Dege wrote:dgVoodoo2 worked nicely for me with unforced res (800x600 ingame) and msaa, even on a low-end video card.
Forced res or antialia […]
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dgVoodoo2 worked nicely for me with unforced res (800x600 ingame) and msaa, even on a low-end video card.
Forced res or antialiasing causes messed up rendering because the game renders very thin, 1 pixel Wide vertical triangles (It comes from the raytracer of the Build engine).
However there is an inconvenience with the 3dfx Alpha: It contains memory leaks, so the game periodically quits during play, you have to save quite often.
I think managing texture memory is completely missing from the Alpha, so When It finishes eating up all available memory, then it Just quits as if It crashed.
And I'm back with similar results.
Glidos - huge logo, gotta buy it or skip it, however same rule applies, see below, so it's useless, except I didn't test for longer gameplay stability, maybe that's a hidden plus.
Internal emulation - voodoo=auto/opengl output=opengl is a no no. voodoo=auto output=*any other* works at around 20 FPS, same rule applies.
External emu with dgVoodoo - works with solid speeds, BUT since this whole thread is about my unstable cycles/FPS, I don't know whether dgVoodoo can't hold stable FPS, or is it only me and my PC/DOSBox/3DFx Alpha Blood version. Same rule.
nGlide - something about something, I forgot, perhaps I didn't set 512x441(?)/640x480/800x600 before testing, didn't work
THE RULE(s):
- lower gamma to minimum before starting,
- set the resolution before starting
- 640x480 and 800x600 resolutions work
- everything can (and will, since you don't want a 10x10 centimeters picture on your 24' screen) be scaled to your screen -> read "blurring"
- going above 800x600 (I tested only 1024x768) works but half the textures are having a baaaad acid trip -> and this is Blood, you are playing this game because it's bad for your mental health. So, that's how much them textures be trippin' colors.
*I didn't use dgVoodoo like in the link from Transfusion forums I posted earlier, just set it up and started it like with nGlide*
**I tried using Glidos' 3dfx.exe, as I thought it was a fixed version**
Conclusion:
- 3Dfx Blood is worthless since game can be played at 800x600 max, and is known to cause problems and requires additional setup.
I reiterate my question, the one why I started this thread, with another approach:
- When there is very little graphical material to draw, such as a flat wall, max. cycles can be upped to 1000K, and the DOSBox measures current cycles around that value, ie. 998001 and FPS is high.
- When there is a lot of graphical material OR standing in front of a semi-transparent textures such as fences/bushes for some reason, cycles drop to 500-600K, but because max is 1000k, audio stuttering and slowdown happens. Then, lowering max cycles to 500k removes the difference between max possible and actual cycles, BUT 500k is not enough cycles to provide a stable high FPS. None of this is caused by CPU overload.
- What gives?