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First post, by JessicaJones

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hi

I just saved a DRO file using dosbox.

How can I play it using dosbox?

Do I need maybe a music player for this? Which one?

Jessica

MS-DOS music addict - DOSBox/AdPlug enthusiast

Reply 1 of 17, by keenmaster486

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Well there are various DRO players for DOS extant, including one that I wrote, but do you really want to have to start DOSBox to play your DRO file?

I think there are also some players for Windows. And I think there may also be a plugin for Winamp or something, I seem to remember that.

This project includes a DRO player, you might try it: http://jestarjokin.net/apps/drotrimmer/

World's foremost 486 enjoyer.

Reply 2 of 17, by darry

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JessicaJones wrote on 2020-06-21, 18:04:
hi […]
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hi

I just saved a DRO file using dosbox.

How can I play it using dosbox?

Do I need maybe a music player for this? Which one?

Jessica

Have a look at this for a list of players
.http://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php?title=DRO

AFAIK, DOSBOX does not play them back directly, though you could probably run something like Adplug in DOSBOX, if you really wanted to .

Reply 4 of 17, by JessicaJones

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keenmaster486 wrote on 2020-06-21, 18:22:

Well there are various DRO players for DOS extant, including one that I wrote, but do you really want to have to start DOSBox to play your DRO file?

I'm interested in your DOS player!

Is the executable and maybe source code (maybe one day I learn programming) available?

Can it run in windows too or can you port it to windows?

Jessica

MS-DOS music addict - DOSBox/AdPlug enthusiast

Reply 5 of 17, by darry

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JessicaJones wrote on 2020-06-21, 18:33:

Thanks! I now found foobar2000 with AdPlug plugin and working GREAT!

Foobar 2000 is my favourite all-around player . Good choice .

Reply 7 of 17, by keenmaster486

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JessicaJones wrote on 2020-06-21, 18:34:

I'm interested in your DOS player!

Well, after looking back at it (haven't worked on it in a while), I remembered that it only works with DRO version 1 files. Modern DOSBox produces DRO version 2 files, which are different (more complicated). I made this for a game I was working on so I didn't care much about supporting the latest version. So it only works with files created by DOSBox 0.72 and earlier. It does also support IMF files though, if you have any of those.

Here it is, with the source code. It's written in FreeBASIC, which by the way is a pretty good language to start with if you want to experiment with writing programs for DOS.

Filename
droplay_2019.zip
File size
74.93 KiB
Downloads
59 downloads
File license
Public domain

World's foremost 486 enjoyer.

Reply 9 of 17, by JessicaJones

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keenmaster486 wrote on 2020-06-21, 18:52:
JessicaJones wrote on 2020-06-21, 18:34:

I'm interested in your DOS player!

Well, after looking back at it (haven't worked on it in a while), I remembered that it only works with DRO version 1 files.

Thx! But for the moment I capture using latest dosbox.
Are there plans to update it to DRO version 2?

Can the code run on windows too?

For example I found QB64 (https://www.qb64.org/portal/) which can make windows program of BASIC code.

MS-DOS music addict - DOSBox/AdPlug enthusiast

Reply 10 of 17, by keenmaster486

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JessicaJones wrote on 2020-06-21, 18:57:

Are there plans to update it to DRO version 2?

Not at this time, as DRO version 2 is much more complicated and I would have to learn a lot more about how it works.

JessicaJones wrote on 2020-06-21, 18:57:

Can the code run on windows too?

Nope, the code directly accesses the OPL3 ports in DOS and relies on the presence of a real DOS-compatible sound card. In Windows it would have nothing to play the music with as any Windows player would have to emulate the OPL3 chip in software.

However, there is this little utility:

Filename
dro2to1.exe
File size
22.5 KiB
Downloads
55 downloads
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

I had forgotten about this but basically it is a Windows command line utility that converts DRO version 2 files to version 1, so you can play them with my player. That's one option you could try.

World's foremost 486 enjoyer.

Reply 12 of 17, by keenmaster486

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If you convert DRO files to IMF, you will lose any OPL3-specific things. It will only convert without loss if the original music was OPL2-only.

World's foremost 486 enjoyer.

Reply 13 of 17, by JessicaJones

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Some more questions:

How can I see in a DRO file captured using latest DOSBox it has OPL2 or OPL3 data? Maybe this is changed by choosing the sound blaster model in DOSBox setting?

Which sound blaster models give OPL2 or OPL3 ?

Or is this not how it works?

MS-DOS music addict - DOSBox/AdPlug enthusiast

Reply 14 of 17, by keenmaster486

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There is a flag in the DRO file header that specifies OPL2 or OPL3. But to be honest I am not fully convinced that it actually does anything. I believe it is indeed set by changing the Sound Blaster model in the config file.

Anything prior to Sound Blaster Pro 2 has OPL2. Anything SBPro 2 or better has OPL3. Sound Blaster Pro 1 has dual OPL2, which very few games supported and you can safely ignore.

But I would stick with the default Sound Blaster 16 and OPL3 everything anyway. The reason being, if the music itself is only OPL2, changing the Sound Blaster type won't make it sound any different or change the resulting DRO file except for that one header flag, which again I don't think that actually does anything significant.

World's foremost 486 enjoyer.

Reply 15 of 17, by JessicaJones

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For DOSBox developers:

- Is AdPlug (http://adplug.github.io/) using DOSBox OPL emulation code? Somewhere I read something like this but I want a confirmation if possible 😀

- is the captured DRO file using OPL2 or OPL3 commands according to the sound blaster model set in dosbox.conf?

- is the DRO file header indicating that the DRO file has OPL2 or OPL3 commands?

thx in advance!
Jessica

MS-DOS music addict - DOSBox/AdPlug enthusiast

Reply 16 of 17, by Qbix

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 Bit8u hardware;             /* 0x14, Bit8u Hardware Type 0=opl2,1=dual-opl2,2=opl3 */

This is specified in the dro v2 file (byte 0x14)

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How to ask questions the smart way!

Reply 17 of 17, by JessicaJones

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Is the captured DRO file using OPL2 or OPL3 commands according to the sound blaster model set in dosbox.conf or is it dependent on the game (or both)?

MS-DOS music addict - DOSBox/AdPlug enthusiast