ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ ญ PS3M ฎ 002.5฿ / 30.6.94 ญ ญ Copyright ฉ 1994 Jarno Paananen ญ ญ Guru / Sahara Surfers ญ ญ A Sahara Surfers Product 1994 ญ ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ Some words about PS3M: ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ This little thing could be just another program to play music. It wouldn't even be the first one I have done. The only special thing is that it plays S3M-modules. For those to whom that word says nothing, can be told that they are the modules from all newer Future Crew demos (from Fishtro onwards), compotunes and the three Journey musicdisks and Chaotic Mind from Skaven. After the recent release of ScreamTracker 3.01 Beta more and more modules are obviously coming from other musicians too, as it really is the best tracker on the PC. As they use 1-32 channels (although "only" 16 digital channels and 9 AdLib-channels) and 8 octaves, a normal Amiga is not capable to play them, right? Yes, until now. From version 000.9 onwards also 6-8 channel FastTracker modules can be played with PS3M (should I change the name?!?). Although you can play 4 channel ProTracker tunes, I think there are faster programs available for that :)... In version 002.5 came support for MultiTracker (MTM) modules and 1-32 channel Protracker-style modules (TakeTracker and FastTracker 2(?)). !!NOTICE!!: ญญญญญญญญญญญ From version 002.0 onwards, PS3M has a config file! Use of it is _recommended_! Technical "information": ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ This player makes quite a big difference to those "normal" Amiga players as it has to mix all those channels to, in this case two, normal channels. This is the normal convention on the PC as for example normal SoundBlaster only has one digital channel. The only hard part is to make it fast still having a great sound quality. For those interested, this mixing routine is not one of those lame ones like in Startrekker, Octamed, Oktalyzer and so on. It has real volumes and periods for each channel unlike the former ones that control the volume with hardware and have no independent volume control for channels. It mixes the sound in 16 bits for maximum quality and has a volume boosting option to make the sound louder and clearer with multiple (8+) channels. From version 002.5 onwards also a special 14-bit output mode is available. The actual mixing loop is highly optimized and has only 6 instructions (is faster than the one with 5...) per byte. All this makes it possible to play even 8 channel S3Ms with high mixing rates and great quality. The better (faster) your machine is, the higher rates you get. It is designed to use as little chip-ram as possible to fasten up on machines with real fast-ram. The system is disabled for the playing to get the maximum performance out of a normal A500. From 000.2 onwards, system friendly option is included for those with AGA- or turbomachines and even us poor mortals... On a normal A500 it jams your machine nearly completely, so it isn't too useful for you. Still I use it quite a lot with my A500, so it isn't too bad after all... The blue bars at the bottom of the screen indicate that the player has free time. This helps you to tune the maximum mixing rate for each tune separately. There has been some argue about whether the surround option is a real Dolby Surround or not. Therefore: IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THAT DOLBY THING, it is made just to enchance the dull stereo sound by playing the two buffers from left and right with full volume and vice versa with half of the volume. Like this: Channel 0 - Left buffer, full volume Channel 1 - Right buffer, full volume Channel 2 - Left buffer, half volume Channel 3 - Right buffer, half volume This should end that discussion. Thanks for the ones who contributed with pertinent response. BUT!!!! As everything changes these days, also PS3M now has Real Surround-option. It needs a little more processor power, but not that much I though. Also extra 128 kB is needed for extra buffers. It enchances the sound nicely with headphones and is nice also with normal speakers. And if you got the Dolby Prologic decoder (lucky you!), you should get the effect quite nicely... Some commercial advertisement: ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ This PS3M-routine is also used in the following players, so if you are not content with the user-interface, use these: DASMP from DAS Design (from 3.0 onwards) Hippopotamus Player from Hippopotamus Design (MUST for under 2.0 Kickstarts, we still do exist!) DeliTracker II already has a S3M-DeliPlayer (Hi Peter!) and should be available in near future. Possibly in new SmartPlay (if you contact me) Possibly in PowerMusic Pro (if I remember to send the source...) Look out for The Player 6.1 as it will be even better than 6.0 (surprise!) Coming out sooner or later... Legal stuff: ญญญญญญญญญญญญ This program and all other stuff coming in this package are FULLY copyrighted by Jarno Paananen / Guru of Sahara Surfers. ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ The author cannot be held liable for the suitability or accuracy of this manual and/or the program it describes. Any damage directly or indirectly caused by the use or misuse of this manual and/or the program it describes is the sole responsibility of the user her/him self. This program is freeware. You can distribute it as long as _ALL_ files are included and not more than a nominal fee for copying is asked. This program can _NOT_ be used for commercial purposes without written permission from the author and a contribution for development costs (like Coca-Cola :-). If you have suggestions or remarks about this program, or if you find any bugs, please let me know. All reverse engineering is forbidden and that means that you're not allowed to rip the player from this program as I'm intending to use it for commercial purposes. If this happens I have to stop releasing these kind of programs. If you are really interested and want to use this in some production, contact me and we can discuss about it. It's up to you... THIS IS A BETA-PRERELEASE-TEST VERSION AND IS IN CONSTANT CHANGE. FURTHER VERSIONS ARE COMING IF THE ABOVE IS NOT VIOLATED. Contact address: ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ If you for some odd reason (especially commercial stuff) want to contact me, the address is: J. Paananen Puskalantie 6 37120 Nokia Finland Or by phone: +358-31-3422147 / Jarno Or preferably via Internet: gurus2@freeport.uwasa.fi or Jarno_Paananen@sonata.fipnet.fi (more preferable) or jpaana@freenet.hut.fi Some revision history: ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ 002.5฿ / 15-30.6.1994 ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ + 14-bit output! Needs _Much_ power, but is hopefully worth it. Special 020+ optimized version should be included in 002.6. + Multitracker (MTM) support! + TakeTracker and similar 1-32 channel Protracker-style module support. - Some fixes with S3M-quirks. + Replay version is now also shown in info window to help comparision to other players using PS3M-play routine. * Show sample names now shows 16 names instead of 20 on one page. Don't worry about that ฿, because this is real 002.5. It's beta just because I hadn't the time to do some improvements to the mixing routines. 002.4 / 12.6.1994 ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ + Added show sample names option. Hi Icebeat! - Fixed a bug when started from WB. + Added contact info text. - Little fixes. 002.3 / 25.5.1994 ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ * Some speed improvements for 020+ (uses more lword access). No slow down on 000/010. * Recalculated S3M period table for NTSC (was PAL) as ST3 uses NTSC periods. + Little touches here and there (All error messages now start with capital letter, etc. :) - Fixes in command line parser. NOTICE: system friendly option is now just -s with no extras. If not present, disable option is used. - No more crap if no config file present. Thanks again Deadbeat! 002.2 / 9.-10.5.1994 ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ (Four versions in three days... maybe I should give myself a break? No new versions for a week, promise!) + REAL SURROUND! - Hopefully fixed that >32 kHz bug (Yolk, tell me!) 002.1 / 8.5.1994 ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ (Fast, eh Yolk?) + Final solution for the screen mode problem, CIA! So, now it SHOULD work also with those modes. But who uses them anyway, PAL and A500 rule :) + BTW, in Productivity mode you can get mixing rate up to 56 kHz! Thus artificial 28 kHz limit changed to 56. Note: as said works only in Productivity mode. (Yolk: You said something about working also in double-PAL (double-NTSC too?)) 002.0 / 8.5.1994 ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ (Oops, another digit :-) + PS3M now has a CONFIG FILE! It resides in S: and is called (surprise, surprise!) PS3M.config. Check it out for format and options. - Still little fixes. - Channel detection routine had some _serious_ bugs. Fixed. + At last, error messages! - Loading a non-existent file crashed the machine. Fixed. 001.1 / 7.5.1994 ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ - Still more bug fixes in system routines. + Should work (at least better) under NTSC and Multiscan modes. (Hi Yolk!) 001.0 / 5.5.1994 ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ ? Darn, slipped to the next digit :-)... - Fixed a bug in my XPK-loader, should work better although I haven't noticed the difference... * Changed the priority to 4 to make it more usable with slower machines in system friendly mode. - Crashes with slow machines should be over! (or at least less...) * Changed to colors (now HiP-compatible :-) in system killer mode! Thanks to K-P Koljonen for these! (Hi again, sending coming sometime in the future :) - The module name wasn't shown if started from command line in system friendly mode, fixed. Thanks Deadbeat! - Fixed a potential bug in sample offset command. - Now you don't have to click the stop gadget twice 000.9 / 24.04.1994 ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ + Added FastTracker 6-8 channel and 4 channel ProTracker replay! ? Should the name be changed? Opinions been accepted. + Added command line options to bypass the requesters. See usage by typing PS3M ? 000.8 / 08.04.1994 ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ + Changed the mixing loops to use 6 instructions, which made them faster (2 cycles/byte/channel on 68000). Thanks Peter Kunath! - Some potantial bugs fixed. 000.7 / 22.03.1994 ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ + Added shortcuts for requesters + Added skipping of positions $ff, which are separators of different songs in one module. Used in TMP.S3M. 000.6 / 19.03.1994 ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ - Added range checking to sample offset. - Implemented some bugs in STMIK. Now PANIC.S3M plays correctly. 000.5 / 08.03.1994 ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ - Some "little" fixes in retrig note. Wonder if it worked at all... 000.4 / 25.02.1994 ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ - Ooops, Vibrato+Volslide and Toneportamento+Volslide were the wrong way around. Too much Protracker-experience? 000.3 / 24.02.1994 ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ + Support for other than 50 Hz screenmodes (was a bug really...) + Correct CurrentDir ? Crashes under system are probably due to too slow machine as on A4000 this doesn't happen at all... Trying to fix it... ? Planning some support for other multichannel modules (MTM, 669, FastTracker 6 and 8 channels, etc...) Infos about these modules are appreciated... 000.2 / 10.02.1994 ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ + Added system friendly option! - For some odd reason some tunes crash under system... ! BTW, my birthday is on the 17th! 000.1 / 09.02.1994 ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ - Fixed a bug with volumeslide. Now Satellite One plays correctly. - Auch! I had left some fast-mem-only hunks in the executable. Fixed. 000.0 / 03.02.1994 ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ ! Inital release on public pressure...