Poor performance with games?

About SheepShaver, a PPC Mac emulator for Windows, MacOS X, and Linux that can run System 7.5.3 to MacOS 9.0.4.

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Scrambles
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Poor performance with games?

Post by Scrambles »

Hi guys,

I've just discovered SheepShaver, and successfully got 9.0.4 installed on my Windows 7 64 bit system. Awesome!!! :mrgreen:
I'm using the recommended build (06-05-2013).

However, I'm experiencing very choppy/jerky performance with many of the games I've installed (e.g. Dark Forces, Ambrosia's Malestrom and Escape Velocity). Is this a limitation of SheepShaver, or is there a way to get these games to run smoothly at 60fps? As a kid, these games definitely ran much smoother than I can get them to run with SS. Other games, such as Ambrosia's Avara work perfectly :smile:

I've made sure the Malestrom/Escape Velocity applications have plenty of memory allocated to them (preferred and minimum size). In the GUI, I've set the RAM at 1024 and I've enabled the JIT compiler. Tried to experiment with various settings but nothing seems to work.

Any ideas? (Sorry if this has been answered before, tried searching but couldn't really find anything).

Thanks,
Dave.
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Cat_7
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Re: Poor performance with games?

Post by Cat_7 »

Hi, and welcome!

There are a few things you can try:
1. Make sure you have Quicktime 4.1.2 installed. This version works best with SheepShaver. If you already have a higher version installed you need to manually uninstall it first.
2. Try turning off the jit compiler. The emulation will be somewhat slower but smoother.
3. Try running in a lower resolution, such as 640x480
4. Check whether your games also run on a 68k mac. If so, install Basilisk with System 7.5 or 8.1. It is less demanding CPU-wise.

Best,
Cat_7
Scrambles
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Re: Poor performance with games?

Post by Scrambles »

Thanks for the quick reply Cat_7.
I've tried your first 3 suggestions but to no avail. I'll set up Basilisk and give it a try when I get a chance over the next couple of days and report back.

Thanks for your help :wink:
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24bit
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Re: Poor performance with games?

Post by 24bit »

Maybe sort of a long shot, but if you are on Windows desktop system, you probably have a small spare HDD kicking around?
If so, I would give Fusion PC a whirl.

Install FreeDOS on a spare HDD. http://www.freedos.org
Download FusionPC 3.0. http://www.emulators.com/freefile/FUSION30.ZIP
also here: http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/fusion-pc
Get the "manual". http://macintoshgarden.org/sites/macint ... upport.pdf
Maybe a bootable image too to get things rolling: http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/macos-753-emulators
If you try to boot with that, rename the image to something.hfv to be on the safe side.

Fusion queries the PC´s floppy drive for Mac floppies automatically. Setting up the OS from floppies is simple.
CD support is pretty good too, but there were no CD installers for the MacOS prior to 8.1 methinks.
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ClockWise
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Re: Poor performance with games?

Post by ClockWise »

I can second the suggestion to try Basilisk II for both Maelstrom and Escape Velocity. I played those A LOT on Basilisk II about ten years ago. They ran wonderfully.
Jorpho
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Re: Poor performance with games?

Post by Jorpho »

Just FYI, Maelstrom has an SDL port for some reason and is playable everywhere. And of course Dark Forces is on Steam (packaged with DOSBox, I think), though I wouldn't be surprised if the Mac port is superior in some way. (Last I checked, progress on the open source XL Engine was stagnating.)

Alas, we will probably never see a cheap and accessible port of any flavor of Escape Velocity at this rate. EVN works under Basilisk II JIT with the "Build 143" patch, at least.
24bit wrote:Maybe sort of a long shot, but if you are on Windows desktop system, you probably have a small spare HDD kicking around?
If so, I would give Fusion PC a whirl.

Install FreeDOS on a spare HDD. http://www.freedos.org
Download FusionPC 3.0. http://www.emulators.com/freefile/FUSION30.ZIP
also here: http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/fusion-pc
Yikes! Far easier to run it in DOSBox rather than installing and booting off of a spare HDD.
Scrambles
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Re: Poor performance with games?

Post by Scrambles »

Ok so as far as EV goes I've decided it's ok. It jitters just a little bit but I'm probably just being fussy. It's certainly playable.
(I could run my Windows version of EV Nova and use the EV Classic plugin, but the all important sound effects aren't the same as the mac original, plus there's a few other minor bugs.)

I don't really care about Maelstrom, I'm just confused as to why it's not running smoothly, when lots of people are saying it works fine. It's even listed on the Compatibility Sheet on this webiste. Funny thing is, I'm getting identical results on both BasiliskII and SheepShaver. Two different emulators, two different ROMS, two different Mac systems, yet the game is jerky and choppy and unplayable. My PC is top of the line, but maybe the emulators just don't like something about my Win 7 system or hardware. Thanks for the Windows download link Jorpho :wink:

The one I'm really keen to get working is Dark Forces. Yes it is available on Steam for the PC, but the Mac version has double the resolution. The gfx on the PC look horrible.
Once again, I'm getting identical results with BasiliskII and SheepShaver. The game runs smoothly with a constant frame rate, but it's like the game is in slow motion, with everything happening at half speed. The cutscenes are so slow it's ridiculous. Could it be related to the fact the game is running from a disk in the emulator? I might try to find a NoCD version of the .exe.

Don't have a spare HDD at the moment 24bit, but I'll keep that in mind.

Thanks for all the ongoing suggestions guys :wink:
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adespoton
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Re: Poor performance with games?

Post by adespoton »

For EV, you can also just get a modern copy of EV:Nova as you say and install the EV Classic plugin. By default, it plays just like the original -- or you can tweak to your heart's content to add the original sounds, 3-D rendering, a deeper universe, Override/Nova features, etc. The trick is to look at some of the other plugins/patches people have made to fix the issues you described.
Jorpho
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Re: Poor performance with games?

Post by Jorpho »

Scrambles wrote:The one I'm really keen to get working is Dark Forces. Yes it is available on Steam for the PC, but the Mac version has double the resolution. The gfx on the PC look horrible.
Aye, I thought I remembered reading something about that.

Did you turn on 68040 emulation in the Basilisk preferences?
Scrambles
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Re: Poor performance with games?

Post by Scrambles »

Yep, CPU type is 68040 in the GUI. No luck :oops:
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