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DOSBox Game Launcher (DOSBox Frontend)

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Reply 1720 of 1962, by rcblanke

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Moving on with 0.95 beta2:

  • Prevent crash processing invalid 'scaler' or 'loadfix' settings (GT);
  • Fixed issue when multi-editing and changing 'scaler' or 'priority', resulting in invalid config values. Also display the change correctly in the wizard's confirmation step;
  • Properly grey out checkboxes with conflicting values.
  • Fixed erroneous new-lines in certain GamePackArchive xml fields;
  • Ignore special autoexec features used by D-Fend Reloaded such as 4DOS and DOS32A when importing (dor123);
  • German translation update from Marcel Luka.

All the latest files. To upgrade, just update dbgl.jar.

Ronald

Reply 1722 of 1962, by dor123

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It would be good if the profiles file names would have been the names of the profiles in the software rather than numbers, like in the case of D-Fend Reloaded. This could make finding specific profiles easier.

DOSBox 0.74-3
D-Fend Reloaded 1.4.4
DOSBox Game Launcher v0.97
Windows 10 Enterprise 64-bit version 22H2

Reply 1726 of 1962, by rcblanke

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You can easily accomplish this by:

  1. Selecting all profiles (ctrl-a in the profiles list)
  2. Exporting profiles (Profiles -> Export...)
  3. Set [Configuration File] to "Filename by profile title" in File->Preferences (as Neville mentioned)
  4. Re-importing all profiles (that you just exported, Profiles -> Import...)
  5. If the new profiles work correctly, removing the old profiles

Also note that you can easily determine a profile's ID using the 'ID' column in the profile table (I know, amazing), by editing a profile (ID is shown in the editing window between brackets) or opening the captures folder (it ends with the ID). You can also directly open a .conf by right-clicking on a profile and selecting View->Configuration File.

Reply 1727 of 1962, by bloodbat

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Hello!
Great work on the launcher, thanks 😀 One thing has been bothering me, since I can't find a way to change it in version 0.94: how do I change the captures folder? Some people may enjoy having a ton of numbered subfolders in a directory. I don't, at all. The numbering scheme is fine for... I don't know, 10 games? More than that and it's painful. I want to dump the few captures I make to the directory where I used to dump them all. Is this at all possible using the GUI or am I doomed to having to edit the .conf file by hand every time I add a game?
Thanks 😀

Reply 1729 of 1962, by bloodbat

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rcblanke wrote on 2021-11-11, 17:24:

What would you suggest bloodbat? To use a single directory for all captures? How would DBGL be able to distinguish one profile's captures from another?

Thanks for your reply 😀
I would suggest being able to disable generating all those folders if desired and being able to use one central location for all captures. Make the default as is and, if possible, give the option to use just one folder, much like the "Filename by profile title" which is great.
I understand those folders are also used for covers and such downloaded from internet services, maybe a separate folder for those would be useful for people that use them?
I don't need capture management from the front end: that's what file managers are for and DOSBox names said captures according to whatever is running when they're taken.

Other stuff I've found / suggest:
-There's a display bug for the toolbar under, at least, Windows 10: buttons are cutoff. (Check the attached screenshot).
-Running bootable games is... convoluted to say the least. DOSBox can boot images directly (as stated here: https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/BOOT) yet the frontend insists on mounting the parent folder of the bootable image and then taking some unnecessary detours. I think the games I've managed to convince to boot are either due to sheer luck or by tricking the front end and booting them directly from autoexec.
-Related to the above: while I know most people use the frontend to launch clearly defined games and executables, sometimes I want to do stuff directly from autoexec or launch a command line with certain different options without an specific executable, while it can be done by either tricking the frontend with a fake command, using the Custom Commands stuff tab, or messing directly with the generated .conf, it spews a warning about an "Incomplete profile" when launching or refuses to accept a profile edit. An option to disable this behavior would make the program better, I think. I understand the program aims to be as friendly and useful as possible, and this is done to help a lot of users try and get what they want, but this stuff could be called "Advanced Mode" or something like that.
-I downloaded the program to replace D-Fend Reloaded because it offers the closest behavior I could find and, for the most part, it delivers; however, there's one useful thing missing: the ability to add arbitrary sections and options from the GUI to the configuration files. Sure they can be edited by hand, and, so far, it seems to respect my edits. Why? DOSBox derivatives such as DOSBox-X are in constant flux and offer quite a few options not available in plain DOSBox. D-Fend solved this by offering a simple text box where the user could add whatever they needed and then placing the text before the [autoexec] stuff. This unburdens the frontend programmer from adding every single option (quite a daunting task) to the different "Experimental Options" tabs while allowing the user to use the advanced options to their hearts content without leaving the frontend and having to find and edit the .conf file.

Thanks 😀

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Reply 1730 of 1962, by rcblanke

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bloodbat wrote on 2021-11-13, 18:04:

I would suggest being able to disable generating all those folders if desired and being able to use one central location for all captures.

Ok, I guess if you don't care too much about the captures, having all these [ID] subdirectories can be unnecessary. I've made this configurable, like you suggest.

bloodbat wrote on 2021-11-13, 18:04:

There's a display bug for the toolbar under, at least, Windows 10: buttons are cutoff. (Check the attached screenshot).

I don't see anything wrong with the buttons in your screenshot?! Please note that the last button (for toggling the visibility of a profile's notes) might not be the best design, though. If anyone can come up with a better one in 16x16, I'm all for it.

bloodbat wrote on 2021-11-13, 18:04:

Running bootable games is... convoluted to say the least. DOSBox can boot images directly (as stated here: https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/BOOT) yet the frontend insists on mounting the parent folder of the bootable image and then taking some unnecessary detours. I think the games I've managed to convince to boot are either due to sheer luck or by tricking the front end and booting them directly from autoexec.

I kindly disagree. Although I cannot remember exactly why I opted for the 'mount dir first, boot afterwards' route (instead of booting directly) back in 2006, I'm pretty sure there was a reason for that. Anyway, I don't see what is so 'convoluted' here:

  1. Click 'Add profile'
  2. Type title and click the 'Mounting' tab;
  3. Click on the 'Booter' expand-bar;
  4. Click 'Browse' next to the 'Image 1' field and select your booter image. The parent directory is added automatically in the mounting overview;
  5. Click 'Ok' to save the profile.

Maybe you've stumbled upon a bug? Or you didn't use image filenames conforming to the DOS 8.3 short filename standard? That will likely lead to a broken profile. Anyway, I've added a warning when trying to use non-8.3 filenames to hopefully prevent such issues.

bloodbat wrote on 2021-11-13, 18:04:

Related to the above: while I know most people use the frontend to launch clearly defined games and executables, sometimes I want to do stuff directly from autoexec or launch a command line with certain different options without an specific executable, while it can be done by either tricking the frontend with a fake command, using the Custom Commands stuff tab, or messing directly with the generated .conf, it spews a warning about an "Incomplete profile" when launching or refuses to accept a profile edit. An option to disable this behavior would make the program better, I think. I understand the program aims to be as friendly and useful as possible, and this is done to help a lot of users try and get what they want, but this stuff could be called "Advanced Mode" or something like that.

This suggestion has come up a couple of times before. Unfortunately, due to technical reasons this request is currently unfeasible. In DBGL's codebase, a profile is more or less defined as consisting of a set of meta-data in conjunction with a DOSBox configuration with a target runnable. Although I might come up with a real solution in the future, for the moment the best thing to do is simply to enter a bogus executable in 'Main' (like A.EXE, you can enter anything as long as it ends with .com/.exe/.bat). Remember that you can right-click on a profile and 'Start manually' to prevent execution of the 'Main' executable (and bypass 'exit') so you can test things in DOSBox.

Running 'stuff' directly from autoexec can be easily accomplished using the 'Custom commands' tab.

bloodbat wrote on 2021-11-13, 18:04:

... the ability to add arbitrary sections and options from the GUI to the configuration files.

Good idea, implemented. You can find the feature in the 'Custom commands' -> 'DOSBox custom section' tab.

====

0.95 beta3:

  • Implemented custom conf sections for templates and profiles (bloodbat)
  • Display warning when using non 8.3 filenames, use double quotes around booter image filenames when they contain a space (bloodbat);
  • Allow for choosing to have all captures in single folder (bloodbat)
  • Try to improve layout issue with filled text fields (GT);
  • Fixed pouet querying (changes on the website regarding demo scoring).

All the latest files. To upgrade, just update dbgl.jar.

Ronald

Reply 1731 of 1962, by bloodbat

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rcblanke wrote on 2021-11-22, 08:10:
Ok, I guess if you don't care too much about the captures, having all these [ID] subdirectories can be unnecessary. I've made th […]
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bloodbat wrote on 2021-11-13, 18:04:

I would suggest being able to disable generating all those folders if desired and being able to use one central location for all captures.

Ok, I guess if you don't care too much about the captures, having all these [ID] subdirectories can be unnecessary. I've made this configurable, like you suggest.

bloodbat wrote on 2021-11-13, 18:04:

There's a display bug for the toolbar under, at least, Windows 10: buttons are cutoff. (Check the attached screenshot).

I don't see anything wrong with the buttons in your screenshot?! Please note that the last button (for toggling the visibility of a profile's notes) might not be the best design, though. If anyone can come up with a better one in 16x16, I'm all for it.

bloodbat wrote on 2021-11-13, 18:04:

Running bootable games is... convoluted to say the least. DOSBox can boot images directly (as stated here: https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/BOOT) yet the frontend insists on mounting the parent folder of the bootable image and then taking some unnecessary detours. I think the games I've managed to convince to boot are either due to sheer luck or by tricking the front end and booting them directly from autoexec.

I kindly disagree. Although I cannot remember exactly why I opted for the 'mount dir first, boot afterwards' route (instead of booting directly) back in 2006, I'm pretty sure there was a reason for that. Anyway, I don't see what is so 'convoluted' here:

  1. Click 'Add profile'
  2. Type title and click the 'Mounting' tab;
  3. Click on the 'Booter' expand-bar;
  4. Click 'Browse' next to the 'Image 1' field and select your booter image. The parent directory is added automatically in the mounting overview;
  5. Click 'Ok' to save the profile.

Maybe you've stumbled upon a bug? Or you didn't use image filenames conforming to the DOS 8.3 short filename standard? That will likely lead to a broken profile. Anyway, I've added a warning when trying to use non-8.3 filenames to hopefully prevent such issues.

bloodbat wrote on 2021-11-13, 18:04:

Related to the above: while I know most people use the frontend to launch clearly defined games and executables, sometimes I want to do stuff directly from autoexec or launch a command line with certain different options without an specific executable, while it can be done by either tricking the frontend with a fake command, using the Custom Commands stuff tab, or messing directly with the generated .conf, it spews a warning about an "Incomplete profile" when launching or refuses to accept a profile edit. An option to disable this behavior would make the program better, I think. I understand the program aims to be as friendly and useful as possible, and this is done to help a lot of users try and get what they want, but this stuff could be called "Advanced Mode" or something like that.

This suggestion has come up a couple of times before. Unfortunately, due to technical reasons this request is currently unfeasible. In DBGL's codebase, a profile is more or less defined as consisting of a set of meta-data in conjunction with a DOSBox configuration with a target runnable. Although I might come up with a real solution in the future, for the moment the best thing to do is simply to enter a bogus executable in 'Main' (like A.EXE, you can enter anything as long as it ends with .com/.exe/.bat). Remember that you can right-click on a profile and 'Start manually' to prevent execution of the 'Main' executable (and bypass 'exit') so you can test things in DOSBox.

Running 'stuff' directly from autoexec can be easily accomplished using the 'Custom commands' tab.

bloodbat wrote on 2021-11-13, 18:04:

... the ability to add arbitrary sections and options from the GUI to the configuration files.

Good idea, implemented. You can find the feature in the 'Custom commands' -> 'DOSBox custom section' tab.

====

0.95 beta3:

  • Implemented custom conf sections for templates and profiles (bloodbat)
  • Display warning when using non 8.3 filenames, use double quotes around booter image filenames when they contain a space (bloodbat);
  • Allow for choosing to have all captures in single folder (bloodbat)
  • Try to improve layout issue with filled text fields (GT);
  • Fixed pouet querying (changes on the website regarding demo scoring).

All the latest files. To upgrade, just update dbgl.jar.

Ronald

Thanks a lot for the changes, fixes and explanations 😀
I understand the button that looks cut in half is meant to look like that; but I found a problem in the preferences: the "Port" text box won't display even a single number in full (out of what seem to be 4); I attached a screenshot.

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Reply 1732 of 1962, by rcblanke

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Well-spotted! Should be fixed in this new build. If nothing else of interest comes up soon, this may be the last beta build before a next official one.

All the latest files. To upgrade, just update dbgl.jar.

Ronald

Reply 1733 of 1962, by lukeman3000

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One of the features that I really like about D-Fend Reloaded is that you can specify programs to run both before launching the game and after closing it. I use this a lot because I use AutoHotkey scripts to launch (and close) my MT-32 and SC-55 emulators automatically such that it's all done simply by launching the game from DFR. Does DBGL have a similar functionality in that I could choose programs to launch before and after the game is launched/closed?

Reply 1734 of 1962, by Neville

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It does:

ktnPkct.png

Although personally I'd rather create a simple BAT file so I can run those particular games with any frontend.

A BAT file is a plain text file specifying which programs to run and in which order. For example:

KEYB US
F15.EXE
KEYB SP

I use variations on this one for MicroProse games, which only work if you set up your keyboard as American.

Reply 1735 of 1962, by rcblanke

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Thanks for answering Neville. I just wanted to add that DBGL stores these custom autoexec entries inside the profile's .conf file. Thus, one can always run the game with DOSBox without using DBGL (for example, using a desktop shortcut). Also, you can add/edit these custom entries multiple DBGL profiles at a time, which can be easier/quicker than creating multiple batch files. Having said that, I can certainly understand that using batchfiles can sometimes be beneficial.

Reply 1736 of 1962, by rcblanke

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I've just released DBGL 0.95, which you can find on the website. No more changes other than a few library updates, so don't forget to update the files in your existing DBGL/lib directory.

Reply 1737 of 1962, by tedyun

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Hi Ronald,

After a long time of "meaning to get around to it" I finally made an earnest effort to get my old games from the '90's to run on my rig. It was incredibly easy, thanks to your front end. Your DBGL is amazing, and I just have to thank you for continuing to support it.

Best wishes

Ted

rcblanke wrote on 2021-12-14, 19:49:

I've just released DBGL 0.95, which you can find on the website. No more changes other than a few library updates, so don't forget to update the files in your existing DBGL/lib directory.

Reply 1739 of 1962, by tedyun

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rcblanke wrote on 2021-12-16, 08:56:

Great to hear that, thanks for your post Ted!

Hi Ronald --

I'm having a grand ol' time installing my old games on my Windows rig!

I actually have a dual boot system where I can boot into MacOS. Maybe I'm biting off more than I can chew here, but I've been trying to see if I can run the games over on the MacOS, using DBGL and DOSBox for the OSX system. I was wondering if it would be possible to use the different DOSBox forks over on the MacOS side. The issue seems to be that when I try to add DOSBox Staging or DOSBox-X, they don't have ".exe" files, which is what DBGL seems to be looking for.

I can circumvent DBGL and just manually configure each game to use the particular DOSBox fork -- but what's the fun in that?! I'd love to use DBGL in both environments. Is there an easy fix?

Thanks
Ted