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I'm having some difficulty getting DOSBox to display my game the way I would like and my Google-fu is failing me.

Details:

I am a Twitch streamer and I'm trying to play King's Quest on Windows 10 with screen resolution of 1920x1080 (I don't know if that matters). When I launch the game it defaults to full screen mode, which prevents me from using OBS on my other monitor. I usually run games in windowed mode for this reason (Diablo III for example). When I run this in windowed mode the window is really small. I tried the fixes for DOSBox found online but can't seem to get into the program to apply the fixes for screen size.

All I would like to do is change the size of the window when the game is running. If I can't make it fill the screen, that is fine, just so long as I can get it nice and big so it doesn't look terrible on stream.
Any help is greatly appreciated and thank you.
This question / problem has been solved by Kobi-Kimage
I found some possible solutions but it became very fiddly to achieve.

Editing the .conf file for windowed resolution made no difference in any way. I finally played with the scaling and got it to change some but it's extremely fiddly.

The answers here are kind of helpful: gog.com/forum/forgotten_realms_collection/resizing_dosbox_window

If anyone else has an easier or clearer way to do this it would be greatly appreciated.
There should be a link to a Configuration App (Launch Settings) where you can change all the settings.
That app is located in the game's directory and the link is usually called: DOSBox Configuration.lnk
The file itself should be in the DOSBOX subdirectory and is called: GOGDOSConfig.exe

You can also edit the game's DOSBox Configuration file (*.conf) which is located in the game's
directory. Here's an example of my preffered settings:

[sdl]
fullscreen=true
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=0x0
windowresolution=800x600
output=openglnb

[render]
aspect=true
scaler=none

* fullresolution=0x0 means that it'll run on your desktop resolution. GOG usually sets this to Original
which means a 320x200 resolution.
windowresolution= Choose whatever standard 4:3 resolution you want.
output=openglnb With this option the game will run on OpenGL without Bilinear Filtering. If you want,
you can also use opengl (with Bilinear Filtering). There are other output options (you can read it in the
.conf file) but OpenGL has the best performance.
aspect=true This forces the game to keep the proper 4:3 aspect ratio.
avatar
Kobi-K: There should be a link to a Configuration App (Launch Settings) where you can change all the settings.
That app is located in the game's directory and the link is usually called: DOSBox Configuration.lnk
The file itself should be in the DOSBOX subdirectory and is called: GOGDOSConfig.exe

You can also edit the game's DOSBox Configuration file (*.conf) which is located in the game's
directory. Here's an example of my preffered settings:

[sdl]
fullscreen=true
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=0x0
windowresolution=800x600
output=openglnb

[render]
aspect=true
scaler=none

* fullresolution=0x0 means that it'll run on your desktop resolution. GOG usually sets this to Original
which means a 320x200 resolution.
windowresolution= Choose whatever standard 4:3 resolution you want.
output=openglnb With this option the game will run on OpenGL without Bilinear Filtering. If you want,
you can also use opengl (with Bilinear Filtering). There are other output options (you can read it in the
.conf file) but OpenGL has the best performance.
aspect=true This forces the game to keep the proper 4:3 aspect ratio.
That doesn't seem to make any difference. The only success I've had is messing with the scaler as forced, which is kind of annoying. I tried the 'windowresolution' line first thinking it would be an easy fix but nothing.
Maybe you should try a window resolution of 1440x1080 with aspect=true,
or a window resolution of 1920x1080 with aspect=false.
avatar
Kobi-K: Maybe you should try a window resolution of 1440x1080 with aspect=true,
or a window resolution of 1920x1080 with aspect=false.
Thank you, that seems to have done the trick as well as can be expected. I forgot the old games ran in a 4:3 aspect ratio which I think is perhaps why changing the window resolution wasn't working.

[EDIT for clarity]

Running it with windowresolution=1920x1080 and aspect=false doesn't fill the screen as the game still corrects itself to a 4:3 when it launches but it is sizable enough to fill a substantial portion of the screen and look good in OBS.

Thank you again Kobi-K
Post edited February 03, 2020 by EATERoftheDEAD
avatar
Kobi-K: Maybe you should try a window resolution of 1440x1080 with aspect=true,
or a window resolution of 1920x1080 with aspect=false.
avatar
EATERoftheDEAD: Thank you, that seems to have done the trick as well as can be expected. I forgot the old games ran in a 4:3 aspect ratio which I think is perhaps why changing the window resolution wasn't working.
Aspect correction doesn't have anything to do with 4:3 vs. widescreen issue, it's about old games having different pixel proportions than newer games.

http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Dosbox.conf#aspect_.3D_true_.7C_false
Post edited February 03, 2020 by PixelBoy
avatar
PixelBoy: Aspect correction doesn't have anything to do with 4:3 vs. widescreen issue, it's about old games having different pixel proportions than newer games.

http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Dosbox.conf#aspect_.3D_true_.7C_false
Ah okay, that's why it rescales when the game launches.
avatar
Kobi-K: There should be a link to a Configuration App (Launch Settings) where you can change all the settings.
That app is located in the game's directory and the link is usually called: DOSBox Configuration.lnk
The file itself should be in the DOSBOX subdirectory and is called: GOGDOSConfig.exe

You can also edit the game's DOSBox Configuration file (*.conf) which is located in the game's
directory. Here's an example of my preffered settings:

[sdl]
fullscreen=true
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=0x0
windowresolution=800x600
output=openglnb

[render]
aspect=true
scaler=none

* fullresolution=0x0 means that it'll run on your desktop resolution. GOG usually sets this to Original
which means a 320x200 resolution.
windowresolution= Choose whatever standard 4:3 resolution you want.
output=openglnb With this option the game will run on OpenGL without Bilinear Filtering. If you want,
you can also use opengl (with Bilinear Filtering). There are other output options (you can read it in the
.conf file) but OpenGL has the best performance.
aspect=true This forces the game to keep the proper 4:3 aspect ratio.
Has anyone come up with a step by step guide for those individuals not comfortable or not knowledgeable of the directory, root system of programs, or even the app used to make the changes?
avatar
Boonefab52: Has anyone come up with a step by step guide for those individuals not comfortable or not knowledgeable of the directory, root system of programs, or even the app used to make the changes?
Basically, no. But I know a guy who does videos who might be able to help you get started.

The gist/TL;DR: DOSbox is designed for DOS, and putting it kindly, there's a lot of moving parts.

First though, would you rather just use something like Dosbox Game Launcher?
If not? Have a look at this video. Unless you're using the Staging version Dosbox, not a whole lot has changed in the 10 years (in fact, base Dosbox is pretty much Moribund).
Post edited August 31, 2023 by Darvond
avatar
EATERoftheDEAD: I'm having some difficulty getting DOSBox to display my game the way I would like and my Google-fu is failing me.

Details:

I am a Twitch streamer and I'm trying to play King's Quest on Windows 10 with screen resolution of 1920x1080 (I don't know if that matters). When I launch the game it defaults to full screen mode, which prevents me from using OBS on my other monitor. I usually run games in windowed mode for this reason (Diablo III for example). When I run this in windowed mode the window is really small. I tried the fixes for DOSBox found online but can't seem to get into the program to apply the fixes for screen size.

All I would like to do is change the size of the window when the game is running. If I can't make it fill the screen, that is fine, just so long as I can get it nice and big so it doesn't look terrible on stream.
Any help is greatly appreciated and thank you.
Although you fixed the issue, you may also want to look at Dosbox Staging for playing old DOS games in the future, since Dosbox 0.74-3 is very old and outdated.

https://dosbox-staging.github.io/

https://github.com/dosbox-staging/dosbox-staging/wiki
avatar
Boonefab52: Has anyone come up with a step by step guide for those individuals not comfortable or not knowledgeable of the directory, root system of programs, or even the app used to make the changes?
JFI: Any standard text editor will do as app. You can type here, so you should be a able to use a text editor as well.

And how to navigate your system ... There are plenty of beginner guides for Windows, there's no need to add one more.

And if you right click the link to your game on your desktop and check it's property, you can use the "open folder" (or something similar, my Windows is german) button to go to the location where dosbox is located. In GOGs case the config file is one directory above that.

Edit: Also Galaxy has an option to "show the installation location" in the menu on the upper right.
Post edited August 31, 2023 by neumi5694
avatar
Boonefab52: Has anyone come up with a step by step guide for those individuals not comfortable or not knowledgeable of the directory, root system of programs, or even the app used to make the changes?
Considering they are text files, they are hard to go wrong with.

But more likely just downloading a config file that is better suited would be better. That or a script that will update it as a bulk; like using sed packed with a bat file. though if i do ahk i can pack it as a single exe ready to run...

Though with the above example, I'd take off fullscreen first, and go back to fullscreen only when all other issues were solved. Also for some reason i see a ton of scalers set to hq2x/hq3x rather than normal2x/normal3x. (HQ does something similar to super2xsai but uses a lot of cpu computation and isn't worth it in my mind).
Post edited August 31, 2023 by rtcvb32
avatar
Boonefab52: Has anyone come up with a step by step guide for those individuals not comfortable or not knowledgeable of the directory, root system of programs, or even the app used to make the changes?
avatar
rtcvb32: Considering they are text files, they are hard to go wrong with.

But more likely just downloading a config file that is better suited would be better. That or a script that will update it as a bulk; like using sed packed with a bat file. though if i do ahk i can pack it as a single exe ready to run...

Though with the above example, I'd take off fullscreen first, and go back to fullscreen only when all other issues were solved. Also for some reason i see a ton of scalers set to hq2x/hq3x rather than normal2x/normal3x. (HQ does something similar to super2xsai but uses a lot of cpu computation and isn't worth it in my mind).
Thank you for taking the time to respond to my question. Thank you even more for volunteering to put it all in an executable file. Some of your message, though I am sure is literally filled with the most rudimentary of directions, still sent over my head. I am more than willing to learn. (teach a man to fish yadda yadda) So if you are willing to provide the recipe as it were I would happily go from there.

Cheers. Andre
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Boonefab52: Has anyone come up with a step by step guide for those individuals not comfortable or not knowledgeable of the directory, root system of programs, or even the app used to make the changes?
Hi Boonefab52,

If your OS is Windows, then for every installed GOG game running DOSBox there should be a DOSBox Configurator file for that game in your Start Menu, click on it and you can use the options I usually use in these screenshots, these options should produce a sharp, clean, undistorted image with light filtering. You might want to choose a larger window size, and you can switch between Fullscreen and Windowed mode by pressing Alt+Enter.

I hope this helps.
Attachments:
Post edited September 01, 2023 by Kobi-K