DxMciDll

What's this file called DXMCI.DLL all about?

-=What is DXMCI.DLL, and what use is it to me?=-

You may have heard about a file called DXMCI.DLL, and be wondering what it does. Basically, it changes the method the Windows version of TTD uses for playing music. Normally, TTD uses the old-fashioned MCI (Multimedia Control Interface) for playing music, but with this DLL and the win2k switch turned on, TTD will instead use the ))DirectMusic[[]]DirectMusic[[ system. DXMCI.DLL was introduced because, on Windows 2000 and XP, there is a problem with the MCI MIDI interface that makes there be a delay before playing a track (which could be quite noticable and irritating when playing the game, as often the whole game would be unusuable while this was happening).

You may notice that the music sounds slightly different to normal. This is because ))DirectMusic[[]]DirectMusic[[ may use a different set of instruments to the ones your sound card normally uses (depending on your card - cheaper on-board chips use ))DirectMusic[[]]DirectMusic[[ by default).

Note that some computers running Windows 98 experience a crash when exiting TTD, if DXMCI.DLL is used. The cause of this crash is not clear, nor does anyone know how to fix it. It is benign however, aside from writing a crash log (crash###.txt) every time you quit TTD.

-=MP3 version of DXMCI.DLL=-

Owen Rudge has created a version of DXMCI.DLL that plays MP3 files instead of MIDI files. Currently this requires Windows Media Player 6.4 or later on your computer (this is included by default with Windows 98 SE and later). What it does is intercept TTD's requests for ))DirectMusic[[]]DirectMusic[[ to play music, and tells Windows to play the same file, but with .mp3 appended to it, instead. As TTD by default plays files in either the gm, fm or awe directories. These reflect the music system you selected in the TT configuration program (GM links to General MIDI, FM for Sound Blaster and AWE for AWE32). For GM for example, place your MP3s in TTWin95\GM and name them gm_tt00.gm.mp3, where '00' is a number between 00 and 21. Please note that these files are NOT played in ascending order.

See tt-forums.net page for more information on this replacement DLL. It is really just a quick hack and is not officially supported by the TTDPatch team. Owen Rudge does intend on bringing out a better version soon, which may include some sort of playlist feature and improved usability.