Hey #Apple fans, does anyone know of any software that actively uses the #Macintosh #IIci sound hardware? (As opposed to just mixing sound together using the legacy sound h/w of older Macs)
The IIci has sound hardware that looks to be as good as the #Amiga, yet none of the software I've tried seems to use it. Seems a bit of a shame.
Found some code that can be used to make a custom boot up chime on the IIci (with replaced ROMs of course). This shows it's pretty simple to drive sound on the machine! (Not sure about using multiple channels at the moment though).
Looks like the sound buffer is a simple FIFO, maybe the Mac doesn't use DMA for sound like the Amiga does?
(code from here: https://www.downtowndougbrown.com/2011/08/mac-iici-custom-startup-chime-part-ii/)
@retrotechtive The preferences in PlayerPRO 4.x* let you switch between "Sound Manager" and "Apple Sound Chip" mixing. There's even an AWACS option if you're on a PowerPC Mac running a later version.
You can feel it, too—oscilloscope, etc. redrawing goes from 12fps to 60fps and background tasks don't lag nearly as badly when using the Apple Sound Chip option.
*the absolute worst but most visually entertaining MOD player for the Mac
@retrotechtive D'oh! Forgot to mention PlayerPRO was open sourced and there's a lot of old 68K and Apple Sound Chip code still in there, or so it seems.
grep ASCBuffer, etc.: https://sourceforge.net/projects/playerpro/files/PlayerPRO%205.x/PlayerPro%205.10/
retrotechtive
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