rgart wrote:

Wow.... thats awesome!

I will give it a try soon.

Are you the only person developing this software bjt or is there a couple of you?

elianda developed a version suitable for QEMM 7.03+, and I'm currently developing the program suitable for JEMM386 (FreeDOS Memory Manager)

Hi there,

this is a great project - I searched for something like this for a long time...

First of all - I`m not a gamer but a musician. Some very old software for musicians need a dedicated MPU401 with proper intelligent mode.
Most of these softwares now have modern replacements - a few not...

I am currently using an old thin client PC with a real MPU for this which is of course somewhat inconvienient. Best would be to have a virtual MPU in DOSbox which properly implements intelligent mode (which is not the case at the moment IMO) or -as you did- implement a virtual interface based on a virtual or real soundblaster (because you mentioned this would run with "Bochs").

Now what ist my point?

I cannot get it up and running in a virtual environment...(my goal)

-I tried Bochs, but only found an image with freedos, which doesn`t support EMM386
-I tried DOSbox, but DOSbox cannot write to the boot partition and so I cannot modify config.sys, load EMM386 or install QEMM there

-Bochs seems too difficult for me (mount writeable partitions, etc. - but this is my problem...)

-a proper intelligent softmpu under dosbox based on a virtual soundblaster would be very helpful for me, but then it has to support the different memory manager there (jemm?) to get it working for me

-unfortunately I think the software I`m using most seems to communicate a lot with a real MPU in intelligent mode (timers, interrupts, cpu ?)
i.e. the SW starts, seems to initialize the card (you can monitor the midi events with midiox for example) and then simply stops sending data when completely loaded, even if it seems to "play/work" afterwards visually.

-I tried a modified beta of DOSbox 0.6x? (with MIDIin support and modified intelligent mode some year ago) but this also didn`t work

Thanks a lot for your work so far - I think this is a real first.

JMe

Hi jme,

Thanks for your comments. Unfortunately the core of SoftMPU uses the MPU code from DOSBox, so it's likely you'll experience the same issues. SoftMPU is really only intended for MIDI output.

SoftMPU does work well under Bochs, but as you mentioned you'll have to install MS-DOS from a floppy disk image.

Another idea for an alternative output method... serial port output for use with modules that support it (SC-7, SC-55MKII, SC-55ST, MU5/10). Pointless or useful for laptops/machines with no MPU installed?

bjt wrote:

Another idea for an alternative output method... serial port output for use with modules that support it (SC-7, SC-55MKII, SC-55ST, MU5/10). Pointless or useful for laptops/machines with no MPU installed?

Wouldn't hurt to use a serial port as an alternative output method since laptops/desktops don't have an MPU-401 external port installed.

serial usage seems a nice and unique feature... and no need for a soundcard at all 🤣
is there any chance that softmpu could be used in the future with a real mpu in order to prevent the mt-32 buffer errors?

With the serial port you have even two more options:
1. use an external baud rate converter to get back the MIDI baud rate (an MCU with two serial ports will do, such as Renesas R8C/13)
2. pimp the serial port with an 1 or 2 MHz crystal so it can directly generate the 31250 baud of MIDI.

I may have to try making up a serial cable to test with my SC-55.

About preventing buffer overflow with an MPU, it works with sound cards so should work with an MPU also. However I don't have an MPU-401 to test with and I sold my MM401 a while back. If someone is willing to lend me an MPU card I can look at it again.

Are you sure it's not working with a real MPU? I tried Gods recently and the /DELAYSYSEX command prevented the overflows on an MT-32.

yep, I already tested softmpu , it did not work with the roland mpu... infact I had to enable the SB mpu in order for softmpu to work at all... sb was port #300 and roland #330 , ofcourse I gave 330 on the softmpu command ... it seems it's tied to the sb somehow.
Gods gave the error even with the /delaysysex command.

Well, not much I can do unless I can get my hands on an MPU-401 and investigate further. In the mean time /DELAYSYSEX does the trick with a normal soundcard.

Quick dev update...

- Got an MPU-IPC-T on the way, hopefully will be able to get to the bottom of the issues with /DELAYSYSEX on Roland cards.
- Made up a serial->host cable for my SC-55ST and tested it with gsplay's serial output support. Just need to add the code to SoftMPU
- Fixed the SB detection error with ISA-based ESS cards

bjt wrote:

Quick dev update...

- Got an MPU-IPC-T on the way, hopefully will be able to get to the bottom of the issues with /DELAYSYSEX on Roland cards.
[...]

yep, spotted that over at amibay... and a nice price as well, sure there is some cosmetic issues but who cares 🤣
can't wait to see what you come up with, maybe some sort of "softmpu lite" 😊

One nice (low priority) feature would be to print the detected DSP version of the SB compatible card on the screen. (in the non-TSR code)

elianda wrote:

print the detected DSP version of the SB compatible card on the screen

Let me know if you fancy contributing some more code 😎 Can give you git access to the WIP stream if it's easier.

works perfect on my K6 and the AWE64, thank you very much 😎

Got the Frederik Pohl's Gateway missing music to work in SoftMPU. After re-arranging the code, thanks to ripsaw8080, in the mpu401.c file made by bjt from:

1		case 0xac:	/* Request version */
2			QueueByte(MSG_MPU_ACK);
3			QueueByte(MPU401_VERSION);
4			QueueByte(MSG_MPU_ACK);
5			return;

to:

1		case 0xac:	/* Request version */
2			QueueByte(MPU401_VERSION);
3			QueueByte(MSG_MPU_ACK);
4			return;

The missing music in Frederik Pohl's Gateway is not missing any longer.

I also compiled a DOSBox-SVN for DOSBox users: DOSBox-SVN-GATE.zip

Attached is the SoftMPU version of it with the source code.

Also, how does one simply let the program send a message (ex: bjwil1991) to the MT-32? I get Exc. Checksum Error when the message was supposed to show up, but it doesn't. Other than that minor issue (not too serious), the program works extremely well.

This is a non-official release, so this is a beta test. NHL Hockey 95 still doesn't work with the program, but it works in DOSBox (the fixed version that is). I'm still wondering why it doesn't play nice. Might be a speed issue.

Edit: It would've been better to attach the file before submitting...

Edit 2: I uploaded a video about the game: Frederik Pohl's Gateway - Roland MT-32

Now that I have a Sound Blaster Vibra 16xv CT4170 Sound Card, I decided to add the /SBMIDI switch with the SoftMPU program and both Gateway I and Gateway II don't play the music, but without the /SBMIDI switch, the songs play.

Here are the list of the games I installed on ye olde DOS PC that work with and without the /SBMIDI switch (and SBMPU401 loaded or not loaded):

1A10 Tank Fighter v1.5
2Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
3Earl Weaver's Baseball II
4Dark Queen of Krynn
5DOOM
6Lemmings 2
7Secret of Monkey Island
8Police Quest I: VGA
9Police Quest II
10Police Quest III
11Star Wars TIE Fighter
12Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi
13Sid Meier's Civilization

Also, NHL Hockey 95 still doesn't work with the Roland MT-32 (rev. 0) on ye olde DOS PC, but in DOSBox with Munt installed, the game plays without issues (Munt must be using the new version of the Roland MT-32).

Edit: I used the /SBMIDI for checking to see if the Sound Blaster Vibra 16xv CT4170 card works, which does, except Gateway I and Gateway II only show the messages (GATEWAY, Gateway, Legend Entertainment, GATEWAY II: HOMEWORLD), so this sound card is 100% compatible*, whether the /SBMIDI switch is enabled or not.
*as stated before, Gateway I and Gateway II only show the messages, but don't play the songs...

Excuse me I didn't understand one situation. If we use non-SB card for transfer MIDI commands to MT-32 what kind of IRQ will be used by game when a game requires IRQ? It will be IRQ of a card connected to MT-32 or it will be IRQ of SB-card which works together for SoftMPU usability?

Thank you. Regards

Hi PARUS, it will be the IRQ of the SB card. I use the SB DSP to generate interrupts.

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?