[PROJECT] ProTracker v2.3D clone for modern platforms

[8bitbubsy]

Originally Posted by Crown

8bit, you're doing a great job.

Do you think it could become a full tracker (rather than a player)?

It all depends on my patience and motivation, I actually doubt I'll continue doing big achievements on the project. Reason is that I'm tired of it and we have trackers like Open ModPlug Tracker and the like for good .MOD 4ch exporting.

The main reason I made this project was so people could get the Amiga-ish feeling while playing back their favorite .MODs, as well as emulating less known bugs (and do stuff exactly like PT does it) + apply cutoff/filter/butterworth/sallen-key stuff to make the sound more Paula-ish (drop bits to 8-bit before mixing, emulating Paula dac).

Kind of like an opportunity to listen to MODs the ProTracker way without tidiously firing up your Amiga or WinUAE.
I'd say it's more of an application you use when you're in a dedicated mood for the glory of .MOD, not something you run in the background while surfing the net.

[Asle]

MOD.Signia by Jogeir won't play right (at pattern 2 for example).

[spoUP]

come on bubz! don't give up!
bring more fellaz aboard instead!
you'll cry when old legends return and make new mods using your tracker!

[8bitbubsy]

Originally Posted by Asle

MOD.Signia by Jogeir won't play right (at pattern 2 for example).

ProTracker doesn't reset the 9xx Sample Offset data on a new note... I didn't know this.
Thanks for pointing this out, time to check the sources again. I'll fix this!

EDIT: Fixed
http://16-bits.org/ProTracker-win32-r26012011.zip

EDIT2: I realise my very poor way of thinking. What's the point with 900 if it would be reset on each new sample anyways?
Anyways, fixed and thanks a lot for pointing out.

[8bitbubsy]

A little bump to show you guys something I worked on this morning. I made a little "Amiga cracktro"-esque intro supplied in the ProTracker zip. Check out INTRO_noncrunch.exe (the crunched version was 42kB, but some users said it wouldn't run and gave an anti-virus warning, so decided to use the noncrunched one). I am of course using my MOD replayer routine in this intro.

http://16-bits.org/ProTracker-win32-r26012011.zip

Not to be taken too seriously (no it's not an april's fool), as I have no real skills in making these things... I think it looked kind of cute though. No cheating, low-level stuff using pointers to a backbuffer through GDI.

[hitchhikr]

You may want to lower the stereo, the music is unbearable with headphones.

[pmc]

Originally Posted by 8bitbubsy

I made a little "Amiga cracktro"-esque intro supplied in the ProTracker zip.

Nice one - I really liked it!

Of course, old skool cracktros should really be coded directly in 68k asm though...

PS. I didn't find the music unbearable through headphones - I just turned the volume down.

Anyways, great work.

[Leffmann]

Nice! And the tune is really cool.

[8bitbubsy]

Thanks for the comments!

Stereo seperation not as wide now. Better? If you don't hear any difference, try clearing the browser cache.
http://16-bits.org/ProTracker-win32-r26012011.zip

Not sure what's the best way of coding the font routine (the top one)...
What I am doing in this one, is that I have like a map on the screen that is like a terminal with a static width font... 36 chars in X, and 5 lines Y. My "blit char" routine accepts just one param for position, and that ranges 36 * 5. It does this to find out where in X Y to put the char:
int putXPos = ((blitPos % (XRES / FONT_WIDTH)) * FONT_WIDTH); // XRES/FONT_WIDTH = 36
int putYPos = (FONT_HEIGHT * (XRES / FONT_WIDTH));

So if I put it at like pos 37, it gets put at first column second row and so on. This way I can hand-craft cool tables for the char putting.
Then I have a routine that checks a table for what char from the "text string table" to put first. I also have a variable for what "text screen" I lookup, so I can have as many text screens as I want. I hard coded a fancy table that puts it in the way you see. A table with 180 numbers just to attempt to wet your pants!
I could also have a million other ways, but hand crafting that one table took long enough in itself.

[Asle]

for the record, the 'big font' was made by Ming/The Knight Hawks.
http://kestra.exotica.org.uk/demo.php?id=26728
nice little intro thanks !

[8bitbubsy]

I updated the intro now, what do you guys think? Changed the tune, added a "jump" sinus to the top text routine, and added another text screen.
I know the tune is heavily overused, but it's so good that it's still worth using it!

http://16-bits.org/ProTracker-win32-r26012011.zip

[Battlstarcanada]

I just tried it with Wine on Ubuntu and it seems to work well!. I've never used Protracker on the Amiga ( I'm an Octamed person) but this looks cool.

[8bitbubsy]

It's easy to compile the code for GNU/Linux... All you need is svn, sdl dev headers and gcc.
Check out the first post in this thread for a how-to on that.

[pmc]

Hey bubsy

I checked out your new intro version. If I'm honest I prefer the non-bounce sinus original - it just seems more authentic old skool cracktro to me without it.

I think you should try your hand at making a 68k asm version.

[8bitbubsy]

I am glad to announce that I have finally fixed the annoying .. what should I call it... "Paula sample swap delay" bug?
This is NOT the same as the well known "swap sample on the fly" PT1.x phenomena.

Imagine either of these scenarios:

C-2 05 000
C-2 0F 303
--- 00 303

C-2 05 000
--- 0F 000
--- 00 000

- This only applies to a "new sample number" - e.g. a sample number that is different from the previous one. -
Sample 5 must finish playing (or reach its loop end) before Paula sets its new sample pointer/loop points to sample 0F! If the sample is still playing while it hits 0F, the 0F will be triggered when 05 is done. However, it will instantly set the sample volume to 0F's sample volume, so this only applies to loop points and the sample data pointer.
If you put a note number in front of 0F, it will of course trigger instantly (unless you put 3xx/5xx there too, then the exact same rule apply).

This is a very special bug, and I guess I am amongst the very few people to be aware of it. Several MOD songs are affected.
Phoenix.mod has one part where you hear a string instead of a synth, of which on the Amiga you hear the synth all the time. The reason for this (on phoenix.mod) is because the synth has not finished playing when the new sample number is set. Groo accidentally typed in the wrong sample number, but since you won't hear the sample anyways he prolly weren't aware of it.
This is insanely hard to explain, you must experience it yourself.

Here are the three modules that are affected, test them in an non-Amiga MOD player first:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4846123/resolution.mod (pattern 9 (pos/order 7), channel 2, row 2)
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4846123/phoenix.mod (pattern 9 (pos/order 44), channel 4, row 52)
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4846123/face...20day%20ii.mod (pattern 20 (pos/order 25), channel 2, row 17)

I also fixed some other bugs, made it more optimized (having a routine that pre-calculates the frequency table on load, where you can choose either PAL or NTSC clock).

Get it while it's still hot:
http://16-bits.org/ProTracker-win32-r26012011.zip
http://sourceforge.net/projects/protracker/

[Hewitson]

I really like the intro you made, you used one of my favourite chiptunes of all time. Was a bit disappointed that you don't quit with the mouse button though

I don't understand the complaints about the stereo separation, there is only one proper way to do it and that's the Amiga way!

[8bitbubsy]

Updated yet again. Keep in mind that I have ProTracker v1.3B open in latest WinUAE beta when I am debugging. You want it to be 100% as the real thing, even the playback weirdness it has got!

Fixes:
- 9xx bug I introduced myself (). 9xx works correctly now. Reset "add_to sample offset" variable if a new sample is found (with no 3xx/5xx), not on note.
- Sample swap is 100% like the real thing now, forgot to turn off channel reading if a new sample swap with no loop encounters

http://16-bits.org/ProTracker-win32-r26012011.zip

[8bitbubsy]

Updated a little.

I changed the "cracktro/intro" a lot, now it looks much more like a typical Amiga cracktro, check it out (intro_noncrunched.exe). Now you can close it with the left mouse button.
The reason it is 900kB is because I store some bitmaps in it, like the huge scroll font, the AmigaDOS screen in the beginning, and the 100kB+ MOD tune. I am to lazy to RLE encode it to shave off the padding zeros in the tables.
It is just to hopefully put a smile on your face, I have no optimizing/low-level coding skills.

Fixes:
- Added the infamous 9xx bug (double up sample offset after playing a note, fixes no-mercy.mod by alf)
- Disk op. is much taller now, and now you can browse through directories.
- Sync quadrascopes to 50Hz/60Hz (according to mode set in config.ini) and waste samples beyond it, looks even more like the Amiga
- NTSC clock was off, got the correct value now
- Removed ProTracker buttons (in the GUI) that I'm not going to implement in the future, makes it easier for my lazy mind to improve upon the project
- A little code clean-up, the code is still a huge mess though.

http://16-bits.org/ProTracker-win32-r26012011.zip

[Leffmann]

Looking good!

Originally Posted by 8bitbubsy

The reason it is 900kB is because I store some bitmaps in it, like the huge scroll font, the AmigaDOS screen in the beginning, and the 100kB+ MOD tune. I am to lazy to RLE encode it to shave off the padding zeros in the tables.

Try UPX, you can just drag and drop files on it, no details or settings to worry about.

http://upx.sourceforge.net/

[8bitbubsy]

UPX is what I used, and yet some people on IRC said they got anti-virus warnings.