ÂÂÄÄ¿ ÂÂÄÄ¿ ÚÂÄÄ¿ ³³ ³ ³³ ³ ³³ ³ÃÄÂÙ ³ÃÄÄ´ ³³ ³³ À¿ ³³ ³ ³³ ÀÙ À ÀÙ Á ÀÁÄÄÙ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Written by Roman Dolejsi (RDOS / DIMENSION) December 31, 1996 Last update: December 31, 1996 This is the documentation belonging to and explaining the use of RAC version 0.01a OPL2/OPL3 music module grabber for MS-DOS TOPICS covered in this document: DISCLAIMER APOLOGIZE PURPOSE OF RAC REQUIREMENTS INSTALLATION OF RAC RAC IN ACTION DIALOG LINE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS COPYRIGHT WHERE TO FIND RAC THANX CONTACTING ME DISCLAIMER: ----------- Although RAC has been tested on several systems, I cannot guarantee that it is bugless. Therefore I do not take responsibility for any damage directly or indirectly caused by RAC as a result of known/unknown errors in it or errors caused by its access to your devices. APOLOGIZE: ---------- Sorry, english is not my native language. However, I wrote this nice docy in english without any help. I APOLOGIZE for any mistakes in the document. Take it easy... Nobody is perfect.. :-) PURPOSE OF RAC: --------------- Rdos Adlib Catcher is an OPL2/OPL3 music module grabber for IBM PC compatible computers running MS-DOS operating system. This means that you can use it for grabbing your favorite melody from some music player / demo or game. I've coded it because of lack of any such grabber of this type in PC-world. REQUIREMENTS: ------------- RAC is coded in protected mode 386-assembler. For grabbing you will need 386 or compatible computer without memory manager installed and adlib card. Grabbed music can be replayed with RdosPlay (RDOS OPL Player). INSTALLATION OF RAC: -------------------- - first you have to make some directory on your drive. Then you have to unpack there archive file RACxyyz.ZIP. (you probably did all this when you read these lines :-) - RAC pack should consist of these files: RAC.EXE - Main file - OPL grabber RAC.DOC - Documentation for RAC (this file) RAC.REV - RAC changes/revision history file FILE_ID.DIZ - quick info file - now you have RAC successfully installed :-) RAC IN ACTION: -------------- RAC can store all acesses to Adlib (OPL2) or some OPL3 card's I/O ports into special file with RAW extension. That file can be later played with something capable of playing that (hint: what about RdosPlay?). After you start RAC, it initializes internal music buffer. Every access to desired ports will be stored it that buffer. Therefore you have to run some game, demo or player which uses adlib. When you later want to save buffer in file or clear it you have to run RAC again with special parameter. DIALOG LINE: ------------ Dialog line looks as follows: RAC.EXE [c] [s] possibilities: c - clear music buffer s - save music buffer into file RACDATA.RAW in this directory RAW FILE SPECIFICATIONS: ------------------------ RAW is originally founded probably by Future Crew demogroup which used it in their BBS intro StarPort. RAW file generated by RAC is a derived version which is also capable of OPL3 extension (ie. full four port access: 388-38Bh). RAW files can be played with RdosPlay (look at Dimension homepage). format: [0]=db 'RAWADATA' ... file identifier [8]=dw clock ... clock speed (like c-20) [10]=dw data_size dup (data) ... adlib data [..]=dw 0ffffh ... end of file data: parameter, command. command==0: data==n ... wait n times. command==2: data==0 ... set speed (next word) command==2: data==1 ... set OPL3 port A default command==2: data==2 ... set OPL3 port B default FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: --------------------------- * RAC does not want to run with PM driver (EMM386/QEMM/Win) installed. - RAC uses clear 32-bit PM manager. It needs completely free environment to operate. Therefore other PM managers will NEVER be supported. What RAC uses is from the beginning meant as a complete memory manager so it's internal functionality is absolutely incompatible with anything other (even VCPI's ProtMode level 0). * Coprocessor seems not to be installed when RAC is running !! Why !?! - I have to agree.. sorry for this.. still don't know why.. Maybe another version... really sorry. * When I install RAC there is no EMS memory in system. Some of my programs don't want to run at all. - EMS services are not yet supported, sorry. Maybe another version.. * My application told me I have no VCPI compatible environment and refused to run when I started it under RAC. * My application refused to run with exit message about impossibility to enter DPMI protected mode. - VCPI/DPMI are 32-bit Protected mode interfaces allowing your applications to run 32-bit code under other 32-bit PM environment installed in memory. Although these ifaces are not yet supported, there exist light of hope that DPMI will be supported some day. * How much system memory takes RAC for its work ? - RAC takes about 1k of conventional mem. In fact, everything is in Xmemory (above 1MB) and takes there about 550kB. But Xmemory requirements probably don't bother anyone. * Programs tend to be slower under RAC. - Yes, especially Adlib playing routines are slower, because PM exception handling eats some of the system resources. * Are there any other known problems with RAC ? - RAC counts waitstates via timer. When some music does not use timer for playing (not such often case), RAC won't insert waitstates in generated RAW file - file is not playable :-( Don't know any solution right now. WHERE TO FIND RAC: ------------------ Each time I have a new version of RAC available, I'll upload it to this place: ftp://sorry.vse.cz/dimension (Dimension FTP site in Prague, Czech Republic) http://sorry.vse.cz/dimension (Dimension Inet HeadQuarters, Czech Republic) RAC will be probably also available at ftp.cdrom.com or ftp.sunet.se FTP archives. Ask your local Internet or FTP expert on how to reach them. Another way is to visit RAC's homepage at address: http://sorry.vse.cz/dimension/rdos/rac (Http site in Prague, CZE) THANX: ------ Although I did all the programming, there is a friend which helped me: David Voracek (Assassin/Dimension) - idea, testing, suggestions and other friends for their (mostly) betatesting.. CONTACTING ME: -------------- If you want to contact me, write to address listed below. If you want to send me suggestions, tips or simply greets, send it freely. Also some money would be good as a power and motivation for further work :-) My address: E-Mail: (non-commercial) Roman Dolejsi (RDOS) roman@sorry.vse.cz Husova 419, Vcelna roman@romeo.pf.jcu.cz 37382 Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic Please do not send me E-mails longer than 150kB (because of our local smtp server limit). *** end of RAC documentation ***