Yeah, I've tried quite a few other front-ends, but none are as good as DFR.

Hi, ...

Yeah, I've tried quite a few other front-ends, but none are as good as DFR.

It's also, ... what i think. 😁

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No bug to report, ...
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So can you tell me all of your visual settings in D-Fend Reloaded please (what to do with the main window when DOSBox starts, what view mode, DOSBox window or fullscreen mode etc.).

in the profile for games most of the graphics settings are set to
window reolution:original
fullscreen resolution:original
start in fullscreenmode
render:survace
video card:svga_s3
scale:nearest neighbour upscaling with factor 2 (normal2x)
frameskip:0

i dont think ive really changed the settings from the defaults much

Also when i edit a profile for a game if I press ok it takes a long time for the dialog to disappear but I press no it disappears quickly like normal

Only "start in fullscreenmode" from the list is relevant for me. And what about the DFR visual settings? Minimize on DOSBox start etc.? But perhaps this isn't the problem because:

Also when i edit a profile for a game if I press ok it takes a long time for the dialog to disappear

This means creation of the conf files takes a long time. Can you please check if "View conf file" from profile editor and from context menu also takes long time.

And can you please check if you have turned on "Additional automatically mount all available CDs"? This will check for all drive letters if the drive is a CD drive and if a CD is inserted. If you have connected network drives this may slow down the creation of the conf file.

Alexander wrote:

If you have connected network drives this may slow down the creation of the conf file.

[x] Additional automatically mount all available CDs
[x] Do not check network drives for CDs 😉

This means creation of the conf files takes a long time. Can you please check if "View conf file" from profile editor and from context menu also takes long time.

yes this does take a long time.

And can you please check if you have turned on "Additional automatically mount all available CDs"?

is turned off

Minimize on DOSBox start

is off

[x] Do not check network drives for CDs Wink

At the moment I'm doing this when auto mount CD drives is on:

1  For C:='C' to 'Z' do begin
2    If GetDriveType(PChar(C+':\'))<>DRIVE_CDROM then continue;
3    If Pos(C,AlreadyMounted)<>0 then continue;
4    If not GetDiskFreeSpace(PChar(C+':\'),...,lpTotalNumberOfClusters) then continue;
5    If lpTotalNumberOfClusters=0 then continue;
6	 // Mount drive
7  end;

So if DriveType<>DRIVE_CDROM no further tests will be done on this drive. But who knows perhaps Windows already takes time to do a GetDriveType(PChar(C+':\')) or it gives DRIVE_CDROM as drive type for a CD drive connected via network.

This means creation of the conf files takes a long time. Can you please check if "View conf file" from profile editor and from context menu also takes long time.

yes this does take a long time.

So its the conf file creator. I will have a deeper look at this.

awergh, where do you keep such amount of games? Are they in one folder or separate game subfolders in one folder? If so - scanning folder with a lot of files/subfolders is a hard job for any program.

awergh, where do you keep such amount of games? Are they in one folder or separate game subfolders in one folder? If so - scanning folder with a lot of files/subfolders is a hard job for any program.

The games folder is on a second hard disk and each game has its own subfolder in the games folder

awergh, so you have about three thousands subfolders in one folder?
Try to move all profiles (not games) to some other location (where D-Fend cannot see them), leave only several. Will they still start slow?
And post as example one of your profiles.

I moved all the profiles except dosbox dos and secret agent episode 1
and when I launched secret agent it was just as slow as when I had all the games.

I attached the prof file for you to see.

awergh, try to mount as drive C: folder .\VirtualHD\apogee\ instead of .\VirtualHD\
This should be run faster. And after that try '.\VirtualHD\apogee\Secret Agent\' - should be even more fast.
Any way try to run dobsox with generated config (export it from D-Fend or view config in notepad and save it) via 'dosbox -conf your-file.conf'.
It should start slow, if I've guessed right.

Alexander, I think the problem is in scanning big directories, which takes time. As DOSBox way to convert filenames to shorts needs to cache whole directory - there is no way to acelerate it. But I found one fuction in DosBoxUnit.pas that may be optimized. That is LongPath(Root,ShortPath). It scans whole directory to find proper long name. Look at function WinExpandLongPathName in FileNameConvertor.pas. I hope it does the same thing (but test this, of course). And it runs as fast as filesystem allows (on NTFS faster than on FAT).

try to mount as drive C: folder .\VirtualHD\apogee\ instead of .\VirtualHD\
This should be run faster. And after that try '.\VirtualHD\apogee\Secret Agent\' - should be even more fast.

yep its much faster this way

Any way try to run dobsox with generated config (export it from D-Fend or view config in notepad and save it) via 'dosbox -conf your-file.conf'.
It should start slow, if I've guessed right.

actually its fast doing this

Hi skatz,

yes, your WinExpandLongPathName should be much faster. I must have been blind not seeing this simple solution and also not looking at your FileNameConvertor.pas more intensively. 0.8.2rc will have two hidden configuration switches (which will be removed again in the final release): One will allow to create a log file of the conf file creation process and the other one will switch to the fast long path name creation function. If everything is fine with this function, it will be used by default in 0.8.2 instead of the old, slow one used in 0.8.1 and before.

I have also been very busy during this week: Most of the things for 0.8.2rc1 are done. Only one bigger function/bug fix is needed: When using cue/bin image files, only the selected cue file is transfered/exported/deleted when using this functions. The bin file has to be added as an additional file until now.

A new test release is on the server. You can also find a list of things to test etc. in the changelog section of this page.

Hi, Alexander!
I resolved an issue with slow directory reading. See new convertor in attachment. The reason was in constant resorting of readed filelist. I changed the way to keep list sorted. On my test with 3000 files - name converting time has changed from 35 sec to 47 msec.
As for DOSBox - 0.72 also used a slow way, but in 0.73 - same speed improvement was made.

BTW, in you new hidden package feature you add zipped program to package only by filename (without path), so it cannot be found when being ouf from current folder.

Hi, ...

[Edit 2009-8-24]

I use your = D-Fend Reloaded, "v0.8.2Rc1", D-Fend Reloaded PortableApps package".
-
I have found a bug =

I have a dissapearing lower right section, inside D-Fend Reloaded "v0.8.2Rc1".

= If i reduce the lower right section ex: [the "screenshot, sounds, videos, note, ...", section] too much lower, the section completly dissapear. (The only way to have again the lower right section, is to quit and restart D-Fend Reloaded). The "Display , ..." option inside the menu-bar, dont repair that bug, ...

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Hi skatz,
thank you very much for the updated path/filename processor unit. I have added it to the DFR source and the fast way or making long names will be used by default in 0.8.2rc2.

Hi sst,
this bug will be fixed in 0.8.2rc2. The splitter will not allow smaller previewer heights than 50 pixels anymore. Additionally the show/hide menu item will check when showing the previewer area if the size is at least 50 pixels and will increase it if needed. (So the height will also be fixed if it's already set to 0.)

BTW:
A new 0.9 feature will be available in 0.8.2: Collapseable sections in the multiple profiles editor.

The second release candicate of D-Fend Reloaded 0.8.2 is on sourceforge now. Please test this release. If everything is fine with 0.8.2rc2 this release (just without the "this is not final" warning) will become 0.8.2 final release.

Hi, Alexander!
About splitters:
1.Set minimum width for left splitter (between tree and main list) too, please.
2.Set splitters invisible when corresponding panel is invisible.
3.Ensure that splitter is BETWEEN panels. (Now if you switch off showing capture panel, then on - spliter appears under panel)