All of the sudden....WIP04_b15072011 comes

Here it comes. Just the apk file (take dosbox.conf from some previous downloads). It brings:

• fix for DroidDos occasional crashes on GFX mode switches (i.e. in Ishar 3 at startup, or in Contrast demo by Oxygene) - its a dirty fix, but works...
  
• refactored UI, taken from DroidMac, with scrollable keyboard panels, easier GUI configuration (key sizes, etc.).

The next one (if it comes) will be probably WIP05 :).

Seriously distracted...

by this... http://droidmac.blogspot.com/ . If there is someone around here who would like to move DroidDos forward - let me know, i will pass the whole source code. I may not be able to handle two ports effectively in parallel in my spare time.

Ahhh, and btw. got my Defy, and im not sure what they put exactly inside it, but ARMv7 comparing to my old LG Swift, wow, just wow.....

Awaiting for Defy.... WIP04.b.26032011 comes :)

Well, i'm still waiting for my Moto Defy. Also hectic days recently so had not that much time to play with this robot. But I did some steps towards WIP04. And here comes a very early, probably buggy, and just for brave souls build (apk only) that brings:

• support for vertical AND horizontal layouts (switchable in GUI settings, and you need to restart app to take it into effect, please note - that if horizontal/vertical is chosen, would be nice to hold phone properly/accordingly prior droiddos start :)),
• support for large DOS screen area, up to 640x400 (in horizontal), YES, finally its there :).
• in horizontal mode, central area of the screen can be used as mousepad,
• shrinked/paged modes can be switched now without restarting.
• filtering (smooth/sharp) can be switched without restart,
• rewrote some dosbox level screen copy stuff, so we may get some speedup here (as most of copying/resizing/cropping is done on OpenGL ES level now :)).

It's not yet finished, not much tested, may crash, etc. so be warned, but wanted to post it anyway, just to let you know this project is not dead :). I expect the more stable version to come within a week.

Download link.

As usual, any feedback appreciated.

UPDATE: i played a bit with this build on my device, and it crashes badly really often, seems to happen on GFX mode switches (i sniff some leaks). Thus, if you are really eager to test it and dont mind crashes - got for it. If not, better stick to the previous build. In the meantime i will work on the fixes.

DroidDOS WIP03.b.04032011 - quick build ready to pickup

A quick build is available (just .apk file), that brings:

• ARMv7 build (fat binary, including support for both ARMv5 and ARMV7a) - maybe some performance improvements here??
  
• some experiments with optimization flags in general (-O3 instead of -Os)
• fixed "~" issue
• added larger Dos Window Area for tablets (600x450), but again , its still 320x240 but just upscaled to larger area, it will be helpful however for 320x240 games on larger displays.

File available here.

DroidDOS WIP03.b.02032011- available for download

Hi All,

So here comes the next version that brings some enhancements/bug fixes:

• larger dos window area now works (tested on several WVGA and qHD devices, shots above)
• crash on every 2nd run is eliminated, assuming that you exit DroidDOS gently by using Options->Exit (and not Home, nor Back). Otherwise it is still there.
  
• added an Alert Dialog - when dosbox.conf is not present in /sdcard/dosbox.conf
• added some text indicators (in .,?! layout) on cycles and frameskip (assuming that you dont touch cyclesup/down in dosbox.conf :)).
  

Available for download here.

So the next one will probably be WIP4 (mid/end of March). Some hints on what to expect:

• support for multiple keyboard layouts at the same time (i.e. tpad + dpad) - for larger screen devices
• support for larger dos window than current 320x240.
  

Thanks to All who managed to run it so far, and give comments/feedback/logs/screenshots.

And speaking of which, the above ones: GalaxyTab (donated by Andreas), HTC Desire (Gingerbread 2.3, donated by Dave). Thanks guys!

DroidDOS WIP03 b.27022011 - waiting for some hero :)

Oh, if i guess right, the whole issue with garbled screen on higher res devices is due to this simple formula: 360-104 = 256. What a bummer :). Now build, that hopefully fixes it, is now awaiting for some hero here.

WIP03 build 25022011 - available for download.

Some fixes/enhancements:

• "l" now works :)
• keyboard shall now work in games (there were problems especially with keypad + space/enter/escape). Now things like wolf3d or Doom shall work fine (with respect to keyboard, not general speed :))
• Android CPU load meter added, helps control cycles (i.e. too high dosbox cpu cycles level may overload the phone, and make the emulation to slowdown).

Download this version here.

DroidDOS WIP03 - available for download.

So WIP03 comes. What has changed:

• recompiled with dynamic core support (M-HT dynamic ARMv4 core, as in Dosbox 0.73+),
• added dynamic core config to DOS options,
• picked some Pelya's SDL port updates (around OpenGL/SDL integration) - most of crashes shall be now eliminated,
• added special characters layout (including buttons for CPU cycles +/ and frameskip +/-)
• arrows, space and fire (enter) in DPAD layout will now auto-repeat on hold (for more arcade style games),
• some improvements in options menu (more cycles options, better button sizes, etc)

It can be downloaded from here (PL file hosting side). Non-polish D/L site will be posted later today.
Again, any comments appreciated.

DroidDOS WIP02 - available for download

So here it comes. Works in Progress version 02. Use it at your own risk :).

Some limitations:
- no hold button (that would result in multiple characters being typed on button hold) - will be fixed soon,
- no sound (speed :/)
- no dedicated ARMv7 build (for Nexus One, Droid, Defy, etc..) - also to be fixed soon
- occasional crashes.
- memory consumption is still kind of high (40-60MB of free RAM needed).
- no layout for special characters like ";,./()!? etc. - will be fixed soon.

Otherwise it seems to work quite nicely. Supports multiple screen sizes (configurable). Archive for download is here (Polish) or alternatively here: DroidDOS_wip2.b.06022011.zip

Please, read carefully an attached *_readme.txt file. It describes all the nice things about GUI and such. Any comments are welcome. Enjoy!

Supports HVGA and WVGA (configurable via GUI settings in Options).

PS. source code WILL BE released as soon as I do some polishing on it. So far my efforts were focused on making it work.

DroidDos WIP01 - some picture teaser :)

So its closer and closer. Some pictures from the works...

As you can see above (taken with ddms from my phone), there will be few input panes (Qwerty, for obvious reasons), T-Pad (Touchpad like), D-Pad (dpad arrows, and some handy buttons for more 'arcade style' games), possibly Shift (for shifted qwerty and some special characters). Also 2 types of dealing with larger screens. Paged (with moving window around the DOS screen, PL->PD buttons row will allow for 'sliding' this window in all directions), and shrinked (with hi-res screen basically shrinked to 320x240).

There will be some options menu, that will allow for setting sizes of buttons, configuring Dosbox emulator, etc.

Development is painfully slow now, as I have my priorites (job & family) :).

DroidDOS - WIP01 coming soon

Uffff, last week was a crazy chase for some kind of stability. First I had to switch to 32bits/pixel (RGBA) from 16bits/pixel, as it seems AVD had some issues (and crashes) on blitting to 16bits. Then i had to switchback (hope that just temporarily) FULL_TLB_SIZE (eats more memory, meh....) to achieve some level of stability for some games (i.e. Ishar 3). But now I got it more or less running. Tested some games & other stuff (that seems to run):

• Ishar3,
• Settlers (although some problems with mouse in moving window mode),
• Battle Isle
• Might and Magic 6 (Swords of Xeen)
• Mario
• Jack the Ripper
• Windows 3.1 (Chinese version)
• Executor (Mac emulator) and VMac
• DosUAE
• Warlords 2

I still cannot make old DOS demo - Contrast by Oxygene to run on the device. But this might be due to more memory consumption. (I have LG GT540/Swift, 600Mhz + 256MB, with approx 60MB left).

So I'm afraid no .apk release by the end of this month. I hope to get mouse and paged/oversize mode running well by the end of next week, keyboard hold/autorepeat (as now you need to press button X times, i.e. the DPAD arrows) . Also implement configuring Dosbox itself with some nice UI, and restarts of emulation from the DroidDOS itself (without restart of the whole app). Once I got it up and running, WIP01 will be released to public :).

Expect some ddms screenshots in the next few days.

Stay tuned.

DroidDOS - what is cooking?

Based on the marvelous works of aDosbox guys, MotoCakers (Z6 Dosbox), Koli Joco (S60 Dosbox), and my own experience (on DosboxUIQ and ROKR E8 dosbox), im now cooking a DroidDOS. A dosbox emulator port for Android devices without a physical keyboard. Its more or less working now, on my own phone, but not yet at the stage to be shared with the outside world. What will be the key enhancements to aDosbox, you may ask. Well, here they are:

• support for mouse (I hope to get both the stylus touch mouse and touchpad like mouse simulation),
• support for onscreen virtual keyboard (with several switchable layouts).
• support for oversize screens (i.e. im targeting HVGA devices, that will have a 320x200 DOS window with 640x400 modes shrinked, or paged/tiled).
• pan window automatically following mouse (in oversize mode),
  
• configurable from DosBox app (RAM, CPU, cycles, oversize mode, button sizes, etc)
• memory optimizations.
• dedicated builds for ARMv5/6 and ARMv7.
  

Stay tuned for more news. I hope to release it to public (free .apk) by end of January.

In the world of DOSn't, DroidDOS...

This is a sibling blog for http://dosboxuiq.blogspot.com. Come back soon...