[casual_games] Microsoft's software synthesizer (DirectMusic)

[Jonas Beckeman]

> So far, I have noticed that all games that use MIDI for playing music
doesn't make use of the DirectMusic's Microsoft Software Synthesizer

I can't remember last time I heard my sound card's synth being used in a
game... Isn't it mostly related to old games, i.e. when DM didn't exist (pre
'98-99)?

I think though that DM has kind of a bad rep due to the complexity and
bizarrities of its interactive music concept and editor, which might make
people shy away from it altogether.


Performance: Check your MIDI piece by playing it in your media player while
you check the CPU performance monitor, and switch output device now and
then. The instruments themselves are normally hardly noticeable, but effects
such as hi-quality reverb can be an expensive computation both for the
processor and RAM.

BTW, note that the MS softsynth uses the SoundFont2 format, so you can add
new sounds if you don't like the default ones.

/Jonas