How many CPU cycles can you use in DosBox without any problems (sound etc.)? Do you use frameskip (1, 2, 3, ...)?

Last edited by pavlor on 26-Aug-2010 at 09:30 AM.

@pavlor

About 11000 CPU cycles on most (old) games without frameskip and some games with frameskip 2 or 3. Some games needs CPU cycles set to "max" for avoid freeze on start. (Elder Scroll 1-2). MacMini 1.42GHz/ MorphOs2.5

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@Condor

486DX performance. Enough for most games until 1995. It is interesting that you play Daggerfall on your configuration - this game was too slow (in some locations) for me even with 15000 CPU cycles.

@pavlor

Quote:

pavlor wrote: @Condor It is interesting that you play Daggerfall on your configuration - this game was too slow (in some locations) for me even with 15000 CPU cycles.

Yes, the game is sometimes way to slow, but still playabe and fun. One time I replace something in dosbox.config and game was very smooth during play.
Sadly I replace that file with another one (stupid me) and lost that cool config for Daggerfall. (never manage to get that speed again)

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Amiga_Os3-Os4-Mos User!!!

It would be interesting to try DosBox on "classic" hardware (with 603e/604e).

I think DosBox could be useable even on so old hardware - with reasonable configuration (eg. 750 CPU cycles, 320x200, some frameskip - enough for games like Gods, Civilization 1 and most pre-1991 titles).

These games run alright (really) here:

- Master of Orion
- Wing Commander 2
- Elder Scrolls: Arena

If GUS is used for sound, 8000+ cycles is quite possible. Of those, only Arena uses GUS, and is too slow with any Soundblaster emulation.

edit... For MOO, this might be worth checking (sfx works!): http://www.mpoli.fi/files/hardware/SOUND/GRAVIS/GAME/index.html

Last edited by Thematic on 24-May-2011 at 10:58 PM.

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In case someone is interested.

With dosbox 0.73 & 3000cycles I get 62% CPU load on 667Mhz SAM.

Not yet tried any apps/games. (DOS seems responsive )

For old games, which is best?:
- PCTask (anyone got a link to the free one)
- Dosbox
- Bochs

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@KimmoK

Quote:

For old games, which is best?:

DosBox, without doubt. It is fast, compatible and free.

3000 CPU cycles are roughly as fast as 386DX 25 MHz - enough for most games from 1992/1993.

@KimmoK

Bochs is kind of the more serious emulator of the two - Dosbox is the simplistic one and, while I wouldn't say it is fast, cuts so many corners as to leave Bochs far behind.

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: AmigaOneXE (unmod.) 750FX/512 MB +stuff & AmigaOS 4.(0|1)
: A1200/68060&96MB/SCSI/EM1200-Voodoo3 & OS 3.5
: A500/1MB
: Pegasos (ff) 512 MB & MorphOS
Praise seitan.

@Thematic

Quote:

- Elder Scrolls: Arena

That one requires win32 libs, doesn't it?

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@Thematic

DosBox is better suited for emulation of old DOS games (included DOS, drivers etc.). Bochs is too slow to be really useable on our underpowered hardware.

@bison

Quote:

That one requires win32 libs, doesn't it?

Works OK in plain DosBox.

Sorry, I know the thread was OS4 Dosbox centric, but being that I ported Dosbox to AROS I took some interest. While I cant give the details asked (not in front of my aros box), on my 4 year old AROS box I get about 130fps in duke3d, about 85fps in Quake, full framerates in assorted emulators for dos (genecyst/megadrive zsnes/snes). Things like GTA run very nicely, and so on and so forth. I must admit that Im pretty impressed with Dosbox, it's a lot faster than I expected. Unfortunately though x86 is the only target with jit style cpu emulation though, which is why my aros port is orders of magnitute faster than it'll ever be on os4.

@pavlor

Quote:

Works OK in plain DosBox.

It's not working for me:

G:\ARENA>ARENA106.EXE
This program must be run under Win32

G:\ARENA>

Where did you get your copy? I have the free version from the Bethesda web site. Is there a DOS-only version out there somewhere?

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@bison

That is a self-extracting archive, which probably is the only thing that is Windows-dependent. However, it is probably just a ZIP file in there, and I would not be surprised if you could just use your favorite Amiga unpacker (or PKUNZIP in DOSBox) to unpack it normally. (Opening the EXE instead of a .ZIP)

Last edited by Channel_Z on 25-May-2011 at 05:28 AM.

@fishy_fis

Quote:

which is why my aros port is orders of magnitute faster than it'll ever be on os4.

Speed of DosBox (even PowerPC OS4 port) is impressive - 3000 (or even 4500) CPU cycles on SAM is really good result. It is enough for nearly any game up to 1993/1994.

G5 based hardware or X1000 could probably reach 20000 CPU cycles - roughly 486DX/2 66 MHz performance.

@pavlor

Sure, and that opens the doors to quite a lot of DOS software, but there's plenty of stuff that requires much more. Aliens Vs. Predator, Virtua FIghter, Mortal Kombat3, Super Street Fighter2, Wing Commander 3, Fade To Black, Need For Speed, Toshiinden, TFX3000, Carmageddon, Syndicate Wars, Quarantine, Tomb Raider 1,2,3, for a few random examples off the top of my head. There's quite a bit of DOS software that requires highend p1 type speed and beyond.
Still though if people are happy with the results theyre getting then good luck to them.

@fishy_fis

Too recent games for my taste.

There is also FPSE (Playstation emulator) that support many of these newer games (like Tomb Raider, Carmageddon etc.).

Quote:

There's quite a bit of DOS software that requires highend p1 type speed and beyond.

My only favourite game with such requirements are Dungeon Keeper and Diablo (however, this is Windows game).

@pavlor
Yup, al those games play 1:1 under PSX emulation (using a good PPC CPU) and for some windows specific games let's not forget the eventual possibility (in time) they might get the AFXGroup or kas1e treatment (ie: native ports). Lately we got Ultima8 (Pagan) and Baldur's Gate 2, so who knows what the future may hold?

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The future can only hold what open souce projects are available :) All the "ports" of aforementioned games arent ports, but compiles of open source replacement engines. (eye of the beholder, heart of the alien, heart of darkness, and others also exist).
Sure, there's ps1 ports of some of those games, but often pc dos verions are much better, not to mention that there's plenty of other Dos software that doesn exist for ps1. Point being, there's plenty of room to want/need both ps1 emus and Dosbox on a faster machine. Personally Im happy to have both running well on my AROS box :P