try 6000 cycles

I guess nobody these days has heard of trial and error approach.

i tried tons of cycles

now i tried 6000 the geoscape screen seems to go perfectly but combat is sluggish now 🙁

is messing with cycles the only way to get this game working at the correct speed ?

Which version of DOSBox? Have you tried 'cycles=auto' or 'cycles=max'?

im using dosbox 0.72 im going to try auto and max

ok i typed in auto and it still runs super fast BUT ! i found something awesome

in auto mode when you press ctrl F11 or ctrl F12 it goes up or down in PERCENTAGES instead of cycles which is ALOT BETTER IMO

i got the game RUNNING PERFECTLY AT 15 percent speed for me !

is there anyway to set the 15 percent speed thing so its always like that ?

there is way

Try looking in DOSBox readme (hint : Advanced cycles configuration) 😉

I think this is game related, not DOSBox fault. UFO will run REALLY fast even in a 486. Whenever you enter combat, click on the "?" icon and set every speed to "1".

And note that one of the values, speed of the bullets, tends to return to "3" now and then.

Good point, Neville! 😉

Nice touch from Microprose, coming up with those options at that time... 😀

But even so, I guess he got it working great 😎

BoneMonkey80 wrote:

i got the game RUNNING PERFECTLY AT 15 percent speed for me !

However from what I understand, with different CPU speeds the same amount of cycles will vary in performance, hence the game may go faster for some and not for others. Is this correct?

Yes and no. 15,000 in my computer (Athlon64) may not be the same than in a CoreDuo, but if you set cycles to "auto" DOSBox should be able to find out the right number. In most games, at least.

I run "UFO" with "auto" and works fine. Other games, though, like "Armored Fist", have bugs if you don't set a more exact number.

15000 cycles means 15 MIPS. On every computer.

h-a-l-9000 wrote:

15000 cycles means 15 MIPS. On every computer.

I agree, but the question was if it (DOSBox) performs the same in every computer(with fixed value)?

Regarding the auto cycle setting, I do know it's not always accurate. Although I have played a few games that behave (in my Athlon XP 3200+) better with the auto setting, therefore running more fluid than when trying to pinpoint a fixed cycle setting.

So, IMHO, both auto/fixed settings are needed and work just fine when properly tuned. Hopefully more improvements will come in the future though, if it's actually possible...

It performs the same as long as the computer is fast enough: if dosbox doesn't use 100% CPU.

i have a crappy intel celeron 1.3 ghz cpu

im using 15 percent to run the game

it still runs a little bit faster then normal but its very playable

if i put it at 10 percent the game lags and is too slow

i can tell it runs fast cuase when your in the geoscape and press 5 secs every second that elapses goes in 5 second incriments

in my case it runs faster going in 10 second increments but not really game breaking in anyway

how can i set percentage in my config file ?

> how can i set percentage in my config file ?
By editing it with Notepad?

i can tell it runs fast cuase when your in the geoscape and press 5 secs every second that elapses goes in 5 second incriments

in my case it runs faster going in 10 second increments but not really game breaking in anyway

I wonder if it's yet another timer bug...

no wait i messed up

when you click on 5 seconds on the geoscape every second that passes by in real time is supose to go in 5 second incriments

mines goes in 10 second incriments 🙁

i can tell it runs fast cuase when your in the geoscape and press 5 secs every second that elapses goes in 5 second incriments

(written by BoneMonkey80)

That's OK, I remember it happening on the old days too, I believe the game was written with 386 CPUs in mind. It doesn't affect gameplay, anyway.

ackkk now i found out something worse when i fight a UFO with my interceptor it super SLOW and LAGGY

to get the intercept to work properly i have to increase the percentage up to 55 percent 🙁

now everything is back at super fast speed 🤣

so im going back to cycles now 🤣

ive been looking at youtube videos of xcom to see if i can judge how fast the orginal is going but i cant tell which one it is alot of ppl are playing on dosbox 🤣

I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. X-Com is one of my favourite games, having it played countless times, from a real 386-25, a 333Mhz laptop using DOSBox, and now on a modern machine using DOSBox. Use around 5000-15000 cycles, whatever fits your taste, and it works absolutely fine. And tune your combat animation setting (The "?" icon Neville speaks about).