MIDAS Module Player for Windows NT, version 0.1.7 -------------------------------------------------- MIDAS MODULE PLAYER IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT WILL ANY OF THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES CAUSED BY THE USE, OR INABILITY TO USE, OF MIDAS MODULE PLAYER. MIDAS Module Player may freely be distributed as long as no money is charged for it, and no attempt is made to restrict further copying, distribution and using of MIDAS Module Player. If you have problems with this, or do not understand this, contact us. 1. Foreword ----------- Thank you for downloading MIDAS Module Player, and, above all, thank you for reading the documentation. This is now the first publicly announced release of MIDAS Module Player (MidpNT), but, as the version number should suggest, far from a final version. The user interface is far from finished and there is very little documentation, but the most important feature is here: correct playback. So what is MidpNT anyway? MidpNT is a free module player for Windows NT and 95. It plays Protracker (MOD), Scream Tracker 3 (S3M) and FastTracker 2 (XM) modules on all sound cards that Windows supports. MidpNT might seem very unfinished and in general look like a music system test program more than anything else - and that is exactly what it is. The main intention of MidpNT is to test MIDAS Sound System and give you an impression what it sounds like - that's why our emphasis is on playback quality instead of the user interface. Moreover, MIDAS is still very much under development, so all feedback you can give is appreciated. 2. Using MidpNT ------------------ Using MidpNT is simple - just start it and you are on your way to play music. You can use File/Open to select a module, or you can pass a module file name in the command line. If you attempt to start a new instance of MidpNT, the module file name will just be passed to the old copy and it will take care of playing it. This allows you to just associate MidpNT with all module extensions and use Explorer or File Manager to select and play modules. 3. MidpNT User Interface ------------------------ The MidpNT user interface, although very spartan, should be pretty straightforward and easy to use. The UI consists of one main window, plus possibly several view windows. Views contain some information about the song that is currently playing, and possibly some ways to control the playback. [More information when I have time :)] 4. Configuring MidpNT --------------------- MidpNT can be configured using the entries in the Options menu. Preferences opens a dialog with generic user interface -related preferences and Sound Options lets you change the sound output quality. You can also save and restore the view window positions. IMPORTANT! If you manage to screw MidpNT settings up so that it refuses to start any more, edit the Registry from HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Sahara Surfers\MidpNT. You can also delete the whole MidpNT key --- MidpNT will then start with default values. 5. Future --------- I'm planning to do a complete rewrite of the MidpNT user interface in the near future. The editfield in the main window is useful for debugging purposes, but it's taking up way too much screen space, and is just plain ugly as well. I've been thinking about a CD-player style interface for the main window, much like the Windows 95/NT CD player utility, but I'm open to suggestions. If you like doing user interface design, send me your suggestions! In addition to this, there are already a couple of other MIDAS-based Windows NT/95 module player projects going on, so chances are you will see a player that combines a great UI with high-quality MIDAS playback in the near future. In the next MIDAS Sound System release the DLL interface will be made available to the public, so if you are an experienced Win32 programmer, you can easily build the dream module player of your own. Also, as you probably have noticed, MidpNT.exe has no icon. I'm a lousy graphician and will rather spend my time coding, but if someone wants to draw me a nice icon I'll gladly accept it. As always, MidpNT is free, so I can't promise you money, but you can have your 2 seconds of fame in the MidpNT credits :-) 6. Contact information ---------------------- Comments, bug reports and improvement ideas are always welcome, use one of the following methods: e-mail: pekangas@sci.fi phone: +358-31-3172204 (changing to +358-3-3172204 on 12 October 1996 at 00:00 hours (11 October 1996 at 21:00 UTC)) snail mail: Petteri Kangaslampi Insinöörinkatu 60 A 49 FIN-33720 Tampere Finland, Europe The latest version of MidpNT is always available at http://kalahari.ton.tut.fi/s2/midp.html, and more information about MIDAS Sound System can be found at http://kalahari.ton.tut.fi/s2/midas.html. Note! When reporting bugs in MidpNT, please remember to include the version information and build date displayed in the main window at startup. (eg. "Version 0.1.5, built Sep 13 1996.") 7. Revisions ------------ 0.1.7 - Linked with MIDAS 0.5.0 releas - Small bugfixes 0.1.6 - A new release with the release version of MIDAS 0.5.rc2 0.1.5 - Fixed various Scream Tracker 3 support problems, including bad panning and tempos - Fixed a potentially dangerous bug in MOD/S3M playback, which didn't surface under Windows NT/95 though 0.1.4 - Fixed several FastTracker 2 compatibility problems - Fixed some problems in loading invalid S3Ms (produced by ST3) - Other miscellaneous bugfixes in MIDAS Sound System code 0.1.3 - Fixed a bug in handling file names with spaces - Miscellaneous playback fixes - Added 3D-look attribute to Preferences-dialog - Changed some accelerator keys - song position is now changed with Ctrl-'.' and Ctrl-',', and Center Channels is Ctrl-E. - Accelerators now work even if a child window is active 0.1.2 - Fixed some bugs in module playback that were causing crashes 0.1.1 - Changed polling to use a thread instead of a multimedia timer - this uses much less CPU - Centering channels when there was no module playing crashed MidpNT, fixed 0.1.0 - Initial release in this format [$Id: readme.txt 1.5 1996/10/14 20:42:30 pekangas Exp $]