1y ago

Wine 8.16 Restarts Work On Implementing Microsoft's Deprecated DirectMusic API

www.phoronix.com Wine 8.16 Restarts Work On Implementing Microsoft's Deprecated DirectMusic API

38 comments

At some point in the future Linux will support more windows applications than windows
- Honestly I have an easier time running old Windows games on Linux than on Windows.
  
  Hmm..I wonder if I can install the original Blade Runner on Wine, since the installer doesnt work on windows anymore due to being..16bit i think.
  
  Same here which is great for me because I love older games lol
- It looks like people have run WINE under Cygwin, so barring Cygwin-introduced compatibility issues, Windows can use the same compatibility layer.
  
  💀
  
  I’ll use VirtualBox on Linux with W11 to run Cygwin run Wine to run old Dos games
- Doesn't it already? At least when it comes to games

I liked the idea of DirectMusic. Gameplay influenced music scores are an under-used concept
- I like the idea of both the game influencing the music and the music influencing the game.
  Like, you have a directed graph of music, with audio on the edges, and the current game state determining which edge one takes out of a node. The game influences the music there.
  But then you also have an "event track" on the edges that can be used to do cosmetic things like flash lights in the game or whatnot in time with the music, or, as with rhythm games, require the player to do things in time with the music. There, the music influences the game.
  
  Or one step further, let the music slightly alter the timing of non-cosmetic events. E.g. player throws grenade, game sends approximate explosion time to the music player, which transitions to an appropriate build up and sends the exact explosion time back to the game. Explosion visuals, SFX and music all line up perfectly.
  
  Yeah the newer music-based games are pretty cool. Maybe as stuff like OpenRGB becomes more standard we could also see that tied into game/music events more as well
- Adaptive music is a niche I happily fill with my games ;)
- EA used to do this even before Microsoft!
  They have their own music system called "Pathfinder" which controls music interactively in little chunks.
  I believe it was first used in NFS 2, which came out before DirectMusic.
  If you've heard the pursuit music in NFSMW 2005 or Carbon's Canyon music, that's Pathfinder! It was also used in Medal of Honor and Red Alert 3.
  
  It was kinda a thing even in the early SNES days, at least in a basic way Mario world would add a bit of a drumming back-beat when you jumped on Yoshi
- Come to think of it, it's surprising that's not more prevalent today.
  
  I've run into it in a few games, but it's often subtle.

But.. Why? Isn't there better things to spend resources on? Am I missing something?
- They want to maximize compatibility, even with older applications using old APIs