PC: DOSBox-X v0.83.5 (2020-09-01) :: AEP Emulation Page - Emulation News

0.83.5

Windows installer now offers the option to upgrade
the DOSBox-X config file (dosbox-x.conf) to the
latest version format automatically while keeping
users' current settings. It can also add a context
menu for executables (.exe, .com, .bat), config
files (.conf) and folders in the Windows Explorer
so that you could quickly run or open them with
DOSBox-X from the Windows Explorer. More icons
are added to the DOSBox-X program group within the
Start menu as well. (Wengier)
Added config option "startbanner" in [dosbox]
section which if set to "false" would skip the
welcome banner when DOSBox-X starts. Also added
config option "fastbioslogo" which if set to "true"
will skip the BIOS logo (replacing the command-line
option -fastbootlogo). A new command-line option
"-fastlaunch" is added to enable fast launch mode
by skipping both the logo and the banner. (Wengier)
Added config option "ega per scanline hpel" in
[dosbox] section to control whether EGA emulation
latches hpel at display start (as VGA emulation
does) or allows hpel to change per scanline.
Setting the option to false is needed for some
games like Commander Keen.
Support for mounting CD images with a sector size
of 2448, used by for example the MDF image of the
game Grand Theft Auto. (Wengier)
Allowed Sound Blaster to be enabled by the games
"Desert Strike" and "Jungle Strike". (Wengier)
Sound Blaster Pro emulation now maps DSP commands
0x41 to 0x47 as aliases of 0x40 (set time constant)
to support broken demoscene code that uses 0x41
in that way. Yes, such code would obviously break
on clone cards and the SB16. Added a config option
"dsp command aliases" in [sblaster] section to turn
it off for debugging. Alias is documented on Vogons
forums where someone made a SB Pro clone card.
Fixed the issue with CD audio play by porting the
audio code from DOSBox ECE. (Wengier)
COPY command now assumes /Y automatically when
running in the batch file or with CALL command
(or COMMAND /C) as in real DOS. (Wengier)
DOSBox-X will allow control characters 8 (BS),
9 (TAB), 26 (SUB), and 27 (ESC) when executing GOTO
command in batch files without warnings. (Wengier)
Normal core: REP MOVSD now checks segment limits
for ES:(E)DI and throws a GP fault if exceeded.
Demoscene productions marked as using VESA BIOS
modes and scribbling on the VGA BIOS are relying
on segment limits and GP faults to fake a linear
framebuffer.
Added config option "vesa bank switching window
range check" to allow disabling the VESA BIOS
window number range check when called on to
bank switch. Needed for "Pill" by Opiate in the
end credits, which for some reason requires a
call for window number 0xFFFF to succeed in order
to draw credits without glitching.
Added config option "vesa bank switching window
mirroring" for instructing VESA BIOS to ignore
bank switching window parameter when asked to
get/set bank switching window setting. Needed for
some old demoscene and game applications that
assume Window B is available, and will not render
SVGA properly without it.
Added config option "quit warning" to indicate if
DOSBox-X should warn show a warning message when
you try to close the DOSBox-X window. If set to
"auto" (default), DOSBox-X will warn only if at
least one file handle is still open, or you are
currently running a guest system. (Wengier)
Add command-line option "-defaultdir" to specify
a directory (instead of the current directory) as
the working directory. DOSBox-X will look for the
dosbox-x.conf file in this directory. (Wengier)
The -winrun command-line option will also enable
LFN support with "lfn=auto" on Windows. (Wengier)
VER /R now shows DOSBox-X's Git commit SHA1, in
addition to the build date and other version
information shown by the VER command. (Wengier)
Fixed that joystick may not work with the setting
"usescancodes=auto" when a non-US keyboard layout
is activated on the SDL1 build. (Wengier)
DOSBox-X will now search for system fonts if the
fonts required for the printing feature cannot be
found in the FONTS directory. (Wengier)
Added menu item "Send form-feed" under the DOS menu
for manually ejecting new pages to print. (Wengier)
Added "Quick launch program..." menu (under "DOS")
to quickly run the specified program as selected
by the Windows file browser in DOSBox-X. (Wengier)
Added "Drive information" menu item under "Drive"
menu to show information for the specified drive,
and added "Show mounted drive numbers" menu item
under "DOS" menu to show details for all mounted
drive numbers (0-5). (Wengier)
The command "Swap CD" now swaps only CD drives (as
the name), not all non-floppy drives. Also added
"Swap disk" menu item under the "Drive" menu for
swapping individual mounted drives. (Wengier)
IMGMAKE now tries to resolve home directory (~)
on Linux and macOS platforms. Also improved the
help message for this command. (Wengier)
Fixed unmounting swap disks when unmounting drives
with MOUNT or IMGMOUNT command. (Wengier)
Fixed possible failure when mounting .VHD images,
and the issue that leading colon ( or read-only
marker may not work for such images. (Wengier)
IMGMOUNT command without parameters now shows the
disk position and number of swap disks, as well as
IDE controller (if applicable). Also added option
-examples to show its usage examples. (Wengier)
Add "-ro" option for IMGMOUNT command to mark all
disk images as read-only at once. You could also
mark read-only disk images individually using the
leading colon as in previous versions. (Wengier)
The default value for "output" (in "sdl" section)
is now "default", which will default to the value
according to your platform. (Wengier)
The -Q (quiet) option of MOUNT, BOOT and RESCAN
commands now silences virtually all outputs (error
and normal messages) of these commands. (Wengier)
Worked around the mounting issue with LaunchBox,
by allowing a mounting command-line with single
quotes like MOUNT C 'X:DOS' on Windows. (Wengier)
Unmounting ISO drives will auto-unmount associated
El Torito floppy drives (if any) too. (Wengier)
Updated xxHash library by Yann Collet from 0.7.4
to the stable version 0.8.0. (Wengier)
Added support for the OPL2 audio board by setting
the config option "oplemu=opl2board".
The save state feature now tries to save and then
restore the mounted drives of all types (if the
paths or image files still exist on host system).
This fixes the "save state corrupted" error while
trying to load saved states but the drives are not
yet mounted in DOSBox-X. (Wengier)
The save state feature now verifies the emulated
machine type (VGA, PC98, etc) too when loading a
saved state. All confirm and error dialog boxes
for saving or loading states appear in a cross-
platform manner now, instead of only on Windows
systems. Also added the option to remove the saved
state in the selected save slot. (Wengier)
Increased the number of save slots from 10 to 100.
Each page in the save slot menu (under "Capture")
still shows 10 slots as before, but you can now go
to the previous or next page (up to 10 pages) for
more save slots (100 in total). (Wengier).
The [pci] section is now the [voodoo] section, and
the config option "voodoo" (the only option of that
section) is now named "voodoo_card" within the
[voodoo] section to make clear it is for emulating
the Voodoo card hardware. Also added config option
"voodoo_maxmem" (default: true) to specify whether
to use the maximum memory size (12MB instead of the
standard 4MB) for the Vooodoo card. (Wengier)
Added support for Glide wrapper. It can be enabled
with the new config option "glide" set to "true"
in [voodoo] section. The library file glide2x.dll
(Windows)/libglide2x.so (Linux)/libglide2x.dylib
(macOS) is required for Glide to work. Be sure to
use 32-bit dll for 32-bit DOSBox-X binary, and
64-bit dll for 64-bit DOSBox-X binary. (Wengier)