jaZz_KCS wrote:

How's the S2P prototype doing / performing so far? This would be a marvelous addition.

it is doing well, it sounds great (just like S2), i will have a batch produced

I've done some bugfixing on my MIDI player, and I think it's ready for a first quick-and-dirty release.
This is a version built for DOS and a DreamBlaster S2P on port 378h:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jszmkkc3ey53q6w/MIDIS2P.zip?dl=0

It works by preprocessing and optimizing the MIDI data into a custom format, which is saved to a temporary file 'out.pre'.
After preprocessing is done, it will start playing. It should be fast enough for any machine, even an 8088 at 4.77 MHz.
Press 'esc' to stop playing.

After the program exits, you can rename the 'out.pre' file so you can re-use it later.
If you start with a .mid file, eg:
MIDIS2P canyon.mid

Then it will use its preprocessor first to generate out.pre, and then play it.
If you start with a .pre file, eg:
MIDIS2P canyon.pre

Then it will assume that it is a preprocessed file, and start playing immediately. This way you don't have to wait for preprocessing everytime you want to play a song.

I think I will add an MT-32 option later, similar to what is in the custom SoftMPU code already, so you can listen to any .MID file in the DreamBlaster S2's MT-32 mode.

Oh, and it spits out a lot of messages during preprocessing, mostly for me to debug things.
One interesting one is "Very small delay detected:".
This is because the preprocessor takes into account that sending MIDI data takes a certain time. Currently I assume it can only send at 3125 bytes/sec (standard serial MIDI interface), and needs a bit of extra slack for CPU overhead as well.
MIDI files often contain data that can't physically be sent over the interface at that speed. To avoid my player from tripping over itself, it detects these 'impossibly fast' sequences of data, and groups them together to be sent at the same event.

Scali, that is great, It works well.
For the few people that don't have a Dreamblaster S2P yet,
here are some recordings, on my new 386 retro pc 'Pochacco' 🤣

DreamBlaster S2P, MIDIS2P playing DUKE-O.MID : https://youtu.be/fu6XIHOmrLw

DreamBlaster S2P with softmpu (pdr mod), play the DOS game Vikings : https://youtu.be/C2KqDRN2_CA

great stuff there dreamblaster!

Will there be a Win3.1 driver available? I guess a TSR for remapping under DOS is in planning, but what about being able to use the General MIDI capabilities under Win3.1? That would be handy for Win3.1 games.
MIDI output over S2P and sounds over speaker with PC-speaker driver, or - if you have 2 LPT ports, even CVX4.

I've never written a driver for Win3.x, but I have written a MIDI driver for Windows 10, based on MUNT.
So based on that code, it should be possible to make it output to a DreamBlaster S2P.

If someone has some example code for a MIDI driver for Win3.1, then perhaps we can get that working as well.

Here is a quick video of my MIDI player playing CANYON.MID on an 8088 at 4.77 MHz in realtime on the DreamBlaster S2P:
https://youtu.be/ZdhtBzvX0JY

The story behind how this MIDI player works is here:
https://scalibq.wordpress.com/2018/02/09/putt … other-problems/

I'm selling one factory assembled working prototype s2p for 40 euro (+ shipping), pm me if interested

Interested, PM sent 😀

that's fast!

I suspect Hard1k has some Rosneft holdings or something and this is like 0.02s profit. Dude buys everything.

Haha 😁 I wish that was true!

I've decided to release my 'SDK' for Serdaco's LPT-connected devices. It's some C headers and functions for DOS, to use the OPL2LPT and DreamBlaster S2P natively: https://www.dropbox.com/s/cikzxtk7z2uprzz/Ser … acoSDK.zip?dl=0

Scali wrote:

I've decided to release my 'SDK' for Serdaco's LPT-connected devices. It's some C headers and functions for DOS, to use the OPL2LPT and DreamBlaster S2P natively: https://www.dropbox.com/s/cikzxtk7z2uprzz/Ser … acoSDK.zip?dl=0

Wonderful !! THANKS !!! 😀 😀 😀

very nice indeed, I hope others capable of programming pick this up and make some things 😀

Yea, if anyone is doing any OPL2 or UART MIDI music, then it is trivial to add support for these devices. The way you use them is pretty much the same: write data one byte at a time to the device.
With native support, these devices are virtually as fast as regular ISA cards, and you can easily support them even on an 8088 at 4.77 MHz.

I've got the DreamBlaster S2P working on my IBM PCjr, the slowest PC ever made, and it can play MIDI music in realtime (without any help from fancy MPU-401 interfaces or anything 😀): https://youtu.be/u0wOJAWFsOQ

Hello,
the factory assembled DreamBlaster S2P boards have arrived 😀

This board can be used with a special version of softmpu : https://github.com/pdewacht/softmpu
The S2P is not yet for sale, after some more driver testing and documentation, I will add them to my shop (probably in may)
PM me if you are interested to try it earlier.

What does that red button looking thing do?