DOSBox screen captures scaled when [dosbox] machine=vgaonly
 

I have had this problem before and couldn't resolve it except by using D-Box. I do not want to use a 3rd party application, I just want to use DOSBox.

When I capture a screen or record an AVI in D-Box, resoultion is 256 color - 320x200. If I try the same with DOSBox, the images end up being 640x400 and 24 bit color. It's frustrating because one of the games was giving me the higher resolution and 16 million colors with scaler=none. I commented this line out with a # and then it was fine. So I modified the other .conf files to do the same and it didn't work.

I am using the method for custom .conf files as was instructed using Japo's advanced DOSBox tutorial. I don't know what I am doing wrong. I have tried deleting all of the .conf files that were not customized so they would be rewritten as defaults, with the same result.

I can't find anything on the internet, Wiki, DOSBox home page, forums...bleh! Everyone states it should be the default .png of 320x200 - 256 color or suggest using a 3rd party app for screen captures.

Help?

I think it changes for different games, some games are at a higher resolution and thus take screenshots at that resolution. Even if you have set Dosbox to a lower one.

This is only me making a guess from what I have seen while screenshotting games using Dosbox.

I thought the same but before I ventured forth to prove my lack of knowledge publicly for the miilionth time, I took screen shots of the same game in both D-Box and is DOSBox. D-box is small res, DOSBox is large res. Both apps ae using the same version of DOSBox, the same initial config.

Thanks though!

It is possible that D-Box is merely taking a screenshot of the window while Dosbox is taking a screenshot of the native resolution. Then again that could be gibberish.

What game is it? If several, please tell us an example.

So you're using the default configuration of DOSBox out of the box?

Tried several DOS games, just in case. Seen shots of 640x400, 320x200, 640x480. Conclusion: if you not tinker CFG somehow, I think, it must be game itself. :)

EDIT: No comfort, but I am not the only one... Vogon related 'machine=vgaonly' thread

Darth gave me a hint toward thinking differently. It is using machine=vgaonly as the root cause of the problem. The initial game I made the custom config file was for Zool 2. The broken cracked version that is on site allows you to play, without intro and cutscene animations. Once I fixed that, the game did not run without setting up a virtual drive or using something like Daemon tools for a virtual drive. This was the main reason for the quest: I wanted to capture an AVI of the animated intro for Zool 2 in 320x200 and decrease the file size.

Trying to get a virtual drive to work with D-Box (not DOSBox) to test was causing more problems to get it to work than what I wanted to fix. However, in the process, I was using a modified version of the customized config for Zool 2. so all of the games I was adding new custom config files for had machine=vgaonly. :headslap:

I don't know why, I would think it would do the opposite, but commenting out that line or changing it to machine=svga_s3 makes the captures turn out in 320x200 - 256 colors. That would be the last place I would look since I usually don't equate anything that states "vga only" with 24 bit colors.

My main goal is thwarted. Since the game for the AVI will only run if machine=vgaonly is in place, I guess I leave that one at 640x400, but at least I learned something. At least that's my disclaimer.

Thanks everyone!

this info would be very useful to keep in some kind of faq, or that old common problems troubleshooting topic that eagle of fire managed back then

To be able to make a new Archive entry would require me to understand what is being said here. Which, at the moment and with my limited time, is not the case. :unsure:

However, creating a new Archive entry is simple: simply move the appropriate post to add to the archive with an appropriate thread name, close it and voila. :)

The synopsis of the issue:

DOSBox -.074 issue - When Using '[dosbox] machine=vgaonly' as a configuration line, screen captures and AVI recordings will automatically scale to 640x400 with 24 bit color, instead of an expected 320x200 with 8 bit color.

This is problematic when trying to create a more compact AVI recording.

For screen captures, resizing of each capture is necessary to maintain its original resolution*. It is also no longer possible to have an indexed 256 color palette associated with each corresponding capture.

*Original resolution may vary from game to game, but the designated game resolution is unable to be determined with certainty when using 'vgaonly'.

-----------------End of proposed Archive entry-----------------
That should be about all, unless someone else would like to add something. The next question is how do you properly name the thread? I had trouble finding information related to this because it is like trying to find a word in the dictionary that you don't know how to spell the word. Examples: euphemism, xylophone, honorable.

Does that make sense? You know what to look for when you know what the problem is, but how do you search for the problem? I thought it may have been one of the following configuration lines: scaler=, fullresolution=, windowresolution=, so those were topics I was searching for. The real problem that ended up being vgaonly, was discovered by trial and error; a long and frustrating process.

Does anyone have any suggestions?