N2 frame rate v. ICR2 frame rate

I am running N2 50th ed. on a P133 with a Stealth 220 and 48 megs of RAM. Finally got it to recognize my Stealth and my mouse, but now notice that the frame rate is decidedly slower than ICR2. I am running the game in DOS and using renddma.bat to start it. (It crawls if I run out of WIN95). ICR2 runs 30+ fps, no problems. Is this to be expected? I have all graphics options set to ON. Unfortunately, Santa did not bring me the Abit BH6, Celeron 300A, etc. that I wanted!!! So no GPL for this kid. TIA -- Otto Matheke "Mandrake, have you ever seen a commie drink a glass of water?"

On Mon, 28 Dec 1998 10:37:48 -0500, Otto Matheke

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>I am running N2 50th ed. on a P133 with a Stealth 220 and 48 megs of >RAM. Finally got it to recognize my Stealth and my mouse, but now >notice that the frame rate is decidedly slower than ICR2. I am running >the game in DOS and using renddma.bat to start it. (It crawls if I run >out of WIN95). ICR2 runs 30+ fps, no problems. >Is this to be expected? I have all graphics options set to ON.

Probably. You've got more cars, more detailed cars, more detailed tracks... Time to start turning down those graphics options. Also, try the 4-bit car graphics option on the command line ("-4"?). BTW, when you say you run DOS, you do mean pure DOS, right? (Boot Win95, hit F8, select "command prompt only" option.) That's a lot faster than a DOS box or Win95's "shutting down to DOS to run this program" method. Bummer. Maybe you could bargain him down to a P233MMX, which would help a N2 lot. And GPL would be tolerable. :) NAR Northeast Regional Contest Board site - points and more...

> BTW, when you say you run DOS, you do mean pure DOS, right? (Boot >Win95, hit F8, select "command prompt only" option.) That's a lot >faster than a DOS box or Win95's "shutting down to DOS to run this >program" method. Be aware: by default Win 95 disables the mscdex line in autoexec and you will have no CD-ROM unless YOU manually add it. Also, you may need DOS environment variables for your sound that MAY not be in your autoexec.bat - they're in your dosstart.bat in c:\Windows. Compare these 2 files and add whatever you need to autoexec.bat. Don Hancock "Gunner" PS I, too, recommend the F8 approach, just MAKE SURE your autoexec is right!

In your bios there is a setting that can help Rendition frame rates. Increase your PCI Latency timing to improve your Verite. I use 48 but many others have gone much higher. 255 is the max I think. If you have other pci cards, (sound etc) increasing the pci latency may degrade them. experiment to find a happy medium. and using the -4 command really helps too. i.e. in the renddma.bat put a -4 after the .exe = renddma.exe -4(I think!) dave henrie

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>I am running N2 50th ed. on a P133 with a Stealth 220 and 48 megs of >RAM. Finally got it to recognize my Stealth and my mouse, but now >notice that the frame rate is decidedly slower than ICR2. I am running >the game in DOS and using renddma.bat to start it. (It crawls if I run >out of WIN95). ICR2 runs 30+ fps, no problems. >Is this to be expected? I have all graphics options set to ON. >Unfortunately, Santa did not bring me the Abit BH6, Celeron 300A, etc. >that I wanted!!! >So no GPL for this kid. >TIA >-- >Otto Matheke >"Mandrake, have you ever seen a commie drink a glass of water?"

I'm lucky, I don't need that (everything loaded on the HD and sound card is old and dumb enough to run on its own :). If you do, instead of fiddling with your AUTOEXEC.BAT (and then possibly loading things in Win95 you don't need), consider making a floppy boot disk with the proper AUTOEXEC.BAT. Just pop it in and boot whenever you want to race. "But in a way, fear is a big part of racing, because if there was nothing to be frightened of, and no limit, any fool could get into a motor car and racing would not exist as a sport." -- Jim Clark

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>> Be aware: by default Win 95 disables the mscdex line in autoexec and you >>will have no CD-ROM unless YOU manually add it. Also, you may need DOS >>environment variables for your sound that MAY not be in your autoexec.bat - >>they're in your dosstart.bat in c:\Windows. Compare these 2 files and add >>whatever you need to autoexec.bat. > I'm lucky, I don't need that (everything loaded on the HD and sound >card is old and dumb enough to run on its own :). If you do, instead >of fiddling with your AUTOEXEC.BAT (and then possibly loading things >in Win95 you don't need), consider making a floppy boot disk with the >proper AUTOEXEC.BAT. Just pop it in and boot whenever you want to >race.

The most elegant (IMO) option is to have Win9x and DOS 6.xx coexist on the same system. If you still have the old DOS disks, copy all files to a C:\DOS directory and use expand.exe to uncompress them. Delete DOS' scandisk.exe and defrag.exe right away, as they will mess up your system if executed by chance. Now rename DOS' command.com to command.dos and copy it to the root directory of the C: drive. Also, create two files called autoexec.dos and config.dos in the root directory. Those files should contain the lines for autoexec.bat and config.sys you need in DOS mode. Next time you start your computer, you can boot to a fully functional DOS 6.xx by pressing F8 after POST and selecting "previous DOS version". If you have TweakUI, you can access the old DOS version directly by pressing F4. I prefer this over a boot disk for several reasons: - It boots more quickly. - I keep losing my boot disks. :) - All DOS commands are available. - I can keep my multiple configurations for all kinds of games and troubleshooting. - Unlike DOS 7.xx (which will be the OS on your boot disk if you created it under Win9x), DOS 6.xx has nothing to do with Win9x, so you can always know what the system is actually doing. This approach works fine with Win95, 95a and 98, but not with 95b. Under Win95b, you have to alter one file with a hex editor to allow "dual boot". But I forgot which one. ;) -- Wolfgang Preiss \ E-mail copies of replies to this posting are welcome.