FTT0101

[Duplode]

How to set frameskip values?

If you're using DBGL, the setting is under the "Display" tab. You may also change the value in-game with CTRL-F7 (-) and CTRL-F8(+). Krys comment about frameskip is appropriate, though: frameskip 2 already feels quite jerky and frameskip 3 is borderline untolerable...

Also, this piece of advice from the DOSBox wiki about output and scaler settings on the "Display" tab makes perfect sense:

Don't use the normal2x scaler, and if you can stand it, avoid advmame2x or my hq2x - scaling easily takes 80% of the available CPU. Instead, use hardware overlay if you want windowed mode, or use surface if you want fullscreen mode.

[Mark L. Rivers]

BJ, the post below is from topic "SDR - NoRH Competition". I hope it can help you:

About how the application runs, as I has wrote before, you can try many information to speed up DOSBox 0.65 reading these link:

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php?page=RunningResourceDemandingGames

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php?page=dosbox.conf%2Fcpu

A little guide to make more fluently the game is here (this is an extract of the readme.txt included in DOSBox 0.65):

===================================
8. To run resource-demanding games:
===================================

DOSBox emulates the CPU, the sound and graphic cards, and some other stuff, all at the same time. You can overclock DOSBox by using CTRL-F12, but you'll be limited by the power of your actual CPU. You can see how much free time your true CPU has by looking at the Task Manager in Windows 2000/XP and the System Monitor in Windows 95/98/ME. Once 100% of your real CPU time is used there is no further way to speed up DOSBox unless you reduce the load generated by the non-CPU parts of DOSBox.

So:

Close every program but DOSBox

Overclock DOSBox until 100% of your CPU is used (use the utilities above to check)

Since VGA emulation is the most demanding part of DOSBox in terms of actual CPU usage, we'll start there. Increase the number of frames skipped (in increments of one) by pressing CTRL-F8. Your CPU usage should decrease. Go back one step and repeat this until the game runs fast enough for you. Please note that this is a trade-off: you lose in fluidity of video what you gain in speed You can also try to disable the sound through the setup utility of the game to reduce load on your CPU further.

So press CTRL+11 or CTRL+12 and CTRL+7 or CTRL+8 to regulate the basic parameters about speed/fluently.

I hope this can help you. 

[zaqrack]

reducing graphic level within Stunts (disabling scenery and such) also helped me to speed up the game.

[Krys TOFF]

How to set frameskip values?

If you're using DBGL, the setting is under the "Display" tab. You may also change the value in-game with CTRL-F7 (-) and CTRL-F8(+). Krys comment about frameskip is appropriate, though: frameskip 2 already feels quite jerky and frameskip 3 is borderline untolerable...

Also, this piece of advice from the DOSBox wiki about output and scaler settings on the "Display" tab makes perfect sense:

Don't use the normal2x scaler, and if you can stand it, avoid advmame2x or my hq2x - scaling easily takes 80% of the available CPU. Instead, use hardware overlay if you want windowed mode, or use surface if you want fullscreen mode.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention it before : with my old computer I kept original size (scaler x1). Full screen mode was possible, but slightly slower than window mode. Therefore, I often changed my Windows resolution to 640x480 instead of the 800x600 before launching DOSBox in order to keep DOSBox in window mode and have a full screen view anyway.

The advantage of my old computer was that I had to do this only for noRH races because with Win9x Stunts was possible to be played directly, without need of DOSBox, for RH races.

[Mark L. Rivers]

One week to deadline, come on, let's stash pre-tactic... 

[Krys TOFF]

I am a ghost. (Sorry, I was very drunk that night when I registered it)

I_am_a_ghost renamed into CTG in database.
I kept unchanged your password CTG.

Darkie mailed me a few days ago asking me to explain to you his current situation on FTT... he did that lap before configuring DOSBox properly, and shortly after his computer died down, so in all likelihood he's going to be away for a while. He also told me to ask you to delete his current 1:11:30 from the scoreboard, as it does not have video proof at all.

Therefore, Darkie's time is erased from the scoreboard. I hope he can go back before the deadline of the 1st track.

[Duplode]

One week to deadline, come on, let's stash pre-tactic... 

Racing with 3-week deadlines is quite interesting. You start the race thinking "Oh, it will take take quite a while to the finish", and then when you least expect *bang*, one week to deadline...

Krys, a rule question: are we obliged to publish our final times at some point before deadline? I suppose it would be necessary, else nothing on the current rules would stop someone from making a time, say, one or two days after the deadline and then sending to you before the results are confirmed.

[Krys TOFF]

Krys, a rule question: are we obliged to publish our final times at some point before deadline? I suppose it would be necessary, else nothing on the current rules would stop someone from making a time, say, one or two days after the deadline and then sending to you before the results are confirmed.

If you try to publish a time on the website AFTER the deadline, it will be refused. I coded the php page this way, I tested it during beta-tests and it works fine. So don't wait the last minute to publish your final time or may not be allowed to publish your last time.

Also, even if you have a few days after the deadline to send me your replays and video, the 2nd race will start very soon after the deadline of the 1st one. So you'll be allowed to publish a time for the 2nd race then, not for the 1st one.

[Krys TOFF]

Mark is the 1st below 1'11" for the moment.
He is learning to use the LM002 quite fast finally.

[Mark L. Rivers]

Thanks Krys, but I'm still a student with this car... 
I'll be happy if I'll climb on the podium in this first race... but it won't be easy!

[Duplode]

Nice timing with your latest replay Mark! I am planning a final shot within the next 24 hours, and wonder whether other podium candidates are going for it too...

[CTG]

After spending an hour with crappy DOS-Box racing, finally I could complete a lap (LOL, on the other hand slow replays were not finished). And then came the surprise: damn I recorded an extremely long video with retrying several times... over 100 MByte.

I guess I'll use YouTube to publish the certain part of it.

[Duplode]

After spending an hour with crappy DOS-Box racing, finally I could complete a lap (LOL, on the other hand slow replays were not finished). And then came the surprise: damn I recorded an extremely long video with retrying several times... over 100 MByte.

Argh, I hate when I do such kind of stuff... even more because now I'm too used to fullscreen to keep the confirmatory messages of the recording on the console screen visible any more, and because I mess it up so often due to having remapped video recording to CTRL-F2 on Linux (CTRL-ALT-F5 sends the OS into command line mode...  ).

Also, I wonder whether BJ was able to record his performance in the end.

[Duplode]

Well, not much after replying to CTG with the previous post I missed a significant improvement to a mistimed CTRL-ALT-F5... Now I will race NoRH on windowed even if it looks like playing Stunts on a GameBoy...

[zaqrack]

I play it windowed with 3x scaler. It almost fills my entire screen (1024x768 resolution) and I start it from a terminal windows, which I can see below, so I ca ncheck, whether I'm capturing or not.