Good afternoon,
I recently switched a couple of my DOS BBS nodes from dosemu to dosbox-x, at the request of the software maintainer. For the most part, the BBS works the same if not a little better. Despite the connect speed being reduced from 115200 to 57600, one of my telnet callers has reported that games like OOII areactually working fast enough that game play is no longer slugish.

However, I have run into an issue with BRE. Normally, when BRE starts, the first screen the caller sees (that gives them the version info) quickly clears and they are presented with the BRE ansi welcome screen.

Now that I have moved over to dosbox-x, there is a very noticable pause betweenthe version screen and the ANSI screen. Maybe 20 or more seconds before the
game continues. Once this happens, the game seems to run and exit just fine.

Is anyone else using dosbox-x with BRE? If so, did you have to do anything special to get it running?

Some pertinent settings from each environment...

dosemu:
cpu = 80586
ems = 8192
video = vga
all other cpu/memory/video settings left to default

dosbox-x:
cpu core = auto
cpu type = auto
ems = true
machine ("video") = svga_s3
all other settings left to default

I am running dosbox-x on a debian linux bookworm machine. I have tried changing the CPU setting to '386' and '486' (via the pull down menu) but that didn't seem to change the behavior (i.e. in dosbox-x).

Thanks,
Mike

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Re: DOSBOX-X vs. dosemu issue
By: Dumas Walker to ALL on Fri Aug 23 2024 11:05 am

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.

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 entire 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.

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.

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 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 is in.
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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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Good afternoon,
I recently switched a couple of my DOS BBS nodes from dosemu to dosbox-x, at the request of the software maintainer. For the most part, the BBS works the same if not a little better. Despite the connect speed being reduced from 115200 to 57600, one of my telnet callers has reported that games like OOII areactually working fast enough that game play is no longer slugish.

However, I have run into an issue with BRE. Normally, when BRE starts, the first screen the caller sees (that gives them the version info) quickly clears and they are presented with the BRE ansi welcome screen.

Now that I have moved over to dosbox-x, there is a very noticable pause betweenthe version screen and the ANSI screen. Maybe 20 or more seconds before the
game continues. Once this happens, the game seems to run and exit just fine.

Is anyone else using dosbox-x with BRE? If so, did you have to do anything special to get it running?

Some pertinent settings from each environment...

dosemu:
cpu = 80586
ems = 8192
video = vga
all other cpu/memory/video settings left to default

dosbox-x:
cpu core = auto
cpu type = auto
ems = true
machine ("video") = svga_s3
all other settings left to default

I am running dosbox-x on a debian linux bookworm machine. I have tried changing the CPU setting to '386' and '486' (via the pull down menu) but that didn't seem to change the behavior (i.e. in dosbox-x).

Thanks,
Mike

* SLMR 2.1a * And Adam asked, "What's a Headache?"
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Could it be the fact RIP detect pause?

Could it be the fact RIP detect pause?

I considered that as that was a problem with one of my LORD instances... I didn't have NORIP on the command line... but BRE doesn't appear to support
RIP.

I was able to get it working like normal by making a change to my dosbox-x config file cycles setting. The change was suggested by a user here or in another echo who appears more knowledgeable about dosbox than I. ;)


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I considered that as that was a problem with one of my LORD instances... I didn't have NORIP on the command line... but BRE doesn't appear to support RIP.

I was able to get it working like normal by making a change to my dosbox-x config file cycles setting. The change was suggested by a user here or in another echo who appears more knowledgeable about dosbox than I. ;)

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I am glad everything is working well. bRE is a fun game.

I am glad everything is working well. bRE is a fun game.

I enjoy it. ;)


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