VOGONS

Common searches


Reply 361 of 419, by C0deHunter

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

UPDATE:
I just ran AWE64 DOS based diagnose utility, and it fails at setting IRQ 5 to my card. I even moved the Adaptec to a different PCI slot, and it did not help.

UPDATE2:
I think I have isolated and fixed the issue, went into the BIOS, and under the Resources Controlled By, changed it from Auto to Manual, and under IRQ 5, changed it to Legacy ISA for my AWE64.

Upon a reboot, I no longer get the SoftMPU error message, and when I also run AWE64 DOS diagnose utility, no conflict is reported.

Attachments

  • BIOS 01.jpeg
    Filename
    BIOS 01.jpeg
    File size
    1.77 MiB
    Views
    3392 views
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception
  • BIOS 02.jpeg
    Filename
    BIOS 02.jpeg
    File size
    471.4 KiB
    Views
    3392 views
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

PIII-800E | Abit BH-6 | GeForce FX 5200 | 64MB SD-RAM PC100 | AWE64 Gold | Sound Canvas 55 MKII | SoftMPU | 16GBGB Transcend CF as C:\ and 64GB Transcend CF D:\ (Games) | OS: MS-DOS 7.1-Win98SE-WinME-Win2K Pro (multi-OS menu Using System Commander 2K)

Reply 364 of 419, by C0deHunter

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

I use SYSTEM COMMANDER 2000 to boot into multiple OS, DOS 7.1 being of them.

PIII-800E | Abit BH-6 | GeForce FX 5200 | 64MB SD-RAM PC100 | AWE64 Gold | Sound Canvas 55 MKII | SoftMPU | 16GBGB Transcend CF as C:\ and 64GB Transcend CF D:\ (Games) | OS: MS-DOS 7.1-Win98SE-WinME-Win2K Pro (multi-OS menu Using System Commander 2K)

Reply 366 of 419, by bjwil1991

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

General question. I got myself a Music Quest MIDIEngine 2Port/SE (Parallel port) yesterday and I'm wondering if it's possible to use SoftMPU with it or not really? If it's not possible, let me know.

Discord: https://discord.gg/U5dJw7x
Systems from the Compaq Portable 1 to Ryzen 9 5950X
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/retropcuser

Reply 367 of 419, by guzzard

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Hello! I'm new here, sorry if I post a question that has already been answered. I searched both Vogons and the internet but cannot find the answer.

I setup SoftMPU on my 486 and Munt on my Linux computer to emulate MT-32 with Munt through a serial cable and that works really great, no issues.

However when I tried to get General MIDI working in DOOM, Duke3D etc I had no luck. I was using JACK2 and FluidSynth on my Linux computer and it worked fine to play midi music using DOSMid, but General MIDI did not work in games.

I could not figure what was wrong, but after some searching i found that SoftMPU cannot work with DOS extenders (this would be great info to have on the SoftMPU website under troubleshooting).

So my questions are:
Will it ever be possible to use SoftMPU together with DOS extenders (with further development of SoftMPU)? Or is there some limitations making this impossible? I found no explanation anywhere as to why it's not working, just that it's not. Perhaps someone with a lot of knowledge about DOS can explain why?

Would my proposed setup without SoftMPU (see attached image, last example) work to get General MIDI working in games with DOS extenders? If this doesn't work, what would be the easiest option with new available hardware to be able to connect to JACK2 and use various soundfonts etc?

Attachments

  • midi_question.png
    Filename
    midi_question.png
    File size
    245.24 KiB
    Views
    2972 views
    File license
    Public domain
Last edited by guzzard on 2021-01-17, 08:02. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 368 of 419, by walterg74

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
guzzard wrote on 2021-01-16, 22:49:
Hello! I'm new here, sorry if I post a question that has already been answered. I searched both Vogons and the internet but cann […]
Show full quote

Hello! I'm new here, sorry if I post a question that has already been answered. I searched both Vogons and the internet but cannot find the answer.

I setup SoftMPU on my 486 and Munt on my Linux computer to emulate MT-32 with Munt through a serial cable and that works really great, no issues.

However when I tried to get General MIDI working in DOOM, Duke3D etc I had no luck. I was using JACK2 and FluidSynth on my Linux computer and it worked fine to play midi music using DOSMid, but General MIDI did not work in games.

I could not figure what was wrong, but after some searching i found that SoftMPU cannot work with DOS extenders (this would be great info to have on the SoftMPU website under troubleshooting).

So my questions are:
Will it ever be possible to use SoftMPU together with DOS extenders? Or is there some limitations making this impossible? I found no explanation anywhere as to why it's not working, just that it's not. Perhaps someone with a lot of knowledge about DOS can explain why?

Would my proposed setup without SoftMPU (see attached image) work to get General MIDI working in games with DOS extenders? If this doesn't work, what would be the easiest option with new available hardware to be able to connect to JACK2 and use various soundfonts etc?

Not really sure what you're trying, but munt emulates MT-32/CM-32L, not general MIDI

Also not sure why you would use softmpu above and not below,.although in any case the idea is for it to be useful against mt-32 line.

Reply 369 of 419, by Pierre32

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
walterg74 wrote on 2021-01-17, 00:26:

Not really sure what you're trying, but munt emulates MT-32/CM-32L, not general MIDI

Also not sure why you would use softmpu above and not below,.although in any case the idea is for it to be useful against mt-32 line.

He's using Fluidsynth, not Munt for GM. And it looks as if he's using SoftMPU for that purpose in order to use his serial port for MIDI output (and this is working, except where DOS extenders are used).

Reply 370 of 419, by walterg74

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
Pierre32 wrote on 2021-01-17, 00:32:
walterg74 wrote on 2021-01-17, 00:26:

Not really sure what you're trying, but munt emulates MT-32/CM-32L, not general MIDI

Also not sure why you would use softmpu above and not below,.although in any case the idea is for it to be useful against mt-32 line.

He's using Fluidsynth, not Munt for GM. And it looks as if he's using SoftMPU for that purpose in order to use his serial port for MIDI output (and this is working, except where DOS extenders are used).

So instead of that device he could just use a "normal" old school gameport/MIDI cable to that midi/USB cable/interface

Reply 371 of 419, by Pierre32

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Yep, as per the lower part of the diagram.

@guzzard the software on the Linux side isn't in my repertoire, but as far as sidestepping SoftMPU and using the gameport for GM, those bits of hardware are the way to go.

Reply 372 of 419, by walterg74

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
Pierre32 wrote on 2021-01-17, 01:36:

Yep, as per the lower part of the diagram.

@guzzard the software on the Linux side isn't in my repertoire, but as far as sidestepping SoftMPU and using the gameport for GM, those bits of hardware are the way to go.

Well, the lower part of the diagram has an extra device between the computer and the midi/usb cable, which he could just use the old midi cable instead...

Reply 375 of 419, by guzzard

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
Pierre32 wrote on 2021-01-17, 01:36:

Yep, as per the lower part of the diagram.

@guzzard the software on the Linux side isn't in my repertoire, but as far as sidestepping SoftMPU and using the gameport for GM, those bits of hardware are the way to go.

Thanks! Will order some parts and cables and test. Saw a nice board designed by another forum member here (Small warm up project - Gameport/MIDI box) but unfortunately don't have access to cheap pcb manufacturers (customs + vat etc make it too expensive).

Reply 377 of 419, by bjwil1991

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

I'm even looking for coding to support the LPT variant MIDI adapter (Music Quest 2Port/SE) since PCMCIA MPU-401 cards are either extinct or cost more than what I make in a week.

Discord: https://discord.gg/U5dJw7x
Systems from the Compaq Portable 1 to Ryzen 9 5950X
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/retropcuser

Reply 378 of 419, by digger

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
franky52 wrote on 2021-01-21, 21:59:

Is there any software similar to softMPU that can be used together with DOS extenders that sends midi to a serial output. It would be perfect for thin clients like the HP 5710-5720 and alike .

A while back, I floated an idea to solve a similar problem. (Sound Blaster emulation, even more challenging than SoftMPU, due to having to emulate DMA as well.)

My idea was to integrate a sound device emulator (such as SoftMPU in this case) into the DOS extender, since it typically runs at a higher privilege (ring 0) as opposed to the actual game that's running on it (typically ring 3, lowest privilege), meaning that the DOS extender should be able to intercept and redirect any attempts at hardware access by the application. So the port trapping and such would be handled inside the DOS extender.

DOS/32A would be a suitable candidate for this, since it's open source and can already be used as a drop-in replacement for the DOS/4G, DOS/4GW, DOS/4GW Professional, PMODE/W and CauseWay DOS Extenders. That means the vast majority of protected mode DOS games that have ever been released can already be patched to use DOS/32A instead.

The challenge, assuming that this idea could actually work, would be to find someone with the necessary expertise (and motivation) to dust off the DOS/32A source code and implement this functionality. The source code hasn't seen any activity in 15 years, and after having taken a peek at it, it seems quite daunting, at least to someone like me who's not an experienced 386 assembly guru.

So yeah, a variant of SoftMPU, integrated in DOS/32A, ready to be patched into protected mode games. Any people willing to explore this idea? 🙂

There's a GitHub mirror of the DOS/32A source code here: https://github.com/abbec/dos32a

Reply 379 of 419, by cyclone3d

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

If I had time... Haven't done much assembly but programming is programming.

I still have the assembly manual I printed out in college and have a number of assembly books I have purchased in the past few years.

Yamaha modified setupds and drivers
Yamaha XG repository
YMF7x4 Guide
Aopen AW744L II SB-LINK