Sammy wrote:

Sorry for asking, but is it planed to add ne2000 support ?
I need it when i play games like screamer Rally, and connect a dosbox with a real old PC over network.

So far I had no plans for NE2000 support, because there was no demand so far.

Sammy wrote:

And would i make things so unstable when its possible again to switch between glide=emu (build in patch) and glide=true for a wrapper (nglide) ?

External wrappers aren't supported in kekkos 3Dfx patch, because it wraps all Glide commands to OpenGL ones internally, while all external wrappers work with Direct3D, afaik.

Sammy wrote:

Dosbox ECE seems to be a great Project, but is missing some "must haves".

"Must haves" tend to differ from user to user, so to satisfy all the individual needs, DOSBox would have to be a 100% perfect emulation of old MS DOS PCs, with loads of possibilities to choose between different hardware components, different driver sets, etc. Because that obviously is not possible (or at least a more than herculean effort), for DOSBox ECE I decided to focus on patches that improve graphics and sound, which are the features games mostly benefit from. Almost all of the other builds that support more features seem to be broken or not supported any more, because the more patches you add, the more prone to errors it becomes. So I prefer keeping it slick and working instead of blowing it up to the point where I can't keep up building or supporting it.

Btw.: I f you have some clue about C++ programming or at least know how to add patches and compile DOSBox yourself (not that difficult if you follow the guide in the wiki, which is basically what I do), you're free to try to add the patches you want yourself and see If you can get it working, I provide the source code of DOSBox ECE in my downloads as well.

Sammy wrote:

Ah, btw: where can i find a plain dosbox.conf for ECE to see what commands and variables are supported ?

Press WIN+R on the desktop, enter %LOCALAPPDATA% and look in the DOSBox directory there, you should find a file dosbox-ECE.conf comtaining all options available.

@YP80,
Yes, NE2000 is used and loved by many users of 'enhanced' SVM DOSBox builds like the dead Daum, this is the only way to interconnect a real machine with DOSBox.
It's not a large or problematic patch, maybe you should add it?

Yes, NE2000 is used and loved by many users of 'enhanced' SVM DOSBox builds like the dead Daum, this is the only way to interconnect a real machine with DOSBox.

1. I thought you could use ipx for something
2. "loved by many" might be stretching it as we haven't heard the outcry of many yet...
Seems to be a "I ove it so all others must love it, too" thing 😀

Nah, I personally don't use it, but I've read on Vogons than at least some (a slight downgrade from 'many') use it and love it.
It'll be a nice addition, but it is not essential like many of the 'fix' patches in ECE.
It's up to YP80, my voice is neutral about NE2000.

Besides, ECE has the word 'community' in it, meaning it is some how democratic in it's nature, meaning 'the people' have at least some influential voice to what will be included in ECE.
YP80 being the government, and 'the people' can only place their vote with a good reason, and wait. 😀

I can (and must) have some Dosbox versions installed for the games i running:

Screamer 2 / Rally : Dosbox Daum because of Nglide and NE2000.

Windows95 Colin McRaeRally: Dosbox Daum 2014/2015 with internal 3dfx emulation.

Tilt!: Dosbox0.74 or ECE because in Daum version, if you press left Shift key, right shift key is blocked, so only on side of the Flipper can be activated.
Also the Daum version has problems with Univbe Support.

DosboxECE for Games with Midi music, Adventures or something else?
And 3dfx Gam with static linked exe. (Tomb Raider)

So its no Problem if Dosbox ECE did not support all patches, everyone can decide what Dosbox build he want to use for which game.
If i have issues with a game under a Dosbox version, i make a list where i notice on with dosbox version the game runs best.

BTW: With dosbox build in ipxserver, only games between 2 dosboxes are possible.

Pssst ....

r4019 is out: https://sourceforge.net/p/dosbox/code-0/HEAD/tree/

Disney Sound Source supposedly is fixed.

James-F wrote:

Besides, ECE has the word 'community' in it, meaning it is some how democratic in it's nature, meaning 'the people' have at least some influential voice to what will be included in ECE.

The term "Community" in a open source environment might also mean that instead of just demanding something, members of said community could theoretically use the code, add the features they would like to see themselves and re-release the code into the community again! 😉

However, in the meantime ECE r4019 is yours for the downloading.

BTW, I looked into the patch for NE2000 support. It would add some more dependencies to DOSBox, plus so far there doesn't seem to be a version of WinPCap (which is required) that supports Windows 10. So, supporting all Windows versions (including XP and Vista) would require 2 separate builds, one using WinPCap for XP and Vista compatibility and one using Win10Pcap for the more current MS OSes (7, 8.x, 10). Even worse, Win10Pcap can only be compiled in VS2008 SP1 Standard Edition or higher editions, none of which is free. And since Linux uses PCap (without Win), the source code would differ even more from the windows one, making future patches even more difficult to maintain. TBH, to me it's not worth all this hassle.

No Problem, you're the boss 😀

I don't know much about coding, i did not know that you have to compile different versions for different (win)PCaps.

Yesterplay80 wrote:

instead of just demanding something,

😲 Did I ever?
Politeness with humble acceptance of rejection is the right way! 😀

Yesterplay80 wrote:

members of said community could theoretically use the code, add the features they would like to see themselves and re-release the code into the community again! 😉

Understood and agreed.

However, in the meantime ECE r4019 is yours for the downloading.

Thanks!

NE2000 patch indeed gave me trouble especially in the "configure.in" section that doesn't exist before compilation, nor after.... 😐
I successfully compiled a fully featured SVN r4019 with several patches from ECE that I normally use including the FMvolume.patch that I've created using the "diff -Nurb" command.
It's not hard at all if one just follows the dosbox-wiki guide with MinGW, and use google.

James-F wrote:

Yesterplay80 wrote:

instead of just demanding something,

😲 Did I ever?

Sorry if I offended you, that wasn't my intention! "Asking for" would have been the right expression instead of "demanding"

Sammy wrote:

I don't know much about coding, i did not know that you have to compile different versions for different (win)PCaps.

Neither do I, neither did I before I looked into the matter.

James-F wrote:

It's not hard at all if one just follows the dosbox-wiki guide with MinGW, and use google.

That's exactly what I did and still do, I know what an "include" in a patch file means so I can tell what's needed. And by googling I found out about the different versions of (Win)PCap for the different OSes. No real knowledge here! 😉 And

Hi, a couple questions:

1. Would DOSBox ECE r4019 run games like Star Wars Jedi Knight Dark Forces II? If so, how would I get this working?

2. Does DOSBox ECE support any kind of functions which allow the launching of other programs before launching the game? Such as if I wanted to launch a midi synthesizer, wait a few seconds, and then launch the game? And then potentially have the midi synth close when dosbox is closed? I'm trying to figure out the best way to get the Sound Canvas VA to launch (and close) automatically with games.

3. As far as DOSBox ECE is concerned, is 0x0 the same as "desktop" in terms of the full/window resolution? Is 0x0 interchangeable with "desktop"?

4. Generally speaking, is ECE as stable as the last official DOSBox release? Is there any reason that I would want to use the official DOSBox release (I think 0.74) over ECE?

If you read this thread, then you will see that things do get screwed up from time to time. So running a development version has a chance of being less stable.

1. no, it's DOSbox not Windowsbox
2. no, you need to find another launcher program that will do what you want (AutoIt or Autohotkeys)

lukeman3000 wrote:

1. Would DOSBox ECE r4019 run games like Star Wars Jedi Knight Dark Forces II? If so, how would I get this working?

As Dominus already pointed out, DOSBox is meant to emulate DOS-PCs rather than Windows-PCs, so while it is somehow possible to get Windows running in DOSBox (other builds like old Daum and the current DOSBox-X are more suited for this), it's nothing I'd recommend and it will likely result in more trouble than running the game in Windows directly.

lukeman3000 wrote:

Does DOSBox ECE support any kind of functions which allow the launching of other programs before launching the game?

No, DOSBox itself does only run DOS executables. But you can always start DOSBox with a .bat or .cmd (Windows) or .sh (Linux, Mac?) and start / close every application before or after DOSBox this way.

lukeman3000 wrote:

3. As far as DOSBox ECE is concerned, is 0x0 the same as "desktop" in terms of the full/window resolution? Is 0x0 interchangeable with "desktop"?

To be honest, I never used the parameter "0x0" before, I always use "desktop". But it should be the same if it is the same in vanilla DOSBox. I just tried it out and it looks the same.

lukeman3000 wrote:

4. Generally speaking, is ECE as stable as the last official DOSBox release? Is there any reason that I would want to use the official DOSBox release (I think 0.74) over ECE?

As Qbix already said: Development versions might be less stable than official releases, but so far DOSBox proved to be pretty stable no matter which version you choose. If an error shows up it normally gets fixed pretty fast, so I'd always use the latest SVN, but that's a matter of choice.

lukeman3000 wrote:

Hi, a couple questions: […]
Show full quote

Hi, a couple questions:

1. Would DOSBox ECE r4019 run games like Star Wars Jedi Knight Dark Forces II? If so, how would I get this working?

2. Does DOSBox ECE support any kind of functions which allow the launching of other programs before launching the game? Such as if I wanted to launch a midi synthesizer, wait a few seconds, and then launch the game? And then potentially have the midi synth close when dosbox is closed? I'm trying to figure out the best way to get the Sound Canvas VA to launch (and close) automatically with games.

3. As far as DOSBox ECE is concerned, is 0x0 the same as "desktop" in terms of the full/window resolution? Is 0x0 interchangeable with "desktop"?

4. Generally speaking, is ECE as stable as the last official DOSBox release? Is there any reason that I would want to use the official DOSBox release (I think 0.74) over ECE?

With games like Jedi Knight, I recommend you try this out:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/dxwnd/

DxWnd is actively being developed and improvements are added regularly. It's a good tool for getting those early Windows 9x games to scale in modern Windows. Not every game is going to work, and I haven't tested Jedi Knight myself, but it's worth a shot, the only caveat being that it only works in Windowed mode for some games (but it includes a feature to hide the desktop background while in Windowed mode). Using Daum or DOSBox-X to run Windows 95 is also an option, albeit not a very good one; the performance is often not very good even on a powerful PC (I have some games setup this way, and it's kind of ... meh).

On DOSBox 0.74 vs the current SVN, I'd definitely go with the SVN as there are a crap ton of improvements there since 0.74 was released about seven years ago. Sure, sometimes things get broken but usually not for long.

SedrynTyros wrote:

With games like Jedi Knight, I recommend you try this out: […]
Show full quote

lukeman3000 wrote:

Hi, a couple questions: […]
Show full quote

Hi, a couple questions:

1. Would DOSBox ECE r4019 run games like Star Wars Jedi Knight Dark Forces II? If so, how would I get this working?

2. Does DOSBox ECE support any kind of functions which allow the launching of other programs before launching the game? Such as if I wanted to launch a midi synthesizer, wait a few seconds, and then launch the game? And then potentially have the midi synth close when dosbox is closed? I'm trying to figure out the best way to get the Sound Canvas VA to launch (and close) automatically with games.

3. As far as DOSBox ECE is concerned, is 0x0 the same as "desktop" in terms of the full/window resolution? Is 0x0 interchangeable with "desktop"?

4. Generally speaking, is ECE as stable as the last official DOSBox release? Is there any reason that I would want to use the official DOSBox release (I think 0.74) over ECE?

With games like Jedi Knight, I recommend you try this out:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/dxwnd/

DxWnd is actively being developed and improvements are added regularly. It's a good tool for getting those early Windows 9x games to scale in modern Windows. Not every game is going to work, and I haven't tested Jedi Knight myself, but it's worth a shot, the only caveat being that it only works in Windowed mode for some games (but it includes a feature to hide the desktop background while in Windowed mode). Using Daum or DOSBox-X to run Windows 95 is also an option, albeit not a very good one; the performance is often not very good even on a powerful PC (I have some games setup this way, and it's kind of ... meh).

On DOSBox 0.74 vs the current SVN, I'd definitely go with the SVN as there are a crap ton of improvements there since 0.74 was released about seven years ago. Sure, sometimes things get broken but usually not for long.

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll look into this.

Another question - In looking through the dosbox.conf file I see that a soundfont can be specified for both coreaudio and fluidsynth output (using the most recent ECE build).

Which is preferred/better, and why?

Coreaudio is for OS X only and it's just like using a soundfont for Creative's Midi manager.
Fluidsynth is similar only you don't need to rely on Midi driver, the midi driver is built in (fluydsynth) and you choose the soundfont for it.

Thanks Dominus.

Also, Yesterplay, it seems that the following dosbox command line parameter:

mixer /listmidi

is no longer working as of the most recent ECE build. When I try it, it doesn't return anything at all. This is something that the D-Fend Reloaded frontend uses to make switching midi devices easier. Would be great if it was working again!

Edit: I just tested and this parameter was working properly in the r4019 ECE build that was available for download just prior to the one that you uploaded yesterday with the fixed Munt emulation.

Also, thanks to both you and sergm for fixing the Munt issue. It's great to have fully-functional Munt emulation built right into DOSBox!

lukeman3000 wrote:

Also, Yesterplay, it seems that the following dosbox command line parameter:

mixer /listmidi

is no longer working as of the most recent ECE build. When I try it, it doesn't return anything at all. This is something that the D-Fend Reloaded frontend uses to make switching midi devices easier. Would be great if it was working again!

The parameter works, but only with Win32 as midi device. I forgot to make Win32 the default midi device after updating the patch again, so MT32 is set as new default in this build, that's why /listmidi shows nothing.

Fixed binaries are online, Win32 is the default midi device again!

Yesterplay80 wrote:

lukeman3000 wrote:

Also, Yesterplay, it seems that the following dosbox command line parameter:

mixer /listmidi

is no longer working as of the most recent ECE build. When I try it, it doesn't return anything at all. This is something that the D-Fend Reloaded frontend uses to make switching midi devices easier. Would be great if it was working again!

The parameter works, but only with Win32 as midi device. I forgot to make Win32 the default midi device after updating the patch again, so MT32 is set as new default in this build, that's why /listmidi shows nothing.

Fixed binaries are online, Win32 is the default midi device again!

Out of curiosity, why make Win32 the default setting instead of "default" aka the default system midi playback device? Is Win32 normally the default setting for this parameter? Furthermore, what defines the default midi playback device if this parameter is set to default instead of win32?

This may be a little off-topic, but should mididevice always be set to win32 (if using Windows) regardless of if I'm using Sound Canvas VA or Munt, unless I want to use the built-in MT-32 emulation of ECE, in which case I choose "mt32"?