Keen: Modding

Malvineous · Joined: 13 Mar 2004 Posts: 33 Location: Brisbane, Australia

Hi all,

I've just released a utility called CMF2IMF which will create IMF files out of CMFs (which themselves can be created from MIDI files) and while it still needs a bit of work (including a Windows .exe, source only at the moment), I decided to start writing a start-to-finish tutorial on the ModdingWiki explaining just how to create an IMF file from scratch.

It's pretty basic at the moment and only covers the MID -> CMF -> IMF method, so contributions explaining other methods would be appreciated! (Particularly non-MIDI sources as I gather a few people here prefer using trackers instead.)

levellass · Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 12:16 am Post subject:

I myself prefer to work from raw IMF data arranged in patterns, or from modules converted with Modplug tracker (You need to know what to turn the instruments into, but that's a basic skill.) Don't ask me why, but I've never been able tog et the hang of writing MIDIs.

The direct CMF->IMF converter will be a welcome addition, but I am curious, how does the much more experienced Wolf3D modding community make their IMF files?

XkyRauh · Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 1:53 am Post subject:

And even if it is a bunch of hackwork, if we had a drag-and-drop MIDI-->IMF tool which compensated for tempo, life would be grand. :)

The last time I tried to do MIDI-->IMF, I had to upscale my MIDI tempos by about 40%...

Malvineous · Joined: 13 Mar 2004 Posts: 33 Location: Brisbane, Australia

I think one of the main problems with an automatic drag and drop conversion is how to handle the instruments. Once the IMF file has been produced it's very tedious to go back and modify the instruments, so you need to be able to set them first (e.g. with SBTimbre in the tutorial.) Without this you could only get a very boring set of default MIDI-like patches, which means you'll never take full advantage of the OPL's capabilities. I think that's why a lot of automatically converted music sounds very boring - just like a synthesised MIDI. The OPL is capable of much more interesting instruments, but it seems that only the original music from these games seems to use them! Xargon particularly makes use of some very non-MIDI sounding instruments.

At any rate my long term plan for Camoto is to have a GUI that looks a bit like a tracker where you can import/export/convert all manner of music formats, with an emphasis on converting the instruments (e.g. from MIDI or sampled to OPL) in real-time while the song is playing. Hopefully this will make it easier to create IMFs from formats other than MIDI.

levellass · Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 11:42 am Post subject:

Mind, most people don't *want* to use OPL to its full; they just want to take a neat MIDI song and make an IMF, and this will be the bulk of your program's users I should think.

Also, wouldn't you know it? I can't make Keen Dreams take music until I can also make Keen 4 take *more* music.

Malvineous · Joined: 13 Mar 2004 Posts: 33 Location: Brisbane, Australia

I dunno, that's kinda like saying why bother spending time on the graphics, any old crud will do :-) At least by tweaking the instruments you can make a dull song sound more interesting, and make a good song sound excellent!

XkyRauh · Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 12:55 am Post subject:

Great, Malv! The thought of being able to shift through instruments from a list in real time is exciting, especially if I can import a MIDI file and then toy with the instrumentation. :) Keep us posted on the progress!

levellass · Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 1:41 am Post subject:

thehackercat · Joined: 26 Sep 2009 Posts: 69 Location: Mississippi, USA

This, my friend, will become the Keengraph of FM music.

levellass · Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 9:33 pm Post subject:

Overly complicated, in an outdated language and unused?

Malvineous · Joined: 13 Mar 2004 Posts: 33 Location: Brisbane, Australia

Ha, quite possibly :-) Well the "easy" version is to just run MID2CMF then CMF2IMF and be done with it, the "complicated" SBTimbre step is purely optional and only needs to be done to change the FM instruments (which I'm sure most people will want to at least try once they hear what MIDI sounds like on an FM card...)

levellass · Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2010 2:56 am Post subject:

I am curious; I don't have any information on what IMF data actually IS and I don't know where to go to find out. I know it involves sending various values to certain 'registers' but I don't know what a certain register value is actually for. (Well some of them, but I don't think my knowledge is complete.) So I don't actually know what each 'piece' of an IMF file does. Does anyone know where I might be informed? It would be a great help.

lemm · Joined: 05 Jul 2009 Posts: 419

AdLib registers

levellass · Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 3:32 am Post subject:

I can't see that, never have been able to, the connection keeps being 'reset'

We should have this on the modding wiki since it relates to several file formats. Anyone have a different link?

lemm · Joined: 05 Jul 2009 Posts: 419

You could try searching for shipbrook+sound+blaster on google and then clicking the cached page.