Wing Commander Games and Windows XP - A Summary

lol...I have nothing to do and this is kinda WC related so I've compiled today's CVS version (beats learning anyway :P). DOSBox-CVS040606.zip. Please tell me if it works as intended :D. BTW: dynamic core means that the cpu code is compiled on-the-fly as the game is running. This makes it a lot faster since you know what options to expect unlike the "normal" code where the programmer has to anticipate every step...
 
Hmm, strange. I already use dynamic Core in the normal release for some games to speed them up. - But unlike the CVS it doesn#t help that extreme much. To the posting part: I was just too lazy to register when I checked that forum ^^ I'm currently quite lazy anyway ;)
 
Privateer : The struggle (to make it work) continues

Hi there and thanks in advance...
Just when I thought I'd spent too much life-force on it, I managed to run privateer 1
under WinXp, with a somewhat new DosBox 0.61 CVS I obtained .
Cycles 5000 and frameskip = 0 , on an Intel P4- 1700 mhz. I'm also trying it on RAM lower than 64 MB.

The 3 major problems I encounter are:
1) Slow battle / starfield simulation (awful targeting) along with bad music synch ... but only when in flight

2) Mouse (wireless) hops and cannot be used (only when in flight)
3) I lost my joystick when i moved out of my old house

I know the new dosbox is coming soon but I'd like to hear your tips on the matter if you know any.

Cheers.
 
Good news :)
I've tried out gulikoza's compiled version, and now WC3 runs at playable speed with perfect sound :D - Ok, only when shooting at enemies it stutters a bit. I used 20000 clyces, dynamic core.
 
Other than running DosBox, are there any other changes I need to make?
Changing file Properties maybe?

(WIN2000, 64mb ram, the rest is too embarassing(sp?) to mention.)
 
You need to make the changes mentioned above in the DOSBox.conf file to be able to run it. That's it. If you've still probs, just ask back ;)

EDIT: Which game are you talking about, btw? Privateer? If so: check your other Thread, there are two replies at the moment ;)
 
About the Video Problem of Wing Commander Prophecy. I had this Problem but one thing you can do to solve this is:

Go into your bios settings and turn off the L1/L2 Cache if you have this option.


Worked for me
 
And switching off L1/L2 cache does not always help. I tried it with both my PIVs and my father'S Athlon XP and the game and videos were unplayable slow - just like the whole PC. I guess it only works for older CPUs / OSes etc...
 
Nostalgic

Anybody found a solution to the wc3 sound prob in XP? It runs fine except for the annoying stuttering music. Tried to eun it in dosbox but didnt have the patience to set it up properly... :(

BTW, Im runnin XP on a P4 2,8 with 1024 Ram and soundblaster 5.1 if that helps. Thx!
 
Anybody found a solution to the wc3 sound prob in XP? It runs fine except for the annoying stuttering music. Tried to eun it in dosbox but didnt have the patience to set it up properly...
Click to expand...
I haven't found a solution for the music bug in wc3 (dos) with vdms. But I tried out a newer CVS version of DOSBox. And that one has got no sound probs :) It's also quite playable - except when hitting enemies it still slows down, but not as much as it did with 0.61. So hopefully 0.62 will it really make playable :) - although, honestly, I somehow doubt it, cause it needs at least a P60, better P75, if I remember correctly. And that'S quite heavy for DOSBox...

EDIT: Lol, I just noticed that I already posted a similar post in this Thread. ^^
 
Just to put in my two cents, I've only just come back to WC, and I'm back in WC1. DosBox is definitely a plug-and-go program and works well, but it's too slow on my 1.4GHz Celeron. VDM Sound works much better, probably because it just emulates the soundcard and joystick and not the whole machine. The cut scenes are way too fast, but it's much more playable.
 
Is that a P4 based celeron or the PIII based one? If it's the PIII based one it normally should be fast enough. So: Did you higher the CPU clock in the dosbox.conf?I personally use ~4000 cycles. If not, that's why it's so slow. If you already did, you might want to try out the newer CVS versions, cause they are a lot faster than the current 0.61. Gulikoza already linked a compiled one in this thread. Here it's again:
http://home.amis.net/lkslavi/DOSBox-CVS040606.zip
Click to expand...
I personally prefer DOSBox over the way too fast VDMS. But if you don't care about the scenes etc, I guess it's OK as well ;)
 
It's a PIII Celeron (Coppermine), and it's actually 1.1 instead of 1.4.

Thanks very much for the tip- I was using about 2500-3000 cycles, and upping it to 4000 certainly helped, and I did get the new CVS version. I guess I'll keep playing around with both of them to find just what I want, by slowing VDMS down or tweaking DOSBox.
 
I got a patch on Vogons forums which syncs the game with real-time. It makes the cycles option obsolete! (well, it's still usefull for slowing down emulation :D). I have a new build on my page, along with a patch that allows you to change CPU core on-the-fly. I think it is possible to play P2 with dynamic core this way, since you can start it with normal core then switch to dynamic :cool:
 
Wow! Thx a lot gulikoza :D
I'll try out that out with Wing Commander III and check out whether Joystick works properly with Armada.
 
Ok, I've just tested the CVS with WCIII:
When using dynamic core and cylces at 60000, it is nearly 100% smooth - even during fight and when hitting enemies. Only stutters slightly when creal close to the enemy. real cycles are at up to 30000 in fight then and videso up to 35000. So I'd say for really 100% smooth gameplay, your CPU should be capable of 40000 (I only fought against two ships at once, btw). The only downside is: The game crashes quite often with dynamic core :(
So I tried out normal core as well. But then it only goes up to 15000 during fight, which is way too low :( - but at least movies are running perfect.
So as soon as the dynamic core gets more stable you can really play WCIII in dosbox :D
Armada's Joystick support on the other hand is worse than with dosbox 0.61 :( - But considering that the patch should only fix the cvs joystick support, I already expected that.
 
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