Posted January 02, 2012
high rated
Like many other Bullfrog games, Magic Carpet has a number of graphical settings that are a bit obscure because there's no options menu in the game and you won't discover them unless you start hitting keys at random or read the manual. And who does that?
So here's my guide for making Magic Carpet as pretty as it can be. I'm also including some tricks on improving the music and controls.
1. Change the CPU Cycles
Go to your Magic Carpet directory (by default it's "C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG.com\Magic Carpet") and open the file "dosboxMC.conf" with Notepad. Search for a line called "cycles". In my experience 180000 is a great setting for the game.
The game will run incredibly fast at first but don't worry: it will run just fine once we enable high resolution / SVGA mode.
And if it is still going to run too fast, you can of course experiment with different cycles setting until you're happy. You can press Ctrl+F11 and Ctrl+12 to adjust cycles during gameplay. In windowed mode (Alt + Enter) you can see your current cycles and later enter the setting you feel is best into your configuration file.
Fun fact: if you set the CPU type to "pentium_simple" you will get an Intel intro after game launch. However, I don't know if this setting also does anything else to the game.
2. Set proper audio configuration
By default the game is configured to play Soundblaster / AdLib music which may cause your ears to bleed. It sounds a lot nicer when you change the midi device to General MIDI. So after game launch, choose these settings:
Sound Source: Soundblaster 16
Music Source: General MIDI
Sound I/O: 220
Sound IRQ: 5
Sound DMA: 1
Music I/O: 330
Note that General MIDI will cause DOSBox to use your system's default MIDI device for MIDI music. You can get downright amazing results if you e.g. use Coolsoft's VirtualMIDISynth and get a nice SoundFont. Personally I recommend Fluid R3.
3. Adjust the graphics
Press the following keys once to activate some neat details:
- F4 (activate "soften" - it's actually an internal anti aliasing algorithm in a 1994 game!)
- F5 (turn on reflections - this will make the water reflect everything else)
- F6 (turn on sky - pretty self-explanatory)
- F7 (turn on shadows - this will make all objects cast shadows... even fireballs!)
Also: Owners of red/blue-goggles may actually use F10 to activate a 3D mode!
4. High resolution Mode
There is one thing that you have to set manually every single time you run the game: press R to activate SVGA (increases the screen resolution to 640x480). Makes the game look much much better (and also run much slower).
5. Rebind keys
Finally, Magic Carpet does not allow rebinding keys but DOSBox does! Just press Ctrl+F1 at any point while DOSBox is open to access its Mapper tool.
For a WASD layout you just have to click on the cursor keys, then on "Add" and press the corresponding letter keys. When you're done, click on "Save".
I also recommend binding the Return key to Tab for easier access to the map / spell menu.
Bonus: spell hotkeys
Like in most shooters you can actually quickly select specific spells using the number keys (which incidentally works a million times better with WASD controls than the default ones).
If you hold down Ctrl while pressing a number, the spell will be assigned to your second slot.
Unlike other games Magic Carpet also allows freely rebinding spells during gameplay: just open the map, point at a spell, and press the number you want to bind it to.
What's not so great is that these spell bindings don't get saved and you have to redo them each time you start or restart a level.
So here's my guide for making Magic Carpet as pretty as it can be. I'm also including some tricks on improving the music and controls.
1. Change the CPU Cycles
Go to your Magic Carpet directory (by default it's "C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG.com\Magic Carpet") and open the file "dosboxMC.conf" with Notepad. Search for a line called "cycles". In my experience 180000 is a great setting for the game.
The game will run incredibly fast at first but don't worry: it will run just fine once we enable high resolution / SVGA mode.
And if it is still going to run too fast, you can of course experiment with different cycles setting until you're happy. You can press Ctrl+F11 and Ctrl+12 to adjust cycles during gameplay. In windowed mode (Alt + Enter) you can see your current cycles and later enter the setting you feel is best into your configuration file.
Fun fact: if you set the CPU type to "pentium_simple" you will get an Intel intro after game launch. However, I don't know if this setting also does anything else to the game.
2. Set proper audio configuration
By default the game is configured to play Soundblaster / AdLib music which may cause your ears to bleed. It sounds a lot nicer when you change the midi device to General MIDI. So after game launch, choose these settings:
Sound Source: Soundblaster 16
Music Source: General MIDI
Sound I/O: 220
Sound IRQ: 5
Sound DMA: 1
Music I/O: 330
Note that General MIDI will cause DOSBox to use your system's default MIDI device for MIDI music. You can get downright amazing results if you e.g. use Coolsoft's VirtualMIDISynth and get a nice SoundFont. Personally I recommend Fluid R3.
3. Adjust the graphics
Press the following keys once to activate some neat details:
- F4 (activate "soften" - it's actually an internal anti aliasing algorithm in a 1994 game!)
- F5 (turn on reflections - this will make the water reflect everything else)
- F6 (turn on sky - pretty self-explanatory)
- F7 (turn on shadows - this will make all objects cast shadows... even fireballs!)
Also: Owners of red/blue-goggles may actually use F10 to activate a 3D mode!
4. High resolution Mode
There is one thing that you have to set manually every single time you run the game: press R to activate SVGA (increases the screen resolution to 640x480). Makes the game look much much better (and also run much slower).
5. Rebind keys
Finally, Magic Carpet does not allow rebinding keys but DOSBox does! Just press Ctrl+F1 at any point while DOSBox is open to access its Mapper tool.
For a WASD layout you just have to click on the cursor keys, then on "Add" and press the corresponding letter keys. When you're done, click on "Save".
I also recommend binding the Return key to Tab for easier access to the map / spell menu.
Bonus: spell hotkeys
Like in most shooters you can actually quickly select specific spells using the number keys (which incidentally works a million times better with WASD controls than the default ones).
If you hold down Ctrl while pressing a number, the spell will be assigned to your second slot.
Unlike other games Magic Carpet also allows freely rebinding spells during gameplay: just open the map, point at a spell, and press the number you want to bind it to.
What's not so great is that these spell bindings don't get saved and you have to redo them each time you start or restart a level.
Post edited May 25, 2024 by F4LL0UT