AudioPCI impressions

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leilei
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AudioPCI impressions

Post by leilei »

Just checking the new AudioPCI and it's impressive so far. Testing SB PCI 128

-Windows ME's WDM drivers makes PCem quit after a reboot and doesn't have any sound
-Creative's WDM driver has no sound either
- VXD drivers work in Win98SE
-With Creative's SB 128 drivers (dated to 2000) SBLEGACY causes a freeze and prevents bootup for the rest of the running PCem session
- Noticeable crackling in the sound, under both dos and Windows
- EAX works in Half-Life!

AudioPCI bugs that are not emulation bugs:

- The FM->ECW OPL2 emulation of the dos/legacy drivers seems to work properly (this is a guilty pleasure and i'm happy pcem preserves this). I'm listing this here because it's supposed to sound wrong (as it doesn't have a OPL2/3 chip or even a clone of said chip)
- Duke Nukem 3D crashes appropriately in echo areas (there's old patches for the affected games to turn this effect off for this card and the related SB Live series). To immediately test this, run duke3d.exe /l5
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SarahWalker
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Re: AudioPCI impressions

Post by SarahWalker »

Rev 888 fixes the Windows ME issues.
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leilei
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Re: AudioPCI impressions

Post by leilei »

Thanks, it works now. :)


also out of curiosity I tried to install June 97 Ensoniq AudioPCI drivers on 1371 and it failed to detect. That's 1370 it wants i'm guessing.

EDIT: Boredom had lead to hacking in ES1370 and had no sound and the dos driver gets upset over the revision id being out of date (despite being the 0x00 it's looking for. Qemu's ES1370 also has this behavior). heh. 1370's wildly different anyway (44khz, no ac'97 compliance, etc)

EDIT2: Another bug that isn't an emulation bug but should be mentioned anyway are Epic's games (the ones with the mod soundtracks - Jazz, OMF2097, Extreme Pinball, etc. ) all have speed issues with the sound. This is actual behavior, and a partial remedy is to use a newer WDM driver.
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leilei
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Re: AudioPCI impressions

Post by leilei »

Crackle's gone but there's some sound distortion. It's present on both non-WDM and WDM drivers and lowering the wave sound volume doesn't seem to fix it. Some games sound really bad with it, i.e. NFS2 whenever a tunnel's entered. though this did make me recall my early AWE64 distortion issues back in the day for some reason even if that card's related in name only. 430VX.

Also on the non-WDM driver it somehow gives PCem a hang (can't break out) with Daytona USA at the company logo screens after attract mode. Only a CD track is heard there. I'll have to see if this is affected on my real es1373
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SarahWalker
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Re: AudioPCI impressions

Post by SarahWalker »

Rev 1135 should eliminate the distortion.
grommit2007
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Re: AudioPCI impressions

Post by grommit2007 »

I have attached a link to audio samples of static, popping and crackling issues that occur in a Windows DOS Box and in Real Mode DOS with this sound card.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Z0QdU ... FEt8UNaCwW

The crackling in Real Mode DOS occurs after playing a MIDI and leaving it for a few seconds and then starting back the MIDI playback (noticed in Comanche 3 and Blood), and the crackling in a Windows DOS box occurs immediately upon MIDI playback.

The audio samples were taken from the sound test setup of Comanche 3 but it is not limited to that particular game, and the audio abnormalities mentioned above occur in Blood and Duke Nukem 3D running in Windows DOS boxes.

I have also attached the PCem.cfg file that I am using.

Also, when the card is in use by an application (mostly DOS applications, DOS boxed or in Real Mode DOS, and sometimes Windows applications) and the application using the audio card is closed while the audio is playing (PCM or MIDI) a slow popping sound can be heard, and it usually (but not always) can be stopped by setting the volume in the Windows Volume Control so that it plays the Windows default "ding", after which the popping stops. This is not limited to PCI cards, as I have also had it occur on ISA cards as well.

What causes these problems to occur?
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leilei
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Re: AudioPCI impressions

Post by leilei »

Cannot reproduce these crackles. What audiopci drivers? Are you using 13.1 release instead of the latest tree?
grommit2007
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Re: AudioPCI impressions

Post by grommit2007 »

leilei wrote: Tue 03 Apr, 2018 12:38 am Cannot reproduce these crackles. What audiopci drivers? Are you using 13.1 release instead of the latest tree?
I am using the latest tree of PCem, and I am using the VXD AudioPCI drivers. (the Creative-designed drivers with SB16 emulation)
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leilei
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Re: AudioPCI impressions

Post by leilei »

What date of the drivers? I used the 2002 VXD ones (CTPCI9X.VXD 1/31/02).
grommit2007
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Re: AudioPCI impressions

Post by grommit2007 »

leilei wrote: Thu 05 Apr, 2018 1:51 am What date of the drivers? I used the 2002 VXD ones (CTPCI9X.VXD 1/31/02).
The drivers that I am using are from 1999 (SBPCI.VXD and SBPCI9X.DRV have a date of 10/19/1999)
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leilei
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Re: AudioPCI impressions

Post by leilei »

Even with the Oct 99 driver I can only get Comache3 setup to mess up its sound by changing the sample rate option and testing. It'll crackle at 22khz, but also 11khz when you go up from 5khz. Backing out of the menu and going back in and testing doesn't crackle. it's also possibly real behavior i'd have to double check. In-game seems fine then gets a little more crackly

Reverted to the 2002 driver and the ingame crackle doesn't seem to happen. Could be a coincidence of course. Haven't tried the other technologically-related DOS Novalogic games (F22 Lightning 2 and Armored Fist 2) yet.
grommit2007
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Re: AudioPCI impressions

Post by grommit2007 »

After further research and testing, I have found out that changing the emulated CPU speed partially fixes the audio problems that I have previously mentioned. Previously I tested it with a Pentium 75, and then I tested it with a Pentium 133, and most of the audio problems are gone.

Is it possible to have no audio problems with a slower emulated CPU, as the minimum requirements for most AudioPCI-based sound cards lists a Pentium 75 as a minimum CPU.
Zup
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Re: AudioPCI impressions

Post by Zup »

My wife had a real Pentium 75 and a Sound Blaster PCI 64, and when playing MIDI some kind of interference could be heard.

I guess that was because PCI64 uses system memory to play MIDI, and it was a bus hog. After changing her computer (to a PIII 500 or so), MIDI played fine... but in any case, that sound card was replaced with an old good AWE64 Gold.
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leilei
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Re: AudioPCI impressions

Post by leilei »

I'm hearing crackles on CPU speeds that low (p75) on just a Sound Blaster 16 with F22 Lightning II (same sound system) so it could probably rule out the SBPCI. I just happened to try it on a fresh packard config testing run
grommit2007
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Re: AudioPCI impressions

Post by grommit2007 »

The crackling does not appear to be game related, I have also heard the crackling on all programs that utilize MIDI playback.

Also, the digital sound no longer works on DOS Miles Sound System based games, and detecting the card in such a game fails, followed by a very high pitched whine.
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leilei
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Re: AudioPCI impressions

Post by leilei »

Don't delete then recreate your exact post to bump the topic to the top.
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Neville
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Re: AudioPCI impressions

Post by Neville »

What drivers should I use if (for the moment) I want to use the device in plain DOS? I've tried a vouple, but I get errors on startup.
JosepMa
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Re: AudioPCI impressions

Post by JosepMa »

Not something that really answers your question but.. why do you want to use AudioPCI under plain DOS? Very few, programs might support it explicitly, and for the rest, you would need to use soundblaster emulation, so what's the point?

Also, for the programs that support it, I am guessing that they support the Ensoniq model, not the Creative model.
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Neville
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Re: AudioPCI impressions

Post by Neville »

I guess you're right. I was just surprised than none of the options I tried did work. I'll stick to AWE32 emulation under DOS.
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leilei
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Re: AudioPCI impressions

Post by leilei »

It's totally possible to have it work within pure DOS with the Creative drivers. Some drivers/installers don't modify the autoexec.bat appropriately, but it's doable. Just call \progra~1\creative\audio\dosdrv\sbinit.com.

Doing the Soundscape emulation part however I still haven't figured out...
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