Aufklaerer wrote:

Hi! […]
Show full quote

Hi!

I've just tried to run Full Throttle from LucasArts under WindowsXP (SB Live! value) and it runs fine, except that the sound is "stuttering" and "scratched". I've tried the shareware version of Sound FX and with that it sounds smooth.

Has anyone an idea? I don't want to buy Sound FX while there is freeware like VDM. 😉

Greetz

Jan

VDMSound is configured, by default, for low-end machines. You can make it give better sound quality with demanding games like Full Throttle at the expense of some CPU power (not noticeable on 500MHz+ machines) by changing the Min/MaxDMAPeriod parameters in LaunchPad (under advanced properties, under performance IIRC) or in VDMS.INI (if not using LaucnhPad). Go for low values (the default is 5/15, try 2/5 or 1/3 if you feel your computer is up to it). If using LaunchPad also try WaveOut instead of DirectSound since ons ome computers (e.g. my 1.4GHz Win2k machine) WaveOut is actually more performant than DirectSound (which si funny, because games that worked just fine on NT4 @ 120MHz started getting choppy on Win2k @ 1.4GHz after I upgraded my hardware + software, suing the exact same version of VDMSound, which is really weird).

So, reduce the minDMAPeriod and/or increase the buffering under Advanced Properties/SoundBlaster to compensate for any driver "particularities". Sorry if SoundFX handles this game better (at least with the default VDMSound settings), but that is the "price to pay" for WaveOut *and* DirectSound support (SoundFX only supports DirectSound, so it can afford to cut some corners).

V.