[Freedos-devel] Upgrade supplied UDVD2 to March 2015 version for 1.2 release?
Hello everyone, firstly thank you for all the responses to some of my DOS gaming specific questions. As suggested, I tried out the 2015 version of UDVD2 and it greatly improves compatibility with CD-ROM based DOS games. Is it possible to ship this newer version with the final release of FreeDOS? Kind regards, Philip -- Developer Access Program for Intel Xeon Phi Processors Access to Intel Xeon Phi processor-based developer platforms. With one year of Intel Parallel Studio XE. Training and support from Colfax. Order your platform today.http://sdm.link/xeonphi___ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
Re: [Freedos-devel] Working on a video review and found some issues
Hi! > Good to know :-) And good to know that Fade To Black is the only game > with problems with SHSUCDX. My thought was that maybe SHSUCDX has some > debug options so you could collect information whether any feature is > called by the game for which SHSUCDX has known shortcomings... If the > default SHSUCDX does not support that, even a patch could work, but I > guess the game graphics would make it hard to see SHSUCDX messages? > I don't know if this is the only game, but it is the only game out of the games I tried that had such an issue. > Well Jerome is right that the "legacy friendly" distro works, but I > would still want to know which component of the default distro would > need a NEWER than Pentium CPU. After all, Pentium is quite new, too. > > I would expect that even the normal distro works when you skip loading > that part. For example ALL core components should be happy with 386. > He explained that it has to do with the way they boot. Anyway, I captured the process and took a screenshot right at the moment the error happens. It is here: http://i.imgur.com/bZFSJkw.png Phil -- Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot___ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
Re: [Freedos-devel] Working on a video review and found some issues
> > >> The supplied driver probably means "the driver which came with >> the drive". That would be a reasonable alternative in that case. >> > > Sorry, with supplied driver, I was referring to the optical drive driver > that comes with FD 1.2 RC2. I believe it is UDVD2.SYS which is loaded in > AUTOEXEC.BAT file. > > I have tried many optical drive drivers under MS-DOS and VIDECDD.SYS is > what I found to work best with games. Other drivers have issues with > certain games that use CD Audio, even the OAKCDROM.SYS that comes with > Windows 98 for example. > > But it's easy enough to recommend viewers to swap it out, VIDECDD.SYS can > be found easily online. > > >> >> > - Even when replacing the optical drive driver, some CD based games have >> > issues, such as Fade To Black. To resolve these I had to use MSCDEX.EXE >> > from Microsoft >> >> That surprises me, SHSUCDX is quite feature rich. Would you be >> interested to investigate those further? >> > > Note that out of the games tested, Fade to Black is the only one that > displayed different behaviour. I'm not sure how I can help here, it is > likely something odd that the game executable checks or looks for when > attempting to play the introduction. The game isn't available on GOG, but > can be easily "obtained" on the Internet ;) > > But I'm just guessing and I am confident that this is a rather isolated > case. > > >> >> > - I noticed that start-up menus are not compatible with FreeDOS. >> >> We do have start menus, but syntax differs from MS DOS style. >> As far as I remember, discussion about that years ago had the >> outcome that config / autoexec differ from MS DOS anyway, as >> we ship other drivers with other option syntax, so no problem? >> > > Ok no worries, I can just re-write my start-up menu, it's not a big deal :) > > >> >> > - Took me a while to figure out why FreeDOS wasn't running on my Pentium >> >> Please let us know which of our components expects a CPU which >> is newer than Pentium. I would have expected everything on the >> ISO to run on 386 or at least "486 DX with PCI" and up. Pentium >> is really modern for most DOS things. It does lack a time stamp >> counter, conditional move and all the fancy vector computing of >> MMX and newer, but I expect VERY few DOS apps to require those. >> >> Even for USB or SATA drivers I would expect Pentium to be okay: >> Of course they can say "no SATA, skipped", but should not crash. >> > > Jerome answer this one nicely, it is easy enough to explain the viewers > that there is a legacy version. As to what we might be using FreeDOS for, > it's for gaming. Especially with FAT32 support, there is the ability to go > past the 120/128 MB limit of MS-DOS 7.1, something people for DOS retro > "power users". Most 3D DOS games need a Pentium to run well, and when > playing at higher VESA resolutions, can you have enough power? > > But yea, it's easy to explain with the two versions. Using the Legacy ISO > resolves this, so I'm happy :) > > >> >> > - Maybe included an option to run FDISK during the installation. >> > I simply quit the installer and ran it manually. >> >> If you ask me, what you did is the best way. It shows that you >> knew what you were doing and that we included FDISK ;-) I would >> not try to nudge unskilled users into using risky tools as FDISK. >> > > No worries, that is also straight forward to explain and demonstrate :) > > >> >> Regards, Eric >> >> >> >> -- >> Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most >> engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot >> ___ >> Freedos-devel mailing list >> Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net >> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel >> > > -- Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot___ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
Re: [Freedos-devel] Working on a video review and found some issues
1. I used VIDECDD.SYS and CD Audio started working 2. In Fade 2 Black it will jump straight into the game, skip the introduction. Replacing SHSUCDX with MSCDEX resolves this issue 3. A typical startup menu like this: [MENU] REM Define an item in the menu, first identifier and then what REM is written in the menu MENUITEM=DOS, DOS with CD-ROM MENUITEM=WIN, Windows REM The commands at COMMON is executed no matter what is chosen REM in the MENU [COMMON] DOS=HIGH,UMB REM For each menu item there can be defined a configuration [DOS] DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS /TESTMEM:OFF DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS DEVICE=C:\CDROM\DRIVER.SYS /D:CD1 [WIN] DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS /TESTMEM:OFF Whereas FreeDOS uses a different format: MENU MENU select your configuration MENU MENU use (0) for basic configuration MENU use (1) for CDROM operation MENU use (2) for NETWORK configuration MENU MENUDEFAULT=0,1 ( configuration 0, wait 1 second) 1? rem CDROM 1? device=CDROM.SYS 2? rem NETWORK 2? device=MyNetworkDriver.SYS 4. The error message was invalid opcode, but scrolled very fast and indefinitely. I have seen this before with modern linux distributions when an old CPU is not supported. The note on the website is as follows: - FD12CD.iso <http://www.freedos.org/download/download/FD12CD.iso> (*full installer CDROM*) —If you have problems with this image, try FD12LGCY.iso <http://www.freedos.org/download/download/FD12LGCY.iso> Using FD12LGCY, which I presume stands for legacy, works on a Pentium 200. Thank you! Regards, Philip On 4 December 2016 at 16:13, Louis Santillan <lpsan...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Sat, Dec 3, 2016 at 6:45 PM, Philip Hoefer > <philscomputer...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hello! > > > > Excited about the new version and have begun working on a YouTube review > for > > version 1.2. I focus on games, so that's what I test. > > > > Trying out a few games I found the following: > > > > - The supplied optical drive driver doesn't seem to handle CD audio > tracks > > well. Games such as Tomb Raider do not play any CD audio music. Replacing > > the supplied optical drive driver with resolves this issue for most > games. > > > > Did you replace the Optical Drive driver with an OEM one? > > > - Even when replacing the optical drive driver, some CD based games have > > issues, such as Fade To Black. To resolve these I had to use MSCDEX.EXE > from > > Microsoft > > > > Can you be more specific about the issues you're having? > > > - I noticed that start-up menus are not compatible with FreeDOS. It uses > a > > different method for menu options which means a lot of existing menus > won't > > be working with FreeDOS > > > > Can you be more specific about the issues you're having? There's been > some recent talk about FD Command.com so there may be some interest to > work on it. > > > > - Took me a while to figure out why FreeDOS wasn't running on my Pentium > PC. > > I had to use the legacy version. There is a note related to this on the > > download page, but it's ambiguous. > > > > Why did it not run? I do not see the note. > > > - Maybe included an option to run FDISK during the installation. I simply > > quit the installer and ran it manually. > > > > Thank you for listening and keep up the good work! > > > > Phil > > > -- > Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most > engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot > ___ > Freedos-devel mailing list > Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel > -- Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot___ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
[Freedos-devel] Working on a video review and found some issues
Hello! Excited about the new version and have begun working on a YouTube review for version 1.2. I focus on games, so that's what I test. Trying out a few games I found the following: - The supplied optical drive driver doesn't seem to handle CD audio tracks well. Games such as Tomb Raider do not play any CD audio music. Replacing the supplied optical drive driver with resolves this issue for most games. - Even when replacing the optical drive driver, some CD based games have issues, such as Fade To Black. To resolve these I had to use MSCDEX.EXE from Microsoft - I noticed that start-up menus are not compatible with FreeDOS. It uses a different method for menu options which means a lot of existing menus won't be working with FreeDOS - Took me a while to figure out why FreeDOS wasn't running on my Pentium PC. I had to use the legacy version. There is a note related to this on the download page, but it's ambiguous. - Maybe included an option to run FDISK during the installation. I simply quit the installer and ran it manually. Thank you for listening and keep up the good work! Phil -- Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot___ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
