[DOSBox] official thread

ecto

@nemo93 Thanks for the tip! I'll try that one out (I am compiling as I type)

But here is another interesting discovery I made just now: I started stagingwith the XINIT:command, and -as expected- the keyboard doesn't work. BUT I was able to use the mouse! So I checked some SVGA games (Wing commander 3+4, X-Com3, Settlers) and there was no sound crackling or laggyness at all! So if just the keyboard would work, that would be the best dosbox experience, I think?
I will report back in a few minutes after testing kc/synchronize-polling-1

EDIT
Nope, still crackling audio on mouse-movement (I only tested X-Com3 and WC4).

jamrom2

@nemo93 Hello... sorry to be a PIA with this... but a lot of this just doesn't make sense.

So here is what I did/have so far.

I removed all other instances of Dosbox (lr-, SDL, Pure) and reloaded only DosBox and Staging.
I looked at the instructions and checked my +Start DOSBox-Staging.sh files located in /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc and checked that on the first line it specifies..

if present
/home/pi/.config/dosbox/dosbox-staging.conf
will be used as primary config

I then created the required dosbox-staging.conf file and place in the in location specified above. In that file, I places all the parameters listed in the pull-down of the "default config file" section.
Now I switched over to my games... I still use .sh files to point to my game roms. Not sure if that's correct anymore because that is what used to be required to run Dosbox games. No where does it says how to setup the games to run, other than requiring individual *.config files. Having said that....
I will use Aces Over Europe (aoe) as my example... in my folder ./roms/pc resides all my .sh files. so aoe.sh is as follows... minus the "bin/bash" command at the top.

/opt/retropie/emulators/dosbox/bin/dosbox -conf "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/dos/aoe/aoe.conf"

This tells me that dosbox is running the game, not dosbox-staging. No where does it say anything about pointing to dosbox-staging other than what is mentioned in my first step mentioned above.
6. I then open the ./roms/dos/aoe/aoe.conf file which is only has the following... my joystick mapper file location, the midi and autoexec to run the game.

[sdl]
mapperfile=/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/dos/aoe/aoe.map

[midi]
mpu401 = intelligent
mididevice = mt32

[autoexec]
mount c /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/dos
C:
CD aoe
AOE.COM
EXIT

Ok.. now I start the game and in the runcommand launch choose dosbox-staging? It points to DosBox SVN. I switch to DosBox, it points to Dosbox SVN.

So where in all this, aside from the statement in +Start DOSBox-Staging.sh, does Staging actually get called to start running. Why do I even need Dosbox loaded.

I don't like coming to someone with a laundry list of problems. I can offer this as a solution. I'd like to write-up clear instructions on how to get Staging working, for laymen like me... some of this stuff is a little verbose and technical. So if you help me getting it running, I'll do a step by step Staging build process... including shaders.

Thank you.

almost forgot... if I change the aoe.sh file to read.. /opt/retropie/emulators/dosbox-staging/dosbox -conf "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/dos/aoe/aoe.conf"

Dosbox-staging runs... but I get the small box in the lower left corner, no shaders.

ecto

@nemo93 OK, I have great news regarding XINIT:

There seems to be a bug in staging. It seems that the keyboard doesn't work as long as it is running in fullscreen mode (either with fullscreen = true or when pressing alt-enter to enter fullscreen when running in windowed mode).

I have now the settings

[sdl]
fullscreen=false
windowresolution=1920x1080

in dosbox-staging.conf and it's really running great with xinit. No lag, no crackling, no tearing and full speed even with shaders! SVGA games like WC 3+4, Settlers or XCom3 are very much playable! YESSS!!

Now the only problem in windowed mode is that the screen is flushed to the top and the left. Using output=openglnbscales the output vertically, so it's "only" flushed to the left,so it's not perfect yet.

I think I will post the issue with the non-working keyboard in fullscreen mode on the github project page. Maybe something can be done about that. The problem doesn't exist in SVN.

PS:
I think I can even get the Crusader games running! :D But there are still some adjustments to cycles needed.

EDIT
I just submitted a bug-report to the git project page. Let's see what comes from that.

jamrom2

after roughly 4 hours of playing around with this... I'm slightly better than I was before.

I removed all known traces of anything DOSbox related to all versions. Went back and reinstalled Staging from source. Checked that I had the correct dosbox-staging.conf placed in the .config\dosbox folder.

Installed XINIT as suggested and updated my emulators.cfg to reflect the new choice.. and removed all others. So all I have is Staging as the choice for DOS.

dosbox-staging = "XINIT:bash /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/+Start\ DOSBox-Staging.sh %ROM%"
default = "dosbox-staging"

Reduced the aoe.conf to nothing but the joystick mapping and autoexec paramters...

Finally... In the main dosbox-staging config file. I have the following for the more important display parameters...

[sdl]
fullscreen = false
display = 0
fullresolution = default
windowresolution = 1920x1080
output = openglpp
texture_renderer = opengl
capture_mouse = onstart middlerelease
sensitivity = 100
waitonerror = true
priority = higher,normal
screensaver = auto

[dosbox]
language =
machine = vesa_nolfb
captures = capture
memsize = 16
startup_verbosity = high

[render]
frameskip = 0
aspect = true
monochrome_palette = white
scaler = none
glshader = /opt/retropie/emulators/dosbox-staging/zfast_crt.glsl

All I get now when I run a game is the middle of the screen is the game, shrunken to maybe 1/4 the size.

I'm at a total loss of analytical skill at this one.

ecto

@jamrom2 Try output=openglnb. This will scale the picture at least to the full height of your screen. Using stagung with XINIT isn't working correctly atm...

nemo93

@ecto thanks again for reporting and for providing detailed feedback. Much appreciated and I see the bug you discovered is already fixed and about to be merged in. Your "feeling" about using XINIT proved to be very interesting. For now it's a bit too specific (+ you are on KMS) but I'll keep my eyes peeled. Feel free to keep on testing. At some point we may add a XINIT section to the wiki for those who want to give it a try. On my end though I'd prefer Staging to deliver best results on the console without any extra as it's the way Retropie does operate. I do have very good perf on my Pi4 with almost any games I've tested so far. It just requires some patience to be able to fine-tune the games conf files.

Speaking of conf files... @jamrom2 you're next :-) Don't worry about asking questions and seeking for help. That's what this forum and this thread are all about. Let me ask you to start over again and play by the book. It's fine for you to have already one (or several) of other DOSbox flavors installed (either SVN or any of "libretro" cores). Then follow the guide from the wiki to the letter. It will have you adding a new script which will compile Staging and create the required files for you. Read the guide to the end as it will show you how to tell Retropie to use Staging as the default emulator by editing <Retropie>/configs/pc/emulators.cfg.

At this point you should have a Staging binary, a default conf file under <Retropie>/configs/pc/dosbox-staging.conf and a launch script under <Retropie>/roms/pc/+Start DOSBox-Staging.sh. Do not touch that launch script and do not modify that default conf file.

All that's required from now on is one .conf file per game to tell Staging what to do - place these .conf file(s) in roms/pc. Under Retropie/EmulationStation/Pegasus, to run a game you'll have to simply point to that .conf file.

NOTE: even if .sh are indeed supported and other methods will allow you to run games, I do recommend the following simple approach: a default conf file + one .conf per game. That's all. The default conf file comes with default settings which will allow most games to run ok-ish and the game .conf file is there to overload (or to enforce) specific parameters allowing the game to run better/smoother. As a user you just need to edit that game .conf file located under your <Retropie>/roms/pc/ directory.

Let's use DOOM as an example. Because DOOM is awesome. Just create a doom.conf under <Retropie>/roms/pc/ directory and copy/paste the below:

[cpu]
cycles = 30000

[midi]
mpu401     = intelligent
mididevice = fluidsynth

[autoexec]
mount c /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/games
C:
CD DOOM
DOOM.EXE
EXIT

Change the line mount c /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/games according to your system and where you have copied over the DOOM files. That's it. Now from your frontend any time you'll run doom.conf automatically Staging will launch it with the above parameters. Should the game does have issue, all you need to do is to edit that very doom.conf file. Nothing else.

Hope this helps.

jamrom2

@nemo93 Thanks Nemo

I went through all of this from scratch to make sure I have it all covered properly.

Observations:

According to the first line of the installed +dosbox-staging wrapper file, the placement of the dosbox-staging.conf calls for it being in ./conf./dosbox Anywhere else I put it failed.
The games do not display in full-screen no matter what until I add in "XINIT:" to the bash statement of emulators.cfg file in /opt/retropie/configs.hdmi/pc
When I got it running... it was woefully slow, regardless if the shader was on or off.
I like the one config for main, and other configs per game. That's a really good idea.
The .sh method would work as well, and it does, as long as you edit it to remove the setting you don't need, and keep the autoexec area.
After all this, and getting it running... I fell back to regular DosBox as it seems there is still work needing to be done. I have a Pi3b+ so most likely I'm restricted on the performance this needs to run right.

Thanks,

Jam

jamrom2

@nemo93 I decided to fall-back to Dosbox and "upgrade" to the latest SDL2 version build.

In doing so, I noticed I don't have any keyboard support. I didn't have this issue with the previous version of DosBox, but it didn't look as good as SDL2.

So having said that... what is wrong? Did I miss something in the install? Seems every version of DOSbox I've tried I spend hours trying to get things to work.

Thanks.

Jam

nemo93

@jamrom2 I'm a bit concerned as the above guide is working fine. Do you have some unusual setup perhaps? Do you rely on official Retropie image and kernel (eg. do you have KMS/fKMS)? Remove any DOSbox modules and install first "SVN" and then Staging (if you want to) using the script provided.

With anything DOSBox and whenever something is not working the way it should it's due to config issue. I can't help you further here but try to focus on one game until you have it working. I'll insist also that you stick to the one default config + one conf per game. You'll see it will greatly help you to make stuff working and simplify debug. For fullscreen/correct aspect and assuming you're running from the console/a frontend this will work for pi3/pi4 - add that to the default config file:

[sdl]
fullscreen       = true
display          = 0
fullresolution   = desktop
windowresolution = original
output           = texturenb
texture_renderer = opengles2
capture_mouse    = onstart middlerelease
sensitivity      = 100
waitonerror      = true
priority         = higher,normal
mapperfile       = mapper-sdl2-git.map
screensaver      = auto

jamrom2

@nemo93 OK. I'm going to start with a clean slate...

My build is a legit Retropie 4.7.1 build running a no-frills EmulationStation front end. Nothing crazy (other than what I've added over the past year)... I don't know what KMS/fKMS is. So I'll say it isn't loaded.
The Staging install script works great, no issues installing Staging. It's listed in my Exp Packages list in RetroPie-Setup script now. I built the file and ran it as suggested. I had it running, but it was a slide show.
I'm going to clean out my "/roms/pc" folder where all the ".sh" were and where all the ".conf" files will reside, as all my actual games are located in another folder all together in "/roms/dos".
Ultimately I want to be able to do a side-by-side comparison of the game performance as I know the complexity of different games effects how the emulator runs. So if SDL2 runs better for flight sims, if Staging is better for newer DOS games, I'll use that and so on.
the only reason I had all the .sh files was because that was the only way it was recommended to run DOSBox games 5 years ago when I first built the DOSBox side of my image as ES didn't recognize .conf files. Since then, yes I agree, the config file method is much better. I will be switching over and editing my gamelist file to the .conf extension.

As requested. I'll install DosBox-SVN first... then jump into Staging.

Dosbox SVN installs a config file in /opt/retropie/configs.hdmi/pc called "dosbox-SVN.conf". I am assuming this will be the main config file that I will be working with to set the main setting in DosBox. From there, I will build 3 config files in "/roms/pc" for the following games... Aces Over Europe, Abuse and Doom. 3 games that I feel allow me to test performance and keyboard/gamepad use.

They all work good as expected and I played around with each separate config just to see if it was reading it as it should and overwriting the main dosbox config file. All is good. Whatever I set for resolution in each .conf overwrites the main file.

Now on to Staging...

jamrom2

@nemo93 ...and the results...

Staging loaded no issues. I used the default config and tweaked it with the settings above. The sound is a mess, very choppy and broken. The video is the same. Doom is livable, but AOE and Abuse are unplayable.
Loaded SDL2 as the final choice. Tweaked with the same settings above in your post. It ran great. Sound is good, all video on all games is fast and crisp. No muddy look, no Hardware stretching... but... no keyboard.

So all in all.... I understand why I was having so many issues trying to get video to work. The .sh files were screwing me up. This direct .conf method is so much better and faster to tweak.

I'd like to help more... I don't see why my keyboard (BT Rii mini i8) doesn't work in SDL2.

Jam

nemo93

@jamrom2 nice to see all the efforts! Good job :-) At least now you got a fine setup, easy to debug and to tweak whatever DOSBox "module" you're relying on. As mentioned above whenever sound is crackling and image is stuttering you either got not enough cycles or too many. Both Abuse and DOOM require quite some high cycles count to run fullspeed. Just for the record here are my 2 .conf for those games - keep in mind I'm on a Pi4 and using a specific branch of Staging:

abuse.conf

[cpu]
cycles = 35000

[midi]
mpu401     = intelligent
mididevice = fluidsynth

[autoexec]
mount c /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/games
C:
CD ABUSE
ABUSE.EXE
EXIT

doom.conf

[sdl]
capture_mouse = nomouse

[cpu]
cycles = 70000

[midi]
mpu401     = intelligent
mididevice = fluidsynth

[autoexec]
mount c /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/games
C:
CD DOOM
DOOM.EXE
EXIT

Both games support General MIDI hence the [midi] section. I've set a soundfont in the default config file (dosbox-staging.conf) but you can also set a soundfont in each game .conf.

I insist: it might be difficult to get those games to run fullspeed. They both got their own Raspberry port which run much better so if you really want to play these give a try to such ports (included within Retropie). Or you could try with "SVN" or the "SDL2" indeed.

I can't help to respond why there's no keyboard on "SDL2" but just ensure to use the default config file provided with the installation and try running DOSbox in pure DOS mode (the "console") to see if you could type in something.

ecto

Hi,

has anyone successfully tried getting Frontier: First Encounters (Elite 3) to run?
There is a shareware version online to try it out. Dosbox SVN and Stagingboth crash, when I press a button in the startup screen. Apparently dosbox pure crashes, too.

I can run the game with the exact same files from my desktop Windows pc, so it's probably related to the platform?

jamrom2

so after playing with all the versions of each module... I'm finding that none of this is an exact science with getting any of this to work.

Lr-dosbox-pure looks fantastic, easy to install games (no config files) and has a great "retroarch based menu", but jeeze... it's nearly impossible to get one controller configuration to work on every game. Plus it keeps adding a *.save file which I can't figure out how to re-direct to another location to save to.
Dosbox-Staging - for whatever reason that four hours of tweaking couldn't find... the keyboard doesn't work, neither can I get the shader to display. Like every DOS game from back in the day, it must be tweaked per game. Not a big deal, it's kind-of expected.. but since the keyboard dosn't work, what's the point.
Dosbox-SDL2 - same as above. And I can see when it loads, it's loading the correct version in the blue DosBox "autoexec" load screen. It's loading SVN and having the exact issues Staging is, although the .conf has no info other than display and autoexec.
DosBox (the baseline version)- everything works in it, but the screen never displays is true 4:3 so it looks odd. Other than that, everything seems to work without much tweaking required.

So in conculsion... this is a lot of work and I don't see anything working. It's like starting 10 projects at once, and not completing any of them.

ecto

@jamrom2 said in [DOSbox] official thread:

so after playing with all the versions of each module... I'm finding that none of this is an exact science with getting any of this to work.
[...]
So in conculsion... this is a lot of work and I don't see anything working. It's like starting 10 projects at once, and not completing any of them.

Hmm, that's really sad to hear. I, too, had many problems with different DOS games (see two posts up...), but then - it was always like then back in the glorious MS-DOS days. But unlike you, I usually hadn't had problems with the emulators themselves...
The non-working keyboard is strange. Just to be sure: you don't use XINIT:now, do you? Because that was the only time my keyboard wasn't working with Dosbox.

Here are some things you could test (with no guarantee of success ;) ):

does the keyboard work when you start Dosbox without any game? (using +Start Dosbox.sh). What does the log say?
maybe you can start Dosbox directly from the shell and see what it does/says?
there are only a few settings for the keyboard in the dosbox.conffile. Like keyboardlayoutor usescancodes. Can you have a look at them? Maybe change them? Afaik, usescancodes doesn't work with Retropie, but you never know...
What keyboard do you have? Can you try another one?

Then a general tip for setting up the games (and be sure, that it's not Dosbox'es fault when something doesn't work): Do you have Dosbox set up on a pc maybe? When I'm fiddling with my games, I usually install them on my Windows machine (with a similar setup like drive names etc.) and when everything works , I just transfer the game to my Retropie. GOG games are usually pretty good with that: just install them and transfer the right folder over. Done.

And the streched vew of Dosbox-SVN is probably due to dispmanx, I would guess. That is expected but can be changed later, when everything else works!

jamrom2

@ecto Well... guess what... I finally found the culprit to all my issues with these emulators...

my old mapper file from dosbox. I've been pulling over the file for several builds not realizing what effect it would have on my build. Here's how I found it.

I took out another microSD card, created a "short build" with the newest RP 4.7.1 and updated the script to .12. Pulled down DOSBox, DOSBox-SDL2 and lr-dosbox-pure. Behold... they all worked. Keyboard was working.

The lightening struck and there it was... my own doing.. as usual. I reverted back to my build, changed all the mapping statements back to default and it works great. I now have SDL2, Staging and DOSBox working with full keyboard support!

I'm not going to think what could have changed in the mapper file, but I'm sure something did as mine is over 5 years old.

Now on to getting the shader parameters I have setup in lr-dosbox-pure into Staging. I was able to tweak the "crt-pi-curvature" to a point that it gives the look of an early 90's Computer monitor. It has that soft "crystalline" look to it that makes the pixels dithered and faded. Unlike the CRT filter that gives the harshness of an arcade CRT.

At any rate... wow was this a massive learning experience. Lessons learned...

ask a ton of questions... lol.
this forum, as usual, is amazing!
make sure you dump ALL old files and start new.
it's always user error. lol.

Thanks a mil for all your help, and @nemo93 as well. I've been sticking around a lot to give as much help to others as I can, especially with the lr-atari800/5200 and Daphnie/Singe setups. I can add this one to the list as well.

Best,

JamR

ecto

@jamrom2 Congrats and happy DOS gaming! Now there are tons of great games right aroud the corner!

jamrom2

@ecto said in [DOSbox] official thread:

@jamrom2 Congrats and happy DOS gaming! Now there are tons of great games right aroud the corner!

Thank you and @nemo93 ! Got any favorites you want to share?

I'm big on flight simming and WWII games...so mine are straight forward.

Red Baron & Red Baron II
Aces Over Europe
Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe
Syndicate
System Shock
Team Yankee
A-10 Tank Killer

Just to name a short list

VictimRLSH

@jamrom2 Were there DOS versions of Beach Head and Beach Head II? Those were really fun WWII games on the C64.

jamrom2

@victimrlsh from what I know, A800 and C64 only. I always check mobygames.com to look for any crazy variants.

Those were great games. Spent hours playing them both.