Author Topic: What are the minimum requirements for Dragon King? (Read 4757 times)

AlanS17 · « **on:** July 01, 2003, 10:53:41 pm »

This seems to be a pretty resource-intensive front-end. I'm having a really hard time running it. In fact, I'm having an impossible time running it. Plus when I exit out of a blank screen (I never see a thing) to get back to Windows it takes a very long time and Windows never really seems to recover from it.

What are the processor/memory requirements for it???

By the way, I do use Windows XP.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #1 on:** July 02, 2003, 11:11:16 pm »

A decent video card. (By decent I mean radeon

)

about a 1 gig processor

256+ megs of ram

It WILL run on far less resources, but this is what is required to run the default skin and skins with advanced layering like it.

Btw the symptoms you are experiencing are in the faq.... Set the render mode to software and see if you get a picture.

AlanS17 · « **Reply #2 on:** July 03, 2003, 01:34:04 am »

I already tried that and didn't get anything. I'm running a PIII @ 866MHz with only 128MB of ram. I think the RAM is my problem. (By the way, I upgraded to a Radeon 7000.)

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #3 on:** July 03, 2003, 01:38:28 am »

for a 7000 it MUST be in full software mode as high res texture caching isn't supported

AlanS17 · « **Reply #4 on:** July 03, 2003, 01:52:36 am »

I tried, but I'm still having trouble. I'm not ready to give up yet, though...

IIOIOOIOO · « **Reply #5 on:** July 03, 2003, 01:27:49 pm »

How much of the system resources remain consumed when you shell out to a game?

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #6 on:** July 03, 2003, 01:35:14 pm »

absolutely none.... as with all other windows front ends i lock the fe when an app is launched and thus windoze is free to re-allocate any resources it might have used

Minwah · « **Reply #7 on:** July 03, 2003, 02:26:10 pm »

Quote from: Howard_Casto on July 03, 2003, 01:35:14 pm

absolutely none.... as with all other windows front ends i lock the fe when an app is launched and thus windoze is free to re-allocate any resources it might have used

Howard: How exactly do you do this? I make my FE wait until the shelled app has finished, but I don't know if this is what you mean...maybe I should be doing something else? Up to now I haven't been overly worried about resources due to the simple-ness of MW, but I guess now it is more of an issue...

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #8 on:** July 03, 2003, 03:42:13 pm »

If your are doing a "shell and wait" or "wait until finished" call then you are doing right. Windows then automatically assigns any memory that your app is using as lowest priority and thus when more memory is needed from another app the contents of those addresses are dumped to the swap file and the memory is freed. It's quite nice how windoze does this automatically for us.

Now if you were to launch an app via a batch file with a wait command without locking the fe this wouldn't be the case.

So yes, you are probably good. As I said to the poster, it's not really an issue on a modern fe.

**edit**

but if any of you smarties out there try to monitor the resources being freed you won't see it happen.

Why? because the used memory is only dumped to the hdd when it's needed by the other app. So of dk takes up 250 mb of your memory when you launch mame it's still gonna show 250 megs being used (maybe more). Because the game frees up any memory that it needs and any remaining "dk memory" would be left in place until it's space is needed.

I hope that makes sense to everyone, because it's hard to explain in proper technical terms. (And thus I opted not to)

paigeoliver · « **Reply #9 on:** July 04, 2003, 07:53:39 am »

Wow. Dragon King has higher system requirements than 99.9 percent of the actual games it frontends.

Minwah · « **Reply #10 on:** July 04, 2003, 10:36:01 am »

Quote from: Howard_Casto on July 03, 2003, 03:42:13 pm

If your are doing a "shell and wait" or "wait until finished" call then you are doing right. Windows then automatically assigns any memory that your app is using as lowest priority and thus when more memory is needed from another app the contents of those addresses are dumped to the swap file and the memory is freed. It's quite nice how windoze does this automatically for us.

Great, thanks, that's what I am doing...

...although it often doesn't seem to 'wait' when launching some PC apps. Perhaps because I use Windows shortcuts, the shotcut itself is finished almost instantly, but the EXE of the app is still running. Not sure really, but I need to look at this....

F|end · « **Reply #11 on:** July 04, 2003, 10:52:22 am »

Yeah Paige! Even !3d arcade! requires less power that Dragon King!

You're a failure pal!

Quit the scene and go play Ut2003!

meta87 · « **Reply #12 on:** July 04, 2003, 01:28:32 pm »

Quote from: Whiskeroids on July 04, 2003, 10:52:22 am

Yeah Paige! Even !3d arcade! requires less power that Dragon King!

You're a failure pal!

Quit the scene and go play Ut2003!

Dude, shutup. Your not contributing to this forum at all. I appreciate what Howard does for the community.

I bet you wouldn't know the first thing about how to make such a good frontend.

F|end · « **Reply #13 on:** July 04, 2003, 02:11:18 pm »

It's personal! Don't envolve please!

)p( · « **Reply #14 on:** July 04, 2003, 02:28:04 pm »

Quote from: Whiskeroids on July 04, 2003, 10:52:22 am

Yeah Paige! Even !3d arcade! requires less power that Dragon King!

You're a failure pal!

Quit the scene and go play Ut2003!

umh...i would not be so sure...try loading all models that are available at once...i am sure cashing these in ram will take all the ram it can get from windows...

update: ok i was curious so i gave it a go with my default setup using all models cashed and 100 models in the arcade...taksmanager reported 205 mb ram usage...so very similar to dk...

but as hc rightly points out this does not matter much...as all the ram is freed up when a game is loaded...

peter

planetjay · « **Reply #15 on:** July 04, 2003, 03:21:35 pm »

Quote from: Whiskeroids on July 04, 2003, 02:11:18 pm

It's personal! Don't envolve please!

The Message Board is NOT HERE FOR YOUR PERSONAL CRAP! You have a problem with someone, ADDRESS IT TO THEM. Concider this your public warning, any future flaming of HowardC or anyone else and you will find yourself made into AN EXAMPLE.

meta87 · « **Reply #16 on:** July 04, 2003, 03:22:23 pm »

Quote from: Whiskeroids on July 04, 2003, 02:11:18 pm

It's personal! Don't envolve please!

If its personal please don't concern the rest of us by posting it in a PUBLIC forum.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #17 on:** July 04, 2003, 10:15:51 pm »

Quote from: Minwah on July 04, 2003, 10:36:01 am

Quote from: Howard_Casto on July 03, 2003, 03:42:13 pm
If your are doing a "shell and wait" or "wait until finished" call then you are doing right. Windows then automatically assigns any memory that your app is using as lowest priority and thus when more memory is needed from another app the contents of those addresses are dumped to the swap file and the memory is freed. It's quite nice how windoze does this automatically for us.

Great, thanks, that's what I am doing...

...although it often doesn't seem to 'wait' when launching some PC apps. Perhaps because I use Windows shortcuts, the shotcut itself is finished almost instantly, but the EXE of the app is still running. Not sure really, but I need to look at this....

Yeah you should never launch a shortcut for this reason. What a shortcut does is traget run32.dll to an address in memory, so as you said, it's almost an instant finish.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #18 on:** July 05, 2003, 12:16:55 am »

Those of you that have lower resources on your system will be glad to know that dk's footprint size is now dependant upon the size of your master list. (Put the new code in about 20 min ago :-) )

My list is quite extensive and with the most advanced skin I could run it only takes about 45 megs of memory.

So system requirements should'nt be an issue anymore as any system that has a 3daccelerated video card capable of handling dk will have a minimum of 128 megs of ram.

For Mr. Negative perhaps you should step back and look. Dk is a version 0.7 Yes 0.7 it's not even 1.0 yet. In other words it's beta. I don't even begin to optimize one of my fes until I get the basic features I want in it first. Perhaps you should find something else to nit-pick about now.

Odonadon · « **Reply #19 on:** July 05, 2003, 02:02:19 am »

Quote

Yeah you should never launch a shortcut for this reason. What a shortcut does is traget run32.dll to an address in memory, so as you said, it's almost an instant finish.

HC - does this mean that we should be using batch files as opposed to shortcut files to launch our PC games from within the FEs that support these?

Thanks,
Odonadon

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #20 on:** July 05, 2003, 02:23:07 am »

yeah, you need to do a batch file that has a:

launchpcgame.exe
wait (or whatever the call is to wait and then exit)

if the batch file points to the shortcut then it's just as bad.... so you need to point to the exe.

Just out of curiosity, why would you point to the shortcut rather than the exe anyway?

Odonadon · « **Reply #21 on:** July 05, 2003, 02:33:30 am »

Quote from: Howard_Casto on July 05, 2003, 02:23:07 am

yeah, you need to do a batch file that has a:

launchpcgame.exe
wait (or whatever the call is to wait and then exit)

if the batch file points to the shortcut then it's just as bad.... so you need to point to the exe.

Just out of curiosity, why would you point to the shortcut rather than the exe anyway?

I didn't understand that either. I suppose it makes more sense to people who are more familiar with Windows shortcuts as opposed to batch files. That's my guess, anyway. "But it says <gamename> in my games folder, and it's the only file in there. Why won't it work?"

Odonadon

johnws · « **Reply #22 on:** July 05, 2003, 03:04:16 am »

I'm fairly new to the M.A.M.E scene and the last couple of days I've tried to learn as much as I could about MAME. Anyway, what's this Dragon King front-end like and is it available for download somewhere?

In the future I'm planning to build a MAME cabinet (these are just TOO cool

) and I'm researching the neatest or most flexible frontend. Plus I wouldn't mind helping you find bugs

johnws · « **Reply #23 on:** July 05, 2003, 03:37:11 am »

Hi, never mind I found the link through google. VERY cool frontend! Took a minute or two to configure, but it was well worth it

Considering the amount of roms I have, it didn't take much time to compile the list. I noticed that horizontal movements scroll through 5 ot 6 games at a time, and then vertical movements are used for precise selection. Nice touch! (Remember I'm new so if this is common don't flame me!)

johnws · « **Reply #24 on:** July 05, 2003, 03:42:20 am »

Sorry about all these posts, and I'm not even sure if I'm posting this in the right forum, but I found that when the directory of my mame folder had spaces in it, the front end didn't load right. I'm not *positive* because I also adjusted a *few* other minor config lines. Anyway, great job on the frontend. And if you don't mind me asking, what language was/is this programmed in?

Frostillicus · « **Reply #25 on:** July 05, 2003, 10:02:44 am »

Quote from: johnws on July 05, 2003, 03:42:20 am

Sorry about all these posts, and I'm not even sure if I'm posting this in the right forum, but I found that when the directory of my mame folder had spaces in it, the front end didn't load right. I'm not *positive* because I also adjusted a *few* other minor config lines. Anyway, great job on the frontend.

I've found as a general rule of thumb for most types of emulation is to leave out spaces in folder names as much as possible. You never know which emulator will be touchy about those kinds of things. Mame especially since it is basically command-line driven.

rampy · « **Reply #26 on:** July 05, 2003, 10:47:39 am »

Let me ask the question a little differently.

What would you guess (HC), would be the minimum requirements if one used a much simpler skin?

Could one then get away with a 500 mhz machine and a Radeon 7000 class card?

Just an idea/thought...

Rampy

johnws · « **Reply #27 on:** July 05, 2003, 01:37:51 pm »

Quote from: Frostillicus on July 05, 2003, 10:02:44 am

Quote from: johnws on July 05, 2003, 03:42:20 am
Sorry about all these posts, and I'm not even sure if I'm posting this in the right forum, but I found that when the directory of my mame folder had spaces in it, the front end didn't load right. I'm not *positive* because I also adjusted a *few* other minor config lines. Anyway, great job on the frontend.

I've found as a general rule of thumb for most types of emulation is to leave out spaces in folder names as much as possible. You never know which emulator will be touchy about those kinds of things. Mame especially since it is basically command-line driven.

Very true. Although, it could also be an easy fix by the author. Instead of calling:
C:\Documents and Settings\User\Mame\mame.exe romname -attributes
they could call it with quotations:
"C:\Documents and Settings\User\Mame\mame.exe" romname -attributes

Just a thought. This may already be implemented for all I know!

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #28 on:** July 05, 2003, 03:06:20 pm »

Quote from: rampy on July 05, 2003, 10:47:39 am

Let me ask the question a little differently.

What would you guess (HC), would be the minimum requirements if one used a much simpler skin?

Could one then get away with a 500 mhz machine and a Radeon 7000 class card?

Just an idea/thought...

Rampy

I think now you could probably get away with the default skin with those resources (after I release this latest version anyway,

)

So in theory a simpler skin would work even better. Dk isn't very processor intensive, but it needs a beefy graphical pipeline and up until now it needed some serious ram. The default skin has 4 elements, a marquee gamelist, and an overlay layer. The average skin would have about half of that so guestimate accordingly.

And about the quotes thing... that works great for mame, but not so great for all then other emus. So I can't simply put it in and hope for the best. However I could do it for the list generator (although personally I keep my emulator paths tight just so I have less typing to do for setup).

Minwah · « **Reply #29 on:** July 07, 2003, 04:55:30 am »

Quote from: Howard_Casto on July 05, 2003, 02:23:07 am

yeah, you need to do a batch file that has a:

launchpcgame.exe
wait (or whatever the call is to wait and then exit)

if the batch file points to the shortcut then it's just as bad.... so you need to point to the exe.

Just out of curiosity, why would you point to the shortcut rather than the exe anyway?

I used shortcuts for this reason: it is a piece of cake to make shortcuts for all your PC games / apps that you want to show up in a list...you can then put these shortcuts in a 'rom' folder and generate a games list as per any emulator.

BAT files require a little more effort...

So how do you get the batch file to 'wait' until the exe has finished? (Doesn't it do this anyway?)

)p( · « **Reply #30 on:** July 07, 2003, 05:37:27 am »

Quote from: Minwah on July 07, 2003, 04:55:30 am

Quote from: Howard_Casto on July 05, 2003, 02:23:07 am
yeah, you need to do a batch file that has a:

launchpcgame.exe
wait (or whatever the call is to wait and then exit)

if the batch file points to the shortcut then it's just as bad.... so you need to point to the exe.

Just out of curiosity, why would you point to the shortcut rather than the exe anyway?

I used shortcuts for this reason: it is a piece of cake to make shortcuts for all your PC games / apps that you want to show up in a list...you can then put these shortcuts in a 'rom' folder and generate a games list as per any emulator.

BAT files require a little more effort...

So how do you get the batch file to 'wait' until the exe has finished? (Doesn't it do this anyway?)

As hc said shortcust can create problems but not very often...

not by default it will continue..

i think it was something like this in a batchfile that will wait before going to the next line:
start /wait myexepath\myexe.exe

peter

Minwah · « **Reply #31 on:** July 08, 2003, 06:34:02 am »

Quote from: )p( on July 07, 2003, 05:37:27 am

i think it was something like this in a batchfile that will wait before going to the next line:
start /wait myexepath\myexe.exe

Thanks )p(, works a treat.

Actually, I've now kept the shortcut thing for the sake of creating games lists...but then rather than launch the LNK I get the target of the shortcut and launch that. Seems to work perfectly now


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