If it works like it does on "Cycles", "auto" is suppossed to autodetect the best option for the program currently running.

"Prefetch" is an option for a certain number of games that use an option not previously implemented in DOSBox. "Auto" won't work with those. Most notoriusly, this fixes "FIFA International Soccer".

As for the "cycles=auto" option, it stays at 3.000 while using the DOS shell, but it changes once you've loaded a CPU intensive program. Try "Quake" or "NASCAR RAcing", to name two, and you'll see the option changing inmediately to "max" on the titlebar.

auto is something totally different for cputype. Think it can be considered 486 (cpuid) + 386(paging) like.

auto for cycles hasn't changed. only changes to cycles is adding fixed for simply cycles. I will probably remove that requirement before the next version.

Thank you two for the infos 😀

About the "fixed" option for CYCLES. I think the old style "number of CYCLES, max or auto" worked well so i see no reason to break all the old conf files!

About the CPUTYPE. I became interested what DOSBox emulates and checked 2 CPUID programs. This one is a program i have found on englisch wikipedia http://www.coli.uni-saarland.de/~eric/stuff/s … pulevel2007.zip (with source and where the cow file has to be renamed to com) and this one http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/ckcpu115.zip . chkcpu works flawless in 0.72 but crashes independant of any command line options in the CVS from 21.8.08. cpulevel works in 0.72 (identyfies as 486) but prints out a message "CPUID support check negative" and the same program crashes in the CVS.

Regards.

Qbix can you elaborate a bit about every option and differences between them (speed and compatibility and what they actually do and what are intended for)?

auto - ...............
386_prefetch - .................
386 - ..............
386_slow - ..............
486_slow - ..............
pentium_slow - ............

If something doesn't work, try a different option. Other than that, leave them at the default setting.
There are only a few games/apps that need this switch.

I know that. But I would like to know what they do. 😀

Well check the sources, pagefault triggers are different between 386 and 486
architectures, prefetch queue is only emulated in one of the cputype selectors,
cpuid handling is only present in 486/pentium, and what else useless stuff
i've thought of that may or may not be useful.

auto - the option the DOSBox devs want you to use
386_prefetch - for those pesky games that need it
386 - fast by skipping some (protected mode) checks that are not needed for most games
386_slow - including the above checks, for a few single games
486_slow - ""
pentium_slow - for Windows 95

auto - the option the DOSBox devs want you to use

for a reason

Ok, so here is how i undersntand it:

1386          (includes 386paging) = the base
2386_prefetch (includes 386paging) = the base + prefetch
3auto         (includes 386paging) = the base    + 486_id
4386_slow     (includes 386paging) = the base                 + some more (protected mode) checks
5486_slow     (includes 486paging) = the base    + 486_id     + some more (protected mode) checks + some 486 stuff
6pentium_slow (includes 486paging) = the base    + pentium_id + some more (protected mode) checks + some pentium stuff

Am I right?

If you're bored search the sources for CPU_ArchitectureType.

auto has instructions up to pentium, reports as 486 (cpuid) and uses
fast (what =386 specifies as well) page privilege checks.

What games are these options for? I have searched the forum and found:

386_prefetch - X-Men: Madness in The Murderworld, Terminator 1, Contra, Fifa International Soccer 1994

486_slow - Betrayal in Antara

pentium_slow - Fifa International Soccer 1994, Windows 95

Windows 3.x games

Are there any other? What games are 386 and 386_slow for?

I don't have a list.

Fifa94 works fine with the prefetch core as well.
win9x works fine for me with the other _slow options as well.