OK. So SoftMPU always gets all messages from the games? I was not aware of it.

Yep, it receives all messages and passes them on to the hardware.

It might be possible to send extra note off commands defensively though, in anticipation of the hardware sending extra unwanted note ons?

I think there's a post somewhere with an analysis of the MIDI output caused by the hanging note bug, will try to find it.

I think this is the thread in question. You should consult with Cloudschatze 😀

SB16 vs DBs (hanging / stuck / wrong notes in MIDI)

Thanks for that. In the case that Cloudschatze observed, the spurious notes used the velocity from the previous note on request. Of course, this may not be the only failure mode...

So perhaps this is worth a try?

- SoftMPU keeps track of the on/off status of all notes (1 bit x 128 notes x 16 channels = 256 bytes)
- For each note on request, use the velocity as a note index and check if that note is already on
- If it's not on, send a note off request, just in case the hardware generates a spurious note on

Another strategy might just be to insert a delay between commands to try to avoid provoking the problem in the first place.

I don't know how complicated this will be, but reading from MIDI In and compare it to what should have sended would also be an option.
You just have to add a MIDI cable back from MIDI OUT/THROUGH of an external device or just a loopback cable in case of a MIDI daugherboard.

bjt wrote:

Another strategy might just be to insert a delay between commands to try to avoid provoking the problem in the first place.

As far as I know the hanging notes bugs only have been observed if digital sound and MIDI messages are processed together by the DSP. So a delay may prevent some buffer overflow ...

It's a non-starter, unfortunately - the port trapping stuff doesn't work for apps that run under a DOS extender.

What is SoftMPU 1.5 on ebay? What is its difference with other versions?

It says in the description.

The only change in 1.5 at the moment is Roland RA-50 support. Will probably release it next weekend if nothing else comes up.

The eBay auction is just another way to get the word out to people looking for an MPU-401.

Bump - new release, see first post for details.

thanks again! bjt!

Would you be willing to write a TSR to fix the buffer overrun issue and hanging now bug for those of us who already have an intelligent mode MPU-401?

Thanks.

Nothing to stop you running SoftMPU on an intelligent-mode interface - it'll just take over. I tested it on a MIDIMAN MM-401 recently. This does require a SB-compatible in the same machine though.

Bump - new release, see first post for details.

Added support for the 2nd most popular DOS memory manager at such short notice...? I missed the preceeding drumbeat somehow 😀
btw you can add Mediavision Jazz 16 to the list of compatible cards. IRQ 2/9 is supported by default. Laser Squad runs without a glitch.

Jolaes76 wrote:

Added support for the 2nd most popular DOS memory manager at such short notice...? I missed the preceeding drumbeat somehow 😀

Well, the drumming was coming from elianda:
drumbeat: Re: SoftMPU project needs your help! (game & sound card testing)
drumbeat: Re: SoftMPU project needs your help! (game & sound card testing)
drumbeat: Re: SoftMPU project needs your help! (game & sound card testing)
drumbeat: Re: SoftMPU project needs your help! (game & sound card testing)

All in the other thread. 😉

aah that figures 😀

Yeah well, my original patch was just a raw unpolished implementation for QEMM and bjt did a great job putting everything together.
The main changes are
- memory manager detection
- get the different code paths working, especially since EMM386s API uses protected mode and QEMMs API uses Virtual 8086 mode. But the main routines run the same code for both modes.

The main drawback is the nearly non-existent documentation, so we have to check the exact behavior for each API call.
One thing f.e. in question is, if the QEMMs port trap are also in effect when using a dos extender. (EMM doesn't work there)

bjt wrote:

Bump - new release, see first post for details.

thanks again bjt!

SoftMPU is god.