mkarcher wrote on 2021-09-10, 16:48:

Intel 8259 datasheet wrote:

If no interrupt request is present at step 4 of either sequence (i.e., the request was too short in duration) the 8259A will issue an interrupt level 7. Both the vectoring bytes and the CAS lines will look like an interrupt level 7 was requested

Mmm 🤔, on the datasheet it says interrupt level instead of IRQ channel. If IRQ 7 is indeed dangerous then why first LPT port use it by default and the sound setup on many programs has the option to use it? This is the first time I've ever heard about this.

The main reason I know why sound cards switched to IRQ 5 was because of conflicts with the first LPT port. For example: When one was playing samples on the sound card and said LPT was connected to a printer and currently printing a document. The second LPT port was hardly used.

hello @georgel !

Im new here but registered because I would like to test out DOS32AWE.

We are a bunch of retro enthusiasts in Sweden and many have a fetish for the AEW32/64 and yea the lack of good support using GM with those cards is a bit of a pita.
We usually lan with 486, P3, Athlons etc, 90s era machines.

One of my friends made me aware of your project because we were talking about the this issue with protected mode games.

pa1983 wrote on 2021-09-14, 02:26:

Im new here but registered because I would like to test out DOS32AWE. […]
Show full quote

Im new here but registered because I would like to test out DOS32AWE.

We are a bunch of retro enthusiasts in Sweden and many have a fetish for the AEW32/64 and yea the lack of good support using GM with those cards is a bit of a pita.
We usually lan with 486, P3, Athlons etc, 90s era machines.

One of my friends made me aware of your project because we were talking about the this issue with protected mode games.

Hi!

Currently the only support for MIDI on DOS that works properly on these cards is using the MPU-401 thru the gameport or WaveBlaster (AWE32 only). I agree that AWEUTIL has to be desired in regard to MIDI emulation on DOS.

I've noticed that georgel has removed the download link for DOS32AWE.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2021-09-14, 03:16:

Hi! […]
Show full quote

pa1983 wrote on 2021-09-14, 02:26:

Im new here but registered because I would like to test out DOS32AWE. […]
Show full quote

Im new here but registered because I would like to test out DOS32AWE.

We are a bunch of retro enthusiasts in Sweden and many have a fetch for the AEW32/64 and yea the lack of good support using GM with those cards is a bit of a pita.
We usually lan with 486, P3, Athlons etc, 90s era machines.

One of my friends made me aware of your project because we where talking about the this issue with protected mode games.

Hi!

Currently the only support for MIDI on DOS that works properly on these cards is using the MPU-401 thru the gameport or WaveBlaster (AWE32 only). I agree that AWEUTIL has to be desired in regard to MIDI emulation on DOS.

I've noticed that georgel has removed the download link for DOS32AWE.

Yea was looking for the link, would like to test it out, do you have the latest version he uploaded?

pa1983 wrote on 2021-09-14, 03:25:

Yea was looking for the link, would like to test it out, do you have the latest version he uploaded?

Yes. I could send you a PM for the file.

Edit: Sent you a PM with the latest version of DOS32AWE.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2021-09-14, 03:27:

pa1983 wrote on 2021-09-14, 03:25:

Yea was looking for the link, would like to test it out, do you have the latest version he uploaded?

Yes. I could send you a PM for the file.

Edit: Sent you a PM with the latest version of DOS32AWE.

TY!
I hope the dev knows that people are looking for something like this and the little I have coded I know its not easy, I will be fallowing this because I think its a really nice project.
Lot of people are doing SB16/32/64 retro builds nowadays and yea I was a bit disappointed with my AWE64 after upgrading it t 2Mb ram to realise its basically a windows 95 card with soundfonts.

Atm the only useful thing I can run from DOS with GM emulation on is dosmidi, it supports AWE32 and the GM emulation and soundfonts do work with that when set to MPU-401 but it has the proper support.

.

georgel wrote on 2021-09-14, 18:59:

And the sound is exactly the same as with AWEUTIL.

That is only true if you use the SYNTHGM.SBK file provided by creative. As I said previously, that file is so small because it simply maps the instrument patches to existing samples in the card's ROM. If you load a real soundfont in its place, you can get much better music with AWEUTIL.

Furthermore, not all DOS extender games even have native AWE support

maxtherabbit wrote on 2021-09-14, 19:06:

georgel wrote on 2021-09-14, 18:59:

And the sound is exactly the same as with AWEUTIL.

That is only true if you use the SYNTHGM.SBK file provided by creative. As I said previously, that file is so small because it simply maps the instrument patches to existing samples in the card's ROM. If you load a real soundfont in its place, you can get much better music with AWEUTIL.

Furthermore, not all DOS extender games even have native AWE support

What you get with AWEUTIL is the same with tested games because they use AWEUTIL when AWE32 is selected in their setups. Read carefully my previous message.
Give an example of such dos extender'ed game with no AWE support but capable of outputting MIDI, please.

georgel wrote on 2021-09-14, 18:59:

Guys! When I was a teenager I was not interested in playing these games but rather in low level system programming. Therefore I am neither experienced in sound cards nor in games' setups ( I am learning now). But I found that this project does not make sense! Why ? Because it seems that these games (DUKE 3d, DOOM) support AWE32 via the DOS's real mode AWEUTIL/em themselves. Just select AWE32 in their setups for music output and it redirects the MIDI to the AWEUTIL (if it is not loaded the games don't play music). Therefore you can select your soundbanks with AWEUTIL and they will play with these soundbanks of yours. Now need to adapt the dos extender to redirect API to the AWEUTIL , the game programmers already did this into the games' code. And the sound is exactly the same as with AWEUTIL. Expecting your comments on this thought of mine...

Mind you, that the native AWE option on most games doesn't even take advantage of using custom samples into the EMU8K chip and only uses the samples that are located on the ROM.

georgel wrote on 2021-09-14, 19:17:

What you get with AWEUTIL is the same with tested games because they use AWEUTIL when AWE32 is selected in their setups.

no they don't 🤣

.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2021-09-14, 19:22:

georgel wrote on 2021-09-14, 18:59:

Guys! When I was a teenager I was not interested in playing these games but rather in low level system programming. Therefore I am neither experienced in sound cards nor in games' setups ( I am learning now). But I found that this project does not make sense! Why ? Because it seems that these games (DUKE 3d, DOOM) support AWE32 via the DOS's real mode AWEUTIL/em themselves. Just select AWE32 in their setups for music output and it redirects the MIDI to the AWEUTIL (if it is not loaded the games don't play music). Therefore you can select your soundbanks with AWEUTIL and they will play with these soundbanks of yours. Now need to adapt the dos extender to redirect API to the AWEUTIL , the game programmers already did this into the games' code. And the sound is exactly the same as with AWEUTIL. Expecting your comments on this thought of mine...

Mind you, that the native AWE option on most games doesn't even take advantage of using custom samples into the EMU8K chip and only uses the samples that are located on the ROM.

I will try this by loading different SBKs with AWEUTIL and DOOM & Duke3d and will report back soon.

georgel wrote on 2021-09-14, 19:36:

I will try this by loading different SBKs with AWEUTIL and DOOM & Duke3d and will report back soon.

I wasn't talking about using AWEUTIL...

The native AWE option doesn't even requires this to be loaded.

georgel wrote on 2021-09-14, 19:32:

maxtherabbit wrote on 2021-09-14, 19:24:

georgel wrote on 2021-09-14, 19:17:

What you get with AWEUTIL is the same with tested games because they use AWEUTIL when AWE32 is selected in their setups.

no they don't 🤣

They do because they use the very same AWEUTIL TSR loaded in your DOSes for their music playing engine when AWE32 is selected in their setups! Weren't you interested only in 286's and awkward SCSI drives for AT PC s 😀

Yes, and I remember you exhibiting this exact same belligerent know-it-all attitude in my thread where you were wrong as well

Gmlb256 wrote on 2021-09-14, 19:37:

georgel wrote on 2021-09-14, 19:36:

I will try this by loading different SBKs with AWEUTIL and DOOM & Duke3d and will report back soon.

I wasn't talking about using AWEUTIL...

The native AWE option doesn't even requires this to be loaded.

he fell for the "you have to initialize the AWE hardware with AWEUTIL /S" therefore AWEUTIL is loaded meme

.

maxtherabbit wrote on 2021-09-14, 19:45:

he fell for the "you have to initialize the AWE hardware with AWEUTIL /S" therefore AWEUTIL is loaded meme

He also thought that SoftMPU could work with AWEUTIL. 🤣

My first impression from SoftMPU (1.91) is too bad -- it is not compatible with the AWEUTIL (when loaded as TSR with /EM:xxx) - the Creative's semi-software MIDI emulator for AWE sound blasters under DOS.

How smart you are 😉 What a profound knowledge you have! 😉 I am "impressed" 😉

georgel wrote on 2021-09-14, 18:59:

.

Well if you select AWE32 it will use the ROM soundfonts.

Why people want to run General Midi on the card is so they can use the onboard RAM for custom fonts.

DOSmid supports the AWE32/64 implementation so one can use awutil /EM:GM .
The program can be started with native AWE32 support but then it uses the ROM sound fonts, but if one then starts it with General Midi it will use the soundfont you loaded when using awutil /EM:GM and the midis will sound completely different.

I haven to tested but the program should be able to load banks by it self to, its pretty well documented.

But anyway the point is that AWE32 is not General Midi and give no use for the onboard ram and soundfont you can load.

AWE32 to me sounds so bad I might as well select SB16 instead, but once you get an AWE32/64 going with a custom 2Mbyte or so soundfont, dam it sounds nice. Thats why people want General Midi to work with the AWE32/64 in DOS.

Anyway only way to right now use General Midi with DOS games is running them from windows 9x, that works and I have played Doom and Duke3D with Custom Soundfonts and you can here the difference.

The problem is that this just dont work in pure DOS environment because of the limitations in aweutil with protected mode games and memory extenders like DOS4GW.

Anyway I appreciate what your doing and support it!