VOGONS


First post, by aha2940

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Hello everyone, I'm trying to run original DOS Quake 1.08 under Windows 98 SE on my Pentium 4 2.4GHz, 512MB RAM machine. It runs, however it seems to run too fast if I run it at any resolution below 800x600, and at that resolution it seems the video card (nvidia GeForce 2 MX400) can't really cope with it since it starts lagging and it feels slow, so I can't get a perfect experience with the game. Is this speed sensitiveness normal? is there anything I can do about it (other than using another PC)?

Thanks!

Reply 1 of 5, by foil_fresh

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it should be capped at 72fps (timedemo will reach higher frames). when going over 72fps you will notice some phyiscs bugs/irregularities. Specifically with jumping and landing. Going down ramps can become weird and jitterry.

Reply 2 of 5, by Joseph_Joestar

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Press the tilde key (~) to open the console and check your game version. If it's currently 1.01 then patch it to version 1.06. After that, apply patch 1.08 which is the final DOS release.

Next, edit config.cfg and add this line (or modify the existing one if it's already there). It's not a typo, there's an underscore before the command too:

_vid_wait_override "1"

This will turn VSync on which should eliminate any tearing and stutter, but it will reduce your FPS by roughly one half.

Lastly, to get optimal performance, you need to run either FASTVID or MTTRLFBE before starting Quake. Use just one of those tools, not both at once.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 3 of 5, by aha2940

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Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-01-14, 04:44:
Press the tilde key (~) to open the console and check your game version. If it's currently 1.01 then patch it to version 1.06. A […]
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Press the tilde key (~) to open the console and check your game version. If it's currently 1.01 then patch it to version 1.06. After that, apply patch 1.08 which is the final DOS release.

Next, edit config.cfg and add this line (or modify the existing one if it's already there). It's not a typo, there's an underscore before the command too:

_vid_wait_override "1"

This will turn VSync on which should eliminate any tearing and stutter, but it will reduce your FPS by roughly one half.

Lastly, to get optimal performance, you need to run either FASTVID or MTTRLFBE before starting Quake. Use just one of those tools, not both at once.

Changing this "_vid_wait_override" option from 0 to 1 in my id1\config.cfg file has done the trick. The game feels better now, running at 800x600. Perhaps not perfect, but maybe I've been spoiled by how well the darkplaces engine plays on modern computers. Thanks for your help.

Reply 4 of 5, by auron

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the resolution limit is due to DOS quake only allocating 8mb when run under windows, i think. there's the -winmem argument to fix that but why not just use winquake in the first place? or just run it under real DOS.

Reply 5 of 5, by aha2940

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auron wrote on 2021-01-15, 09:37:

the resolution limit is due to DOS quake only allocating 8mb when run under windows, i think. there's the -winmem argument to fix that but why not just use winquake in the first place? or just run it under real DOS.

WinQuake looks like a nice option. Will try it, since I've never used it. Running in real DOS is a no go for me because this is a Pentium 4 machine, with no ISA slot and the DOS support for the SB Live PCI I have is not that great.