Incline eXoDOS v6 — It's coming!

[flyingjohn]

The individual game configs are rather good

This can't be understated. Finding dos games is piss easy, getting good config's is a pain in the ass. I have a feeling that gog owes its' entire existence because of that problem.

 

[Rincewind]

The individual game configs are rather good

This can't be understated. Finding dos games is piss easy, getting good config's is a pain in the ass. I have a feeling that gog owes its' entire existence because of that problem.

And they don't configure the games to get the most out of them. I.e., a lot of classic DOS games can use the Roland MT-32 for the best sound, but GOG always goes for the Sound Blaster OPL music instead because 1) vanilla legacy DOSBox doesn't have mt32lib (Munt) integrated to emulate the MT-32, 2) they are afraid to include the Roland ROMs anyway.

With eXoDOS you get the best experience, of course, including Roland MT-32 music if the game supports it.

Then for Win98 and later games they don't include the original install media. They just provide an installer that can only run on Windows 10 or later, and that usually also includes all sorts of patches, cracks, custom hacks, etc. A big middle finger for preservation, but my bigger problem is I can't run their games on my real hardware Win98 and XP boxes. So I gotta get the original CD dumps plus cracks and NoCD patches anyway.

 

[Azdul]

The individual game configs are rather good

This can't be understated. Finding dos games is piss easy, getting good config's is a pain in the ass. I have a feeling that gog owes its' entire existence because of that problem.

And they don't configure the games to get the most out of them. I.e., a lot of classic DOS games can use the Roland MT-32 for the best sound, but GOG always goes for the Sound Blaster OPL music instead because 1) vanilla legacy DOSBox doesn't have mt32lib (Munt) integrated to emulate the MT-32, 2) they are afraid to include the Roland ROMs anyway.

With eXoDOS you get the best experience, of course, including Roland MT-32 music if the game supports it.

I was wondering about that - because some music from default GOG installation sounded too good to me to be just OPL2.

I've done some tests. GOG Windows installer sets 'default' to General MIDI - if such option is available in the game setup.

In 'Home' editions of Windows 7, 10 and 11 default MIDI device is Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth - which is based on Roland Sound Canvas samples - or hardware-based MIDI device if dedicated sound card provides one.

Of course default Windows wavetable synthesis sounds only as good as Gravis Ultrasound or Amiga - and not as good as Linear Arithmetic synthesis of Roland.

And for games that support MT-32 but not General MIDI - GOG installers (that use DOSBox) default to FM synthesis of OPL.

 

[mondblut]

Winner of the v6 cover contest. Looks glorious, lots of RPG references.

This is a whole new level of "token inclusion", lol.

 

[Rincewind]

First of all, I don't see any auto-crt shaders on regular launch. Only on Alternative Launch, which of course can't be done through LaunchBox, but that's half the problem.

One of the eXoDOS maintainers read this thread and kindly offered further clarification on your Alternative Launch issue:

- You *can* use Alternative Launch from LaunchBox—just right-click the game and select "Pixel Perfect and Shader Options".
- If that right-click menu isn't showing, you've hit an unfortunate bug that will be fixed in eXoDOS v6 release 2. To fix the right-click menu in the interim, you just need to extract the below small archive to the "/eXo/util/" folder.

https://www.file.io/peob/download/DOyjDVbl2IeR

Hope that helps!

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Hope that helps!

That worked, thanks!

 

[Naraya]

Hey Rincewind - is adding your own shaders to DOSBox Staging (TM) as simple as copying them into the "resources\glshaders" directory?

I found some potentially interesting ones that I'd like to try out.

 

[mindx2]

Rincewind Let me know when the boxed edition goes up for sale if you don't mind (or remember).

 

[Rincewind]

Hey Rincewind - is adding your own shaders to DOSBox Staging (TM) as simple as copying them into the "resources\glshaders" directory?

I found some potentially interesting ones that I'd like to try out.

You're out of luck with these shaders. We only support single-pass GLSL shaders adapter for DOSBox specifically; these are in HLSL and are multi-pass.

But yeah, you can use any single-pass GLSL shaders adapted to work with DOSBox. Like the ones in this repo:
https://github.com/tyrells/dosbox-svn-shaders

We used to include these with Staging, but they will be replaced with the auto CRT shaders from the next release onwards (they are all over the place and super confusing to basically everybody who's not a shader expert).

You can put custom GLSL shaders into the `glshaders` folder in your user resources folder, reference them relative to your startup folder, or provide an absolute path.

Btw, if you're just after a 15kHz monitor emulation, use my `crt-auto-arcade` or `crt-auto-arcade-sharp` shaders in the latest dev build. From the config's help:

 

[Rincewind]

Rincewind Let me know when the boxed edition goes up for sale if you don't mind (or remember).

I will, I want to get one too!

Meanwhile, a message from eXo:

eXoDOS v6 Release 2 is live on the website.

 

[lvl 2 Blue Slime]

So it's just a front-end like Dfend, but better?

 

[Rincewind]

So it's just a front-end like Dfend, but better?

No. Watch the videos.

 

[mindx2]

Rincewind Let me know when the boxed edition goes up for sale if you don't mind (or remember).

I will, I want to get one too!

Meanwhile, a message from eXo:

eXoDOS v6 Release 2 is live on the website.

I don't have to download the whole thing again do I?!!!

 

[Alex]

Rincewind Let me know when the boxed edition goes up for sale if you don't mind (or remember).

I will, I want to get one too!

Meanwhile, a message from eXo:

eXoDOS v6 Release 2 is live on the website.

I don't have to download the whole thing again do I?!!!

Exo says that if you point the download to your existing install, it should start at about 82%. Of course, that is assuming you didn't throw away the installation files...

 

[Pots Talos]

This is awesome, can't wait to check it out after work!

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Rincewind Let me know when the boxed edition goes up for sale if you don't mind (or remember).

I will, I want to get one too!

Meanwhile, a message from eXo:

eXoDOS v6 Release 2 is live on the website.

I don't have to download the whole thing again do I?!!!

Exo says that if you point the download to your existing install, it should start at about 82%. Of course, that is assuming you didn't throw away the installation files...

I can confirm that this is the case. (It's still ~110 Gb to redownload, but only 1 Gb in added size.)

For the Media Pack it's minimum 72%, but I missed the actual resume %.

 

[Rincewind]

Alex The Ultima VIII – Pagan keyboard issue has been fixed in the latest dev build.

 

[Rincewind]

Got my 2TB drive yesterday, so I'm starting to download this monster!

In the meantime, eXoDOS v6 Lite has been launched. The guy has style, you gotta admit that! Emphasis mine in orange to pre-empt some questions. Needless to say, I'm getting the full fat version NOW!

eXoDOS v6 Lite is now available at www.retro-exo.com

IMPORTANT NOTES!​

• The Lite version is just over 5gb. This is down from the v5 Lite version which was 55gb. If 5gb is still too large for you, then just do us both a favor and go ahead and ban yourself now
  

• The Lite version relies on the seeders of the full version. If you are having trouble getting a game to download, then you have two options. Ensure your ports are forwarded properly (www.portforward.com) or, just be patient. Do not flood the chat channels with complaints about how slow it is or how long it is taking. If you don't want to wait, then pony up a few bucks, buy a new hard drive, and get the full release.
  
  
• The Lite version will not receive updates like the full version. There is no way to design the updater to only update games you have installed and know to go back and grab an update you skipped because you installed that game later. Ultimately, the updates are designed to address bugs across all 7,633 current games while adding new games. The Lite version won't benefit from this.
  
  
• eXoDOS Lite will get updated when the first torrent roll-up release of eXoDOS occurs. The Lite update will simply repoint it to the new release at that time, that way it isn't perpetually pointing at an old dead torrent.
  
  
• The Lite version and the Full version do have differences in their primary files. So you can not download them to the same folder and seed both of them. If you get the Lite version and then decide to update to the Full version later on, you will need to download the entire eXoDOS v6 Full release on top of your Lite release in order to upgrade it.
  
  
• The Media Add-On Pack works fine with this release.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Is there somewhere a public repository where to download the single games? Like in exodos-v5?

 

[Naraya]

Is there somewhere a public repository where to download the single games? Like in exodos-v5?

Isn't it basically the same as for v5? You only download game files after all, and I guess they did not change between 5 and 6 (or am I wrong?).

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Is there somewhere a public repository where to download the single games? Like in exodos-v5?

Isn't it basically the same as for v5? You only download game files after all, and I guess they did not change between 5 and 6 (or am I wrong?).

I don't know exactly. I was hoping to have more pre-packaged games than v5.

 

[octavius]

"api-ms-win-core-path-l1-1-1.ddl is missing"

Should I be worried? The Lite version of v6 still works, though.
It launched, but I get more error messages when trying to install a game.

 

[Rincewind]

"api-ms-win-core-path-l1-1-1.ddl is missing"

Should I be worried? The Lite version of v6 still works, though.
It launched, but I get more error messages when trying to install a game.

Huh, what OS are you using?

 

[octavius]

"api-ms-win-core-path-l1-1-1.ddl is missing"

Should I be worried? The Lite version of v6 still works, though.
It launched, but I get more error messages when trying to install a game.

Huh, what OS are you using?

Win 7.
The file was not in System 32, nor in the winsxs folder. I ran sfc.exe and it reported no error. I couldn't get the reg-whater command to register it, though.
So I downloaded a copy from dll-files.com and reinstalled it successfully, although there were some error messages that was ignored but flashed past so fast I couldn't make out the details.
But when I try to install Pool of Radiance, it throws multiple messages about "error loading python39.dll" in an an AppDate/Local/ temp folder.
And also

FormatMessage: The parameter is incorrect.
LoadLibrary: PyInstaller: FormatMessageW failed

BTW, there is an option to install a version of PoR with the GBC. So I guess it's only with the stand-alone StagingDos that GBC doesn't work.
Despite the error mesages the game seems to work correctly, but I'm still getting some error message from GBC.
Everything seems to be working OK, now....he wrote...then LaunchBox has stopped working. But the game still keeps working, though.

 

[Rincewind]

Yeah, I might be wrong, but I don't think they test on Win 7 or care about it... Staging still runs on Win 7, btw, but that might change going forward if support becomes too cumbersome. In reality, 99% of people are on Win 10+.