[Patch] Suggestion : add GUS MAX and Crystal soundcards

Discussion of development and patch submission.
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altheos
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Joined: Wed 24 Feb, 2016 7:27 pm

[Patch] Suggestion : add GUS MAX and Crystal soundcards

Post by altheos »

Hello,

first, as a warn, i'm no programmer, so don't blame me for what you will read below.

I think that PCem could add GUS MAX support as nearly everything is already emulated : a gus MAX is classic GUS with the addition of a CS4231 Codec (WSS).
I read the GUS SDK, a CS4231 tech sheet, compared with a real card and made small modifications to PCem : result is below as diff.
diff.zip
(2.29 KiB) Downloaded 337 times
My changes certainly breaks WSS but I don't have any software that could test it.

What is working : ultrinit (!), Cubic Player (but it shouldn't :D ) and classic GUS.
What is not working : everything else (Windows hangs at start, reading codec init register continously).
What it lacks : Line Input, CDROM support, GUI integration, ADPCM, dma pairing, full duplex ....

This thread is here to ask if GUS MAX and Crystal soundcard support is planned and, if not, if someone is willing to help me with the code ;)
Thanks.
Last edited by altheos on Mon 24 Jul, 2017 1:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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leilei
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Re: Suggestion : add GUS MAX and Crystal soundcards

Post by leilei »

CS4231's also involved with other WSS cards. The Monte Carlo mentioned in the readme is one such card with the same chip (but not yet emulated).
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omarsis81
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Re: Suggestion : add GUS MAX and Crystal soundcards

Post by omarsis81 »

Just wondering... why do you like to have the Crystal Sound Card? Wasn't that a cheap Sound Blaster replacement?
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leilei
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Re: Suggestion : add GUS MAX and Crystal soundcards

Post by leilei »

It's part of an early attempt at standardizing general sound specifications (think AC'97 but in '93). 48khz (as opposed to SB16's 44khz) and insistence on real OPL3 (but not always) is one big part of it. Many games do support WSS directly, though WSS's sb compatibility with some cards' emulationTSRs are finicky and buggy and some don't even have DirectSound support
altheos
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Re: Suggestion : add GUS MAX and Crystal soundcards

Post by altheos »

@omarsis :
cause it shouldn't be too hard to add as CS4231 is really close to the AD1848 that PCem already emulate (as part of WSS) and Crystal sound cards (4231/4232/4236) can be found on many boards.
altheos
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Re: Suggestion : add GUS MAX and Crystal soundcards

Post by altheos »

So no one is interested in theses cards ?
I finally succeded in launching Win 3.1 with GUS MAX driver. But this leads to another problem as samples are playing in a continuous loop. I probably ovelooked some latches.
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omarsis81
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Re: Suggestion : add GUS MAX and Crystal soundcards

Post by omarsis81 »

altheos wrote:So no one is interested in theses cards ?
I finally succeded in launching Win 3.1 with GUS MAX driver. But this leads to another problem as samples are playing in a continuous loop. I probably ovelooked some latches.
Speaking for myself, new hardware is always welcome! I personaly don't think I'm going to use it, but if you want to submit it, I guess Sarah would be willing to apply it
Battler
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Re: Suggestion : add GUS MAX and Crystal soundcards

Post by Battler »

Indeed, this wouldn't hurt to have. :p
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leilei
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Re: Suggestion : add GUS MAX and Crystal soundcards

Post by leilei »

altheos wrote:But this leads to another problem as samples are playing in a continuous loop. I probably ovelooked some latches.
I've tried your patch earlier with Monte Carlo drivers on WSS and it did exactly this.
altheos
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Joined: Wed 24 Feb, 2016 7:27 pm

Re: Suggestion : add GUS MAX and Crystal soundcards

Post by altheos »

Hello,

I fixed the sound loop and polished a little more the code.I focused on making the GUS MAX works. Analog Device and Crystal emulation are splitted for future expansion but right now it's not really usefull.
Patch needs testing so here it is :
src.zip
(7.17 KiB) Downloaded 328 times
I need to find out how ADPCM 4bit works but I consider this patch as a WIP :recording, full duplex, CDROM controller (Sony, Mitsumi, Panasonic) and more are missing.
Please let me know results of your tests.
ndavis82
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Re: [Patch] Suggestion : add GUS MAX and Crystal soundcards

Post by ndavis82 »

Every time I try to install the GUS drivers the emulated PC hangs when the installation programs gets to the Sound Blaster emulation testing. How have you gotten past this? What drivers and what PC configuration are you using?
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SarahWalker
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Re: [Patch] Suggestion : add GUS MAX and Crystal soundcards

Post by SarahWalker »

Just tried it with v4.11 and it works fine...
ndavis82
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Re: [Patch] Suggestion : add GUS MAX and Crystal soundcards

Post by ndavis82 »

SarahWalker wrote:Just tried it with v4.11 and it works fine...
Hmm... so it looks like the lock up has something to do with using 486DX2. I tried Pentium Overdrive and it finally got passed the screen.
altheos
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Re: [Patch] Suggestion : add GUS MAX and Crystal soundcards

Post by altheos »

Does someone knows a good ADPCM sound player on DOS/windows 3.1 ? I found samples but can't use them to make my tests.
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