DOSBox
DOSBox is an emulator of an Intel x86 PC running MS-DOS. It is geared towards running games originally developed for MS-DOS. In particular, DOSBox is able to run Stunts almost flawlessly, which is of crucial importance to Stunts racers, not only for allowing the game to be played under recent Windows versions or Linux, but also for making NoRH racing with video capture viable.
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General tips
Frontends
One of the main obstacles for many racers to get Stunts running properly under DOSBox is the need to manipulate and hand-edit .conf files in order to modify and store settings. Frontends are helper programs which simplify the configuration process of DOSBox a lot. They allow the user to create and manage profiles for different games, each profile being associated with a .conf file. The settings for that game in said .conf file can be modified through the frontend graphical interface, which can be a lot more comfortable than editing the files or Notepad directly. Furthermore, frontends usually provide a very practical way of launching the games from their interface, avoiding the hassle of launching DOSBox and mounting the folders manually. A list of frontends is available on this DOSBox Wiki page; most of them have very similar features. In particular, Duplode has tried DBGL, and it works flawlessly for all Stunts purposes.
Number of cycles
The number of cycles setting of DOSBox is, by far, the most crucial parameter for adjustment in order to get Stunts to run smoothly. It controls how fast is the virtual processor emulated by DOSBox runs. Since emulation is a quite inefficient process, the actual CPU load is much higher than one would suppose for the number of cycles of the emulated processor. That is the main reason why DOSBox is so processor-intensive. Finding the correct value for the number of cycles setting can be tricky, since setting it too low will make the game sluggish, as the virtual processor will not meet Stunts minimum requirements. Setting it too high, however, won't work either in most cases, as the real CPU of the computer will be overloaded. Therefore, the ideal value is an intermediate "sweet-spot". For instance, assuming one wishes to run Stunts with high-quality settings (scalers for 1024x768, maximum quality sound, etc.), the minimum reasonable number of cycles will be somewhere around 8000. The upper limit depends heavily on the actual processor; while a modern dual-core can easily deal with 20000 cycles, an early 2000's Athlon XP will call for lowering it to ~12000. In general, the slower the processor is, the harder it will be to strike a balance. If tuning only by the number of cycles proves impossible, further fine tuning of graphics and other settings may be necessary.
Example configuration files
Here are some sample .conf files for different computers submitted by Stunts racers. In order to use them, paste their contents on a text editor and save the resulting file either overwriting the dosbox.conf on the DOSBox folder (under Windows, in Linux it will be on the Home folder) or as a separate file (if you choose to do so, then launch DOSBox with the command dosbox -conf <path to the .conf file>). If you are using frontends, it is possible, and very convenient, to associate a profile with the .conf file you created that way. Observation: please note that there are several path locations in those files. They are signaled by the <> brackets. Before using the files, replace them by the appropriate paths for your system - don't forget to put quotation marks should they have any whitespace.
- Core 2 Duo E6600, 2GB RAM, works flawlessly (submitted by Duplode):
[cpu] cycles=20000 core=dynamic [render] scaler=normal3x [dosbox] captures=<insert the folder where videos and screenshots will go> [sdl] fullscreen=true windowresolution=640x480 priority=higher,pause fullresolution=1280x960 [autoexec] mount C <insert path of your Stunts folder> C: cd \ stunts_k.exe exit
- Pentium-M 1.4Ghz, 1GB RAM, Windows XP SP3, works flawlessly windowed (almost filling full-screen) not recommended for high resolutions. Flawlessly works on similar computers of Bonzai Joe and Akoss Poo. (submitted by zaqrack):
[cpu] cycles=max core=auto [render] scaler=normal3x frameskip=0 [dosbox] captures=<insert the folder where videos and screenshots will go> [sdl] fullscreen=false output=surface [autoexec] mount C <insert path of your Stunts folder> C: cd \ stunts_k.exe exit
- AMD Sempron 2600+ 1.61 GHz; 1,00 GB Ram, Win XP SP2. Works smoothly in window mode, full screen might need some extra CPU Cycles. (submitted by Chulk):
[cpu] cycles=10000 core=auto [render] scaler=normal2x frameskip=0 [dosbox] captures=<insert the folder where videos and screenshots will go> [sdl] fullscreen=false windowresolution=original priority=higher,normal fullresolution=original [autoexec] mount C <insert path of your Stunts folder> C: stunts_k
- AMD Sempron 2600+ 1.61GHz; 512MB RAM, Win XP SP2. Works smoothly in windowed and fullscreen modes. Just beware of heavy applications on the background - e.g. Firefox with a lot of open tabs. (submitted by Duplode):
[cpu] cycles=14000 core=dynamic [render] scaler=none [dosbox] captures=<insert the folder where videos and screenshots will go> [sdl] fulldouble=true windowresolution=640x480 priority=higher,normal mapperfile= output=overlay fullresolution=640x480 [autoexec] mount S <insert path of your Stunts folder> S: cd \ stunts_k.exe
- Pentium IV 3.00GHz; 512MB RAM, Win XP SP2. Works quite well windowed. (submitted by Mark L. Rivers):
[cpu] cycles=9000 core=normal [render] scaler=normal 2x [dosbox] captures=<insert the folder where videos and screenshots will go> [sdl] fulldouble=false windowresolution=original priority=higher,normal mapperfile=original [dos] xms=true ems=true umb=true [autoexec] mount k <insert path of your Stunts folder> k: stunts_k
Issues on running Stunts with DOSBox
Gameplay experience of Stunts under DOSBox can be quite unsatisfactory if compared with normal (pure DOS) execution if the computer is too slow to support the required emulation or the settings are not appropriate, with general sluggishness and reduced control response being the main complaints. Moreover, many veteran racers agree that, even with an ideal DOSBox setup, handling under pure DOS is slightly superior - even if some racers eventually get so used to DOSBox they do not realize the difference anymore. Nevertheless, under a good setup Stunts works very well on DOSBox: no gameplay bugs of any kind are introduced, and competitive racer performance is mostly unaffected.
On a correctly configured DOSBox, the feature most subject to bugs while running Stunts is sound emulation. When restarting a race, car sounds may become partially or completely mute relatively often. Such behaviour often can be observed when DOSBox is left idle or on background for some time; pausing the emulation with ALT + PAUSE when switching tasks minimizes that and other related occurrences. Those sound bugs usually resolve spontaneously after a while or with some race restarts.
