VGL_LABS cockpit test suite as pod-launch 'test' mode The WC hang, root-caused in three layers (each necessary): 1. WC was rendered-samples + 100ms-capped interpolation; AWEUTIL's poll storm (~550k port-ops/s) starved the render thread of awe_lock, so the clock crawled ~90x slow. Fixed: free-running host-clock derivation + a fairness gate so the render thread can always take the lock. 2. Free-running at true 44.1kHz still failed: trapped port reads cost ~30us -- MORE than one 22.7us tick -- so consecutive reads skipped counter values, and AWEUTIL's WaitUntilWC (decoded at COM offset 0x5F42) exits only on EQUALITY with a target tick: skipped value = missed target = 1.49s wrap penalty, or forever. 3. Advancing +1 per read still failed: WaitUntilWC reads WC TWICE per iteration, so its equality sample saw only every 2nd value -- wrong parity = infinite loop. Final semantics: during a poll storm the counter advances once per FOUR reads (every value observable by all of AWEUTIL's loop shapes; its 8192-unchanged-reads dead-clock bailout never trips), and resyncs to true wall time after any 50ms idle gap. Result: the full stock TEST.BAT (DIAGNOSE + AWEUTIL /S on both cards) completes in seconds. Also: pod-launch 'test' mode -> vwetest.conf (stock TEST.BAT -> TSTALL), DOSBox window defaults to 900,600 in test mode (the DOS screen is the suite's UI), VWE_AWE_LOG gains storm bursts with guest cs:ip + caller and rare-read tracing (the instrumentation that cracked this). Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
VPX + AWE32 devices — DOSBox-X integration
Our original source for the emulated pod hardware. Kept here under
version control because the DOSBox-X source tree itself
(emulator/src/, ~490 MB) is git-ignored.
vpxlog.cpp— the Division VPX link adapter (INMOS C012 at I/O base0x150), grown through Phase 3: iserver handshake responder, FIFO scene decode, GL Division renderer (gallery shading model), VDB video-head splitter windows.vweawe.cpp— the dual-AWE32 sound device: two vendored EMU8000 cores at 0x620/0x640 (+0x400/+0x800 triplets), rear-card DSP/mixer stub at 0x240, autonomous render thread with direct winmm output. Needs the GM ROM (emulator/roms/awe32.raw) viaVWE_AWE_ROMor SoundFont uploads are refused (banks declareirom=1MGM). Seeemulator/SOUND-NOTES.md.emu8k.cpp/emu8k.h/emu8k_shim.h— EMU8000 wavetable core vendored from 86Box (GPL-2.0-or-later, same license as DOSBox-X), with a minimal shim; local changes are listed in the emu8k.cpp header.serialnamedpipe.cpp/serialnamedpipe.h—serial<n>=namedpipe pipe:<name>backend (2026-07-12): serial-over-named-pipe for vRIO/vPLASMA, replacing com0com. DOSBox is the pipe CLIENT with 500ms background retry; typed frames carry data (0x00 len bytes) and DTR/RTS line state (0x01 bits); the full wire contract is in the header comment (pinned with the vRIO session). Supports the directserialrxpollus/rxburst/rxdelaylow-latency knobs. Smoke-tested end-to-end 2026-07-12.
Applying to a DOSBox-X source checkout
Tested against DOSBox-X v2026.06.02, MSYS2 mingw64.
- Copy the devices in:
cp emulator/vpx-device/vpxlog.cpp emulator/src/src/hardware/ cp emulator/vpx-device/emu8k.cpp emulator/src/src/hardware/ cp emulator/vpx-device/emu8k.h emulator/src/src/hardware/ cp emulator/vpx-device/emu8k_shim.h emulator/src/src/hardware/ cp emulator/vpx-device/vweawe.cpp emulator/src/src/hardware/ - Add them to the hardware build — in
src/src/hardware/Makefile.am, appendvpxlog.cpp emu8k.cpp vweawe.cpptolibhardware_a_SOURCES(we inserted them afterglide.cpp; if you edit the generatedMakefile/Makefile.inby hand instead of re-running automake, also mirror the$(OBJEXT)list, the.Podepfile list, and the depfile include markers — grep for howvpxlogappears and copy the pattern). - Call the inits — in
src/src/gui/sdlmain.cpp, declarevoid VPXLOG_Init();andvoid VWEAWE_Init();next to the other*_Init()prototypes; callVPXLOG_Init();right afterGLIDE_Init();andVWEAWE_Init();right afterSBLASTER_Init();(it needs the mixer initialized). 3b. The namedpipe serial backend:plus four small stock edits:cp emulator/vpx-device/serialnamedpipe.cpp emulator/src/src/hardware/serialport/ cp emulator/vpx-device/serialnamedpipe.h emulator/src/src/hardware/serialport/src/src/hardware/serialport/Makefile.am: appendserialnamedpipe.cpp serialnamedpipe.htolibserial_a_SOURCES(same generated-Makefile caveat as step 2).src/include/serialport.h: addSERIAL_TYPE_NAMED_PIPEtoSerialTypesEunder#if defined(WIN32)(beforeSERIAL_TYPE_DIRECT_SERIAL).src/src/hardware/serialport/serialport.cpp:#include "serialnamedpipe.h"; add thetype=="namedpipe"case to BOTH dispatch switches (SERIALPORTS ctor + the SERIAL command) and"namedpipe"to theserialTypes[]string table — grep for how"file"appears and copy the pattern.src/src/dosbox.cpp: add"namedpipe"to theserials[]allowed-values list (without this the config parser silently falls back todummy).
- Build:
Output:
cd emulator/src ./build-mingw-sdl2 --enable-debug=heavysrc/src/dosbox-x.exe.
Running
set VPXLOG=C:\VWE\TeslaRel410\emulator\vpxlog.txt
emulator\src\src\dosbox-x.exe -conf emulator\capture.conf
python emulator\analyze_capture.py
With VPXLOG unset the device is inert and the build behaves like stock
DOSBox-X.