Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!scea!greg_labrec@interactive.sony.com From: Rob Vawter Newsgroups: scea.yaroze.programming.sound Subject: Re: Sound questions Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 12:02:57 -0700 Organization: SCEA News Server Lines: 28 Message-ID: <35326161.43F8@playstation.sony.com> References: <352FDEAE.30D8@concentric.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: 206.41.6.40 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0Gold (Win95; I) Scott Cartier wrote: > Is there any way to use the general MIDI instruments without loading > them into the sound RAM? They occupy 400k so that eats up almost all > of the space. If not, then what's the advantage of using the supplied > general MIDI instruments over your own? > No. Only ease of design. You IS possible to deconstruct the gen MIDI VAB and use only the instruments you desire, as well. > How can you tell if a SsVabTransfer() you just executed has clobbered > something else in the sound RAM? Since you don't give it an address > how does it determine where the VB gets placed? SsVabTransfer() cannot overwrite other valid data in SPURAM. It uses a malloc and free type algorithm to determine where to place the sounds and will return failure if no open space exists which is at least as large as your file. > If I execute lots of SsVabTransfer() and SsVabClose() will my sound > RAM get fragmented? Is there a way to prevent this? Yes. There is no great way to reduce frag in Yaroze land, sorry. One way to is to create sfx VABs and music VABs which are the same size as other sfx VABs and music VABs respectively. That way the music VABs would nearly always occupy the same slots. Ditto for the sfx VABs. You can also reduce fragmentation by closing as many VABs as possible before loading new VABs. - SPUguy