Raptor setup guide (with pictures) - better graphics, sound, etc.

Guide with pictures to change the game settings.

Introduction

Welcome to the guide!

Once you install the Steam version of Raptor, you might notice the game sound isn't right, or the game lags or you might not like the old pixelated graphics. I will try to address all these issues in this guide, with pictures and in the simplest way possible.

A word on the game versions...

The original DOS version of the game is what is available here on Steam under the (1994 Classic Edition). Also known as "v1.2". This is the version you want, with DOSBox.

There is one original Windows version of Raptor, which was developed by the game creator Mountain King Studios (formerly Cygnus Software) until 2004. This version was intended for Windows 9x, so while it runs natively on Windows XP, Vista and 7, it has some issues (with colors for example). I haven't seen a full version of this release, but a shareware version can be downloaded from the internet for free, look for Raptor "v2.4b".

Then there are two "remastered" versions of Raptor, the 2010 Edition, also known as "dotemu" edition. This version is now sold by the original creator, Mountain King Studios, for 10 USD. And finally, there's a 2015 Edition available here on Steam.

DON'T. BUY. THESE.

The 2010 and 2015 versions are identical. It's actually the DOS version wrapped up in another software which enables it to run on today's Windows machines. These "remastered" versions come with a variety of issues:

- FPS is locked at 24 (half of the original)
- Mouse and joystick/controller have issues
- Mouse controls have different speed than keyboard controls
- Original Raptor soundtrack was replaced by different, crappy soundtrack
- Achievements don't register properly
- If you save player A, then start player B and save him, it will replace the save for player A (DOS version allows up to 9 saves..)

Basic game setup

Most modern games include all settings inside the game, so you just open Options/Settings and change graphics and sound however you want. But with DOS games, most of the time this isn't the case. To change settings like switching from keyboard to mouse or controller, you need to run a different application, usually named setup.exe.

Raptor authors didn't include running the setup from Steam either.

To edit the settings, we have to go into the game folder.

1) Go to Steam -> Library
2) Find Raptor: Call of the Shadows (1994 Classic Edition), then right click it and select Properties
3) Switch to Local Files tab, then select Browse Local Files



4) Now enter Raptor - Call of the Shadows folder.
5) Open two windows with this folder.
6) In one window, you stay in the directory that contains setup.exe.
7) In the other window, navigate to the Dosbox directory, that contains dosbox.exe.
8) Now select setup.exe with your mouse, then drag and drop it onto dosbox.exe in the other window.

This will run setup.exe inside dosbox and you will be able to configure the DOS version of Raptor.

Finding the config files for advanced setup

To edit the settings, we have to go into the game folder.

1) Go to Steam -> Library
2) Find Raptor: Call of the Shadows (1994 Classic Edition), then right click it and select Properties
3) Switch to Local Files tab, then select Browse Local Files



4) Now enter Raptor - Call of the Shadows folder.
5) Find the file named RAPTOR.CONF and open it with Windows Notepad (or your favorite txt editor).



All the editing will be done in this file or in the SETUP.INI file.

DOSBox emulation improvements

On some systems, the game might be choppy, you might hear sound clicks. This is due to bad emulation settings packed with Steam edition. Let's fix that.

Open RAPTOR.CONF in your favorite txt editor (Notepad), you will see a bunch of text in there. Each line that doesn't start with a # is an option for DOSBox.

Memory size

First, we will increase the memory DOSBox can use, this will prevent any lags or errors due to low memory.
Find the text memsize=16 and change it to memsize=64.



This tells DOSBox how much memory in Megabytes it can use and it might prevent lags on some systems. Today's PCs have tons of memory, so we can give DOSBox some more.

CPU cycles

DOSBox basically acts as if you ran a virtual old PC on your current PC. With CPU cycles, you can set it to be as fast as your current PC can handle, or you can set a fixed cpu speed for the virtual old PC. Emulating high cpu speeds is good for newer old games (heh), but it can cause some games to run too fast or it might cause lags.

Raptor is 22 years old and it doesn't need very high cpu speed, but the default setting tells DOSBox to be as fast as possible. Let's change it.

Find the text cycles=max and change it to cycles=13000.



That is more than enough to run the game, and it will remove lagging from older PCs running DOSBox.

DOSBox graphics settings

The default settings after Steam installation is that the DOSBox is launched as fullscreen with a fixed resolution. The game's original resolution is 320x200, DOSBox scales that 3x into a 960x600 resolution, then the game will be stretched to fit your screen resolution and it will ignore aspect ratio. This results in the game looking weird, so let's change that.

Screen resolution and aspect ratio

First, check out how does it look.

This is the default setting - the 960x600 image will be stretched to your default screen resolution. In my case, it was stretched to 1680x1050. (picture 1)



Here, I used the original 3x resolution (960x600). Notice how the image looks much better, even while it's smaller. (picture 2)



And here I also used original resolution, but I changed the scaler to 5x, producing higher resolution (1600x1000) and better image. (picture 3)



So, if you're using a 1680x1050 LCD screen like me, you're basically good with 5x higher res. However, today's most used resolution is 1920x1080 (or even higher), and default aspect ratio is 16:9, so you will have to play in a window or stretch the image anyway, but it will look better than the default Steam setting. Let's do it.

Open RAPTOR.CONF in your favorite txt editor (Notepad).

First, find the text fullresolution=Fixed and change it to fullresolution=original.



This will make the image go smaller, but look better (as in picture 2).

Now, we will make the image bigger (as in picture 3). Find the text
aspect=false
scaler=normal3x
and change it to
aspect=true
scaler=normal5x



The aspect option tells the game to always use a 16:10 aspect ratio, therefore to look good even while stretched to your 1920x1080 screen.
The scaler option modifies the image size from the original 960x600 to 1600x1000, providing a better image quality.

If you are using 1680x1050 screen resolution, change it to
aspect=false
scaler=normal5x
otherwise DOSBox would render it again with the black bars on sides (makes no sense to me, but whatever).

Now run the game and check how it looks.

Different method

If the abovementioned method didn't produce the result as shown on the screenshots (eg. you still see black bars on the left and right side), you can try a different method.

Again, you find the text fullresolution= and change it to a resolution which is as close to your screen resolution as possible, while keeping a 16:10 aspect ratio.

For example, if your default screen resolution is 1920x1080, that is a 16:9 resolution, but we need a 16:10. So you take the second number of your resolution (1080) and divide by 10
1080 / 10 = 108
now multiply the result by 16 from the aspect ratio
16 * 108 = 1728
and you get the closest highest possible resolution in the 16:10 aspect ratio. So in this case, change it to fullresolution=1728x1080

Same thing with different resolutions... 1366x768 for example
768 / 10 = 76,8
76,8 * 16 = 1228,8 which won't work.
So you round your first result down, then get both resolutions from the rounded down result.
768 / 10 = 76,8 rounded down to 76
76 * 16 = 1216
76 * 10 = 760
so your closest resolution will be fullresolution=1216x760

Graphics enhancements

DOSBox comes with the option to use different methods for image scaling, some of those try to also improve the graphics quality of the scaled image. What hq3x scaler basically does is that it tries to "depixelize" the game.

This is normal5x that we used in the guide above:



This is hq3x, packed by default with the Steam version, but not used:



hq3x can only work with 960x600 resolution (as the hq3x suggests), but if you like the generated image more, feel free to use it.

Find the graphics settings we changed in the previous step and set them like this:
aspect=true
scaler=hq3x

Then you can enjoy somewhat depixelized game.

Advanced sound settings & sound fonts

One thing people have encountered when playing Raptor is that the music was different from how they remembered it back then. This is caused by different types of sound cards and/or sound synthesizers.

Basically, today's PCs have an integrated sound card on the motherboard, so Windows uses it automatically after you install motherboard drivers. But back in the days, sound cards were an extra component for your PC, like graphic cards or hard drives. Since there were many different types, some of them had different sounds. But enough history.

First, try to find the music version as you remember it from back in the days. If you didn't play Raptor back in 1994, I recommend using the Sound Blaster music.

Links to different music versions (youtube videos):
Sound Blaster version
AdLib version
GeneralMidi with SGM 2.01
There are other sound options that do not have youtube videos and also sound differently, for example the Gravis UltraSound.

Default setting is GeneralMidi (without the SGM), which sounds more like PC Speaker and less like any of the options above. The fastest way to switch the music is to open the SETUP.INI file in your favorite txt editor (Notepad).



Delete the whole [Music] section as seen in the picture above, then copy and paste the following:

for Sound Blaster
[Music]
Volume=85
CardType=5
BasePort=220
Irq=7
Dma=1

for AdLib
[Music]
Volume=85
CardType=2

If you want the GeneralMidi with SGM 2.01 from the last youtube video, don't change anything in the SETUP.INI.
First, you have to download CoolSoft's Virtual MIDI Synth[coolsoft.altervista.org] (.exe, 1 MB). Then, you have to download a soundfont (that's basically a bunch of different sounds packed together). The SGM 2.0.1 soundfont can be downloaded {LINK REMOVED}here (172 MB). When it's downloaded, extract the soundfont, you'll get a single file 240 MB in size. Put it somewhere simple where you won't delete it by accident, for example C:\Downloads\soundfont.

Now install the Virtual MIDI Synth.



When it's installed, click NEXT and select the checkboxes like this:



then cick NEXT. A new window will open.



Here click the green [] button, navigate to C:\Downloads\soundfont (or where you put your sound file) and select it. Click OK to close the window, and you're done, the sounds will play as in the youtube video.

There are many different soundfonts on the internet which may sound differently, some of them might not even be free, which is why I linked the SGM soundfont, this one is free and sounds really good.

Other

If you need help with something not mentioned in here, feel free to ask.

[SpawnPPC]

Hi. Great work ! Congrats. Is it possible to use joypad like XBox controller with this game ?

[allesclar]

Works perfectly now on the steam deck thanks to this guide. Thankyou.

[Rastapopulous]

Great information. Thanks for putting it together!

[Cățelu' de Usturoi]

Thanks for the info

[Psojed]

Those are graphic improvements from the windows version. You can check the comparison screenshots here: https://www.classicdosgames.com/game/Raptor%3A_Call_of_the_Shadows.html

[Cățelu' de Usturoi]

I am a bit late to the party but I got a question.
In the video given on the steam page the game has graphics added on the health bar and armor bar plus that sort of film filter added to it like in this image: https://imgur.com/bktakpG
The deal is that I had it looking like this when I was a dumb little kid and I kinda want to make it like that again. Any suggestions?

[[DH] Rham243 {α}]

To find the correct soundfonts, just google SGM 2.01 soundfonts and a link to a MediaFire dowload site should come up. Dowload this 7z compressed archive (172.5mb).

Set this up as in the guide and it works great, most amazing MIDI score ever created. IT IS A GAMECHANGER

[Reippa]

Love you! Thx

[Psojed]

Updated the guide. I didn't realize some people have never worked with older DOS games, so I added a section explaining that most DOS games use another program called setup.exe to configure sound, music and controls, and how to run it.

[Flippy]

Thank you for the help! The sound fixing works