Rolly wrote:The playing background music works in the DC browser with this code (i use this with my old compilation):
<bgsound src = "HTML.wav" loop = "- 1">
Hi Rolly, just a quick question on this background music code. It's not working. Does the music have to be built into the disc image? It won't read the music from the server at all. Tried MP3, WAV (at 8000Hz) and ADX formats and none will play.
One of my first websites was for dreamcast and you can get wav file to play over dial up i wonder if i still have a backup of the site somewhere..
might not remember was like start just the end of 2001 i use to run homebrew web brower games for dreamcast hosted by dcemulation homebrew..
Rolly wrote:@Roareye , Yes it has to be built into the .cdi image. The file is best placed where index.html is located. For .wav, it must be of 8000 quality.
Thanks for verifying that Rolly. Once I have the site together a bit more, I'm going to have to try and figure out how to build a disc image with custom files in it, haha. I have no idea.
Rolly wrote:@Roareye , Yes it has to be built into the .cdi image. The file is best placed where index.html is located. For .wav, it must be of 8000 quality.
Thanks for verifying that Rolly. Once I have the site together a bit more, I'm going to have to try and figure out how to build a disc image with custom files in it, haha. I have no idea.
But yeah wav files are hard to beat if you have them as an option I know dreamkey disc can play .swf music files too (aka chu chu rocket). Not sure how much more compressed if at all those are but may be worth looking into.
A small preview update. The music was added on in a video editor, it's South Island Theme (Sonic OVA) by Sound of a Shadow - a great track. Currently the site is 100% silent, so I didn't want these to be boring haha.
This is running on a real Dreamcast, using the 33k modem, via Dreamkey 3.1. I've tested and it does work perfectly with Dreamkey 3.0 as well. Dreamkey 3.0 is in English, 3.1 is in Spanish - I don't know if there are any differences other than the language tbh. Either way, a win for our Spanish and Hispanic fans - there's a browser compatible for you. As I mentioned before, the code is all basic HTML and any advanced looking features are merely optical illusions.
The site works just fine with Dream Passport, though there's a couple of issues (mostly due to the lack of height on NTSC browsers) but I am confident I can find workarounds for these as time goes on. Dreamkey and Passport are essentially the same browser anyway, using the same base code, so there's really no need to use Passport unless you're a native Japanese speaker (The Dream Library feature is still not working, which is the only benefit to Passport over Dreamkey). I've heard Dreamkey doesn't support BBA, but if Passport does then it should (I hope) be as simple as porting the code over, since at their core they're the same browser. NTSC users should still be able to take advantage of the additional PAL screen height - I'm using VGA out to an OSSC and HDMI to a modern TV via an mCable (I imported a US mCable, I think they're US exclusive anyway). The OSSC and mCable can decipher the screen size with ease - my TV only sees the "native" 1080p signal the mCable produces. The only unknown will be those who plug their DC directly into old NTSC CRT TVs, though I expect it should be fine. Either way, get yourself a copy of Dreamkey 3.0/3.1.
This is officially the end of the post, I don't want to put a downer on the update with the below information, but if you use PlanetWeb it's an explanation as to why you should switch to Dreamkey (certainly why I am unable to get the site to run properly on PlanetWeb). I want this to remain positive though, so if you've already upgraded from PlanetWeb then please skip it
Bad news for PlanetWeb users - your browser will remain unsupported. My reasons are below in a code box - I didn't want to post these because I don't want to annoy anyone who uses PlanetWeb as their preferred browser, but unless the browser can be fixed I can't support it. If you want more detail, read below, otherwise grab yourself Dreamkey 3.0 if you read English or Dreamkey 3.1 if you speak Spanish.
I've tested both PlanetWeb 2.6X (a custom, I believe, on the XDP Browser) and PlanetWeb 3.0 - both suffer the exact same issues due to the base code being so poor. It would be funny if it weren't so damning. I can't stress just how bad, either. Bad choices made at Sega USA in the development of the browser.
The first impossible problem is the way PlanetWeb handles frames - slaps chunky borders across the frames and half the time you have to select a frame before you can do anything in it (Though only half the time, I still can't figure it out). My site code clearly states not to add borders, and Dreamkey, Passport and modern PCs understand that code. PlanetWeb is incapable of doing so. That's an impossible issue for me to resolve - someone would have to rebuild the browser, but why bother when Dreamkey works?
The second impossible issue is in how PlanetWeb places objects in the browser. Dreamkey and Passport place objects the same way, which is completely different to modern PCs, but the same as each other. PlanetWeb does it a completely [i]different[/i] way, which is also different to modern PCs [i]and[/i] the other DC browsers. Any items I have placed in specific locations on the page will be in different positions on the PlanetWeb browser - meaning the browser breaks the page layouts. It's possible this is due to the borders it adds to frames, but since there's no way to disable the frame borders (to my knowledge) on PlanetWeb then it's effectively a broken browser design.
This is on top of the other, smaller issues that I could work around. The user interface is far worse than Dreamkey and Passport anyway, which renders it a worse experience - being a matter of preference I could ignore that. It also still has the same height restrictions as Passport, but unlike Passport it doesn't have the user-friendly interface, working frame styles or correct object placement. Anyone who needs an NTSC browser is better off with Passport, the Japanese is easily worked around with a little practice - but my advice is to switch to Dreamkey anyway. All the benefits of Passport but in English/Spanish and with extra page height. These problems with the PlanetWeb browser are too severe to be fixed on my end - I can't reprogram the browser disc itself to fix the original mistakes/choices.
Worked out why sometimes Passport and Dreamkey place objects differently. The use of <br> as a vertical space varies between browsers and computers. Now I've fixed this problem, I can guarantee the pages will match across both Dreamkey and Passport.
-drez01- has been helping with the browser situation, as previously mentioned PlanetWeb is not usable as a browser due to it's limitations and any positives of PlanetWeb are split between Dreamkey and Passport. Dreamkey can't use the BBA adapter, but Passport can. Passport is all in Japanese and lacks the height advantage of Dreamkey. He's already managed to port the Dream Library functions of Passport 3 into Dreamkey 3, and they fire up via the retro page links (currently only when the browser is disconnected, likely a simple fix in the online code). He's hoping to repackage the benefits of Passport (BBA, DreamLibrary) and Dreamkey (multilanguage, screen resolution) into one browser - it's very early days, but if we can port multi-languages and screen resolution into DP3 then we will have built the ultimate browser. I'll let him release updates on the browser as he feels comfortable, since it's all his hard work
DreamArena itself is getting some updates, the community section has had edits to make it more user friendly (pages can now scroll vertically without affecting page layout, so the Game Lists are split into just 3 alphabet pages instead of the previous 9). Now I've done that I'm going to start building more pages. Exciting times.
Great work! Maybe it is worth adding a VMU collection by @Streeker to one of the subpages with his permission - he prepared a nice swf that works great in DP and links to restored Dricas pages. Here is VMU Archive topic : viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5276
Hi everybody, We have recreated (The Dreampipe Team) the old european portal called Dreamarena, all this work is based in some images and pages found...
