DosBox Emu settings?

[Corvin]

Hey anyone or RobMan...

What type of dosbox setting do you use for DOS SW?

I'm writing a doc and just taking in some info.

[Robman]

I guess I don't really tinker with any dosbox settings. Works great for me whether used on its own or through Meltdown.

[Corvin]

Thanks. I wonder what this Meltdown does for the conf file? anyone know?

[Corvin]

When run in DOSBox, what resolution are you using? is the game smooth to play?

[Corvin]

Here's my WIP DosBox EMULATOR document:

dukertcm.com/knowledge-base/documents-online/setup-windows-dosboxemu.html

Any suggestions or corrections are welcomed.

[Robman]

800x600

[Corvin]

Thanks...

is it slow?

Do you get a little (minor)flicker at across the weapons on occasion at that res?

[Robman]

hmm, I'll get back to you on that. I know dosbox slows down some when processing large and complicated scenery.

[Corvin]

It will slow down like the way you describe if you haven't adjusted any of the dosbox settings.

Assuming you have a decent computer tho., more than 2000mhz?

[Robman]

hehe yeah, been relegated to my laptop for a couple years instead of my core2duo e6750 2.66Ghz w/xfx 9800gt desktop. The laptop is getting old but it's got more than enough ooomph for sw. Core2duo T5450 1.66Ghz 4gb ram and crappy Intel onboard gfx.

[Corvin]

Well the laptop sounds like its fast enough. Try out my document to see if you can keep the slow downs away

I know your a SWP guy but no need for the slow downs in dos SW.

Thanks for the info and stuff helps out.

[Maren]

m.uploadedit.com/ba3d/1432240343686.txt

This one's specifically for the January 27 SVN Daum build (avoid the 2015 build, it's bugus helpless), because it's measurably faster out of the box than the standard build.

If you experienced any performance issues in the past and your system could potentially do better, you should notice an improvement, as it is designed for maximum performance in mind (full FPS, complete CPU utilization) and no compromises.

Howbeit, dynamic core is a must. If your system won't handle it, there isn't much of a point in even bothering with this config.

Notice that everything SW won't need is flat out disabled, and that there may be some settings with values differing from the original, which I once modified for the purpose of running other software, but they have no effect whatsoever because the main feature making use of them is disabled anyways.

Also keep in mind that my video card, drivers and monitor they all support the 320x200@70hz mode, so that's why I keep everything as original as possible; I don't need any stretching, scaling, etc, but you're free to introduce the necessary changes in order to accommodate the output image in your flat panel.

Modify the autoexec lines and re-enabled networking functionality as needed.

Alternatively, you may disable the console with the "-noconsole" command. That's one less thing your CPU won't be wasting any precious cycles in.

Cheers.

[Corvin]

Thanks for all the info, not sure I follow it all, but do you have a link to the Jan 27 SVN Daum build?

and not sure why your using poor old 320x200 when this game plays fine at 1024x768 and the aspect is retained. You can even go higher and retain the correct aspect but its unnecessary.

[Maren]

I'm afraid I couldn't find the original installation file on my computer, neither were any of the url's working anymore, still I've rar'ed the folder it installed to for your convenience. Hope it works.

s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=12902295882251627762

I favor 320x200 as the internal resolution of the game because I actually enjoy the aesthetics of mode 13h-type pixelation. The display settings you see in the config file allow for DosBox to automatically switch to that particular mode when going fullscreen (alt+enter). However, it goes without saying that I do indeed have a massive CRT monitor sitting in front of me, so I get to run SW in it's native, default resolution without the necessity of scaling, aspect ratio correction and whatever other device people use in order to circumvent the inconveniences and limitations of flat panel technology.

SW will only go as high as 800x600 internally, and DosBox may then scale up, black-bar and stretch that 800x600 image in order to fill a larger portion of the display (and if you do this, make sure DosBox's output is set to a hardware output like Direct3D, otherwise the game will take a performance hit). However, because low resolution is not an issue with me, I prefer to keep it internally at 320x200 (which uses MUCH LESS CPU than 800x600, for obvious reasons) and so the output, not needing any further manipulation, is left to "original" for fullscreen mode also, because my hardware will handle it properly.

There's also the advantage of not having to use vsync, which was always on in the original SW exe and caused an unnecessary ghosting (similar to that we see in Doom, but less accentuated) because of the discrepancy between the 60FPS that the build engine generates and the 70Hz of the display mode. Disabling vsync, however, introduces a lil bit of tearing, which at 320x200 is very much imperceptible, yet it's less burdensome on the CPU.

On a side note, if any one would desire to have a properly upscaled, aspect ratio-corrected 320x200 output (no error or "thicker lines") filling a large enough area of the display of a LCD monitor, such must feature a native resolution of at least 1600x1200 pixels.

Cheers.

[Robman]

I see Maren is an Sw "purist" ... I wonder if he dislikes Sw Redux on steam as much as I do. For the simple reason of straying far from the original. Much more so than jonofsw or SWP and I don't mean just graphical/compatibility updates.

[Maren]

Robman said:

I see Maren is an Sw "purist" ...

Thou hast rightly judged.

Robman said:

I wonder if he dislikes Sw Redux on steam as much as I do. For the simple reason of straying far from the original. Much more so than jonofsw or SWP and I don't mean just graphical/compatibility updates.

I dislike steam so much I won't even get a chance to dislike SW Redux lol

I used to be big into jfsw and swp. I even exchanged quite a few lengthy e-mails with Ben years ago when he was working on a new SWP build with improved launcher, but now I've gone back to the basics and cleansed myself of the sensory overload. Why? maybe I'm getting old and grumpy, and all these punks and their high res textures and bilinear filtering...

Anyways, I think jfsw was actually pretty faithful to the original, but development ceased way too soon.

I'd definitely be happy to see a "Chocolate Shadow Warrior" source port come to life.

[Corvin]

Maren, I tried to dl at tinyuploads but it won't open as an archive. Doesn't matter, I'll look else where for it.

I'm mainly confused where you got this svn version from. since there seems to be several locations and versions out there.

[Maren]

It could be that the application you're using for handling rar files doesn't support the newer RAR5 format. It was compressed with WinRAR 5.01, but it should work just ok with any newer version. I've tried re-uploading the file as a standard zip, but my connection's being so slow right now this could take days. It might get faster in a few hours, though.

I got it from EmuCR back when it came out, but all of the links appear to be down now.
www.emucr.com/2014/02/ykhwongs-dosbox-svn-daum-build-20140127.html

[Corvin]

oh its that one okay. It can be found here.

ykhwong.x-y.net/subpages/old.php

The authors web site.
ykhwong.x-y.net/