SKARDAVNELNATE wrote:

Too many cycles can cause it to run slower if you're trying to emulate more than your system can handle. I aim for 40,000.

Yep, and as I stated in my previous post I've been able to play other games like Descent etc. just fine at 100K cycles with no sound skips or anything. 40K is clearly not enough for this game as it's a literal slideshow at 640x480 and even going up to 80K doesn't seem to help much. I'd like to know just what hoops you and the other poster jumped through to get it running "fine" at 640x480 because I've tried every setting, shutting off sound etc. - patched the game to 1.04, and as I've said my computer is up to date and other games and applications (and DOSBox games) run as expected, so it's not a matter of CPU throttling. I'm inclined to think it's either a bug in DOSBox 0.74 or some setting/optimization you're using that I'm not. (what it is I can't fathom as I've tried everything, I'm about ready to give up as I don't think this game is worth this much aggravation)

I think it's fairly obvious that you're not getting the same performance as others because you're not using dynamic core. You've said the game refuses to run with dynamic core (core=auto results in dynamic core in this case), so what exactly happens when you try? I've read a report that the game throws a runtime error 200 (divide by zero) at startup with dynamic core regardless of the cycles setting, but this is certainly not the case for everyone, so there may be some as yet undiagnosed issue with dynamic core on certain systems.

ripsaw8080 wrote:

I think it's fairly obvious that you're not getting the same performance as others because you're not using dynamic core. You've said the game refuses to run with dynamic core (core=auto results in dynamic core in this case), so what exactly happens when you try? I've read a report that the game throws a runtime error 200 (divide by zero) at startup with dynamic core regardless of the cycles setting, but this is certainly not the case for everyone, so there may be some as yet undiagnosed issue with dynamic core on certain systems.

The game crashes and displays "runtime error 200 at 0002:1524" when I choose auto or dynamic core with DOSBox 0.74. I've also tried changing the CPU type (386,486 etc.) within D-Fend and it still crashes.

I can run the game with dynamic core, and I know others have as well. If settings in DOSBox cannot prevent the problem, there may be an issue due to the host. For example your i7 CPU, powerful as it is, may cause some problem with the version of GCC used to build the official 0.74 release. Have you tried an SVN build of DOSBox compiled with a current version of GCC or VC? You could try the most recent ykhwong build for VC.

To rule out DOSBox settings as a factor, please attach your conf with all commands you are using in the [autoexec] section. If you are using a frontend, temporarily suspend doing that while troubleshooting, and make sure that the conf you post actually causes the problem.

ripsaw8080 wrote:

I can run the game with dynamic core, and I know others have as well. If settings in DOSBox cannot prevent the problem, there may be an issue due to the host. For example your i7 CPU, powerful as it is, may cause some problem with the version of GCC used to build the official 0.74 release. Have you tried an SVN build of DOSBox compiled with a current version of GCC or VC? You could try the most recent ykhwong build for VC.

To rule out DOSBox settings as a factor, please attach your conf with all commands you are using in the [autoexec] section. If you are using a frontend, temporarily suspend doing that while troubleshooting, and make sure that the conf you post actually causes the problem.

It's very odd that dynamic core would cause an issue for this game when I use it + a high number of cycles (120K in Descent's case) just fine with other games. I just tried the default config in DOSBox 0.74 with Dynamic core selected, nothing in the AUTOEXEC section (I checked), same error.

The idea with attaching the conf was to get the settings AND the commands you're using (contained in the [autoexec] section of the conf) in one shot. Now, assuming default settings, what are the exact commands you're using to mount drives and run the game?

ripsaw8080 wrote:

The idea with attaching the conf was to get the settings AND the commands you're using (contained in the [autoexec] section of the conf) in one shot. Now, assuming default settings, what are the exact commands you're using to mount drives and run the game?

I don't see how the paths I set in the autoexec section would have any bearing on the game not being able to use dynamic core, but I've attached a copy of the D-Fend configuration file for the game.

If you are using a frontend, temporarily suspend doing that while troubleshooting, and make sure that the conf you post actually causes the problem.

Along with that I'd recommend using default settings first. Gor example memsize. Also I wonder what config.com -securemode does

Dominus wrote:

If you are using a frontend, temporarily suspend doing that while troubleshooting, and make sure that the conf you post actually causes the problem.

Along with that I'd recommend using default settings first. Gor example memsize. Also I wonder what config.com -securemode does

I just ran the default DOSBox configuration outside of D-Fend (with "auto") core, and it gave me the same runtime error.

Use the default memsize=16 setting unless you have a specific reason to do otherwise. There is generally no performance benefit with more memory, and it can cause problems. However, it doesn't seem to be a factor in this case.

Didn't see a mount for the cdrom in your conf, how are you mounting the game disc?

Try shotgunning the following to see if anything helps:

The game will use a joystick if one is detected, so disable that with any or all of these: 1) Disconnect any joystick you have hooked up to your PC. 2) Change joysticktype=auto to joysticktype=none in the conf. 3) Run the game with a parameter to disable joystick detection "chasm -nojoy".

Disable sound by running the game with "chasm -nosound". Not an optimal solution if it works, but could be helpful in finding a better solution.

Disable the linear frame buffer by setting machine=vesa_nolfb in the conf.

ripsaw8080 wrote:

The game will use a joystick if one is detected, so disable that with any or all of these: 1) Disconnect any joystick you have hooked up to your PC. 2) Change joysticktype=auto to joysticktype=none in the conf. 3) Run the game with a parameter to disable joystick detection "chasm -nojoy".

In my experience if you don't have a joystick but it's enabled in the .conf you will constantly look down and to the right while playing.

This is the same issue I have had. I continually get the runtime error unless I go to simple cores. I sent ripsaw crc's of all my files to confirm our versions were the same and sent him my conf file. Neither of which showed any good reason for my error. I'm not sure I understand this stubborn persistence that it must be the user causing the problem, when there are several of us dealing with it.