Doom with Midi Sound (Sound Canvas)

[thorr]

Does anyone know if the PI MT-32 project running on the nearly bare metal Circle OS can work with LAN/UDP mode with the Mister? I just bought a Raspberry Pi 4 and I want to start with just the Pi before I add the MIDI port to it. I can't try it yet because I don't have a Micro HDMI cable (which will arrive tomorrow). If not, I will probably install Raspian Lite with no desktop for now. Thanks!

[rhester72]

I don't think so - don't think the Pi MT-32 has any network stack going at all.

[thorr]

Makes sense. Thanks!

[jordi]

I tried now both DOOM2 and Duke Nukem using baremetal emulator and pi-hat. Sounds incredible.

Doom2:
https://youtu.be/3mj4ZZvqXKw

Duke:
https://youtu.be/o7yOY2bKXfk

[thorr]

Cool that you have it working! Doom and Duke Nukem aren't the best tests for sound quality though as they are not designed to be used with the MT-32. They are general midi which the MT-32 is not so it plays the wrong instruments. I think there may be a way to put the MT-32 into General MIDI mode using SysEx commands or playing a MIDI into it that sets it up. Eventually the MT-32 Pi project is planned to support FluidSynth which should produce good General Midi sound.

I am building my own MT-32 Pi with parts from Digikey and Amazon for the MIDI and a PCM5122 hat. Just waiting for them to arrive. Can't wait!

[bbond007]

I tried now both DOOM2 and Duke Nukem using baremetal emulator and pi-hat. Sounds incredible.

I don't know about incredible - It makes sound... that's good...

As thorr stated, these games are not designed for MT-32, although the MTGM.MID file in this download (from Roland) could possibly help:

https://www.roland.com/us/support/by_pr ... 97dfe1142/

The file works well with my actual MT-32, but I don't think I have ever tried it with MUNT.

I agree that there are better ways to play General MIDI such as FluidSynth running on the MiSTer itself.

[thorr]

I just read the release notes post about the ao486 update and it says this:
- MIDI port (dumb and fake-smart modes)

Does this mean that intelligent mode will work now without softmpu? If so, that is awesome!

[Cebion]

Midiport != MPU401 with intelligent mode.

[bbond007]

Does this mean that intelligent mode will work now without softmpu? If so, that is awesome!

For some games (like Doom), yes.
For others if you run at 30mhz, yes.
For others you'll still may need SoftMPU...

[thorr]

That's fantastic news. Thanks!

[NightShadowPT]

Does this mean that intelligent mode will work now without softmpu? If so, that is awesome!

For some games (like Doom), yes.
For others if you run at 30mhz, yes.
For others you'll still may need SoftMPU...

I am not sure what kind of witchcraft and wizardry was done, but a lot (if not all) of the Sierra Games (known to require Intelligent Mode) are running without SoftMPU.

Curious to learn what other games that require Intelligent mode work (or not).

[Schyz]

I am not sure what kind of witchcraft and wizardry was done, but a lot (if not all) of the Sierra Games (known to require Intelligent Mode) are running without SoftMPU.

Curious to learn what other games that require Intelligent mode work (or not).

This is probably related to this update:
"uart: use tx fifo for mpu. fake intelligent mode."
https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/ao486_M ... edc09cd417

It's quite amazing that Sorgelig wasn't very interested in MIDI from the beginning, but still, he keeps providing solutions even in this aspect, first adding a dumb mode for GM support on protected mode, and now some MT-32 support without SoftMPU. For a person that has 0 interest on a technology and is still able to improve it, says a lot about his skills. And this is just the last of his work, he has been involved in many other cores fixing all kinds of issues, involving so many different architectures... one wonders if there is anything in the electronics world out of his reach.

I have to highlight that SoftMPU consumes CPU resources and avoiding its use will provide a better performance in some games, so this is not just a benefit for audio but also for speed.

[NightShadowPT]

No question Sorgelig is a genius with lots of dedication to this project. His skills are legendary!

And I agree that having a full MPU401 would make the core pretty much perfect, but I'm already thankful for what we currently have in place.

By the way, I tested some more and realized the following:

- Games like Police Quest 2 or Space Quest 3 seem to work, but for some reason the Sierra "jingle" does not play at all
- Other games seem to have the instrument mapping off (i.e.: Leisure Suit Larry 6 and Monkey Island)

Will continue testing and reporting here.

[Schyz]

Monkey Island 1 is one of the few MT-32 games that doesn't require intelligent mode, it even works half-decent with the MT-32 emulation of some MIDI daughterboards or even with the MT-32 emulation of the AWE32/64

[thorr]

I got my mt32-pi working, but it has some hanging notes. I posted an issue on the mt32-pi github page. This is not the MiSTer's fault as my SC55 mk2 works perfectly with it. Does anyone know if there is a way in Raspian to configure Munt to use the MIDI port I added to the GPIO pins? I don't see any configuration for Munt where you define the source of the MIDI data whether it is via a USB midi interface, a GPIO midi interface, or internal using dosbox or whatever. I already got Munt installed on Raspian, but the GPIO midi interface isn't being used with it. I want to see if I still get hanging notes when not using the mt32-pi OS. Thanks!