Latest DOSBOX : with PPC dynamic recompiler and stuff , right there!

@kas1e
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Of course. After all, the older version did not allow to mount the image of the OGG fies. I wrote about it before.

Today I did a lot of tests and finally identified where the problem was.
In the Dosbox.conf file I had the image HoM&M 1 as disk D, and then HoM&M II as disk E.

When I turned off the D disk with the HoM&M I, the music in HoM&M II suddenly started playing

@Mufa
Oh damn, of course! If you install game from let's say letter "D", and then after mount iso as E, and D are with other tracks, then sure it will try to use wrong tracks and die.

Do you remember from which letter you install game ? It was D or E ? Just maybe there still some bug in terms of correct usage of mounted letters.

Because if you install game from D, and then mount it as E, then of coruse it will try to get tracks from D and fail.

But if you install game from E, and then mount it as E, but also D have something, and it tries to get tracks from D, then it some bug.


ps. Can you also give a go on x5000 old SDL1 version of DosBox ? For me it always freezes, want to understand if it my setup only.

@kas1e

The sound works if I mount HoM&M 2 as one ISO no matter if the letter D or E and even as F. If I mount more ISO images, e.g. HoM&M I and HoM&M II, the sound works if HoM&M II is mounted first, i.e. D. If I mount it as a second image, i.e. Hom & M I is as D and HM&M 2 on E, then the sound does not work. The conclusion is that DOSBox always tries to search for music with the highest letter to which any ISO image is assigned.

The old version of Corto DOSBox works fine on my X5000.

However, I noticed that your JIT versions behave slightly differently on X5000 040 than on X1000. In Hom & M II (it is possible that in other games, but I did not play long anything else to check it) once every 20-30 minutes everything stops and hangs. It looks like the game is freezing, but interestingly, after a few seconds everything is back to normal and you can keep playing. I did not notice such breaks when playing X1000, while on X5000 040 it happens 2-3 times an hour.

@mufa
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Or, its the game maybe and not DosBox maybe?

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Damn, seems something in my setup..

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Can be easy some issues with caches/dma_acclerated functions and stuff. And Jit itself for sure can behave different on different PPC (expectually, that X1000 if i remember right more or less true powerpc, and x5000 are "power" , so some commands emulated).

@All

New version for the fast check before it goes to os4depot:

http://kas1e.mikendezign.com/aos4/dosbox/DOSBox_r3_2.lha

What new in compare with last os4depot release:

-- Registered via application library to be able to disable screen blanker engine while DOSBox running (to prevent related issues). Thanks Trixie for help!

-- Compiled back with -O2 instead of -O3. It didn't give any benefit, and that how it was done in original DosBox.

-- Big-endian fixes for "vgaonly" driver. Now colors render correctly for that driver (c) Jmarsh

-- Big-endian fixes for saving screenshots via "ctrl+f5" in 15/16/32bit modes (c) Dreamer & Jmarsh

-- Big-endian fixes for video recording via "ctrl+alt+f5" for broken sound (c) dreamer
The codec used there are ZMBV (Zip Motion Blocks Video) developed especially for DosBox as DosBox Capture Codec.
To play it on AmigaOS4 directly without conversion you may use Mplayer. Emotion currently has some issues with, but Frank will fix it probably as well.
On Windows best to use LAV filters and MPC-HC as VLC has bugs in that codec, BSPlayer not very kind too.

-- Replaced CD_ROM based code from the original DOSBox in favor of code from "DOSBox-staging" fork, where after a lot of testing everything was rewritten to be big-endian aware.
That means that now we can:

1). play music files from HDD as CDDA tracks (so things like GOG's HMM3 works).
2). play them without distortion as it was with original DosBox's code.
3). Have partial DAE support for compressed Redbook-compliant tracks


-- Fix for DosNavigator's CD-Player when playing past track 15 (before you can't) (c) ripsaw8080

-- Fix for first track not having increased seconds in DosNavigator's CD-Player played when mounted as CD (c) Krcroft

-- Made output=texture and texturenb (and related texture_renderer suboptions) working

That, in turn, means, that instead of "surface" output you can use "texture" or "texturenb" one ("texture" is the default in config now) which will do free autoscaling for you.
So you can set any size of window mode or of fullscreen mode and everything will be scaled (even those games which can't be scaled by "scaler" option).

Possible values for "output" on OS4 now are: surface, texture, and texturenb. "texture" is just with added bilinear filtering, so to blur a little, while "texturenb" do scaling as it.
Possible values for "texture_renderer" on OS4 when output=texture or texturenb: auto, compositing, opengl, opengles2, software. If texture_renderer will be anything else it will fallback to compositing.

While "opengl" renderer (which works over MiniGL) and "opengles2" renderer (works over ogles2.library) do work too, they didn't give any benefits over "compositing", so compositing is the best choice.

Big thanks to Capehill who fix OpenGL and OpenGLES2 renderers in SDL2 to make them works on OS4, who help to deal with "deadlocks" caused by using SDL_LockTexture/SDL_UnlockTexture instead of SDL_UpdateTexture in DOSBox's SDL2 code, who help to deal with detecting the cause of crashes on exit when using OpenGL renderer (was caused by not free resources properly on exit, which on other oses didn't happen as oses do clean or resources
on exit for them), and who help to pinpoint issues with losing focus when use "texture" or "texturenb" outputs.

-- New config file which reaches all the current DosBox's changes level and not being stuck on 10 years old DosBox version. Cleaned all comments and stuff. All work is done by DOSBox-staging maintainers, I only adapt to os4.

-- Add default mapper file (in which assigned \ key, as by default it didn't work for most). You, of course, can delete it if you don't need it, or regenerate your own one (ctrl+f1).

Those who in interest, plz do check if all ok and no regressions being made

Thanks for tests and thanks again to Capehill for all help of late :)

@kas1e

I will start some test now
Just a question, i saw you set by default:

windowresolution = 1024x768

Perhaps settings by default as "original" could best fit on slow machines ?

Edit: Mmm now if i start games using RunInDOSBox i have a black screen
I need to check what's wrong

@samo79
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Yep indeed.

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If it ok when run with unpacked dosbox to some directory , but not when running using runindosbox, then check if runindosbox do not take new configs as defaults or something.

@kas1e

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Yes, dosbox standalone runs ok .. black screen seems only when i try to start games by double clicking using runindosbox

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Yes it's first thing i did .. but the options are quite different now .. this is the graphical settings i have by default in runindosbox config file

fullscreen=false
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=original
windowresolution=original
output=surface
autolock=true
sensitivity=100
waitonerror=true
priority=higher,normal
mapperfile=mapper-0.74.map
usescancodes=false

Any suggest ?

@samo
Try to take the same settings you had in runindosbox, and put them to dosbox standalone (i.e. remove all other settings you have now in [sdl] in new config, and put those ones from runindosbox). And check, if dosbox-standalone runs with settings from runindosbox.

Options in the binary are the same as they was since first new build, just they wasn't in config file. But then, if runindosbox didn't touch config files and use their own, that should be matter. If only runindosbox didn't you new config file and can't parse it properly (but it should't use it, right?).

Also try to run the same what you tried to run, with previous dosbox (that which r3, not r3_2).

Try to delete new config fully, to be sure if runindosbox use it still, or not.

@kas1e

DOSBox works OK. I didn't notice any problems with CD support or rendering.

BTW! I could use another interesting emulators. You may have thought about compiling DeSmuME? On OS4Depot there is a very old and not very useful version. It seems that it would be possible to compile a newer one, especially since there are Mac PPC sources on the project page.

@mufa
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Thanks ! You for now can scale to the resolution you wish (be it fullscreen or window) any app, with any resolution. It's funny to run second-reality for example in 1920x1080 on other screen, and then "amiga+m" and working on workbench :)

@samo
Did you find why runindosbox fail for you ? I assume you just change something in runindosbox itself, right ?:) Or that runindosbox instead of its own configs, taking your new config and can't parse it (of course).

@kas1e

Ok, was able to make it working and i'm experimenting
But on Sam440 to gain the same speed as before i changed that

output = surface (instead of texture)

and

fullresolution = original (instead of desktop)

Using "desktop" i also noted a thing, when you come back from fullscreen mode --> to window mode, the dosbox window will be placed not at the center of the screen as it should but at top-left

Also, from this version i'm not able to run Mortal Kombat 1, i got a black screen .. need to investigate on it aswell

Need also to verify if i can gain more touching other things, for now my best settings are:

fullscreen = false
vsync = false
fullresolution = original
windowresolution = original
output = surface
texture_renderer = compositing
capture_mouse = seamless middlerelease
sensitivity = 100
waitonerror = true
priority = higher,normal
mapperfile = mapper-0.74-3.map

Probably you can use these by default

Edit: solved the problem in MK1 ... it was a false alarm, for strange reason a file in the game folder was corrupted, just redownload and reinstalled and now started again

Still now trying Doom

http://www.bestoldgames.net/eng/old-games/doom.php

Works fine, but no audio at all (no music and no effects)

Not sure if audio works via MIDI here, but I have mantained the default settings

mpu401=intelligent
mididevice=default
midiconfig=

Then i tried all kind of settings in mididevice:

default
win32
alsa
oss
coreaudio
coremidi

Still no audio at all in game .. or that are not the correct settings to check, or there is something missing or broken somewhere ?

@samo
fullscreen=orginal vs fullscreen=desktop surely will different, because fullscreen=original are about 320x240 or 640x400 or how much, but fullscreen=desktop mean that it the same of size as your wb. Together with output=texture, it mean that you will have picture on fullscreen of your resolutions without tinkering with scalers.

So speed difference you notice are just because of those settings.

I surely can switch back windowresolution = original, but i not sure if switching back to output=surface is good idea, because with that one you can use any resolution you want, it only will give you small picture in the choiced resolution, while with output=texture all auto-scaled and works as expected. If put there output=surface, then no one will ever know later about better output, and will have wrong opinion.

About fullscreen=desktop bug with non-centered: yes can reproduce, but it only when you start with fullscreen=true. Will fix it.

As for Midi support, it wasn't there in any dosbox before, and still not there. I also never had music in doom. But i do have sounds (at least before) if i remember right, will check.

@kas1e

Noted another thing, after i run a game using RunInDOSBox, i then tried to start DOSBox standalone (double click on dosbox icon) ... at this point DOSBox started but then it close automatically giving me this output:

CONFIG: Loading primary settings from config file dosbox.conf
SDL:Current window pixel format: SDL_PIXELFORMAT_ARGB8888
Exit to error: Allocating dynamic cache failed

It's strange because i use now the same config settings in both files

@samo

Don't mess with runindosbox for now when test it, it will bring all sort of user-kind errors, so test all standalone. Later you can get how to deal with runindosbox, etc if anything will go wrong.

As for Doom : i have sound fx for sure, you just should to choice in setup.exe for sounds sound blaster. But midi didn't works, yes. That probabaly another thing i need to check, but firstly want to deal with that "fullscreen=desktop" non centering and made os4depot release, to avoid situaion when work is never end, and no new stuff released.

ps. i see that error too one time about "Allocating dynamic cache failed", when memory was trashes with all kind of random stuff and tests, so do hard reboot, etc.

@samo
Ok, it seems understand all stuff about midi. In DOSBox, there also can be a support of REAL midi, but while for os4 there is none compiled in, it still supports Gravis Ultrasound card which can play midi: it just needs to be set up correctly.

So, avoid all problems, there ready to use installed drivers and stuff :

http://kas1e.mikendezign.com/aos4/dosbox/ultrasnd.zip

Just unpack it to C:\ULTRASND. (that the path you have in dosbox.conf in [gus] for "ultradir" option).

This pack contains GUS 4.11 drivers + Pro Patches Light 1.61 + Pro Patches Lite 1.61 corrected anti looping patches (includes 3 ppl 1.61 patches found by Tsyu removing a looping bug): in other words all we need.

After that, just run doom's setup.exe choice for FX sound blaster, and for music Gravis Ultrasound, save and run game, and as a result:

https://youtu.be/LOtD_TJH0qs

Running with hq3x scaler, so a bit "cartoonish" look, but rise your speakers, midi music and sound fx works.

Maybe it worth to add that pack to dosbox distrib, but i not sure if many will be in interest to have +14 mb more, just to make midi works out of box.

14MB for midi? YES!
Thanks :)

@all
Uploaded fresh version on os4depot. Its the same as r3_2.lha from this topic, just with .conf file a bit changed: fullresolution to be original, as well as windowresolution to be original.

@samo
I keep output=texture as default for time being (recheck plz, it can be that with fullresolution=original it will be the same as output=surface even on your setup).

Also reported those issues about "desktop" option to dosbox sdl2's part code mantainer: it turned out no very fast-trivial to fix, so once they done with i can add it to our code as well.

@ddni
In meantime just download that: http://kas1e.mikendezign.com/aos4/dosbox/ultrasnd.zip

unpack to C:\ULTRASND, and midi will works in games where you choice gravis ultrasound for music.

@kas1e

Damn mate you too fast, let me complete the testing first ! :)

Aniway, thanks for looking at the midi .. and yes if working (need to check this aswell) i'm sure it worth adding these into the main archive, today with current hard disks who care about installing 14 mb more

Also a lot of dos game used midi, so i'm sure many will love to have them by default

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Ok, just compared to "textture" surface is for sure a lot better on slow machines .. but of course texture can be ok as default for the reason you explain

Eventually, I will include two words in readme explaining this

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Ok great, not that is a big issue eh, just for visual it would be cool to have a centered window as other outputs

For now my main problem is about that strange "difference" between configs, once i start a game with runindosbox (using runindosbox.config), then i have problem starting dosbox standalone using the main dosbox.conf

Also still this "Allocating dynamic cache failed" error that need to be checked