Incline eXoDOS v6 — It's coming!

[Maxie]

Nice spyware

 

[Lord of Riva]

I finally came around downloading this thing, it's fucking amazing. This is how Video game archiving goes, really impressive in functionality as well.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

I think I'm okay with ExoDOS 5.0 for the time being. The only thing that would tempt me to download hundreds of GBs again for pretty much the exact same experience would be if they included trailer or gameplay videos for the games in their LB launcher.

 

[Rincewind]

for pretty much the exact same experience

But it's not the same experience

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Well, with your DOSBox staging maybe it will be a little different. How do I adjust the volume in DOSBox in the global config files? Every time I run DOSBox I either give my neighbor Dan with the epilepsy disabilities a heart attack or I end up like this guy.

Spoiler

 

[Rincewind]

How do I adjust the volume in DOSBox in the global config files?

You use the MIXER command. Simply running "MIXER 50" will set the global volume to 50%. Put that into the [autoexec] section of your global config. Run MIXER /? for further details.

I mention the MIXER command in the Getting Started guide:
https://dosbox-staging.github.io/getting-started/beneath-a-steel-sky/#adjusting-volume-levels

 

[Lyric Suite]

So i got around getting the whole 800GB lmao.

I thought this was going to integrade with Launchbox but it seems it is its own stand alone thing. Shouldn't be too difficult to actually integrade it manually but from what i've seen it's probably not worth it as it would make it a bit messy to update the thing (especially if you also integrade eXoWin3x and eXoScummVM). Also, my autism flared when when i saw the images of the boxes didn't match up in size lmao but that's a minor thing.

So from what i understand every game is configured according to what the author of this thing believes is the best way to run the game, which i guess it's pretty convenient and settings can always be changed if you think you know better. Personally i got an headache last time i tried to figure out which sound system was best for each game (it's not as simple as just slapping an MT-32 on everything some games were made for specific sound systems) and not possessing this level of arcane knowledge of old dos games might as well let somebody else do it for me.

 

[Lyric Suite]

BTW the unpacked complete folder is around 1.07 TB lmao.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Neat, so as a general test i just tried Dark Forces, then added my Steam version (which is modded with mouse look and other shit) and The Force Engine version as additional apps under launchbox. I also replaced the jedi.cfg and dark.exe from my steam version so i could have mouselook and modern keybindings on the exodos version. Made a backup of the original files of course. Goes against the spirit of this thing but who gives a fuck. I hope updating this thing is not gonna just destroy all those custom settings every time.

So far so good. Tried Warcraft II and CD audio music worked fine and in fact it seems to run better than the GOG version. Quake 1 works fine too. Tried C&C and that works great too, which is knewl as i remember having some trouble actually getting the original to work properly.

BTW, found a strangeness already. Went to the installed games category and it's full of books, by the looks all of them, but when i click on one it goes away from the list. This happens to some but not others. The couple i remembered the titles could be found in the literature category so i assume they are all there though i can't be sure. Would be kind of disastrous if shit just started disappearing from launchbox.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Another oddity. Scanned from ROMs removed from any platform and found tree with broken links. The files are there but the names are slightly different which means the launchbox entry couldn't load them. Found only three of them.

 

[Tweed]

It's great stuff and the add on media pack is fantastic too. Really enjoy going through the old gaming mags and some of the books.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Alright, i just decided to add a link to the games i tried in my main Launchbox installation. I think the less i mess with the eXoDOS folder, the better. All the launchers are conveniently placed in the !dos folder so i can just load the game from there and leave anything in actual eXoDOS as it is. Eventually i'll just port all the ones i want on my primary launchbox installation so i'll have a clean collection.

 

[Lyric Suite]

So most games have extra stuff on the context menu when i right click on a game. How did they do that?

[EDIT] Ok i got it, it's a plugin.

I think i've deviced a way to just import all the eXos on my main launchbox installation so i can have all platforms in one unified interface without disturbing the original folders. Just copy everything the manual says you need to copy but make a symbolic link to the eXo folder instead. Could make a symbolic link to images etc but i can sacrifice a few tens of GBs just so i add my own media.

Now i can basically just change everything in the game, update the pictures, alter the metadata, erase the games i don't care and so forth without bothering the main eXo installation.

Can't wait for eXoWin95 btw. That will probably be 4TB right? Lul.

 

[Lyric Suite]

So i successfully integrated all three eXo projects with only some minor hitch. For some reason my Windows got taken out its parent directory and had to put it back. Also, that pop up with the option to flip the cover, mute the music etc that shows up when you over your mouse of the game's box doesn't work anymore.

Meanwhile, i found a problem with the eXoWin3x version. When i try to launch it from inside its own folder launchbox tells me it wants some kind of NET Core. None of the others asked for it. Tried installing all the NET Core versions out there but none of them work. There might be a way to just update launchbox from inside the package folder but i might as well just run the games from my main launchbox set up since it's all been imported there.

Total between all three of them is 1.64 TB, plus 64GB because i decided to make a copy of the image/manuals/videos folders since i want to leave the original folders as untouched as i can but it's not a big deal.

Wonder how big the eXoWin95 project will be.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Alright, i fixed the "installed" playlist in eXoDOS. Apparently they forgot to add a platform entry in the auto-populate field.

Several icons are also missing from the platform, but after googling apparently custom icons aren't supported in the free version of launchbox. I guess if i get a licence they'll suddenly show up. Le fuck is this shit lol.

 

[flyingjohn]

And here i am just taking the games and config files and playing them in dosbox staging without any fancy frontend.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Ok, ran into my first problem running symlinks. Everything worked fine but now i tried loading up Blood (1997) and through symlinks i can't get the CD audio work but it works fine when i load up eXoDOS from its original folder. Damn, i had it so perfect.

Yo, Rincewind , help me out here.

 

[Lyric Suite]

And here i am just taking the games and config files and playing them in dosbox staging without any fancy frontend.

Frontend it's nice to have when you have hundreds of games from 20 different platforms and emulators.

Plus, it's as close to the feel of having an actual shelf with original game boxes as you gonna get from a digital platform.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Ok so if i re-select the CD audio every time i run the game it actually works, but i have to do it every time which wipes out the cfg so that's a no. Guess i gotta fiddle a bit with the batch file to see what's happening in there.

[EDIT] Seems like the batch file is lying re-selecting CD audio every time doesn't actually wipe out the cfg file. Thanks, eXoDROSS lel.

 

[deama]

Spent half a day reading the shaders line by line, found no differences, just a super minor one.

Decided to tweak it instead and within minutes found that setting BEAM_MAX_WIDTH to 1.20 (instead of 1.40) produces the exact replica of auto-crt.
Both glsl and slang versions: https://gist.github.com/BesterCode/81e2fc721caf2407c0f52b3d3485675f

Alright, off to testing games with this new look now.

I'm wanting to replay fallout 2 again, and was wondering how to get it working with those shaders.
So do you just need to install retroarch, and load those shaders up?
Do you need a specific copy of fallout 2?

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Spent half a day reading the shaders line by line, found no differences, just a super minor one.

Decided to tweak it instead and within minutes found that setting BEAM_MAX_WIDTH to 1.20 (instead of 1.40) produces the exact replica of auto-crt.
Both glsl and slang versions: https://gist.github.com/BesterCode/81e2fc721caf2407c0f52b3d3485675f

Alright, off to testing games with this new look now.

I'm wanting to replay fallout 2 again, and was wondering how to get it working with those shaders.
So do you just need to install retroarch, and load those shaders up?
Do you need a specific copy of fallout 2?

RA->WindowCast captures any windowed program, in this case Fallout 2: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/fallout-2-mod-play-through.146248/page-4#post-8776758
Or you can run RA->DosBox Pure->Win98->Fallout 2. But you'll be limited to mods that work with Win98.

 

[deama]

Spent half a day reading the shaders line by line, found no differences, just a super minor one.

Decided to tweak it instead and within minutes found that setting BEAM_MAX_WIDTH to 1.20 (instead of 1.40) produces the exact replica of auto-crt.
Both glsl and slang versions: https://gist.github.com/BesterCode/81e2fc721caf2407c0f52b3d3485675f

Alright, off to testing games with this new look now.

I'm wanting to replay fallout 2 again, and was wondering how to get it working with those shaders.
So do you just need to install retroarch, and load those shaders up?
Do you need a specific copy of fallout 2?

RA->WindowCast captures any windowed program, in this case Fallout 2: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/fallout-2-mod-play-through.146248/page-4#post-8776758
Or you can run RA->DosBox Pure->Win98->Fallout 2. But you'll be limited to mods that work with Win98.

Not sure if I'm using it right, but when I load up the windowcast core, then I put in the partials-examples.txt "fallout2.exe" and load that up via load content, it just gives me a blank screen? This is with me having fallout2 windowed running.
Have you encountered something like this before?

EDIT: It looks like if I set the name from "fallout2.exe" to be "Fallout II" instead, it seems to highlight the correct window, but then it just closes a second later?

I managed to get it working using this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/EmulationOnAndroid/comments/vvl8sg/fallout_2_on_retroarch_specifically/

So I think retroarch seems to be working fine, just something off with the windowcast thing, I think.

EDIT2: Well, got it working, turns out you need to switch from using d3d11 driver to vulkan...
But now the issue is that the mouse clicks aren't registering in the game? If I try and start retroarch in fullscreen, then the game, the mouse isn't visible and clicks don't register either.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

But now the issue is that the mouse clicks aren't registering in the game? If I try and start retroarch in fullscreen, then the game, the mouse isn't visible and clicks don't register either.

there's a combination of hotkeys you have to press to redirect all input from RA to the desired window, it's something like shift+something+something, it's on windowscast's page or its bitbucket page somewhere

 

[e-mailio estevez]

Spent half a day reading the shaders line by line, found no differences, just a super minor one

But now the issue is that the mouse clicks aren't registering in the game? If I try and start retroarch in fullscreen, then the game, the mouse isn't visible and clicks don't register either.

I've been futsing around with WinCast, Bear's Gate 1 and shaders a bit this week, myself

Spoiler

There's some information about this in the readme for wincast. When you've got the core loaded and have run the .txt file, hitting ctrl+alt+T will put retroarch 'out of focus', while still being in-focus visually and let you manipulate the program as normal. The readme recommends running games in windowed mode. Also for this to work I had to go into the general retroarch settings and make sure it didn't 'pause' when out of focus.

 

[ropetight]

Freed some space on seedbox, eXoDos will land there in a hour or so.
Transferring from there will be another thing, can't wait to try it.