It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
Community
General discussion (archive)New release: Magic Carpet(137 posts)(137 posts)
(137 posts)
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
This is my favourite topic
Posted June 16, 2011
As the last release from the first batch of the huge deal with Electronic Arts, we’re giving you a chance to become a wizard that needs to save the world.

[url=http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/magic_carpet]Magic Carpet is an extraordinary action shooter game from the acclaimed Bullfrog Productions. All magic wielders are battling between themselves for the most valuable resource (no, not oil) - mana. Casting huge meteor showers or invoking a terrifying thunder storm, one could summon a castle in the middle of an ocean or just create a volcano right on top of this little harmless village. If you’re not the type of guy that likes to let the hell loose you could always just throw fireballs here and there or just summon a massive skeleton army to plow your way through the plethora of hostile creatures. Apart from other wizards and genies fighting you over the oh so precious mana, you’ll encounter various fantasy monsters ready to devour you (like a hydra or a dragon) or convert mana into more monsters (like the crabs do ;)).

Apart from this awesome flying-carpet action you can slow down a take a look at the normal lives of the townsfolk to admire the normal day to day activities that the AI performs. And if we’re on the subject of AI, the one controlling the opposing wizards is exceptional even when looking from today’s perspective.
If you ever wanted to live the life of a carpet-zooming wizard now you can! Want to do much more than just sing-along “A Whole New World” with the prince and the princess? Then this is the game for you!
Posted June 17, 2011
Dosbox version again. I'll pass.

Some games on dosbox runs very, very slow on my machine, like Blood (One unit whole blood).
Posted June 17, 2011
avatar
keeveek: Dosbox version again. I'll pass.

Some games on dosbox runs very, very slow on my machine, like Blood (One unit whole blood).
Blood should run fast if you change it to 320x200 in the in-game setup.
Posted June 17, 2011
avatar
keeveek: Dosbox version again. I'll pass.

Some games on dosbox runs very, very slow on my machine, like Blood (One unit whole blood).
avatar
kalirion: Blood should run fast if you change it to 320x200 in the in-game setup.
I'm not sure if my laptop even supports that low resolution. But I will try that, thank you.
Posted June 17, 2011
high rated
avatar
kalirion: Blood should run fast if you change it to 320x200 in the in-game setup.
avatar
keeveek: I'm not sure if my laptop even supports that low resolution. But I will try that, thank you.
Your laptop probably does not support it. What you need to do is have the in-game resolution (chosen from the options menu in the game) be 320x200, but the DosBox resolution (configured in the .conf file) be one that your laptop supports.

For example in the dosbox conf file you should set:

fullresolution=0x0 (picks your desktop resolution, or you could set it to 1280x720 or whatever)
aspect=true
output=openglnb
scaler=none

If your laptop does not like openglnb, you could try direct3d, surface or overlay but for the last two you'd need to make scaler=normal3x to avoid a tiny window.


If in-game 320x200 runs very well, you could try raising it a bit. Note that if you're using scaler=normal3x, 400x300 * 3 would be 1200x900, which would not fit on a 1360x768. That's one reason I like output openglnb. direct3d makes things too blurry for my tastes.
Post edited June 17, 2011 by kalirion
Posted June 17, 2011
avatar
keeveek: I'm not sure if my laptop even supports that low resolution. But I will try that, thank you.
avatar
kalirion: Your laptop probably does not support it. What you need to do is have the in-game resolution (chosen from the options menu in the game) be 320x200, but the DosBox resolution (configured in the .conf file) be one that your laptop supports.

For example in the dosbox conf file you should set:

fullresolution=0x0 (picks your desktop resolution, or you could set it to 1280x720 or whatever)
aspect=true
output=openglnb
scaler=none

If your laptop does not like openglnb, you could try direct3d, surface or overlay but for the last two you'd need to make scaler=normal3x to avoid a tiny window.


If in-game 320x200 runs very well, you could try raising it a bit. Note that if you're using scaler=normal3x, 400x300 * 3 would be 1200x900, which would not fit on a 1360x768. That's one reason I like output openglnb. direct3d makes things too blurry for my tastes.
It really did the thing! thank you very much, the game runs smooth now and looks quite nice
Posted June 18, 2011
wishlisted

waiting for the addon and other goodies GOG used to give with the game..
Posted June 18, 2011
Hi, someone pointed me at this release a few days ago and I instantly downloaded it because, even though I wrote the Graphic Engine, I hadn't played it for a very long time.

I wrote a quick blog about it here (I hope I posted that correctly) which consists mostly of me making excuses for the pathetic draw distance.
Posted June 18, 2011
avatar
GlennX: Hi, someone pointed me at this release a few days ago and I instantly downloaded it because, even though I wrote the Graphic Engine, I hadn't played it for a very long time.

I wrote a quick blog about it here (I hope I posted that correctly) which consists mostly of me making excuses for the pathetic draw distance.
Interesting little read and welcome to GOG. Did you write any other bullfrog engines? DOSBox is a bit of a poor performer and I rarely buy any DOS games on GOG because of it. (They don't run at a decent speed on my netbook.)
Posted June 19, 2011
avatar
GlennX: Hi, someone pointed me at this release a few days ago and I instantly downloaded it because, even though I wrote the Graphic Engine, I hadn't played it for a very long time.

I wrote a quick blog about it here (I hope I posted that correctly) which consists mostly of me making excuses for the pathetic draw distance.
avatar
serpantino: Interesting little read and welcome to GOG. Did you write any other bullfrog engines? DOSBox is a bit of a poor performer and I rarely buy any DOS games on GOG because of it. (They don't run at a decent speed on my netbook.)
DOSBox isn't the poor performer. Your CPU is. Emulation requires alot of CPU power. A netbook is only meant for basic web/office tasks not programs require heavy processing power.
Post edited June 19, 2011 by DosFreak
Posted June 19, 2011
Can't say I have any problems with DOS games on my netbook. Running an Aspire One Happy, and with some tweaking of the dosbox.conf file I can get Magic Carpet running at a decent and steady framerate in hi-res mode.

I always adjust the default config files though - the ones packaged with the games are almost always set to levels that cause sound problems, and sometimes they set the cycles so low that even on high-spec machines games are jerky.
Posted June 19, 2011
avatar
Gremmi: Can't say I have any problems with DOS games on my netbook. Running an Aspire One Happy, and with some tweaking of the dosbox.conf file I can get Magic Carpet running at a decent and steady framerate in hi-res mode.

I always adjust the default config files though - the ones packaged with the games are almost always set to levels that cause sound problems, and sometimes they set the cycles so low that even on high-spec machines games are jerky.
Is there a readable guide handy anywhere? I wonder if GOG has reasons for not setting up the config files better themselves.
Posted June 19, 2011
"I wonder if GOG has reasons for not setting up the config files better themselves."

In the case of Magic Carpet it would be extremely difficult to do this, it handles increasing CPU speeds in a very lame way.

I just tried changing 'cycles' from 20000 to 70000 (a3.5x speed increase) and it runs fine in hi-res. It will start way to fast but hit:

R to change the resolution
F5 to turn on reflections
F6 to turn on the sky
F10 for stereo mode if you have red/cyan 3D glasses
Posted June 19, 2011
Now all they need to do is bring back Syndicate W.ars
Posted June 19, 2011
avatar
Gremmi: Can't say I have any problems with DOS games on my netbook. Running an Aspire One Happy, and with some tweaking of the dosbox.conf file I can get Magic Carpet running at a decent and steady framerate in hi-res mode.

I always adjust the default config files though - the ones packaged with the games are almost always set to levels that cause sound problems, and sometimes they set the cycles so low that even on high-spec machines games are jerky.
avatar
serpantino: Is there a readable guide handy anywhere? I wonder if GOG has reasons for not setting up the config files better themselves.
It varies game by game, but the default config I have involves the following changes:


[sdl]
fullscreen=true
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=0x0
windowresolution=original
output=openglnb


[render]
frameskip=0
aspect=true
scaler=none

[mixer]
nosound=false
rate=44100
blocksize=4096
prebuffer=50

I then tinker with the CPU settings (changing it from Normal to Dynamic, playing around with the cycles) until I have it running solidly.

I also personally prefer to enable Gravis Ultrasound and copy the patch directory in on games that support it.
Posted June 19, 2011
Thanks I'll look into it. Maybe I'll finally be able to get some of them working fine (just noticed I have Krondor on my netbook and that runs DOSbox'd ok)
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussion (archive)New release: Magic Carpet(137 posts)(137 posts)
(137 posts)