vgmstream and Windows ME etc. [won't start playing] by DChronos at 7:47 PM EDT on June 23, 2011
Been awhile...
My current PC needs the board taken out for capacitor replacement. In light of this, I dug out and fixed up my old Windows ME computer, reinstalling a fresh install of ME, everything all went fine.
I can't remember what I needed these for, but I went and got the MS Visual C++ 2005 redistributable and .NET 2.0, cause if I remember right, one of those was needed for it... I'm sure C++ was needed for the 2sf player or something, I can't think of it.
But yeah... I'm trying to use an older copy of vgmstream on purpose, the same one I have running on my main computer, r709... since it works and only needs 2 of the extra dlls, and since this is Widnows ME, I want to have as little loaded with as much functionality as possible.
That reminds me of something below that I wonder about, if it got fixed...
Anyway, I put in_vgmstream.dll in the plugins folder and the 2 external dlls needed (livorbis and libmpg) into the Winamp folder. I have Winamp 5.32, same as this computer has. I open winamp, and the plugin loads.. it shows all the files it supports, and I can configure it just fine in the Input settings. Also, I can load files into winamp and it shows the right time they play for, and I can view the file info, which is correct.
However, when I hit play... nothing happens. Winamp sits there like it's trying to start playing, but the bar doesn't move. I can move the bar manually, but it just sits wherever I put it at. When I hit stop, it acts like I stopped playing, resetting to 0 and doing all it does when you stop playing a song.
I tried in_cube, the predecessor, to see if loading those files was too much for my computer or something, but it isn't... in_cube was playing fine, without any slowdown, even. So I know that my PC is perfectly capable of playing stream files, including infinitely looped ones. But vgmstream won't even play the same files I tested in in_cube's limited stream file type set.
My computer is using an 800Mhz PIII, and the minimum requirements are far under that.
So, what's up with vgmstream here? I figure you would make it able to work with older than XP windows, for those using like windows 98 or 2000 still (and ME if you're stuck with it)... and everything else the plugin does works.
Extra rambling:
I noticed that the PSF plugin didn't work when I moved it from my good machine, and found when I DL'd and used the installer, it extracted a plugin named in_psf9x... had me wonder about vgmstream. My only other thought is about the external dlls being in the winamp folder, and if that's different for an OS older than XP, or somehting... but then the plugin shouldn't load, if that was the case.
EDIT:
Oh, right, the thing I wondered if it got fixed was if going to "Play> File..." with the libg7221_decode.dll loaded in winamp crashed winamp anymore. Renaming the dll so it's not loaded makes it stop. That's partly why I didn't update vgmstream to any version using that 3rd dll.
Come on, someone here has to have Windows 98 / 2000 / ME that has vgmstream working fine and knows what I am missing or need to do. I waited 2 days...
If in_cube works fine without even slowdown on this old machine with any of the few file types I have that it can play, then I know vgmstream can play fine, too. So something else has to be the cause.
The sourceforge page of vgmstream says this thing works for any 32 bit windows system, and I have not seen a separate plugin around for 9x OS' as opposed to XP on up, like in_psf and in_psf9x does.
Could you try using the current version and a clean set of external dlls? I think I have a Windows 98 setup around here somewhere, I can give it a spin on that if need be.
Drat, now I remember why that didn't work, Win98 won't run with the extra memory I have in my desktop.
Well I already went and re-downloaded vgmstream and the external DLLs from here and used fresh DLLs.
I didn't use the newest version only because it won't load if I don't have that lib7221 in the folder... but if I let it load that dll, then going to "Play> File" crashes winamp, and I don't get at all why.
Like I said, this is basically a clean install of ME, only a few days old, and I've only installed a few programs, Winamp 5.32 being a fresh install as well.
Nothing else is running when I test Winamp, so nothing else would be interfering anyway.
I have 256Mb of ram installed, as well.
EDIT:
I just tried the latest plugin with the same result.
It won't load the plugin without lib7221, Winamp crashes on BOTH XP and ME when going to "Play> File..." when lib7221 is loaded.
Hitting play doesn't start playing anything, the cursor just sits there at 00:00, or wherever I drag it to on the scroll bar. But it still shows me the file info if I look at it, I can configure the options, and everything else but playing works fine.
I know it is trying to play because the time and everything else shows up like it's supposed to, and I can hit stop, and it acts like when I stop any song in Winamp.
EDIT 2:
Ok, I also see something messed up here... in the file info, the times say the loop start and end and totals are -0.00000, and total stream samples at 0.000000. However the sample count and everything else is showing up correctly...
edited 2:34 PM EDT June 25, 2011
EDIT 3:
Oh, another thing... this is ONLY with the latest plugin you asked me to try... the r709 plugin version DOES show the correct times on everything, no -0 and 0.
Sorry about all the edits, but just trying to save posts.
For the r709 plugin, where are you getting the two external plugins from? I'd like to get as close to your setup as possible in order to hopefully reproduce this. If you could zip up your whole winamp directory it would be easier.
What is odd is the libg7221 behavior, especially across computers and OSes. It is possible that Winamp 5.24 itself may have some sort of issue there. Do you perhaps have a non-English setup, or something else that might make those installations different from others?
I'm trying to copy the '98 partition to run it in a VM, we'll see if I have any luck there. I don't get any crashes with libg7221 in XP, though, so there may be some other oddity about your setup that I don't know about.
I'm sorry that I'm not very effective at debugging Windows stuff, if anyone else here wants to jump in please do.
I installed Windows 98 Second Edition on Vmware, winamp 5.35 (it seems it's the latest version compatible with Win 9x) and download vgmstream-r961 archive. This archive contains the plugin in_vgmstream.dll and the 3 external .dll files libg7221_decode.dll, libmpg123-0.dll, libvorbis.dll.
I put in_vgmstream.dll file in winamp plugins directory and the 3 external dll files directly in winamp directory. I have the same issue during the test with ADX files, I can't play them with Winamp running on Windows 98. There is no error message, no crash but winanmp refused to play.
I did exactly the same thing with the same version of winamp and with the same vgmstream archive on my Windows 7, it works fine with no problem. I tried some old vgmstream archive, it still doesn't work with Windows 98.
I uninstalled winamp 5.35 and installed winamp 2.95, installed again vgmstream files in the plugin and winamp directory but no changes. I forgot to mention that I always checked if the plugin in_vgmstream.dll is well recognized by winamp since the beginning. I did excatly the same process on windows 7 with winamp 2.95 and it works.
I just tested with a new installation of Windows 2000 SP4 on Vmware. Winamp 5.35 + vgmstream-r961, it works fine.
What's the issue with vgmstream and windows 98, I don't know.
HCS if you have any suggestions don't hesitate to ask me for tests.
It's Winamp 5.32 I installed, since that was the last version that had the full bundle... which I get cause I can always throw out whatever I don't want.
I'll think about zipping the plugins directory, but that's the only thing different from a clean install aside from the 2 / 3 dlls in the winamp directory.
I got the DLLs from the link in your readme file... and before that, I got them from the place linked to when you first had the DLLs for download. I keep old downloads for archives.
Neither of those sets changed anything. And lib7221 always crashes winamp 5.32 on both XP and ME when going to the menu and doing "Play> File...", or by doing Alt+P or whatever keyboard shortcut you gotta do.
DC Chronos, on Windows 9x vgmstream seems to not work, I could not get it to work but it's strange that you have problem on Windows XP. Actually what do you have installed on your old PC Windows 98 ME or Windows XP? Is it a new installation?
I tested with windows 2000 as it may be the solution to run vgmstream with a poor configuration. The real weak point of your configuration to run 2000 or XP is your memory (256 Mo) but I think you can install windows 2000 without running too slow. It's even possible to run Windows XP if we based on the recommended system requirements for windows XP (300 MHz - 128 Mo RAM).
If you don't have Windows 2000 or XP, I can make you a bootable iso and upload it where you want.
Last thing, if you have XP why don't you install a most recent version of winamp. For XP, could you please: *Donwnload a recent version of winamp *Download last version of vgmstream r961 here: http://hcs64.com/files/vgmstream/ *Uninstall winamp 5.32 and delete .dll files from vgmstream *Install winamp, install the last release of vgmstream: put.in_vgmstream.dll in your plugins directory and libg7221_decode.dll in winamp directory.
The only problem I have in XP is that going to "Play> File..." in the menu causes winamp to crash if the lib7221 dll file is loaded.
That happens on both ME and XP.
vgmstream should run on a windows9x system... there's no reason for it not to if in_cube, which is the predecessor and plays the same kind of streamed music, can play in windows ME, but vgmstream doesn't start playing.
The info at the vgmstream dev page at sourceforge says it runs an any 32 bit windows system, though I exclude 95 just because that old OS might be a stretch to say... but I dunno. Maybe someday I'll test it with an untouched pre-release disk of windows 95 I found just sitting in a box of disks while digging for my ME cd key.
It's just like saying "Do people still use the ancient Unify Dataserver database?" (which was designed in the early 80s, hasn't progressed much further than that, lacks network support and is quite fragile) - which is used by many healthcare systems and the US DoD
Josh, the lib7221 crashes on my pentium 4 CPU in windows XP exactly the same way, only when going to Play> File, on both OS', on both separate computers. I don't actually play anything WITH the lib7221, and these plugins should just be optional and not load the file types in the list they're meant for if you choose not to have them. I hope someday you guys do do that.
Hcs, can't you try testing it on windows 98, or have someone you know that works on the plugin do it, as that other guy said he has the same problem in 98. What would you need from me to see what's going on? I'm thinking of having a thread for anyone that happens to have an older OS to test it out... it's probably something small, seeing as in_cube works just fine.
And UltimateKoopa, when this XP computer goes down due to a hardware issue, or when I have to pull the board to replace the capacitors, soon, I like having a backup computer that I don't have to pay for, which does exactly what I need it to do.
XP on the other computer would be slower than hell... and ME actually loads 8 times faster than XP does on THIS computer, even in safe mode.
I like ME if only for how quick it loads and the fact I don't have to bother with any kind of registration, so I can stick it on just about any computer in about 15 minutes and be back up and running if I have more hardware issues.
Maybe someone can compile the winamp plugin in MSVC and see if that does better than the mingw builds.
I'm sorry it doesn't work for you, but realize that this is a very marginal hobby for me, I don't have a Win98 installation to test on, and I really only work on it when something easy comes up. If in_cube fulfills your needs then by all means use that.
It doesn't, that's why I'm asking... in cube only plays a few of the things I got.
Can you tell me everything you know that's necessary for vgmstream to work? Such as the dlls it needs (not just the 3 extra), things like if I need VC++ library or .net stuff (including specific updates for them)... I might just be missing something... I know I don't have certain updates in ME for .net 1.1, 2, or MS Visual C++ 2005 that I do have in XP, but since I found no info saying I needed those for vgmstream, I wasn't sure.
I do recall something stating I had to have a certain .net installed, MS visual C 2005, and something stating I had to have a specific security update for some .net version, but I can't recall in the slightest what programs called for those installs.
I was also wondering if you know what the earliest version of vgmstream that supported genh was, so I can try the earliest version on some genh files... 500-some versions to pick from, install, check options, etc. would be kinda hard to search.
I'll upload my winamp folder somewhere this weekend so you can check it out, as you'd asked previously.
Thanks for helping a little, at least.
Also, if you can think of any reason that could cause vgmsteam to simply not start playing, but have every other part of it run fine, no matter what it may be, I'm all ears.
The only dlls that the plugin imports from are: libg7221_decode.dll libmpg123-0.dll libvorbis.dll KERNERL32.dll msvcrt.dll USER32.dll
The external dlls pull from the same set. If you were missing dlls it wouldn't load at all, not crash.
Have you tried just running the command line version test.exe? If that also crashes then we can try debugging with DrMingw. We could do this with Winamp as well, I suppose. I have to figure out how to use it in the first place.
The first version with any GENH support was 211, back when it only supported VAG. You might try a binary search of versions between then and now to find a particular point where either support was added or the decoder starts crashing.
Reviving a dead thread to point out that at some point, my own build of libg7221_decode.dll may have been imported, and that's built with MSVC 2010 or so, which produces binaries that require Windows XP or newer.