25-35. I don't know what happened.
I remember playing Carmageddon on my old p120 with a real voodoo 1 and it felt the same, i mean, i don't think this game was faster than this. But it doesn't feel like 12 fps, should be unplayable, and, as i said, it feels the same like the old good days. Sorry for not been of much help.[/quote]

kithylin was spot on. Carmageddon is easily the most demanding DOS game around and it's going to take a monster computer and superior emulation to get it to run the way it was meant to.

swaaye wrote:

For some reason the game is demanding. You need a Voodoo3 and a PIII to make it go really smooth natively and this is a game that was supposed to be for Pentium Classics.

The beta ran very bad on my AMD PR-100 back in 1996, but the full game was definitely playable in software on my P200 just six months later (maybe 15-25fps at full screen on medium details). As a side note, my P2-233mmx ran the game silky smooth in software.

Just want to add that playing the game in 3dfx mode on my p200 produced around the same framerates as I got in software (so not ultra smooth by any means - but fully playable) but looked a hell of a lot better and was running at double the res. This was in native DOS mode, not under windows 95 shell.

I think a P2-266 with a voodoo 2 would produce optimal framerates for this game. A V3 with a PIII would be overkill.

Guys, just make sure your cycles are actually increasing.

Dosbox has been iffy for awhile with the cycles not working as they should.
on both trunk and the glide custom builds, sometimes starting it with auto has it stick at 3000 cycles

, or with max+dynamic cycles configured it sticks at 100 cycles max,

When working properly, at that point dosbox would usually be just over 120,000 cycles.

This would explain Destroy's frame rates, as his cpu should be within 10% of my frame rate on his C2 at 4.x.

the non 3dfx carma versions need around 500,000 cycles to run without lag.
The voodoo versions can need up to 750,000, and the splatpack 3dfx.exe is actually faster then the voodo2c.exe found about the web.

Voodo2c.exe, 3.8Ghz Core i7 920.

voodo2c.exe is the most functional of the 3dfx versions on nglide dgvoodoo, the mirror needs the -vrush command switch.

Barry_Purplelips wrote:

Carmageddon is easily the most demanding DOS game around

Two more games are Lands of Lore 2: Guardians of Destiny (DOS version)
Magic Carpet 2 (very bad optimization).

Squall Leonhart wrote:

Guys, just make sure your cycles are actually increasing. […]
Show full quote

Guys, just make sure your cycles are actually increasing.

Dosbox has been iffy for awhile with the cycles not working as they should.
on both trunk and the glide custom builds, sometimes starting it with auto has it stick at 3000 cycles

, or with max+dynamic cycles configured it sticks at 100 cycles max,

When working properly, at that point dosbox would usually be just over 120,000 cycles.

This would explain Destroy's frame rates, as his cpu should be within 10% of my frame rate on his C2 at 4.x.

the non 3dfx carma versions need around 500,000 cycles to run without lag.
The voodoo versions can need up to 750,000, and the splatpack 3dfx.exe is actually faster then the voodo2c.exe found about the web.

Voodo2c.exe, 3.8Ghz Core i7 920.

voodo2c.exe is the most functional of the 3dfx versions on nglide dgvoodoo, the mirror needs the -vrush command switch.

So how do you force enable Dosbox to allow 750000 cycles? Just manually edit it in the .conf file?

it depends on the glide build you use.

i find it easiest with yhkwongs 3dfx build, i can tell by the title bar if the cycles are rising properly as they should be over 100,000 by the time the protected mode message appears.

i've found if it doesn't increase, then changing the core type to auto while the game is starting will kick it up to the correct cycles, apart from that, the cycle rate will depend on your cpu's capabilities.

i use nglide, and currently its not window mode friendly, so i have to pull this off before it inits glide.

Just ran this game in native DOS on my Compaq 200 mhz MMX, 80 mb SDRAM and Voodoo 2 SLI computer. It's fully playable, but with every graphic settings set to full the framerate isn't "silky smooth". (Silky Smooth for me is 60 fps). I would put it at around 20-40 fps depending on the level and action on screen. For some reason it demands quite alot of the computer when run natively as well. My computer runs GLQuake at 1024x768 at avg 55 fps and Quake 2 1024x768 at avg 33. Both these games have better graphics than Carmageddon imo. Bad programming?

So our catch phrase for the Vogons forums should be, "Will it play Carmageddon? In 3dfx mode?" (like "Will it play Crysis?")

jmrydholm wrote:

So our catch phrase for the Vogons forums should be, "Will it play Carmageddon? In 3dfx mode?" (like "Will it play Crysis?")

🤣 🤣 🤣

I found that a Pentium 3 450 combined with a Voodoo3 is the 'break-even-point' for Carmageddon. Anything below that will hinder performance (though 300MHz still plays fine), anything faster won't make a noticable difference.

This is with Yon set to 200 by the way, which is probably more than you'll ever need.

swaaye wrote:

For some reason the game is demanding. You need a Voodoo3 and a PIII to make it go really smooth natively and this is a game that was supposed to be for Pentium Classics.

Ah come ON! I ran Carmageddon 3DFX in Dos with a Pentium 200 (non-mmx) and a maxi gamer OEM voodoo 1 with 20-25fps consistently! I admit it was demanding in software mode ... you would need a Pentium II 233MMX to get smooth non-accelerated gameplay. But P3 and Voodoo 3? Nah! 😁

Closed.
Carmageddon 3dfx issues