I have a ES1887 and using it from Windows 95 I really love how it sounds. Playing the e1m3 MIDI sounds so much better then the game itself. Anyone know if it would be possible to use it from Doom?
I don't even understand how it works. Does the ESS driver contain a soundfont and it is done in software?
It isn't a SoundFont, the FM synth implementation is in hardware containing a "native" ESFM mode in addition to being OPL3-compatible. DOS games must have a specific driver that uses ESFM mode for MIDI music and DOOM isn't one of them.
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I wonder if it would be possible to intercept/translate MIDI -> ESFM?
Is it possible to have software listen on and address? I have only done userland C for Linux 😒
duboisea wrote on 2022-12-25, 02:28:I wonder if it would be possible to intercept/translate MIDI -> ESFM?
Not sure about your particular card, but with an ESS 1868F you can get General MIDI to utilize the card's native ESFM mode if you install WDM drivers. The end result is kinda weird though and Doom sounds like this (playback begins around the 7:35 mark).
On the other hand, if you're interested in games which officially support native (enhanced) ESFM see this thread.
Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2022-12-25, 06:53:duboisea wrote on 2022-12-25, 02:28:I wonder if it would be possible to intercept/translate MIDI -> ESFM?
Not sure about your particular card, but with an ESS 1868F you can get General MIDI to utilize the card's native ESFM mode if you install WDM drivers. The end result is kinda weird though and Doom sounds like this (playback begins around the 7:35 mark).
On the other hand, if you're interested in games which officially support native (enhanced) ESFM see this thread.
Arguably for ESS 1868/1869 cards the Vxd drivers provide much less buggy ESFM General Midi implementation The above linked Doom recording e.g. demonstrates the WDM driver specific Pitch Bend bug. There is no benefit of using WDM drivers as far as GM compatible ESFM is concerned. (What is more OP explicitly mentioned Win95 where a WDM driver is not an option).
@Edit:
Here is the recording of Doom's E1M1 Midi file using Vxd ESFM GM driver:
Falcosoft wrote on 2022-12-25, 10:24:Arguably for ESS 1868/1869 cards the Vxd drivers provide much less buggy ESFM General Midi implementation The above linked Doom recording e.g. demonstrates the WDM driver specific Pitch Bend bug. There is no benefit of using WDM drivers as far as GM compatible ESFM is concerned. (What is more OP explicitly mentioned Win95 where a WDM driver is not an option).
It's been a while since I last tested this, so I could be wrong, but I think I was unable to get native ESFM for General MIDI in DOS games when using VxD drivers. It worked for Windows applications of course e.g. Windows Media Player could use it just fine for playing back .mid files.
But as you say, if the original poster is using Windows 95 then WDM drivers are not available. I also don't recommend them for general use since they feel "laggy" and also disable proper FM synth support in DOS games. For the specific use case that was mentioned, they should work, albeit only under Win98 and WinME.
Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2022-12-25, 10:56:Falcosoft wrote on 2022-12-25, 10:24:Arguably for ESS 1868/1869 cards the Vxd drivers provide much less buggy ESFM General Midi implementation The above linked Doom recording e.g. demonstrates the WDM driver specific Pitch Bend bug. There is no benefit of using WDM drivers as far as GM compatible ESFM is concerned. (What is more OP explicitly mentioned Win95 where a WDM driver is not an option).
It's been a while since I last tested this, so I could be wrong, but I think I was unable to get native ESFM for General MIDI in DOS games when using VxD drivers. It worked for Windows applications of course e.g. Windows Media Player could use it just fine for playing back .mid files.
But as you say, if the original poster is using Windows 95 then WDM drivers are not available. I also don't recommend them for general use since they feel "laggy" and also disable proper FM synth support in DOS games. For the specific use case that was mentioned, they should work, albeit only under Win98 and WinME.
Yes, you are right. For DOS applications only the OPL3 compatible FM synth is available using Vxd drivers. But since WDM ESFM is so buggy there is no practical advantages of it.
As a viable alternative solution a Win9x compatible Win32 port of Doom would be a good choice (DoomLegacy 1.42 ?) with Vxd drivers.
Thanks for the tip with DoomLegacy! I was attempting to use an old version of chocolate-doom, but my hardware wasn't able to keep up.
Doom95 sounded amazing playing it last night. It is a shame I am limited to Windows only games. Really love how System Shock sounds on ESFM.
Going to see what hacks I can come up with.
You can use VDMSound to emulate an MPU-401 interface like I did here: https://youtu.be/EkJYnN8TAEI
