vQuake cvars, by popular request:

https://youtu.be/4JuKIDU2CVM

And no more vQuake vids.

OK, thank you very much!
Cool video, scientific.

I've tweaked Dosbox-Rendition's register access slightly while trying to get Eurofighter to run and noticed I can get Nascar 1999's framerates stable (Nascar 2 was already stable). Even managed to briefly get ICR2's replays going faster, but it turns out it was a random glitch somewhere.

I can even get it to run (slowly) on Intel UHD620 (2 real+2 virtual threads @ 2.1 GHz). Something it never did before.

https://youtu.be/p_kjcdNRbSw

EF2000+ is still not quite there yet.

MDK Improvements:
https://youtu.be/cwt4EH_Tld4

RReady edge AA modes available with RReady:
https://youtu.be/71CD8Mik8u4

RReady September 25, 2024
[edit:wrong build]
https://1drv.ms/u/c/5277ef8d4f2a9dcf/EU4AKa49 … kHp67A?e=66N51k
OR
https://nirvtek.com/downloads/RReady.Alpha.20240925.002.zip
MD5: 4de5601802af58cabc04a55077c04737
[/EDIT]

Fixes: Nascar 1999 Racing performance boost
MDK : Power up indictator on bottom right has correct background colour
Regressions: ICR2 may have audio pops. This is because of the Nascar fixes. This isn't going on to the store/sourceforge until I fix it. If someone could confirm that they do get audio popping in ICR2 it would be useful, to make sure it's not just my machine.

Another RReady compatible carset u.2024 in action:
(https://www.icr2.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1550)

https://youtu.be/bgKdjUxOF1Q

I guess running rredline games will also have to be done through dosbox or something:

https://www.techspot.com/news/104856-intel-re … g-multiple.html

i hope Microsoft can workaround it , killing 32 bit app support is major thing, WoW64 subsystem probably can handle it.

I hope so.

I've found a way to eliminate audio static and bring vanilla dosbox up to speed with dosbox-staging.

[ALT+TABbing] out and then back into vQuake boosts the framerate. In fact this works better than setting priority=higher, higher.

I think dosbox's thread prioritization is broken. I was actually thinking of disabling the code for prioritization altogether (run at regular priority), but @robermo3 said it was useful for different generations of CPUs.

RaVeN-05 wrote on 2024-09-27, 09:26:

i hope Microsoft can workaround it , killing 32 bit app support is major thing, WoW64 subsystem probably can handle it.

I think the long term aim is to make future x86 chips 64 bit only. I think that's like shooting themselves in the foot. The strength of x86 has always been backward compatibility. If they go 64 bit only, users could just switch to ARM64 and be done with it.

RReady Alpha September 30, 2024 (Fully Tested Alpha release)
**************************************************
https://nirvtek.com/downloads/RReady.Alpha.20240930.001.zip
MD5: cede5fd862e0bf5d02ade7dc7417006d
- Nascar some texture clamping issues fixed
- MDK weapon power up blended background in HUD

The Nascar 1999 optimisations aren't there (they won't be necessary and the performance boost will be there in the next release without this)
and neither are the new vQuake engine edge AA shaders.

Upcoming optimisations for Speedy3D apps in the next release, everything should run at at least 30 fps:

- vQuake no static with Dosbox-Rendition, almost as fast as Dosbox-Staging-Rendition without embedding
- Rebel Moon, no slowdown
- ICR2 full frame with replays and carsets:

The sluggish cars95.2k carset at full speed:
https://youtu.be/nQT2-LStNnE

U.2024 carset at 30 fps:
https://youtu.be/bbrGdIRTOFA

Detroit Downtown HQ at a rock solid 30 fps with replay:
https://youtu.be/6aww5RbtniA

The optimisations are incomplete.

This is an extremely alpha release, but it appears to be stable on both my machines with discrete GPUs. Integrated GPUs are completely no go with this release, at least for Nascar and ICR2. The priority of Dosclient is set to be the same as dosbox and dosbox configures itself as being 'in focus' (even though dosclient is) on video mode change.

Performance feedback for this build would be useful, on my Sandy Bridge based i7 (2600) with a GTX660, ICR2 and Nascar Racing 1999 is stable. The framerate isn't always 30 though, it dips with other cars. So feedback on stability and performance would be very nice. On faster machines a full framerate is possible.

https://nirvtek.com/downloads/RReady.Alpha.20241001.001.zip
MD5: b1f1c3fc896cb5e300b2ce01fa98032f

- Significant performance improvements on machines with discrete GPUs (with dosbox-rendition, staging is only partially modified).
- Dosbox-rendition achieves vQuake performance parity with dosbox-staging-rendition.
- Rebel Moon should run at a solid 60 fps, all the time.
- Dosbox-staging-Rendition has some performance tweaks, but could be unstable. The stability fixes are not in place yet. This shouldn't be tested yet as the changes are incomplete.
- Keys being held down within dosbox on app exist *might* be fixed.

Whether this build lives or dies depends on your feedback. So please post your results.

i have notebook that released back in 2010 its weak, i doubt it suitable for those tests. I should arrive after 2-3 weeks , will do everything .

RaVeN-05 wrote on 2024-10-02, 16:05:

i have notebook that released back in 2010 its weak, i doubt it suitable for those tests. I should arrive after 2-3 weeks , will do everything .

Thanks dude! If it's a quad core and has a discrete gpu it might be OK. But a cpu of that era probably is a bit weak.

tried vquake, black screen notebook almost unresponsive, black screen and loading pentagram infinitely blinking, sound is just noise like from TV, rredline apps works, for speedy3d need to go back home, so i have more powerful pc to test.

RaVeN-05 wrote on 2024-10-02, 16:41:

tried vquake, black screen notebook almost unresponsive, black screen and loading pentagram infinitely blinking, sound is just noise like from TV, rredline apps works, for speedy3d need to go back home, so i have more powerful pc to test.

The new build absolutely must have 4 physical cores. Older builds can in fact run on 2 cores with varying levels of performance and stability.

Whiplash(rwhip.exe) /tomb raider(tombren.exe/tomb.exe) should be runnable., but I think you're cpu starved there, so probably there's no point trying. Hyperthreads won't do, you need 4 physical cores at least. 4 physical cores+smt is also OK. 2 cores +smt is a no go. Also Intel HD graphics is a bit of a no go zone.

My videos are made on ryzen 2700x/Gtx1060, which is *relatively* modern. My old i7 2600 /gtx660 is a bit at the the bottom end of the scale. With the icr2 Australia track in practice mode on the i7, there's a bit of slowdown when running into other cars. Vquake slows down quite a bit in sections as well, at 768x576. 320x200 performs at 30 fos+. Tomb raider runs well on most machines, even dual cores with the older builds, but the videos don't render with Intel HD graphics (front buffer rendering).

[EDIT]
There's a user who got decent performance with an i7 6700/gtx740 with older builds. I'm also waiting for him to test the new build on his machine.
[/EDIT]

This build adds two new options:

https://nirvtek.com/downloads/RReady.Alpha.20241003.004.7z
MD5: 89bfd9f38babf0e3b90ac3cf841bd882

[rendition]
highperformance = true|false (default:true)
picdma = true|false (default:false)

highperformance allows the new fast mode and picdma makes it threadsafe (but at the expense of performance).

[EDIT:October 8, 2024] Setting
[sdl]
priority = normal, normal
in dosbox.conf might be necessary
[/EDIT]

I would recommend testing it with highperfornance = true and picdma = false. If there're any stability issues in ICR2 or Nascar 1999, setting picdma = true to gauge performance would also be useful. (picdma = true is a death sentence for weaker CPUs).

Quick test for someone with a 3D Blaster PCI (with CGL support):

https://nirvtek.com/downloads/CGL.20241005.001.7z
MD5: 5a5612fa9c4656f3b0373e67e5742b62

Extract the files into a folder and run RunC.bat.

Post the results of CGL.txt.

Thanks