Basic Questions & Answers thread

mid2xm and a MIDI editor of your choice can make the pain all dissapear... except it's not a drug of any kind!

 

That worked great, but I still have a problem, and this time I don't now where it is.

Here's what I basically did, from the ground up.


Got an 8bit mono, 11kHZ PCM wav, plunked it into jman's compressor as so:

Code (Text):

1. 81.wav
2. Size: 3962 bytes

Here's the batch from jman's compressor:

Code (Text):

1. s1sndcomp.exe -c 81.wav 3962 dac2d.bin

It plunks out a .bin file that is 1981 bytes.

I replace S2's existing dac2d.bin

Code (Text):

1.         dc.l    $A00208, DAC2   ; Snare
2.         dc.w    $3DE
3.         dc.b    $6,0            ; Pitch, Originally 4

Change the second line to that, build, and get a distorted scratch. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

 

I haven't used this replacement sound driver, but I get the feeling that you aren't supposed to compress DAC samples.

 

All DAC Samples are compressed using jman's driver.


http://info.sonicretro.org/SCHG:Music_Hack...dio_Compression

 

Err...*facepalm*


Then how do I get my 8 bit PCM wave files into bin to insert into the driver? :S


Edit: Disregard. I'm so awesome I found a way :D

 

To help you figure this out yourself, download, if you haven't already, Gens KMod and DebuGens. With Kmod you can see VRAM in real time which is very nice. Anyway, what I do is watch the VRAM in Kmod to make sure a spot is always empty in the level(s) you want, and use DebuGens to Dump VRAM in a .bin file. (You can dump VRAM in KMod but it is always screwed up looking). Use SonMapEd to open the VRAM file and at the bottom you can click on a tile and go to View->Info.. and it should tell you the location of that tile in VRAM. Hope that helps.

By the way I am usually really bad at explaining things. If someone understands what I am talking about help me out please.
Also, if you get the idea, you can shuffle stuff around in VRAM and MAKE room for something...

 

Or you could just go Debug -> VDP and use +/-/* on the numpad to scroll through the tiles or change palette line. You can easily find out the address from there - just take the number to the left of the row and add $20 * the index of the tile in the row.

 

I've tried that already but I can't figure out how the hell it works... Everytime I convert a MIDI to a XM and open it in MPT and I get a XM with 2 channels and no note patterns... -_-'

Am I doing something wrong? Apperently yes... ^^'

 

Quick question:

I have accumulated a considerable amount of MIDIs of various games (Megaman, WWE No Mercy, Donkey Kong Country 2, among others). Could it be possible to port those midis into an audio format suitable for Sonic games?

Also, Instead of using s2mp3, is it possible to replace in-game music with mp3s or wav files?

And is there an app made for the sole purpose of adding custom screens to roms, like the Sonic Retro title screen?

 

It's less looking for the location of a particular tile but looking for an address that isn't being used at all that can be used for an object that has had it's original address overwritten after modifying other objects. Will these methods still work in that manner?

 

Technically you can't get mp3's to work in a rom,(unless you use s2mp3 for sonic 2 of course) If you want midi's in sonic 1, you will need to convert them to xm, I use mod plug tracker for this. And then use xm3smps or xm4smps to convert to smps suitable for sonic 1. If its sonic 2, then use sonic QX. As for an app for splash screens, no I don't think so..although there is imagenesis which creates art,maps, and palette. You have to do the codng in order for it to show up though.

 

XMs converted by ModPlug Tracker can fuck up, it's better using a program such as mid2xm most of the time. You can convert xm*smps imports to Sonic 2 using the Music Pointer Fixer, although a better solution is to install the Sonic 2 Clone Driver, which is the Sonic 1 sound driver (which you must install first) with Sonic 2 music and sounds.

 

No, when I use midi2xm, the xm never plays. I then convert it using xm3smps and it doesn't play in rom either. So mod plug tracker is the way to go, for at least me anyways.

 

You need to rip the instruments from ModPlug.

 

@ pyramid quotes related to MPT/mid2xm: So, let's say you're on a 64-bit OS and mid2xm won't run. Are you just, well... fucked? There's quite an insistence on not using MPT alone under any circumstances due to timing issues no matter how you toy around with the MIDI import options, and I'm wondering if a 64-bit-compatible MIDI-to-XM converter has been found other than MPT yet. I asked around a few months ago to no avail, so I sent away a MIDI or two and had others convert them to send back to be. DOSBox outputs a message saying that mid2xm must be run in Windows, so I can't run it through there.

 

For what it matters, I always use Mod Plug Tracker to import my midi files. It's not that hard to use it if you keep a few tricks in mind. I once wrote a very detailed guide about how to use it and how to prevent its bugs, but unfortunately I posted it only on Retro Hack and it got lost with their server. I've yet to write a guide again.

I also said that I might look into direct midi to smps (or midi to Cube) conversion since I had to write a working midi parser for my S&KC converter and I can as well recycle it, but I've been very busy with my job, and since I work as a programmer, you can see how that drains my motivation even more than usual.

 

Using my new found import DAC method, I am still having some trouble.


I get this weird click sound either at the beginning or end of the sample I'm trying to replace. It's as if I'm getting the size wrong....

It's the Size in decimal bytes divided by $2...

But I'm still having problems..


Anyone know what I'm doing wrong? :S

 

I still wish I knew how to work xm4smps correctly. DalekSam was going to give me lessons, but he insisted on using MSN (which I don't have an account for) and I don't know which of us is more picky.

Speaking of which, wasn't there a new xm4smps guide that was going to be written a while back? I believe it was the same time as when the new version of xm4smps was being talked about with the amazingly helpful features. (being able to "save," in program playback of output) It has been a couple to several months now, and rather then bumping the thread I might as well ask here.

 

That's your problem.

EDIT: Instead of being a prick, I'll be specific—use hexadecimal.