D-Fend Reloaded (DOSBox frontend)

[J.B.]

Nice reaction time. :up: Looking forward new versions.

[revsmitty]

Only reason I ask about different DOSBox versions is that I have different versions with patches on for particular games. As you say, Its not a big deal. I was able to live with the old D-fend without that feature and of course, this D-Fend is much better!!

[Dagar]

Run setup
I have checked the program code for "Run setup" and also tested the function (via hotkey, context menu and regular menu): For me it's working fine, too.
Can you tell me your values for "Program file" and "Setup file" (and perhaps the parameters if you use any)?

Thanks for the reply.
It had to do with importing profiles from the original D-Fend.
I had to delete the AutoExec which was created on the import and then add the Drives and folder in the 'Drives' section of D-Fend Reloaded.
After that it is working nicely.

[J.B.]

Yeah, I did similar at first. The better method is to not use the import conf function but to copy over the prof files instead. That way you don't get all the mounting commands etc. into the autoexec section but into the sections where they belong. Probably could use a bit more user guidance as I think most people will use import conf once they find it in the menu.

[Alexander]

Ok, I will make a "Import prof file" function (... which will simply copy the prof file to the D-Fend Reloaded conf folder). BTW the "Import conf file" function is working correctly: D-Fend has to make autoexec entries from the mount items because there are no other mount settings in the DOSBox conf files. When importing a conf file D-Fend Reloaded don't know which autoexec lines are really user defined and which come from the mount section.

This evening I have started working on the big new thing for version 0.3.0. Be curious for it...

[Dagar]

Thanks for the explanation on the importing profiles from original D-Fend Alexander.

...greatly looking forward to any 'Reloaded' updates.

[Alexander]

Hi everybody,

in the last weeks I have done a lot of work for the next version of D-Fend Reloaded (7 fixed bugs and 12 improvements at the moment). But it will still take a few week before 0.3.0 will be there.

Today I could need some help from someone for making some little icons. Without giving to much of the new features in the next version away, there will be this tree structure:


Especially the marked icons are not very good (either they are used twice or they are simply not really useable for the item). If anybody wants to help me getting nicer icons: The icons have 16x16 pixels and 16 colors (but 256 colors should be ok, too). The optimal file format would be bmp.

And of course: If you have any feature requests for the next version, this would be the right time to tell them.

[DjLc]

Hi,

First, great job on this !
Second, i think i don't understand how the nsis packager works.
My idea is to make a single exe with one ore more games for a friend who have nothing (no dosbox, no defendreloaded and no game). Is the nsis installer option is available for this ?
Anyway, building the package works like a charm. But i got one error while trying the installer "couldn't find dfend.dat". Dunno if it's related with the PORTABLE mode.

Any advice or i'm totally wrong about the nsis feature ?

[ADDiCT]

DjLc, this is off-topic, but still: you might want to stop advertising an "Abandonware" website in your sig. "Abandonware" is not welcome on VOGONS.

[Alexander]

Hi DjLc,

First, great job on this !

Thank you.

Second, i think i don't understand how the nsis packager works.
My idea is to make a single exe with one ore more games for a friend who have nothing (no dosbox, no defendreloaded and no game). Is the nsis installer option is available for this ?

The installer packages only include the selected games (but therefor really everything about the selected games: program files, screenshots, manual folder, icon).

If an installer package would also include D-Fend Reloaded, DOSBox and so on, this would be a lot of redundant files if you use more than one installer package. The D-Frend Reloaded program files can be installed via the normal installer without any problems, so I think its not to complicated to have two installers.

If you want to have an all inclusive package, you can install the games to an portable D-Fend Reloaded installation and then make a zip archive of the D-Fend Reloaded program folder.

Anyway, building the package works like a charm. But i got one error while trying the installer "couldn't find dfend.dat". Dunno if it's related with the PORTABLE mode.

Can you tell me when exactly this error occures ? When trying to install a self make installer package ? And for which D-Fend Reloaded operation mode ? Portable ? (Installer packages can be installed to any operation modes, so installing them to a portable D-Fend Reloaded should be not problem.)

The background of the DFend.dat: This file contains a single line of text ("PrgDirMode", "UserDirMode" or "PortableMode") and is read by D-Fend Reloaded when it starts. Depending on the content of this file D-Fend Reloaded looks for the setup directory in different places. The games packages installer also reads this file. If it finds a "PrgDirMode" or "PortableMode" it trys to install the games to the given D-Frend Reloaded folder. In the case of "UserDirMode" it will install the games to C:\Users\<YourName>\D-Fend Reloaded (if you use Vista, under XP and older Windows versions the folder name may varys. The installer recives the name of the C:\Users\<YourName> folder via the Windows API function so it should be correct under any Windows version and with any Windows language).

So is the DFend.dat existing in your D-Fend Reloaded installation folder and do you really have choosen the D-Fend Reloaded folder in the games installer package ? (If you haven't used the installer version of D-Fend Reloaded then there may not exist a DFend.dat in your D-Frend Reloaded program directory. But therefor a "Readme_OperationMode.txt" which tells you about the different operation modes and what to write in the DFend.dat.)


I will think of an "Include D-Fend Reloaded and DOSBox" option for the "Build installer" dialog. But this feature will definitely not be ready in the next version (0.3.0, about middle or end of february).


One question to ADDiCT: Why is abandonware not welcome on VOGONS ? Only this abandonware site or all of them ? I could understand if you say "Advertising any website in your signature is not welcome here", but why especially abandonware sites ? Until now I thought emulators for old systems (and this includes for me also the VOGONS site) and abandonware sites are some how symbiothic to each other. Or is there something I don't know ? (Ok, some of the abandonware sites are may in some legal gray areas, but most of them look very strict only to publish games for which its legal to do this.) I haven't been very long in this forum, so this is really no criticism, I simply want to know why abandonware sites are not welcome here.

[wd]

Why is abandonware not welcome on VOGONS ?

Legality aspects. There are already enough threads about this, just search the forum.

[collector]

And support issues. Ripped and modified games are... unpredictable.

[DjLc]

Hi DjLc,

Can you tell me when exactly this error occures ? When trying to install a self make installer package ? And for which D-Fend Reloaded operation mode ? Portable ? (Installer packages can be installed to any operation modes, so installing them to a portable D-Fend Reloaded should be not problem.)

Yes, error occures when i'm trying to install the self made installer package.
I'm using the Portable mode.

So is the DFend.dat existing in your D-Fend Reloaded installation folder and do you really have choosen the D-Fend Reloaded folder in the games installer package ?

Yes i'm using the D-Fend Reloaded install folder and yes the dfend.dat exists (with PORTABLE line in it).

[Alexander]

Hmm, that is strange. I have checked the relevant part of nsi script and haven't found any bug. The code for searching and reading the dfend.dat is in the "D-Fend Reloaded DataInstaller.nsi". Lines 70 to 74 say:

Code: Select all

; Searching DFend.dat
IfFileExists "$INSTDIR\DFend.dat" DFendDatExists
MessageBox MB_OK "$(LANGNAME_InstallError)"
Abort
DFendDatExists:


And line 57:

Code: Select all

LangString LANGNAME_InstallError ${LANG_ENGLISH} "$INSTDIR\DFend.dat not found."


This means if in the selected installation directory (in the script $INSTDIR) there is a DFend.dat, the installer should say yes to IfFileExists "$INSTDIR\DFend.dat" and go to DFendDatExists. Only if the file "$INSTDIR\DFend.dat" does not exist the installer should show "$INSTDIR\DFend.dat not found."

If you can really confirm that the DFend.dat existis in the directory shown in the error message, there is something I don't understand. The IfFileExists function should have no problem with spaces in file/directory names and should be not case sensitive (tested today). Additionally the $INSTDIR has never a trailing "\" regardless of what you have entered in the dialog (tested today, too).



Something completely else:
Today in the morning the download counter for D-Fend Reloaded at sourceforge reached the 10.000 line:
http://sourceforge.net/project/stats/detail.php?group_id=212860&ugn=dfendreloaded&type=prdownload&mode=60day&package_id=0

[DjLc]

Error solved... It was my fault. I've kept in my head that will be a full install (dfend reloaded and the game) so i was using a clean directory and not the Defend Reloaded directory. My apologies.

Anyway, is it possible to add an option in order to define the name of the capture filenames ?

In the "Edit multiples profiles..." menu, the 3 buttons (All, None, By genre) don't work. If we manually select the game, the changes are ok but we must restart the frontend to see the changes. (not dynamic).

[Alexander]

Anyway, is it possible to add an option in order to define the name of the capture filenames ?

The screenshots are made by DOSBox, so I can only change things for whom there are settings in the DOSBox.conf. Everything I can find in the DOSBox readme and the DOSBox.conf is:

Code: Select all

[dosbox]
# captures -- Directory where things like wave,midi,screenshot get captured.
captures=capture


This means, I can change the directory where DOSBox will save the screenshots but not the names. Sorry, but I cannot do anything here.

In the "Edit multiples profiles..." menu, the 3 buttons (All, None, By genre) don't work. If we manually select the game, the changes are ok but we must restart the frontend to see the changes. (not dynamic).

I know both bugs and both will be fixed in version 0.3. (Perhaps some more information for the second bug: D-Fend Reloaded is not corrupting profiles, it only uses for speed reasons caches for name, genre, developer, ... And after closing the multiple profile editor it forgets to update the cache. This means the profiles on disk will be ok and if you open the (single) profile editor the settings will be ok, too. Only the items in the listview are not updated.)

[Banjo]

Hi Alexander!

Just come back from being interstate for work, and was thrilled to see D-Fend Reloaded updated! V2 has some great improvements and fixes (though "updating" didn't fix things... I had to reinstall fresh).

Off the top of my head, without delving into the new V2 stuff too much yet, would be:

1) Creating a shortcut (to start menu/desktop) automatically gives them the icon you assigned the profile in D-Fend Reloaded (I think D-Fend used to do this).

2) The ability to customize the drop-down lists... I use a custom build of DosBox to get MT32 sound in some games, but D-Fend Reloaded won't let me choose mt32 as my midi device (since it's not a dosbox standard).

3) Perhaps not possible or as useful to most folks... the ability to specify a different Dosbox directory for certain games (eg. when you need a custom build for some of them). Like I said, I get that this might cause more headaches than be helpful, though!

4) A third 'view' mode (currently details & icons) that displays (for example) 200x200 'cover art' tiles. Again, might be too much of a hassle!

As for the icons, I'm more than happy to help you out in sourcing, editing and creating these! I don't know if I'll have time before the next D-Fend Reloaded version is released (don't wanna hold everything up!) but I'll definitely try and find time in the next week or so. Do they need to be totally original icons, or just suitable ones that fit the format? (you can PM/email me if you want to chat more about this outside the vogons board).

In any case, keep up the great work!!!

Cheers,
Banjo

[Alexander]

Hi Banjo !

Can you tell me what exactly did not work for you when updating ? The update installer is just a normal installer without DOSBox and FreeDOS. The only thing what could happen when updating (by using the update installer as well as by using the full installer) is that the old DFend.ini or the old ConfOpt.dat has some misconfigurations which are of couse not overwritten. I have just found out the setup dialog and the ConfOpt class had different points of view what are default values and what not, so resetting the default values for some sections via the setup dialog might delete some correct default values while simply deleting the ConfOpt.dat would restore all default values.

1) Creating a shortcut (to start menu/desktop) automatically gives them the icon you assigned the profile in D-Fend Reloaded (I think D-Fend used to do this).

I have never used the shortcuts function in D-Fend, so when writing D-Fend Reloaded this function was a "Ok, D-Fend has this function so I have to make something similar." Giving other icons than the program file icon to the shortcuts should be possible. I have added this to my "0.4 todo" because D-Fend Reloaded 0.3.0 will be there by the end of next week (at least I hope so) and the feature wish list for this version for bigger request is already closed.

2) The ability to customize the drop-down lists... I use a custom build of DosBox to get MT32 sound in some games, but D-Fend Reloaded won't let me choose mt32 as my midi device (since it's not a dosbox standard).

Some drop-down lists are already customizeable (section "Default values" in the setup dialog). The MIDI device list was hardcoded until now. I do not know, for which lists making them changeable is useful. Changing a list just takes me a few minutes, so if you have some other lists you want to have customizeable, just tell me. This changes will make it with out any problem in version 0.3.

3) Perhaps not possible or as useful to most folks... the ability to specify a different Dosbox directory for certain games (eg. when you need a custom build for some of them). Like I said, I get that this might cause more headaches than be helpful, though!

Because I have tested some custom DOSBox builds in the last few week, too, I have already included the ability to choose a custom DOSBox folder for each profile. (The default value for the custom DOSBox folder will be "default", which means "use the DOSBox folder from the setup dialog".)

4) A third 'view' mode (currently details & icons) that displays (for example) 200x200 'cover art' tiles. Again, might be too much of a hassle!

The games list is an instance of the Delphi class TListView. This class has 4 styles: icons, small icons, report and list. D-Fend Reloaded 0.2 only used the styles icons and report. D-Fend Reloaded 0.3 will be able to use all 4 styles. Such nice things like the Vista-style cover art view are not implementend in TListView. Becuase the TListView class has about 2500 lines of code in the Delphi RTL, it would be much to big for me to write a own ListView class to offer the additional view styles. Sorry.

If you want to help me with the icons, this would be really great.

Perhaps it is a good idea if you wait with the icons for D-Fend Reloaded 0.3. This version will bring some functions to make customizing a little bit easier: It will have a language editor (just a 3 column table, in the left the identifier, in the middle the english string for this identifier and in the right the editable string for the own language) and the option to load menu and toolbar icons dynamically in the program. While the language editor is no big advantage from editing an ini file (it is more psychological: "Look, you don't need to touch this ini file, it's all buildin.") the dynamic icon load is a really new feature. In the data folder there will be a Icons.ini file which will look as follows:

Code: Select all

[Main]
; 1=Floppy disk
; 2=Run
; 3=Run setup

And if you write a "1=NewIcon.bmp" in the [Main] section the default floppy icon in the games list will be replaced with this new icon. (Of course the filenames can be with absolut paths or relative to the data folder and of course the files can be bmp, gif, png or jpeg.)

Do they need to be totally original icons, or just suitable ones that fit the format?

I don't know what exactly you mean. I just would like to have some nicer icons. For many things I don't have any useable icons at the moment at all.

Greetings
Alexander

[Alexander]

I have just finished the work on the last new feature of D-Fend Reloaded 0.3.0. The changelog for the new version is longer than any other changelog was before. I think version 0.3.0 will be a big step for D-Fend Reloaded towards to play in the same league as the other big frontends. But there are still a lot of thinks I would like to have in my little frontend in the future - fortunately we still have some version numbers left. (I have plans for at least three more releases.)

Unfortunately new features mean new dialogs and menu items. And new dialogs and menu items mean new strings to be translated. I always try to be as economical as possible but anyway there are 138 new language strings in D-Fend Reloaded 0.3.0. German and English are of course already complete but in the Spanisch version these new strings are missing at the moment.

If you, Neville, would like to help me again with the Spanish translation, this would be great. I have made a list of all new strings again to make the job as easy as possible. And I promise there will be no new release for at least 2 month after this (except for bugfix releases if needed).

I do not want to betray all new features before the new version is on the server but there will be

• improvments made to the profile editor,
• more settings for DOSBox to make more DOS programs run,
• functions to manage captured sounds and
• a lot of functions to customize the GUI.

[Alexander]

Hi everybody,

I have just finished D-Fend Reloaded 0.3.0. You can find installation, update, zip and source code packages here:
http://dfendreloaded.sourceforge.net/Download.html

Unfortunately I have to say that I didn't got any reply from Neville so this version will only have an incomplete Spanish translation. German and English are of course up-to-date as usual. The changelog for all versions has growen nearly to the double size, this means nearly half of the changes ever made to D-Fend Reloaded were in version 0.3.0. I won't paste a complete changelog here, only the highlights:

• More DOSBox settings (some of them using the FreeDOS tools):
  Different DOSBox installations for each profile configurateable, Reported DOS version, Key status for num, caps and scroll lock, 2-button mouse mode, sound volume, ...
• Easy profile handling:
  New profile editor (the classic D-Fend style editor is also still avaible and up-to-date with all new settings), managing captured wave sounds with option to encode them to mp3 (encoder not included; can use lame for example) or ogg, filtering profiles by user-defined categories, ...
• GUI customizing:
  Color and font sizes of the main window are configurateable, more view modes in the games list, internal language editor for making translations, exchangeable toolbar and menu icons
• Update checker:
  Checking for updates with one click (or optional automatically at program start), download and start of installation with just a second click

Plus many smaller improvements and a lot of bug fixes. The complete changelog is available on the project homepage:
http://dfendreloaded.sourceforge.net/Files/Changelog.txt

Have fun with the new version !