Release DBGL + DosBox with 3Dfx


Thanks a lot. I'm fully aware of potential messiness, as I maintain my personal patched (non-pandora) DOSBox for quite a while now :) These days, I stick to ykhwong's sources as base, because his build has most of the patches already (even those that I wrote originally ^^)
 
Of the patches I wrote, the ADDKEY command still serves a useful purpose. I rely on it to automate startup of those games that always ask for configuration options, like Civilization. There is also the internal GUI (Alt-F10 in ykhwongs build), which I once tried to submit to mainline, but it was too experimental and I hadn't enough time to improve its quality. The rest has been mainlined or become obsolete.

I had some really useful patches to improve cache usage for CPUs with small L1-cache (think 300MHz Pentium II). The Pandora would profit from them as well. Unfortunately DOSBox internals have changed massively, so they have become unusable.

And then there is SDL OpenGL-HQ (https://www.syntax-k.de/projekte/sdl-opengl-hq/), which isn't exactly DOSBox-specific, but DOSBox is a perfect use case. It doesn't work with GLshim, so I need to update it to EGL some day.
 
New build on the repo.

I refreshed the build of DosBOX (updating it, but not much changes since last version), and worked a bit on the 3Dfx emulation, trying to get a bit more speed in demanding games (like Screamer 2), but it's still not in a playable state on the Pandora. Also, I think Archimedean Dynasty kind-of works in 3Dfx mode (but not sure if everthing is there, especially the cockpit in 3D view).

Build 05
-------------
  • dosbox: fresh build, with updated libs
  • glide: Some small optim in 3Dfx emulation
 
I cannot really test anyway. I have the GoG version, but I don't think that version has the DOS executable anywhere, only the Windows one... But I'm interested in knowing how well (or not well) it runs.
 
@3XCL4M4t10N yeah how does it run? is it playable? I still want to get lba2 running on pandora. I need to try it with dbgl.
 
ah dang. I doubt that lba2 will work any faster than with normal dosbox, just looked it up and it seems my memory was wrong and there is no glide...

your dpad issue might be solveable through config editing, but I am not sure. it seems like it has been configured as joystick. @ptitSeb will surely be able to answer that one. He usually includes a config file where you can choose.
 
The "HW" one is using omapdss output of SDL for hardware scaling. It should be used for old ame that use 320x200 or similar resolution. The scaling is hadware and so very fast. Use Windowed mode in the config for highest speed. This version is not compatible with OpenGL and Glide. Also, the keycode for DPad and action button my be slightly different, but I thought I had fixed that (you may need to play with the Scancode option). This version can also be used for games that use higher than 800x480 display size.
For 640x480 games, or 3Dfx games, I suggest you use the regular version, that is compatible with OpenGL. You can also use opengl as the surface output.

I hope this clarify things a bit.

About MDK, according to https://www.dosbox.com/comp_list.php?showID=1779&letter=M it should works. But I see they used around 100k cycle to have playable speed, so it will be unplayable even if it works (pandora can get 20~25k iirc).
 
Last edited:
This might be asking a lot, but could someone write a quick tutorial on getting started with DBGL? I'm having trouble finding a DOSBox executable and config file to point to.

(Maybe we could add a tutorial to the wiki...)
 
New build on the repo. The dosbox sources have been updated upstream (not sure what changed), so this new built was made with gcc 7.1.
Also, I got MUNT to be faster, so if you enabled MT32 emulation, be sure to upgrade (MUNT now eat around 33% of CPU, it was way more the 50% in previous build).

Build 06
-------------
  • dosbox: fresh build, with updated sources and libs
  • MT32: faster build
 
blimpsgo180 said:
This might be asking a lot, but could someone write a quick tutorial on getting started with DBGL? I'm having trouble finding a DOSBox executable and config file to point to.

(Maybe we could add a tutorial to the wiki...)
Click to expand...
Did you manage to make it run? Because dosbox binary is alreay inside the PND (in appdata/dbgl/DOSBOX-0.74 folder), and it should be pre-setup really. For the cofing, right-click on the DOSBOX-0.74 (or DOSBOX-0.74-HW) template link and select "view config" to view / edit the base configuration (needed if you want to setup MT32 for example).
 
ptitSeb said:
Did you manage to make it run? Because dosbox binary is alreay inside the PND (in appdata/dbgl/DOSBOX-0.74 folder), and it should be pre-setup really. For the cofing, right-click on the DOSBOX-0.74 (or DOSBOX-0.74-HW) template link and select "view config" to view / edit the base configuration (needed if you want to setup MT32 for example).
Click to expand...
I now have the DOSBox binary set up right!

But I don't have the config set up because I don't know how to right click on Pandora.

If I leave the Config File box as it is, I get the following message:

The DOSBox configuration file "/mnt/utmp/dbgl/DOSBox-0.74-hw/dosbox.conf is missing or unreadable.

Would you like to create a configuration file based on this DOSBox version's internal defaults?
​
I select Yes, and it appears DOSBox boots, and then I get:

The DOSBox configuration file "/mnt/utmp/dbgl/DOSBox-0.74-hw//dosbox.conf is missing or unreadable!
​
Please help. Thank you.
--------------

EDIT: Nevermind... you can right-click by pushing the right analog nub to the right. I'm so used to using the stylus I got confused.

OK... I'm going to figure out how to set a game up now. I'll consult the official DBGL website.
 
Last edited:
Use the nubs for mouse, then to right click on the Pandora, use your "clicking nub" (it's the right one on default config), and move it to the right (left click is a left move).

for DOSBOX-0.74-hw, I think you best bet is to use the one from DOSBOX-0.74 (as the "-hw" version is just a script, the dosbox version used is the same as the non -hw one).
 
The SD card on which my DOSBox installation was installed became corrupted, and I had to reinstall the latest Java and DOSBox packages. In regards to blimpsgo180's inquiry from years ago, I encountered the same issue this time with the missing, "dosbox.conf", file. The, "dosbox.conf", file is in a hidden folder:

.dosbox/dosbox-0.74.conf

Note the period at the beginning of the folder name which makes it invisible. When you select the Browse button for Config File in the, "Edit version", window, the ".dosbox" folder will be invisible unless you right click in the folder browsing area and click on the check box next to, "Show Hidden Files". When I made modifications to this configuration file with Mousepad outside of DOSBox and saved the changes, the changes were apparently overwritten the next time that DOSBox was executed. So, I made a copy of the file named:

.dosbox/dosbox-hw.conf

This folder corresponds to the absolute file system path:

/media/*/pandora/appdata/dbgl/.dosbox

The asterisk (*) corresponds to the name of the SD card, which can vary depending on your setup. I used Pickle's advice for creating a, "dosbox", and, "dosbox-hw.conf", file in this folder. The next problem I faced was the mouse was constrained to moving in a small window that was smaller than the full screen. I discovered that the first option in the, "dosbox-hw.conf", file had to be:

fullscreen=false

Then I was able to use the touchscreen and move the mouse in the entire screen area.

When I created a profile according to Pickle's instructions, the emulator would start and then stop with no error message. Inside the profile, I had to select an executable program or batch file for the emulator to run under the Mounting tab. Under, "Mounting Overview", I have:

mount C "/mnt/utmp/dbgl/games"

Next to, "Main", I now have:

/mnt/utmp/dbgl/games/M.BAT

This corresponds to the absolute file system path:

/media/*/pandora/appdata/dbgl/games/M.BAT

I had created a, "/media/*/pandora/appdata/dbgl/games", folder in which I placed my MSDOS game files and some batch files to execute them.

I am going to try to upload my, "dosbox", and, "dosbox-hw.conf", configuration files which should be unzipped and placed in the:

/media/*/pandora/appdata/dbgl/.dosbox

folder. You might have to change or simply delete the last three lines of the, ".dosbox-hw.conf", file to suit your needs.
 

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So the other day I finally got round to trying this out. I found it easy to use the add game wizard to add a game. I didn't like the separate window but I changed it to full screen and scaled aspect. So far so good.
  1. What is the shortcut/button you use to exit after playing the game in full screen? I tried escape key, didn't work.
  2. How do I get sound working?
 
DrasticNerd said:
What is the shortcut/button you use to exit after playing the game in full screen? I tried escape key, didn't work.
Click to expand...
ALT + Enter <-- DOSBOX default


DrasticNerd said:
How do I get sound working?
Click to expand...
It should work out of the box, but remember this is DOS, so you may need to go through a setup program, configuration menu or in rarer cases a text file to enable soundblaster or adlib compatible sound and such and the procedure could change per game.
 
TrashyMG said:
ALT + Enter <-- DOSBOX default
Click to expand...
Sorry for the confusion - I meant is there a button combo to "gracefully exit" the entire app while playing in fullscreen (Instead of needing to go back to the launcher first before closing). I'm currently using the PND button to kill it! :confused:
 
Ah was confused thought you meant a fullscreen toggle...

If ptitseb retained the standard DOSBOX key command CTRL-F9 should work...

also typing exit on the command line likely would work too.
 
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