detect_midi_driver(3alleg4)

📦 version 4.4.3.1, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

✨ detect_midi_driver ✨

okay bestie, welcome to the Allegro manual (that's the 3alleg4 era, we love her) 💖 this one's a lil function called detect_midi_driver and it's literally here to tell you whether the MIDI sound device you're dreaming about is actually, y'know, there.

It's part of the Allegro game programming library, so if you're out here making games and you need to know if your MIDI vibes are gonna work — this is your girl 🎀

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <allegro.h>

int detect_midi_driver(int driver_id);

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So basically: this function checks whether the MIDI sound device you specify is available or not. That's the whole vibe check 💅

But here's the part that's giving main character energy — you have to call this _before_ install_sound(). Like, before. Not after. Before. The way that ordering matters is not a drill, bestie 😭

👑 RETURN VALUE 👑

She returns the maximum number of voices that the driver can provide 🎶 or she returns zero if the hardware isn't present (aka: not me getting ghosted by a sound card 💀).

Now, there are two special-case return values you gotta keep your eyes peeled for, fr fr:

  • -1 — this means it's a note-stealing driver (eg. DIGMID) that shares voices with the current digital sound driver 👀
  • 0xFFFF — this means it's an external device like an MPU-401 where there is no way to determine how many voices are available 🙈
not me being dramatic but if you ignore these two values you're gonna have a bad time, iykyk ✨

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🫶 she's from Allegro, version 4.4.3, and she's officially titled detect_midi_driver(3alleg4) — slay, iconic, no cap, periodt 💅✨🌈

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