DOSBox-X

Cross-platform DOS emulation package
Complete, accurate emulation and more


DOSBox-X 2024.10.01 Release Notes

Release Date: October 1, 2024

Please report any issues in our issue tracker.

Also, make sure to check out our Wiki guide.

New in This Version

  • Allow the “.inst” extension for CUE sheets. (Allofich)
  • Add SET /FIRST, a DOSBox-X extension, that takes the specified variable if it exists and moves it to the front of the environment block. (joncampbell123).
  • SET command processing has been cleaned up and streamlined. Added /ERASE command line switch to clear the environment block (DOSBox-X extension). (joncampbell123).
  • VESA BIOS: Add new option to adjust reported linear framebuffer address by a specific number of pixels. This is needed by “Out of Control” by Contract which for whatever reason, will always draw to the LFB base minus 128 bytes. This option makes it possible to correct the demo graphics. (joncampbell123).
  • Gravis Ultrasound: Officially, registers 0x0-0xF, the voice control registers, are documented to have a 0x0-0xF write and 0x80-0x8F read alias. Unofficially, according to the behavior of 1997 demo “Out of Control” by Contract, all GUS registers have a N and (N+0x80) alias, or at least register 0x4C, and you can read them back from either index. Or else the demo fails to detect the GUS. So add this alias, but only if enabled in dosbox.conf. Real hardware testing is required to know if the actual GUS behaves this way and which versions. (joncampbell123).
  • Move the INT 3 default vector to well within the initial 16 bytes of the DOS kernel, away from the List of Lists and SFT. The previous placement caused certain versions of Windows 3.2 (yes, the Chinese version) to crash on startup. (joncampbell123).
  • When using the running program to name screenshots and such, filter out all invalid characters so that Windows users can take snapshots even if junk characters are there (joncampbell123).
  • DOS FAT driver: If INT 13h reports disk change, adapt floppy disk geometry to new disk image according to media byte. This allows DS_BLISS to present it’s 720K fake floppy even if the user initially mounted a 1.44MB floppy to drive A: (joncampbell123).
  • INT 10 mode list: Add “pitch” parameter. If nonzero, the value (in pixels) is how to program the pixels per scanline when setting the mode.
  • VESAMOED: Add -pitch option to control the pitch (pixels per scanline). The intent is to work around DOS games that assume nonstandard pixels per scanline by allowing the VESA BIOS mode to use a different one. For example, Line Wars II has an S3 acceleration mode that uses 800x600, but for whatever reason, assumes the video mode is 1024 pixels per scanline, and will render garbled graphics if that is not the case. (joncampbell123).
  • S3 emulation: Follow S3 Trio64 documentation and mask the Linear Window Position bits according to the size of the memory. You can only place it on a multiple of the memory size. This silences warnings caused by Line Wars II which appears to modify only the upper byte but not the lower when modifying this register, which then leaves 0xA0 in the lower half. That lower half would be ignored for 1MB or larger video memory sizes. (joncampbell123).
  • S3 XGA emulation: Add XGA acceleration for 4bpp packed 16-color SVGA modes. A CAD package has S3 support drivers that use the 16-color 4bpp packed modes and expects XGA acceleration to work. (joncampbell123).
  • Add “-o int13” option to IMGMOUNT to direct the FAT driver to do all disk I/O through INT 13h instead of directly. This is intended for certain demoscene productions that apparently like to make files appear out of thin air by intercepting INT 13h floppy disk I/O and then asking MS-DOS to run something from it. Hack for “DS_BLISS” demo. (joncampbell123).
  • Fixed crash when a language file is loaded on a Windows host with US keyboard (maron2000)
  • Added Added sharp-bilinear Direct3D shader (RibShark)
  • Pass output dimensions to Direct3D shaders (RibShark)
  • Fixed BPB of floppy images made by IMGMAKE command (maron2000)
  • Fixed timestamp of volume label changed by LABEL command (maron2000)
  • Fixed pathname issues when mounting differencial VHD images (maxpat78)
  • Corrected relative/absolute track offset in subchannel data for CD-ROM images (RibShark).
  • Fixed particular dead keys were not working to input characters with diacritics (maron2000).
  • Enabled “Edit and Continue” option for debug builds of Visual Studio Intel builds (aybe).
  • Updated libchdr to latest (treloret).
  • Fixed icon in Gnome dock bar (FredBezies).
  • add option “[dos] automount drive directories” for Windows builds, this will mount existing drive directories from C to Y drive (aybe).
  • fix off-center and off-screen window after entering the configuration tool while using TTF output mode (aybe).
  • add menu item for centering window “Video/Center window” (aybe).
  • Fixed update-version-number script to patch all *.iss files, not just the specific one it did before, to ensure future releases have correct version numbers. (joncampbell123).
  • Updated Nuked-OPL3 code to nukeykt/Nuked-OPL3@cfedb09 (StevenSYS)
  • Updated SDL2 library to 2.30.4 (maron2000)
  • Fixed TTF mode didn’t change to graphic mode when machine = Hercules (maron2000)
  • Configuration tool: (aybe)
    • more Windows 3.1 look’n’feel (themes w/ host dark mode detection)
    • enhance main window layout, it is now visible in its entirety
    • fix layout issues, off by one in rectangle drawing functions
    • fix ‘list iterators incompatible’ when pressing the Tab key
    • properties/help: sorted alphabetically, mouse wheel scrollable
    • remove few rendundant labels, adjust names of some others
    • retain ‘show advanced options’ state throughout session
  • SVN r4483: Fix compilation in Visual Studio 2008 (Allofich)
  • DOSBox Staging: Decouple CMS and OPL emulations (Allofich)
  • Fixed reading NEC specific character font data.(nanshiki)
Previous release: 2024.07.01 (release notes)