Despite the connect speed being reduced from 115200 to 57600
It's only the reported speed. The DTE speed can be set anywhere from 300 to 115200 bps and DOSBox-X will honor that rate. But the software modem can only
respond with "CONNECT 57600" when a connection is made.
Good to know!
Now that I have moved over to dosbox-x, there is a very noticable pause betweenthe version screen and the ANSI screen.
This is where BRE v.988 gets a little weird. It's actually scanning the entir
BRE directory tree for known (at the time it was compiled, anyway) hacks and cheats. On modern hardware this is finished in the blink of an eye. On older
slower processors not so much.
You know I read about that scan in the What's New but didn't make the connection!
Start by minimizing the files the game will scan in the BRE directory. First,
move or delete any subdirectories which the game did not create itself. The scan pays particular attention to directories which are not part of the game. Next, trim down the files in the game's root directory. Every single file in there gets scanned. If it isn't NEEDED by the game, move it elsewhere. Just not into a subdirectory off this directory. This includes README files, FILE_ID.DIZ, the original game archive, even the INSTALL.* and BREDATA files.
Good idea. I try to keep the directories clean but I am sure files that
came with the archive, but that are not used, are still in there. I have
moved the contents of the DOCS directory into a new directory that is not
under the BRE directory, and moved a few other files that I don't think it
uses any more.
dosbox-x:
cpu core = auto
cpu type = auto
all other settings left to default
These settings result in an emulated 486 CPU with the speed of a 386SX-16. That's actually fine for most everything a DOS BBS would need. But it's not helping the BRE scan situation any. If you've got some CPU time to spare, try
boosting the cycles settings. I would start off with:
cycles = auto 6000 15% limit 30000
I knew it defaulted to 486 but didn't realize it emulated 386SX-16 speed!
I wonder why it doesn't emulate a 486 speed? I had my dosemu sessions set
to emulate '80586' so that could be part of the difference. I also had one session set to '80386' and even it only paused for 3-5 seconds there.
I don't remember if the priority setting has any function under LInux or not. Even so, set it to:
priority = normal, normal
This keeps the performance the same no matter what state the DOSBox instance i
in.
Ok, it was set to 'higher,normal' but I changed it.
I also set the cycles per above, and have previously set the cputype type
to 486. That really spead things up! I have actually played with the
cycles numbers and decreased them some so other games are not too fast.
One question, looking at the documentation in the config file, since the
string includes numbers, should that 'cycles' string begin with 'auto' or 'fixed'? 'auto' seems to work... if I change the numbers I can tell a difference.
THANKS!
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