Stream issues for Warhawk

[spacefractal]

MMLL bug list was not for sound problems in Warhawk, so I think it should been here for more ontypic issue:

THe main issue is the main tune stutter when you start on level 2 and not on level 1, which I guess its not a file fragment problem, but it could still been a tecnical issue on that card?

So I think there is some problem with releasing, so the tune countinue play where it not should do that or such?

I could do XM versions, but none of the songs created here was created with XM in mind.....

On Gbadev.org homepage' forum there is a mp3 player as well, but can that been used for assemply game like this?  then I can create a mono and a stereo version in 96kb bitrate. I would like to use 128kb.

Howover there is no hurry and can wait after MM and TDG releases. This is just my options, since warhawk was meant to been used streamed music and both other games was meant to been used XM's.

[headkaze]

I bought an Acekard 2i recently and tested Warhawk on it and had the same problem on level 2. Flash and I spent many hours trying to deal with stutter issues and when we fixed it in No$Free it would break it in No$Debug or in hardware or on one card it would work and on others it would stutter. The code I had seen in "C" dealing with lag was too hard for me to translate to asm.

The streaming audio engine I wrote for Warhawk does not deal with sync issues so if the read position goes out of sync with the streaming loop it will cause clicking and stuttering. Some libraries are easier to implement in asm that others. Like sverx's library was quite easy because I just had to calculate the size of the main struct and have a buffer for the data to be loaded into. I will probably have a look at a streaming engine written in "C" or just write it in "C" myself. But I will look into that after MMLL and TDG is finished.

[spacefractal]

it seen I need another card as well if I want to play all games? AceKard 2i is really nice interface and support subfolders. How do it play on the r4i card?

I'm have still all warhawk music in original form (in full wav). I tried to convert the ingame tune to 32kz stereo in 96khz  as well 44.1kz stereo in 96kz. I prefer here very much the 32kz which sounded a much better, due limited bitrate and actuelly sound really realy nice. The 32kz version in stereo use only 2284kb. Since the music is not secret anymore I can just let it downloadable here.

I do happy the sverx's library was easy to do  .

If I should do XM, there might use very much memory and the POTT music can't been used.

[headkaze]

The AceKard 2i is a great card, you don't need anything else. I have never tried an r4i card I only have the original r4. I have 4 cards for testing now r4, AceKard 2i, DSLink and GBA Movie Player. The only one we really need now is the DSTT which is the one that seems to cause problems for us.

I will try and get the streaming fixed first but if I can't find a reliable and easy to implement library then we may need to consider using libxm7. If we did that then we would not use the PPOT music and would need the other tunes converted to xm. Just out of curiosity would these tunes convert okay to xm?

[spacefractal]

it depend how much memory I have? it use ram to play from, and they might take some more the Manic Miner, but somewhere aound TDC in the original XM, even with 8 bit samples. The pott music seen not have any problem?  So that song could still been streamed and let rest use XM?

It might take some time to convert because I need to recreate the song using the samples I used. I do hope the mp3 player I found can work? I also found a replayer on same forum using MS adpcm instead of MI adpcm.

[spacefractal]

I tested this game again with the firmware headkaze pointed to.

Here its still stutter randomize, but its seen it only does that when a samples is init and played same time with the music. I talk about the "pling" sound in Level Completning, the Gongon sound when a level start as well the speech (which I do guess does not effect it, since its a "delayed" sound.

Is is possible I can test the game without these 2 samples (By a sound FX options, which fully disable sound or some) which I guess cause the stutter?

[Zzaped!]

Only up to level 13, this game is hard, but stutter seems only to be serious in the very early levels, music playing seems smoother on later ones.