vdmsound from command prompt

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Sidious

vdmsound from command prompt

Post by Sidious » Sun Dec 03, 2006 11:01 pm

Hi! im one of those who just happen to love old games, especially blood! =)
im sitting here "tweaking" blood 3d, and i get it to run perfectly using a batch file. but when i invoke a .vlp file it runs slower.
my problem: when hosting multiplayer games i have to lauch vdmsound through a .vlp file. that's because if network play is going to work you have to enable "low level network support", and that part resides in the .vlp file.
my question: is it possible to run vdmsound from the command prompt, and at the same time activate low level network support using a parameter? ex: DOSDRV -enableNetwareUse
if not, how to enable low level network support from the cmd prompt??
anyone?

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Ephemeral
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Post by Ephemeral » Tue Jan 30, 2007 1:48 pm

Try putting this in your VDMS.ini

Code: Select all

[winnt.storage]
useNetware=yes

Sidious

Post by Sidious » Thu Feb 01, 2007 1:45 am

actually i solved this question a long time ago.

Many people(as i did) think that DOSDRV is the command-line version of LauchPad, which creates and uses the *.VLP files. It is not. When the 'low-level networking' checkbox in LaunchPad is ticked - the following temporary "AUTOEXEC.NT" style file is created:


@ECHO OFF
LH %SYSTEMROOT%\SYSTEM32\REDIR
REM Remove below DOSX line if not protected mode app...
LH %SYSTEMROOT%\SYSTEM32\DOSX
LH %SYSTEMROOT%\SYSTEM32\NW16
LH %SYSTEMROOT%\SYSTEM32\VWIPXSPX
C:\PROGRA~1\VDMSOU~1\DOSDRV.EXE "-i:C:\DosGames\YourGame\YourGame.INI"


Best place to use such a "YourGame.NT" file would be in your own PIF file as the Custom MS-DOS initialization file replacement Autoexec filename. If used in a plain batch file run from the DOS prompt you will lose some DOS RAM to an extra copy of COMMAND.COM...

The fact is that LaunchPad blends both a replacement PIF editor and DOSDRV configurator in one GUI product that leads folks to believe that DOSDRV is also a NTVDM launcher.

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Ephemeral
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Post by Ephemeral » Thu Feb 01, 2007 12:24 pm

Dosdrv.exe IS a NTVDM Launcher, in the way that every DOS game under Windows 2000+(32 bit) uses NTVDM. VDMSound is a windows program, but still relies on the "virtual DOS machine".

Sidious

Post by Sidious » Sat Feb 03, 2007 3:16 am

yes...i presume you understood what i wrote.
topic answered...

Guest

Post by Guest » Tue Oct 06, 2009 10:16 pm

Sidious wrote: yes...i presume you understood what i wrote.
topic answered...
Ah, you wrote this, right? Should cover your tracks better.


Ephemeral wrote: Dosdrv.exe IS a NTVDM Launcher, in the way that every DOS game under Windows 2000+(32 bit) uses NTVDM.
No, Dosdrive.exe is NOT a NTVDM launcher. It is the DOS stub component of a NTVDM Virtual Device Driver. It has the sole purpose of initializing the Virtual Device Driver and intercepting the SoundBlaster IRQs, DMA and any MIDI or Joystick I/O ports, if so configured. It also implements the undocumented WinXP system call to use a kernel timer to help avoid the PUSHF/CLI/POPF virtual interrupt problem, if so configured.

Until the Build engine game Blood is properly patched to fix the Virtual interrupt flag problem, no amount of CLINOP patching or wishful thinking will solve the problem. Until the WinXP VGA.SYS is patched to allow later model NVidia and ATI cards to access all of the respective cards I/O ports then VESA video mode operation will be problematic. Until the Build engine game Blood is properly patched to prevent the WinXP virtual memory system from paging out critical sections of the protected mode code uses will continue to have lag and stuttering audio when using the Dosdrv.exe component of VDMsound.

End of message.


Last bumped by Anonymous on Tue Oct 06, 2009 10:16 pm.

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