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First post, by Mystery

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Hi,

I'm currently trying to get Hi-Octane to work with General MIDI.

I've tested several music configurations and they all work perfectly.
SB16
AWE32
Gravis Ultrasound

However, when I select General MIDI, it works in the intro, both on the external devices like the SC-55 or TG-100 and on internal cards like the DB50XG/XR385. But the system freezes when the title screen comes up.

This only happens with General MIDI selected and only in this game. All other titles work fine with General MIDI, both in DOS and Windows.

Any ideas? Or is it a known issue with this game? Are there any patches or workarounds for this? Or is the AWE32 music my best option?

::42::

Reply 2 of 13, by ripsaw8080

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There is a bug in the main executable causing it to react badly to the relatively small size of the MPU401.MDI driver. A low-tech fix is to pad the driver with zero bytes so it's as large as the other MIDI drivers. I've attached an archive with the padded driver for convenience; it avoids the bug when running the game in DOSBox, and I think it's likely to be effective on real DOS systems as well.

The original release of the game runs off the CD, and in order to use a modified driver you'll need to install the game on your HD with its patch available from the Patches Scrolls site. It's probably a good idea to run the patched version regardless of the driver problem. The patch is in two floppy-sized archives; extract both into a directory on your HD and from that directory run "INSTALL C:\HIOCTANE" (C:\HIOCTANE is an example, you can install to any drive and directory you want). When the patch installer asks if you want to copy the intro movie you should respond "Yes" if you want the intro because the patched game won't run the movie off the CD. When you have the patched game installed on HD, replace the original MPU401.MDI file in the SOUND subdirectory with the padded one.

Attachments

  • Filename
    hio_mpu401.zip
    File size
    872 Bytes
    Downloads
    646 downloads
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 7 of 13, by tikalat

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Did some research. No MIDI sfx. MUSIC.DAT = 4 soundtracks, 5 tracks each.

FM = *.XMI
- MUSIC.DAT - XMIDI #1-5
- little reverb, chorus usage

MPU401 (General MIDI)
- MUSIC.DAT - XMIDI #6-10

- TGAME1.GEN
chorus max = ch2-4
chorus med = ch6
reverb max = ch2,3 (on/off)
reverb med = ch6
reverb off = ch2,3,10

- TGAME2.GEN
chorus hig = ch4
reverb max = ch5
reverb low = ch4
reverb off = ch2,8,10

- TGAME4.GEN
reverb off = ch7

- TINTRO2.GEN
reverb off = ch2,3,4,5,7

- TGAME3.GEN
chorus max = ch2-4,6-9
chorus med = ch5
reverb max = ch9

AWE32
- MUSIC.DAT - XMIDI #11-15
- Creative SF = BULLFROG.SBK (some custom patches?)

- TGAME1.WTB
chorus max = ch2,3
reverb max = ch2,3 (on/off)
reverb off = ch2,3,4,8

- TGAME2.WTB
chorus hig = ch4
reverb max = ch3 (on/off)
reverb off = ch2,4

- TGAME4.WTB
reverb low = ch6
reverb off = ch7

- TINTRO2.WTB
reverb med = ch6
reverb off = ch2-5,7-9

- TGAME3.WTB
chorus max = ch2-4,6-9
chorus med = ch5
reverb max = ch9

*.ROL
- little reverb, chorus usage
- MUSIC.DAT - XMIDI #16-20

The GM vs AWE32 tracks look awfully similar but I don't know how different they actually sound.

Reply 9 of 13, by vetz

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Midi songs to Hi-Octane are also available here:
http://www.mirsoft.info/gmb/music_info.php?id_ele=MTg3NQ==

3D Accelerated Games List (Proprietary APIs - No 3DFX/Direct3D)
3D Acceleration Comparison Episodes

Reply 10 of 13, by tikalat

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Stefan_L wrote:

tikalat how did you extract the music files with original file names? 😀
Could you please attach them in you next post?

Hex editor. Go to end. Names show up. Dump last 5 XDIRINFO before that. Another soundtrack. Repeat.

Or use this tool. 😉

Attachments

  • Filename
    midi_dump.7z
    File size
    40.52 KiB
    Downloads
    182 downloads
    File comment
    Hi-Octane - MIDI dumper
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 12 of 13, by tikalat

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Just realized this - game has MIDI + FM panpot soundtracks.

Off-topic a bit:
For FM stereo support, one needs either
- Sound Blaster Pro 1
- Pro Audio Spectrum 16
- ???

I'm a bit sad I missed out on stereo FM. Maybe I need to make a list of these types of games.

Reply 13 of 13, by Great Hierophant

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tikalat wrote:

I'm a bit sad I missed out on stereo FM. Maybe I need to make a list of these types of games.

I already have : http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2012/04/u … me-support.html

http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/ - Nerdly Pleasures - My Retro Gaming, Computing & Tech Blog