Dear Falconers,

    Many of you have been trying to run Falcon 3.0 under IBM's new OS/2 2.0 operating system, but have been confused and bewildered by the huge array of DOS settings available to you. So, after consulting technical manuals (The IBM Red Books), here are a list of settings you need, and why they must be set that way:


DOS_BACKGROUND_EXECUTION to OFF
(If Falcon is running in background, it will suspend processing. Otherwise, it will eat too much CPU cycles)


DOS_HIGH to ON
(This will give us extra memory for the DOS session)


DOS_LASTDRIVE to D (or whatever your highest drive letter is)
(This will give us some more memory)


DOS_UMB to ON
(More memory by usiing Upper Memory Blocks)


DPMI_DOS_API to DISABLED
(Falcon Doesn't use DPMI memory, so we gain speed by not emulating DPIM)


DPMI_MEMORY_LIMIT to 0
(We don't use DPMI)


HW_ROM_TO_RAM to ON
(This speeds up BIOS functions)


IDLE_SECONDS to 60
(Makes Idle detection a long time)


IDLE_SENSITIVITY to 100
(this disables idle detection, so Falcon will always be checked to see if it needs CPU


MOUSE_EXCLUSIVE_ACCESS to ON
(We only plan to use the program with the 1 mouse pointer)


VIDEO_ONDEMAND_MEMORY to OFF
(Saves memory by not allocating video buffer)


VIDEO_ROM_EMULATION to ON
(Speeds processing by putting ROM in RAM)


VIDEO_SWITCH_NOTIFICATION to ON
(Lets app know when switching to full screen mode)


VIDEO_8514_XGA_IOTRAP to OFF (Only for 8514 Cards)
Eliminates 8514 video buffer overhead)


XMS_HANDLES to 32
(For mapping HMA)


XMS MEMORY_LIMIT to 0
(Not using XMS memory)


XMS_MINIMUM_HMA to 0
(Any HMA request will be filled)


     With these settings, you can expect to get a frame rate of roughly 70% of that of DOS (your mileage may vary).  You will find that if you had memory manager problems before, OS/2 is much more stable and less likely to crash and burn.

     If you have any comments, please feel free to address my CIS UID at 70031,435.

Eric Pinnell