exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

@kodak80 , give this a go: It's a tsr, just run it once then try mxplay etc.
And be prepared to wait if you run the floating point test in gembench.

It's very far from release quality and I don't actually know if it works on a real LC as I just simulated one as best I could by turning off the FPU on my full 68060..

Not fast and I wouldn't run programs that makes heavy use of floating point, but perhaps good enough for those that only does so lightly. Or as the case sometimes is, don't use floating point but still requires one.

soft vs hard fpu:

Thats nice. Need to try it out with my LC.

Just popped in the LC. Works great.
And indeed makes mxplay work on LC. :D However I could not get it running under 020-060 Mint for some reason. (the full is back in now)
Very nice solution for people which have the LC and want to play with eg mxplay. Thanks Anders for the effort.
If it too slow you should buy a full

Interesting but very slow :?

agranlund wrote: 30 Nov 2024 19:41 @kodak80 , give this a go:
fpemu.prg.zip

It's a tsr, just run it once then try mxplay etc.
And be prepared to wait if you run the floating point test in gembench.

It's very far from release quality and I don't actually know if it works on a real LC as I just simulated one as best I could by turning off the FPU on my full 68060..

Not fast and I wouldn't run programs that makes heavy use of floating point, but perhaps good enough for those that only does so lightly. Or as the case sometimes is, don't use floating point but still requires one.

soft vs hard fpu:

Many thanks for this. I didn't have much time this weekend to play with the Raven. Yes, MXPlay now loads in FreeMint with my LC CPU. I get a message "4 plugins were disabled as they are not compatible" with the Raven. MPeg (MP3) won't play as MXPlay advises it needs a DMA enabled sound...Falcon030.

Given this is now loading, I can load MIDI files without an issue. I have also switched back to FreeMint 02060 sys-root folder version as this now seems happier with the fake FPU running. QED editor and others now load.

Though I am struggling to get any sound on the PicoGUS board. The green LED on the Pi Pico lights when MXPlay loads plugins which looks like the communication is getting to the ISA PicoGUS. I have the following plugins in the folder:

midi.mxp
midi_isa.mxp
mod_isa.mxp

If I copy in the opl_isa.mxp plugin, this crashes MXPlay on loading. I suspect this is because the PicoGUS is in the default GUS mode? mod_isa.mxp seems the be the plugin that enables the access to the PicoGUS card.

I have found a 16gb CF card that works with my Raven so this is now my default hard disk.

I have installed XBoot to allow easy switching between EmuTOS and FreeMint environments.

Quite happy with what I tested and achieved this weekend given I did not have too much time on this.

Edit: I forgot to say, I loaded Xenon II (KIXX) into Castaway (default EmuTOS and files - as provided) and the game loaded and ran. The initial music was a bit distorted, but the game worked. :)

Nice to get confirmation the virtual fpu works on real LC's. I'll take that as a sign to massage it into a releasable state.

@kodak80 for mxPlay you'll want to remove all the default plugins since they need Falcon.
Except for the SNDH one, that one should work.

I'd stick with just the one midi plugin in the folder, having two that handles the same file type will result in mxPlay picking one of them - but who knows which :)

If I copy in the opl_isa.mxp plugin, this crashes MXPlay on loading. I suspect this is because the PicoGUS is in the default GUS mode?

I share your suspicion and I probably need to add some sanity checks at plugin start - it's a bit rude to just crash.

You should be able to change mode and other settings on the PicoGUS by running "drivers/picogus/pgusinit.prg" from the EmuTOS command line console. I believe midi is enabled in all modes nowadays but GUS and OPL modes are exclusive as far as I remember.

Would be interesting to hear if pgusinit.prg communicates with the card, and if perhaps OPL works?
I'll test the pico in my machine when I get a chance. I'm mostly using the GUS-PnP card and perhaps I broke something in plugin for non-pnp GUS's and didn't notice.

luciodra wrote: 30 Nov 2024 23:11 Interesting but very slow :?

Yeah emulation can never be a replacement for a real hardware FPU if you need fast floating point performance.
If it allows some programs you care about to run at acceptable speed then great, but if you intend to run programs which makes heavy use of floating point then you absolutely need a full 68060 with FPU.

Think of it as a compatibility helper for things that only makes sporadic use of floating point. Nothing more than that.
MXPlay is a good example of something that only does a tiny amount of floating point in the GUI.
(Some of it's bundled plugins might make heavy use of FPU but those cannot run on Raven anyway)

agranlund wrote: 01 Dec 2024 14:37 @kodak80 for mxPlay you'll want to remove all the default plugins since they need Falcon.
Except for the SNDH one, that one should work.

I'd stick with just the one midi plugin in the folder, having two that handles the same file type will result in mxPlay picking one of them - but who knows which :)

SNDH in mxplay doesn't work. Says DMA required.

agranlund wrote: 01 Dec 2024 14:37 You should be able to change mode and other settings on the PicoGUS by running "drivers/picogus/pgusinit.prg" from the EmuTOS command line console. I believe midi is enabled in all modes nowadays but GUS and OPL modes are exclusive as far as I remember.

Would be interesting to hear if pgusinit.prg communicates with the card, and if perhaps OPL works?
I'll test the pico in my machine when I get a chance. I'm mostly using the GUS-PnP card and perhaps I broke something in plugin for non-pnp GUS's and didn't notice.

Your midi mxplay and jam plugins seem to be working with my PicoGUS v1.2 as I can see activity on the Pi green LED when I play a MIDI file in both mxplay and jam. My issue is that whilst the Pi LED is flashing, I have no audio output from the card at the moment. I am not sure if this is my build quality or something else. I built 2 PicoGUS v1.2 cards and both are doing the same thing so I may need to dig into the using the PicoGUS information.

With regards to MIDI, can you advise how I would get MIDI in/out working on the Raven board 3.5mm socket?

I have a 3.5mm to MIDI adapter cable ready to play with this.

kodak80 wrote: 03 Dec 2024 11:05 SNDH in mxplay doesn't work. Says DMA required.

Hmmn, perhaps I had my own compiled version of that plugin.

I can see activity on the Pi green LED when I play a MIDI file in both mxplay and jam. My issue is that whilst the Pi LED is flashing, I have no audio output from the card at the moment.

That's a pretty good sign!
Apologise if this is a silly question, but do you have some kind of wavetable board connected to the PicoGUS? Else you wouldn't get any _audio_ out from it. I'm pretty sure you should get midi-out from PicoGUS's midi-out port though.
Don't know if you have to actively select, or if the picogus will always route midi to both the wavetable header + midiout jack.

You also may want to double check the PicoGUS documentation to know which type of 3.5mm midi connector it is and if you have an adapter of the same type. I'm willing to bet it's probably a standard "TRS Type-A".

With regards to MIDI, can you advise how I would get MIDI in/out working on the Raven board 3.5mm socket?
I have a 3.5mm to MIDI adapter cable ready to play with this.

The adapter needs to be a "TRS Type-A" version and then you have:
Midi-out on the upper jack
Midi-in on the lower jack (*)

(*) The lower jack can be either YM-out or Midi-in, but not both at the same time.
- Bridge J602 to J603 to get Ym-out on the lower jack, leaving J604 as an internal Midi-in header.
- Bridge J604 to J603 to get Midi-in on the lower jack, leaving J602 as an internal Ym-out header.

Midi in/out on the motherboard is currently hooked up to Atari Xbios so you're at the mercy of finding a software that does midi in an os-friendly fashion rather than directly trying to go through the ACIA chip.

My PicoGUS is v1.2 which doesn't have a header for a wave table card. Not sure how it works without it but have just purchased a PicoGUS v2 and will test this with my S2 card when it arrives.

I note that the PicoGUS has a new update available:
https://github.com/polpo/picogus/releases/tag/v2.2.0

I will update the Pi Pico and test this new version to see if anything changes.

On other news...It was a rainy day here on Saturday, so Aussie Raven060 number 2 has now been built/hatched and is up and flying. :D

I have soldered in all 4 ISA sockets on this one.

PGA-206 socket used in the new Raven and have now tested my other LC CPU.

kodak80 wrote: 16 Dec 2024 08:17 I note that the PicoGUS has a new update available:
https://github.com/polpo/picogus/releases/tag/v2.2.0

I will update the Pi Pico and test this new version to see if anything changes.

PicoGUS updated to v2.2.0 but no change when using MXPlay and MIDI_ISA.MXP plugin. Still no audio output from both sockets on the PicoGUS. Pico LED still flashes to show it is receiving audio data. Will wait until the v2 PicoGUS arrives and see if this works.

Edit: decided to test my TRS to MIDI adapter cables and none of these actually match the correct pinout for the PicoGUS adapter cable!!! :headbang: Might be why I am getting no MIDI audio output.

Edit2: Made my own TRS to MIDI adapter cable....I now have MIDI output from the PicoGUS using MXPlay under EmuTOS output to my MT32-Pi.

MXPlay also working under FreeMint as well.

JAM (DSP version) also works under EmuTOS with MIDI files playing through the PicoGUS.
:cheer: :cheer: :cheer: