Search found 70 matches

by James-F
Sat 30 May, 2020 7:49 am
Forum: Development
Topic: [Bug] IDE HDD stuttering emulation
Replies: 46
Views: 42092

Re: [Bug] IDE HDD stuttering emulation

I want to say huge thank you. After 3 years all I had to do is add LH SMARTDRV /X into autoexec.bat. Plenty of conventional memory left 624KB for all my DOS games. I think DOSBox already have some kind of HDD caching without smartdrv. Never needed SMARTDRV on the real Pentium MMX 233MHz either, I as...
by James-F
Mon 25 May, 2020 6:13 pm
Forum: Development
Topic: [Bug] IDE HDD stuttering emulation
Replies: 46
Views: 42092

Re: [Bug] IDE HDD stuttering emulation

First, thank you for the information leilei, I will try.
I started this post exactly 3 years ago, and I think I've missed all the posts about SMARTDRV.
by James-F
Sun 24 May, 2020 10:23 am
Forum: Development
Topic: [Bug] IDE HDD stuttering emulation
Replies: 46
Views: 42092

Re: [Bug] IDE HDD stuttering emulation

@Sarah
Does changing the number of Cylinders tell you something about HDD read speed?
by James-F
Mon 04 May, 2020 7:10 am
Forum: General
Topic: Supaplex (DOS game), video stutter
Replies: 1
Views: 3570

Supaplex (DOS game), video stutter

In Supaplex (DOS game) I see video stutter when the screen is scrolling left/right. The mouse cursor animation (lightening) seems super fast too. I've tried 486 machine, and various VGA cards, but it is not the cause of the stutter. I tried all video output renderers, also not the cause. I guess/ass...
by James-F
Sun 03 May, 2020 6:55 pm
Forum: Development
Topic: [Bug] IDE HDD stuttering emulation
Replies: 46
Views: 42092

Re: [Bug] IDE HDD stuttering emulation

I specifically said I tested multiple NEW ide hdd images, they all stutter differently, nothing to do with fragmentation. And I verified that indeed the same amount of cylinders produced the same stuttering with each new hdd image. I have no idea how PCem works, but Duke3D reveals some inconsistency...
by James-F
Sun 03 May, 2020 6:25 pm
Forum: Development
Topic: [Bug] IDE HDD stuttering emulation
Replies: 46
Views: 42092

Re: [Bug] IDE HDD stuttering emulation

I think I found what's causing the stuttering. I created a new IDE HDD with 63 Sectors, 16 Head, and 1024 Cylinders,, and now Duke 3D plays smoothly like from a RAM drive. The old IMG I used to test for years now, had 8000 cylinders for 3937MB and it stutters like hell. Lowering or increasing Cylind...
by James-F
Sun 03 May, 2020 6:20 pm
Forum: General
Topic: v16 released!
Replies: 30
Views: 24618

Re: v16 released!

Please read here, I think I found the problem.
https://pcem-emulator.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&p=13813#p13813
by James-F
Sun 03 May, 2020 4:21 pm
Forum: General
Topic: v16 released!
Replies: 30
Views: 24618

Re: v16 released!

I've mentioned it on the IDE HDD thread already, but when the game is run from a RAM drive it is flawless, like on my real Pentium 233 machine. This is a major bottleneck, and does not behave like a period correct IDE HDD drive, please fix that. So... you are playing Duke 3D on PCem on a Pentium 23...
by James-F
Sun 03 May, 2020 9:14 am
Forum: General
Topic: v16 released!
Replies: 30
Views: 24618

Re: v16 released!

I've mentioned it on the IDE HDD thread already, but when the game is run from a RAM drive it is flawless, like on my real Pentium 233 machine.
This is a major bottleneck, and does not behave like a period correct IDE HDD drive, please fix that.
by James-F
Sat 02 May, 2020 4:08 pm
Forum: Development
Topic: [Bug] IDE HDD stuttering emulation
Replies: 46
Views: 42092

Re: [Bug] IDE HDD stuttering emulation

Bumping for v16. Still same slow and stuttery IDE HDD. Duke Nukem 3D. Start the game and watch the demo,, you will see stuttering when the HDD is accessed, plus the game takes a super long time to load. This does not happen on a real IDE HDD on my Pentium machine (or DOSBox for that matter). I'm tes...
by James-F
Sat 02 May, 2020 4:01 pm
Forum: General
Topic: v16 released!
Replies: 30
Views: 24618

Re: v16 released!

Duke Nukem 3D. Start the game and watch the demo,, you will see stuttering when the HDD is accessed, plus the game takes a super long time to load. This does not happen on a real IDE HDD on my Pentium machine (or DOSBox for that matter). I'm testing this each new release for years now, and it's stil...
by James-F
Sat 02 May, 2020 3:28 pm
Forum: General
Topic: v16 released!
Replies: 30
Views: 24618

Re: v16 released!

Thank you!

IDE HDD emulation is still slow and stuttery as heck.
by James-F
Fri 09 Aug, 2019 1:30 pm
Forum: General
Topic: DOS running at 65Hz instead of 70Hz, audio issues.
Replies: 11
Views: 12646

Re: DOS running at 65Hz instead of 70Hz, audio issues.

jemmex.exe works great, thanks for that.
No MIPS overload either.

PS. himem.sys has to be removed (rem) too for jemm to work.
by James-F
Thu 08 Aug, 2019 5:12 pm
Forum: General
Topic: DOS running at 65Hz instead of 70Hz, audio issues.
Replies: 11
Views: 12646

Re: DOS running at 65Hz instead of 70Hz, audio issues.

Yes, 430xX motherboards in PCem.
You don't really have to use EMM386 or UMBPCI.SYS, but note that every DOS driver you load (Mouse, CD-ROM, etc..) will take conventional memory and most DOS games need at leask 500KB.
by James-F
Wed 07 Aug, 2019 2:39 pm
Forum: General
Topic: DOS running at 65Hz instead of 70Hz, audio issues.
Replies: 11
Views: 12646

Re: DOS running at 65Hz instead of 70Hz, audio issues.

Wow, that was quick!
I'm sure many people using EMM386 are oblivious to that it drastically slows down emulation.
Probably should be documented somewhere until the next release of PCem.
by James-F
Wed 07 Aug, 2019 8:38 am
Forum: Development
Topic: [Bug] IDE HDD stuttering emulation
Replies: 46
Views: 42092

Re: [Bug] IDE HDD stuttering emulation

Hi. It's been a long time since I've posted or tried PCem, and now I'm running v15. All is superb except this issue. It seems like the IDE stuttering issue is still present and it's a really big annoyance for gaming with PCem,, all games have stuttering every time the IDE HDD is accessed. I've proba...
by James-F
Wed 07 Aug, 2019 7:50 am
Forum: General
Topic: DOS running at 65Hz instead of 70Hz, audio issues.
Replies: 11
Views: 12646

Re: DOS running at 65Hz instead of 70Hz, audio issues.

Sorry for double posting, I found the problem. In config.sys REM-ing the EMM386.EXE line fixes the MIPS overload in DOS, and no more audio issues in games. Apparently EMM386.EXE produces a lot of instructions in PCem. EMM386 is essential to load drivers into high memory and free conventional memory ...
by James-F
Wed 07 Aug, 2019 6:52 am
Forum: General
Topic: DOS running at 65Hz instead of 70Hz, audio issues.
Replies: 11
Views: 12646

Re: DOS running at 65Hz instead of 70Hz, audio issues.

Emulated: Machine: ASUS P55T2P4, Pentium 133, 16MB. GPU: S3 ViRGE/DX Fast VLB/PCI Sound: SBPro2. Host: i7 3770k at 3.9GHz all cores. GTX660 I don't think it's a host speed issue, since I've mentioned that much heavier games like Doom or Duke3D run at 70Hz perfectly fine with emulation speed 100% loc...
by James-F
Wed 07 Aug, 2019 5:59 am
Forum: General
Topic: DOS running at 65Hz instead of 70Hz, audio issues.
Replies: 11
Views: 12646

DOS running at 65Hz instead of 70Hz, audio issues.

Something confuses PCem to run DOS in 65Hz instead locked 70Hz, it affects some Mode 13 games and produce choppy audio. Prince of Persia 2 for example will have stuttering audio in the intro because PCem runs it at 65Hz instead of standard 70Hz, but only the intro... very strange. I don't think It's...
by James-F
Thu 03 Aug, 2017 4:14 pm
Forum: Development
Topic: [Bug] IDE HDD stuttering emulation
Replies: 46
Views: 42092

Re: [Bug] IDE HDD stuttering emulation

The problem is obviously on PCem emulation side, because I compare with real P233MXX ,P100 and DOSBox all of them have no stuttering at all when accessing the HDD. The CPU emulation in PCem is fast and working properly as far as I can tell, but I experience freezes each time the emulated HDD is acce...
by James-F
Wed 02 Aug, 2017 2:41 pm
Forum: Development
Topic: [Bug] IDE HDD stuttering emulation
Replies: 46
Views: 42092

Re: [Bug] IDE HDD stuttering emulation

Any news on this Sarah?
Just a reminder that games are annoying and unplayable with this stuttering.
by James-F
Wed 02 Aug, 2017 2:37 pm
Forum: Development
Topic: Sound Blaster Pro naming
Replies: 2
Views: 3494

Re: Sound Blaster Pro naming

Are you confused which one's which?
by James-F
Wed 21 Jun, 2017 4:05 pm
Forum: Development
Topic: [Bug] Warcraft 2 displays nothing
Replies: 35
Views: 24577

Re: [Bug] Warcraft 2 displays nothing

Warcraft 2 searches for VBE 2.0 video card, if it does not detect one it will start a uniVBE driver or request you to start one.
There are some version of the game that have UniVBE already part of the executable, so it will start it automatically.
war2.png
war2.png (40.74 KiB) Viewed 5617 times
by James-F
Wed 21 Jun, 2017 4:28 am
Forum: General
Topic: Sound Blaster Pro & 16
Replies: 39
Views: 30310

Re: Sound Blaster Pro & 16

Yes, Doom disables the filter after you quit; It is exactly the same on the real hardware.
You should use the SBPro mixer software SBP-SET.EXE with /DNFI:ON to restore the filter.
Some games change the mixer setting, this is the reality of it.
by James-F
Sat 17 Jun, 2017 4:31 am
Forum: Development
Topic: [Bug] IDE HDD stuttering emulation
Replies: 46
Views: 42092

Re: [Bug] IDE HDD stuttering emulation

bump I should say again that this bug doe not happen on a created ram drive or scsi drive. Maybe it's no a problem of the CPU idle loop after all? If you can create a virtual IDE disk activity and check what the emulation does when reading from IDE disk. Please have a look at this, it is real a pain...
by James-F
Sat 10 Jun, 2017 3:12 am
Forum: Development
Topic: [Patch] Add NukedOPL
Replies: 20
Views: 15282

Re: [Patch] Add NukedOPL

No, you misunderstood. DOSBox uses OPL3 core with ANY core (Fast, Compat, Nuked) to emulate OPL2, Dual-OPL2 and OPL3. In other words, it doesn't have special OPL2 emulation, it uses the same core as for the OPL3, so when SBPro1 is selected DOSBox simply translates the Dual-OPL2 commands to OPL3 addr...
by James-F
Fri 09 Jun, 2017 11:46 am
Forum: Development
Topic: [Patch] Add NukedOPL
Replies: 20
Views: 15282

Re: [Patch] Add NukedOPL

Battler, I should point that DOSBox uses the dbOPL core for OPL2 and OPL3 NukedOPL patch for DOSBox is like dbOPL applied to both OPL2 and OPL3. According to NukedOPL author: http://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=49327#p590414 Since you ported the patch to PCem, I suggest enabling NukedOPL ...
by James-F
Wed 07 Jun, 2017 5:29 pm
Forum: Development
Topic: [Patch] Add NukedOPL
Replies: 20
Views: 15282

Re: [Patch] Add NukedOPL

A small fix is still needed.
The dbopl value for OPL3 in sound_sb.c remained 55000, it should be 51000 like opl2. -> 47000: 51000.
Battler probably miss typed it manually.
by James-F
Wed 07 Jun, 2017 9:41 am
Forum: Development
Topic: [Patch] Add NukedOPL
Replies: 20
Views: 15282

Re: [Patch] Add NukedOPL

leilei wrote:Those wide humming synths in Doom E1M2 and E1M5 sound strange.......
Compared to what?
by James-F
Wed 07 Jun, 2017 4:10 am
Forum: Development
Topic: [Patch] Add NukedOPL
Replies: 20
Views: 15282

Re: [Patch] Add NukedOPL

Yes those two are missing from the source, but when included everything works as expected; big big thank you Sarah.. I don't understand why the "per-device" option because the user can't actually use more then one device, but oh well. There are crashes with the latest commit when minimizin...