Gmlb256 wrote on 2021-09-14, 19:47:

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.

I thought because I am not that "short eyed" like "rabbits" and similar to think if something doesn't work I can't make it work! Of course it works and the explanation of Gmlb256 about why it doesn't was complete nonsense. FYI Re: SoftMPU project needs your help! (game & sound card testing)

georgel wrote on 2021-09-15, 21:33:

I thought because I am not that "short eyed" like "rabbits" and similar to think if something doesn't work I can't make it work! Of course it works and the explanation of Gmlb256 about why it doesn't was complete nonsense. FYI Re: SoftMPU project needs your help! (game & sound card testing)

Aren't you short on arrogance? You didn't even finish DOS32AWE and it's a great responsability to support this. Seems that you lack understanding of how the EMU8K really works at low level since I wasn't talking about port redirection, you can get some developer info for AWE cards from Lada Kopecky and Vince Vu by googling it.

BTW, I downloaded your version of SoftMPU out of curiosity and seems to works much better than DOS32AWE but you need to properly document how to use it (needs to use a separate MPU address for the virtual port) or otherwise one will get an I/O channel check error. However without proper EMM386 support you will lose a lot of users that might want to try this.

Edit: Cleaned this post from misleading conclusions around protected mode programs as I tested with a different game other than DOOM. I apologize to anyone who has read them. 😦 I'm going to give georgel the benefit of doubt. While his version of SoftMPU worked well, he must release the source code due to the GPLv2 license.

The new stable under clean DOS version 1.2 of DOS32AWE released -- download link is in the first message.

georgel wrote on 2021-09-17, 20:11:

The new stable under clean DOS version 1.2 of DOS32AWE released -- download the link is in the first message.

I'll forgive you for now georgel. Downloaded the latest version of DOS32AWE and seems to be working much better without any expanded memory manager loaded so far.

I also see that you finally removed BEFORE_A.COM. 😁 Will report later with an expanded memory manager loaded.

Tested DOS32AWE 1.2 with QEMM loaded, no issues with DOOM.

georgel wrote on 2021-09-17, 20:11:

The new stable under clean DOS version 1.2 of DOS32AWE released -- download the link is in the first message.

Very nice to see you continue this!

Im planing a YT video about it since Im working on hotting up my AWE64.

georgel wrote on 2021-09-17, 20:11:

The new stable under clean DOS version 1.2 of DOS32AWE released -- download link is in the first message.

Working much better now with v1.2. Doom and Descent runs fine with SFX enabled. For Duke Nukem 3D the synth crashed after a few minutes and just outputs static and rendering the game unplayable because of a massive slowdown. Loading the BEFORE_A.COM from the previous version before AWEUTIL.COM seems to solve this issue, just having some occasional stutter but that might have something to do with my setup. I'm still using JEMMEX.

I can't get Warcraft II working, can it have somthing to do with how the MSS driver works? Re: SoftMPU project needs your help! (game & sound card testing)

Kamerat wrote on 2021-09-20, 14:18:

Working much better now with v1.2. Doom and Descent runs fine with SFX enabled. For Duke Nukem 3D the synth crashed after a few minutes and just outputs static and rendering the game unplayable because of a massive slowdown. Loading the BEFORE_A.COM from the previous version before AWEUTIL.COM seems to solve this issue, just having some occasional stutter but that might have something to do with my setup. I'm still using JEMMEX.

Strange that you got issues with Duke Nukem 3D, I also tested that game and didn't crash within few minutes without any expanded memory manager so far. Perhaps I'm going to let that game running the demo loop for hours to make sure.

I'd suggest avoiding JEMMEX due to having several incompatibilities that aren't present with EMM386 or QEMM.

Kamerat wrote on 2021-09-20, 14:18:

I can't get Warcraft II working, can it have somthing to do with how the MSS driver works? Re: SoftMPU project needs your help! (game & sound card testing)

I could check this game too later to see how DOS32AWE fares with a game using Miles Sound System.

As is described in the main message -- NO EMMs so far. What do you need them for when running DOS extenders? Remove them and Duke 3D will be stable. Now I am going to incorporate a check and deny starting of DOS32AWE under PM monitors.

Tested Duke Nukem 3D once again with QEMM and it indeed has issues within a few minutes. 😳

Like georgel said, don't load any expanded memory manager for now.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2021-09-20, 14:53:

Kamerat wrote on 2021-09-20, 14:18:

Working much better now with v1.2. Doom and Descent runs fine with SFX enabled. For Duke Nukem 3D the synth crashed after a few minutes and just outputs static and rendering the game unplayable because of a massive slowdown. Loading the BEFORE_A.COM from the previous version before AWEUTIL.COM seems to solve this issue, just having some occasional stutter but that might have something to do with my setup. I'm still using JEMMEX.

Strange that you got issues with Duke Nukem 3D, I also tested that game and didn't crash within few minutes without any expanded memory manager so far. Perhaps I'm going to let that game running the demo loop for hours to make sure.

I'd suggest avoiding JEMMEX due to having several incompatibilities that aren't present with EMM386 or QEMM.

Sorry for not catching that. Duke Nukem 3D runs without memory managers but still needs the BEFORE_A.COM loaded so you should reintroduce it the ZIP-file.

Kamerat wrote on 2021-09-20, 14:18:

I can't get Warcraft II working, can it have somthing to do with how the MSS driver works? Re: SoftMPU project needs your help! (game & sound card testing)

I could check this game too later to see how DOS32AWE fares with a game using Miles Sound System.

It did work after removing JEMMEX, my bad.

New version 1.3 released -- get the file from the first message. This version checks for memory managers and refuses to run if such is detected.

Warcraft II crashes when loading certain levels. Orc level 2/9 and Human level 5 at least. You can use cheats to jump between levels.
Sim City 2000 crashes at the "DOS extender screen".

I'm still at v1.2, did you make any other changes the the detection of memory managers for v1.3?

Kamerat wrote on 2021-09-20, 17:41:

Warcraft II crashes when loading certain levels. Orc level 2/9 and Human level 5 at least. You can use cheats to jump between levels.
Sim City 2000 crashes at the "DOS extender screen".

I'm still at v1.2, did you make any other changes the the detection of memory managers for v1.3?

Seems likely that there may be other changes as the version jumped from 1.2 to 1.3. Otherwise it would be something like 1.2.1 if it was just adding the routine to check for expanded memory managers.

Now that you say about Warcraft II crashing on some levels, I'll try it tonight with the new version of DOS32AWE.

Well, I downloaded a version of SC2000 and it appears to crash even with the original unmodified DOS/32A V 9.1.2 Dos Extender...Obviously these problems are inherited from there. Can you make it run just for testing without sound but with the DOS/32A DOS extender? I couldn't run the game even for one time and even with its built-in DOS4G/W 1.95 DOS Extender... It reports insufficient RAM (less than 4M) while running the game's setup. Now about to test the other game.

Only the EMM check is added in V1.3.

There are some DOS games where replacing the DOS extender with DOS/32A or a recent version of DOS/4GW causes it not to work properly. One example is Need for Speed SE but that one doesn't use MIDI for music and doesn't count in this case.

I can download the demo version of SimCity 2000 to test with DOS/32A 9.1.2 and 7.35.

Could something like SoftMPU (or even Sound Blaster emulation) be integrated into DOS32A as well?

Tested with Warcraft II and it freezes the computer or crashes the game displaying a black screen with the levels Kamerat mentioned.

The demo version of SimCity 2000 that I downloaded lacks the sound configuration on the setup program and the files related to this, so I can't test this properly. 😜 The insufficient amount of RAM on the setup is quite misleading and I can run it but with no sound though.

How are you detecting the expanded memory manager? I'm using UMBPCI which isn't one and DOS32AWE 1.3 fails to run with it.

Tried with another different game called Abuse and it works fine.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2021-09-21, 02:02:

The demo version of SimCity 2000 that I downloaded lacks the sound configuration on the setup program and the files related to this, so I can't test this properly. 😜 The insufficient amount of RAM on the setup is quite misleading and I can run it but with no sound though.

How are you detecting the expanded memory manager? I'm using UMBPCI which isn't one and DOS32AWE 1.3 fails to run with it.

What error do you get with UMBPCI? Nothing specific about the EMM -- just checking if the CPU is in V86 mode upon starting.

LINK REMOVED