
                                  XTC-PLAY

                                    FAQ


Q: Which sound cards does Xtc-Play currently support ?
A: Xtc-Play has been tested with the following cards

        - GUS 2.x (classic) and 3.x
        - GUS Max
        - AMD Interwave PnP (Pro) aka GUS PnP
        - Sound Blaster
        - Sound Blaster Pro
        - Sound Blaster 16
        - Sound Blaster AWE 32 (SB16 mode)
        - Mozart Sound System (SB-Pro mode)

        --> Any GUS or Sound Blaster clone should work

Q: Which GFX card will work well ?
A: These cards  were tested  but any  standard  VGA card / VESA compliant  card
   should work.

        - S3 Trio V64+ (Vesa 1.2 and 2.0)
        - S3 Virge (Vesa 1.2 and 2.0)
        - ET4000 (Vesa 1.2 and 2.0)
        - ET6000 (Vesa 1.2 and 2.0)
        - Matrox Mystique (Vesa 1.2 and 2.0)
        - ATI MACH 64 (Vesa 1.2 and 2.0)
        - Cirrus Logic (Vesa 2.0)

Q: There is no NNA support for ITs ... Why ?
A: This  question  was  asked a 100  times. IT  NNA's  are  VERY  difficult  to
   implement in my current  player routine.  I have to rewrite about 2500 lines
   of code just  to support NNAs  and the bugs coming  with this implementation
   will be manifold and hard to find and correct. So I have to wait till I have
   enough time to rewrite all this...

   --> WAIT !!!

Q: I'm inside  the filelister  and now  it seems  that there  is now way to get
   back to the player screens, but loading another module, why ?
A: YES, this is one of my favourites, asked a 1000 times ....
   If you take a look inside the .DOC file you might find the answer, the magic
   key is TAB.  And before  someone asks again, NO! , we won't change it to ESC
   like in Cubic! (Eh you know : ESC for Escape!!!)

Q: Older versions of XTC-Play like 0.60  supported more module formats than the
   current one. Why ?
A: The older version  of XTC-Play until  version 0.60 were written with Borland
   Pascal 7.0.  Due to a  lot of  memory problems , the player  was *completly*
   rewritten in C and some time later in C++. Because of this, all parts of the
   player had to be coded again from scratch and so we decided what is more and
   what is less important. But don't worry, all formats which where implemented
   in 0.60  will be  implemented in  the new  versions soon. If  you especially
   desire support for some formats, feel free to write me (except for MIDI).

Q: My GUS has only 512kb on-board, so why am I able to load larger modules ?
A: Xtc-Play uses some kind of  intelligent memory management called "doubling".
   If the sample  size is larger than  the amount of RAM on your card, XTC-Play
   will  first try  to convert  16bits  samples to 8bits  samples, than it will
   decrease  the  sample  quality  by  50%  and  then  at  last  by 75 percent.
   Theoretically  this will expand  your memory by factor  8 (making a 4 MB GUS
   out of a 512kb one), but be warned  :  any conversion will result in quality
   loss !
   BTW:  This memory management was implemented before Cubic's similar system !

Q: After loading a module XTC-Play ends up with Exception 7
A: Exception 7  means coprocessor  not found, to gain  most performance for all
   screens XTC-Play was compiled  with the coprocessor option, I.e. you need at
   least a 386 with an optional coprocessor, a 486-66++ is recommended. All 486
   DX classes and Pentium classes  have an internal coprocessor. If you are not
   able to obtain  such a machine,  feel free to contact  kilroy or Bee-Man and
   ask for a version with coprocessor emulation.

Q: When entering the Setup it does offer a 320x200 mode only.
A: Xtc-play does not directly access all available graphic cards, it needs some
   kind of VESA driver,  either version 1.2 or  later (e.g. 2.0). Normally this
   is  no problem  because all modern  cards have an  internal VESA  driver, at
   least applying  to the VESA 1.2  standard. Use a 2.0  BIOS if available - it
   speeds up all screens.

Q: Although a VESA  driver is enabled  I am still not  able to switch  to other
   modes.
A: Some  cards  like  Cirrus  Logic  don't  conform  to  the  official VESA 1.2
   specifications.  The best way  is to load a  VESA 2.0 driver  such as UNIVBE
   and everything should be fine.

Q: What is UNIVBE ?
A: UNIVBE is a driver that provides the best compatibility of your card.
   It applys to the latest VESA 2.0 specifications and will speed up all screens
   inside the player by introducing a so called LFB.  The latest version of
   UNIVBE is 5.3a, you may get the file either from a local BBS or via Internet
   at http://www.scitechsoft.com

Q: I've loaded UNIVBE but I am no more able to switch to the high resoluted
   text-modes.
A: This is a bug (or a feature ?) of  UNIVBE, it disables all hi-res textmodes.
   You should  start UVCONFIG -i and  then rerun UNIVBE. This will reenable all
   textmodes in future.

   If this fails :
       1. Complain at Scitech
       2. Use another  VESA 2.0 driver,  either your internal (e.g. most Matrox
          cards have one) or another external.
       3. If you have an  ET4000 or  S3 Chip, you don't  need to worry, because
          they are directly accessed by the player.

Q: The IT support sounds pretty good, but is far from perfect, why ?
A: During the development of XTC-Play a lot of formats have passed, and some of
   them were really tricky (e.g. DMF),  but IT is nothing compared to them.  IT
   tracker itself  and the format is  one of the best formats ever created, but
   also one of the  most difficult.  "IT" breaks with  most conventions  and is
   totally different compared to most other formats.  Kilroy is working heavily
   that "IT" will sound  as good as all other formats,  but please give us some
   time, this will take a (short) while. Also look at NNA, third question...

Q: Some "IT" modules aren't loaded, why ?
A: Some "IT"  modules  are packed  with Zirconia's  module packer.  This packer
   provides a very good  compression ratio and  they can still be recognized as
   modules  by  XTC-Play.  But  you'll  have to  obtain the  mmcmp134.* packet,
   including several files,  so that XTC-Play is  able to decompress them. This
   packet is available  inside some IT tracker  versions, or separatly. You can
   get they file  either at ftp.cdrom.com/pub/music,  or at most  sound related
   BBS (the Sanction  WHQ holds the file under  mmcmp134.zip). Once you got the
   file, decompress the archive and choose between two EXE files :
   1. MMTSR.EXE, this is a TSR  which should be started  before they player, it
      will  intercept  all disk  accesses and  automatically  decompress packed
      modules in the background.
   2. MMUNCMP.EXE, the original unpacker.  Put that file in any directory which
      is in your path, XTC-Play will  recognize this and decompress the IT file
      automatically.

   Later versions of XTC-Play will have direct support for MMCMP !
   (When I crack the 16bits decompress routine...)

Q: What is MP3 ?
A: MP3 is the so called audio MPEG-1/2 layer 3 standard.
   They are most effective compressed WAV files in maximum 48kHz, 16bit stereo,
   with a compression level of 1:11, that means an 11MB Wav file will be packed
   down to  1MB of an  MPEG  stream,  1 minute  will  aproximately  use 1 MB of
   diskspace. MPEG uses a lossy compression,  which filters out frequencies the
   human ear SHOULD not be able to hear. MPEG streams are available through the
   internet or some BBS.

Q: If I try to play MPEG streams the sound output is garbled.
A: MPEG  needs  some heavy  calculations and  because of  this you  may  need a
   Pentium for best quality  and performance.  Since version 0.93 there is also
   support for mono output  by using the /1 switch. This will reduce the amount
   of CPU load  by 50%.  So it may  theoretically work on a 486 DX2-66. If this
   works,  you can  also try to  start  without  this switch,  because XTC-PLAY
   recognizes automatically when your computer is to slow and will drop down to
   mono. I.e. if your computer is at least a fast 486 that the MPEG-Stream will
   be played at 90% in stereo, drop down to mono for a short second and then up
   to stereo again.  Using this  trick,  even slower  machines  are capable  of
   playing MPEGs in  best quality possible.  If all this  doesn't help, you can
   also try to limit the frequency  by using the "/F" switch. Try first /F22050
   and then /F11025.
