@database PtPlay @$VER: PtPlay.Guide 2.0 (30.9.1997) #AMIGAGUIDE © Msi Software @author "Roger Hågensen" @(c) Msi Software 1997 @remark $EML: Roger Hågensen @node main "PtPlay - Contents" The "Pleased to Play" modplayer v2.0 @{"Introduction" link introduction} @{"Requirements" link requirements} @{"Installation" link installation} @{"Usage" link usage} @{"Supported Modules" link supported} @{"Browsers" link browsers} @{"History" link history} @{"Bugs" link bugs} Freely Distributable FreeWare - Roger Hågensen © Msi Software 1996-97 Email: "Msi Software " WWW: "http://home.sol.no/~msi/" @endnode @node introduction "PtPlay - Introduction" PtPlay was created to be used with filemanagers like DirWork/SID/Dopus, and www browsers like AWeb/IBrowse etc. One problem with other players is that you can not save a module, this is very important if you want to avoid reloading a mod you like just to save it, PtPlay support saving, so you only load the module once. PtPlay will also (if given) use the url of the file when saving the mod, this avoids weird cache names like AHT5550033.mod etc :-) Features: o Browser support (allows saving of mods while playing, using the urlname) o Plays MOD/MOD0/MMD0/MMD1/MMD2 and THX tracker modules. o Utils to convert between MOD/MOD0. o GUI that can be used on a user selectable screen. o Browser settings information. o Some support for multimods (mods with more than 1 song in them) o Can be used as a normal player from WB/CLI o Has a nice GUI with volume/song options etc. o Little memory and cpu usage. PtPlay can be used as a module player for Dopus, Dirwork, AWeb, Voyager, IBrowse or any other program able to start a program with filename and pubscreen name. Thus you can get AWeb etc, to play ProTracker modules etc, from the web. PtPlay also support the new MOD0 fileformat! The NewMOD drawer in this archive, contains all the info you need to know, plus converter utils. MOD0 is an attempt at improving the PT modules, without changing the module structure. (Yeah! I got myself confused, for a short time that is ;-) Quickly explained it's a header and extension to a normal PT mod, allowing easy ID'ing and size info, plus author/comment strings. Because the PT mod structure is not changed, player routines don't need changing, only minor changes to player/tracker loading is needed. @endnode @node requirements "PtPlay - Requirements" PtPlay need ptreplay.library to play ProTracker modules, ptreplay.library v6.6 is included with PtPlay. PtPlay need medplayer.library to play OctaMED MMD modules, medplayer.library v7.1 is included with PtPlay. PtPlay do not need a library to play THX chip modules, the needed routines are built into PtPlay :-) Asl.Library is needed for the save requester, that library is part of OS 2.0 and higher. PtPlay will perform better with AmigaOS 3.x, only AmigaOS 2.x or higher is supported. @endnode @node installation "PtPlay - Installation" Just copy protracker.library and medplayer.library to "LIBS:" and PtPlay to Sys:Utilities/ (or C: if you prefer that) Or use the Installer script (does the same thing :-) @endnode @node usage "PtPlay - Usage" Usage: PtPlay MODULE/A GUI/S PUBSCREEN/K URL/K SONG/K/N VOLUME/K/N NOICONS/S Example: PtPlay modulename GUI PUBSCREEN="DW Screen0" PUBSCREEN only work when the GUI switch is used! The URL option is for AWeb-II 2.1 etc, PtPlay will take the filename in the url and use it in the save reqester. Example: PtPlay cache:gh5688.mod GUI URL="http://www.test.com/cool.mod" The mod name (cool.mod) will be extracted from the URL, allowing the real name to be used when saving the module. You also use PtPlay from CLI/etc. CLI Example: PtPlay mymod.thx GUI SONG=1 SONG let you choose the song to play in a multimod (a mod with many songs). VOLUME let you set the main volume for playing (it can be changed later while playing) NOICONS is a switch, if used no icons will be stored when you save a module. It this option is NOT used PtPlay will look for default icons in this order "ENV:Sys/def_module", "ENV:Sys/def_music" if the first fail it will look for the other, if both fail the standard WB Project icon is used (if no "ENV:sys/def_project" then internal system project is used) Usage from Workbench! You may create a icon for a module, and set PtPlay as the default tool. You may in addition use the MODULE tooltype to point to the actual module. There are 5 tooltypes you can use in a icon: PUBSCREEN, SONG, MODULE, VOLUME, NOICONS. (these are identical to the CLI options) PUBSCREEN="mypubscreen" will tell PtPlay to open it's window on that screen. SONG=1 will tell PtPlay to play song 1 in the module (only with multimods) MODULE="mymod" will tell PtPlay to play the given module, this way you can have the icon in one place and the actual module somewhere else :-) (It the icon is together with the module, this option is NOT needed.) The module tooltype isn't much use on it's own, but when used with song it is very usefull since you for example can have one module and 4 icons, all the icons use MODULE="mymulti.thx" then each icon has SONG=0, SONG=1 etc. This way each icon represent a different song in the module. PtPlay will also put up a ASL filerequester if no filename is given from CLI or when used from WB. Selecting "Cancel" (or "OK" without a filename) will cause PtPlay to quit, in other words it work the same way as choosing "Quit" in the PtPlay GUI. "Quit" in the GUI is the little box in the upper left corner, this is the standard Amiga CloseWindow gadget. You can also select "Quit" from the menu. (or press "Right-Amiga" and "Q") When you use the gui, there are 2 buttons! Play ">" and Pause/Continue "#" Pressing pause while playing will pause the music, pressing Pause again will continue the music. Pressing Play while cause the music to play from the start. Selecting "Load" from the menu will stop the music, and remove the module from memory since having 2 modules in memory at the same time use a lot of chip mem. There is also a volume slider and a song selector, the volume will change as you move the slider. The song will only change if you press play after the change. For additional support for AWeb (and other browsers) there is a "Save As" menu option. This way you can save the module from AWeb's file buffer to disk. The GUI will also have some info like... "Mod/Size: THX 754" and three lines with name,author,comment. Not all modules have all the 3 lines of information, and song/volume/pause is not supported for all module types, so you may see some stuff "ghosted" (shaded and can not be used). For "Mod/Size:" The first part is the mod type, then the size in bytes. @endnode @node supported "PtPlay - Supported Modules" All the following types are supported, as long as they are 4 channel 8 bit. So 16 bit mods, or 8-16 channel etc, mods are not supported. Multimods (mods with more than one song in it) are supported, for the modules formats that are capable of doing this. +-----------+-----------------------------+----------------------------+ | Extension | Module Format Type | Description | +-----------+-----------------------------+----------------------------+ | .mod | MMD0 and MOD etc. | ProTracker compatible mods.| | .mmd | MMD0, MMD1, MMD2 | OcaMED mods. | | .thx | THX Chipmod | THX chipmusic mods. | +-----------+-----------------------------+----------------------------+ PtPlay do not look at the extensions, it look inside the modules. So even if the extensions are wrong, PtPlay will not be confused :-) @endnode @node browsers "PtPlay - Browser Settings" The examples below are only for blabla.mod files, you have to make 2 more configuartions for THX and MMD (OctaMED) to do that just enter the same info but replace "mod" with "thx" and "mmd", i.e mime to "x-thx" and "x-mmd" and extension to "mmd" and "thx". I had problems getting Voyager to play music, it also doesn't play background music (via the AHI protracker.datatype). I'm not shure of the reason, someone else had the same problem, suggestions are welcome, also does Voyager have a pubscreen argument? Example MIME configuration for AWeb-II 1.6/2.1/3.0 etc: Type: AUDIO/X-MOD Extensions: mod Command: SYS:Utilities/PtPlay Arguments: "%f" GUI PUBSCREEN="%n" URL="%u" If all goes well, you should now be able to play all supported single 4 channel 8bit modules, directly in your browser, I hope many people start to use this. Wouldn't it be nice to have a techno module on a techo page? ;-) Or a fantasy module on a fantasy page? Etc etc. The modules need not be so large or long to spice up a page either. Besides, now we can show all those PC folks that the Amiga have a WEB mod player under ?? KB in size (including library ;-) And it multitask too ;-) Example MIME configuration for AWeb-II 2.0 etc: Type: AUDIO/X-MOD Extensions: mod Command: SYS:Utilities/PtPlay Arguments: "%s" GUI PUBSCREEN="%s" Example MIME configuration for IBrowse 1.1 etc: Type: AUDIO/X-MOD Extensions: mod Command: SYS:Utilities/PtPlay Arguments: %f GUI PUBSCREEN=%p Example MIME configuration for Voyager 2.88 etc: MIME Type: audio/x-mod Extensions: mod Action: Use external application Application: SYS:Utilities/PtPlay %f GUI PUBSCREEN=%p @endnode @node history "PtPlay - History" v1.0 - First public release! v1.1 - Added URL option for AWeb-II 2.1 etc, save requester now display the original filename. MIME type example corrected to AUDIO/X-MOD v1.2 - Internal improvements. Added support for "MOD0" modules. Corrected version number on cli output. More error checking, and error messages. Smaller and faster, adaptive GUI for MOD0 modules. Forgot the versionstring ID, now added. MOD0 Converters included in archive, full docs on new MOD0 fileformat! v1.3 - Added IBrowse info, thanks to John Teasdale for the %p hint. v2.0 - 30.9.1997 (Major release!) Uses ptreplay.library and medplayer.library, now able to play MOD/MMD0-MMD2 & THX modules. Added song number support (for MMD and THX). Added song number option to CLI, and added icon Tooltype SONG and MODULE options Added ASL load requester if no module name given from CLI or WB. Huge internal redesign, PtPlay is now like a new program, partly the reason why PtPlay now stand for "Pleased to Play" :-) And now I've gone and created a new GUI for it too :-) With song selection and volume slider etc, and some weird play, pause and stop buttons, plus a nice menu too, lot's of goodies like support for custom icons when saving modules :-) @endnode @node bugs "PtPlay - Bugs" None! At least not in PtPlay itself, for MMD and MOD I use 2 libraries to do the actual playing, for THX the THX replayer is used via a AmigaE programmers interface, So if things go wrong when playing MMD/MOD/THX, don't blame me :-) But a bug report is always usefull, so let me know (but don't blame ME :-) I will if there is reason to do so, contact those who created the libraries/replayers. What? Oh I never mentioned any bugs (and this is the bugs section :-) The THX replayer (not the E interface, at least not now :-) is not 100% I've seen some strange behaviour on THX.R.O.T.R It's a mod that comes with THX. I believe it is the replayer's fault (but it could be the AmigaE .m file) However, unless a lot of people get this bug, I won't do anything about it, all other mods I tried work just fine. @endnode