VOGONS


First post, by Reactor

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Greetings to all!
I'm writing, because I'm frustated beyond belief about the gameplay lagging (stuttering) which I have to deal with in X-wing Collector's CD. I have the old DOS version, and I'm using DosBox of course.

This in-game stuttering appears from the beginning, and becomes extremely critical while playing a mission. I simply cannot aim correctly, or steer my starfighter correctly, because the game lags so terribly like I'd have a 20 MHz CPU, or something like that. My system configuration are the following:

P4 3 Ghz
1 GB DDR-RAM
ATI Radeon 9800 XT
Sound Blaster Audigy 2
Samsung 60GB Hard drive
Asus Albatron motherboard
Windows XP Service Pack 2

The DosBox configurations are the following:

memsize=16

frameskip=0
aspect=false
scaler=normal2x

core=dynamic
cycles=7000
cycleup=6000
cycledown=4000

As you can expect, the sound and the music is also stuttering so badly, I simply cannot feel myself capable enough to mention it, but the gameplay stuttering obstructs me to do anything, if there are more than 2-3 starships, or big groups of starfighters are present. I simply cannot imagine...Doom 3 runs extremely good. Half-life 2 runs even better. Now, a game made in 1993, written to 486 computers is lagging like hell. I'm requesting help from you to eradicate this problem once and for all. It's the only way I can run my operations smoothly.
Thank you.

Reply 1 of 13, by wd

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> Doom 3 runs extremely good. Half-life 2 runs even better. Now, a game
> made in 1993, written to 486 computers is lagging like hell

Yes, pretty odd, isn't it? Wonder what's the difference between Doom3
and xwing, must be something quite serious.

What dosbox version are you using? Are you sure your cycle settings are optimal??

Reply 2 of 13, by Dominus

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cycles=7000
cycleup=6000
cycledown=4000

These are probably not optimal settings. I tried this game with recent CVS and it ran quite well.
Try setting this to
cycles=auto
cycleup=500
cycledown=500
and make sure you are running Dosbox 0.65 and not another version.

Windows 3.1x guide for DOSBox
60 seconds guide to DOSBox
DOSBox SVN snapshot for macOS (10.4-11.x ppc/intel 32/64bit) notarized for gatekeeper

Reply 3 of 13, by Reactor

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I've made the new modifications you recommended. I downloaded 0.65, installed it correctly, and set all values.
The sound stuttering has stopped, but the gameplay is still lagging like hell 🙁 Any other recommendations?

Last edited by Reactor on 2006-09-17, 19:47. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 4 of 13, by wd

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Auto does NOT work for dosbox 0.63, that's why you should use
the respectively newest version. The settings Dominus posted
should be a pretty good start there (it's cycles=auto and not
core=auto btw.)

Reply 5 of 13, by Dominus

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don't bother with 0.63, it's ages old.
Sorry, to rant, but with emulators you really should look if there is a new version out before you even think of asking in the support forum.

Plese do also write a new dosbox.conf. Many settings have changed/new settings were added, that won't show for you unless you let Dosbox write a new one (rename your dosbox.conf to something else, then start Dosbox, and enter "config -writeconf dosbox.conf" (without the ")).

Windows 3.1x guide for DOSBox
60 seconds guide to DOSBox
DOSBox SVN snapshot for macOS (10.4-11.x ppc/intel 32/64bit) notarized for gatekeeper

Reply 6 of 13, by Reactor

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Thank you for the reminder, I haven't thought about a new DosBox version will come out lately.
Yes, I also use the new Dosbox.conf what the program created during the installation. As I said in my modified post, the sound stuttering has been corrected, but the gameplay is still lagging. Anything I should try?

Reply 8 of 13, by Reactor

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Yes, all set! I also set the core to "dynamic", which made the gameplay a bit smoother. The stuttering only happens now if there are many ships around (a group of TIE units or Alliance starfighetrs, a Star Destroyer etc.).

Don't ask how...I think we getting closer. 😀

Reply 10 of 13, by Reactor

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Okay, done. Let's see how it works...

Reply 11 of 13, by Reactor

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Tried it. The "overlay" couldn't even run the game, the "ddraw" worked, but I see no difference, the stuttering still exists.

Reply 12 of 13, by gulikoza

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Yes it's true, the game seems very demanding when there are explosions on the screen. I can easily pull over 100K cycles in clear space, but with enought explosions the cycles will drop to 20-30K.
My advice for you is to wait a little bit for a new dosbox version. I have a feeling it might run somewhat faster 😉

http://www.si-gamer.net/gulikoza

Reply 13 of 13, by Reactor

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Well, if nobody has other advices, I will 😀 I would gladly buy a 486 with a Sound Blaster Pro and stuff, but nobody has one 🙁