VOGONS


First post, by tiberseptim

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I'm running Dungeon Keeper (Original version, not the Gold release) with Dosbox 0.70. Initially, it would barely run at all with distorted video and severely lagged game play. After much DosBox.conf tweaking and hair pulling, I got the game running smoothly. Now the final hurtle on the path to gaming goodness is sound stuttering. The sound was perfect until I jacked the cpu cycles up to 30000 to improve the game performance. Now it stutters unbearably and no amount of tweaking makes much of a difference.

Attached are my current DosBox.conf and DxDiag.txt

Any advice at all would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

"Rest well this night... for tomorrow you sail for the kingdom of Daggerfall!"

Reply 1 of 15, by MiniMax

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Well, if you crank up the cycles for the CPU emulation, there will be less real CPU power for the sound emulation.

Try forcing the core=dynamic and set frameskip=1.

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Reply 2 of 15, by bugs_bugger

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Maybe you should try running the Windows version. It runs really nice for me and looks much better because of the D3D patch. I only had to activate compability mode in WinXP to get it running, nothing else.

Reply 3 of 15, by ADDiCT

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I'd also recommend using the (accelerated) Windows version. It runs perfectly well.

But on your original problem: the game runs very good for me, using DOSBox v0.70, on a P4/2.66Ghz/Radeon 9600 Pro. The maximum number of cycles your machine can handle is connected to your processor speed. To check this, run the game in windowed mode, and look at your CPU utilization in the task manager. You should adjust DOSBox cycles until you get less than 100% CPU utilization when the game is running and "moving". SVGA mode is even more demanding - just forget it with your slow Celeron Processor.

Reply 4 of 15, by franpa

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direct 3d port has various issues with a geforce 6600gt pcie card -.- well only if you use non isometric view which is what i prefer, to enable it you have to enable it without the direct3d port then run the direct3d port and look at the bizarre visual problems you get.

just run the windows version, why wouldnt you? for winXP i reccomend win2000 compatibility mode but that is hardware dependent, if that fails then win95/98 compatibility should work.

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Reply 5 of 15, by red_avatar

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You're using a very old CPU that was already budget upon release though (Celeron). Dosbox is very very CPU dependant. If 30.000 cycles is all you can get, Dungeon Keeper will likely to be too heavy a game to run. DK was a Pentium game - before 0.70 it even ran slowly on my AMD 64 3000+ which is quite a bit more powerful than your system. Raw CPU power is what you need.

Reply 6 of 15, by franpa

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yes but you can run it under windows just fine and just needs compatibility set to win2000.

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Reply 7 of 15, by red_avatar

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Last time I tried the Gold version (Windows) it ran waaay too fast. Are you sure it won't run too fast on new systems? It does have Direct3D support too.

Reply 8 of 15, by bugs_bugger

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There are some speed problems with fast CPUs, but I think that they only appear in menu screens. I was able to play the game. The only thing I missed was the list of "achievements" like imps punished, lies told, etc. because it scrolled down way too fast.

Reply 9 of 15, by red_avatar

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bugs_bugger wrote:

There are some speed problems with fast CPUs, but I think that they only appear in menu screens. I was able to play the game. The only thing I missed was the list of "achievements" like imps punished, lies told, etc. because it scrolled down way too fast.

For me the game was running faster too, but worst of all, the scrolling made it nearly impossible to play because a slight tap with the mouse at the borders and you scrolled several screens at once.

Reply 10 of 15, by ADDiCT

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Red Avatar: what kind of killer system would that be?!? I've been playing the D3D version (DK Gold) on a P4/2.6Ghz/Radeon 9600Pro, and the game speed itself was not too fast in any way. The only problems are scrolling lists (game frontend), which go way too fast even on my old rig. I believe the game engine itself "scales" correctly with fast processors, but that's just my guess. I mean, even my rig is faster than anything anyone could imagine at the point in time the game was coded, so i can't believe a faster CPU would make it unplayable fast. You could try activating VSYNC, or playing with some other graphics related features. The game's worth it (;

And, btw: mouse scrolling sucks in any RTS game, IMHO. I'm always using the cursor keys to scroll. Have you ever seen a South Korean Pro playing Starcraft? That kind of speed would never be possible with mouse scrolling. (;

Reply 11 of 15, by Xelasarg

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Maybe it has something to do with vsync? Even some modern games like e.g. Top Spin 2 run way too fast if yuo don't use vsync (that is, if your pc is powerful enough 🙄)

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Reply 12 of 15, by red_avatar

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Well I had the very first Dungeon Keeper Gold version so future updates may have patched the fast scrolling - I tried it before I ever had internet so ... it was on a PIII 450 anyway. And if it was too fast on that, i figured I should never try on a faster PC.

Reply 13 of 15, by tiberseptim

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Wow. That's more advice than I know what to do with. I'll try all of your suggestions till I get the result I'm after.

I actually almost forgot about this post, since immediately after making it, I tried the Windows Compatibility Wizard and the game runs perfectly. Too perfectly, actually. The after-game stats scroll by too fast to be read, so I plan on tinkering with DOSBox again when I can tear myself away from just playing the game.

Thanks again for all the help.

"Rest well this night... for tomorrow you sail for the kingdom of Daggerfall!"

Reply 14 of 15, by franpa

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all versions suffer, i hate how vertical scrolling is faster then horizontal scrollingin the game, i guess its to do with the resolution.

there is a cap to the max speed, tho there is no mouse speed option in the game for the mouse, only when slapping creatures etc.

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Reply 15 of 15, by red_avatar

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I still prefer how the Dosbox version runs - I didn't have any speed issues with it.

Oh, and don't use auto for games that are demanding, use max for cycles. I *know* the default is auto, but auto starts with 3000 cycles and increase when needed and I find that this inevitably leads to poppy and crackly sound as the cycles are continuously going up and down. If you use "max", the experience is much smoother. It's something I discovered while using the 0.66 release candidates (the sound popping drove me crazy).