How to increase size of DOSBox window?

Question

I am running Turbo C on DOSBox in Ubuntu 12.04.

The problem is that two black stripes are coming on either of screen. I want to remove them.

My computer is a Dell Studio 15z with screen resolution 1366x768. I don't have a problem even if distortion occurs.

Relevant part of my dosbox.conf file:

[sdl]
fullscreen=true
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=1366x768
windowresolution=1366x768
output=overlay
autolock=true
sensitivity=100
waitonerror=true
priority=higher,normal
mapperfile=mapper-0.74.map
usescancodes=true

Answer 1

• go to dosbox installation directory (on my machine that is C:\Program Files (x86)\DOSBox-0.74 ) as you see the version number is part of the installation directory name.

• run "DOSBox 0.74 Options.bat"

• the script starts notepad with configuration file: here change

  windowresolution=1600x800

  output=ddraw

NOTE: Non-windows users will want to use output=opengl instead.

(the resolution can't be changed if output=surface - that's the default).

• safe configuration file changes.

Answer 2

For using DOSBox with SDL, you will need to set or change the following:

[sdl]
windowresolution=1280x960
output=opengl

Here is three options to put those settings:

1. Edit user's default configuration, for example, using vi:

   $ dosbox -printconf
   /home/USERNAME/.dosbox/dosbox-0.74.conf
   $ vi "$(dosbox -printconf)"
   $ dosbox
   

2. For temporary resize, create a new configuration with the three lines above, say newsize.conf:

   $ dosbox -conf newsize.conf
   

   You can use -conf to load multiple configuration and/or with -userconf for default configuration, for example:

   $ dosbox -userconf -conf newsize.conf 
   [snip]
   ---
   CONFIG:Loading primary settings from config file /home/USERNAME/.dosbox/dosbox-0.74.conf
   CONFIG:Loading additional settings from config file newsize.conf
   [snip]
   

3. Create a dosbox.conf under current directory, DOSBox loads it as default.

DOSBox should start up and resize to 1280x960 in this case.

Note that you probably would not get any size you desired, for instance, I set 1280x720 and I got 1152x720.

Answer 3

Here's how to change the dosbox.conf file in Linux to increase the size of the window. I actually DID what follows, so I can say it works (in 32-bit PCLinuxOS fullmontyKDE, anyway). The question's answer is in the .conf file itself.

You find this file in Linux at /home/(username)/.dosbox . In Konqueror or Dolphin, you must first check 'Hidden files' or you won't see the folder. Open it with KWrite superuser or your fav editor.

1. Save the file with another name like 'dosbox-0.74original.conf' to preserve the original file in case you need to restore it.
2. Search on 'resolution' and carefully read what the conf file says about changing it. There are essentially two variables: resolution and output. You want to leave fullresolution alone for now. Your question was about WINDOW, not full. So look for windowresolution, see what the comments in conf file say you can do. The best suggestion is to use a bigger-window resolution like 900x800 (which is what I used on a 1366x768 screen), but NOT the actual resolution of your machine (which would make the window fullscreen, and you said you didn't want that). Be specific, replacing the 'windowresolution=original' with 'windowresolution=900x800' or other dimensions. On my screen, that doubled the window size just as it does with the max Font tab in Windows Properties (for the exe file; as you'll see below the ==== marks, 32-bit Windows doesn't need Dosbox).

Then, search on 'output', and as the instruction in the conf file warns, if and only if you have 'hardware scaling', change the default 'output=surface' to something else; he then lists the optional other settings. I changed it to 'output=overlay'. There's one other setting to test: aspect. Search the file for 'aspect', and change the 'false' to 'true' if you want an even bigger window. When I did this, the window took up over half of the screen. With 'false' left alone, I had a somewhat smaller window (I use widescreen monitors, whether laptop or desktop, maybe that's why).

So after you've made the changes, save the file with the original name of dosbox-0.74.conf . Then, type dosbox at the command line or create a Launcher (in KDE, this is a right click on the desktop) with the command dosbox. You still have to go through the mount command (i.e., mount c~ c:\123 if that's the location and file you'll execute). I'm sure there's a way to make a script, but haven't yet learned how to do that.

Answer 4

Looking again at your question, I think I see what's wrong with your conf file. You set:

fullresolution=1366x768 windowresolution=1366x768

That's why you're getting the letterboxing (black on either side). You've essentially told Dosbox that your screen is the same size as your window, but your screen is actually bigger, 1600x900 (or higher) per the Googled specs for that computer. So the 'difference' shows up in black. So you either should change fullresolution to your actual screen resolution, or revert to fullresolution=original default, and only specify the window resolution.

So now I wonder if you really want fullscreen, though your question asks about only a window. For you are getting a window, but you sized it short of your screen, hence the two black stripes (letterboxing). If you really want fullscreen, then you need to specify the actual resolution of your screen. 1366x768 is not big enough.

The next issue is, what's the resolution of the program itself? It won't go past its own resolution. So if the program/game is (natively) say 1280x720 (HD), then your window resolution setting shouldn't be bigger than that (remember, it's fixed not dynamic when you use AxB as windowresolution).

Example: DOS Lotus 123 will only extend eight columns and 20 rows. The bigger the Dosbox, the bigger the text, but not more columns and rows. So setting a higher windowresolution for that, only results in bigger text, not more columns and rows. After that you'll have letterboxing.

Hope this helps you better.