PIX UltraScaler Graphics Accelerator support realistic \ VOGONS

PIX UltraScaler Graphics Accelerator support realistic

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First post, by fronzel

Posted on 2009-10-07, 13:44

fronzel Offline

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Hi there,

someone suggested i should ask here as we discussed the possibilities of DOSBox running the Virtuality games. While they games technically are DOS 6.2 based they check for the special hardware in the machines, mainly being a PIX2000E accelerator card and the Polhemus Tracker card.

For Pac-man VR there are command line switches to use mouse instead of Tracker, but it does check if there is a PIX card present in the system and if not it just quits with an error like "Error initializing PIX library".

Any realistic chances these games could be run in DOSBox?

For reference heres some info about what a PIX card is:

http://www.tankraider.com/VR/SU3000/PIX%20Info/

thanks in advance for an honest answer.

Reply 1 of 6, by keropi

Posted on 2009-10-07, 20:24

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you would need to "combine" both DOSBOX and an emulator for those triple 603 cpu-based cards with extra hardware... the card emu would be a feat itself, I doubt this will be integrated in DOSBOX ever...

are there any screenshots of said games?

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Reply 2 of 6, by HunterZ

Posted on 2009-10-07, 20:37

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Sounds like more of a job for MESS: http://www.mess.org/

Reply 3 of 6, by fronzel

Posted on 2009-10-07, 23:02

fronzel Offline

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I have uploaded some movies of the games to my youtube account. My favorite is of course "Zero Hour", the last game ever released by Virtuality.

Of course the video can't give back the fun you have with a Stereo 3D VR headset and the Gun controller (which has a separate tracker), but still it would be cool if the games could be emulated. My other favorite on the SU3000 would be Pac-Man VR.

http://www.youtube.com/user/fronzel99#grid/uploads

I am unure at MESS because it seems to be rather oriented at home consoles, but if you're sure i can ask there.

http://www.youtube.com/user/fronzel99#grid/uploads

Reply 4 of 6, by HunterZ

Posted on 2009-10-07, 23:51

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MESS is the counterpart of MAME. MAME emulates all sorts of arcade machines, while MESS emulates consoles and computers.

Reply 5 of 6, by keropi

Posted on 2009-10-08, 06:00

keropi Offline

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wow... do these games really run with such a low framerate? or is it a video thing?

🎵 🎧 ⏳ ⚡ MK1869, PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 6 of 6, by fronzel

Posted on 2009-10-08, 06:43

fronzel Offline

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It's a video thing. I converted quite low quality Real media Videos from the mid 90s that were targeted at ISDN (64K) users back then. My current framerate at Zero Hour is quite cool as i replaced the original Pentium-1 @ 120 MHz with a new board running a Pentium III @ 933 MHz. It really added to the performance. Now i can run Zero Hour even without Fog (WHich rendered it very laggy in some scenes with the original board).

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