I have not tried Windows 3.1 specifically, but I can give you some general performance guidelines that usually help dosbox behave better and more efficiently, nothing too fancy.

First thing you can do is to disable the scaler. Set it to none. In addition, you don't gain performance with nosound=true, it works rather as a mute, but sound is still emulated. Try disabling the game's sound instead using the game's setup.exe or install.exe, for instance. (In this case, do not install the sound card inside Win 3.1, ... xD)

From the Dosbox.conf with notes included:

1[mixer]
2# nosound -- Enable silent mode, sound is still emulated though.

Wow ...
from your configuration file

memsize=500

Set that to 16. You will very rarely need more than that. You will not be able to address those gargantuan 500 megabytes anyway.

That Mpu-401

[midi] mpu401=intelligent device=default config= […]
Show full quote

[midi]
mpu401=intelligent
device=default
config=

Set to none, unless you are really using it.

Cycles and core

core=auto
cycles=max

While that works for some protected games, not all will benefit. Instead try using auto,auto. Also dynamic for some while tweaking the cycles. Real-mode games work better with normal core, and a lower cpu cycle count. An additional problem you might encounter with some older titles concerns sound card initialization. Set it too high and sound will not be able to work properly. A good idea is to experiment on each individual game and find what works best for that game. (Again mostly game app feedback general guidelines)

output=surface

You might try experimenting with that setting too. = What to use for output: surface,overlay,opengl,openglnb,ddraw. =

Ddraw works best for me. But you might also try opengl, and the others as well. One side effect that some consider unnatural might produce a blurred image. Once again, find what works best for you.

I guess I really need to try using Windows 3.0, 3.1 and more inside dosbox.. hehe been so many many years since I installed those on real dos.

Well, I hope the above-mentioned brief notes have been useful for you.

Good luck.

Hi Doomer,

Thanks for the tips.

I had to laugh at the "WOW" I set that memory to 500 in desperation. I think it was 20 prior to that.

I will try your suggestions

Dave

From the AUTOEXEC part:

DaveDoesIT wrote:

mount c c:\win31 -t floppy

Are you sure you need the emulated drive C: as floppy drive?

DaveDoesIT wrote:

path=z:\;c:\;c:\windows;\c:\dos;c:\dosbox

Do you have folder structure "c:/win31/dosbox/" on your real drive C: ?
If not, just don't complain the emulated W31 with that non-existing directory to get more performance. 😉