DOSBox Staging 0.84.0-alpha

[!WARNING] These are the automatically generated release notes of the latest development snapshot builds! This is not a stable release; things might blow up! 💣 🔥 💀

You can download the latest development builds from here: https://www.dosbox-staging.org/releases/development-builds/

Full PR list of game compatibility improvements

• Fix Frontier: First Encounters crash on non-x86 platforms (#4892)
• Improve PC speaker impulse model (#4906)

Full PR list of graphics-related changes

• Add 'vesa_custom_resolution' setting (#4985)
• Add wrap_modeN shader pragma (#4901)
• Clear BIOS cursor type in EGA/VGA graphics modes (#4959) [backport]
• Deinterlacer & image capture fixes (#4969) [backport]
• Externalise hardcoded cga_colors palettes (#4976)
• Fix auto integer scaling (#4902) [backport]
• Only lock/unlock SDL surface when it is not already in that state (#4970) [backport]
• Save window size & position on mapper exit (#4967)

Full PR list of sound-related changes

• Improve PC speaker impulse model (#4906)
• Post SDL3 mixer cleanup and bugfixes (#4973)
• Reduce GUS frame processing overhead (#4956)
• Remove stray OPL3_ProcessSlotMaybeInline (#4918)
• Replace Nuked-OPL3 with Nuked-OPL3-fast (#4910)
• Send samples to Mixer::AddSamples in batches (#4916)
• Update Nuked-OPL3-fast to v1.8-fast.3 (#4981)

Full PR list of DOS integration related changes

• Add CHCP to allow changing only the codepage. (#4997)
• Add recognition of multiple floppy extensions and recognition as floppy images based on disk geometry (#4882)
• Convert filenames to UTF-8 on host and Codepage 437 in DOS (#4966) [backport]
• Default MediaId to HardDisk like in original codebase (#4932) [backport]
• Fix CPU slice dependent DOS file I/O delay (0.81.0 regression) (#4991) [backport]
• Implement DOS STACKS-type feature for keyboard and timer interrupts (#4855)

Full PR list of localisation-related changes

• docs: Add German translations for newly-added CHCP/KEYB changes. (#5001)
• Update French translation strings and typo fixes (#4875) [backport]
• Update german (de) translation (#4934) [backport]

Full PR list of documentation-related changes

• Add Claude Code rules for C++ style, docs style, and commits (#4887)
• Add policy about the use of generative AI tools (#4914)
• Automatic documentation preview deploys (#4895)
• docs: Add section about Windows command line jank (#4975) [backport]
• Finalise CMake build instructions (#4989)

Full PR list of project maintenance related changes

• Add option to run the tests with the compile commits script (#4938)
• Add zed directory to gitignore (#4968)
• Address all PVS Studio warnings (#4890)
• Build system fixes & improvements (#4868)
• build: Only require MT32 Package when OPT_MT32EMU is actually enabled (#4940) [backport]
• Bump vcpkg baseline & fix failing CI actions (#5005)
• ci: Bump Windows runner to VS2026 (#4757)
• Clean up platform-specific code compilation (#4899)
• Enable Xcode 26 compilation caching for macOS CMake presets (#4912)
• Fix GCC 16 compiler warning (#4917)
• Fix VS2022 presets (#4889)
• Improve Windows portable ZIP repackager script (#4873)
• Kill the Meson build system with fire 🔥🔥🔥 (#4903)
• Move ZMBV from src/libs to the main source tree (#4896)
• Run unit tests in parallel on CI (#4874)
• Statically link Windows exe & system deps support fixes (#4867)
• Update vcpkg baseline and remove libsystemd custom port (#4928)
• Upgrade to C++23 and fix compatibility issues (#4891)

Full PR list of miscellaneous enhancements

• Allow shutdown via POST /api/v1/dosbox/shutdown (#4842)
• Implement the pause feature properly (#4957)

Full PR list of miscellaneous fixes

• Improve disk noise and disk speed settings log output (#4880) [backport]

Full PR list of other changes

• Change default webserver port from 8080 to 8086 (#4881) [backport]
• External dependency caching for the CI actions (#4909)
• Fix Frontier: First Encounters crash on non-x86 platforms (#4892)
• Fix linux.yml (#4924)
• Migrate to SDL3 (#4714)
• Retry MkDocs build and git pushes via retry action (#4950)
• Update macOS runner to macos-26 (#4919)
• Upgrade Linux CI runner image & minimum compiler versions (#4913)

Commit authors