I get the feeling this is going to be a really unpopular response...

It occurs to me that allowing anonymous uploads to a file distribution website probably puts the site owner at risk. As long as you can show reasonable effort to make sure that files on your site are not pirated, there should be no problem.
Choosing to allow anonymous uploads is exactly the opposite of that, and could easily be construed as "supporting illegal file distribution", because you are willing to hide the identity of the uploader, thus protecting them from any repercussions.
I am not a lawyer, but I would be quite careful about distributing files from unknown sources. It seems to be a very risky choice to make.

OS4Depot is too important to risk. Please protect yourself by requiring the identity of each files uploader.

@orgin
Speaking only for myself (of course) I am grateful for the Depot and I think it's a very valuable resource for the community and the developers. Please keep it up and running.
I choose the release dates for my software carefully, often because new features require roll-out in a certain order, and sometimes just because I want to make sure something is as solid as possible before release.
I would be quite upset if the uploader decided to take over my distribution without my previous consent. "doing me a favor" because I am "too lazy to do it myself" are not grounds for anonymous parties to take control of my work. At the very least I would expect the uploader to be identified so I could take my dispute to them personally.
Like I said, it's just my opinion, and it does not seem to be the popular approach to this topic.

Sometimes a surprise is nice.

When you install Timi, make sure you get it all..
The MidiPrefs program sets up the "default Midi Out" variable that Scumm uses to find which CAMD output you want.

And TimiLaunch will automatically start and stop Timi when it is needed. There's no sense in running Timi all the time, unless all you do with your Amiga is play MIDI files.

There will be an update to Timi soon that uses less memory by only pre-loading the drumset, and all other instruments are loaded on demand only.


:)

These new environment variables include a default MIDI out, a default MIDI In, and the default instrument list.. Basically it lets you pre-set where you want programs to look first. In the classic days it was almost always "out.0", but that port does not exist on NG Amigas.

Now MidiPrefs sets the default out to Timi, but if anyone has a real synth attached, they can set the default output there, and Scumm (and other programs like CamdPlay) will open already pointed at the selected port.

It's not a big deal, but along with CAMD being included in the OS, it makes Midi truly "Plug and Play"..

Yeah yeah. It's time to go to work.

:)

ScummVM works under F.E., but there are a few things that might work a bit differently. Some of the games that Scumm includes had original game music that does not play on earlier AmigaOS versions.

But IF you are running "Final Edition", and IF you installed "Timi" from the contribs drawer, along with MidiPrefs and TimiLaunch.. and IF TimiLaunch is set to "When Needed".. Then any games with Midi music tracks should play now, all automagically!

OK, that's a whole lot of "IF"s.. but if you're a fan of Scumm games you might want to give it a try. having the original music can make the game a lot more fun.

This was one of those things that happened a while back, and we just forgot to announce it. Raziel and I got together about a year ago and added support for choosing the default MIDI out port from an environment variable. It's something we have really needed for quite some time, and it's also our first step beyond the original CAMD specifications.
So the changes to Scumm were approved and compiled in many months ago. But since the MidiPrefs program was not yet released, there wasn't much to announce.

I eventually finished up Timi, and was quite happy to add it to the contribs of FinalEdition. Along with TimiLaunch to start it on demand, and MidiPrefs to let you control default options, we finally had all the parts in place. And we completely forgot to tell anyone.

So I asked him to test it this past week. He tells me that "Simon the Sorcerer 1" plays music now. I'm sure that a few other games will have music now too. And with a new standard for defining a default MIDI output, more programs will be able to connect up automatically without having to ask the user for help. Just one of those little upgrades that took over a year to get working. :)

I just read about this a few hours ago. I very much enjoyed the discussions among the "general public" about risk and remidiation options.
Many say "just format the disk", they have not fully understood where the virus lives and what it runs on.. Many have said "pull the drive and re-flash the firmware". Great, but who will audit the firmware to make sure it's not the "bad" one?
While driving my wife around this morning, I began to wonder exactly what the "payload" of this virus might be.. It _could_ insert other virii into your file system if it knows what OS and processor family you are running.
If this virus wanted to export any of your "secrets" I can see only a few ways out. If it knows the OS then the network might be viable, but also subject to detection. It could simply make hidden copies of some specific data and hold them for some agent to do a "hands on" retrieval, but that seems unlikely as well.

Then I thought of some more dangerous options. Without any knowledge or care about OS or system processor, it has the ability to corrupt any or all of your data. And it could, as Severin pointed out, be triggered into action by something as simple as saving a specific string of characters.

With a system like that ALL OS's would be vulnerable, including ours. And all you'd need to trigger it is to get the end-user to save a trigger file anywhere on the drive. True that some processors may play with byte order, but sending the "key" in a couple variations solves that problem.

The article I read said that the corrupted drives were only being sold to certain countries. I think that bit was the hardest to believe at all. But that's just me. :)

Brave New World indeed.

@tonyw

And here's a partial score from the Super Bowl:

Seahawks 24

@sicky

That explains it. I never use Cache, just my bank card.
Glad you got it sorted! :)

Working from here in the Untied States of Merica. :)

@Hans

The new Radeon driver is a big improvement, and this latest version of MPlayer makes a good example of that. My thanks to all involved.

There will always be "something more" to wait for if people really like to wait. I myself am truly amazed at what we have in front of us right now.

And it just keeps getting better. :)

Now where do I complain when AmigaOS Final Edition refuses to make my bed in the morning?

Wow!
After reading a bit of this thread I downloaded the latest 6.3 from OS4Depot. I'm running FinalEdition on an X1000 with the 2.4 Radeon driver.
I am impressed.
I have a monitor that tends to blank for a couple seconds every time the screen format changes. With this I am able to specify 1920 X 1080 to keep my monitor in sync, and still upscale whatever video I am watching to full screen. And the processor usage is WAY down from previous versions.

Great work!

@Rob
The author of the Radeon drivers recently said in another forum:

"On AmigaOS the graphics card is set to max clock speeds + the voltages required to run at those speeds."

"While I would definitely like to add dynamic power management, they have made it very complicated to program. I don't see that happening any time soon."

Edit: I see Spectre660 beat me to it. :)

GPU temperature sensing is not currently supported under AmigaOS.
Another option might be an automatic fan controller. Many have a small temp sensor to control the speed of each fan.
It's not as accurate as the internal temp sensor, but it's off-the shelf, and it has the additional feature of slowing your fans down when full speed is not needed.

@Fairdinkem

"but it is such a low priority for AmigaOS development apparently."

Webcams that connect by USB require support for "Isochronous transfers". Yes, weird name, but that's what they are called in the USB spec.

Our current USB stack has some limited support for this type of transfer, but it is not complete across all interface types.

At some point in the future this may change, but right now there are a lot of other things that need attention too.

@Raziel

Score is a personal project, and this past year has been spent mostly on other stuff. Even though Score is listed at AMiStore, it is not yet ready for sale. Hopefully it will get more attention, but right now my real life has been interfering with my programming time.

As far as the Radiance package.. I think that's all graphics based stuff, so I'm not sure Score applies there, though I did finally get the music scrolling towards the Clef. ;)

@Trixie
The synth included with FinalEdition is called "Timi" and it is derived from the Timidity package. Unlike the normal TImidity, Timi is real-time, allowing you to play it "live", which is necessary for use with CAMD. Timi is based on GUS patches, and does NOT support soundfonts at this time. Timi comes complete and pre-configures with a GUS soundfont, as well as TimiLaunch, which can load and unload Timi automatically when it is needed, and with "MidiPorts", a prefs editor that configures TimiLaunch as welll as some CAMD default settings.

@eliyahu
Thanks for the mention! I'm really quite happy that camd and the USB midi driver are now part of the OS install, this makes it easier to support MIDI programs, and makes support for modern (usb) midi devices truly "plug and".. wait.. let's just say the support is automatic. ;)

@Kicko

I am also curious about Octamed having MIDI support.

The FinalEdition release also includes a complete software synthesizer, which opens musical programs like Bars&Pipes and Score up to everyone. It should also work with ScummVM for music playback in those games that support it.

I have asked A-EON if they could put me in touch with the coder porting Octamed so I can offer help with the CAMD link if necessary.

@Valiant

I only asked because Score is my first experience coding for scalable fonts.. I try to follow the "rules" but sometimes I might miss details.

On the bright side, I am planning to partition and format a new primary drive for my AmigaOne, and after reading this thread I was reminded to create a partition specifically for TimberWolf. It's really easy to do when setting up the disk the first time. It's a bit tougher to go back and add it later.

And about the Score.ttf font.. after some issues with a "correct" font installation, newer versions of Score will offer to install the font any time it's not found. So at least nobody will get caught without it.

Glad you got it solved.
:)

@sundown

Is this something I need to worry about, or can we blame it all on Val?

I'll admit I don't run TW often, but after posting in this thread I ran TW RC3 and had no font issues.

Oh, and I DO have Score.ttf installed. ;)
I run Score more often than TW, and still not nearly as much as I'd like to.

I know where Score.ttf came from.

I don't know why it's causing Timberwolf problems..

Quite curious.

Great news! Sorry I'll miss the chance to meet him.
I suspect it will be quite a party. :)

@Rob

"I'd like to be able to play audio from multiple apps."

In most cases you can.
There are five units availble to AHI.
Music Unit, and units 0 to 3.

Unit zero should be the most common unit for use.
It will allow multiple programs to use it at once, up to the limit set in "channels" prefs for that unit. (most are preset at ten).

The "Music" unit is unique, and only one can be opened.
If you try two programs that both require the Music Unit, the second program to open it will fail.

Units 1-3 are not useful anymore, since unit zero can handle all of their traffic as well.

One possible problem when multiple programs are playing at once: Mixer only controls the master volume, it can not control the relative level between programs.

AHI is intended to support a separate volume control for each program.
Some programs don't bother to offer a user volume control, and expect the user to use Mixer instead. This is not useful when multiple programs are making sound at once. It also fails when the user chooses S/PDIF output, as the sound card usually has no control over the volume of a digital channel.

:)