DOS ain't dead

> Thank you!
> This version is very improved and useful. I also like the new "design" that
> it is self-contained.
>
> Is it possible to ever have a "graphics passthrough" option in the HX.DOS
> builds? It would be useful to avoid rendering graphics by simply forwarding
> them to the real hardware, which is not possible on modern systems, but
> definitely is under DOS. Although, I can not estimate how much effort would
> it be, so it's just a question/idea.

The "graphical passthrough" option can be useful of course, but since the DOS package relies on HX DOS Extender, I wonder if HX DOS Extender already provides this as an option so that the DOS version of DOSBox-X can make use of it?

> 0.83.5 worked perfectly well for me under HX 2.18, but 0.83.6 doesn't
> start, just quits immediately to the DOS prompt, without even displaying
> the title screen. It seems somehow to be an incompatibility. Nothing
> changed in my DOSBOX.conf files. Running in pure DOS of course.

I have the same problem but if I set path to HXRT dir before running dosbox it works fine then...

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DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

RayeR must be right. I always have my HX package in the path (somewhere, and sometimes in multiple places including dirs on RAM-disk and etc. according to how my overcomplicated setup system distributes its files for purposes) but it is a strange mixture of 2.18, 2.17 and 2.17+. On the other hand, since Wengier made it self contained, the executable doesn't work if it's renamed as it has a DOS-PE stub looking for DOSBOX-X.EXE specifically. I have more versions of DOSBox installed on my DOS, all of them controlled by a PLAY.BAT I made for this purpose, but I had to extend the version-selector script as new files can not be renamed, furthermore, the newer versions may contain useful things in ther dirs. So the newer versions require the user to execute the more precisely.

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DOS isn't about why. It's about why not.

I would also like to mention that by passthrough I simply meant that DOSBox-X would recognize any attempt to reach a video device but instead of emulating the hardware, it is just passed to the real memory or I/O address and vice versa. Interrupts may make it more difficult, but the point is, this way DOSBox-X doesn't have to provide any drivers, like, say, VIDIX. It's up to the client program whether it's able to handle the videocard or not. So HW acceleration would only be possible with a real Voodoo card or smthg, but sVGA should be enough on a modern hardware, as it is fast enough to make HW acceleration redundant. This method would make DOSBox-X's SDL menü unavailable while in this mode, yet it would be extremely useful.

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DOS isn't about why. It's about why not.

> 0.83.5 worked perfectly well for me under HX 2.18, but 0.83.6 doesn't
> start, just quits immediately to the DOS prompt, without even displaying
> the title screen. It seems somehow to be an incompatibility. Nothing
> changed in my DOSBOX.conf files. Running in pure DOS of course.
>
> I also ask question as Kormax does. How difficult would it be to use a
> pass-through driver to greatly speed up video functions? I think MPLAYER
> does, or did something like this through its "VIDIX" drivers and / or
> "3dfx" passthrough video drivers... Something like this is probably
> possible with DOS BOX-X, but I wouldn't know the extent of work involved.

Zyzzle: The file SHELL32.DLL was (unfortunately) missing from the initial DOSBox-X 0.83.6 DOS package, but it was later discovered and the SHELL32.DLL file was added to the ZIP package (whose file name remains unchanged). Have you tried the redownload and run the DOS package?

For the "graphical passthough" option, does HX-DOS Extender (which the DOSBox-X DOS version relies on) already provides such a feature so that DOSBox-X can make sure of?