No Music in Turnabout

[pgyrund]

Hello,

In the game Turnabout, the music fails to play in ePSXe. No matter what settings I try out, it fails to play at any point during the game. I have tried using three different sound plugins (Eternal SPU, Midas, and the new Peops DirectSound with ePSXe_shark), and none of them work. I have tried two different versions of ePSXe (1.60 and 1.70) on two different computers with two different operating systems (Windows XP 32-bit and Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit) and still get no music. I have also tried ePSXe_shark and still get nothing.

I will note that the music does play on pSX with no problem. So, the game itself is fine.

I suspect this is an emulator problem, not a plugin problem, being that the music does not work on any sound plugin.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[shalma]

Someone tried this out- she ripped as bin/cue + run iso
- Music plays with PCSX-reloaded svn
- Music plays with ePSXe_shark + 170

DSound plugin r18

[pgyrund]

shalma,

Thanks for your reply. I used a bin/cue image and tried it again, this time with the newest DSound version r18. However, the music still does not play on ePSXe_shark + 170. It does still, however, play on pSX using this format.

Do you have any other ideas that I could try?

[lagunareturns]

make sure the music tracks are included and not a rip release.... also try the cd of the game and see if the issue is there

[pgyrund]

lagunareturns:

I have already previously opened up the actual image and they were are present. If they weren't there, the music wouldn't play in pSX either, would it?

[shalma]

This will eliminate a few more paths:
- Try this NTSC-U cue (bad cue file?)
Download Turnabout.7z from Sendspace.com - send big files the easy way (http://www.sendspace.com/file/dpbvyv)

- Also agree about trying to run from physical cd-rom

- Rip to CloneCD from original disc and try again


If you're using PAL / NTSC-J versions, that could be a problem. ^^
- You might need to run some custom build logs for us



edit:
Cue file assumes name is 'Turnabout.bin' + 'Turnabout.cue'

[lagunareturns]

ummm you cant give links to games can you?? isnt it against forum rules

[shalma]

It's just a Turnabout cue file - no bin there (311 bytes)

[pgyrund]

shalma,

I tried that cue file, and it still doesn't work. I even tried it with yet another emulator, the pCSX reloaded one you mentioned, and that one works as well. I don't get it. Why does it work on pSX and PCSX reloaded, but not on ePSXe?

This is the NTSC-U version, not the PAL or NTSC-J version.

[shalma]

Can't help you then. My source tested it again

ePSXe 1.7.0 = no cdda
ePSXe_shark r3 = cdda
ePSXe_shark newest = cdda
ePSXe_shark unstable = cdda

[pgyrund]

shalma,

Thank you for your help with this issue. It's too bad we can't find the problem. But, I do appreciate your working with me on this.

Just one more question/thought: is it possible to see what sound plugin settings your tester used on this? Also, is it possible the CD plugins could have anything to do with it, being that some of them have special settings? If so, what plugin and settings is your tester using?

I wonder what else would affect cdda.

[shalma]

Latest time, she was using
- cdrom plugin = Run ISO
- spu plugin = DSound r18 + default settings (use reset file if needed)
- ePSXe_shark = unstable build

[shalma]

ePSXe cdda guide for run iso
- open cue / ccd file => CD music (*)
- open bin / img file => no CD music

That might be your problem (!)

[pgyrund]

shalma,

Wow! I tried that out, and it worked! I ran the ccd file instead of the img without doing anything else, and the music played with no problem.

Amazing, isn't it? We spent so much time on this, and the solution was something as simple as that.

Thank you very much for your help here!

On one other note: I saw in your PEOPS DSound 1.09 - repair thread that you are not much interested in working on this plugin or on psx emulation any longer. I sincerely hope this is not the case, as you have made great contributions to this emulator and plugin. We really need more people like you and I would be sad to see you mostly stop your work here.

[shalma]

Good to hear music works. There's probably a sticky somewhere mentioning this but it's so 'instinctual' now that we seem to forget bringing it up.

-----------------------------

It'd be nice to tell everyone to try using DSound 1.09a repair to possibly fix their sound / emu problems. Kurbster already put a sticky for it and ePSXe_shark. And users seem to ignore both anyway. ;)



But interest-wise
- spu plugin = mature, stable, complete in a sense. We've filled in lots of missing holes that the other spu cores had already solved.

Tightening the accuracy (adsr, register, reverb behavior) won't yield any good tangible gains anymore at this stage.

The plugin really needs a bsnes-style developer who can trash the real hw for testing corner cases. And getting industry-strength reliable results.


If you look at the recent progress (changelogs) on SPU2-X, that's amazing - now that I can actually understand the changes (in a post-mortem SPU1 sense). And they have a highly skilled, reliable team to boot.

SPU1 isn't perfect but it's very-very good and relies on others' accuracy notes + sharing (Gaussian, adsr, noise, vag and such) - _huge_ list of contributors.

So that's the summary of why me + Hopkat just aren't that.. into working on spu1 anymore. There's that new skillset + equipment level needed to go beyond.

Don't want to invest the time anymore. Not much we're able to contribute either.



- emu core = I'm more reliant on others to push this forward again. Hacking ePSXe gets you only so far - trying to fix any dynarec bugs is a shame.

There may end up being some bug that we can still fix in ePSXe 1.7.0 - it'd be much more easier + practical for the devs to package up all our work, add their own work and release a new build.

Always exist the chance this won't happen of course. And if there's still no one to pick it up, the scene won't die. There's the work we added to ePSXe that hasn't been added to PCSX-reloaded. And vice versa.



It just gets tiring - in a mind destructive way.
- ePSXe is closed source and time is needed to guess at wth the code does. And then the vicious cycle repeats with the next build. Being the more compatible/faster emu of the 2, I could often ignore the prereq.

- PCSX-reloaded is open source. Used to lack lots of basic secrets pSX, Xebra, ePSXe were already doing correctly. That took -a long time- (2 years worth of our time). Even if it's open, you need devs who can reliably rewrite the engine (like Jake Stine of PCSX2 or calb or pSXAuthor).

edgbla is the only one left atm actively working on it. Putting in a new GTE core. Updating the GPU plugin. And enforcing that the emu relies more on accuracy than guesswork (us). :D



I think we lost most of our motivation to keep contributing. The excitement is gone. And all the emu devs are basically fragmented in a sense - there's not that need for a pcsx2-type community feeling (being such a complex beast). Working directly in PMs doesn't work for us either.

Add that basically deflated 'good-will' urge of ours to document working guesswork and suggesting new code to emu teams.



It's hard to describe and explain. Because we don't truly understand.

Simplest way to finish this is
- if there's something we're still interested in, we may take a peek.

Like special devices. For the mouse + guncon plugin. Sometimes looking at Justifier support (the heezy? does it use some hidden latch IRQ like on the Megadrive?). Hacking up multitap to work on problem games. Wipeout 3 for Pantra's negcon.

SPU Tron Bonne. Tekken / Rayman attenuation. Whatever else we did all this time. :p


- We might've done a lot. And had enough rejected contributions. :lol:

- There's just maybe a handful of stuff we can do that would keep the scene moving (ePSXe-wise mostly)



We really need more people like you and I would be sad to see you mostly stop your work here.


I think the realistic reply is that - the ps1 scene used to move very fast. Then fast. Then slower. Then kinda comatose as HC Rikki put it. Then more of a brisk pace (unearthing ancient emu secrets).

What is there left to do with the ps1 scene? Still enough I imagine. But the hurdle is -so- much higher now. Because the 'easier' stuff is taken out.

And we're already past our 'prime' - long past that point of 'diminishing returns' for this console.


Only exception would be continuing an open-source gpu plugin - which would be a tombstone killer.


edit:
It's nice though that the psx got some more recognition - not just about being able to play game X.

[pgyrund]

shalma,

Thank you for that extremely detailed response explaining both your situation and psx emulation in general. That really clears things up a lot. I would recommend posting that (or a consolidated version of that) on the ePSXe_shark and DirectSound threads as well for others to view since I'm sure that I am not alone in this and I don't think many people are going to see it all the way in here.

Whichever path you take, Good Luck in the future!