Alternatively you can play on a big monitor or tv without scrolling.
You don't even need 4K. 1920x1080 (HD) is enough for this game.

gameflorist wrote on 2024-03-19, 20:24:

mikesk8 wrote on 2024-03-17, 14:21:

Thanks a lot! I have just started testing and got stuck 😉 The Dune II via Dosbox Staging works fully ok with Roland SC55 (via Coremidi). However, in Dune Dynasty I cannot get any music from my Roland. I have checked all the settings, but always the music plays via computer speakers and not via Roland SC55 (connected to Mac via Roland Midi-USB interface).

Do you maybe know what I need to put in CFG file?

unfortunately i don't think there are any config options, that could help you here. i don't know much about MIDI on macOS, but it seems there are 2 interfaces regarding MIDI on mac: Core Audio and Core Midi. both are supported by Dosbox, but Dune Dynasty only supports Core Audio, and not Core Midi. maybe there is a way to tell Core Audio to use an external MIDI device instead of the built-in by default (e.g. by setting a default audio device)? but maybe Core Midi is required to do that, in which case i believe there is unfortunately no way to accomplish with Dynasty, what you are trying to do.

Hey. I just wanted to say - I love your sourceport, great work and thank you!

I have one question - would it possible to release a DOS port? Playing it on real period correct hardware would be amazing!

Socket3 wrote on 2025-02-14, 16:26:

Hey. I just wanted to say - I love your sourceport, great work and thank you!

Thank you! 😊 David (the original Dune Dynasty dev) and the OpenDune devs deserve 99.9% of the praise though.

Socket3 wrote on 2025-02-14, 16:26:

I have one question - would it possible to release a DOS port? Playing it on real period correct hardware would be amazing!

Unfortunately that's not really possible, since Allegro 5 (the library used by Dune Dynasty) does not support DOS.

gameflorist wrote on 2025-02-15, 11:15:

Thank you! 😊 David (the original Dune Dynasty dev) and the OpenDune devs deserve 99.9% of the praise though. […]
Show full quote

Socket3 wrote on 2025-02-14, 16:26:

Hey. I just wanted to say - I love your sourceport, great work and thank you!

Thank you! 😊 David (the original Dune Dynasty dev) and the OpenDune devs deserve 99.9% of the praise though.

Socket3 wrote on 2025-02-14, 16:26:

I have one question - would it possible to release a DOS port? Playing it on real period correct hardware would be amazing!

Unfortunately that's not really possible, since Allegro 5 (the library used by Dune Dynasty) does not support DOS.

What about windows 95/98? - never mind, answered my own question - allegro 5 requires windows XP.

I just wish there was some way to play this on DOS/Win9x... Hell, I'd even pay to have a copy of an OpenDune based DOS / win9x port that supports multiple unit selection and unit grouping. Alas, nobody with the required skill seems to be interested in making one...

@gerwin has made XP builds of Dune Dynasty, and a DOS protected-mode build of OpenDune here. However, I just checked, and OpenDune does not have the QoL improvements of Dune Dynasty.

Does the latter really require Allegro 5.0? Can it be back-ported to something lower? I fancy that any of the new features in the port like multiple unit selection are not dependent on a specific version of Allegro library.

MrFlibble wrote on 2025-05-27, 13:45:

and a DOS protected-mode build of OpenDune here.

Well, that was just an experiment. The OpenDune sound system is unsuitable for DOS, and therefor there is no sound at all in that quick port.

Socket3 is aware of that: Need help from a programmer.... porting Open Dune/Dune Legacy/Dune Dynasty to MS-DOS thread

Backporting to Windows XP is more my thing. 😀

It would be cool if these newer versions of portable game dev libraries like Allegro 5 and SDL2 (or even SDL3!) could be ported to DOS, as well as older Windows versions.

The one challenge would be lack of support for modern 3D acceleration APIs (OpenGL and Vulkan), but many of the games that we would like to see in DOS are 2D anyway.

Same thing with the upstream DOSBox project: if I remember correctly, it's being kept at SDL1 and older C++ standards, just for the sake of being portable across legacy and retro OSes. But wouldn't it make more sense to put more effort in porting newer libraries to these OSes instead? That would make the applications (emulators and games) more maintainable in the long term, while unlocking more ports on these OSes.

I know, this would undoubtedly be much harder in practice than it might appear in theory. But apart from the lack of modern 3D acceleration APIs (and possibly multi-core CPU support), I don't see any reason why this wouldn't be feasible.

Newer OSes downstream do have a SDL1-compat layer library (with dosbox in mind), but as SDL3's a thing now, there's also a sdl2-compat.. it's a cycle

(also for every "u can just upgrade to sdl2 it's better" i wish them a very "the event system has been shut down")

Hey everyone,

I hope you all are well!

I've just released Dune Dynasty v1.6.4. You can get it on the GitHub release page.

Here are the release notes:

"The packages must flow."

Changes:

• Display a target-indicator for a short time after issuing a command:
  
  • The indicator will be red for attack/harvest commands and grey for movement commands.
  • The indicator is not shown on an attack unit command, since that has already a visual feedback by blinking.
• Add option "Unit target lines":
  
  • This option will show trajectories and targets of selected units (like in C&C: Tiberian Sun).
  • The lines and target icon are red for attack/harvest orders and gray for any other orders.
  • The option can be found in the in-game controls menu.
  • This option is disabled by default.
• Add enhancement option "Extend spice sensor range":
  
  • This enhancement extends the spice sensing ranges in these cases:
    • Harvesters searching for spice (from about 3-4 to 64 tiles)
    • Carryalls searching for spice (from 20 to 64 tiles)
  • The extended search will only work for unveiled tiles visible to the house.
  • The option can be found in the gameplay-options of the main menu.
  • This enhancement is disabled by default.
• Change/fix centering viewport on control group via hotkey:
  
  • Now control group centering always works via double tapping the group hotkey (just like other modern RTS).
  • Before this change, centering would occur, if the group was already selected, leading to potential unwanted centering.
  • This also fixes a bug, where centering would always occur (even on first tap of a currently unselected group) after playing a while.
• Skirmish & multiplayer changes:
  
  • Add button to load a skirmish savegame to the Skirmish & Multiplayer menu.
  • Save/load team-settings in skirmish savegames.
  • Due to incompatibility with the load-functionality across differend game-sessions, the "Restart Scenario" option of the in-game control menu is now disabled for skirmish games. You can still restart a skirmish you've started in this game session by quitting the skirmish game, which will take you back to the lobby with the generated map still present. But if you do this with a loaded skirmish game from a previous game session, a new map will be generated.
  • Do not let AI build ornithopters within the first 10 minutes of the game in skirmish or multiplayer. This should give enough time to build some rocket turrets as defense.
  • Remove special Sardaukar reinforcements (troopers getting dropped in enemy base). Sardaukar will now get the same reinforcements as all other houses.
• Music changes:
  
  • Split "Emperor: Battle for Dune" music into 3 separate house-specific music sets:
    • This way, the very distinct Atreides/Harkonnen/Ordos soundtracks can be enabled/disabled separately.
  • Classify all movie- and Emperor-tracks as idle music:
    • Previously some tracks were classified as attack music, for which they are not really suited. Now only the dedicated Dune II and Dune 2000 attack tracks are classified as attack music.
  • Add option "Disable attack music" to music options in the main menu:
    • This is useful, if you want to mix Dune II or Dune 2000 music with other music sets and don't want to have the music interrupted.
    • The attack tracks will never play, not even during idle-mode.
• Add new release-packages for various systems:
  
  • Both Linux and Windows packages are now also available for ARM64 systems.
  • The macOS packages are now available as App Bundles (thanks @bni!) (See Readme for installation instructions.)
  • A Linux Flatpak package is now avaliable (thanks @Dracks!) This is now the recommended version for Linux, as it removes the requirement to install depending packages. (See Readme for installation instructions.)
• Add periodic status bar message, when palace super weapon is ready.
• Change icon to mentat-screen infantry soldier.
• Bugfixes:
  
  • Fix Fremen attacking allies in Harkonnen/Ordos campaign missions.
  • Fix raider trikes also constructing instantly if the "Instant wall construction" enhancement is enabled.
  • Fix the first saboteur being invisible.
  • Fix wrong horizontal offset of credits with certain menubar scales.
  • Fix credits dropping to 0, if a building with no spice-storage (e.g. windtrap) is destroyed, and no spice refinery/silo does yet exist.
  • Fix too loud maximum MIDI music volume, so it is more in line with e.g. Adlib and OpenDune.
  • Fix erratic music volume slider behaviour when using MIDI music.
  • Fix volume changes on song change when using MIDI music with non-maximum volume.
  • Fix sound volume slider. This removes the now obsolete voice_volume config option. Voice/sounds of intro/cutscenes will always have full volume.

Additional info:

Many sound effects in Dune II were built with a DC offset. This leads to distortions when playing a lot of sounds together, such as pops and clicks. A fixed version of the affected VOC.PAK file was made by Tiddalick and can be downloaded on ModDB (see Readme for the download-link).

Have fun and let me know of any problems you encounter!

gameflorist wrote on 2025-05-31, 17:41:

Have fun and let me know of any problems you encounter!

Is it possible to change Linux runner on GitHub for both x64 and ARM64 to Ubuntu 22.04? With current binaries, I'm unable to run them on (still the latest) Debian Bookworm.

Srandista wrote on 2025-06-16, 20:26:

Is it possible to change Linux runner on GitHub for both x64 and ARM64 to Ubuntu 22.04? With current binaries, I'm unable to run them on (still the latest) Debian Bookworm.

Do the flatpak-versions work? I think it's best to use those, since they should get rid of all compatibility problems.