I’m playing “Star Wars:X-wing” through retroarch using dosbox pure as a core and some of the ships are acting really funny. They spin around faster then they should. I’m told by people familiar with the game my cpu cycles are too high. How do I lower them? In retroarch there is a way to go to main menu>quick menu>options>performance options>emulated performance and then change cps (which is what I think is supposed to be cpu) but none of the settings are helping me.
Also is there a way to post a video to show you what I’m talking about? I don’t see a way to post a file.
Select MAX - Emulate as many instructions as possible at “Emulate Performance”, with this option should run normally.
There are games that have variable cycles by programming or by mistake and DOSBox has problems to interpret it, in these cases the best option is MAX.
PURE automatically assigns the cycles by the year of the game, taking into account the most powerful CPU that was released that year, but it may be that the game does not require the power that was handled that year.
If it goes too fast, you can also select a 486DX2 (26800 cps) and go down. Or, you can activate Detailed information in “Emulation Options - Show Performance Statics”, you can see how much PURE automatically allocates and then go down from there.
In both cases it worked fine for me.
Two details to keep in mind:
That game has 3 revisions, 1993 DOS Floppy, 1995 DOS CD and 1998 Windows. Which one do you have?
Some games have a configuration menu to change the CPU speed, that one has it when the installation is done.
Two final tips:
If the game runs weird, check the status on the DOSBox db, sometimes they make configuration comments, in that game, oddly enough, they send up the cycles.
Thank you for responding, where is this dosbox.conf file? Do I need to make it? Is it just a text document with ```
[autoexec]
config -set cycles=10000
imgmount d “.\cd\OMF2097.iso” -t cdrom
c:
cd OMF
@OMF.EXE
written inside it with "10000" replaced with "18000" because that's what I was told x-wing needs to be in cpu cycles? And last, how do I get this file into a zipped file? My dosbox pure file is titled "dosbox_pure_libretro.dll.zip."
Thank you for respond, I tried MAX-Emulate as many instructions as possible it still has the frigates spinning around. I am playing the 1994 "X-Wing Collectors CD-ROM which I believe it the original 1993 version with the B-Wing expansion
Yes it is a standard text file, and you will have to create it. It uses the same foramt as the SVN core so you can snag a dosbox.conf from the standalone to look at for reference.
To do things my way you will need to unpack the zip, do some folder/file shuffling, create the dosbox.conf, and repack the zip.
I use the free 7-zip application.
My folder structure is. . .
Star Wars X-Wing (Collector's CD-ROM) (1994).zip/
/cd/SWXWCD.BIN
SWXWCD.cue
/XWINGCD/BWING.EXE (All the game files)
dosbox.conf
So the zip has two folders.
cd = contains the Bin + Cue
XWINGCD = contains the game files.
dosbox.conf is in the root outside of the two folders. (This will be set as your root C: drive)
The dosbox.conf for this game and the cycles setting would be . . .
dosbox.conf
[autoexec]
config -set cycles=18000
imgmount d ".\cd\SWXWCD.cue" -t cdrom
c:
cd XWINGCD
@BWING.EXE
While this could have been accomplished by a. . .
[cpu]
cycles=18000
. . .the. . .
config -set cycles=18000
. . .does the same thing.
Pure has a lot of automatic thing going for it, and they are great, but I like to maintain as much personal control over things as possible. I also like the games to launch without the in-core menu.
This method accomplishes both goals.
While this may seem like a lot of work, you honestly don’t need 1000’s of games. I have 588 hand crafted zip files in my collection.
** Note **
If you ever need to use the in-core pad mapper, a zip of the same name of the game will appear in the “Retroarch\saves” folder. It will contain a “PADMAP.DBP” that can be inserted in your zip root and will be applied without the need for the zip in the save folder.
There are also times you will need an OPT file associated with the game. (e.g. “Star Wars X-Wing (Collector’s CD-ROM) (1994).opt”)
the most common thing I need is the line. . .
dosbox_pure_auto_mapping = "false"
. . .because the auto mapping can interfere with joystick setup in a game. (Although this game doesn’t suffer much.)
I manually create this file in the “config\DOSBox-pure” folder and make a backup of the file for future “file management/system refresh” tasks.
Okay so I created a text document called “dosbox.conf” and in it I put
[autoexec]
config -set cycles=18000
imgmount d “.\cd\SWXWCD.cue” -t cdrom
c:
cd XWINGCD
@BWING.EXE
Does it go in my game folder or do I need to create a folder and put it in that along with the unzipped dosbox_pure_libretro.dll file and zip them up together? Because I tried both methods and neither changed anything
I was hoping there was another way other than youtube, I’m not familiar with posting videos on youtube. Usually forums have a way to upload a file. I can put it on the discord, if I give a time and a channel on the retroarch discord will that work? You will see what I mean by a frigate spinning around.
The lines in the dosbox.conf below [autoexec] serve essentially the same function as an old DOS autoexec.bat. (They type commands on the command line so you don’t have to.)
To someone familiar with real DOS, the commands will make sense. I am totally ignorant of your level of understanding.
Sorry for my lack of understanding, my experience with DOS is what I have learned playing dos games, mostly I just play them from a frontend program called Launchbox. It looks like your dosbox.conf file is in what I meant as the game folder (the folder the whole game resides in). Also it looks like your game folder is zipped up so it operates as a single file instead of a folder. I have heard some people just leave their whole dos game zipped up and run them like that. Mine is unzipped and I am running the “BWING.EXE” through retroarch.
You can still use the dosbox.conf in a folder. As long as your folder structure matches mine. You will load the dosbox.conf as content. If you are running rom an unpacked folder you can name the conf anything you like. ( e.g. Star Wars X-Wing (Collector’s CD-ROM) (1994).conf )
If we look at the [autoexec] and compare it to my folder structure…
[autoexec] <<< defines the start of the autoexec.bat
config -set cycles=18000 <<< sets the cycles (CPU power essentially)
imgmount d ".\cd\SWXWCD.cue" -t cdrom <<< mounts the cdrom (Not always needed.)
c: <<< Makes sure you are on the C: Drive
cd XWINGCD <<< navigates to the XWINGCD folder
@BWING.EXE <<< runs BWING.EXE
You can change things as you need.
If running the BWING.EXE works then you don’t need the CDROM. Your conf could be in the same folder as BWING.EXE an be simply. . .
[autoexec]
config -set cycles=18000
@BWING.EXE
Although Pure may be automatically mounting the CDROM.
The files that say (personal file) I created myself but the rest I got from the iso. I think I had trouble installing a dos game from cd as I’m not really good with dos commands so I just copied the cd and pasted it in a folder.
I do have a file called dosbox.conf.txt, are you saying I should run the file and it will lead the dos emulator to the .exe? Because I know some files (like bat files) are only a small paragraph of text like the one you suggested and they sometimes can run a whole application (I think they lead the emulator to the correct apps needed to run the game).
I remember a tricky game to get working properly was FIFA International Soccer (1994), this game seems to only be able to run with a specific CPU and speed. Not sure if this helps somehow.
I didn’t mention doing either.
