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[sherekhan]

When playing some IT modules in Foobar with foo_openmpt plugin I noted that some tracks are reported as created by Impulse Tracker 2.15. I was a registered user, but I believe the last version I ever got was 2.14p4. Was 2.15 ever released, and what was new?

[Saga Musix]

It was definitely a thing only for registered users, but maybe the update didn't reach everyone. A copy of IT 2.15 can be found here: https://modland.ziphoid.com/pub/software/trackers/DOS/Impulse%20Tracker/

One definite change I know if is the improved lossless sample compression when saving as "IT215" instead of "IT214" in the save dialog; IT2.14 can read IT2.15-compressed samples just fine, though (the algorithm didn't really change in IT2.15; there is just a neat pre-processing trick applied by integrating the signal twice instead of once, which was implemented by setting the delta sample encoding flag).
Apart from that I initially thought that the filter envelope was new in 2.15 but apparently I am mistaken; it can already be found in registered 2.14 builds but not in unregistered builds.

[sherekhan]

It was definitely a thing only for registered users, but maybe the update didn't reach anyone. A copy of IT 2.15 can be found here: https://modland.ziphoid.com/pub/software/trackers/DOS/Impulse%20Tracker/

One definite change I know if is the improved lossless sample compression when saving as "IT215" instead of "IT214" in the save dialog; IT2.14 can read IT2.15-compressed samples just fine, though (the algorithm didn't really change in IT2.15; there is just a neat pre-processing trick applied by integrating the signal twice instead of once, which was implemented by setting the delta sample encoding flag).

OK, thanks for info.

Apart from that I initially thought that the filter envelope was new in 2.15 but apparently I am mistaken; it can already be found in registered 2.14 builds but not in unregistered builds.

There were several 2.14 releases, and it seems that filters was new in IT 2.14p3. I also remember that a thing back then was that you needed the hardware to support it. The computer I used at the time (Pentium 100, SB16 sound) could not handle it since it did not have MMX support, but the next computer I bought in '98 (AMD K6-2, AWE64 sound) could, both via CPU and AWE drivers. It also took some time before other players and trackers started to support filters, but I remember that ModPlug Tracker had it in '99.

[Saga Musix]

I think the filter history is a bit confusing: I have a registered copy of IT2.14p2 (it will show up as p2 in OpenMPT/Schism), but it already has filters, and its UPDATE.TXT file (dated 21.12.1997) already mentions IT2.14p3 and the IT2.15 sample compression. Maybe it's really a p3 version but it was forgotten to increment the version number on some registered builds.

[sherekhan]

I think the filter history is a bit confusing: I have a registered copy of IT2.14p2 (it will show up as p2 in OpenMPT/Schism), but it already has filters, and its UPDATE.TXT file (dated 21.12.1997) already mentions IT2.14p3 and the IT2.15 sample compression. Maybe it's really a p3 version but it was forgotten to increment the version number on some registered builds.

How do you tell which version you have? I find no way in the program to identify it. "IT -?" gives a help screen which prints "Impulse Tracker, Copyright (C) 1995-1999 Jeffrey Lim, Registered to [my name]", but no version number. The date of my IT.EXE is 17.06.99, size is 95930 bytes. Does not seem to match any of the ones in the link you supplied. But I do notice that 2.14p5 at Modland is more than 400 kb, so I guess the other ones (including mine) are compressed.

My FILTERS.TXT is dated 21.12.97, which coincides with the 2.14p3 "Merry XMas guys!" release. I don't have any of the network-related files from the 2.14p5 release. I do remember fiddling with the DirectX-stuff in 2.14p4, but in the end I just ditched it and used pure DOS mode for IT.

I came across a module in my collection called 303.it, which I also remember having back in the day. I believe this was shipped with one of the patches as a showcase of the filter capabilities in IT. Foobar reports this modules as 2.14p2.

[Saga Musix]

I think there is no way in the UI to figure out the exact version (probably since 2.14 was the only version with "minor minor" versions); p1-p3 can be identified from the saved IT files (OpenMPT and Schism can decode this information), but p4 does not differentiate itself as far as file saving is concerned (this is the version that added the virtual sound driver and "a few bugfixes and some minor enhancements" according to ITVSOUND.TXT).