It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
avatar
jtsn: [sdl]
fullresolution=desktop
output=overlay

[render]
aspect=true
Agree.

scaler=none
Strongly disagree. Going straight from 320x200 to a modern desktop resolution with the interpolation applied by the hardware scalers is a recipe for a blurry mess. Using normalx3 to take it up to 960x600 and then allowing the interpolation to carry it the rest of the way maintains some clarity while softening the edges of the pixels a little (and evening out the distortion that the aspect ratio correction necessarily involves).
Obviously if you have a lower desktop resolution then normalx2 is a better choice, but the principle is the same.
avatar
F4LL0UT: the filtering that the hardware applies to the output texture is eye cancerous shit and results in an infinitely blurrier image than what good CRTs looked like.
Thank you!
avatar
jtsn: You just got, why using a software scaler gives bad results. That was the whole point of this thread.

output=overlay scaler=none aspect=true doesn't add any lines or pixels anywhere. It just tells the hardware scaler to keep a 4:3 aspect ratio for 4:3 games.
Ok, thank you for at least demonstrating how little you know what you're talking about. I won't waste my time further.
Post edited December 28, 2015 by SirPrimalform
avatar
SirPrimalform: Going straight from 320x200 to a modern desktop resolution with the interpolation applied by the hardware scalers is a recipe for a blurry mess.
I found that I get pretty good results when I leave most of the scaling work to the monitor, using output=openglnb, aspect=false, scaler=normal2x and a custom non-gpu-scaled screenmode of 856x400.

The aspect is 0.3% off. 854x400 would be closer (on a 16:9 monitor), I'm not sure anymore why I picked this one in particular, but it's probably not relevant as far as the end result is concerned.
Post edited December 28, 2015 by Rixasha
avatar
Rixasha: I found that I get pretty good results when I leave most of the scaling work to the monitor, using output=openglnb, aspect=false, scaler=normal2x and a custom non-gpu-scaled screenmode of 856x400.

The aspect is 0.3% off. 854x400 would be closer (on a 16:9 monitor), I'm not sure anymore why I picked this one in particular, but it's probably not relevant as far as the end result is concerned.
Ah, clever! Getting the monitor scaling to do the aspect ratio correction is ingenious! Of course 854x480 would be near 16:9, so by going for 854x400 you end up with a slightly wider than 16:9 aspect ratio.

So the normal2x takes the resolution up to 640x400, black bars are added and then when the monitor does its "fill the whole screen with whatever image I get" thing it actually corrects the aspect ratio! I would never have thought of that.
avatar
grinninglich: I just asked a question there. Unfortunately they weren't very helpful.
avatar
DosFreak: http://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=46102&p=465543#p465543

Define helpful

There is no such thing as an "ultimate" Dosbox config. Trying to do so is a pointless exercise. You can set things up to suit your preferences and what you think is "ultimate" but by no means is it necessarily so.

As far as help on vogons: GIGO.
Yes i know. What i was trying to ask was not a configuration per game config but the
preparation of DOSBox.

An example: If i understood correctly, DOSBox passes MIDI data to Windows
MIDI Mixer. If there is a better alternative than that i wanted it to be prepared/installed.
Because maybe there is a game uses MIDI music, i want to listen it with the best
tool. (so the preparation)

Another example: If a game supports Direct3D and direct3d is not in official DOSBox
builds i want to compile a DOSBox with a d3d support because i want it to be prepared
if a game supports it.

Edit: So i was just asking my choices. Like install a, b, c and d for sound. And install x, y, z
for graphics.
Post edited December 29, 2015 by grinninglich
avatar
grinninglich: Yes i know. What i was trying to ask was not a configuration per game config but the
preparation of DOSBox.

An example: If i understood correctly, DOSBox passes MIDI data to Windows
MIDI Mixer. If there is a better alternative than that i wanted it to be prepared/installed.
Because maybe there is a game uses MIDI music, i want to listen it with the best
tool. (so the preparation)
It passes it to Windows own GM sound engine by default, but you can specify any MIDI device, for example a USB MIDI interface connected to an old fashioned module or an alternative MIDI software sound device. Whatever you choose, you just need to configure it (the lines mididevice and midiconfig).

Another example: If a game supports Direct3D and direct3d is not in official DOSBox
builds i want to compile a DOSBox with a d3d support because i want it to be prepared
if a game supports it.

Edit: So i was just asking my choices. Like install a, b, c and d for sound. And install x, y, z
for graphics.
I think you're getting a bit confused here. No DOS games used Direct3D, it was only introduced in DirectX 2 which was only Windows 95 and up. The versions of DOSBox that support Direct3D support it as an output mode for interfacing with Windows, nothing to do with which games they support.

If you asked these questions on Vogons, I can understand why you didn't get the help you were asking for.
Post edited December 31, 2015 by SirPrimalform
avatar
SirPrimalform: It passes it to Windows own GM sound engine by default, but you can specify any MIDI device
Last time I checked at least the official build always redirected the MIDI signals to Windows' default MIDI device which cannot be altered in Windows 8 or 10. Not sure about the Daum build. The latter at least has internal MUNT support and you can at least use that on Windows 8/10.
avatar
F4LL0UT: Last time I checked at least the official build always redirected the MIDI signals to Windows' default MIDI device which cannot be altered in Windows 8 or 10. Not sure about the Daum build. The latter at least has internal MUNT support and you can at least use that on Windows 8/10.
I admit I haven't tried it, but isn't "midiconfig" supposed to specify which device out of all the ones Windows is aware of? Or did they bork that in 8?
avatar
F4LL0UT: Last time I checked at least the official build always redirected the MIDI signals to Windows' default MIDI device which cannot be altered in Windows 8 or 10. Not sure about the Daum build. The latter at least has internal MUNT support and you can at least use that on Windows 8/10.
avatar
SirPrimalform: I admit I haven't tried it, but isn't "midiconfig" supposed to specify which device out of all the ones Windows is aware of? Or did they bork that in 8?
That's exactly what it does!

F4LL0UT, what has changed change the default MIDI device through Windows. Under XP this was possible. In Vista+ you could get a MIDI switcher tool.

But in Windows 10, the application needs to be able to select what MIDI device to use.

DOSBox as well has ScummVM support this just fine.

This is what you need to do:

Go into the DOSBox folder of a GOG game (it's inside the game folder).
Run DOSBox
Enter mixer /listmidi
Take note of the ID numbers on the left side. Pick the number for the MIDI device you want to use.
Then open the DOSBox config file of your game
Look for the MIDICONFIG line and add the ID number.

For example

MIDICONFIG=2
avatar
SirPrimalform: I admit I haven't tried it, but isn't "midiconfig" supposed to specify which device out of all the ones Windows is aware of? Or did they bork that in 8?
Damn, you guys are right. Don't know how I could have missed that.
avatar
DosFreak: ... There is no such thing as an "ultimate" Dosbox config. Trying to do so is a pointless exercise. You can set things up to suit your preferences and what you think is "ultimate" but by no means is it necessarily so. ...
But it should not mean that DOSBox games in GOG should deliver a rather bad solution out of fear of not hitting each personal preference optimally. A better compromise seems possible from what I can see here. What I would wish for is that GOG enables me to simply choose between 2-3 good pre-defined configs which I can test for both, audio and graphics (I don't want to test everything myself extensively.) and then I just stick with my choice.
Post edited January 06, 2016 by Trilarion
avatar
timppu: SW Dark Forces it was originally set to OpenGL for some reason, which was probably the reason that 4:3 got stretched to 16:9 for me
Actually opengl in my experience always keeps the aspect ratio.

Edit: No, wait, I think SVGA games actually do get stretched for me in opengl mode for some reason. I never managed to set Earth 2140 up to be drawn with 4:3 aspect ratio with configs that work fine for most other games.

Also some users have reported that opengl is generally more stable than other renderers. It seems impossible since the renderer should not have any impact on the emulated system but apparently there actually are games that misbehave on any other renderer than opengl. I remember that such glitches, which can be fixed by switching to opengl, have been reported for numerous games but the one I can recall right now is Magic Carpet. The game has a notorious bug where it hits the instance limit and the player becomes unable to generate projectiles and thus potentially to finish a level. Somebody said that this problem doesn't occur (as quickly) in opengl and indeed, after switching to opengl I managed to finally beat a level where I had been hopelessly stuck before (due to massive skeleton armies).

Anyway, I guess that because of several such reports GOG had made it a habit at some point to choose opengl by default.
avatar
philscomputerlab: F4LL0UT, what has changed change the default MIDI device through Windows. Under XP this was possible. In Vista+ you could get a MIDI switcher tool.
But in Windows 10, the application needs to be able to select what MIDI device to use.
Btw, do you happen to know what DLL is responsible for general MIDI support in Windows applications? There are several older Windows games that make use of GM and I wonder if one could create a universal wrapper that would allow the user to specify the target MIDI device per game even if it does not allow to choose the device internally.
Post edited January 06, 2016 by F4LL0UT
If we could get DOSBox game installers to point to a central DOSBox installation, that'd be sweet. It takes a while to get a new conf set up and have to change shortcuts all the time. I have a DOSBox installation set up for my games from other places not GoG, and in the end I'd rather not have to hunt down the game's conf file if it can be avoided. I have a config folder in my DOSBox directory with all my conf files. Galaxy as of right now doesn't allow changing that location (unless I've missed something).
avatar
F4LL0UT: Btw, do you happen to know what DLL is responsible for general MIDI support in Windows applications? There are several older Windows games that make use of GM and I wonder if one could create a universal wrapper that would allow the user to specify the target MIDI device per game even if it does not allow to choose the device internally.
I'm afraid I don't know that. BUT, if you install Coolsoft's VirtualMIDISyth, it will take over as the default MIDI device, which means that all games that are hard-coded to use the default MIDI device will now work with SoundFonts loaded in VirtualMIDISynth :)
avatar
PhilsComputerLab: I'm afraid I don't know that. BUT, if you install Coolsoft's VirtualMIDISyth, it will take over as the default MIDI device, which means that all games that are hard-coded to use the default MIDI device will now work with SoundFonts loaded in VirtualMIDISynth :)
I know the tool and have been using it for years. The problem is that the method it uses to become the default MIDI device is the one that doesn't work on Windows 8 or 10 any more.
That's odd, I'm using it on my Windows 10 machine!