SDL.dll not included with simuwin-sdl-120-1-1.zip

[kazarmy]

SDL.dll is not included with simuwin-sdl-120-1-1.zip. I'm currently using the SDL.dll from simuwin-sdl-120-0-1.zip -- it's working fine so far.

[Dwachs]

SDL is a third-party library, there should be no differences by using SDL.dll from former releases.

[DrSuperGood]

What are the benefits for Windows users to use SDL over GDI? As far as I can tell the performance is pretty close and all supported Windows installations should come with GDI.

[Ters]

I suspect that there might have been some difference back in the Windows 9x days. DirectDraw was created for a reason. Most of it's advantages were later merged back into GDI (GDI+ actually) in Windows XP. Perhaps there can still be some driver bugs from time to time that only manifest themselves when using GDI.

[Dwachs]

One of the two versions was not really capable of handling non-western character sets. Cant remember which one.

[TurfIt]

I believe it was the SDL version that had trouble with some languages; Not sure if that's still the case. For the other languages, SDL is certainly a better choice - performs 5% faster at screen updates, and doesn't have the issues with music/sound volume that the Microsoft introduced to the GDI version with WinVista and later.

The missing .dll was pointed out three weeks ago in the 'new release?' thread. Along with posting a SDL2 OSX version which has yet to appear at sourceforge for general download...

[Ters]

doesn't have the issues with music/sound volume that the Microsoft introduced to the GDI version with WinVista and later.

To be fair, Simutrans is using the multimedia APIs in ways I don't think they were meant to be. One of them was probably sort of deprecated already in Windows 95. Unfortunately, standard mingw doesn't have any of the newer APIs. And MIDI support in Windows is getting poorer and poorer. (The ability to specify default MIDI device is apparently gone.)

[Isaac Eiland-Hall]

Although it's a shame, I think MIDI support is probably going the way of Fax and dialup-modem support.

[TurfIt]

[patch] FluidSynth

[Ters]

[patch] FluidSynth

As long as Simutrans can use hardware MIDI if available. Or even an already configured software MIDI. I can't tell from just reading the post whether FluidSynth is built into Simutrans, or if Simutrans will just be able to use if available on the system.

[Vladki]

I dont know what the patch does, but simutrans can play on sw midi just fine.

[Ters]

I dont know what the patch does, but simutrans can play on sw midi just fine.

Which software MIDI on which OS?

[Vladki]

Which software MIDI on which OS?

Timidity on Linux. It used to work, but I play silently for quite a long time now, and in my compiled version from SVN sound does not work at all... I have to check with precompiled nightly or release version.

[Ters]

Timidity on Linux.

I don't think anything has changed on Linux in this regard. It's Windows that is now hardwired to Microsoft's software synthesizer. I don't know if it will rewire itself to a hardware synthesizer if available, but you can't use a different software synthesizer unless the program playing MIDIs explicitly ask for it, which I don't think the API Simutrans' native Windows MIDI uses supports. SDL might, perhaps.