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DS Misc > FrequenDS

#103381 - chrisluu - Thu Sep 21, 2006 2:10 pm

Hello, this is Nuudles, the coder of the FrequenDS port. Right now I've been very busy with my work, so I haven't been able to program as much as I would've liked recently. I was wondering how much interest there was in this project right now and what people think are priorities so I can arrange my time most wisely. I think the biggest things for me to do right now are to

1) Fix the sync/speed problem
2) Get the channel muting working

Then we should have a generic working model for me to expand on. So anyone try out the alpha and have any comments/concerns/feedback?[/url]

#103402 - josath - Thu Sep 21, 2006 4:43 pm

chrisluu wrote:
Hello, this is Nuudles, the coder of the FrequenDS port. Right now I've been very busy with my work, so I haven't been able to program as much as I would've liked recently. I was wondering how much interest there was in this project right now and what people think are priorities so I can arrange my time most wisely. I think the biggest things for me to do right now are to

1) Fix the sync/speed problem
2) Get the channel muting working

Then we should have a generic working model for me to expand on. So anyone try out the alpha and have any comments/concerns/feedback?[/url]


It's pretty cool so far, I love this type of game. I agree with your two biggest priorities, and would like to add:
* File selector, to easily pick a song

Also, perhaps include an easier song for testing? I found it almost impossible to hit any of the notes, because they are all off-beat, at a weird tempo. However it could be due to sync problems, but I couldn't tell.

A good starter song is 'ones.it' - "Beautiful Ones". a very simple and even beat that slowly builds.

Also, as far as the look -- I think i did manage to 'complete' one track once, but there is not enough visual feedback. As far as I can tell, the dots just get slightly smaller. I think you need to either fade the track to another color, to differentiate between failed tracks / currently playing tracks / and completeded tracks.

Another thing: I tried including my own .mod & .wam file, and it didn't seem to work correctly. The music played, but the notes were very strange, and it seemed like they were going off the tracks into space! Are there any limitations on .mod or .wam files, or do i need to use a specific version of marfitude?

anyway, keep up the great work! hopefully you can collaborate with the amplituDS author, his sync is pretty good, and then perhaps he can use your .wam method (to make it easy to add songs)

#103410 - Dark Knight ez - Thu Sep 21, 2006 5:38 pm

I've talked with Nuudles (chrisluu) on MSN.

It seems Marfitude uses a mod* file's channels to map onto lanes by muting and unmuting them. Nuudles is using that same method. This explains why he can use the layout files created by Marfitude.

I, however, have hacked libmikmod for mapping an IT file's instruments onto lanes. In order to support other formats than IT, I'd have to use the same method as Nuudles. I'm thinking of implementing it, and making the usage of instrumentation over channels optional. Maybe. Depends on how desperate people are for non-IT support.

We also talked about why his game might have problems with some music files. He might have to resort to having libmikmod on ARM9 (like I have) instead of on ARM7. Both have its pros and cons. If he wants to keep it on ARM7, and can get it working properly, I might switch to do the same thing, resulting in an increase of framerate for gameplay.
We also talked a bit about synching. Not thoroughly though. We'll have to look at each other's source code to aid each other more.

All in all, he's off to a great start. The DS now having AmplituDS and FrequenDS as well, will make my handheld experience a lot more fun. :)


*) by mod, I mean all music files which can be played by libmikmod.

#103418 - retrohead - Thu Sep 21, 2006 8:13 pm

Interesting stuff. Can't wait to play a more playable version of this one. Music games are always fun and it's good to see developers knocking thier heads together to overcome problems :)

I will watch this closely. I converted your movie to a flash for my website. I hope you don't mind ;)

#103450 - chrisluu - Fri Sep 22, 2006 1:02 am

josath wrote:

It's pretty cool so far, I love this type of game. I agree with your two biggest priorities, and would like to add:
* File selector, to easily pick a song

That's definitely on my to-do list. For now I was just making sure it worked with a specific file

josath wrote:

Also, perhaps include an easier song for testing? I found it almost impossible to hit any of the notes, because they are all off-beat, at a weird tempo. However it could be due to sync problems, but I couldn't tell.

A good starter song is 'ones.it' - "Beautiful Ones". a very simple and even beat that slowly builds.

I tried the ones.it file first actually, but it was one of the IT files I was unable to get loaded. Actually it loads, but when I start to play the music, it crashed. I'll try to find an easier song, but the main problem you were probably experiencing was the fact that it was out of sync

josath wrote:

Also, as far as the look -- I think i did manage to 'complete' one track once, but there is not enough visual feedback. As far as I can tell, the dots just get slightly smaller. I think you need to either fade the track to another color, to differentiate between failed tracks / currently playing tracks / and completeded tracks.

Yes, I was worried about that for a little while, but someone suggested I make sure the functionality worked before adding "eye candy." I am trying to get the tracks to go to half opacity when you clear them, but for the life of me I couldn't get it to work. I spent several days trying to mess with the Alpha, but never got anywhere, so I thought I'd release and see if someone could give me a hand with getting the glPolyFmt Alpha stuff to work properly.

josath wrote:

Another thing: I tried including my own .mod & .wam file, and it didn't seem to work correctly. The music played, but the notes were very strange, and it seemed like they were going off the tracks into space! Are there any limitations on .mod or .wam files, or do i need to use a specific version of marfitude?

Could you send me the MOD and WAM files that you were having problems with? You can Email me at nuudles on Gmail. Thanks for the comments!

#103466 - tssf - Fri Sep 22, 2006 3:48 am

Dark Knight ez wrote:
I've talked with Nuudles (chrisluu) on MSN.

It seems Marfitude uses a mod* file's channels to map onto lanes by muting and unmuting them. Nuudles is using that same method. This explains why he can use the layout files created by Marfitude.

I, however, have hacked libmikmod for mapping an IT file's instruments onto lanes. In order to support other formats than IT, I'd have to use the same method as Nuudles. I'm thinking of implementing it, and making the usage of instrumentation over channels optional. Maybe. Depends on how desperate people are for non-IT support.

We also talked about why his game might have problems with some music files. He might have to resort to having libmikmod on ARM9 (like I have) instead of on ARM7. Both have its pros and cons. If he wants to keep it on ARM7, and can get it working properly, I might switch to do the same thing, resulting in an increase of framerate for gameplay.
We also talked a bit about synching. Not thoroughly though. We'll have to look at each other's source code to aid each other more.

All in all, he's off to a great start. The DS now having AmplituDS and FrequenDS as well, will make my handheld experience a lot more fun. :)


*) by mod, I mean all music files which can be played by libmikmod.


I don't see why the method would be much different for other fileformats, XM's use instruments as well. And, for non-instrument-supporting formats like S3M or MOD, you could always simply tell it to change the sample main volume instead. :)
_________________
Mathew Valente [TSSF]
------
Chrono Resurrection Musician

#103494 - Dark Knight ez - Fri Sep 22, 2006 9:57 am

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll look into that.

@chrisluu
You might want to actually test if what I assumed to happen with libmikmod on ARM7 actually does happen. (Libmikmod being called to update when it's already busy.) At the update call, do something like this:
Code:
if (updating_libmikmod) { // this is a bad thing. definitely.
    //play-some-sound indicating this has happened.
    //or alternatively, tell ARM9 this has happened and print it on screen.
}
updating_libmikmod=1;
MikMod_Update();
updating_libmikmod=0;

with the updating_libmikmod variable being global and initialized to 0.