VOGONS


First post, by Matrix

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Hello!

I have searched the forum and the wiki help, found a few helpful links but none seem to fix the problem.
When playing supaplex, everything runs OK till you start moving around the screen. All directions work well except for going right. When going right, the screen "shakes". I have found through the forum that this is a result of drawing a new screen before it has been written to the memory, yet this only happens when going right.
I have attached a movie to show you an example (a picture is woth 1000 words 😉 ).
I have tried playing with the CPU cycles (got to 100,000) without any change, tried the different types of machines (overlay,opengl etc.), I have tried several CVS builds (with SVGA support), I have tried full screen and windowed, but still no luck running the game normal.
I am running the Supaplex fix.
Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,

Reply 1 of 11, by Og

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I didn't watch the movie (or looked at other posts) but I know this problem extremely well, the reason for this is, that the SP fix doesn't like DOSBox's screen drawing.
To solve it, just use the original executable and not spfix63.exe - if you are unable to acquire one, don't worry, just use spfix63 but set the speed reducing factor to zero. In order to do that, just hit the + key several times (the one that's on the Numpad - to the right of the keyboard) during a level, OR, start the game with the command line parameter for factor 0 slowdown (IIRC the command is: "spfix63.exe * 0" but read the spfix documentation to be sure).

After you've set the slowdown factor to zero, just use DOSBox's cycles to increase or decrease speed.

HTH,
Og

Reply 2 of 11, by Matrix

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Og thanks for your quick reply.
I have the original supaplex.exe but I like the spfix63.exe because of its new capabilities (save game, load game etc.).
I tried what you have suggested, but still have trouble.
when reducing the factor to zero, either I get a stuttering screen or a super fast Murphy.

Anything else?

Reply 3 of 11, by h-a-l-9000

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Start it with

spfix63 h

1+1=10

Reply 4 of 11, by Og

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@Matrix:
I didn't really use spfix much before, but now I looked and indeed it's only full speed (which is the speed I play at) or stuttering. Original EXE works fine though.
I didn't even remember that spfix had saving and loading options (long time since I read the documentation) - IMHO that's cheating (something that I don't like to do(unless I finished the game w/o cheating first)).

@h-a-l-9000:
Thanks for the tip, it works well 😀
BTW, after I wrote the earlier post, I searched and found this message, does it mean that using your patch will enable to run spfix63 without t "h" parameter? Because I tried downloading the latest CVS (from AEP) and changing machine to vgaonly but it didn't help 😖 am I doing something wrong or is the mentioned supaplex fix is for something else? (BTW, I'm only asking because I have another game with the same problem (only more serious))

Reply 5 of 11, by Qbix

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that patch isn't in the cvs yet. That is why it is not in AEP builds.
Which game does have a problem ? Might be another testcase.

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

Reply 6 of 11, by Matrix

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Thank you all for your help.
I already tried the H command line option, but then I saw that I applied it with applying a speed factor (*n) 😜
Without a speed factor the H option works great.

Reply 7 of 11, by Og

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Qbix wrote:

that patch isn't in the cvs yet. That is why it is not in AEP builds.
Which game does have a problem ? Might be another testcase.

It is an Israeli kiddie game, if you can direct me to a compiled build with hal's latest changes, I'll be happy to see if it works. See attachment for a recording of the issue.

Reply 8 of 11, by MiniMax

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Maybe on mr. Hal's homepage?

DOSBox 60 seconds guide | How to ask questions
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Reply 9 of 11, by Og

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I looked but didn't see it there, unless it's in the "megabuild" but even if it is, the build's date is older than the aforementioned patch.

Reply 10 of 11, by h-a-l-9000

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Yes it's too new 😉

1+1=10