Very good information Julian, thanks.
--
Don Burnette
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I know we are stuck with Windows 95 and soon we will be stuck
with Windows NT.
Yes, I will make the best of the situation.
No, I will not stop griping about it. I believe in free speech !
Windows 95 sucks for games, of that I have no doubt. It takes a
3DFX card to make it bearable and I am looking forward to
games that can use the native mode (Glide) of this life saver
product. Ubisofts F1RS looks great !
My dearest wish would be for MS-DOS to return with a better memory
architecture. I can only imagine how awesome games could be
without the boat anchor of a GUI. With todays hardware power, it
would be amazing ! These are wasted dreams however as new computers
come preloaded with Win95 and even the most optimistic games developer
cannot buck the trend. The masses do rule ! There will be no new
games titles of consequence for DOS !
John Cookson (Canada)
<HTML>
Question... why do you feel the zip drive is a waste... was thinking of
getting one myself. How about the new Sony's that use both 3 1/2
plus 120 mb disks ??
<P>Scott B. Husted
<BR>
<BR>>
<BR>>> Am I the only one who has noticed that the latest slew of demos/games
<BR>>> are for Win95 only and that for the most part, they all run like
sh*t?
<BR>>> This includes CART, Quake 2, Hexen 2, Jedi Knight, etc, etc. Has
Gates
<BR>>> finally closed his ***-hold on the industry to such an extent
that
<BR>>> we can only expect second-rate, lazy and sloppily programmed games
- and
<BR>>> this from the most highly respected production houses? And what's
more,
<BR>>> they all look exactly the same with this 3D/DirectX technology -
like
<BR>>> arcade games. I find this trend exceedingly depressing. At this
rate we
<BR>>> may as well just buy console machines and sit in front of the TV
like
<BR>>> eight-year-old automatons.
<BR>>>
<BR>>> Can't anybody do something to stop it?
<BR>>>
<BR>>> Simon Goodwin
<BR>>
<BR>>I agree completely! But beware of slamming Win95 in here cause some
will
<BR>>tell you DOS is dead get used to it! I for one still think Win95 SUCKS
<BR>>as a *** platform. Any new sim has a hard road ahead of it to compare
<BR>>to the DOS version of GP2, and especially the DOS/Rendition versions
of
<BR>>Nascar2 and ICR2. I challenge any Win95 devotees to show me a new
game
<BR>>that has the graphics of DOS/Rendition Nascar2 and runs at 30fps.
And
<BR>>all this on a P166 24meg! In Win95 the same detail level and frame
rate
<BR>>takes a P2 233! Come on, 2 times the computer power and two times
the
<BR>>ram just to break even under Win95, that sounds like selling computers
<BR>>instead of making better games. "Eye-Candy does not a simulation make"
<BR>>-Jody-
<P>Gentlemen:
<P>DOS will be "dead"!! Windoze 98 (Memphis) will be the last OS for DOS.
The goal
<BR>for M$ is for everyone to switch to NT 6.0.
<P>Now, with that out of the way. Let's see if your system is optimized
for
<BR>"***" in 95. First and for most is the memory. Some people say 32mb
is okay
<BR>for *** in 95. Yet, as games get "bigger", you will need more memory.
Let's
<BR>64mb, kewl??: )
<P>The next step is to set "Virtual Cache Memroy" in the "system.ini" file.
This
<BR>setting MUST be typed in "manually". It is recommended that the setting
must be
<BR>at "LEAST" 25% of your memory. Keep in mind that there are "maxfilecache
and
<BR>minfilecache" values. I have set both to the same value.
<P>The good ol' "swap file". I for one, don't let W95 control my swap file.
The
<BR>setting can be found in the "Control Panel, System, Performance and
then Virtual
<BR>Memory tab." This setting must be at least "50% of your memory"!!
<P>This settings stops majority of the swapping in W95.
<P>NOTE: Adjusting Virtual Memory will create the following dreaded "blue"
screen.
<BR>You must keep in mind that if you use programs "bigger" than what's
the stated
<BR>Virtual Memory setting your PC will be unstable!!
<P>With that said, you might want to play around with this setting. You
might want
<BR>to even set it equal to the about of memory you have.
<P>Pausing in game play, be sure to check in the "Control Panel" for the
"Power"
<BR>icon, click on it, and DISABLE it. Or just turn it off via the BIOS.
<P>CPU Power:
<P>Let's just start with N2 since it's out right now, k?; ) From my experience,
a
<BR>minimum of a 166Mhz MMx with 32mb of memory with a Rendition card,
can give you
<BR>some great performance in W95.
<P>Atlower Mhz levels, just be prepared to "drop" some of the "eye candy."
<P>Any use of a sim "ported" out to a certain chipset, will fast increase
frame
<BR>rate!<G> Uh.. dur!!; )
<P>GP2:
<P>This plays great in W95!! Providing you have a "nice" CPU and an "average"
video
<BR>card. That's common sense here. This sim is very CPU and Video card
intensive.
<P>CART PR:
<P>The "current" demo is "not", I stress "not", the final version of the
game!!
<BR>Keep that in mind, please.
<P>Remember the N2 demo, anyone??: )
<P>Here's something I would like to stress, Direct X has absolutely NOTHING
to do
<BR>with NASCAR, NASCAR2, or GP2. These sims are operating in the DOS/G4W
<BR>environment! They do NOT use any Direct X derivatives whatsoever.
<P>A Monetary Standpoint:
<P>Concerning CPU power, welp, if you are "heavily" into sims such as I,
you might
<BR>as well expect to spend lots of money to keep up with the upcoming
sims. That
<BR>with everything nowadays..; )
<P>Conclusion:
<P>The performance in *** in a GUI (Graphics User Interface), is all
dependant
<BR>on setup of the OS. The CPU and video card is all dependant on frame
rate. It
<BR>all boils down to, "FPS costs money, how much FPS do you want to go?????"
: )
<P>My current system as follows:
<P>ASUS P55T2P4 Rev 3.10 512kb pipeline burst cache
<BR>Micron 128MB EDO 50ns memory
<BR>AMD K6 233 overclocked to 266Mhz
<BR>Intergraph Reactor 3D (aka Intense 3D)
<BR>Orchid Righteous 3D (3dFX Voodoo Graphics)
<BR>Adpatec 2940UW SCSI
<BR>Toshiba XM-5702B ATA 12X CD ROM (No need to buy higher speeds)
<BR>Hewlett Packard Sure Writer CD Writer
<BR>Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 No PNP (Why go AWE 64?? for Midi?? NOPE)
<BR>Verbal Commander a MUST!!!!<G>
<BR>(2)Seagate Cheetah 4.3GB hard drive
<BR>Maxtor Diamond 5.1GB hard drive
<BR>Western Digital 2.5GB hard drive
<BR>iOmega ZiP drive (waste!)
<P>Current OS: Windows NT 4.0 (Service Pack 3), Windows 95 OSR2 2.1
<P>Game Control Devices:
<BR>ECCI CDS5000
<BR>Gravis MultiGRip System (4 players) w/4 GRiP gamepads
<BR>Gravis Analogue Joystick (Hehe. I still have this from N1!!)
<BR>Gravis Gamepad
<BR>Ch Pro Pedals
<BR>Ch Pro Throttle
<BR>Ch F-16 Jane's Flightstick
<P>I hope these tip up above will you help you in your quest for performance
in
<BR>W95.
<P>BTW, since DX6 is finally gonna have "DMA Bussmastering" drivers for
the
<BR>Rendition cards, I was wondering, does the V2x00 chipsets also need
<BR>bussmastering??????
<P>take care
<P>Julian Data
<BR>IVGA Director of Information Technology
<BR>IVGA member 0004 of 3000+
<BR>www.ivga.com
<BR>SRGA (Sim Racers Golf Association)<A HREF="[link lost in import: /~Tim76/SRGA.htm]">[link lost in import: /~Tim76/SRGA.htm]</A></BLOCKQUOTE>
</HTML>
Thank you Julian, your memory and Win95 optimization tips were helpfull,
but I stand by my earlier post that Win95 is not a good OS for games.
The "plug and play" Win95 enviornment is its big selling point, yet in
your post you go thru many lines of memory settings, is that so much
easier than a DOS boot disk? In your post you say that N2 will need 32mb
ram and 64mb ram is better, OK thats already at least 8mb more than my
DOS config. requires, you also say that a P166mmx will give good
performance, but that some detail may have to be turned down. My P166
classic in DOS runs 30fps with all detail on and full field drawn. I
still say SHOW ME THE MONEY :) name me a high end sim that has the
graphical quality of N2, and can maintain a playable frame rate, all
this on a system comparable to mine. Win95 just has too much "overhead"
to make true "*** Goodness" a reality. DOS may be dead, but I am not
holding its funeral at my house for quite a while!
-JH-
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Julian said:
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