VOGONS


First post, by rotk6

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I was very excited to play Moo2 since I haven't played it in years and it'd still my favorite game. I downloaded the latest version of DOSBOX and my problem is that I have a Dual 1.8 ghz g5 PowerPC and the game runs SLOW enough that it's irksome and hard to play with delayed clicking and lagging mouse. I have the frame skip at 1 and the CPU speed at 3000 and it's still so slow... Even after I turned the sound settings to 'No MIDI' and 'NO Digital sound'...

I don't understand enough about computers really to fix this by myself so I was wondering if anyone here had the same problems or would know how to step by step talk me through getting this game running like normal and smooth.

Thank you in advance.

Reply 1 of 33, by MiniMax

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3000 or 30000 ?

DOSBox 60 seconds guide | How to ask questions
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Reply 2 of 33, by rotk6

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typo... hehe...

I was running it at 30000.

Now I'm running it on max with no frame skip and I still have problems. Sometimes I run it with frameskip 3 or 1 on cpu cycle max and it's still laggy. Is the problem my processor? The g5 is non intel which is the only thing I can think of that is slowing me down.

I have the same problems with Boxer, although I lag slightly less using dosbox.

Reply 3 of 33, by rotk6

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Also I'm unsure how to change my frameskip and cpu cycles in-game.

Reply 4 of 33, by MiniMax

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rotk6 wrote:

Also I'm unsure how to change my frameskip and cpu cycles in-game.

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Reply 5 of 33, by MiniMax

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Try different output methods.

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Reply 6 of 33, by rotk6

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I'm sorry for my ignorance, but I don't really know what output methods means. Do you think you can explain it to me in the most base terms and let me know how I would go about changing my output methodology?

Reply 7 of 33, by HunterZ

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output= setting in dosbox.conf

Reply 8 of 33, by MiniMax

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Editing the DOSBox 0.73 Preferences file is explained the last part of this post:
Re: 60 seconds guide to getting your game to run in DOSBox

Output methods and such are somewhere near the top, with a very short explanation / list of the possible values. For more info, there is the DOSBox wiki.

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Reply 9 of 33, by rotk6

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OK... so if i understand this right...
This is the file he wants me to mess with?
o 2.1 [sdl]
o 2.2 [dosbox]
o 2.3 [render]
o 2.5 [mixer]
o 2.6 [midi]
o 2.7 [sblaster]
o 2.8 [gus]
o 2.9 [speaker]
o 2.10 [joystick]
o 2.11 [serial]
o 2.12 [dos]
o 2.13 [ipx]
o 2.14 [autoexec]

Am I supposed to be working with the frameskip, aspect, scaler, core, cpu, cycles? Is there a difference messing with it at the dos prompt as opposed to doing it ingame?

Do you have any suggestions?

P.s. Thanks for the help.

Reply 10 of 33, by rotk6

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Minimax that is pretty complex but I don't see anything that mentions output unless you are talking about that autoexec file at the bottom.

I really don't understand much about dos language so this is all a little confusing.

I think I'm in over my head.

I don't have the cd of this game.

Last edited by rotk6 on 2009-07-23, 23:34. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 11 of 33, by HunterZ

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Some settings won't take effect during run-time (i.e., at the DOS prompt).

The start of dosbox.conf looks like this:

# This is the configurationfile for DOSBox .
# Lines starting with a # are commentlines.
# They are used to (briefly) document the effect of each option.

[sdl]
# fullscreen: Start dosbox directly in fullscreen.
# fulldouble: Use double buffering in fullscreen.
# fullresolution: What resolution to use for fullscreen: original or fixed size (e.g. 1024x768).
# windowresolution: Scale the window to this size IF the output device supports hardware scaling.
# output: What video system to use for output.
# Possible values: surface, overlay, opengl, openglnb, ddraw.
# autolock: Mouse will automatically lock, if you click on the screen.
# sensitivity: Mouse sensitivity.
# waitonerror: Wait before closing the console if dosbox has an error.
# priority: Priority levels for dosbox. Second entry behind the comma is for when dosbox is not focused/minimized. (pause is only valid for the second entry)
# Possible values: lowest, lower, normal, higher, highest, pause.
# mapperfile: File used to load/save the key/event mappings from.
# usescancodes: Avoid usage of symkeys, might not work on all operating systems.

fullscreen=true
fulldouble=true
fullresolution=1024x600
windowresolution=original
output=ddraw

Reply 12 of 33, by MiniMax

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rotk6 wrote:
OK... so if i understand this right... This is the file he wants me to mess with? o 2.1 [sdl] o 2.2 [dosbox] […]
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OK... so if i understand this right...
This is the file he wants me to mess with?
o 2.1 [sdl]
o 2.2 [dosbox]
o 2.3 [render]
o 2.5 [mixer]
o 2.6 [midi]
o 2.7 [sblaster]
o 2.8 [gus]
o 2.9 [speaker]
o 2.10 [joystick]
o 2.11 [serial]
o 2.12 [dos]
o 2.13 [ipx]
o 2.14 [autoexec]

That looks like something from the Wiki. You don't want to edit that 😀 You want to edit the DOSBox 0.73 Preferences file on your own Mac using TextEdit.

rotk6 wrote:

Is there a difference messing with it at the dos prompt as opposed to doing it ingame?

Difference? Not really. Except that what you do at the prompt is gone the next time you start DOSBox. Things in the Pref-file is permanent (well, until you edit them again).

DOSBox 60 seconds guide | How to ask questions
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Reply 13 of 33, by rotk6

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Ok... I'm just interested in getting this thing running so that when I click the turn button it doesn't take 6 seconds to get to the next turn. 😁

I think I will tackle the autoexec stuff after.

I have tried output=ddraw, surface, overlay.
Now trying: output=opengl

Only one more to go... openglnb. They have all seemed roughly the same so far. What is the default output?

Offhand... Have other people had a hard time with g5 powerpc dual 1.8's?

Reply 14 of 33, by rotk6

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Still no luck... Been at this for two days trying everything.

I am coming to the conclusion that my g5 is simply too slow to run the dos emulation which is strange to understand. The g5 is so much more powerful but somehow has problems running a 260 mb game and freakin' DOS...

Please let me know if anyone else is having similar issues with their computer and dosbox. Anyone running dosbox on a non-intel mac osx and having similar slowdown issues? Any help from anyone would be greatly appreciated.

Reply 15 of 33, by DosFreak

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Since your using PowerPC you can not use dynamic recompilation which signifigantly speeds things up.
To add to the slowness you are playing a protected mode game which back in the day required a fairly powerful PC which means running it in DOSBox emulation requires a powerful PC.

So:
You need an x86 processor so you can use dynamic recompilation.

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Reply 16 of 33, by rotk6

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So..... What you're saying is that i'm screwed right?

Not sure how I'll get that x86 processor into my mac.

Maybe with a hammer 😁

Reply 17 of 33, by eL_PuSHeR

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[MOVED]

Intel i7 5960X
Gigabye GA-X99-Gaming 5
8 GB DDR4 (2100)
8 GB GeForce GTX 1070 G1 Gaming (Gigabyte)

Reply 18 of 33, by rotk6

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Might seem like a dumb question...

Is there a way to play the game NOT in a protected mode?

Reply 19 of 33, by wd

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Nope.