DOSBox Staging 0.81.0 has been released — now with authentic CRT emulation!

[Rincewind]

Hello friends!

I have good news for you: the next major version of DOSBox Staging, 0.81.0, has been released today featuring quite a few absolute killer features!

- Authentic, zero-config CRT emulation out-of-the box! (world's first and a game-changer, quite literally)
- Aspect ratio correct screenshots by default!
- Accurate VGA emulation!
- Extensive viewport customisation options!
- 3dfx Voodoo 1 support!
- Much more efficient video capturing! (about 3x faster)

Plus tons of other stuff, these are just the top highlights. You can read about all that in the detailed release notes, I don't want to repeat myself:
https://dosbox-staging.github.io/releases/release-notes/0.81.0/

Check out the CRT emulation in action on our front page:
https://dosbox-staging.github.io/

I've also written a detailed Getting Started guide aimed at beginners to learn how to use Staging effectively and to preserve the knowledge about setting up DOS games:
https://dosbox-staging.github.io/getting-started/introduction/

Also, I'm a formidable marketing juggernaut. Behold!

The griffin has spoken!

Spoiler

Paging ERYFKRAD

Spoiler

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Congrats on the release!

Comparing 0.81.0 alpha (on the left) with 0.81.0 release (middle), with a CRT monitor (right). A worthy update!

Edit: ugh, the embed doesn't look right on a 1080p screen, gets downscaled by the forum...

Captured screenshots etc now go into C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\DOSBox\capture, for anyone else who'd be wondering.

 

[Rincewind]

Captured screenshots etc now go into C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\DOSBox\capture, for anyone else who'd be wondering.

Has always been the case, no? Unless you change the capture dir in the config explicitly.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Captured screenshots etc now go into C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\DOSBox\capture, for anyone else who'd be wondering.

Has always been the case, no? Unless you change the capture dir in the config explicitly.

Ah. Maybe Exo changed it, because ExoDos' Staging screenshots went into the local directory. Not sure how to replicate that. Is it by virtue of having the config file in the local directory as well?
Because both the old and the new config say "capture_dir = capture" and yet function differently.

 

[Rincewind]

Captured screenshots etc now go into C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\DOSBox\capture, for anyone else who'd be wondering.

Has always been the case, no? Unless you change the capture dir in the config explicitly.

Ah. Maybe Exo changed it, because ExoDos' Staging screenshots went into the local directory. Not sure how to replicate that. Is it by virtue of having the config file in the local directory as well?
Because both the old and the new config say "capture_dir = capture" and yet function differently.

Ah that one. That was a bug that I introduced, then fixed it later. Just currently eXoDOS is bundled with an alpha version of 0.81.0 which contains the bug. They will upgrade to the final shortly I hope.

I prioritised the CRT shader stuff so 0.81.0 alpha with the shaders could be part of the eXoDOS v6 launch last year—this is one of the drawbacks of that approach, but then this way more people got exposed to Staging and the shaders, and much earlier.

 

[Avonaeon]

I updated my dosbox-staging after the aur package dropped, but I'm unsure if I got the right version. My package manager claims I have the latest 0.81.0-2. I installed Mechwarrior 2 and got it working, but I'm not seeing any CRT shaders.
"dosbox --version" yields "dosbox-staging, version 87c3a51"

I'm I missing something, or is there something I need to enable somewhere?

Cheers

 

[Nutmeg]

Rincewind how can I force single scanning? I remember you mentioned it in some other thread, but I didn't bookmark, I also didn't see it in the getting started document, though there were a few opportunities (e.g. in the Prince of Persia or Advanced options) where you could have added it.

 

[Rincewind]

I updated my dosbox-staging after the aur package dropped, but I'm unsure if I got the right version. My package manager claims I have the latest 0.81.0-2.

Repo packagers do their own thing. They take our sources and recompile / repackage things, and hopefully don't screw up

I installed Mechwarrior 2 and got it working, but I'm not seeing any CRT shaders.
"dosbox --version" yields "dosbox-staging, version 87c3a51"

I'm I missing something, or is there something I need to enable somewhere?

Maybe you have an existing config that gets picked up which sets `glshader` to something else, dunno.

You should see this in the logs:

RENDER: Using adaptive CRT shader based on the graphics standard of the video mode
...
RENDER: Auto-switched to shader 'crt/vga-4k'

Actual shader name might be different based on the video mode and your viewport size / monitor resolution, of course. If you simply run the `glshader` command in the DOS prompt, that will print out the setting's value, which should be `crt-auto` with the defaults.

Maybe there are errors or warnings in the logs if you're on some weird Linux setup and/or the repo maintainers screwed things up. You can send a pastebin link here to your logs and I can have a quick look.

@Rincewind how can I force single scanning?

[render]
glshader = crt-auto-arcade

Or `crt-auto-arcade-sharp`. Check out the description of glshader for all the available options (e.g., `config -h glshader | more` in the DOS prompt).

I remember you mentioned it in some other thread, but I didn't bookmark, I also didn't see it in the getting started document, though there were a few opportunities (e.g. in the Prince of Persia or Advanced options) where you could have added it.

I do discuss it in detail.

Type `crt-auto-arcade` in the search box in the top-right corner of the website. It's magical! (I'm in "teach a man how to fish" mode)

 

[Nutmeg]

Ah I see it's in the Beneath a Steel Sky section. Well yeah when you know the name of the option you're looking for it's easy to find. Also I was using a script blocker so no search box was showing up. I didn't think to unblock anything as the site works well and looks remarkably good with no scripts.

 

[Rincewind]

Ah I see it's in the Beneath a Steel Sky section. Well yeah when you know the name of the option you're looking for its easy to find. Also I was using a script blocker so no search box was showing up. I didn't think to unblock anything as the site works well and looks remarkably good with no scripts.

Yeah only the search requires JavaScript, plus some progressive enhancements in the MkDocs Material theme. But those enhancements are fairy minor and non-essential.

The search is super handy, though, and we get it "for free" with the Material theme. Quite nice, I'm a fan.

 

[Nutmeg]

TIL someone wrote a TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident) program to get 15 KHz single scanned VGA output for multi sync VGA monitors (see this list) or of course TVs (see the video below).



I wonder if when I run the TSR program in DOSBox staging the non "arcade" adaptive shader will be smart enough to do single scanning. Rincewind Bester

 

[Rincewind]

TIL someone wrote a TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident) program to get 15 KHz single scanned VGA output for multi sync VGA monitors (see this list) or of course TVs (see the video below).



I wonder if when I run the TSR program in DOSBox staging the non "arcade" adaptive shader will be smart enough to do single scanning.

It's rather pointless, but you can try for fun. In theory, it should work the same as on real hardware, so you should get single-scanned output, yeah. So it's definitely "smart enough", unless you run into a more fundamental issue that the TSR just doesn't work with DOSBox.

For reference, I have tested my accurate VGA and shader improvements with some wacky stuff like ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and C64 emulators for DOS (RealSpec, CCS64, and I don't remember the CPC emulator's name...) that set up obscure custom modes by reprogramming the VGA adapter to force single-scanning in a similar fashion to get scanlines. They all work

But such TSRs have lots of limitations, e.g., they change the refresh rate to 60 Hz which can break some games that sync stuff to the vblank (vertical refresh rate).

Best thing to do which is 100% compatible with all games is `glshader = crt-auto-arcade` (or `crt-auto-arcade-sharp`). That doesn't change the refresh rate, standard 70 Hz VGA stays 70 Hz, etc.

 

[Nutmeg]

So it's definitely "smar enough"

Nice so it's actually looking at the hardware registers and interpreting the input image based on that.

Best thing to do which is 100% compatible with all games is `glshader = crt-auto-arcade` (or `crt-auto-arcade-sharp`).

Yeah ofc. I just thought it was cool.

 

[Rincewind]

Nice so it's actually looking at the hardware registers and interpreting the input image based on that.

Yes, absolutely. It's all based on the state of the emulated VGA adapter's registers. No tricky business

All SVGA and VESA modes are handled correctly too. Even differences where the same "nominal" SVGA/VESA mode is double-scanned on some emulated SVGA card, but single-scanned on some other. You can check out `int10_modes.cpp` for all that detail, can't remember (but 400x300 modes are handled differently on different emulated SVGA adapters, from memory).

I've spent at least 100 hours on this last summer, and I still haven't fully recovered

 

[Rincewind]

Related: all these test cases I found/discovered, and the big fucking chart at the bottom of the page. That took some time

https://github.com/dosbox-staging/dosbox-staging/wiki/Video-emulation-tests

AFAIK, video emulation is 99% perfect now when it comes to single vs double-scanning.

 

[Nutmeg]

Very cool. Wish RA was able to give shaders video mode information from the cores for smarter shaders like that.

Any plans for HDR to solve mask and scan line brightness issues?

 

[Rincewind]

Very cool. Wish RA was able to give shaders video mode information from the cores for smarter shaders like that.

They're mainly a console type of crowd, so don't hold your breath. They can get away with fixed resolutions 98% of the time, I'd assume. PC emulation is fundamentally different.

Any plans for HDR to solve mask and scan line brightness issues?

Yeah. For the future Now I'm resting :D

 

[Nutmeg]

They can get away with fixed resolutions 98% of the time, I'd assume

Many console games do mode switching within the same game, the most common pattern being a high-res mode for full screen menus or art and a lower-res mode for where things are actually animated.

Yeah. For the future Now I'm resting :D

Do you have any target displays in mind for testing? I am thinking of upgrading my gaming display this year and I want to get one compatible with the HDR enabled CRT shader future, but haven't looked into what's available. My current display has HDR, but it's very coarse grained.

 

[Rincewind]

Do you have any target displays in mind for testing? I am thinking of upgrading my gaming display this year and I want to get one compatible with the HDR enabled CRT shader future, but haven't looked into what's available. My current display has HDR, but it's very coarse grained.

On my main PC I have a 24" 1080p monitor. That's not ideal for VGA, but it does an OK job for CGA and EGA.

My company MacBook Pro has a 15" 4K screen, however, which is absoutely stellar for the shaders. So I would not go below 4K when purchasing a new monitor if I were you. FreeSync/Gsync or whatever they call VRR support these days it also a must.

My problem with current 24" 4K screens is that they are too big, so the PPI factor is not high enough. On my 15" 4K MacBook screen, the PPI is *perfect*! So to approximate that on a 24"/27" screen, I think you'd need to get a 27" 5K screen. Those exist but are pretty expensive.

Of course, viewing distance matters too. But if you're gonna view it from normal viewing distances (from about a meter), like you would a real CRT monitor, *and* you want to emulate authentic image sizes (the physical size of an image you'd get on a 14"-15" CRT, so you don't use the whole screen), 24" monitors at 4K are simply not that good. The resolution is not high enough.

Then there's the whole black levels issue... IPS panels have shit black levels, at least when gaming in a totally dark room (with some offset lights they're okayish).

Well, hope that helps. Personally, I'm holding off buying a new monitor for a few more years.

Small tablet-sized portable 4K panels are an attractive option, however (the PPI is high enough).

 

[Nutmeg]

So I would not go below 4K when purchasing a new monitor if I were you. FreeSync/Gsync or whatever they call VRR support these days it also a must.

My current display is a very nice LG 27GN950 which is a 4K display with GSync and a max refresh rate of 144HZ, but its HDR leaves a lot to be desired. So yeah I wouldn't settle for anything less in terms of resolution, gamut and refresh rate, but want better HDR support. It's been 5 years since I bought the screen so surely technology has improved right? ... right?

the physical size of an image you'd get on a 14"-15" CRT, so you don't use the whole screen

Yeah for personal computer gaming. Arcade CRTs were up to 32" in size. If you ever go to Japan, go to the Mikado or Hey in Akihabara to see some gorgeous 15 KHz.

 

[Rincewind]

Yeah for personal computer gaming. Arcade CRTs were up to 32" in size. If you ever go to Japan, go to the Mikado or Hey in Akihabara to see some gorgeous 15 KHz.

Good to know, but I'm 99% a personal computer guy. Haven't had much contact with consoles at all, but I'll try some classic console games in the coming years.

 

[Nutmeg]

Yeah for personal computer gaming. Arcade CRTs were up to 32" in size. If you ever go to Japan, go to the Mikado or Hey in Akihabara to see some gorgeous 15 KHz.

Good to know, but I'm 99% a personal computer guy. Haven't had much contact with consoles at all, but I'll try some classic console games in the coming years.

I wouldn't consider arcade gaming the same as console gaming, it's really its own niche.

Even if you don't care much for the games, I think you can appreciate the art, and as a technology person, the hardware. Where else are you going to find dual 68000 plus Z80 machines?

 

[Rincewind]

Yeah ok, I have zero interest in arcades. Sure, I can appreciate them... for a few minutes, haha :D

 

[Nutmeg]

Well anyway you've done awesome work my friend. Very appreciated. I'll make sure to link your explanation of e.g. PARs to many people posting shitty screenshots from all sorts of platforms because IMO its very concise and well written -- the concept is universal and very misunderstood by normies.

 

[Rincewind]

Yeah, I just had a quick look at the Sega Genesis (not an arcade, but a console, I know) and the dual Z80 + 68k setup seems pretty cool. Dual 68k setups sound fascinating too, I'll give you that, yeah. It's just I haven't been exposed to consoles and arcades and don't really like action games that much anyway. But the technology is super fascinating, no doubt.

68k for president!