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Alleg422/DJGPP/DOS/SBPro/Bad Sound
Elias
Member #358
May 2000

I guess, as long as we don't release 4.4.0, 4.2.x is the latest stable branch - so a bug fix release might make sense. Of course, releasing 4.4.0 would be much nicer - all that is missing are some minor build related fixes (the only change to 4.2 is the added addons anyway), from what I remember. Still, someone with access to the right platforms has to find the time fixing them.

--
"Either help out or stop whining" - Evert

Ron Novy
Member #6,982
March 2006
avatar

Oh cool... It worked! Just to be sure I haven't introduced a new bug please test it using all the different quality and bit settings... I'm in the process of moving ATM so I may not be around for a week or two to fix it but I'll at least be monitoring the forums and dev. list... But if possible, just check all bit settings etc before commiting...

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Oh... Bieber! I thought everyone was chanting Beaver... Now it doesn't make any sense at all. :-/

JeffTX
Member #9,836
May 2008
avatar

We have a possiblity of severe storms this afternoon / tonight and tomorrow - when there is lightning in the neiborhood, I unplug everything.

I can do a comprehensive test on a DOS platform sometime after midnight tonight if the sky is clear... certainly within the next couple of days.

(update)

I had to get some sleep today; I just got up about an hour ago.

Weather radar shows a typical 'West Texas Monster Stormcloud" headed this way (expected for this time of year when the weather is 'moody'). It will probably hit within two hours, I can't be in the middle of an Allegro Build when that happens. It looks like things will not be consistantly calm until maybe tomorrow night. When the storm conditions pass, I WILL do a thorough test of the modified SB.C

I don't have a complete understanding of the Allegro mixer, or what to expect.. I will do a fresh install of DJGPP / Allegro 4.22. I will invoke every change / option that I can in Allegro -> SETUP, then I will invoke every change that I can in the configuration file (num bits, quality, etc). I'll test against various types of WAVs ( 8 / 16 bit, various inherant freqs, etc).

Also I'll try adding a new joystick type. It looks like I have to change only two files: JOYSTD.C, ALLDOS.H

I will just add a definition for 'CH Flightstick' before 'CH Flightstick Pro'; it will be a standard joystick, but with the JDESC_Y2_THROTTLE flag (JOYSTD.C). And I will impose the appropriate changes in ALLDOS.H

So it may be early thursday morning before I have a definitive test for you; it looks like this storm activity is supposed to die out wednsday evening (so far).

Audric
Member #907
January 2001

After some more testing, I can see the bug that JeffTX experienced will only happen on 8-bit SoundBlasters.
I have a SB Live 1024, which provides a legacy driver with the capabilities of a SB16 (16-bit), and can also pass as a SB Pro (8-bit) if needed.
When I run the DOS version of Allegro's setup, I can manually choose SB16 (no problem), or SBPro (screeeeech)

Now I still need to recompile Allegro with Ron's fixed sb.c, but I have no doubt it will fix the case when I rely on the SBPro driver.

JeffTX
Member #9,836
May 2008
avatar

The storm activity seemed to have dried up this morning (for now - next two days is supposed to be stormy).

I gave the modified SB.C driver an extensive workout.

In Allegro / SETUP, I invoked every possible combination of PAN, Quality and Frequency (the only settings that might seem relevant). No problems noted. Only really discernable difference was in the timbre of the digital test when the frequency was set to 11906 (versus the default 22727); this is expected.

Then I manually changed ALLEGRO.CFG

I used every possible combination of quality, frequency, and sound_bits (tried 8 and 16, the default was -1).

No problems noted. For confirmation, when Allegro Setup was run after forcing ALLEGRO.CFG to 11906 Hz (but skipping AUTODETECT), the timbre of the digital test was noticably changed. Forcing sound_bits to 8 and 16 did not cause any crashes, or failure of the digital test sound to play.

I copied some MIDI files and various WAV files to \ALLEGRO\EXAMPLES, as well as the ALLEGRO.CFG created by running Allegro SETUP. These WAV files included PCM 8 and 16 bit wavs, of 11025 and 22050 Hz. Invoked the EXSAMPLE program against all of these WAVs, and modified ALLEGRO.CFG for all possible settings (relevant for testing). No problems noted.

Also tested the examples -> Play Midi demo on various MIDIs, no problems. I could manually change the volume of MIDIs in Allegro SETUP, and the max volume was acceptable.

So I guess Ron's fixed SB.C can be commited.

Again, Thanks! MUCH appreciated!

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I also modified ALDOS.H and JOYSTD.C to add a new joystick type ("Flightstick" (not "Flightstick PRO"); a standard analogue 2 button joystick with throttle. For some reason, this new type did NOT show up in Allegro SETUP's list of joysticks when I ran it. But it DID show up in a hex editor against SETUP.EXE just before the "Flightstick PRO" entry. I'm not sure at this time, but I think I know what I missed ; there is an additional section in JOYSTD.C that I need to modify, I believe.

Ron Novy
Member #6,982
March 2006
avatar

Awesome... I found an old Win98se disc so I'll be hooking up some of my older hardware for testing and compiling games so if there's any other problems in DOS I should be able to help out... After the move that is...

[EDIT]
I've attached some documents about the Sound Blaster and the Pro Audio Spectrum from an old sound library called 'Bells Whistles and Sound Boards' in case anyone is interested in looking them over. I made a few modifications to the SB one so it's a little more accurate than the original... When I originally started working with allegro I was using an old Pro Audio Spectrum card that later died along with the PC it was in, but I included it just in case someone wants to write a new driver for there legacy hardware...

Also I created a newer version of SB.c with some rather unimportant updates... Which I apparently forgot to take with me before unhooking my PC for the move... Anyway I wanted to test out the DSP command that retrieves the copyright string which is a feature I never knew the SB hardware had... So my newest version now modifies the description field to display DSP version and copyright string, so if I find some bigger bug/feature to fix/add later I'll send a diff to the dev list with this tacked on too.

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Oh... Bieber! I thought everyone was chanting Beaver... Now it doesn't make any sense at all. :-/

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