VirtualMIDISynth crashes (on opening) glboom+ 2.5.1.4 / SDL

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Posts: 4
Joined: May 8, 2017 - 23:59
VirtualMIDISynth crashes (on opening) glboom+ 2.5.1.4 / SDL

hi coolsoft,

first off, i have been using your program for more than a year to provide the MIDI playback to Doom (the old ones!) on my PC.

recently i upgraded to 2.0.1 but unfortunately it has created some issues:

intermittently, when i try to load up glboom+ (a program for playing doom 1/2), it hangs on opening (the 'loading' circle appears) and never actually initialises fully, forcing me to close the program (the whole 'glboom is not responding' dialogue window shows up).

im not sure what part of the upgrade may have caused this problem?

here is the program in question: https://sourceforge.net/projects/prboom-plu

many thanks!

Posts: 1972
Joined: March 25, 2012 - 01:19
Re: VirtualMIDISynth crashes (on opening) glboom+ 2.5.1.4 / SDL
peter keleher wrote:
intermittently, when i try to load up glboom+ (a program for playing doom 1/2), it hangs on opening (the 'loading' circle appears) and never actually initialises fully, forcing me to close the program (the whole 'glboom is not responding' dialogue window shows up).
im not sure what part of the upgrade may have caused this problem?

VMS2 has two distinct parts: the driver, loaded by the MIDI client (your game) and the synth, started by the driver - when needed - in a separate process.
The former will be loaded/unloaded when MIDI client starts/stops, while the latter will keep running once started.
This will save soundfonts load time to users using MIDI players that start/stop the driver between tracks (more info here).

That said, could you please check if the hang happens only at first VMS run?
I mean:

  • look at the systray area and check if VMS icon is not there (if yes, right click on it and close)
  • start your game, this will also start VMS synth component
    this task could require a lot of time, depending on disk IO performances and your soundfont configuration/size
  • if the game hangs, kill it but leave VMS running
  • restart your game and, this time, it should start without issues
  • now close VMS synth by its systray icon and restart from the beginning

Repeat these tests more than once, then report here.

If we found that the hang happens only at first VMS start, then you could:

  • configure VMS to start with Windows, so it will be ready when neede without having to wait for it to start
  • reduce its load time by removing some soundfont and/or loading smaller ones and/or improve loading time (i.e. SSD drive...)
Posts: 4
Joined: May 8, 2017 - 23:59
Re: VirtualMIDISynth crashes (on opening) glboom+ 2.5.1.4 / SDL

hi coolsoft, thank you for your swift response.

i dont know what happened but i am trying to replicate the issue and it doesn't seem to be giving any errors currently.

i will bump the thread if the issue returns! very odd...

Posts: 4
Joined: May 8, 2017 - 23:59
Re: VirtualMIDISynth crashes (on opening) glboom+ 2.5.1.4 / SDL

hi coolsoft; i have been doing some more tests:

the game engine (SDL_app) hangs and doesnt initialise if VMS is not already open.

the game engine opens as usual if i close, then re-start with VMS open.

i turned off the option: Preload the SoundFont to memory to improve play smoothness and this seems to have resolved the issue.

many thanks,

Posts: 4
Joined: May 8, 2017 - 23:59
Re: VirtualMIDISynth crashes (on opening) glboom+ 2.5.1.4 / SDL

apologies for the frequent postings:

turning off Preloading has not resolved the issue.

keeping VMS open after the first crash of the game engine has not resolved the issue if another MIDI arrangement (to the one that opened VMS) is opened via the game engine. however, this doesnt seem to be every time. some 'new' MIDI arrangements loading via the game engine cause it to hang and crash, others do not.

the upshot is that the crashes do not seem to depend on whether or not VMS is open before the game engine is loaded, but actually seems to be the MIDI arrangement itself.

Posts: 1972
Joined: March 25, 2012 - 01:19
Re: VirtualMIDISynth crashes (on opening) glboom+ 2.5.1.4 / SDL

Well, this could be very hard to fix out if it's not reproducible and systematic.

The most probable cause could be the delay on first VMS start, because not all MIDI clients are so smart to wait for it.
But you seem to exclude that cause, so we've no clue.