Upgraded to newest version after 3 years: great progress, some problems. \ VOGONS

Upgraded to newest version after 3 years: great progress, some problems.

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First post, by J.B.

Posted on 2008-01-12, 15:46

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Hi, I just wanted to report a few things after upgrading Dosbox for the first time in ages.

First of all the performance is spectacular. Games that used to stutter like hell, like Killing Moon, GP2, WC4 are super smooth now.

On top of that each one of the few problems I had with the older version have been fixed, namely virtual CD swapping, joystick problems and even Loom CD audio. And thanks to cycles=auto I don't even need to adjust settings for different machines anymore.

Now I guess none of that is news to you guys so here are a few minor issues I found that maybe aren't known yet.

-California Games and SWOTL only run in CGA mode.

-When loading multiple images with one Imgmount command, mounted paths are accepted but Windows paths aren't. For example C:\privat~1\cd1.iso works (if mounted correctly) while "E:\emulation\dos\games\privateer 2\cd1.iso" doesn't. Not a big problem but might cause headaches to some people trying to find out what's wrong.

-timed=true causes the joystick to be very jumpy in the centre compared to timed=false.

-cycles=auto can cause inconsistent, varying game speed. Noticed when flying towards a space station in Tie Fighter.

-Lots of audio distortion in some parts of Loom CD (right at the beginning "please choose your skill level")

Anyway great work, thanks to everyone involved!

Reply 1 of 13, by h-a-l-9000

Posted on 2008-01-12, 16:17

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> -timed=true causes the joystick to be very jumpy in the centre compared to timed=false.

Depends on the game which setting works better.

1+1=10

Reply 2 of 13, by MiniMax

Posted on 2008-01-12, 16:22

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Img-mounting 2 ISO's works fine for me:

Z:\>imgmount D "G:\Win95\DANW95B_USB.iso" "G:\Win95\cd2.iso" -t iso

Reply 3 of 13, by J.B.

Posted on 2008-01-12, 16:41

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Hmm, then maybe it's something about too long file names or certain characters.

Reply 4 of 13, by Qbix

Posted on 2008-01-12, 16:43

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or a typo on your end

Water flows down the stream
How to ask questions the smart way!

Reply 5 of 13, by J.B.

Posted on 2008-01-12, 17:43

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Unlikely. It was mostly copy paste and I did tripple check. I'll try to reproduce.

Reply 6 of 13, by wd

Posted on 2008-01-12, 18:02

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California Games and SWOTL only run in CGA mode

Works fine here.

cycles=auto can cause inconsistent, varying game speed

Then use fixed cycles.

Reply 7 of 13, by J.B.

Posted on 2008-01-12, 18:13

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OK, now I'm half silly from loads of trial and error. 😀 The problem of the failing IMGMOUNT is that the command gets cut off whenever it's longer than 134 characters.

Reply 8 of 13, by J.B.

Posted on 2008-01-12, 18:17

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wd: try going further than the entry screen in those games. And you could have concluded that I know that fixed cycles works for Tie Fighter or how would I have known the speed issue is caused by cycles=auto?

Reply 9 of 13, by wd

Posted on 2008-01-12, 19:00

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try going further than the entry screen in those games.

That's how i tested it.

And you could have concluded that I know that fixed cycles works for Tie Fighter or how would I have known the speed issue is caused by cycles=auto?

What's the problem then?

Reply 10 of 13, by Dominus

Posted on 2008-01-12, 19:04

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It'
s just like the joystick issue, some games do run good with that setting, others run better with another one.
Joystick timed=true and cycles=auto is the best overall setting, just some games run better with another setting. There is just no way around that you have to customize some things for games.
So it is good to know which games need more precise settings, but it's not a bug in Dosbox.

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Reply 11 of 13, by J.B.

Posted on 2008-01-12, 19:30

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Yeah, wasn't really complaining. Just a list of findings, maybe bad thread title. Can't harm to know which aspects may be improvable.

wd: can you get past the part where you have to enter your name in CG in VGA mode? Using gulikoza's 0.72 here.

Reply 12 of 13, by Dominus

Posted on 2008-01-12, 19:34

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Using gulikoza's 0.72 here.

Please also try the lock stock 0.72 version for testing and reporting, helps pin down problems which aren't in the normal version.

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Reply 13 of 13, by wd

Posted on 2008-01-12, 21:59

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California Games doesn't work with an enhanced keyboard (which is used
when machine=vga is selected).

Secret Weapons works just fine.

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