carmageddon -hires slow framerate \ VOGONS

carmageddon -hires slow framerate

Topic actions

First post, by soundblastermusic

Posted on 2010-12-31, 13:45

soundblastermusic Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 6
Joined: 2009-07-10, 11:36

Hi,

I have installed carmageddon using dosbox and it's running fine (in low resolution mode).

However I wanted to play the high resolution mode by running the command "carma -hires" at the prompt. After increasing the amount of RAM DOSbox uses to 24 MB (carmageddon hires needs at least 24 MB to run) the game successfully runs but I have a problem I can't fix: it runs at a very slow framerate, too slow to be able to play the game.

I'm using a Pentium 4 Hyper-Threading 3.00 Ghz. When I modify the "core", "cycles", "output", ... settings of DOSBox to try to have a better framerate, nothing really changes to the framerate. So I can't make it run faster whatever settings I change in the conf file of DOSBox.

Now my question is:
is my processor written above just too slow to run carmageddon in high resolution at an acceptable framerate (so I need a more modern CPU)
OR
is there a special configuration I have to set in the conf file of DOSBox to make carmageddon run smoothly in high resolution?

I hope somebody can help me with this problem and tell me what changes I have to make to the conf file to make it run faster!

Thanks

Reply 1 of 14, by mr_bigmouth_502

Posted on 2010-12-31, 15:47

mr_bigmouth_502 Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1959
Joined: 2009-05-16, 19:43
Location: Canada

By today's standards, your processor is actually quite slow. To run Carmageddon in hi-res under DosBox, I'd suggest upgrading to something a little more modern. A cheap Core 2 Duo or Athlon II-based machine should do the trick. 😀

Reply 2 of 14, by Dominus

Posted on 2010-12-31, 17:26

Dominus Offline

Rank DOSBox Moderator

Rank: DOSBox Moderator
Posts: 9154
Joined: 2002-10-03, 09:54
Location: Ludwigsburg

I've gone from a P4 3GHz HT to a Core2Duo and it makes all the difference 😉

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 14, by wd

Posted on 2010-12-31, 17:30

wd Offline

Rank DOSBox Author

Rank: DOSBox Author
Posts: 10813
Joined: 2003-12-03, 21:23

Carmageddon is still very demanding (graphics output transfers), anybody tried the highres mode?

Reply 4 of 14, by Dominus

Posted on 2010-12-31, 17:32

Dominus Offline

Rank DOSBox Moderator

Rank: DOSBox Moderator
Posts: 9154
Joined: 2002-10-03, 09:54
Location: Ludwigsburg

I have to admit, no, I haven't tested this particular game. Don't have it.

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 5 of 14, by wd

Posted on 2010-12-31, 17:52

wd Offline

Rank DOSBox Author

Rank: DOSBox Author
Posts: 10813
Joined: 2003-12-03, 21:23

That's SOOOOOOOOOOOOO wrong, not having Carmageddon is a sin 😉

Reply 6 of 14, by Dominus

Posted on 2010-12-31, 18:46

Dominus Offline

Rank DOSBox Moderator

Rank: DOSBox Moderator
Posts: 9154
Joined: 2002-10-03, 09:54
Location: Ludwigsburg

Ok, my new years resolution... 😉

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 7 of 14, by rfnagel

Posted on 2010-12-31, 21:10

rfnagel Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1244
Joined: 2009-04-03, 22:24
Location: Out in the woods of Crystal River, Florida USA

Just my two cents, I can't even get decent framerates using low-res mode; this on a P4 2.666GHz w/512MB RAM... but AFAIK, that's to be expected with Carma. (on my relatively lower class PC).

Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel
http://www.richnagel.net

Reply 8 of 14, by bloodbat

Posted on 2011-01-01, 00:07

bloodbat Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 796
Joined: 2009-12-06, 07:11

Low res works fine for me, but I can't do high res because it's Max Pack.

Reply 9 of 14, by telanus

Posted on 2011-01-01, 04:51

telanus Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 83
Joined: 2007-10-03, 14:20

The stock-standard carmageddon hires here gives the following error:

1Failure: DatafileStack type mismatch, wanted 2 got 2

Splat pack is running nicely

Reply 10 of 14, by shock__

Posted on 2011-01-01, 08:22

shock__ Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1162
Joined: 2010-12-22, 01:53
Location: Berlin, Germany

Personally I found the best solution for Carmageddon is GliDOS + vdmsound
Runs nicely at a full framerate, gives you texture filtering and custom resolutions, already worked fine on my former desktop (AMD64-3500+ and GF6600GT), while the hires version under DOSBox was still crawling. Still has a few minor issues (backmirror + mini playfield on the map not working) but the game is still easily playable that way

Reply 11 of 14, by leileilol

Posted on 2011-01-01, 08:35

leileilol Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 11844
Joined: 2006-12-16, 18:03

My favorite solution to getting it working is using an actual Pentium II system 😀

long live PCem

Reply 12 of 14, by mr_bigmouth_502

Posted on 2011-01-01, 15:14

mr_bigmouth_502 Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1959
Joined: 2009-05-16, 19:43
Location: Canada

leileilol wrote:
My favorite solution to getting it working is using an actual Pentium II system 😀

I second this. 😁

Reply 13 of 14, by bloodbat

Posted on 2011-01-02, 11:36

bloodbat Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 796
Joined: 2009-12-06, 07:11

telanus wrote:
The stock-standard carmageddon hires here gives the following error: […]
Show full quote
The stock-standard carmageddon hires here gives the following error:
1Failure: DatafileStack type mismatch, wanted 2 got 2
Splat pack is running nicely

That's the same error my Maxpack spews if using -hires...that the readme clearly states is not there:

"HIRES
-----
Because of the 3DFX version there is no Hi-res support in the Max Pack"

Reply 14 of 14, by Myloch

Posted on 2011-03-03, 21:00

Myloch Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 519
Joined: 2007-04-18, 22:13

I have a i7 860 and carma in hires software mode is still laggy.
For carmageddon in hires, better to use 3dfx patch.
I think it's game engine fault, it's not a dosbox problem.
I remember it was an insanely badly optimized engine.

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to DOSBox Games/Apps