Imperium Galactica

Post by **dosraider** » Thu Jun 27, 2013 10:39 pm

cputype=pentium_slow ?? Why? Is a pretty heavy game, set it to auto
core=dynamic should be set on auto, same reason as above.
Cycles should be on 'auto' for a game as IG

SB16/220/7/5 is normal for IG, it uses high DMA
Did you alter something in dosbox default sound settings?

Me thinks you already altered a lot in dosbox settings ..... maybe consider resetting to default, (there is a start menu item in 'options' especially for that, you'll need to add the mount lines again in [autoexec]).
Once again: I ran IG 1.3 on dosbox 0.74 default settings without any glitch .............

dosraider wrote: Would also like to know your inputs to launch the game .......

Can matter here.

There is of course always a possibility something is running on the background on your PC that is interfering, wouldn't be the first time, can even be a 'special' keyboard driver, plenty such topics on vogons about such problematic drivers, ...... not much I can do about that.

On the other hand:

ironnails wrote:i really think its the sound card. when i play it with no music and just sound effects it works fine.

Is that music so important?

ironnails · Post by **ironnails** » Thu Jun 27, 2013 11:30 pm

thankee for letting me know its using the high DMA setting. that makes sense for why i need DMA 5 setting. and i am using the default sound settings.

Ok, what do you mean by inputs to launch the game? as in my CPU hardware and OS?

Dell 8250 series: XP professional SP3; pentium 4; 2.8Gig, 512ram

Memsize=64

that IS necessary i believe tho for IG to run...

i have set core=auto; cputype=auto; cycles=auto

the only file i have changed from default settings now is memsize=64 from 16

and music is NOT that important to me just something more ta listen to and tryin to see if i can get the full experience of the game.

Right now having the music on does work. it is just showing signs of skipping or the sound staying stuck on one track for a few seconds.

Post by **dosraider** » Fri Jun 28, 2013 1:18 am

By your inputs I mean what you type when you launch the game ...
You start up dosbox, virtual C should be auto-mounted even as your CD images as you added them to autoexec.
Looking to what details you posted dosbox will start up with Z:\> prompt.
And then .... you type somethings to launch the game, that's what I wanna know.
There are several possibilities, but only one is correct, depending of your folder structure and install choices.

That memsize , try again with the default 16, if you have IG ver1.3 it should be ok. Dunno for ver1.1 as I don't have that one, can't have it all .......
Otherwise try 32 first, 64 is the max but isn't really advisable as it also puts a strain on memory management, and as I told you, many games even will refuse to run with 64MB ..... ah you gotta love them damn dos mem restrictions....

At least I can say that your PC should run that game in dosbox flawless, even if it's a little bit low on RAM, I would prefer 1 GB with XPsp3.... but it should cope, that's if it's running clear of background processes , some softs running on the background can screw things up and put a burden on your CPU/system resources.
Always advisable is to run dosbox on his own on a single core, shut down what you can. It really needs all the CPU clicks it can get on a single core.

ironnails wrote: Right now having the music on does work. it is just showing signs of skipping or the sound staying stuck on one track for a few seconds.

Strange it is ...
Try this:
hit CTRL+ALT+DEL once and use the system resource tab, run dosbox + game and look at your CPU load, if it's hitting 100% that's the reason why ingame music is skipping.
Then I would say your PC needs some cleaning/tuning up.

ironnails · Post by **ironnails** » Fri Jun 28, 2013 8:31 pm

i just changed my dosbox conf file to memsize=32 to try that out.

and here is the dosbox img you were wanting for me to access the game:

http://www.imagebam.com/image/b14f98262793007

and you ARE right, when i look at my task manager my CPU usage is 100% and think i'll see if i can upgrade that ram back to 1gig on here. i always thought i was 1gig until i did the CPU properties for you. that DOES explain alot of complications for this PC.

ironnails · Post by **ironnails** » Fri Jun 28, 2013 8:50 pm

yes you ARE right when my CPU hits at 100% my dosbox freezes up. sooo, all i need to do to fix that is just turn off the music part via going to options and putting the bar to 0 on music. then the game runs fine. If i remember correctly, i had the same problem on this game when i originally played it.

Post by **dosraider** » Fri Jun 28, 2013 9:02 pm

ironnails wrote: and here is the dosbox img you were wanting for me to access the game:

http://www.imagebam.com/image/b14f98262793007

That's OK, it's correct way to launch the game.

ironnails wrote: and you ARE right, when i look at my task manager my CPU usage is 100% and think i'll see if i can upgrade that ram back to 1gig on here. i always thought i was 1gig until i did the CPU properties for you. that DOES explain alot of complications for this PC.

That's another matter, XPsp3 is more demanding than XPsp1 ... they added a lot of stuff.
Problem will be that adding 500MB probably won't be thàt easy, in terms of finding this kind of memory at a reasonable price.
Whatever a salesperson will say, it's important to add mem with the same matching properties, and whilst memory banks are cheap ourdays, the 'cheap' is valid for modern 1-2-4GB banks, not really for the older ones.
Take also a look at CPU burden running idle, should be below 1à2%, otherwise it means your PC is running a shitload of crap softs on the background ........

ironnails · Post by **ironnails** » Fri Jun 28, 2013 10:21 pm

CPU is running around 5-10% CPU usage. and hmmmm, looking it up on amazon getting the PC1066 stick (2 of them) is only $60. think i'll run over the Fry's this weekend just to see if they have something there to buy instead of over the net.

Post by **dosraider** » Sat Jun 29, 2013 3:22 am

ironnails wrote:....looking it up on amazon getting the PC1066 stick (2 of them) is only $60. think i'll run over the Fry's this weekend just to see if they have something there to buy instead of over the net.

Don't expect too much of a mem upgrade, it certainly will smooth things up a bit and avoid that slow HD virtual mem access but:

ironnails wrote:CPU is running around 5-10% CPU usage.

5-10% is very high on idle in my books, I only would accept below 2%, and pref even below 1% for my own PCs .......
Loosing 10% CPU power is huge, means in fact 15-20% CPU power loss .....
Means you have a lot running on the background, and also probably several so called 'home callers', software that always is looking for eventual updates....
Better look up in your system tabs what's running on start up and isn't needed .......

Don't underestimate the CPU power dosbox need to emulate, and certainly with a game as IG, it will benefit from every % you can drop that idle CPU load.

ironnails · Post by **ironnails** » Wed Jul 03, 2013 7:55 pm

ok JUST got the ram updated to 1.5gig ram on my system. going to also check out the start up and see what i can stop/delete for that area. i agree there should be nothing that i need on eventual updates except windows and i believe microsoft has D/C XP OS updates.

ironnails · Post by **ironnails** » Thu Jul 04, 2013 8:52 pm

question dosraider. is there a LIMIT of buildings you can make within the game? I have over 20+ colonies and i cant seem to make anymore buildings. It'll take out the $$ i need to create a building but it wont show it at all. i'm a grand admiral and have everything researched. also to let you know. When i'm playing the game it will still have the periodic crash its just a LOT more rare now with that extra ram and i still cant do music and sound effects

.

Not needed, looked it up over the net and found out there is a 5000 building limit until you apply the patch.