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Syrinscape Alternatives

Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2017 6:55 pm
by goldensword52
First off, I'd like to thank Jamz for all the amazing features in his Map Tool Fork; if you haven't already I highly recommend everyone should check it out. One feature in particular is the integration with Syrinscape. With a bit of macro coding, you can get Map Tool to play certain sounds through the Syrinscape program.

That feature is certainly better than nothing, but I have a few issues with the Syrinscape program in particular, mostly in terms of playing my own music and sounds. So I have a question for the more experienced Map Tool users: are there any alternatives to Syrinscape for that job? For example, how difficult would it be for Map Tool to send a command to open Windows Media Player with a specific MP3 file instead of Syrinscape? If that can't be done directly, then what about having Map Tool create a specific playlist file that can then be opened in any media player?

It seems a shame to have such a potentially useful feature be held back by being limited to just one program. So I hope someone can show me an alternative or workaround that does the same job without Syrinscape. Thanks in advance!

Re: Syrinscape Alternatives

Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2017 9:44 am
by JamzTheMan
I know this doesn't answer your question, but you can create your own Syrinscape soundsets using Syrinscape Creator. But I admit it's not the quickest way and still requires $$.

If another URI scheme is required for another program to launch externally, let me know, it's not difficulty to add them.

I do plan to add mp3/ogg/wav support in the future, but I can only dedicate so many hours to a hobby. :)

Re: Syrinscape Alternatives

Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2017 2:45 pm
by goldensword52
JamzTheMan wrote:I know this doesn't answer your question, but you can create your own Syrinscape soundsets using Syrinscape Creator. But I admit it's not the quickest way and still requires $$.

If another URI scheme is required for another program to launch externally, let me know, it's not difficulty to add them.

I do plan to add mp3/ogg/wav support in the future, but I can only dedicate so many hours to a hobby. :)
Sorry for my ignorance but I don't really understand what a URI involves. Is it not possible to have a URI that launches windows media player? Or any other generic media player for that matter? If you say it's easy, that'd be great, but I feel like I'm missing something. If it is prohibitively difficult, at least that news that Map Tool might soon support sound effects directly is something to look forward to!

Re: Syrinscape Alternatives

Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2017 2:10 am
by JamzTheMan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_R ... Identifier

The software has to register with windows and handle the URI requests. Syrinscape does this and their URI looks like this, "syrinscape-fantasy:moods/YnVnYmVhci1iYXR0bGU6OkJhdHRsZSBCZWdpbnM/play/" and Windows knows to launch syrinscape-fantasy player, and Syrinscape plays mood with ID YnVnYmVhci1iYXR0bGU6OkJhdHRsZSBCZWdpbnM

Another "media player" would have it's own scheme and what it needs as "parameters". I would love it if the Pandora app had this and I could send a "pandora:something/artist=someartist/play" or whatever it needed to play/pause/stop stations etc. However, it does not. :-(


So, what I'm saying, IF someone found a certain media player that accepted URI requests and had those URI's documented, I can add those to my fork (within reason). I have not found any other to this date so far myself.

Re: Syrinscape Alternatives

Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2017 3:53 pm
by Oryan77
I don't know if this program has what you need, but I have used it for years because it does exactly what I need a background music/sound fx player to do:
http://softrope.net/.

Unfortunately, it is no longer in development/updated. Still, I can play two separate playlists at the same time and control the volume of each separately as needed. Something that no other audio software I have found seems to do for some reason. They all seem dependent on your OS main volume control.