Re: Game testing

Re: Game testing

[Stas Sergeev]

Hello.

Paul Eggleton wrote:
> Ken's Labyrinth - Sound works initially, but the first
> sound generated after starting the actual game causes
> DOSEMU to freeze up.
You still need a patches to apply in
order to get the sound working.

> DOOM shareware - Didn't manage to get sound to work
> (froze during startup).
http://dosemu.sourceforge.net/stas/dpmi_sti4a.diff

> Commander Keen 4
>  - Uses AdLib effects, so no sound, and there was an intermittent
http://dosemu.sourceforge.net/stas/opl1.diff

> I also tried several DOS MP3 players, none of which worked properly.
At least dosamp works perfectly.

> I do know of at least one open-source FM emulator
Either do we:)

> Also, I had no luck getting MPU-401 music to work,
Please read sound-usage.txt
(Thanks to Rob Komar, it finally got updated:)

> Any games success stories in this regard?
Well, I am using an MPU-401 midi in many games
(all that support it), and they all work fine.
Even though it may require some leg-work to set
the things up for MPU usage on dosemu side.

> I would like to offer my help to the DOSEMU project. I can write C/C++ 
> code
If you are concerned about a sound support, the
open tasks are:
1. Software mixing framework to get adlib sound
and digital sound to work together;
2. Threading to run Adlib and DMA in a separate
threads to avoid a horrible lags and improve
performance (threading was already tried and
appeared to be somewhat problematic);
3. Output plugins for esd, arts, nas, alsa, you_name_it.
If you can pick up one of that tasks, that would
be great as I have a hard times now.

> but I have only a small amount of coding experience under DOS and only 
> a little in assembly language.
At least for the sound neither is required:)

> I wouldn't mind writing some documentation 
> if required.
That is *always* required:)

> Oops, I should have mentioned, I was testing with DOSEMU 1.1.4.
*Thanks* for following up on that. Otherwise my
reply could be different:)

Game testing

[Paul Eggleton]

Oops, I should have mentioned, I was testing with DOSEMU 1.1.4.

Cheers,
Paul

Game testing

[Paul Eggleton]

Hi all,

I had to set up a few DOS games on another machine and I thought I would
have a go at using DOSEMU again (my last attempt was about 4 or 5 months
ago, but I have been following the mailing list since then). I also thought
it would be worth sharing the results. Indeed, I think it might be worth
setting up a database site similar to the one used by the Wine folks to
track how well various applications run.

Anyway, here's what I found. OS was Mandrake 9 on an AMD XP 2000/512MB RAM
system.

System Shock demo
- Ran visually very smoothly, but could not get sound to work at all. I have
had trouble getting sound to work under real DOS with this game before, so
it doesn't worry me too much, but on the other hand System Shock is one of
my favourite games. Any pointers on how I might be able to find out why it
is failing to detect and use Sound Blaster sound?

Ken's Labyrinth
- Sound works initially, but the first sound generated after starting the
actual game causes DOSEMU to freeze up. Works fine with PC speaker effects.

DOOM shareware
- Didn't manage to get sound to work (froze during startup). Worked fine
with PC speaker effects.

Commander Keen 1
- Worked perfectly first time! Even runs more smoothly than under Win2K.
(Uses PC speaker sound only.)

Commander Keen 4
- Uses AdLib effects, so no sound, and there was an intermittent
discolouration of the graphics.

The Legacy
- Game seemed to run fine. Not sure if sound is working though - there is an
audible click at the start and end of where the sounds should play.

Jill of the Jungle
- Worked fine (no music - FM only).

I also tried several DOS MP3 players, none of which worked properly.

It is clear that the sound code has improved by leaps and bounds recently.
However, the lack of FM audio support is fairly major IMHO, though I guess
games are less of a priority than other more important DOS apps. From
reading the documentation, it seems like work has been started on this, but
it is unclear how much effort would be actually required to get it fully
working (I do know of at least one open-source FM emulator, though it may
not be complete). Also, I had no luck getting MPU-401 music to work, but I
never used MPU-401 back when I used DOS so I didn't really know what I was
doing. Any games success stories in this regard?

I would like to offer my help to the DOSEMU project. I can write C/C++ code
(I am currently working on a Linux open-source project written in C & C++),
but I have only a small amount of coding experience under DOS and only a
little in assembly language. I wouldn't mind writing some documentation if
required. Please let me know if I can be of any assistance.

Cheers,
Paul Eggleton