Topic: Devil on DOSBox

[Kyouryuu]

InsanityBringer suggested on the Rebirth forums that it was possible to run the ancient Descent editor DEVIL under DOSBox.  Has anyone gotten it to work?  I'm able to extract the files just fine, run the config - even test the graphics successfully.  But running devil seems to hang.  Is there a trick to this I'm missing here?  I'm not very experienced with DOSBox, so it's possible I missed an option somewhere.

I've tried pure 2.2l, as well as the one that Lars did later on (2.2 lc2).

[SaladBadger]

If I remember correctly, you'll have to hack at the batch files a tiny bit. I cannot remember offhand what to do, so could you please copy/paste the contents of <devil install directory>/CONFIG/RUN.BAT and put them here?

EDIT IGNORE THOSE RAMBLINGS OF AN INSANE MAN.

Ok, the issue isn't in RUN.BAT like I remember, they are actually in DEVIL.BAT. It's an easy fix. Just change

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@command /E:1024 /C config\run.bat %1 %2 %3
into

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config\run.bat %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9. It'll work just fine, from what I've played around with. If you're using the unofficial build, things should be much the same but I don't tend to use it because it was giving me issues in Descent II mode.

[(LL)Atan]

I'm using Pumo's Devil v2.2lc2 Windows XP PATCH
which works perfekt on my XP computer, haven't tried with W7 yet.

[SaladBadger]

It won't work properly on Windows 7, since the fullscreen DOS modes are no longer supported, which is what Devil uses (as far as I'm aware Devil XP isn't an actual port, I can still run it under DosBox)

[Pumo]

Insanity is right, Devil XP I made was not a port at all, it's indeed just some fixes on the batch files that makes possible to run the program on XP. (I'm not a programmer after all. Well, i know some of Ruby but that doesn't counts )

But yeah, it definitely won't work on W7, and i'm pretty sure as i've made the tests for that.

There's however a (definitely not recommended) way to run those kind of DOS programs on W7 by installing the basic VGA driver instead of you Video Card drivers, but it will screw up Aero and everything that needs graphic acceleration (3D games and stuff, be it either OpenGL or Direct3D, video playing, etc).
Better not to try that at home kids! (lol)...

So definitely DOSbox is your way to go, unless your PC is slow (as Devil on DOSBox uses some CPU power and can be slooow on low-end computers).

[SaladBadger]

If I ever get around to making a portable version of my descent editing utilities (of which PiggyDump is a sample of the kinds of things I'll want to make), I think I'm going to do a port of DeViL using modern windowing toolkits and OpenGL for rendering. But I still need to find the time and motivation to start working on that.

[Kaiaatzl]

I've never been able to get it to work on XP or Vista.  I've tried Pumo's patch, Dosbox, both together, each separately, and everything else I could think of, and no luck.
Oh well, I like DLE XP best anyway (and unlike what some people say, when I make a level for standard D1 or D2 it runs perfectly in Rebirth).

[Kyouryuu]

Wow, those changes to the .bat file worked like a charm.  Yay, my old friend is back again! 

Some people probably wonder why I'd bother with Devil with things like DLE-XP out there.  Truth is, I'm just more comfortable with this editor.  The way you can physically fly around your level using the same controls as in-game is much more intuitive than DMB2/DLE-XP's "god's eye view" fishbowl camera and "construction panel."  It's especially true when a mine gets rather complex - the DMB2 "engine" as it was always had problems sorting cubes in front of other cubes, and it's a flaw that propagated into DLE-XP.  Also, the curve generator is nicer.

The things DMB2/DLE-XP do better are mostly lighting and support for custom assets.  Though you can technically edit the light tables in Devil to your heart's content, out of the box illumination looks better in other editors.  And stability, of course.  Devil was always a train wreck of stability.

Devil doesn't work on Vista, though it worked on XP with Pumo's patch.  I suspect by that same logic, it doesn't natively work in Windows 7 either.

[Kaiaatzl]

This makes me curious about what you're working on that you need Devil for...

[Scyphi]

This just reminds me that I've never actually SEEN Devil. I've only ever known DMB2 and DLE-XP.

I can vouch for the "just more comfortable with this editor" feeling, though. When DLE-XP first came out, I preferred ol' DMB2 over it, mostly because that was just what I knew (and you get a bigger level view in DMB2). Ultimately, though, I switched over to DLE-XP anyway because that let me build D2X-XL levels, and partly because it was less of a hassle to get it to work on newer systems (I seem to recall DMB2 giving grief about that).

Once you get used to the interface, though, I do have to admit that DLE-XP's is more efficient, too.

Anyway, enough of my rambling...

[Kyouryuu]

This makes me curious about what you're working on that you need Devil for...

I wouldn't read too much into it.  I'm between projects right now and am just evaluating what I might do next.