inukaze wrote:

Hi there, i get a diverse dunnos with DOSBox. […]
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Hi there, i get a diverse dunnos with DOSBox.

1 - Its possible to remap controls without enter to the mapper configuration "ctrl + f1" something like

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1config -set key a bind a
2config -set key ins bind mouse y+
3config -set key del bind mouse y-

or something like that ?

This is because i had test a few game demos like Tubular Worlds, Witchaven 1, Star Wars DarkForces and well i want to remap before enter the game, and reconfigure to the original bind after exit the game. i can write a batch script for that but i need to know

I haven't used it, but you can save/load key maps. So you can define your keys on the keyboard mapper, save your definitions and load them instead of defining it every time (also, you can edit the mapper file manually).

inukaze wrote:

4 - Which is better Gravis Ultrasound or SoundBlaster, and why?

It doesn't matter. You should choose the (better) supported card in your game. Some games will only support Sound Blaster, others will only support Gravis, and others will support both.

inukaze wrote:

6 - Which is the best way to configure video inside the DOSBox. because i had installed and try to configure S3 drivers for Trio64 (764) for Msdos, and inside Windows 3.1 i use S3 Trio64 drivers (not 764, neither 864)

i found in -> http://files.mpoli.fi/hardware/DISPLAY/S3/

well i am searching to set internal resolution to 640x480 instead 320x200 or 320x240 and obtain the best performance.

Most DOS software have "embedded drivers" for video cards (I mean, are programmed to support only some video cards), and a few programs (i.e.: Word for DOS, WordPerfect, Windows 3.x, AutoCAD) allow to use external video drivers.

So the usual game (i.e.: Skyroads) will only run at its supported resolutions (in this case, VGA 320x200x256) and it doesn't matter which drivers can you get... it won't get 640x480 magically. If that game supports more than one card (i.e.: Bumpy), it will let you choose which resolution/color to use. And keep in mind that there are few games that supported SVGA on DOS (Sim City 2000 would be a example).

So the stuff you downloaded is will be used mostly to set-up Windows or run "serious" software.

Zup wrote:

I haven't used it, but you can save/load key maps. So you can define your keys on the keyboard mapper, save your definitions and load them instead of defining it every time (also, you can edit the mapper file manually).

i had try to save/load key maps custom configurations from inside dosbox for example
config -set mapperfile=~/.dosbox/mapper02.map
mapperfile=~/.dosbox/mapper02.map

but nothing happened

Zup wrote:

It doesn't matter. You should choose the (better) supported card in your game. Some games will only support Sound Blaster, others will only support Gravis, and others will support both.

all games i am using right now support both, and resolutions 640x480

Zup wrote:

Most DOS software have "embedded drivers" for video cards (I mean, are programmed to support only some video cards), and a few programs (i.e.: Word for DOS, WordPerfect, Windows 3.x, AutoCAD) allow to use external video drivers.

So the usual game (i.e.: Skyroads) will only run at its supported resolutions (in this case, VGA 320x200x256) and it doesn't matter which drivers can you get... it won't get 640x480 magically. If that game supports more than one card (i.e.: Bumpy), it will let you choose which resolution/color to use. And keep in mind that there are few games that supported SVGA on DOS (Sim City 2000 would be a example).

So the stuff you downloaded is will be used mostly to set-up Windows or run "serious" software.

again i am using games support sound blaster and gus, and resolutions 640x480. are not a "few" games support that mode, is a good quantity. i don't ask "how magically get 640x480 for any msdos game?"

Sim City 2000
Dungeon Keeper
Tomb Raider
Witchaven
Witchaven 2
Blood
Duke Nukem 3D / Atomic Edition
Fatal Racing / Whiplash
Mission Deliver Kindness / MDK
etc . . .

if you think "dosbox" is not a "serious" software or not, that is not the point of my questions. i am looking for ideas can help get better permofance not indivuduals opinions of the anothers users about the software i decide to use.

inukaze wrote:

all games i am using right now support both, and resolutions 640x480

IRL it depended on the game. The GUS could play and mix samples from RAM, so it could offload some work from CPU and could offer better music than Sound Blaster (that could only play FM music or send it to a external MIDI module).

In DOSBox, the CPU has to emulate the GUS hardware so there is no advantage on performance. I prefer using some kind of Sound Blaster digital sound + MIDI music (using a good soundfont), unless the music was specially composed for GUS (i.e.: MODs and the like).

inukaze wrote:

again i am using games support sound blaster and gus, and resolutions 640x480. are not a "few" games support that mode, is a goo […]
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again i am using games support sound blaster and gus, and resolutions 640x480. are not a "few" games support that mode, is a good quantity. i don't ask "how magically get 640x480 for any msdos game?"

Sim City 2000
Dungeon Keeper
Tomb Raider
Witchaven
Witchaven 2
Blood
Duke Nukem 3D / Atomic Edition
Fatal Racing / Whiplash
Mission Deliver Kindness / MDK
etc . . .

...and they're a fraction of games that supports standard VGA.

Looking at that list:
- Sim City 2000 included many SVGA drivers, and if you hadn't a supported card you could still try to using standard VESA. You could choose the video mode in setup program.
- AFAIR, Tomb Raider ran on standard VGA unless you had a supported accelerator card (i.e.: Voodoo). Fortunately, there were patches for many cards. But I may be wrong, It was ages ago since I played it.
- On Duke Nukem 3D, Blood and other build games you can choose the resolution using the setup program (or editing some cfg files). They need VESA cards (maybe VESA 2.0 cards?) to run on SVGA modes.
- MDK has 3Dfx and D3D support, so no need to run it on DOS. Again, I don't remember what resolution used in DOS.

Games usually supported VESA cards, but if your card had no VESA BIOS (or to improve VESA support) you could use Univesa/univbe to enable full VESA support. Some cards had their own VESA compatibility program, but the S3 should work fine.

inukaze wrote:

if you think "dosbox" is not a "serious" software or not, that is not the point of my questions. i am looking for ideas can help get better permofance not indivuduals opinions of the anothers users about the software i decide to use.

I didn't mean that dosbox is not serious (but its goal is to play games and have fun). I meant that DOS games usually didn't allow to use any external driver, but some "serious" (i.e.: CAD software, office suites, graphic software and the like) allowed to use external modules as drivers. My old 486 had a Trident 9400CXi video card, and the floppies contained drivers for AutoCAD, Lotus 123, Wordperfect, Word 5.5 and Windows (there were more drivers, but that are the only I can remember)... but no drivers for games.

On your disks, you've found the usual selection of tools to configure your card. Maybe the only useful tool for gaming is S3VBE20.EXE that can allow you to play VBE (VESA) 2.0 games. But keep in mind that you'll need to use the setup program to enable high resolutions.

Keep in mind that changing resolution from DOS prompt (via smode) it useless: the game will change to its preferred resolution at the start. Also, the DOS prompt is painfully slow when using graphic modes... if you really need to use a "640x480ish text mode" you should try to use smode 0108h (BTW, the "effective" resolution of 80x25 VGA text mode is 720x400, using a 9x16 font).

1. use maperfiles and yes, DOSBox needs to be restarted for this. That's the way it is and really really a step of not even a minute.

2. not a DOSBox issue

3. because the developers have not had time to implement it. Use forks like DOSBox-x for now.

4. if a game supports both use what you like best. People probably have opinions why this is better than that on specific games, though.

5. try out what works but chances are no, network support needs another patch for DOSBox and that comes with many problems.

6. The best way is to select the appropriate emulated video card in the config of Dosbox and use the one that works best with your game. But mostly games don't mind at all.
DOSLFN isn't supported by Dosbox, only if you use yet another patch.