MidiInfo.txt

Exult Midi Music and SFX Info
=============================

Exult Version: 0.90 Alpha 1
File Revision: 1
Last Updated: Friday December 1st 2000


Basic Information
-----------------

Midi in Exult is played by firstly loading a file and passing it to the XMIDI
class for instrument mapping conversion. This is so the MT32 mapped music files
from the original Ultima 7 and Serpent Isle will be playable on modern General
Midi and General Midi/GS supporting sound cards.

Certain considerations must be made, however, as some options are device
specific. These are listed below in the section "Patch Conversion Information".

Currently only two version of Exult support SFX. They are Windows and Linux
using the Timidity_binary midi driver.

See the section "Technical Information" for more information on Exult midi
drivers and the XMIDI class.


Patch Conversions Information
-----------------------------

Exult gives users various option for converting Music and Midi Sound Effects.
Currently the only way to set the options is via manually editing the config
file. Note, the options are case sensitive and all options must be lowercase.

For music there are the options: gm (default), gs, gs127, gs127drum and none.

For SFX there are the options: gs (default) and none.

Below is a description of all the modes:


gm - This will convert the MT32 patches to standard General Midi patches.
     Conversion is fairly accurate but some instruments may be different.
     This is only a valid option for Music conversion.

gs - This will convert the MT32 patches to their equivilant GS patches. This
     will be a more accurate conversion that straight gm since more of the 
     MT32 patches are in the GS set. However, not all midi devices will
     support this mode. This option is valid for either Music or SFX
     conversion.

gs127 - This option is for midi devices that have a MT32 patch bank installed
        in Bank 127. Some GS implimentation have this, some don't. Only use
        this if you know that you have a MT32 implimentation on Bank 127.

none (music) - This option will output the music with nothing changed. Because
               the mapping will be for MT32s you should only use this option if
               you have a MT32 compatible device or you have replaced the
               music.

none (sfx) - This option will output the sfx with some patches in the standard
             GS set and also some as MT32 patches on Bank 127. It is the same
             as the gs127 option.

The order of music conversion quality is:
1) none
2) gs127
3) gs
4) gm

However, none shouldn't really be used there is currently no equivilant SFX
conversion option. In the future however, sampled SFX will become avaliable,
removing the need for MIDI SFX.

The order of sfx conversion quality is:
1) none/gs127
2) gs


NOTE: Currently the conversion to GS and GS127 is not finished and the notes
are only mapped to General Midi.


Abilities and Limitations
-------------------------

Due to the way the class was constructed input can be in either .mid, .rmi or
the Miles Sound System .xmi format. There are no limitations to they types of
.mid and .rmi supported. They can be Type 0, 1 and the rarely seen type 2. The
loading routine is also fairly lineient of errorneous XMIDI files that do not
have correct XMIDI headers.

During the development of the XMIDI class it was found that certain .xmi files
in Serpent Isle had the first patch changes after the first note. The
converter will attempt to correct these errors. However it may cause problems
with some midi files. Currently this can not be disabled and may change in the
future.


Technical Information
---------------------

This section is only intended for programmers and is currently unfinished.