Author Topic: WINDOWS VISTA  (Read 30278 times)

SmartBoy16

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Re: WINDOWS VISTA
« Reply #15 on: 2009-01-25, 06:28:16 PM »
can vista play midis by itself (media player?)
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tprime

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Re: WINDOWS VISTA
« Reply #16 on: 2009-01-25, 07:03:46 PM »
 ??? IDK

Jam0864

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Re: WINDOWS VISTA
« Reply #17 on: 2009-01-25, 08:28:19 PM »
yes it can.

bluemonkmn

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Re: WINDOWS VISTA
« Reply #18 on: 2009-01-26, 06:38:06 AM »
FMOD needs a particular file in the Windows directory to play MIDI files because, in order to be cross-platform compatible and get consistent sound, it doesn't use the media support of the platform or sound drivers, but implements its own MIDI implementation (which I've always been a bit annoyed with because it sounds worse).  I can't remember the filename off the top of my head, but I remember there's some file in the Windows tree somewhere that hass all the MIDI instrument sounds stored in it that FMOD relies on, but doesn't install.

tprime

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Re: WINDOWS VISTA
« Reply #19 on: 2009-01-26, 10:34:55 PM »
Thank you. But, I don't think I will be relying on MIDI too much, then that would require everyone who plays my game to install that extra item. So I'll just convert them into MP3s.  ;D

bluemonkmn

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Re: WINDOWS VISTA
« Reply #20 on: 2009-01-27, 06:29:32 AM »
1) It doesn't require everyone to install it (that's why nobody even knows about it) -- it comes with Windows.  The file is WINDOWS\system32\drivers\gm.dls.  Does Vista not have that file?
2) I suggest using MOD format instead.  Maybe durnurd can suggest a utility to convert MIDI to MOD.  ModPlug might work according to this: http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=397811.

durnurd

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Re: WINDOWS VISTA
« Reply #21 on: 2009-01-27, 08:44:44 AM »
I've gone the other way, but I've never found something that goes back to mod.  There's supposedly a MID2MOD which does something like this, but it was written so long ago, I doubt it would work in XP much less Vista.
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Jam0864

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Re: WINDOWS VISTA
« Reply #22 on: 2009-01-27, 05:29:56 PM »
Yes, there is a gm.dls file in vista.

tprime

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Re: WINDOWS VISTA
« Reply #23 on: 2009-01-27, 08:55:59 PM »
2) I suggest using MOD format instead.  Maybe durnurd can suggest a utility to convert MIDI to MOD.  ModPlug might work according to this: http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=397811.

Thank you, but what's MOD? I never heard of it. Sound interesting though.

bluemonkmn

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Re: WINDOWS VISTA
« Reply #24 on: 2009-01-28, 06:07:33 AM »
Thank you, but what's MOD? I never heard of it. Sound interesting though.

MOD is similar to MIDI in the sense that it stores only the notes being played and their attributes and effects applied to them instead of recording the entire waveform.  But instead of relying on the environment to supply the instruments, the instruments (and their specific sounds/waveforms) are embedded in the file.  There are a number of related formats generated by various "tracker" programs which create and edit these MOD files and their relatives.  Most or all of the sample music provided with SGDK2 is in MOD format or a related format.  I think MODPlug looks like a pretty impressive free tracker, which I was using to preview all the SGDK2 music before importing it into a project template.  It supports MIDI, MOD and many, many other formats.  I think most of the music that I added to the music library was in IT format or XM format, which are a pretty flexible/powerful relatives of the MOD format introduced by Impulse Tracker and FastTracker respectively.

I went to some site like http://modarchive.org/ to get a few of the files in SGDK2's music library, but was only able to get permission from a couple of authors.  Of course you can use whatever you want personally (or get your own permission from authors of whatever music you want).  I really like the relatively small files that sound really good, of course.

SmartBoy16

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Re: WINDOWS VISTA
« Reply #25 on: 2009-01-28, 08:05:28 AM »
my midis sound realistic anyway, so i probably would not try MOD for now. (SoundBlaster Live!)
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bluemonkmn

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Re: WINDOWS VISTA
« Reply #26 on: 2009-01-29, 01:50:25 PM »
I forgot I was in the SGDK 1 forums here.  SGDK 1.x doesn't play MOD files, but should play MIDI files just like Media Player does.

tprime

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Re: WINDOWS VISTA
« Reply #27 on: 2009-01-29, 06:16:03 PM »
I forgot I was in the SGDK 1 forums here.  SGDK 1.x doesn't play MOD files, but should play MIDI files just like Media Player does.

Oh, so do you know what is wrong with my computer? ???

bluemonkmn

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Re: WINDOWS VISTA
« Reply #28 on: 2009-01-29, 09:10:15 PM »
The only thing I can guess is bad sound drivers.

SmartBoy16

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Re: WINDOWS VISTA
« Reply #29 on: 2009-01-29, 11:12:17 PM »
Looking to the skies.....