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[Lonewolf10]

Ok folks,

I am nearing the end of development of a game and have tried to use a MED file that I created almost 10 years ago (summer 2007). I can load it in without any issues but when I try to play the music it doesn't work.
I know this because all 4 Vumeters stay at 0 (I only include this information because right now the sound card on my laptop is broken and I have no other way to verify whether the music is playing or not).

I tried the file in both MMD0 and MMD1 formats, neither work. The original file is on Aminet http://aminet.net/search?query=ADBs_junglebeat

The code I am using to is essentially:

Code: [Select]

Med Load "ram:ADBs_JungleBeat",3
Med Play 3
Do
   For CH=0 TO 3
   Print "Channel";CH;" =";Vumeter(CH);"   "
   Next CH
Loop
Does anyone know what's going on? Am I missing something?

[Mia]

  yeh it plays, the sound works but the vu's are zero.

[Lonewolf10]

yeh it plays, the sound works but the vu's are zero.

Thanks, Mia.

So either I'm missing something when testing with Vumeters or they only work with .abk files. I need to check to see if my music autoloops once finished or not. I suppose the easiest way is to open it in Octamed and get it to loop infinitely (assuming Octamed has that function somewhere).
Alternatively, since Vumeters don't work I will have to check all 4 AUDxDAT registers (assuming they can be read from), or maybe INTREQR to check when all 4 channels are not used and increment a counter. Once the counter hits a certain mark, it will play the music again.

[SamuraiCrow]

Are you using the latest MedPlayer.library?

[Lonewolf10]

Are you using the latest MedPlayer.library?

Good question...

Code: [Select]

medplayer.Library - 2.1  (AMOS Libs directory)
medplayer.Library - 5.2  (System Libs directory)
It seems that I do have a more recent version in the 'system:libs' directory and that AMOS has an older version. However, running SnoopDOS before loading AMOS and then running the Med Play  command seems to indicate that AMOS doesn't use the library!
EME (Enhanced Music Extension) DOES use the library, but as I have the demo version I get the annoying message on starting AMOS and the Med Play command can only be used once.

[Mia]

From what I can tell the vumeters are hardcoded and the medplayer.library has no access...

in the source for AMOS 1.24a there is a note on line 181 of MUSIC.s

******* Now follow a tricky thing to allow AMAL to grab the address
*   of the vumeters. AMAL will get the address of the music extension
*   BkCheck routine, look 4 bytes before, and get the address of the
*   voices volume level


but the code is slightly different in AMOS 2.0 but I would still assume the medplayer.library couldn't access it, like the Tempo command, it affects AMOS music banks. but the medplayer.library is doing it's thing out-side of AMOS.

is there a MEDtoAMOS program?


edit:
oh, your MED uses a multi octave sample...that's why Fx-Box didn't import the instrument, they are not coded yet lol, anyway...

I was going to suggest changing the fileformat to MOD, but MOD doesn't support the multi-octave sample.

And I'd love to suggest that I write the MEDtoAMOS as I have the sample import part working in already, but I won't get the time for a while so that won't help you either.

Have you got a screen grab of the game yet? maybe there is some other music that could suite it?

[Mia]

Actually dude I had a little think and - here you go, attached MOD. and .Abk

Hopefully we get a preview of the game as well? 

[Lonewolf10]

However, running SnoopDOS before loading AMOS and then running the Med Play  command seems to indicate that AMOS doesn't use the library!

I got this wrong.

After further experiments and monitoring with SnoopDOS, AMOS does use the medplayer.library! However, it is only accessed (opened) when the Med Load command is used (which is probably why Med banks aren't saved along with other bank files when saving the program).
Also, monitoring the AUDxDAT registers indicates almost no use with
version 5.2 of medplayer.Library, but alot of activity with version 2.1 of medplayer.Library

is there a MEDtoAMOS program?
Have you got a screen grab of the game yet? maybe there is some other music that could suite it?

I think I recall a mod2abk and abk2mod programs from Aminet. In this case they wouldn't be much help as you point out, but I had problems using the programs a year or so back which is why I didn't keep them.

No in-game images published yet, but I do have 2 promo images - one is available to view here:

http://www.aliensrcooluk.com/public/Images/EternalT3_Promo1.png

I know the music kinda doesn't suite the game, is a bit short and will likely get on peoples nerves quickly, but I don't want to use any of the abk music files I have stored as they have been used atleast once in other AMOS games. Unlike previous releases (including my all assembler demo - All Square by Digital Dalmatian) I really wanted a peice of music not already used by someone else.

Actually dude I had a little think and - here you go, attached MOD. and .Abk

Thanks. Will try them out.

No preview of the game, as it was planned for release last month!
All that is left to do is compress the code, create an icon for it, stick it all on an .adf disk, compress that (.lha format probably) and upload to Aminet.
Then I can relax for a few weeks before returning to an all assembler platform game I started a few years back, released a demo of in Oct 2015 and got a small mention in the news section of the Jan/Feb 2016 issue of Amiga Future!

[Hungry Horace]

I could never get Amos to 'fade' my MED files with a Volume control (despite OctaMED being my favourite tracker by miles, and the route to my degree!)   

I mostly liked the idea of loading a single MED file with multiple songs, and using that route to give different music (with the same samples admittedly) for different parts of a game.

In the end, i ended up converting my files to ProTracker (not fun when you used 128 line blocks and have to convert to 64!) and then changing the starting block and adding the right 'loop points' so that each section became self-contained.

I seem to remember someone maybe doing a wrapper for Med library also? No help with the Vumeter issue, but just a point of discussion...

[Mia]

Well, after working out how to convert I tried a couple of my MED files, they don't convert, some do some don't, the AMOS music bank doesn't have enough going on in it, it can't do it. the BPM is off, loads of missing commands, the only advantage you get is the VuMeter, but it's not the actual sound amplitude - it's the tracker value and you only get it at the start of the sound, it doesn't continue while it plays, the vumeter will report 0 all the time, and only have a value if you read it at the exact moment that the note got played.

I did a little test and setup an interrupt to catch the Vu values and do some rhythmical changes on the screen - It works, but it's pants and not following it up.

the AMOS music banks aren't even in-time, they jitter - I remembered back in the day on my A1000 experiencing out of time music and I thought that maybe running in UAE it would be cool - but it's pants still - I found that if I play with the Tempo/TPL before export from octamed I can get it a bit better, load it into SoundTracker and tweak a but - but not all the commands are there, it 's not perfect and the only advantage of having an Abk is the VuMeters, but they are pants as well, so...

[Hungry Horace]

Try converting to pro tracker rather than Amos and using Pt Play etc from ... (probably) Amcaf extension?

[Mia]

I don't use the AMCAF extension, TURBO is better lol - anyway...

thing is, I was looking deeper into the Music.s extension as I have a few ideas for a realtime sequencer, so it was good to experiment with how it works, but I have decided the best thing to do with it is remove the music interrupts and create a Sound.s extension instead - I didn't really do any 4 channel mods since SoundStudio came along - my project with amos has the benefit of not being a game so I can take liberties with the cpu and ram - it would be so cool to work out how to render out the mod - fxbox does all the resampling and mixing routines already, so it could qbase your mods - but not quite yet lol