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X-COM seriesRegarding TFTD Dosbos cycles(4 posts)(4 posts)
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Posted July 14, 2019
I want once again run Terror from the deep vanilla with dosbox, and the most serious problem that this game suffers is the performance inconsistency over dosbox depending the game situation. The default settings GOG offers are nearly fine in Geoscape ( clock speed maybe a bit faster than in the old days but bearable) and in standard missions. the game runs closer to the UFO defense performance. But in terror missions and/or multimissions or multifloor missions like base attacks the performace goes to a crawl. Extreme lag and slowness. Unplayable.

Of course, with max cycles those missions run smoother but the geoscape is too fast to play as intended.

Any advice?

I run openxcom for years, but I really want to run the real dos version thing in a confortable way. Is it possible?
Posted July 16, 2019
I can't test right now (maybe this weekend if you need me to), but you can try it yourself: Edit the "cycleup" and "cycledown" values in the game's DOSBox config file to something like 2500 and use Ctrl+F11 and Ctrl+F12 to, respectively, lower and increase the number of cycles while in game.

You should find one number of cycles for each area of the game that work well. If you end up comfortable with just two numbers (one for Geoscape and another for the missions which currently run too slow) then set the number for Geoscape (which will be lower) in the "cycles" value of the config file, and the difference between that one and the other number of cycles in the "cycleup" and "cycledown" values.

Game runs normally, and when you enter the problematic missions, you press Ctrl+F12, and when finishing the mission Ctrl+F11.

---

Example (with completely unrealistic numbers):

You want to run Geoscape with 10000 cycles and slow missions with 50000 cycles. The numbers in the config file would then be

cycles=10000
cycleup=40000
cycledown=40000
Post edited July 16, 2019 by Links
Posted July 16, 2019
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Links: I can't test right now (maybe this weekend if you need me to), but you can try it yourself: Edit the "cycleup" and "cycledown" values in the game's DOSBox config file to something like 2500 and use Ctrl+F11 and Ctrl+F12 to, respectively, lower and increase the number of cycles while in game.

You should find one number of cycles for each area of the game that work well. If you end up comfortable with just two numbers (one for Geoscape and another for the missions which currently run too slow) then set the number for Geoscape (which will be lower) in the "cycles" value of the config file, and the difference between that one and the other number of cycles in the "cycleup" and "cycledown" values.

Game runs normally, and when you enter the problematic missions, you press Ctrl+F12, and when finishing the mission Ctrl+F11.

---

Example (with completely unrealistic numbers):

You want to run Geoscape with 10000 cycles and slow missions with 50000 cycles. The numbers in the config file would then be

cycles=10000
cycleup=40000
cycledown=40000
Thanks for the advice.

In fact manually tunning sycles is the only way to have the game working at reasonable speeds. it reminds me Ultima VII.

Now I am running geoscape at around 9000 that in my case is fine, missions need around 15000 to be smooth, but special missions may need 35000 cycles in my configuration. I probably will try your numbers to see if it works better for me.

So, for now the best I have is to edit the cycles up and down in config file to something around 20000 cycles so I can change the speed up and down just once or two.

Greetings and thank for the advice again.
Posted July 17, 2019
Hope it works. Enjoy the game!
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X-COM seriesRegarding TFTD Dosbos cycles(4 posts)(4 posts)
(4 posts)