DOS BOX and 16:9 monitor

[Triple-B]

hey, I was just wondering, since I don't own a 16:9 monitor, what will happen if you play wc games in dos box with that monitor. since dosgames does not provide resolutions for 16:9 screens, you must end up with big black bars on the left and right side. is that so? or does dosbox fix thiss issue automatically? If not, does it bother while playing?

 

[AD]

It all depends on how you tweak dosbox. There are various scaling and aspect options that can be configured to stretch the image. I think the default method just displays the game at it's original size...

 

[Triple-B]

well streching the image won't solve the problem, it will cause false object proportions

edit: I just checked D FEND reloaded, there are several resolutionoptions , even glide support for dosgames

 

[ZFGokuSSJ1]

As AD says, there are various options. You can have the image be boxed in with black bars, have it stretch to fill the entire screen, etc. I use a 16:9 monitor, and like to retain as much of the original image as possible, so I use the these settings for (nearly) all my DOS games:

[sdl]
fullscreen=true
fulldouble=true
fullresolution=1920x1080
windowresolution=original
output=openglnb

[render]
frameskip=0
aspect=true
scaler=none

 

[Triple-B]

@ ZFGokuSSJ1: do you realize any differences in graphics,when choosing the glide option?

anyone knows, which dos game benefits from this option?

 

[Prometheus]

@ ZFGokuSSJ1: do you realize any differences in graphics,when choosing the glide option?

anyone knows, which dos game benefits from this option?

As far as I can tell: None. This happens at the Windows-side of the whole deal.

Just try all of them and see which seems to work best for you. In my case its ddraw.

 

[ZFGokuSSJ1]

Yeah, I don't know of any advantages when using Glide. I've never even seen that much talk about it on the DOSBox boards, or anywhere else.

I get the best results with OpenGLNB.

 

[AD]

Yeah, I don't know of any advantages when using Glide. I've never even seen that much talk about it on the DOSBox boards, or anywhere else.

I get the best results with OpenGLNB.

I don't think glide is a real option and think he was actually askind about openGL over D3D... Did any DOS games actually ever support Glide(3DFX)?

 

[Triple-B]

thats the point. opengl is complete windows stuff (3d effects), though there were 3dfx patches for dos games i.e. blood or dungeon keeper 1. these games had to be played in windows of course in order to get the 3d effects.

the question is, if dosbox emulates the 3d effects in its dosmode

 

[cff]

I don't think glide is a real option and think he was actually askind about openGL over D3D... Did any DOS games actually ever support Glide(3DFX)?

Yes. I remember one and only one DOS game that supported the Voodoo1 board (and therefore 3dfx). Tomb Raider 1 (and only after applying a special patch). It actually looked pretty horrible in software mode.
Maybe there were 1 or 2 others I am not aware of...

 

[ChrisReid]

thats the point. opengl is complete windows stuff (3d effects), though there were 3dfx patches for dos games i.e. blood or dungeon keeper 1. these games had to be played in windows of course in order to get the 3d effects.

the question is, if dosbox emulates the 3d effects in its dosmode

No, DOSBox doesn't 'magically' impart any special 3D acceleration that the game was not already designed for (sounds like just Tomb Raider). Such a feat would require new graphical assets/coding for each game, not a single back end DOS emulator.

DOSBox very faithfully reproduces exactly what was available in DOS. If you want the game to fill a 16:9 screen (actually 16:10, TVs are 16:9), you'll either get black bars or stretch/scale pixels.

 

[Triple-B]

DOSBox very faithfully reproduces exactly what was available in DOS. If you want the game to fill a 16:9 screen (actually 16:10, TVs are 16:9), you'll either get black bars or stretch/scale pixels.

aha, so 16:10 monitors suck with dos applications. I thought dosbox was able to fix this issue.

so what is better, playing with black bars or an unnatural stretched screen?

 

[AD]

aha, so 16:10 monitors suck with dos applications. I thought dosbox was able to fix this issue.

so what is better, playing with black bars or an unnatural stretched screen?

What's best is what is best for *you* . Give the various options a try and decide which one you like best or which one you find the least obtrusive.

 

[ChrisReid]

aha, so 16:10 monitors suck with dos applications. I thought dosbox was able to fix this issue.

so what is better, playing with black bars or an unnatural stretched screen?

Yeah, this is unfortunately a somewhat common misperception. It's no small matter to redo something in high resolution or a new aspect ratio. You're either stretching it or making new art piece by piece. Dosbox is one of the best piecesnof software you can get, and it does have a bag of tricks to address this, but only within certain basic limitations.

Now I also wouldn't say 16:10 monitors are bad by any means, you just have to understand what they're doing. There's nothing wrong with black bars or pixel stretching with most games

 

[Triple-B]

@ chris: so it does not bother to have black bars (are they big btw?) or a strechted screen? I don't have a 16:10 monitor, but I just heard people complaining about these monitors and dos games

btw. does prophecy and wcso support the 16:10 monitor, or does the enhanced starfieldpatch/ hcls glide patch fix this issue?