starting forked player failed

[Poisonworm]

Hi, just installed (compiled) Exult 1.2 on my Mandrake 10.1 system, and aftr a couple missing libs, but got it compiled/installed no problem...had to tweak my exult.cfg to point to my game folder, but thats ALL i did...

now, when i start exult thru terminal, i ge the following

xult version 1.2
Built at: Oct 22 2004 15:33:50
Compile-time options: USE_EXULTSTUDIO, HAVE_ZIP_SUPPORT
Compiler: gcc, version: 3.4.1 (Mandrakelinux (Alpha 3.4.1-3mdk)

Platform: Linux version 2.6.8.1-10mdk
Exult path settings:
Data : /usr/local/share/exult
Digital music : /usr/local/share/exult/music

Music player: Internal cheapass forked midi player
Black Gate : not found (./static/endgame.dat)
exult_bg.flx : found
Serpent Isle : found
exult_si.flx : found
Starting forked player failed
Broken pipe

so yeah...obviously my game doesnt work...lol...any ideas?

[Zos/Xavius.23]

since it is your MIDI player failing (the forked player), I would try setting it up for digital music and sound fx. The MT-32 sound packs are great, though I really with they were recorded at a higher bitrate. Ultima VII was really meant to be heard through an MT-32. You could do so many wonderful neat things with patches on that little box. (Think soundfonts for modern mi.di cards) Most Sierra games utilized the MT-32 heavily for music and sound fx with very suprising and amazing results. People talk a lot about the SID chip in the C=64, but IMO the MT-32 is so much more capable and never really got the credit that it deserved. It is 12-bit, has support for up to 8-channels (I think that's right) at once and had all sorts of wonderful filters that you could edit and program. It made some pretty good warm synth sounds and sounded at times pretty close to an analogue circuit. There were two ocillators that could be used for a sound and a patch could support up to 4 timbres (sounds) playing at once with various filter effects overlaid on each timbre. You could do a LOT with the MT-32 and you still can. I have one laying around that I still program and use via MIDI.

Anyways I've rambled waaaay to much. I would ditch the player altogether and use the digital sound fx. But to answer your question, you should check to see that you have midi support for your sound card or see if you can enable the soft MIDI OSS drivers. The MIDI cannot initialize without somewhere to send the data, and I am guessing this is likely your problem.

Hope that helps!!

zos

[Poisonworm]

Ok, I'll do that. I'll search the forums on how to do it, but ill also ask here...how do i get the MT-32 going?....dont foget, on linux...

thanx for the quick response