How's my version of SoftMPU doing?

PARUS wrote:

OK. Thank you for your quick answer! I understood that I must to use base IO address of a card exactly connected to MT-32, right? And it must not be the same IO such on SB-card, right?

And if I would to use two SB compatible cards in my system must it make problems? First SB is to connect to MT-32 and use IO, second SB is to use IRQ by SoftMPU. Is this variant correct for SoftMPU usage?

Yes, this should work. I have tried this myself with an AWE64 and Yamaha YMF71x card.

Hello again! I try to make usable AWE64Gold on IRQ2/9 but I can't. I see in sound cards SoftMPU-compatible list AWE64Gold is marked as IRQ2/9-compatible. In Windows98SE there is no available IRQ2 for 64Gold but IRQ9 is. I set it and reboot in DOS-mode, then load CTCM.EXE and it shows BLASTER config with IRQ9. But then DIAGNOSE.EXE refuses and doesn't confirm this (it hasn't in its own choice IRQ9 but has IRQ2), diagnose abandon. SoftMPU with key /IRQ:9 does not detect SB-card, with key /IRQ:2 too.

What can I do? Thank you very much.

PARUS wrote:

Hello again! I try to make usable AWE64Gold on IRQ2/9 but I can't. I see in sound cards SoftMPU-compatible list AWE64Gold is marked as IRQ2/9-compatible. In Windows98SE there is no available IRQ2 for 64Gold but IRQ9 is. I set it and reboot in DOS-mode, then load CTCM.EXE and it shows BLASTER config with IRQ9. But then DIAGNOSE.EXE refuses and doesn't confirm this (it hasn't in its own choice IRQ9 but has IRQ2), diagnose abandon. SoftMPU with key /IRQ:9 does not detect SB-card, with key /IRQ:2 too.

What can I do? Thank you very much.

Did you run ctcu for DOS-mode? If this program is installed, goto C:\ctcm by typing in cd \CTCM, type in CTCU, go to menu > PnP Cards, resources, and scroll down to the IRQ and verify that IRQ is set to 9. If not, click on the IRQ, and click on 9, OK, and test to make sure everything's honkey dory. Lettuce know if there is a problem still. I tested this in MS-DOS 6.22, and I might as well test this in FreeDOS as well.

PARUS wrote:

Hello again! I try to make usable AWE64Gold on IRQ2/9 but I can't

Hi Parus, I just tested my own AWE64 Gold on IRQ 9 using SoftMPU 1.7 and it detected it fine. Was the Sound Blaster address given to SoftMPU also correct?

Hi
I'm so sorry, I'd must more attend to details. IRQ2 was occupied by ACPI. I turned it OFF and AWE64 is usable now with IRQ=2. Thank you!

As I said Creative SB16/AWE cards can't play SoundFX and Roland LA at the same time, it causes system freeze. So you can choose in game setup if it lets you digital sound by SB and midi music by MT-32 but it will not work, it's a DSPs problem. This is first.

To much compatibility with most games using MT-32 IRQ of a card working with SoftMPU must be 2(9). This is second.

An old games that were created earlier than SB16 was released are often very demanding to SB interrupt that must be for them 7 or 5. The games which created after SB16 release and which can play SFX by SB16 are usually not too much capricious and let to choose SB16 on IRQ2(9) easy. This is third.

And last. SB16/AWE cards not ideally play SB/SBpro sounds. I mean SB16-card which playing SBpro-mode not always lets us hear all sounds in game. It happens often enough. Therefore it would be preferably to have both in one system and use them separately for SB and SB16 modes. This is fourth.

I analysed these points and decided the following that I offer to your attention.
Two cards. First EWS64XL - as SBpro clone. Second AWE64Gold.
EWS64: IO=220, IRQ=7(or 5), DMA=1, MIDI1 or MIDI2=330; [WSS IO=530, DMA=0]
64Gold: IO=260, IRQ=9, D=3, H=6, P=300, E=660
Roland MT-32 is connected to EWS64.
SoftMPU is loading with keys: /SB:260 /IRQ:2 /MPU:330

"SB16-games" work perfectly with IRQ2. "SBpro-games" work perfectly with IRQ7(or 5) and all sounds are present. MT-32 is on IRQ2. System not freezes when we try to play in games SBpro/SB16 sound and MT-32 sound together at the same time.

Hi PARUS,

So you can choose in game setup if it lets you digital sound by SB and midi music by MT-32 but it will not work, it's a DSPs problem.

I have not observed this problem here. Which games does it affect?

UART mode
The 7th Guest, The 11th Hour - freeze
Prince of Persia, Mortal Kombat 1 - not freeze but don't play SB+LA. Or single SB, or single LA. Sometimes Mortal Kombat shows message "CAN'T INITIALIZE SOUND" when I try to choose option "ROLAND + SOUND BLASTER". Prince of Persia lets to choose Sound Blaster for sounds and Roland for music but in gameplay all sounds play through Roland.
Loading SoftMPU or not - does not matter, this bug is present equally with SoftMPU or without.
And: if we use non-Creative card all 4 games are working with SB+LA without problems. Four - not much? Not enough to think about Creative bug?

I have Prince of Persia here and it's working fine with SB SFX and MT-32 music through the SB's MIDI port.

What Sound Blaster 16 do you have? The early SB16s have an issue with some games whereby MPU interrupts disrupt digital sound playback. Creative released a utility called SBMPU401.EXE that disables MPU interrupts to prevent these problems. Perhaps you should try it with your SB16.

OK, I checked it on CT2230, CT2940, CT3900, CT4520, CT4390. All the same. I checked it on three computers, i440ZX+Cel433, VIA KT133+Duron1000, i865G+P-D3200. Logical question: why during GM choice all is fine?

What SB16 do you use without problems?

bjt wrote:

I have Prince of Persia here and it's working fine with SB SFX and MT-32 music through the SB's MIDI port.

Is it really sounds SB SFX? I have "SFX" through Roland always if choose music MT-32.

I also checked on YMF718, AV310 and EWS64XL. All these cards let play SB SFX with Roland music together unlike Creative SB16 cards.

AWE64 Gold CT4390, Prince of Persia version 1.4. With this version I have to use the MPU-401 driver that comes with Prince of Persia 2 as it's not available in the sound setup otherwise.

I didn't look Prince version, sorry. I can say only following: MT-32 works great, SB works great! When I choose both only Roland makes all sounds in Prince of Persia.

Bjt i have one question.

Up until today i've been using 3 ISA sound cards in my system. A GUS, a CT1600 and a YMF719 card. Since i have my SB Pro 2 always at: A220 I5 D1, i exploited the YMF to be at A240 I9 D3 P330. Because the YMF always sets the same IRQ for both MPU-401 and the Sound Blaster part i'm using the YMF exclusively for SoftMPU. So i set SoftMPU at SB:240 IRQ:9 MPU:330.
SoftMPU detects both MPU and Sound Blaster parts great and the YMF puts the mask of a Roland MPU-401AT and drives the games perfectly!

But today i decided to try something else. I wanted to regain the ISA slot the YMF card is taking so i picked up the YMF-724 PCI card i have and i started setting it up. In contrast to the ISA YMF card, the PCI YMF software is awesome and allows to disable certain parts of the card. So i set the YMF PCI like this: A240 IRQ:9 DMA: Disabled MPU:330 and MPU IRQ:9.
So i fire SoftMPU up and it detects MPU fine, but the SB part fails. I tried to set the SB IRQ to 10 and later to 11 and it still fails. So either the SB part of the YMF PCI is not working OK (which in games actually work) or SoftMPU doesn't like the YMF PCI card the way i'm setting it up.

I still can make it work, by using the CT1600, but then i have to use IRQ5. So i'm a little bit confused. Will the games that require IRQ9 will be looking at the MPU IRQ (which on the PCI card is set to 9) or will the games look at the IRQ of the card that's creating the interrupts via DSP (CT1600 at IRQ5)?

Hi carlostex, SoftMPU uses the SB DSP to generate the interrupts. Any setting your sound card has for MPU IRQ will be ignored, and the games will see interrupts on the SB IRQ.

It should be possible to get the YMF724 working. j^aws over on the testing thread reported some success:

j^aws wrote:

By chance, I had an old version of SoftMPU V1.3 already installed, and tried again with a PCI Yamaha 724-F sound card connected […]
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By chance, I had an old version of SoftMPU V1.3 already installed, and tried again with a PCI Yamaha 724-F sound card connected via a SB-Link cable, and it worked!

I used a different IRQ Mode to setup the card this time around - instead of S-IRQ Mode, used INTA# Mode. Tested on:

Motherboard: Via MVP3 chipset
CPU: AMD K6-3 450 MHz
GPU: S3 Virge GX2
MIDI: Roland CM-64

Worked great running Might and Magic 3 with SoftMPU settings of 220, 5 and 330. Also tried the demo Ecargxus, which requires a MIDI IRQ, and that ran fine too! Used SoftMPU settings of 220, 9, 330 with the IRQ 2/9 trick (chose IRQ 2 when prompted by the demo).

Cheers bjt - much appreciated.

EDIT: One thing to bear in mind that worked for this card was to run DSDMA after running Setupds /s , then finally run SoftMPU.

I have also changed the SB detection code to be a little less strict in the next version of SoftMPU, this was required to get ESS ISA cards working. It would be worth giving it another go when the new version's available.

Thanks for the heads up bjt. I'll be waiting for the next version.

New version is out now! Please see the first post.

Some of the new features deserve some further detail:

Serial MIDI Output

SoftMPU can now output MIDI data to a serial port instead of a MPU-401 interface. This is a fun little feature I chucked in to test my SC-55ST's PC input port, it could also be used for:

- Laptops without any sound card
- PCs with Sound Blaster Pro 2 or earlier that want both digital sound and MIDI at the same time
- Serial link to another PC running MUNT or recording the MIDI stream

I'm aware of the following modules with a compatible PC input port:

Roland: SC-7, SC-55mkII, SC-55ST, SC-88 and above
Yamaha: TG100, TG300, MU-series and above

You could also use a serial to MIDI converter of some kind and connect an MT-32 😀

Improved Performance

The 'expensive' parts of SoftMPU are now only switched on if either a game requires them (any game that needs MPU interrupts) or if /DELAYSYSEX is used. So (for example) Wing Commander on a 386 should show a lot less slowdown than with previous versions.

keropi wrote:

Gods gave the error even with the /delaysysex command.

Just to revisit this, Gods no longer gives buffer overruns with a Roland MPU & Rev.0 MT-32, using SoftMPU 1.8 and /DELAYSYSEX.

bjt wrote:

keropi wrote:

Gods gave the error even with the /delaysysex command.

Just to revisit this, Gods no longer gives buffer overruns with a Roland MPU & Rev.0 MT-32, using SoftMPU 1.8 and /DELAYSYSEX.

yep, it works great now! thanks!