pumptools/doc/hook/mk3hook.md

mk3hook: 1st to Prex 3/Premiere 3 Linux ports

This readme covers any matters that are relevant for this hook, only. Anything that applies to all hooks is covered in a main hook readme file including general data setup and a quick start guide.

First and foremost, the MK3 Linux ports are runnable without this hook as well. The ports were created from the original fully disassembled DOS binaries and reassembled for 32-bit Linux. To make the games run on modern non-MK3 hardware, additional features were added to the disassembly:

• Software lockchip emulation
• ISA PIUIO to USB PIUIO (over libusb)
• MP3 audio decoding and playback using fmodex
• Software sound effect playback
• Software EEPROM data reading/writing

However, since modifying the (decompiled) source code is a very complex task, various additional features and fixes are applied using a hook library. This lacks certain flexibility but is so far sufficient to fix various bugs and add some more quality of life features.

Additional notable features

• Audio subsystem using fmodex: Bugfixes and audio device selection
• Relocate game data to game sub-folder to have identical data layout to newer generation games
• Additional development/debugging features, e.g. file, io, open logging and tracing
• Hardcoded OpenGL bugfix
• Utilize pumptools configuration infrastructure to unify configuration of all games

Versions supported

Basically, "all" versions are supported considering there was only one Linux binary per game released so far.

Quick start: how to run (official release), additional steps

Start with the quick start guide from the main hook readme and add the additional steps at the very end:

1. 1st and 2nd only: Open the hook.conf file and set the following property: game.1st_2nd_fs=1. For details, see this section
2. 1st only: Go straight to the operator menu by pressing G on your keyboard. Go to GAME OPTION, select and confirm DEFAULT SETTING and SAVE AND EXIT. Next, go to COIN OPTION, DEFAULT SETTING and SAVE AND EXIT. See this section for details.

Dependencies

Make sure to read the different methods of dependency resolution available in the main hook readme file, first.

Note: Game is 32-bit, so you need to install the 32-bit versions of the dependencies!

The following direct dependencies (cmd: readelf -d piu) are required by all Linux ports:

• libGL.so.1
• libX11.so.6
• libXxf86vm.so.1
• libXrandr.so.2
• libpthread.so.0
• libXi.so.6
• libXcursor.so.1
• libXinerama.so.1
• libm.so.6
• libncurses.so.5
• libtinfo.so.5
• libfmodex.so
• libconfig.so.9
• libusb-0.1.so.4
• libc.so.6

As for method 1, when using Ubuntu, the dependencies can be found in the following packages:

• libc-bin (or gcc-multilib on a 64-bit platform)
• libusb-0.1-4
• libconfig++9v5
• tinfo5
• ncurses5
• libxcursor1
• libxinerama1
• libxi6
• libxrandr2
• libxxf86vm1
• libx11-6
• libasound2

Further indirect dependencies are needed but should be taken care of automatically when using a package manager to install the direct dependencies.

Data setup

In additional to the general information applying to all hooks, the following information goes for a clean set of data from a pristine/non-bootleg CD.

If you have the official release, this might not be relevant to you as it just explains some important technical details about the data.

In general, get a clean set of data from a pristine/non-bootleg CD.

However, 1st, 2nd and 3rd and Extra (IIRC) are the exception here. These games have their textures packed in an odd format (IIRC something about an odd color format and/or textures being flipped) that cannot be used with the Linux port versions. These versions require file modification and repacking to make everything look correct with the linux binaries.

Furthermore, because the old games ran on case-insensitive file systems, everything goes with file naming depending on the version of the game, e.g. full upper/lower-case files, folders and even mixed ones, e.g. Stage.cfg (sigh). In order to make this less painful for the the hook library, some file names were modified to create some sort of consistency.

You are not required to have the pulled data in the same location and layout as given by the original layout on the disc as this can be configured with the hook library. Everything can be located locally in a single folder. The settings for this can be found and tweaked in the hook.conf file which is created after you started the game once (see below).

The game data subfolder

This differs slightly from newer generation games, i.e. MK6-based and newer. The hook library takes care of this by implementing a consistent directory structure on all versions of the game. Therefore, all game data from the CD of MK3 games goes into a game folder as well. Example of games contents for Prex 3:

• AUDIO
• BGA
• STEP
• TITLE
• PIU.BIN
• STAGE.CFG

Furthermore, the game needs to have the sound effects available as files. These were stored on a ROM chip on the MK3 hardware. Luckily, newer PC-based games have these as normal files with the correct naming in the game/WAVE subfolder. These also go into game/EFFECTS.

Some other and older versions come with different files and folders but the process is identical. The first three games, 1st, 2nd and 3rd, had their audio files stored on disc as PCM audio data next to the other game assets. These audio files need to be ripped and provided as MP3 encoded audio files in the sub-folder game/track.

Linux port features

This section covers the features that were added to the Linux ports and therefore not available on the original DOS versions.

Configuration file

A configuration file with different options can be provided to the game's bare executable. The configuration is provided as a command line argument when running the game, e.g.

./piu ./save/config.cfg

Example contents:

fullscreen = 1;
allow_exit = 1;
save_file = "./save/EEPROM.BIN";
effect_path = "./EFFECTS/";
track_path = "./track/";
sync_offset = 115;
sync_multiplier = 4.16666666666666696272613990004;
music_volume = 1.0;
sfx_volume = 1.0;

Most entries are self-explanatory. However, there are two parameters that can be tweaked to control synchronisation of the stepchart to the music.

The sync_offset parameter (in ms) is used to offset the stepchart to the music. However, as you might be used to such a parameter from other music games, this offset is NOT entirely identical to adjusting the music to your sound system's latency. You can use this value to shift the synchronisation point forward and backward but keep in mind that it will not match any other offset values you determined in other games.

The sync_multiplier is also a variable that was depending on the sound hardware of the target platform. It was already determined and there should be NO reason to change it unless you know what it does and how it is used in synchronizing the stepchart to the song in the engine.

All these configuration values are exposed via the hook.conf file and hooked to the pumptools configuration infrastructure. Usually, there is no need to deal with this directly, so this is section is mainly for documenting its presence.

Built-in keyboard controls

Ignore this section if you are using the mk3hook because it will disable this feature entirely. See this section.

The following keyboard controls are available with the Linux ports.

PIUIO hooked controls:

Test: Key G
Service: Key H
Clear: Key J
Coin 1: Key K
Coin 2: Key L

Pads (Player 2 on numpad):
Q   E  7   9
  S      5
Z   C  1   3

Keyboard controls supported by the game engine (won't work on very early versions of the game, e.g. 1st, 2nd, 3rd):

Test: F1
Service: F2
Clear: F3

USB PIUIO

Ignore this section if you are using the mk3hook because it will disable this feature entirely. See this section.

When a USB PIUIO is plugged it, the game will automatically detect and use it.

Exit the game

Use Test + Service on the USB PIUIO (controls) to exit the game. This can also be blocked in the configuration.

mk3hook features

Check the hook.conf file which is located in the same folder as the piu executable once you have started the game. The available settings are explained in the hook.conf file.

Configure IO

See this section of the main hook readme.

Select another audio device

If the default sound card is not working, e.g. see here, you might want to select another audio device/card instead.

In order to find out which cards are available and which configuration value to set, you have to run the game once. Check the log and you will see a list of available devices printed somewhere at the beginning of the log, for example:

Output type: 11
Num available drivers 43
Driver 0: default
Driver 1: null
Driver 2: jack
Driver 3: sysdefault:CARD=PCH
Driver 4: front:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
...

By default and if you have not configured any sound device, yet, this will pick the first, usually, default device. Pick another one by copying the name, e.g. sysdefault:CARD=PCH, and setting it in the hook.conf file:

patch.sound.device=sysdefault:CARD=PCH

When you restart the game, check the log if the device got picked up properly. This is indicated by a log message right after the device list is printed.

Debugging fmodex issues

You can also debug issues with fmodex, e.g. why the selected sound device does not work.

You need to replace the normal fmodex.so library in the game local lib folder with a fmodexL.so version. Just rename the "L"-version to fmodex.so and have it in the game local lib folder. Furthermore, you have to enable debug output by setting the following configuration value in the hook.conf file:

patch.sound.debug_output=0

After that's done, you should see additional log output by fmodex on the console.

Troubleshooting and FAQ

Make sure to also check the troubleshooting and FAQ section of the main hook readme. This covers various things that apply to all hooks. The following sub-sections apply mainly to this hook.

No sound and FMOD errors in log

If you see one or multiple of the following error messages in the log output

FMOD error! (60) Error initializing output device. 
FMOD error! (79) This command failed because System::init or System::setDriver was not called. 
FMOD error! (37) An invalid parameter was passed to this function.

it is very likely that fmod cannot use the default/currently selected audio device for playback. This can have various reasons from non suitable configuration to device being used by another process and therefore blocked if not supporting software mixing.

Choose another device for playback instead, see this section, or you can enable fmodex debug output to further debug this issue, see this section.

1st/2nd is missing the "Insert Coin" text on the title screen and several other graphics, e.g. life bar during gameplay

This is a known bug and we do not have a fix for this so far. However, this is not always triggered and if you keep restarting the game (with a few seconds of waiting between restarts), you will start the game without this bug being active eventually.

1st or 2nd errors about failed resource loading

For example:

FAIL: res_load( piu.dat )

This error indicates that one or multiple game files are not placed in the right location(s), your configured game sub-directory path is not correct or you forgot to switch on the "1st/2nd filesystem" feature switch in the hook configuration. For the latter, set the following in your hook.conf file:

game.1st_2nd_fs=1

1st crashes right after the Andamiro logo or the intro sequence when I should see the title screen with a floating point exception

1st does not detect if no EEPROM data is available and does not write defaults on first start or when you deleted the save/EEPROM.BIN file. Therefore, all settings values for the game are considered "0". This is fine with all settings except the coin settings. This causes the floating point exception though I assume it was actually caused by a division by zero.

To fix this, go right to the operator menu when you booted up the game and are still on the Andamiro logo screen. Go to GAME OPTION, select and confirm DEFAULT SETTING and SAVE AND EXIT. Next, go to COIN OPTION, DEFAULT SETTING and SAVE AND EXIT. This writes a fresh EEPROM.bin file with all default settings and you are good to go.