Could it be the file name? Just throwing in an idea.

konc wrote on 2022-07-19, 17:23:

Could it be the file name? Just throwing in an idea.

Just renamed one to something very simple and short, and still no go.

If it is an Opti card it's Sound Blaster Pro and WSS compatible. What does your SET BLASTER look like?

eesz34 wrote on 2022-07-19, 17:15:

I'm trying out a SB16 compatible soundcard with MPXPLAY and getting stuck. It's a Pentium and it's an OPTi card.

Here's how I use MPXPLAY on my OPTi 82C930:

1MPXPLAY.EXE -scvom 100

For me, this initializes the card in WSS mode (shown in the upper right corner) and plays MP3 files perfectly. You may need to set your OPTi card to WSS mode beforehand using its SNDINIT.EXE driver utility. You may also need to add something like this to your AUTOEXEC.BAT:

1SET ULTRA16=530,1,7,0

Adjust these parameters according to what resources you have assigned to the card's WSS mode. In my case, it's port 530, IRQ 7 and DMA 1. The zero at the end is recording DMA, if I remember correctly.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2022-07-19, 17:53:

Here's how I use MPXPLAY on my OPTi 82C930: […]
Show full quote

eesz34 wrote on 2022-07-19, 17:15:

I'm trying out a SB16 compatible soundcard with MPXPLAY and getting stuck. It's a Pentium and it's an OPTi card.

Here's how I use MPXPLAY on my OPTi 82C930:

Copy code to clipboard

1MPXPLAY.EXE -scvom 100

For me, this initializes the card in WSS mode (shown in the upper right corner) and plays MP3 files perfectly. You may need to set your OPTi card to WSS mode beforehand using its SNDINIT.EXE driver utility. You may also need to add something like this to your AUTOEXEC.BAT:

Copy code to clipboard

1SET ULTRA16=530,1,7,0

Adjust these parameters according to what resources you have assigned to the card's WSS mode. In my case, it's port 530, IRQ 7 and DMA 1. The zero at the end is recording DMA, if I remember correctly.

OPTI_WSS.jpg

MPXPLAY_WSS.jpg

It won't even play in test mode, so this must have nothing to do with the soundcard. I only have 8MB RAM in this right now, could that be it?

eesz34 wrote on 2022-07-19, 18:25:

I only have 8MB RAM in this right now, could that be it?

It's possible.

Honestly, I'm not sure what the system requirements for MPXPLAY are. Maybe it's listed in the program documentation. For reference, I have 64 MB RAM on the Pentium MMX rig which houses my OPTi card.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2022-07-19, 18:31:

eesz34 wrote on 2022-07-19, 18:25:

I only have 8MB RAM in this right now, could that be it?

It's possible.

Honestly, I'm not sure what the system requirements for MPXPLAY are. Maybe it's listed in the program documentation. For reference, I have 64 MB RAM on the Pentium MMX rig which houses my OPTi card.

Just got more RAM, and that was it. I could immediately see that it displayed the entire ID3 information for each file which it didn't before, and test mode functioned.

Otherwise, SET ULTRA16= to the correct parameters made it produce sound. For the record, mpxplay -sct doesn't do a good job of detecting the correct IRQ and DMA channel. Mine showed 530,0,0,0 which is clearly wrong. Once I set that manually with the SET statement, it immediately worked.

eesz34 wrote on 2022-07-22, 19:05:

Otherwise, SET ULTRA16= to the correct parameters made it produce sound. For the record, mpxplay -sct doesn't do a good job of detecting the correct IRQ and DMA channel. Mine showed 530,0,0,0 which is clearly wrong. Once I set that manually with the SET statement, it immediately worked.

Cheers! Glad it worked for you as well.

I'm not sure where I read about the ULTRA16 variable being needed for running MPXPLAY in WSS mode, but it certainly solves the detection problems. I think that variable was originally used by one of the GUS cards (for its own WSS mode) but it works with other WSS compatible devices as well.

You've probably noticed the improved audio clarity when MPXPLAY is running in WSS mode compared to SBPro. This applies to some later DOS games as well (e.g. Descent, Tomb Raider and Red Alert). In general, whenever a game offers WSS in setup (Windows Sound System sometimes also called Microsoft Sound System), it's better to use that option instead of SBPro on an OPTi card.