Hi Neville,

thank you for investigating on this issues. Before saying something about the configuration settings just a few words about:

wd wrote:

So frontends start changing the dosbox default values or what?

I'm not changing any DOSBox default values (=values in the dosbox.conf in the DOSBox program directory or in the DOSBox source code or what ever). D-Fend Reloaded is a DOSBox frontend meaning it manages different DOSBox configuration files and allows to start DOSBox with them. And of course this configuration files can differ from the default DOSBox configuration file.

When I started working on D-Fend Reloaded, I wanted to make it as much D-Fend (classic) compatible as possible. (For example the 3000 cycles thing is due to D-Fend as far as I remember.) I'm the only developer on the D-Fend Reloaded project and I'm doing this in my free time, so there can always be some incorrect implementations of DOSBox configuration settings and other things. By reading some threads I get the feeling some people thing frontends are just spoiling the pure DOSBox experience. If a user wants to play an old game he has to understand the concept of the local DOSBox file structure etc. Many people just even don't know where the program files started via the start menu are. So I think a good frontend can increase the number of DOSBox users very much. (And that's what I want, just because I think DOSBox is one of the best pieces of software I know.)

Of course an inflexible and buggy frontend can cause a lot of new problems. At this point I think I am not completely ready with D-Fend Reloaded, but I think even at the moment it solves more problems than it creates:

• It will choose the right keyboard layout from the chosen program language (no more posted that can be answered by "keyb xx" here).
• When using the wizard for creating profiles it will automatically setup the drives (no more "what does 'mount' do ?" posts).
• With the auto setup templates many popular games can be configurated automatically.
• The next version will detect windows exe files and warn the user (no more "DOSBox says 'This program cannot be run in DOS mode.' ?" posts).
• The folder for captured files is automatically setup and for each profile the captured screenshots, sound and (in 0.5.0) videos can be previewed directly from DFR. Addionally DFR shows which hotkays are used for capturing and can offer to install the DOSBox video codec if needed (in 0.5.0).

And so one.

But let's go back to the issues:

1) Cycles is set to 3000 instead of auto.

As already mentioned, this comes from D-Fend. I will change the default profile to "auto".

2) Mem is set to 32 megs instead of 16.

Is this a problem for any game ? I thought the DOSBox default settings are some years old so using 16 MB more of the system RAM should be no problem by now. And because there are games which need 32 MB but I don't know any game that cannot handle 32 MB, I thought 32 MB would be a more save value.

3) Double buffering for fullscreen mode (option "fulldouble") is set as true.

This thing was changed by me some weeks after I changed from XP to Vista. Using fulldouble=false with a ATI graphics card under Vista causes an extrem game slow down when fading in/out. Because I didn't saw any problems with fulldouble=true on my old XP computer, I changed the value of fulldouble to true in the default profile template. I will test fulldouble=false the next days on my Vista computers again (because the ATI drivers half a year ago were quite buggy, perhaps this problem has gone by now).

4) Autolock is set to false instead of true.

Don't know why this was set to false.

And last but not least some little 0.5.0 status update:

• Real zip support: Done. Even so some very nice combined PhysFS support; you just use a zip file and a write folder as a DOSBox drive (so no extracting is needed at program start) and when DOSBox closes DFR will update the zip file with the files from the write folder.
• Multiple DOSBox version support (via setup dialog): Done.
• New tabs "Videos" and "Data folder" next to "Screenshots" and "Sounds" for viewing captured videos and browsing the profile data folder. (And of course the video previewer will offer to install the DOSBox video codec if needed and the data folder tab will offer to setup a data folder.)

There is still a lot to do, but I will try to finish a first beta version by the end of this month. (And btw: The feature wish list is still open.)

Greetings
Alexander

Is this a problem for any game ? I thought the DOSBox default settings are some years old so using 16 MB more of the system RAM should be no problem by now. And because there are games which need 32 MB but I don't know any game that cannot handle 32 MB, I thought 32 MB would be a more save value.

Actually the 16MB are the more save value, rarely a game needed more than 16 and really old games might get confused with that much RAM. Generally speaking I'd say trust the developers that default is the more save setting and if you change a default you'd better check with the devs 😀

As already mentioned, this comes from D-Fend. I will change the default profile to "auto".

auto should be no problem as it defaults to 3000 for the shell and a good
number of old games.

2) Mem is set to 32 megs instead of 16.
Is this a problem for any game ?

Don't change settings unless needed. 16 is fine for almost every game
in existence due to swapping capabilities of extenders. 16+ gets wrapping
of mem limits for some old games.

This thing was changed by me some weeks after I changed from XP to Vista.

Changing something because it runs better under a single vista configuration
isn't the best thing to do, but well.

By reading some threads I get the feeling some people thing frontends are just spoiling the pure DOSBox experience

Don't think that matters. Those who want some "experience" can just use it
without a frontend, everybody's own choice. During the last years several
interesting frontends have evolved, and it's appreciated if they are maintained
over a long time.

I have changed settings 1, 2 and 4. At the moment I'm not sure if the extrem slow down when fading in fullscreen mode is due to the graphic driver or due to the changed buffer architecture in Vista. That's why I will try to test fulldouble=true/false on some different systems before changing this in the default template.

Please open a separate posting for this, as other people might have
experience with this/solutions etc. Usually checking the driver/directx
combination helps figuring out when hardware surfaces will be used.

Alexander wrote:

There is still a lot to do, but I will try to finish a first beta version by the end of this month. (And btw: The feature wish list is still open.)

Greetings
Alexander

Now that you mention it, I prefer the snapshot viewer the way it was before v0.4.1. Don't know exactly why, but since then snapshots always appear by default in their real size. Most snapshots are 320x200 or 320x240, and look way too small without resizing the window.

Could you do something with that? Like automatically show snapshots below, I don't know, 320x240 at 150 or 200%, but let 640x400 or bigger appear as 100%.

Hi Neville,

yes, that's a good idea. Because I don't want to add even more only seldem used configuration options, I have implemented some automatic:

If image width and height is equal or less than screen width and height, the starting zoom factor will be 200%.

But that wouldn't show SVGA snaps as 1024x768 or close? That's way too big, many people still use that as their desktop res.

First of all:
I can make a setup option for this if you really want me to. But there are already so many setup option which can confuse new users. So I think it would be better if we can avoild an additional field in the setup dialog.

If you have a 320x240 bitmap and a 1024x768 resolution you will get:
320*3=960<1024 and 240*3=720<768 => 200% starting zoom level

I can also use some other limiting factor as 3 if you think 2 or 2.5 would make more sense.

No, no, I agree there's enough setup options.

Those numbers look OK for VGA snaps, although I'd rather stick with smaller values, like 320*2=640 and 200*2=400. It's VGA we're talking here, the caps don't look to good at higher resolutions than that.

My doubts before were about how to deal with caps from SVGA games, which 640x400 res or higher. IMHO they should stay as they are, at 100%.

Hi, Alexander!
And my two pence about snapshots -
When you show viewer window you center it on main DFR window. But when the latter in at the edge of screen the former may appear out of it.
Maybe you should set some position shift, so that at least top left corner will be visible (and others if possible). And when looping through images(by Next/Prev button or mouse wheel) do not change window position (if whole image is visible) - with diffrent resolution images window jumps around screen.

And another bugreport:
Button 'Run Setup' on main toolbar does nothing.
And it has widest caption , so all buttons have widthes too long. May you set tool button witdh for single button, not for all at once?

Hello Alexander,

About the CVS version of DOSBox, personaly I would be very happy to have two versions of DOSBox already installed in DFR. Because, in a game setup, it would be so nice to choose between these two versions:
one ordinary DOSBox (good for stability), and one special improved version (good for eficiency, if it works).

I know some games that could take advantage to have 3D support via 3dfx emulation (Reckneck rampage, Screamer rally, etc..).

But I must confess I'm too lazy to build my own CVS for Dosbox: that is more a work of experts. 😀
That is why I would appreciate greatly to have two versions already installed.

DFR is very good for people who want to play old games with no difficulty.
(and good also for experts who like GUI) 😀

Thanks for your work

You don't need to build your own CVS, specially if you want extra stuff.

You can choose which version of DOSBox to run from DFR, just edit the profile and check the DOSBox section. There you can choose between using default DOSBox or specify the path to a different version.

Check out Ykhwong's CVS, or Gulikoza's build.

Personally, I'm against distributing CVS versions with frontends, it could get even more confusing for newbies. I'm even against distributing official DOSBox builds with frontends, because I think it's redundant.

Hi skatz,

I will try to optimize the window sizing and positioning of the image viewer window in 0.5.0. I already have some protection for the window size but it works something like "ImageSize>ScreenSize" and not "ImageViewerWindowSize>DesktopSize".

And I can confirm the "Run setup" bug. There is simply no OnClick function connected to the button. I don't know when I have lost this thing.

And @curieux and @Neville:

As Neville already said: You can use different DOSBox versions for different profiles. And in 0.5.0 you will have even more possibilities for managing different DOSBox versions.

I also think it's not a good idea to distribute CVS DOSBox builds with a frondend.

Some little 0.5.0 Beta 1 status update:

Only one bigger feature is missing for Beta 1. I've been very busy the last weeks so I'm a bit slower on DFR than I have planed but I'm still hoping to be able to release Beta 1 before the end of the month.

Additionally I'm checking 4 possible bugs/issues in DOSBox at the moment and will post them here in a different thread if I can really confirm them as bugs (fulldouble=false slowdown, corrupted captured videos when closing DOSBox while capture is active, Quotes in PhysFS mount commands not working, different ways of creating short file names between Windows and DOSBox).

Hi everybody,

I have just finished the first beta version of D-Fend Reloaded 0.5.0. You can find it on the normal beta download homepage.

This new version is still a beta version. Most features are already there but some smaller things are still missing. If you find any bugs or have any feature requests, just tell me. At the moment I have very little time, but I will try to finish the Beta 2 release by the end of july. The Beta 2 release should be feature complete and ready for translation.

Have fun with the new version.

Hello there. I've been fooling around the new version with the language editor in order to see if there was much new stuff to be translated once a regular build is released, and noticed a funny thing, the built-in language editor won't let me change anything in the "Menu" section. Can't tell if this is a bug in the editor or my fault for trying to edit an outdated LANG file.

About the rest of the new features, I don't think I'll use the ZIP support, but the tweaks in the snapshot viewer are welcome, it's completely flawless now.

Hi Neville !

Neville wrote:

About the rest of the new features, I don't think I'll use the ZIP support, but the tweaks in the snapshot viewer are welcome, it's completely flawless now.

First of all: Thank you. I'm also thinking 0.5 will be the last version with this big number of new features. At the moment I'm writing an online help for D-Fend Reloaded. With this I think the program will be quite feature complete. At least I have no plans / feature request for any major release past 0.5 at the moment.

Neville wrote:

I've been fooling around the new version with the language editor in order to see if there was much new stuff to be translated once a regular build is released, and noticed a funny thing, the built-in language editor won't let me change anything in the "Menu" section. Can't tell if this is a bug in the editor or my fault for trying to edit an outdated LANG file.

That's strange, the language editor should be able to edit any language file. Additionally the other language files besides English and German are not completely outdated: The new strings are of course not translated but I have already added the strings with their English default translation. (But even if the strings would be missing the language editor should simply add them. I only add the strings manually to keep them in the same order in all language files.)

I can not reproduce this bug here. Can you tell me something more about it ? I have tried to change the translation for "&File" in the English, the German and the Spanish translation via the language editor: No problems here.

Greetings
Alexander

Just forgotten on thing:
Of course I can also give you a list of all new strings. I haven't posted it before because it's still not complete (ok, I think it's 95% complete but not 100%).

Mmmm... seems OK now, but yesterday couldn't make any changes on the "Menu" section. The section loaded as expected, but whenever I tried to edit anything I'd get a sandclock icon and then the editor would move to the next section.

I had changed several values in the previous sections before, maybe that trigered the error somehow. Dunno, really.

I have a request regarding the PhysFS tab:

I'd like to be able to set a directory to contain the write folders for games by default, and then, on the "Folder and zip file as hard disk" tab, have a 'create default write folder' button which would create a directory (named after either the game or the zip file) in the previously chosen default write folder, so I wouldn't have to do this by hand. That is, this should operate like the 'create default game data folder' button does.

Except this one missing feature, D-Fend Reloaded seems like pretty much the perfect front end--I like it much better than the others I've tried. Keep up the good work.