Request: Sound when not focused

[Gamesoul Master]

I now have to request this... the ability for pSX to play sound in addition to video when the "Pause when not focused" option is unchecked and pSX is not focused.

The reason being... I decided to make my TV the secondary monitor, being the monitor on the right-hand side. I don't know why. But after doing it, it struck me that it'd be really cool if one person could be playing pSX on the second monitor, and another person cruising the internet or doing whatever on the first monitor.

The only thing needed to make this dream a reality... is for pSX to be able to play sound when not focused. Yes, this has been requested before. But now... it has it's own thread (well, which I only did because there *is* no request thread now... and I think this is a win-win request... no bad side to implementing it, and simple too).

[TheCloudOfSmoke]

I think it's a good idea. In fact, I think i requested this before. So I second the request.

When pSX Author is done with the emulation and compatibility, we might bring back the request threads if that's alright with him though.

[Gamesoul Master]

It probably was you that requested it (as that rings a bell). I knew somebody requested it, but I couldn't remember who.

I don't really see a point to bringing them back. Using threads for requests is more efficient, I think. It makes the requests much easier to find, as well as it being much easier to get rid of the dupe/bad ones.

[patrickp]

When pSX Author is done with the emulation and compatibility

Playing it safe, hmm?

[Sune]

But will you still be able to control the game when the pSX window is not in focus?

Should be easy enough to test, even on a single monitor system.

[stranger90]

It's a good idea! Because i want to listen CDDA tracks from the bios when use internet, i hate Windows Media Player!!!!

[Deleted]

I think this idea is good.

Also, offtopic...

stranger90 said:

It's a good idea! Because i want to listen CDDA tracks from the bios when use internet, i hate Windows Media Player!!!!

You could use any of the other available audio players though. Winamp is a popular choice.

[Gamesoul Master]

Sune_S: I tested it and...

I'd like to add to this request, and that is an option for the controls to be active when the emulator is not in focus. Just the controllers. Cuz obviously, I could imagine the chaos if *all* the functions were active (thinking of the hotkeys here... XD). But it makes me wonder... just how possible would it be to make the controls for an actual controller work in an inactive window? I've never seen that before, not in any emulator or game. Well, I've seen it happen on accident. Like sometimes when I use CEP, and then I bring pSX's main window back up, I can see that for some odd reason, my characters have moved up... while the emulator was inactive.

[TheCloudOfSmoke]

Arg, no one really backed me up when I requested it. lol.

But anyways, GM, vba lets you use a controller when the emulator window wasn't active.

Once I think about it, I think most popular emulators have a "Pause/sleep when inactive"option . That's how me and my little brother played two completely different emulators at the same time when we both wanted to play different games on one computer. Only problem is that if you have more than one emulator using the same specific controller, all games will do the same movements. So you have to make sure that you use different controllers for different emulators if you ever want to do that.

[Gamesoul Master]

That's a given. And... I thought I backed you up when you requested it... and a couple other people. That's what got us into the "pSX as a music player" conversation that we ended up having.

[TheCloudOfSmoke]

As a matter of fact, I think your'e right GM. I think I was thinking of another suggestion that I posted on the request threads. My bad.

[Gamesoul Master]

I noticed... many of the requests I make end up gaining popularity upon being requested. Even if they were requested before. Like... having a button for toggling analog/digital signal (or a controller toggle... can be the same thing if pSX Author so chooses). Maybe I'm just good at making the requests sound really good. Cuz obviously... it's not that my requests are better than yours or something. I just have a really strong habit of, when I want something, I always try my best to give really clear and simple reasons that almost anybody can understand and sympathize with... XD

[TheCloudOfSmoke]

No need to explain. I was just kidding about the whole thing. Notice the "lol" on the other post? I have to admit though, I can come up with good ideas but I just don't pitch it the right way like you and others do to where a lot of people can understand the need for that certain request. If any request gets two or more people to to request it, it means it a good request and that it would be a good thing to implement it, right? All of us here are aiming for the same thing anyways, a really good emulator.

[Gamesoul Master]

Two stupid people can support a pointless request. This might sound really self-centered in general, but I think it takes one of "us" supporting it for it to be a good request. Meaning... at least one of the regulars. If there is a good idea, it is pretty much 100% certain that at least one of us will support it. That's part of the reason I always look for and support any good ideas that I see. There are actually quite a few requests that I'm surprised haven't been implemented. I know that pSX Author is quite busy having a normal life and such... my thought on the subject (what I many times mention in response to these kinds of requests) is that some of them would be extremely easy to implement. Not even being involved in writing this emulator, there are some requests that I know would literally take about 5 minutes at most to implement. For instance... adding the supported memory card extensions to the readme and possibly the drop-down menu of the file type when selecting a memory card.

I'd check to see if that was done in v1.10, but all my versions of the emulator are crashing at start-up right now. Meh... guess it's time to fix that problem now...

Edit: Ahh, yes... I almost forgot that pSX crashes if you have no sound card installed. You see... about half the time that I restart the computer, it decides to think that my integrated POS sound card isn't there, even though the drivers are installed and the task manager says it's there and working fine. "Reinstalling" the drivers (which of course should do nothing since I'm installing the same drivers over the ones that are already there) fixes the problem. I think it's about time I install my SB Live 5.1 card from my other computer... just been lazy about shutting down the computer and opening it up to install it... XD

[TheCloudOfSmoke]

I agree completely on the small stuff taking about 5 minutes to add in. A good example is your analog button idea. My assumption is that it wouldn't take long to implement that, but I'm no coder and I don't know too much about the technical aspects of PS hardware and emulation of it. So it could take longer than I would think. I think that pSX Author is working solely/mainly on acurrate emulation/compatibility and that's why the small stuff hasn't been added in yet. And yes patrickp, to answer your question before, saying that is my way of playing it safe . Hopefully, with enough patience from us, he'll find the time to put them in there one day.