u/retrosprite440

I'm new to VirtualMidiSynth. I downloaded it recently primarily to send midi out from ECWolf according to a tutorial I came across. But I'm realizing that many other programs run VirtualMidiSynth upon opening. I know how to prevent a program from running VirtualMidiSynth via the blacklist function. I've already done that with other programs. However with Dosbox-X, I'm curious if there's a way to block it from within Dosbox's config file, because I don't know whether or not there's a future scenario where I would want to try to use it with Dosbox.

And part of this post is me also asking what options exist within the Dosbox-X/VirtualMidiSynth combination? The deepest I've gone so far with MIDI in Dosbox is setting up MUNT MT-32. I don't know the extent of the possibilities with VirtualMidiSynth.

I am just trying ECWolf for the first time. I have been trying out different versions/source ports and I like this one the best so far. I played the 30th Anniversary Edition recently and it had an automap that had a few options to show hints/secrets in different ways. My question is, can I use an automap like that in ECWolf? I know there's already an automap, but it doesn't have the option to show the hints/secrets. Is there some kind of mod for the map that I can throw in there?

And also, is there a way to use shaders with ECWolf?

Ok I'm pretty overwhelmed and confused with a few things regarding the music for the Rebirth games. And for the sake of this post, I'm only referring to Descent 1/D1X-Rebirth. I haven't had a chance to do anything with the 2nd yet. I've been digging into how to enable the CD audio/Redbook audio for these games recently, but it has also led me to more alternate music options as well. I've come across 2 different downloads that seem to cover what I'm looking for, in 2 different formats.

#1 gave me a collection of the original MIDI tracks (in FLAC format) as well as the Redbook audio files (also in FLAC). I have multiple questions here. First off, I understand how to assign folders/files using the jukebox utility. I understand that I need to have separate folders for the menu music, briefing, credits, etc. I've done all of that and have working music in the game. The issue/question is, there are 22 (level) tracks in the original DOS version, and there are 10 (level) tracks for the Redbook audio version (13 tracks total). I've never played the version of the game with CD/Redbook audio. Is this correct? The Redbook audio track total is half of the original? That's kind of disappointing. And I want the tracks to play in the correct order as well, as it was in the actual game. And I don't know how the game would correctly apply a list of ten tracks to 22 levels in the correct order. I don't know what the correct order is either. There's an option in the game to "force Mac CD track order". I've toggled this on and off and it doesn't seem to make a difference. The track files are numbered. Does it just read them according to the numbers anyways or something? I haven't played far into it enough to know what it does past #10. I'm also just generally curious how music files in these jukebox folders get read and applied. I mean there's nothing I've read so far that goes into detail. You can seemingly have as many files as you want in these folders (at least in the folder for the levels music). There doesn't seem to be a required file naming convention. This is all the readme says that came inside the D1X folder, regarding the music, "Besides MIDI and CD-Audio (Redbook), you can play your own custom Music from your hard drive or a separate AddOn. Both games can utilize special AddOn packs to replace or expand the original game content.". They sure are short on details. Can someone with experience please expand on the details of how this works?

#2 gave me a collection of .dxa files, which I'm assuming are the same thing as "add-on" files? From what I understand, these are iterations of the ost from different sound card outputs, as well as CD audio. From what I read, you just drop the .dxa file into the main Rebirth folder. Are you supposed to only have one of these in your main folder at a time? Is there a way to add a group of .dxa files and cycle through them somehow in-game?

I'm using Dosbox X SDL2 (v2025.05.03) for one game in particular that I'm trying to run. I'm using it rather than the SDL1 version that I have because I've found that some games crash when using savestates with SDL1, and don't with SDL2. Most of my DOS games run fine with SDL1. I'm trying to run Alien Carnage. The SDL2 version of Dosbox X has some peculiarities/errors that SDL1 doesn't. One example is that SDL1 will recognize filenames/folders longer than 8 characters as long as you put the filename/folder name inside " " marks. SDL2 will not do this. However, that's not my problem. It was, but it took me a while and I realized that was the first road block. My current problem (with SDL2) is that I cannot run the game's .exe file (from the command prompt or from batch file instructions within my config file for the game). I can open SDL2 and run the game with the quick launch option, but it keeps giving me the "bad command or filename" error if I try to locate and execute the .exe from the proper game folder via command prompt or batch file instructions. It navigates to the correct folder but will not execute the .exe. I have no idea why this is happening. I have setup many custom configs and I am lost with this issue. It's only the SDL2 version that is giving me this problem, but that's the version I need to use in this instance to prevent the savestate crashing for this game in particular. I feel like this possibly still has something to do with some kind of character limit because I have the game Abuse setup to use SDL2 and it runs fine. So I'm stuck on this right now and hoping someone can help. Thanks

I'm brand new to PCem. I've installed Windows 98 SE. I managed to get all the way through OS installation thanks to Phil's Computer Lab tutorial. So now I've installed a game I want to play and it requires the CD to be present in the CD drive. I installed the game properly via the game's setup with no errors. I downloaded Daemon tools v3.47. Got that installed too. And I have an .iso of the game. I mounted the .iso, and it autoruns the first time setup screen, then it gives me an error saying the game must be in the CD drive. I'm stuck here. Even with the disk mounted, and then clicking the game's shortcut, it still gives me the error again that it must be in the CD drive. I tried switching drive letter assignments. I made the internal (default) CD-ROM drive a different letter, and switched the virtual drive letter to D. That didn't do anything and I get the same error. That was my only guess at a solution. Can someone help me figure this out? The game is The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis. And I'm using PCem v17, and I'm on a Windows 7 x64 system, if that matters. Thanks to anyone that can help