Protracker playback library with sound effects

[Shatterhand]

If I use this library on my Blitz Basic game, I should credit both Idrougge and Phx ?

[Zener]

I have pending to try this lib, I could use for future games and Redpill. Lib authors will be credited.

[Cobe]

Does anyone else have lag on sound effects?

I haven't been experimenting with it. Its just my first experience. It could easily be my code not the lib. I just ask to know what to expect.

edit: I've been experimenting and I always have a constant lag(approximately little less than half a second) no matter if its within the existing game or clean code with nothing else going on, no matter if I add mtinstall(which doesn't crash at my side), channel mask and/or play sfx loaded like sounds or like banks.

[Zener]

I noticed the lag on FX, but it also happens with standard Blitz command.

Is there a way to stop FX? Or if a new sound plays and the last one is still playing it stops and plays the new one?

Originally Posted by Cobe

Does anyone else have lag on sound effects?

I haven't been experimenting with it. Its just my first experience. It could easily be my code not the lib. I just ask to know what to expect.

edit: I've been experimenting and I always have a constant lag(approximately little less than half a second) no matter if its within the existing game or clean code with nothing else going on, no matter if I add mtinstall(which doesn't crash at my side), channel mask and/or play sfx loaded like sounds or like banks.

[MickGyver]

Originally Posted by Cobe

Does anyone else have lag on sound effects?

I haven't been experimenting with it. Its just my first experience. It could easily be my code not the lib. I just ask to know what to expect.

edit: I've been experimenting and I always have a constant lag(approximately little less than half a second) no matter if its within the existing game or clean code with nothing else going on, no matter if I add mtinstall(which doesn't crash at my side), channel mask and/or play sfx loaded like sounds or like banks.

Originally Posted by Zener

I noticed the lag on FX, but it also happens with standard Blitz command.

Is there a way to stop FX? Or if a new sound plays and the last one is still playing it stops and plays the new one?

Is this on WinUAE or real Amigaz?

[Cobe]

i'wouldn't think of that,
i'm currently at some 'hacker space' with retro room and i could swear there's no lag on real amiga

[Zener]

In my case it was a real Amiga with 060, as said it happened too with the default Blitz funcion Sound

[phx]

Sorry, mised that.

Originally Posted by Cobe

Does anyone else have lag on sound effects?

No. At least not in my games, and also not in other games using ptplayer.

edit: I've been experimenting and I always have a constant lag(approximately little less than half a second)

Half a second is a lot.

When you call mt_playfx for a new sound effect, it will take until the next CIA-B music timer interrupt before replay starts. This delay depends on the tempo of the MOD (default is 50 times per second, or tempo 125, which you can modify with command Fxx, where xx is >= $20).

So either you have loaded/initialized (mt_init) a very slow MOD, or it is a problem with Blitz Basic.

Originally Posted by Zener

I noticed the lag on FX, but it also happens with standard Blitz command.

What does that mean? There is a Blitz command for sound effects? And did you try it with the ptplayer-extension running, or stand-alone?

Is there a way to stop FX? Or if a new sound plays and the last one is still playing it stops and plays the new one?

When the same channel is selected for the new effect, and the priority of the old effect is lower or same, then it wil be replaced. Default behaviour is to allocate all four channels, if you play four effects at the same time.

[earok]

Going out on a limb here, but are you sure the samples in question have no silence at the start?

[Zener]

There is a sound FX player in Blitz:

Sound Sound#,Channelmask[, Vol1[, Vol2...]
Sound causes a previously created sound object to be played through the Amiga's
audio hardware. Channelmask specifies which of the Amiga's four audio channels the
sound should be played through, and should be in the range one through fifhteen.

To be clear, the lag is in the game itself, not in the sound, the sound plays fine but it is the game that has a minor slowdown when playing it. It may be something from Blitz itself, or something I do that is messing up with the CIAs, because it happens to me with all libs

Originally Posted by phx

Sorry, mised that.


No. At least not in my games, and also not in other games using ptplayer.

Half a second is a lot.

When you call mt_playfx for a new sound effect, it will take until the next CIA-B music timer interrupt before replay starts. This delay depends on the tempo of the MOD (default is 50 times per second, or tempo 125, which you can modify with command Fxx, where xx is >= $20).

So either you have loaded/initialized (mt_init) a very slow MOD, or it is a problem with Blitz Basic.


What does that mean? There is a Blitz command for sound effects? And did you try it with the ptplayer-extension running, or stand-alone?

When the same channel is selected for the new effect, and the priority of the old effect is lower or same, then it wil be replaced. Default behaviour is to allocate all four channels, if you play four effects at the same time.

[Cobe]

@earok
First thing I double checked before posting is that samples accidentally don't have some silence at the beginnings and they didn't.

@all
I heard it right, there was no lag on real Amiga. So I checked my winuae setup better and found that I had sound buffer set to 8. So I put it to min and now there's no lag.
So false alarm. Sorry guys, it was my stupid "mistake".

[Cobe]

Is there a way to force sfx on desired channel?

e.g.
if nuclear attack from the left side mtsoundfx boom,64,channel 2
if nuclear attack from the right side mtsoundfx boom,64,channel 3

[idrougge]

You could probably use MTMusicMask to set only one channel available for effects.

[Cobe]

Seems that you can set musicmask just once..

[Cobe]

edit: solved. You have to call mtinstall every time you change the mask.
edit2: and start the music again. So noo...

[Nightshft]

After initial troubles rebuilding deflibs (see the other thread. But with libman (and avoiding lib number collisions) it works well) I got this running fine.
Thank you phx and idrougge!

I tried 10 mods and 8 work well.

----

May I give some feedback?

mtInstall was NOT needed, but did no harm in my installation (winuae, a1200, amiblitz 2.42)

How to check if a mod could be loaded:
If the modfile is not found you won't get any error or crash, but play will play garbage.
LoadBank doesn't return a value but there's a nice way to check it:

LoadBank 0,"filename.mod",2
If Bank(0) = 0 then NPrint "cant load mod":VWait 50: End

(As bank returns the adress of the loaded bank.)

Trivia:
If you load a file named "" the above method will still return a value lol.

--

Idea:
"mtPlay off" will leave the last note continue playing.
"mtEnd" pauses the song and ends the note (still possible to continue the song)

How about replacing "mtPlay off" with the function of "mtEnd"? (unless somebody needs it of course)

And replacing "mtEnd" with something that stops and rewinds the song. Like mtEnd:MtInit x,0
Just an idea of course...

Great work, thanks for this lib!

[Daedalus]

I've been trying this library out recently too, and by and large it's excellent, thanks! However, I have a slight issue with a sound sample that plays a high pitch tone when the sound is finished, until that channel is used again by the mod or another sound. The sample is only a very short blip, and plays fine using the original Blitz commands.

Any ideas? Is there a minimum length the samples should be, or am I missing something?

[Nightshft]

I dont have the time right now to search for where it was, but I think I read it's a known issue and the first two bytes of the sample have to be zero because this is what's getting looped. (I could be wrong)

Btw, thanks for all your help Daedalus! Highly appreciate it!

edit: This thread?

[daxb]

I think it was discussed in the original thread or some other with phx PT engine topic.

[Daedalus]

Ah, sounds like a lead, thanks guys!