audio.device support in OS4?

[Minuous]

Hello all, I have an (emulated) A4000 running OS4.0 for Classic. AHI sound works but not audio.device. Programs seem to be able to open and use audio.device successfully except that it is completely silent.

So it seems OS4 lacks proper support for audio.device, even on a Classic Amiga, or is this user error!? I tried NallePUH and it says my hardware is unsupported, is there another program that will achieve the same result?

[danbeaver]

On a real A4000(T), OS4.1 fully supports the audio.device

[Minuous]

Hmm, must be because I'm running OS4.0 instead of 4.1 then.

[danbeaver]

Could it be the emulation?

[Minuous]

@danbeaver:

That can't be entirely ruled out, but seems unlikely, since AHI is working fine, and audio.device is working fine under OS3.9 with a similar configuration. I'd like to check whether OS4.0 is supposed to be able to do this before filing an emulator bug report. I do find it somewhat hard to believe that OS4.0 was released without any audio.device support.

[spirantho]

This thread does illustrate very well WHY Hyperion aren't in favour of WinUAE.
People will run AmigaOS 4 under WinUAE and when it doesn't work, they assume it's because OS 4 is bad, not because WinUAE is bad. I used audio under OS 4.0 on my A4000 I'm sure, using my Deneb and a cheap USB sound device.

[Minuous]

@spirantho:

I'm not assuming anything; that's why I asked a question, instead of jumping to a firm conclusion as you have done. But given that WinUAE's Paula emulation has been used/tested by thousands of people for close to two decades, a bug in the emulator is unlikely.

The question was about use of the Paula chip via audio.device. Nothing to do with using a "cheap USB sound device", obviously.

If Hyperion had proper documentation for the OS, I could look up the answer myself...

[spirantho]

Sorry, I wasn't targeting you for anything - you may not assume anything but others who read threads like this will do. This is precisely the deal I mean.

Is audio.device supported in OS4? Yes, it is. Had this been run on a real Amiga the question wouldn't have even come up. It all adds up to an undeserved negative perception of AmigaOS 4, when the fault is somewhere else.

My mistake about the sound card - I was forgetting that audio.device was a Paula thing and not AHI. Paula is definitely] supported in AmigaOS 4, though.

[chris]

My mistake about the sound card - I was forgetting that audio.device was a Paula thing and not AHI. Paula is definitely] supported in AmigaOS 4, though.

I'm pretty sure audio.device redirected to AHI in OS4.0, although software that opened audio.device and then hit Paula directly wouldn't redirect without NallePUH.

No idea which AHI unit though - probably Music, although could have been Unit 0.  I'd check all AHI units are set correctly before doing anything else.

[ChaosLord]

I'm pretty sure audio.device redirected to AHI in OS4.0, although software that opened audio.device and then hit Paula directly wouldn't redirect without NallePUH.

No idea which AHI unit though - probably Music, although could have been Unit 0.  I'd check all AHI units are set correctly before doing anything else.

The OP is running OS4 on a system with a functioning Paula.

Real Amigas have Paula.  Even most fake Amigas have Paula.  It is only a certain subset of "unreal" Amigas that forgot to include the Paula.

NallePUH is only for running on computers that have no Paula.

The OP has a Paula.

[chris]

NallePUH is only for running on computers that have no Paula.

Actually NallePUH works whether you have a real/emulated Paula chip or not.  It redirects the calls to AHI, as per my previous message.

[spirantho]

If you have a program (in this case the Paula driver) that runs fine on the real hardware, and with the same software fails under emulation, surely the fault has to be the emulation? You can't blame the software if it works fine on real hardware but doesn't work under emulation...

[ChaosLord]

Actually NallePUH works whether you have a real/emulated Paula chip or not.  It redirects the calls to AHI, as per my previous message.

Well ok, fair enough.

It just seems silly to actually use it on a computer with a Paula.

Then again the OP does not have a real Paula, only a fake Paula so what the heck.  It might make sense to use NallePuh on WinUAE. :crazy:  ouch this totally does my head in!

I am not uptodate on where WinUAE dev is at in 2015.
Once upon a time WinUAE had no MMU.  But when I left off last, WinUAE had gotten a mini-MMU that was not fully functional.  NallePuh needs an MMU.

Does NallePuh work on WinUAE?

[chris]

Well ok, fair enough.

It just seems silly to actually use it on a computer with a Paula.

If you have a sound card, it makes sense to redirect it to that, surely?

[ChaosLord]

If you have a sound card, it makes sense to redirect it to that, surely?

That would just waste a huge bunch of CPU cycles for nothing.  It wouldn't sound any different.  It is the same 8-bit samples making the exact same sound.

When you use AHI you don't get the benefits of Paula audio.
You don't get DMA.
You waste vast gigantic amounts of cpu power.
Paula audio is free.  It costs nothing.  Paula uses DMA.  Paula uses interrupt-driven hardware double-buffering so you can't get buffer underflows.  Paula always works since there are no drivers to install.