[Korama]

Ch1pper, on 03 April 2015 - 05:19 PM, said:

I'd love to see Comix Zone running on a modern OS. Not sure what would be needed for that exactly, but I've got it here if you need help with it.

Comix Zone is on my radar. I haven't done anything with it yet, but I know that it uses WinG, a precursor to DirectDraw, so that might or might not make things more difficult for me.

MainMemory, on 03 April 2015 - 05:23 PM, said:

Sonic CD installs now, but it also has the issue with Up being held while my Genesis controller is connected. I tried using the ADX music from Sonic Gems Collection but it's not playing. I suppose I should get the music from the Steam version anyway.

I think I figured out the joystick issue. It's from my code mapping the POV hat / d-pad to the axes. My gamepad returns 0x0000FFFF for a centered POV, I guess yours uses 0xFFFFFFFF, which is actually the correct value (JOY_POVCENTERED). Should be fixed in the new build I just uploaded.
I tried bass_adx.dll from the official website, with some adx files from Sonic Mega Collection Plus, and they worked.
Thanks for all your testing, by the way!

This post has been edited by Korama: 03 April 2015 - 06:05 PM

[MainMemory]

I guess bass_vgmstream is just weird then. It's not that big of a deal really.

Do you think at any point that you'll want to make an enhanced sound file for S&KC like the one for SCD?

Also, do you think it'd be possible to have the speed shoes and invincibility in S3D play the music made for them (tracks 21 & 22)?

Thanks for making this, it's really great being able to play these games again.

[Korama]

I didn't make the sound file for Sonic CD, it came from the original 16 bit release, but wasn't included in the 32 bit one (and even disabled in code there).
But I have been thinking about custom sound effects for SCD and S&KC, I.e. using individual external files like Ecco and S3D already do.
I'd also like to add a volume control for sound effects, because I find it annoying when games are significantly louder than other apps and don't offer that functionality.
You can already control the bass.dll playback volume (Alt+Up/Down hotkeys). That reminds me, could you add volume control to smpsout.dll?
In the form of another exported function like "SetVolume" or similar. No urgency, but it would be nice to have.

Yes, Sonic 3D Blast doesn't play the speed shoes and invincibility tracks, even though they are on CD.
The tracks are just never used by the game code, I checked. The only way that I can think of to enable them, is to understand the game logic,
find the precise location of the piece of code that gets executed whenever those powerups become active, and then hack into it to start
the appropriate tracks.

This post has been edited by Korama: 03 April 2015 - 06:51 PM

[MainMemory]

I... have no idea? I mean, I didn't write any of the SMPS playback code, so I don't really know if there's a central volume control.

[Chibisteven]

Mandatory emulation of the Sound Blaster 16 chip in FM mode (as close to Windows 95 as you can get) and a choice of a sound font using General MIDI mode are stuff I want to see put in as tweaks for Sonic & Knuckles Collection. An ability to adjust MIDI and WAVE volume separately, too as you could do that with Win9X in if one or the other was too loud.

An ability to turn off the text that says Kormara's Patches are active.

Otherwise I love everything. I haven't been able to run 1996 PC version of Sonic CD since the last time I had a working Windows 98 Second Edition machine. I haven't been able to run Sonic 3D Blast since I last had a working Windows XP machine. Both of which are long gone. And Sonic & Knuckles Collection wouldn't terminate on it's own, I had to CTRL+ALT+DEL and end the process, now I can close the application and it terminates correctly. It's just the Microsoft Synthesizer (I hate that thing to hell) keeps dropping notes and SMPS that another person wrote has no lowpass filter option.

I think it's an improvement to able to rip a game's redbook audio tracks and store it as FLACs. No stutters, no OS specific or hardware glitches or a few seconds on the track after one that's supposed to play type of crap. To me it's a major improvement. If there's was a way to do that with Sonic R, I be very happy as that would fix a few glitches that make the game hard to enjoy when you get it working.

This post has been edited by Chibisteven: 04 April 2015 - 02:53 PM

[MainMemory]

Korama, on 03 April 2015 - 06:50 PM, said:

You can already control the bass.dll playback volume (Alt+Up/Down hotkeys). That reminds me, could you add volume control to smpsout.dll?
In the form of another exported function like "SetVolume" or similar. No urgency, but it would be nice to have.

It turns out I could add it, and it's in the latest download. The function is defined as void SetVolume(double volume).

Unfortunately, I'm still getting the problem with the games acting as if Up is held while joystick control is enabled, also it's got the Start/A/B/C buttons set to the D-pad, which is a common issue with this controller for some reason.

Edit: I made a video:

This post has been edited by MainMemory: 05 April 2015 - 01:40 AM

[Korama]

Chibisteven, on 04 April 2015 - 02:36 PM, said:

Otherwise I love everything. I haven't been able to run 1996 PC version of Sonic CD since the last time I had a working Windows 98 Second Edition machine. I haven't been able to run Sonic 3D Blast since I last had a working Windows XP machine. Both of which are long gone. And Sonic & Knuckles Collection wouldn't terminate on it's own, I had to CTRL+ALT+DEL and end the process, now I can close the application and it terminates correctly. It's just the Microsoft Synthesizer (I hate that thing to hell) keeps dropping notes and SMPS that another person wrote has no lowpass filter option.

Thanks for your feedback! I had the same problem with Sonic & Knuckles Collection not terminating properly, I mentioned it here before. It happens because when the game shuts down, it calls FreeLibrary to unload the music library MIDIOUT.DLL from memory, but for some reason, that causes an access violation in MIDIOUT.DLL. I found out that by calling the "initialize" function of MIDIOUT before freeing, the error won't happen.
I will try to tackle Sonic R, but I can't say when.
Concerning Sonic & Knuckles Collection and Sound Blaster FM: I don't feel that's my department. The game has outsorced its complete music to the mentioned MIDIOUT.DLL library, whose interface is known. So, anyone could relatively easily create a compatible replacement for it to change everything about the music.

MainMemory, on 04 April 2015 - 04:52 PM, said:

It turns out I could add it, and it's in the latest download. The function is defined as void SetVolume(double volume).

Unfortunately, I'm still getting the problem with the games acting as if Up is held while joystick control is enabled, also it's got the Start/A/B/C buttons set to the D-pad, which is a common issue with this controller for some reason.

Great! By the way, I found another small issue with SMPSOUT: it expects that there's a MIDIOUTY.DLL. If there isn't, and you have a track configured to use the MIDI version, the game will crash. I think SMPSOUT should check first whether MIDIOUTY.DLL exists, and if it doesn't, use MIDIOUT.DLL instead.
Weird issue with your controller. I hope it'll work better once I have completed the new joystick handling code.


In other news, I got Bug! working, but it's not release-worthy yet (doesn't play its videos and music yet). The game lives up to its name and has a nasty bug in its DirectDraw initialization code, writing to a memory object that is allocated only later. But that's not actually what prevented it from running. As usual, it wants a 256 color video mode and also refuses to run in video modes wider than 1024 pixels. I guess they did this for performance reasons, but it was quite short-sighted, after all processing power is known to increase with each new CPU generation.
The nice thing is that the software 3D engine scales, so instead of playing it like this (internal resolution: 320x240, stretched to 1920x1200) (or with halftone stretching, which is usable here, as the game runs at 30 fps, not 60), you can play it like this (internal resolution: 1920x1200). The textures and sprites are still awfully low-res up close, but they look nicer in the distance and the polygons are sharp.

Bug! also has a hidden cheat code: in the Help / About dialog box, there's an invisible edit field that is supposed to capture key input. If you typed "babyseals", it should activate a cheat menu entry with a few options. However, I don't see any way to give input focus to that edit field so that it would actually receive keypresses. Maybe it worked in older Windows versions. Anyway, I can easily activate that cheat menu by other means.

This post has been edited by Korama: 05 April 2015 - 03:52 PM

[Chibisteven]

Korama, on 05 April 2015 - 03:45 PM, said:

Chibisteven, on 04 April 2015 - 02:36 PM, said:

Otherwise I love everything. I haven't been able to run 1996 PC version of Sonic CD since the last time I had a working Windows 98 Second Edition machine. I haven't been able to run Sonic 3D Blast since I last had a working Windows XP machine. Both of which are long gone. And Sonic & Knuckles Collection wouldn't terminate on it's own, I had to CTRL+ALT+DEL and end the process, now I can close the application and it terminates correctly. It's just the Microsoft Synthesizer (I hate that thing to hell) keeps dropping notes and SMPS that another person wrote has no lowpass filter option.

Thanks for your feedback! I had the same problem with Sonic & Knuckles Collection not terminating properly, I mentioned it here before. It happens because when the game shuts down, it calls FreeLibrary to unload the music library MIDIOUT.DLL from memory, but for some reason, that causes an access violation in MIDIOUT.DLL. I found out that by calling the "initialize" function of MIDIOUT before freeing, the error won't happen.
I will try to tackle Sonic R, but I can't say when.
Concerning Sonic & Knuckles Collection and Sound Blaster FM: I don't feel that's my department. The game has outsorced its complete music to the mentioned MIDIOUT.DLL library, whose interface is known. So, anyone could relatively easily create a compatible replacement for it to change everything about the music.

I wonder if MainMemory or ValleyBell could do it? Being that ValleyBell wrote the command prompt based emulator you can drag MIDIs into, I think? I still have that and have used it, but don't have the know how to take the engine and place it in to Sonic & Knuckles Collection itself. Probably solves the FM MIDI problems on modern hardware for good.

The only other issue with General MIDI is lack of Sound Fonts and something that works similar to what foobar2000 allows when playing MIDIs with a GUI to configure things. That's a stretch in itself. Bypasses the ever crappy Microsoft Synthesizer that's been shoved down people's throats since the days of XP without the need for real MIDI hardware or fighting with the OS to get something to work. Be nice if there was someone willing to write a solution for that.

This post has been edited by Chibisteven: 05 April 2015 - 05:39 PM

[MainMemory]

Korama, on 05 April 2015 - 03:45 PM, said:

Great! By the way, I found another small issue with SMPSOUT: it expects that there's a MIDIOUTY.DLL. If there isn't, and you have a track configured to use the MIDI version, the game will crash. I think SMPSOUT should check first whether MIDIOUTY.DLL exists, and if it doesn't, use MIDIOUT.DLL instead.

I suppose I could do that, but normally, the DLL expects itself to be MIDIOUT.DLL, so there might be an issue if it is MIDIOUT.DLL and there's no MIDIOUTY.DLL?

Chibisteven, on 05 April 2015 - 05:27 PM, said:

I wonder if MainMemory or ValleyBell could do it? Being that ValleyBell wrote the command prompt based emulator you can drag MIDIs into, I think? I still have that and have used it, but don't have the know how to take the engine and place it in to Sonic & Knuckles Collection itself. Probably solves the FM MIDI problems on modern hardware for good.The only other issue with General MIDI is lack of Sound Fonts and something that works similar to what foobar2000 allows when playing MIDIs with a GUI to configure things. That's a stretch in itself. Bypasses the ever crappy Microsoft Synthesizer that's been shoved down people's throats since the days of XP without the need for real MIDI hardware or fighting with the OS to get something to work. Be nice if there was someone willing to write a solution for that.

Yeah, I can't really help with that. Honestly I don't remember most of the stuff I did to get SMPSPlay integrated, which is unfortunate because the newer version properly supports 1-up music.

[Blivsey]

SKC works great, but 3D Blast is giving me a completely blank error message just after loading the window:

Log here.

[InvisibleUp]

Blivsey, on 05 April 2015 - 05:53 PM, said:

SKC works great, but 3D Blast is giving me a completely blank error message just after loading the window:

Log here.

Just ran into that issue. The problem is that you've selected the directory where you've already installed the game on your hard disk, but that directory contains none of the data the game needs to run. If you tried to run that normally it would prompt you to insert the Sonic 3D Blast CD, but because this is running a No-CD patch it just gets really, really confused when it can't find any data. What you need to do is copy the contents of the CD to a folder and select that folder.

Also, I just tried to open the game from the folder out of curiosity and it ran the modded version. Does this patch the .EXE?

EDIT:
The title screen plays the Game Over music for whatever reason. Here's my track listing:

01 Title Theme.mp3
02 Game Over.mp3
03 Battle Theme.mp3
04 Green Grove Act 1.mp3
05 Green Grove Act 2.mp3
06 Rusty Ruins Act 1.mp3
07 Rusty Ruins Act 2.mp3
08 Spring Stadium Act 1.mp3
09 Spring Stadium Act 2.mp3
10 Volcano Valley Act 1.mp3
11 Volcano Valley Act 2.mp3
12 Diamond Dust Act 1.mp3
13 Diamond Dust Act2.mp3
14 Gene Gadget Act1.mp3
15 Gene Gadget Act2.mp3
16 Panic Puppet Act1.mp3
17 Panic Puppet Act2.mp3
18 Emerald Challenge.mp3
19 Final Fight.mp3
20 Success 1.mp3
21 Success 2.mp3
22 Success 3.mp3
23 Success 4.mp3
24 My Hero.mp3

This post has been edited by InvisibleUp: 05 April 2015 - 07:35 PM

[Chibisteven]

InvisibleUp, on 05 April 2015 - 07:25 PM, said:

Blivsey, on 05 April 2015 - 05:53 PM, said:

SKC works great, but 3D Blast is giving me a completely blank error message just after loading the window:

Log here.

Just ran into that issue. The problem is that you've selected the directory where you've already installed the game on your hard disk, but that directory contains none of the data the game needs to run. If you tried to run that normally it would prompt you to insert the Sonic 3D Blast CD, but because this is running a No-CD patch it just gets really, really confused when it can't find any data. What you need to do is copy the contents of the CD to a folder and select that folder.

Also, I just tried to open the game from the folder out of curiosity and it ran the modded version. Does this patch the .EXE?

EDIT:
The title screen plays the Game Over music for whatever reason. Here's my track listing:

01 Title Theme.mp3
02 Game Over.mp3
03 Battle Theme.mp3
04 Green Grove Act 1.mp3
05 Green Grove Act 2.mp3
06 Rusty Ruins Act 1.mp3
07 Rusty Ruins Act 2.mp3
08 Spring Stadium Act 1.mp3
09 Spring Stadium Act 2.mp3
10 Volcano Valley Act 1.mp3
11 Volcano Valley Act 2.mp3
12 Diamond Dust Act 1.mp3
13 Diamond Dust Act2.mp3
14 Gene Gadget Act1.mp3
15 Gene Gadget Act2.mp3
16 Panic Puppet Act1.mp3
17 Panic Puppet Act2.mp3
18 Emerald Challenge.mp3
19 Final Fight.mp3
20 Success 1.mp3
21 Success 2.mp3
22 Success 3.mp3
23 Success 4.mp3
24 My Hero.mp3

That listing is incorrect.

+ 1 to all tracks. 01 becomes 02 and 02 becomes 03.

In order for it to work right. It's goes like this:
The first track is the data track on DATA + Redbook Audio CD-ROM disc. The first audio track is the second track. For example "Title" is Track 2 and "You're My Hero" Performed by Debbie Morris (not sure if the name is spelt right) is Track 25. "Game Over" is supposed to be Track 3 not Track 2 that's why it's playing at the Title Screen. What comes after ## Title here generally isn't important to making it run. I have it as Track##.flac starting at Track02.flac all the way to Track25.flac for simplicity.

This post has been edited by Chibisteven: 05 April 2015 - 08:43 PM

[InvisibleUp]

Chibisteven, on 05 April 2015 - 08:32 PM, said:

That listing is incorrect.

+ 1 to all tracks. 01 becomes 02 and 02 becomes 03.

In order for it to work right. It's goes like this:
The first track is the data track on DATA + Redbook Audio CD-ROM disc. The first audio track is the second track. For example "Title" is Track 2 and "You're My Hero" Performed by Debbie Morris (not sure if the name is spelt right) is Track 25. "Game Over" is supposed to be Track 3 not Track 2 that's why it's playing at the Title Screen.

Ah, that would make sense. I literally just ripped my own CD and plopped it in a folder. Program works excellently otherwise.

[Chibisteven]

InvisibleUp, on 05 April 2015 - 08:42 PM, said:

Chibisteven, on 05 April 2015 - 08:32 PM, said:

That listing is incorrect.

+ 1 to all tracks. 01 becomes 02 and 02 becomes 03.

In order for it to work right. It's goes like this:
The first track is the data track on DATA + Redbook Audio CD-ROM disc. The first audio track is the second track. For example "Title" is Track 2 and "You're My Hero" Performed by Debbie Morris (not sure if the name is spelt right) is Track 25. "Game Over" is supposed to be Track 3 not Track 2 that's why it's playing at the Title Screen.

Ah, that would make sense. I literally just ripped my own CD and plopped it in a folder. Program works excellently otherwise.

It's exactly what I did, too. Ripped my own disk using Exact Audio Copy in secure mode with the drive offset corrected. I choose to leave out the gaps when splitting the WAVE image using a cuesheet (which I had to edit out the first track in the sheet because EAC is annoying that way) after ripping a WAVE+CUE image and checked everything to make sure nothing got cut off at the beginning and end of each track using a digital editor to show the waveform as dB values down to -145 db. CDs stop at -96 dB so it makes it easier to see. I renamed everything "Track##.wav" then opened the FLAC frontend, encoded everything with a compression level of 8, chose sort by file type and deleted WAVE files and renamed the folder "MUSIC" before dropping it the game's directory.

I figured that index of 01 was of relevance and index 00 was a safe landing place and could be discarded, but choose to double check this.

This post has been edited by Chibisteven: 05 April 2015 - 08:57 PM

[muteKi]

Everything is working surprisingly well, with the exceptions of Sonic 3D maxing out at 30 fps for some reason, and the not-CD-audio not always transitioning to the next track (such as the speed shoes in Sonic CD, or the results screen in either SCD or S3D).