Jetfighter III: Tech refresh 2025

An updated guide for Jetfighter III. This guide covers running Jetfighter III in DOSBox Staging with 3DFX Glide and using VirtualMIDISynth with DOSBox-X.

This guide uses a fully patched Jetfighter III Platinum install detailed in the previous Jetfighter III guide, 'Jetfighter III: Running in DOSBox-X with Glide passthrough'.

DOSBox Staging & 3DFX Glide

A recent release of DOSBox Staging has increased the version to v0.82.1. One of the most notable features listed in the release notes is:

The CPU usage of the 3dfx Voodoo emulation has been reduced by about 50%.

Quite an increase in performance efficiency and worthy of investigation, so this guide covers the DOSBox Staging configuration required to run Jetfighter III with Glide enabled.

The previous guide, 'Jetfighter III: Running in DOSBox-X with Glide passthrough', should be followed for installation, setup and patching advice, the one exception being the Glide library discussed below.

HOTAS configuration

The HOTAS configuration remains unchanged from the previous article, both DOSBox-X and Staging can use same axes assignments, as shown below:

Physical axis	Windows axis
Joystick x-axis	DX_X_AXIS
Joystick y-axis	DX_Y_AXIS
Throttle	DX_Z_AXIS
Rudders	DX_XROT_AXIS

Configuration

The following config shows the changes applied to the default DOSBox Staging v0.82.1 configuration file specifically for Jetfighter III:

[sdl]
host_rate           = vrr
vsync               = off
presentation_mode   = vfr

[dosbox]
memsize                     = 32
dos_rate                    = 1000

[cpu]
cpu_cycles           = 48500
cpu_cycles_protected = max
cycleup              = 1000
cycledown            = 1000

[voodoo]
voodoo_memsize            = 12

[mouse]
dos_mouse_immediate       = true

[mixer]
reverb     = large
chorus     = normal

[midi]
mididevice      = fluidsynth

[fluidsynth]
soundfont     = "D:\Midi\Soundfonts\Shan SGM-X48 v2.0.sf2"

[joystick]
joysticktype                = 4axis
timed                       = false
swap34                      = true
deadzone                    = 0

[autoexec]
mount c "D:\Games\Dos\Jetfighter 3\hdd-staging"
imgmount d "D:\Games\Dos\Jetfighter 3\cd2\jf3p.cue" -t cdrom
c:
cd jf3
call jf3
exit

The [sdl], [dosbox] and [mouse] settings are suitable for high frame rate gaming as described in this article by Omniclyde. These settings aren't strictly required and can be omitted to use the default settings.

In [cpu] settings, cpu_cycles cycles seems appropriate for my setup. As Jetfighter III is a protected mode game the cpu_cycles_protected settings increased to max seems to work well and increases frame rates to around 30fps.

Voodoo memory is increased to the maximum to increase performance

The [mixer] settings can be changed to enhance sound and music to personal preference.

In the [midi] section, the fluidsynth device is used for MIDI. This allows the use of soundfonts to enhance the audio experience. Although Roland sound is supported in the Jetfighter III config utility the VOGONS wiki article 'List of MT-32-compatible computer games' lists it as bugged/non-functional.

The [fluidsynth] soundfont setting is set to a good general purpose soundfont for retro games although you should feel free to experiment and find a personal preference.

The [joystick] settings are appropriate for my HOTAS setup so you may need to alter these. The deadzone setting is a personal preference.

The [autoexec] has example imgmount commands for a cd image. The imgmount and mount commands make use of a folder structure described in my DOSBox game management article.

The hard disk folder is a copy of the DOSBox-X folder so DOSBox Staging specific setup changes can be applied (see Setup and Glide Library).

The rest of the commands to go the appropriate folder and run the game. After quitting the game, exit will close DOSBox.

Setup and Glide Library

If you are already using Jetfighter III with DOSBox-X and Glide passthrough, it's recommended to take a copy of the emulated hard disk folder for uses with DOSBox Staging to apply the Staging specific changes. Then you can try both and choose your preferred DOSBox variant.

In the Jetfighter config utility the 3D Accelerator Setup should be set to '3Dfx Voodoo card'.

The Glide library, glide2x.ovl used for DOSBox-X is a special version specific to DOSBox-X and is incompatible with DOSBox Staging. An appropriate glide2x.ovl exists in the Jetfighter III Platinum cd image (this is the only one I've found that works). To use it:

Mount the cd image in Windows 10.
Go to the 3DFX folder.
The G24RTVG.EXE file is a self extracting archive that can be opened in 7zip with the '7zip > Open archive' option.
In the archive, go to the Drivers\Voodoo\Dos folder and copy glide2x.ovl to your Jetfighter III installation folder.

DOSBox-X and VirtualMIDISynth

The current version of DOSBox-X has some quirks which makes using VirtualMIDISynth the preferred option with Jetfighter III, as:

SDL doesn't seem to be compatible with HOTAS devices with the 64-bit versions of DOSBox-X.
The 32-bit versions are compatible with HOTAS devices but seem to have a bug with the fluidsynth component causing it to sound strange.

Using VirtualMIDISynth allows you to use HOTAS devices, have working MIDI music and retain the Glide passthrough facility of DOSBox-X.

VirtualMIDISynth can be used with DOSBox-X quite easily as it's installed and available on Windows 10/11. To install and configure (if not already) refer to the previous article 'DOSBox Staging and VirtualMIDISynth'.

DOSBox-X configuration

The steps for configuring DOSBox-X are a different to DOSBox Staging. Staging will show all MIDI device types while, DOSBox-X only shows MIDI devices of the currently enabled MIDI device type.

So the first step is to tell DOSBox-X to use Windows MIDI devices, with the configuration file setting:

[midi]
mididevice      = win32

Then you can start DOSBox-X and run the following mixer command. to list all the MIDI devices of that type:

Once we have the list of devices (see screenshot) we can specify the VirtualMIDISynth device id in the midiconfig setting:

[midi]
mididevice      = win32
midiconfig      = 0

Setup

In the Jetfighter config utility the Music Device Setup should be set to 'General MIDI'. Note: the test option may not work but MIDI music should play in-game.

And that's the DOSBox-X config complete. Notes on testing can be found in 'DOSBox Staging and VirtualMIDISynth'.

Happy hunting!