badmojo wrote:

OK I've tested SoftMPU on my ESS AudioDrive (ES1868F) as requested and it doesn't seem to work. I might be doing something wrong […]
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OK I've tested SoftMPU on my ESS AudioDrive (ES1868F) as requested and it doesn't seem to work. I might be doing something wrong but it seems pretty straight forward, I type:

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1SoftMPU /SB:220 /IRQ:5 /MPU:330

And I get the error:

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1! Error: Sound Blaster not detected at port 220 IRQ 5

My MPU-401 however is detected at 330, according to the on screen message.

The Sound Blaster is detected at those settings by everything else, here's my SET BLASTER line:

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1BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T4

This is on a PIII 1GHz machine booting directly to DOS 7

I can report the same problem on my ESS1888. The card have the ability to run with IRQ 2/9, so should be a good card to use SOFTMPU with when support is added in the next version 😀

Got the Frederik Pohl's Gateway missing music to work in SoftMPU. However, as bjt said, the computer freezes after the second music concludes. Might have to look at that...

Correction: The GATEFIX program made by DOSBox Arthur ripsaw8080 makes the computer lock up, so after re-arranging the code, thanks to ripsaw8080, in the mpu401.c file made by bjt from:

1		case 0xac:	/* Request version */
2			QueueByte(MSG_MPU_ACK);
3			QueueByte(MPU401_VERSION);
4			QueueByte(MSG_MPU_ACK);
5			return;

to:

1		case 0xac:	/* Request version */
2			QueueByte(MPU401_VERSION);
3			QueueByte(MSG_MPU_ACK);
4			return;

The missing music in Frederik Pohl's Gateway is not missing any longer.

I also compiled a DOSBox-SVN for DOSBox users: DOSBox-SVN-GATE.zip

Attached is the SoftMPU version of it with the source code.

Also, how does one simply let the program send a message (ex: bjwil1991) to the MT-32? I get Exc. Checksum Error when the message was supposed to show up, but it doesn't. Other than that minor issue (not too serious), the program works extremely well.

Edit: As requested by bjt, I have changed the version to bjwil1991 (screen name on here) for less confusion.

So what's the verdict. Is this a SoftMPU issue or a sloppy Game? Wouldn't it be easier to patch the games' MIDI driver?

Attached is the SoftMPU version of it with the source code.

Please could you upload this again with a version number that makes it clear that it's a non-official release (e.g. bjwil1). Using a mainline version number will only cause confusion.

bjt wrote:

Attached is the SoftMPU version of it with the source code.

Please could you upload this again with a version number that makes it clear that it's a non-official release (e.g. bjwil1). Using a mainline version number will only cause confusion.

Sure thing.

Edit: As requested, I changed the version from an official release to a non-official release (bjwil1991).

Tested a Terratec TT1816 card with Analog Devices AD1816A chipset. Works fine and supports IRQ 9 too!

Here's what's left to be tested:

- Sound Blaster 1.0/1.5/2.0
- Pro Audio Spectrum & PAS16
- Ensoniq Soundscape (Any)
- PCI soundcards

bjt wrote:

Tested a Terratec TT1816 card with Analog Devices AD1816A chipset. Works fine and supports IRQ 9 too! […]
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Tested a Terratec TT1816 card with Analog Devices AD1816A chipset. Works fine and supports IRQ 9 too!

Here's what's left to be tested:

- Sound Blaster 1.0/1.5/2.0
- Pro Audio Spectrum & PAS16
- Ensoniq Soundscape (Any)
- PCI soundcards

I just tried my Sound Blaster 1.5 CT1320 C (With added CMS chips), and SoftMPU nor any Roland Midi games such as Day of the Tentacle would output anything to the MT-32.

By sounds of this page, the 1.0 and 1.5 definitely do not have MPU-401 compatibility. http://queststudios.com/smf/index.php?topic=1816.10;wap2

I can say that the Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold CT4540 works with SoftMPU. (Your list only has CT4390 version of AWE64 Gold listed.)

Thanks for testing Reese. The SB 1.0/1.5 will require the /SBMIDI switch to enable SoftMPU's SB-MIDI support, did you try that?

I will add the CT4540 to the compatibility list.

No, I didn't try that. Let me put the card back into the system and give it a try. I overlooked that step! 🤣

-Edit-

Okay, that changes everything! SoftMPU successfully did load.

Launched day of the Tentacle, and the music began to play just fine. (Oddly I'm not getting voices working, SoftMPU or not for this game.)

First run, during the intro it glitched and some instruments stuck... I exited the game, turned off the MT-32, turned it back on, re-launched the game, so far so good, going through the intro longer.

Thexder II and Silpheed Midi works through the MT-32 with SoftMPU on the SoundBlaster 1.5. 😀

I also want to note... that Megaman X seems to behave quite well with SoftMPU under the SoundBlaster 1.5. (Some reason this game ends up hanging the system through the AWE64 Gold, whether or not I use SoftMPU.)

Excellent news, will add the SB 1.5 to the list too 😀

Do you need a V2.00 DSP for SoftMPU to work with the Sound Blaster 1.0/1.5? I know Creative made some improvements to the MIDI interface from the 1.xx DSP.

SoftMPU uses the "normal" SB-MIDI mode rather than the UART mode, so I believe it should work on all DSP revisions.

...Back onto testing.
A swift SB Live! test run:
Unfortunately, Creative's way of emulating ISA sound cards utterly failed, whatever I tried. I suspect Ensoniq PCI cards will not either - one of the chief reasons for the buyout of Ensoniq was their legacy ISA emulation software, after all - AUDIOPCI and Live! cards have very similar DOS legacy drivers.
I tried to set the Live! to SB240 IRQ5 MPU330 first then SB220 IRQ7 MPU330 (removing the AWE32 from the system) and although SBEINIT successfully initialized and I got sound in DOS with it, and SoftMPU also initialized correctly, it could not communicate with the MT-32 at all.

Thanks for testing. Not too surprised that the Live! cards don't work. I suspect they use the same technique as SoftMPU to trap port accesses, so SoftMPU will overwrite their hooks on installation.

So far we have reports of ESS Maestro-1 PCI (ESS ES1948S) and Yamaha YMF724F PCI working with SoftMPU.

The newer version works with the Frederik Pohl's Gateway, and I'm happy with the program.

However, I'm still having problems with the NHL Hockey 95 game in MS-DOS (real hardware) whilist in DOSBox and Munt, the music plays without issues. I might as well reset my MT-32 and slow down my computer some more.

YMF724(Labway XWave 5000, pc/pci - sb-link CONNECT, mainboard - Abit Bh6) , YMF754(Labway Xwave Elite , pc/pci - sb-link CONNECT, mainboard - Abit Bh6)), YMF718(Audition32 plus) test
: sb:220 irq:9 mpu:330 (dma:1)
1.YMF724, YMF754 - pc/pci - sb-link CONNECT
1)Princess maker2 - pass
2)Curse of Enchantia - pass
3)David Wolf - pass
4)Innocent Until Caught - pass
5)Sorcerian - pass
Very nice!

2. YMF718(Audition32 plus)
1)Princess maker2 - fail(no sound)
2)Curse of Enchantia - pass
3)David Wolf - pass
4)Innocent Until Caught - pass
5)Sorcerian - pass
YMF718... Princess maker2(English ver, China ver, Korea ver) All no sound

Thanks for your feedback.

A couple more cards to add to the list:

Tested a PAS16 with SoftMPU 1.8 and it works with IRQ 2/9.
Tested a CT4540 (AWE Gold) with SoftMPU 1.8 and it works with IRQ 2/9.

I also did some basic aural tests comparing the CT4540 with SoftMPU and an intelligent MPU (Voyetra V24s) with Ecargxus demo, and the beginning of the music is missing on the CT4540. The tempo was sounding off too, but that was the case before when testing Ecargxus. This tempo variance doesn't seem to occur with commercial games (it seems most off when the 3D models start displaying in the demo). However, I never noticed the initial music missing before; thought I'd mention it...

Added PAS16 and YMF754 to the compatibility list, thanks for the feedback.

I found the Ecargxus demo had some music slowdown in the 3D sections even with a Roland MPU. Think it's down to the timing method they're using.

bjt: Never saw you update the list on your webpage: https://github.com/bjt42/softmpu/wiki/Compatible-Sound-Cards

As I reported earlier, ESS Audiodrive 1888 supports IRQ 2/9 and it works