GSoC is nearing its end, today is the “suggested pencils down” date, means there shouldnt be much more happening that some cleanups and bugfixes. Im already doing exactly this for a couple of days so I guess its time to round up what got done (and what didn’t)
TFMX
The modplayer is fully implemented and accurate in regards to the player in the MI-Executeable. Actually it has some more effects and parameters implemented and can play alot of TFMX/Pro Modules, albeit with some issues (TFMX was often modified for games so this is no surprise).
Integration in scumm engine
uses 2 seperate Player instances as this allows music and effects to peacefully coexists without the latter stealing channels from the former, and this also means the mixer-settings (Sfx, Music Volume) are automatically supported.
Downsides are the additional memory required for the second player-instance (music-data is shared) and higher CPU-load if more than 4 channels are active. Neither is a serious drawback as the additional Memory is less that 700Bytes, and the CPU-load should be manageable. When I tested MI Amiga on a PSP, running music had an impact of additional ~10% load and that was with a downclocked CPU (111Mhz instead of 222) and highest Samplerate possible(48KHz).
MaxTrax
The modplayer is complete, it implements everything the original player (sources from UADE) did, even some optional effects (microtonal and modulation, both can be enabled with compiler macros). I cant vouch for the accuracy, I only tested the songs from Kyrandia so far and they only need a subset of the player. Especially the optional effects would need testing. There are some audible differences as effects are played in the intro as channels from the music are replaced – this is not 100% like the original player.
Integration in kyra engine
Since there are rarely more than 2 channels used for music, Im only using 1 instance for music and effects. The game is a bit of a problem as support for the Amiga-Version is currently incomplete in ScummVM, lots of tables are hardcoded in the executeable and even different sections of the game behave (slightly) differently when starting music/effects. I have implemented support for all sections, but I am unable to thoroughly test it. For sfx 2 tables are needed which are directly in code ATM, but should find their way into kyra.dat later.
Desktoptracker
no progress, the modules aren’t in the documented format. See this blogpost.