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Messages - Mark Szkolnicki

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31
Multimedia / Re: Updated Uniaud32 build
« on: November 08, 2022, 04:32:24 am »
Heh Paul!

Not major code changes, but I updated the uniaud32 code to 6.0.7 - https://smedley.id.au/tmp/uniaud32-linux-6.0.7-20221106.zip

Nothing broke here with the new release, as expected, Sir.

The various quirks with the Soundblaster cards remain the same - I've given up for the moment on filing tickets, as the automated system for signing up to gaining access to TRAC is broken and I've had no follow-up from Adrian after three weeks.

Hope your having a more pleasant start to the week - have had 50 cm of snow since November 2, high winds and wind chills, and expecting lows of -28 C overnight. So much for sunny, bare ground and 14 C on Halloween, only 7 days ago ...........  ???

Best!

M


32
Games / Re: DOS VDM - USB and Game port Gamepad support
« on: November 08, 2022, 04:09:53 am »
Heh Dave!

Hi Mark,

  Here is the line I use in CONFIG.SYS:

DEVICE=C:\OS2\BOOT\USBECD.SYS /D:046D:C21#:4014 /N:$GAMEPD$ /S

Is that # a typo for 6?

Wim's USBECD.SYS does allow global characters to be used in the descriptors - I suspect that if C21# was changed to C216, like your F310, it would make no difference.

With the Logilink connection on my older Thrustmaster Flight Pro, the second grouping for me is actually 203#, as switching between modes 1-4 could be ID's 2030 2031 2032 or 2033.

I was interested, knowing your equipment ID, as to whether Davids was the same - and its not.

Your Device Release Code is 0300 his is 4014 - I suspect a much newer version.

I ran into this when I was having a discussion with Ivan related to the Corsair K95 keyboard - mine had 6 customizable keys to the left and was bought new 2 years ago - his has 18 and is a legacy board - but the model number is the same.

Looking at the oinput data, I suspect signals may be totally different between the two JoyPads - but that is something for another day.

M


33
Games / Re: DOS VDM - USB and Game port Gamepad support
« on: November 07, 2022, 06:50:00 pm »
Heh Dave!

Manual says for modern games, to use XInput mode with DirectInput being an older input standard and better for older games.

Ran across this in my research today:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/xinput/xinput-game-controller-apis-portal

and of course that stellar answerer of questions, Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectInput

XInput is a Windows API for "next generation" controllers, and was introduced in December 2005 alongside the launch of the Xbox 360. This specification provided support for Xbox 360 controllers in Windows XP SP1 and subsequent operating systems, and is described by Microsoft as being easier to program for and requiring less setup than DirectInput. XInput is compatible with DirectX version 9 and later.

DirectInput is a legacy Microsoft API for collecting input from a computer user, via input devices such as the mouse, keyboard, or a gamepad. It also provides a system for action mapping, which allows the user to assign specific actions within a game to the buttons and axes of the input devices.

Advantages of DirectInput over XInput:

- XInput supports only controllers that work with the Microsoft Xbox console
- XInput supports a maximum of four controllers at a time. DirectInput has no such limit
- XInput does not support keyboards, mice, or mouse-type devices. While this mirrors Microsoft's recommendation not to use DirectInput with these devices, programmers can use DirectInput with these devices.
- XInput supports maximum of 4 axes, 10 buttons, 2 triggers and 8-direction digital pad per controller, compared to DirectInput's support for 8 axes, 128 buttons, and full-range POV. (The number of axes, buttons and triggers XInput supports corresponds directly to the Xbox 360 controller.)

Advantages of XInput over DirectInput:

- Currently supported by Microsoft

Sounded like the Wikipedia article writer was just a little biased towards DirectInput (sic)  ;D

If your gamepad is stuck in DirectInput mode, obviously some kid loved his legacy games, Windows or otherwise, or gave up that controller long ago - however as that's what we're trying to address here, its probably the mode you and David would like to test in if we can ever get this going and Best!

M


34
Games / Re: DOS VDM - USB and Game port Gamepad support
« on: November 07, 2022, 04:46:36 pm »
Heh David!


 Hope this is useful. What would be the next step?

Regards,

Could you also post your Equipment ID for the gamepad (the one generated and which you added to Wims USBECD,SYS /D: and /N: statements.

Also that seems to be a lot of buttons - do any of the buttons overlap in function?

M

35
Games / Re: DOS VDM - USB and Game port Gamepad support
« on: November 07, 2022, 03:01:41 pm »
Hi Mark,

thank you very much for your kind words and deep explanations!  I really do appreciate the work you and your fellows are doing in this thread, great!

I made a presantation at our (sadly) Last User Meeting in Cologne yesterday with Dosbox and ScummVm as topics. I remember the painfull memory management and config.sys trials and errors to get in 1995 enough free memory on MS DOS 6.22 (needed almost 580/590k of free memory if i remember correctly), for my first (and still for me one of alltime best) DOS Game named BIOFORGE from Origin. So my 486 PC at that time had Dualboot with OS/2 Warp 3 and MS DOS 6.22.

After several Years Paul Smedley thankfully ported ScummVM to OS/2, wich makes - with a lot of other DOS Games and even Hopkins FBI, - Broken Sword 1+2 playable on OS/2, without any restrictions!

All the best and good luck!!

Sigurd

Yes I heard about Cologne closing up on the Java Applications thread about a week ago.

I was particularly interested in that, as I followed Joops efforts for a number of years - I run about 20 Java applications including games, and that was all due to his efforts - from his work I learned how to run Java apps through CMD files, and still have those templates.

I'm sorry to see that he shutdown the website, as I don't think he ever received the recognition he deserves for his work there - for many years I have been more a lurker than a contributor and tester, out of necessity, running my own consulting firm and doing emergency planning and training and response around the world.

Now in semi-retirement I've been spending a lot of time testing both this project, as well as Paul's UniAud32 efforts, and going down my "To Do" list of things I wanted to get working in the past, being a hardware geek and building my own towers.

I go back to having the third IBM PC in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada in the early 80's - the machine had NO hard drives, an 8086 processor (no 8087 co-processor) and if I recall right 16 M of memory, had an advanced video card (Hercules monochrome), and no sound card (got a Soundblaster original when I could afford it) - it ran DOS 5.0 off a floppy, and had two full height 360 K 6 inch floppy drives. But I could still run my first Word Processor (Volkswriter) on that configuration.

Started with OS/2 2.0 on a 386 box over 30 years ago, and have run my business on the various OS incarnations since, using Virtual PC and VirtualBox mostly, to run Windows as needed.

I hang around here mostly because I admire the work done by some very dedicated and talented people - and because I've made a lot of friends here  8)

Despite Cologne, hope I still see you hanging around here Sigurd - and I'm always interested in what people have to say, if you want to contribute to any conversation.

Best of the week to you Sir!

M


36
Games / Re: DOS VDM - USB and Game port Gamepad support
« on: November 06, 2022, 06:16:09 pm »
Heh David!

Hi Mark,

 OK, I got some logs. From looking at oinput.cmd console output, it seems this Logitech F310 gamepad (in XInput mode) has 2 types of controllers: on-off (mostly buttons) and continuous (triggers and joysticks). The on-off buttons display a hexidecimal string (0-9, A-F) 144 digits long when I hit the button, then another one when I let go. The continuous controllers show the same in a stream until I either let go, or hold a position (looks like 4096 values from full off to full on).

 So I started with buttons in this order: LB, RB, Back, Logitech, Start, A, B, X, Y: 'buttons.txt'. These are all on-off. The 'Mode' button does not produce any output so not included.

 Then the 2 front triggers in this order: LT, RT - pulled them all the way on, then all the way off one at a time: 'triggers.txt'. These are continuous.

 Next the thumbpad at top left in this manner: forward, backward, left, right: 'leftpad.txt'. This is a 4-way on-off button.

 Now each joystick separately this way: press all the way forward - let go, then all the way backward-let go, then all the way left-let go, then all the way right- let go: 'rightstick.txt' and 'leftstick.txt'. These are continuous.

 Finally, the joysticks are also on-off buttons when pressed down - did the left then right stick button: 'joybutton.txt'.

 Hope this is useful. What would be the next step?

Regards,

I would expect there to be two types of output - the buttons (or switches) on and off and then the continuous outputs which are used for movement.

The question as I see it is how are those signals mapped so that they can be transferred to controlling the game or other app in question.

In the xevents files (are we really doing a rerun of the X-Files ?!?!?!), again as I see it, it is a matter of trying to adapt the CMD file so that it recognizes the signals coming from your gamepad and passes them through to the app. We have an example to work from, for both gamepads and joysticks - the question is, is it a matter of tweaking the existing lines in the CMD file, or is each piece of equipment somewhat unique?

Wim mentioned when we started this that he did not feel using his Extended Control driver was the appropriate approach, and I see why now - essentially using this approach is creating a custom driver for each piece of equipment - however, I think we need to get more devices in testing at the moment, and more people involved, so we can assess where to go next, hence continuing this way, to start.

I'd like to see what Dave comes up with related to his oinput files and I asked him to run a couple of other tests as well. As I said, I'm just starting this, project management wise, to see if it is beyond me or not - but having data to review is a good first step.

Thanks for this - I'll let you know when I have a plan to proceed and Best!

M


37
Games / Re: DOS VDM - USB and Game port Gamepad support
« on: November 06, 2022, 03:16:31 pm »
Mark,

  Not -80! I meant 'approximately 80F' (using the '~' symbol). Ended up at 82F - not quite a record. I'm East Coast US, mid-Atlantic (Delaware). If it ever hits -80 here, I won't be any more...

Regards,

Whew, you had me worried, Sir - thought you were in exile in Antarctica, or Siberia with nothing but your computer ........... and a gamepad!  ;D

Take it from me, after a certain minus temperature numbers are irrelevant - cold is just ........... C-O-L-D.     :'(

At least you can pile on extra clothing if needed (and Command Starts were the greatest invention ever - due to the cold, before those came along, we used to leave our vehicles running constantly in the winter, as it would be too cold to get them started otherwise).

When I was in India, consulting for the Gas Authority there, at 42 degrees C, I learned you can only take so much off ............ !  ::)

M

38
Games / Re: DOS VDM - USB and Game port Gamepad support
« on: November 06, 2022, 03:07:02 pm »
Heh Sigurd!

Just my 2 Cents here: Have not read through the whole thread but in my opinion one should Focus on Dosbox instead of DOS VDM.

This is because:

- DOSbox has integrated Soundblaster AND Ultrasound Support, preconfigured. Working out of the Box. As long as Arcaos Supports Sound you will allways get Sound with Dosgames

E.G.: try to install Warcraft 2 inside DOS VDM, the setup will not recognize the soundcards. Install it in Dosbox and it will find Soundblaster AND Ultrasound

- DOSBox is able to handle the DOS4GW Extender, that is needed for many later DOS Games. This did never reliable work, if at all, in DOS VDM

Keeping this in mind I would Focus on Gamepad Support in Dosbox rather then invest time in any kind of work (Sound, Extender etc.) in DOS VDM.

DOS VDM is a waste of time as it will never reach the quality of Dosbox, due to technical Limitations.

And best of all: DOSBOX is free of charge and an installable wpi.

Just my two Cents.

All the best!

And a valuable 2 cents, Sir - except here in Canada we have no pennies anymore - got rid of them nearly a decade ago now.   ;D

As the thread is really about getting game controllers (gamepads and joysticks) working on modern computers we've been testing the controllers we've got working on all of the permutations we can on OS/2 derived systems (ie. OS2/eCS/ArcaOS) - this includes Dos VDM, DOSBox, Native OS/2, and now SDL games.

Related to legacy DOS games I agree with you - one of the key games Martin and I started testing with Wim's (Wim Bruls) kind assistance was Wolfenstein 3D - despite fiddling around with settings and SET SOUND options I personally was never able to get sound working correctly there, as a VDM - there was not that problem in any way, setting up in DOSBox, using DOSBox GUI - in fact I have set up and use successfully 5 games in DOSBox for testing, with the current custom drivers Wim created (including Wolfenstein 3D, Star Wars: Dark Forces, Mechwarrior 2, Comanche 2 and Ultimate Doom).

Wim actually felt there was a calibration problem within our version of DOSBox related to game controllers, and posted a suggested change to DOSBox for Jochen to have a look at, in the Spring - don't know if that was ever considered, even as an experimental DOSBox version as it would be interesting to test.

So that's the synopsis in a nutshell, Sigurd - I did create a testing guide with a summary of this information, now at v1.3, back in the Spring, which was posted in this thread - we are currently assessing if we can press forward with this ourselves, as Wim decided to withdraw in the Spring, for health reasons.

But 2 cents is indeed still very valuable here - even more valuable now that a cent produced by the Royal Canadian Mint is now a collectors item in Canada .........  8)

Best!

M

39
Games / Re: DOS VDM - USB and Game port Gamepad support
« on: November 05, 2022, 06:50:26 pm »
Heh Dave!

Haven't had much luck with building a recent SDL_mixer, the configure build seems broken and our cmake is too old. Doing make all dies with no rule to build sh.exe and for the hell of it I added it to the object directory and then the error became,
Code: [Select]
make: *** No rule to make target `--mode=compile', needed by `build/load_aiff.lo'.  Stop.


Don't know whats up there.
Libmodplug did easily build

Could you do an experimental build of SDL2_mixer? (does it have a newer cmake)

Don't know the differences between the two, or how SDL and SDL2 relate, so asking my weekend dumb question.

M

40
Games / Re: DOS VDM - USB and Game port Gamepad support
« on: November 05, 2022, 06:46:29 pm »
Heh Again David!

Hi Mark,

 Jeez... I hope you like snow. Record temps here today.. ~80F.


I'm a child of the Great White North, Sir. Obviously, your a child of the Ever Melting South, or very lucky at the moment  :P

@Edit1 - Wait a minute ............. did you say -80 F ?!?!?!  ???
Used to work up in Norman Wells, Northwest Territories with Enbridge, about 200 km south of the Arctic Circle - didn't get to -80 ........... but many days in the winter at -60 C

Where the "h" are you?

I have been playing around with the gamepad and actually got some progress.. if I set it to XInput (it has a switch to change between DirectInput and XInput, whatever they are) and use the Oinput64 (for a Playstation controller I believe) file that Wim posted a while back, I get controller output on the console. Any other Oinput file, or DirectInput, gives me a sys0031: A device attached to the system is not functioning. Not sure what to do with it at this point (since Wim has backed off on this project), but it's a start. I'll fool around with it as time permits. Would be nice to know if this works for Dave too...

Regards,

That's interesting information - and obviously you have a little experience at least with REXX.

I'd be interested in seeing your modified xevents file and your oinput Buttons and Stick logs, as per Wims instructions, when we started all this. Your equipment ID as well, if you'd like to post them here or send all those privately (you should have a private message from me, sent just a few minutes ago).

You've already advanced the process I was hoping to just start and Best!

M

@Edit2 - BTW - I still keep in touch with Wim, to check in and see how things are going - health issues are involved. As with my wife, this aging thing is not for the faint of heart.   M Too

41
Games / Re: DOS VDM - USB and Game port Gamepad support
« on: November 05, 2022, 06:01:55 pm »
Heh David!

Under more snow and blowing snow today - 30 cm since Nov. 2 - so staying inside for the day.

Dave,

  I have the exact same gamepad here, but have never been able to get it to work. Would you mind sharing your oinput.cmd and xevents.cmd files for your Logitech F310 gamepad?

Regards,

As  Dave mentioned he doesn't have a working xevents.cmd for his gamepad. Martin and I have been testing his versions of SDL Rocks N Diamonds

I started a private conversation with Dave to see where he stands at the moment in trying to implement Wims drivers if at all. As mentioned previously, I wanted to get back on this project as a winter hobby - my conversation with Dave is intended to see if we could get his gamepad running, with modifications to Martin's xevents - I was hoping if we can expand the base of working equipment, it might give us a clue as to the path forward for this.

Having reviewed the xevents.cmd files, both mine and Martins, the REXX files are about 70-75% common in nature, related to programming - the differences are in the custom programming related to the various control signals being passed to the game controller drivers, through Wims Extended Control driver

I do have the gamepad xevents that Martin is using successfully for his SNES gsmerpad, which I have posted below, if you want to have a look. I was hoping to use that as a template, to modify, if we can get some oinput data.

As Martin is at Warpstock this weekend, he's probably unavailable, but perhaps when he gets back you can ask him for the button.log and stick.log file he generated with his version of oinput. If you can generate similar oinput logs for your gamepad, or Dave can, that should give us something to compare to.

As mentioned numerous times I'm not a programmer, but age takes on things youth will not do because it takes too long - I'm hoping to pick up some REXX programming in all of this and as the Beatles song goes "get by with a little help from my friends". If you do indeed have the same game controller as Dave, perhaps the three of us can puzzle it out together, but I'd like to try this out privately first, if your willing to do that.

Best!

M

42
Games / Re: DOS VDM - USB and Game port Gamepad support
« on: November 04, 2022, 06:11:16 pm »
Hi Dave!

Quickly looking, I don't see what they're now using for MOD support.

I did a quick troll around this morning.

It seems that modplug is what is being used for MOD files.

Looking in the cmake directory on github for SDL_Mixer:

https://github.com/libsdl-org/SDL_mixer
https://github.com/libsdl-org/SDL_mixer/tree/main/cmake

read that in findmodplug,cmake

There is such a thing as libmodplug but not that I could see in the repositories in ANPM. Found references and links to it on sourceforge:

https://modplug-xmms.sourceforge.net/#whatis

libmodplug v0.8.8.5 is the last build listed on that page, dated March 2014 - references a Linux file.which can still be downloaded.

M

43
Games / Re: DOS VDM - USB and Game port Gamepad support
« on: November 03, 2022, 09:34:42 pm »
Heh Dave!

Also sdl2_mixer doesn't have mod support so some warnings from that and no music. Needs sdl2_net as well. Only lightly tested

Didn't find anything on the up arrow problem, but found an interesting thread on no sound:

https://www.artsoft.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2222

It makes reference to "building SDL_mixer with external SMPEG library support (for MP3 support)" being a problem with SDL2_mixer as well.

So it may also be a problem with the SDL2_mixer for ArcaOS as well as the MOD problem you described.

M

44
Games / Re: DOS VDM - USB and Game port Gamepad support
« on: November 03, 2022, 01:52:48 pm »
Heh Dave!

Holger has been pretty helpful and at one time OS/2 was officially supported and he even fixed a bug for us a while back that made building more pain free. I did run across the up arrow bug in a previous version I built, it was on of the reasons I never released it.
While playing with your Win32 version, perhaps test the network code

Were you ever able to ask him about this up arrow drift - the posts I was reading are about 5 years old (2017).

https://www.artsoft.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2312

Can you recall what you included in the previous build, and was it also SDL related, or DOS (or OS/2 native for that matter)? (if it is long ago and far far away, scratch that question). Did you ever produce a build that did not have the drift?

@Edit1 - I found a bug tracker page for RnD but haven't found how to actually search any archives, if any it may have:

https://bugs.artsoft.org/

It seems that major game controller support, trying to encompass all game controllers started with v4.0.1.0 as per the Artsoft announcement page:

https://www.artsoft.org/rocksndiamonds/news/page9/

Do you know, Dave, if Holger has a source file archive page,. archiving previous versions? Do you also know what version you were building where you noted the arrow drift problem? Perhaps we can try, if your willing, building a more historic build to see if this problem existed in earlier 4.x.x.x builds?

@Edit2 - seems I answered my own question:

https://www.artsoft.org/2014/09/17/rocksndiamonds-development-source-code-available-now/

@

http://git.artsoft.org/rocksndiamonds.git

M

45
Games / Re: DOS VDM - USB and Game port Gamepad support
« on: November 03, 2022, 03:43:23 am »
Heh Martin!

Thanks Mark for the testing and the remarks.

So I guess we are all experiencieng the "Up arrow drift" of the character with the gamepad.

Maybe it can be interesting to test a second SDL game port that uses a gamepad/joystick and see if the behaves the same way. If so I guess we can blame SDL, right?

Regards

I guess the question is - is there a second game we can test? Anybody have any other game controller related SDL suggestions?

It could be SDL, SDL/2 or something in ArcaOS which is not meshing correctly - as libs are usually most likely, it is probably a problem with a port, or some lib missing, perhaps in compiling Dave's builds .

Have been trolling around forums discussing Rock N Diamonds and ran into one when Holger, the developer was discussing game controllers, in this case related to Android devices - there seems to be many problems related to the endless demands users have to make every device work on every incarnation of OS and platform ..........

Like with UniAud32, I've learned one size does not fit all - I have not run across reference to this "bug" yet - but if we asked about OS/2 / eCS / ArcaOS in a forum, I suspect we would get ......... WHAT?????

Have some fun in Orlando, Sir! I know where you live is a lot warmer and more similar to Florida, and in both there is a definite lack of the overabundance of white stuff and cold we are experiencing here in Alberta at the moment .......... !

Best, after shoveling about a ton of heavy, wet snow!

M

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