Website / Audio WIP information

[Azimer]

Keep in mind, my website is down right now. I believe the the Domain Name expired. I will likely just move it to apollo.emulation64.com to save the site some money if there is room on their DNS. Otherwise, it's time to find a new home. Either way, I am going to make a small audio update soon of some odds and ends I've been working on. I will post it on the website or here (if needed). The new site isn't coming along well, so I will revert back to the old one at that time too.

[olivieryuyu]

hmm happy to see that you're still working on n64 audio emulation

Hope your new website 'll be open soon

Thanks :)

[JinXD]

Good to hear Azimer!

[Martin]

My bad, I'll renew it.

[Martin]

Renewed for another 2 years. I also renewed dreamemu.net for another 2 years. Both should work like before in 24-48 hours. :)

[Poobah]

Will the new version of your plugin fix the reverse stereo problems?

[MasterPhW]

Be happy, that ther's a new version and wait for the release... :P

[aprentice]

should be interesting :)

[Gorxon]

I also renewed dreamemu.net for another 2 years.

Now THAT is a waste of money :P

Joking aside, nice that you're still working on the audio Azimer

[Poobah]

Be happy, that ther's a new version and wait for the release... :P

I am happy that there's a new release. I'd still like to know if he fixed that problem though...

[Azimer]

Reversed audio is fixed. Sorry for lack of response. My life got uprooted and I am in the process of moving. I am still planning on the release and some subsequent fix releases so it's the next best version rather than a half-arsed release when it goes on the website. I felt badly that some of the prior releases were not as good as I wished.

[krhyluv]

woohoo! thanks azi, can't wait your sound plugins rock!

rhY

[Poobah]

Yes, thank you for deciding to finish it up!

[Azimer]

Just thought a little update might be in order.

As you know the reversed audio is fixed. However, the current audio code is based on PJ 1.4 Audio Fix version. I wonder if it's better to leave it like this or try to make it as compatible with PJ 1.5 as I possibly can. Another solution is to see if zil will allow me to create a custom 1.5 executable for distribution. Any suggestions welcome.

Some of the current issues I've been working on is Golden Eye's missing audio, optimizations, and adding flexibility to the audio plugin. If anyone finds strange audio in any game, please let me know.

Also, if anyone knows of a way to see if an audio signal is dolby encoded, let me know. I am really confused why a previous audio plugin release was dolby capable while the recent ones are not. I am beginning to wonder if I need to set something in DirectSound or if I need to send the audio a specific way.

[olivieryuyu]

ok i know a game that you should look a bit if you have time: Top Gear Rally (and may be Stunt Racer and World driver championship)

it's a Boss Games studio. All Boss Games studio have problem with sound because i think that they are using a different way either to use sound or because they have developed their own audio system .

I think also that timings are causing a lot of problems in those games and at least with Top gear Rally the sound is nearly correct with your Audio fix.

But the sound in game is very strange: i think their is two main channels in this game: one for music, one for the car and so on sounds. Playing with timings help a lot to get better sound (in fact having sound) (check PM to understand what i mean by this) but with the RSP of PJ64 1.5 (or 1.6 as PJ 1.6 is out) the music channel seems to messing up.

it's as if the two channels didn't succeed to mix them up correctly or something like that (i'm unsure of that of course .... )

well that is just empiric test but may be it would be nice to see that

Thanks :)

BTW here a list of the Boss Game studio:

Stunt Racer 64, Top Gear Rally, Twisted Edge Extreme Snowboarding, World Driver Championship.

As you can see all those have major problems with audio or core/audio problem.

Twisted Edge Extreme Snowboarding: no sound

Top Gear Rally: only working with Audiofix edition and sound is not very good

Stunt Racer 64 and World Driver Championship: doesn't pass the first screen whatever i tried : i think it's a core/audio problem(to have gfx use Rice video plugin)

PS: with Audiofix 2 i think it' s abit better (??)

[Persephone]

Hello Azimer,
Regarding the fact that PJ64 1.6 seems to be a good emulator, i think the best is trying to make your plugin as compatible and optimized as possible with PJ64 1.6, like you suggested. It should make good results.

[Federelli]

Great news Azimer :). Your plugin, even in it's current state, is the best one IMO.

[Spacy]

Nice :)
At the moment, your plugin prevents to speed up the game (deactivating speed limiter). It would be nice, if your plugin wouldn't always limit the speed, because I use this feature very often.

[Poobah]

Yeah, I would also like to see the option of disabling 'sync game to audio'.

[olivieryuyu]

i bought recently Top gear Rally and i noticed that moreover the problem i described above about the mix of the "channels" there is some missing sound sometimes (or i didn't notice them with the emulator). i will try to see if i can record the sound and do an mp3 with it (if i succeed i'm quite unsure i'll succeed) and of course if you want to hear how it should be (???)

;)

BTW: i asked to Zilmar if he can provide PJ 1.5/1.6 source code to you in order to improve your AudioFix

here is his answer:

http://www.emutalk.net/showthread.php?p=267209#post267209

Hope now all will be fine :)

[Azimer]

:pj64:
i bought recently Top gear Rally ...
i will try to see if i can record the sound and do an mp3 ...

BTW: i asked to Zilmar if he can provide PJ 1.5/1.6 source code to you in order to improve your AudioFix

...


About Top Gear, that sounds like a good idea. However, it is not pressing at the moment. If you could find the time to investigate the differences with Jabo's RSP, my plugin, and the N64 and post the differences and a sample of the real sound, I can best figure out the problem. Also, a PJ64 savestate works wonderfully. This info is much too large to transfer over emutalk, so we will need to hook up on IRC or send through email. We will speak more of this when I am ready to look into the issue. Thanks for your effort. :)

About the PJ 1.6 source code. I wasn't around when PJ64 1.6 was released and I haven't had time to program since taking a small leave on April 1st. I will see if there are any Audio synchronization changes in PJ 1.6 before I bother zilmar for source code to add an audio fix. I may have found a method to bypass the need for an audio fixed PJ64. Zilmar and I will have a conversation in the future, once again, when I have investigated PJ 1.6.

About Audio Sync/57fps problem. I am working on correcting this. Please rest assured that I realize there is a problem and it's larger than losing 3fps or "sucking up" more CPU power. You will realize you can not play games like Tarzan or Hydro Thunder (except in the emulators that emulate AI internally) with Audio Sync enabled. The problem is known of and a hack is being worked on or an audio fixed PJ 1.6 will be negotiated with the Project64 team.

Thank you
:pj64:

[ScottJC]

Well here's a rarred save state from PJ64 1.6 with all the default plugins, rarred it in small pieces to attach. I don't know if it is what you're looking for though.

[madh83]

whoops sorry found it forget i asked

[Tillmann]

It is possible to release too a linux port of your new plugin?
Your plugins are the bests plugins of all would be amazing to have they working under linux.
Duno if it would takes you much work... But it's a some kind of "dream" that i have.
cheers

[Azimer]

About linux port... I don't believe I will do one. However, I believe Hack would be more than happy to take my source code and port it to linux. I will be sure to have a word with him. I also apologize for the length of time to release the first beta. I went on an interview two weeks ago and was stuck in that city for two weeks without my laptop. I didn't realize it would be so long. Before I left home I almost had the audio code working wonderfully. I am expecting it to be completed the week of May 1st. The next release only sports better audio code with PJ 1.5 standard. I am sure it will work just as well on PJ 1.6, but I haven't had the opportunity to connect my laptop up to the internet since its release. I will give it a quick test before release, but make no promises. Just remember it is a beta release and not a public release. I would rather get feedback from the general emutalk populace before doing so.
:cheers:

[Tillmann]

When You released the sources of 0.55 I tried to do a port... But am not so skilled to such a work :P (maybe in future) :luck: If Hack take some work on sources would be sweet :linux:

[Azimer]

Here is the release as promised. There isn't a "What's New" file or anything of the sort. The Audio Code is completely rewritten, otherwise, the entire plugin is the same as far as HLE audio. I've been trying to do some work on Tarzan using PJ 1.5 (as you know I haven't gotten chance to get PJ 1.6 on my laptop w/o internet) and it refuses to go ingame. There is nothing I can do about this. I know Hydro works well with the PJ 1.4 Audio Fix, so it should perform the same on PJ 1.5/1.6. The options in the config will not save, so you may have to change it every time if you do not like something. The config settings that are default work best with PJ 1.5 (1.6?). Please do not be confused with this variants Audio Sync. It is new and improved to prevent the unusual condition where an Audio Buffer overflows (such as by not limiting speed) and will do its best to reduce clicks and pops. It will NOT slow down the Audio emulation. TWINE, Hydro Thunder, Tarzan (though not working), Golden Eye, Mario64, Turok II all work at 60 FPS (using RSP for MusyX or RSP/HLE for other uCodes) work very well. I don't have a large collection of roms on my laptop so those are my test roms. Please feel free to post praise or suggestions in this thread. Please keep HLE related criticisms to yourself until I have completed my HLE makeover. Enjoy.

EDIT: Apparently, my disk is corrupt. I will have to find a better disk and reupload the file tomorrow. *sigh*, I really need to get internet service again :( Sorry. Keeping the post here just so I don't have to retype this.

[olivieryuyu]

as you know I haven't gotten chance to get PJ 1.6 on my laptop w/o internet


i hope that you know that PJ 1.6 includes some fix for some games as Tarzan and Hydro thunder called RSP Audio Signal.

good news anyaway ;)

[ajax16384]

i have made some changes to AziSndLLE(0.55.1 alpha) so it now
supports "Dolby Surround" decoding through "Creative Neo6 DMO" (this dll can be registered on other sound cards(not Creative I mean)). DD titles(Zelda,Banjo...) now can be played in "surround".
2Azimer If you publish source of new code I will merge it - or i can post my current source here.
i'm also has an idea how to speed up sound mixing (then using signed short addition this saturation) using MMX (i want to implement it in abi?.cpp first of all).
also thanks to Ryono - his reverse fix and memory copy routines was usefull.

[Poobah]

Wow, nice work! That's something I've been wanting to see in an N64 audio plugin for quite a while.

EDIT: Would you be able to post a download link for the "Creative Neo6 DMO" dll?

[Azimer]

Here it is... but first I will answer some responses since my last post.

olivieryuyu: As you know, I haven't gotten PJ 1.6. As far as I know, only Hydro Thunder was fixed (since I gave zilmar my fix). Though I am not sure if it also fixed Tarzan. If so, then ignore my Tarzan problem as noted in the included readme (yes, I got it working). I also apologize for not remembering what your name is on emutalk. It isn't very easy to remember.

ajax: I am interested in this... but more importantly, I would like to know how the N64 determines if the audio signal is Stereo or Surround. If you go into TWINE, for example, there is an option to set it to Surround. When you do this, the audio format is identical to stereo. It would be nice to find how it really is Surround so we could dynamically switch in game from Stereo to Surround. About your audio fixes/optimizations. I am interested in your ideas and am willing to accept any sources/help/information. I will include them in the next release. Source for this plugin will not be available until I make a "real" release. There is too much mess and commented out code to make it a real release. Once I finalize a release, I remove that code and start from that platform with the next release as opposed to the possibility of falling back on previous work.

I may be interested in some help if I can not get Surround to work on my own. My laptop does not have Surround. Without furthur commentary, here is the release (finally).

All furthur replies for this plugin should be posted at http://www.emutalk.net/showthread.php?p=273139