*bliiiiink*
This is NOT A SOUND CARD DRIVER FOR DOS. This is a WINDOWS APPLICATION that routes audio from the Windows DOS SHELL to Windows' media system.

I'm using VDMSound for windows 98 since I recently upgraded and am now using a shuttle motherboard with a VIA chipset and the Via AC97 onboard sound... and I have a problem.
For the game Daggerfall, which was good before I upgraded (had an ISA Soundblaster 16 card, worked 100%) it screeches when I start it up, using the modified settings in vdms.ini (Sb16 and irq 5) and the setblaster argument changing as well, to reflect my changes... Even in the setup it gives screeching when I push on choose setting, or freezes my computer if I choose an incompatible sound device.
I am using win98 se, 256mb ram, got an AMD Athlon XP 1600+, and I have no idea if I'm using WDM or VxD files. So, any help would be suggested (darklands works btw with sound using vdmsound)

Go back to the SB16 ISA card. Goooooooooooo Baaaaaaaaaaccccccccckkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!

VDMSound will never be as good at some things as the actual real hardware unfortunately. This isn't really VDMSound's fault, more a fault of the OS, Sound Drivers, buggy games. Currently an old computer is really the best option for Daggerfall.

Actually a Win32 port would be the best option....but there is none. 🙁

The motherboard doesn't have any ISA slots. If it did, would I be posting here? Probably not.

Do you have any other games to test with as well, to see if it's a Dagerfall-specific issue or a system issue?

V.

i have terratec ews64xl and can't set vdmsound to run correctly with it. i'm not really sure if it's my soundcard's fault or something else... system=winme+dos patch. here's what i've done:

installed vdmsound+all updates+edited autoexec.bat. everything runs quite ok except it doesn't emulate sb. i wanted to play system shock with that nice wavetable music but it either hangs (when using directsound output) or runs with music only (with waveout). when it hangs, task manager says that ddhelp stopped responding (but not always). i recorded logs from what's being done and the problem seems to be:

@W - 00:13:35.886 - SB Controller
Attempted to read from write-only port (IN 0x226)

can something be done with it?

there are full logs from what happened in the zip file. #1 is when i used waveout, #2 with direct sound.

also can i somehow completly disable emulating sb leave the sound for windows to handle, while playing music through vdmsound? i can run system shock normally in windows but grr... that fm music just makes me deaf 😉
i tried to run also dreamweb, the lost files of sherlock holmes and betrayal at krondor. dreamweb and sherlock won't work, krondor runs ok with roland but again no sound if i choose sb.

No, that particular warning is ok.

I'd say something is definitely interfering. Anyway, yes, you can disable the sound emulation either by moving the emulated port up (to 240) or by disabling SB emulation completely by entirely commenting out the "SB Controller" sections in VDMS.INI (will leav the MIDI etc. emulation on).

Cheers,
V.

great, thanks 😀
disabling sb emulation solved the problem. now i have midi going through vdmsound and sound straight to my soundcard. everything runs nice and smooth.

First, here are my specs as thoroughly as I remember them:
Abit IC7 motherboard (disabled onboard audio from BIOS)
p4 2600mhz 800FSB
SB Audigy2
2x 512mb ddr400 (dual channel mode)
Radeon9700 pro All In Wonder
win98SE (and don't start about having over 512 mem in 9x, this has worked perfectly under heavy stress since I bought it, video editing while dozens of proggies running, music playing etc.) 😘

So, umm.. My problem is that only thing I'm getting instead of sounds is terrible squeeling & hissing. I'm here because I definetly want to get Fast Tracker II working, but I did try some dos games (liero, war2, dune2).. same result, squeeling.
If I try to run ft2 just like that (without WDMSound) It doesn't function properly. Sound is very chunky at "default" samplerate which is 8000, it gets a little better when I increase it to 44100 but still very bad. and it wants to autodetect my SB as it was IRQ 7... I don't even know what DMA it uses.. From what I've read from Creative forums there are no dos drivers in existance for Audigy2. I was thinking, maybe WDMSound can help me out.. so here's what I did:
I installed "vcredist" like was instructed
unzipped wdmsound to c:\dosdrv\
added line "SET VDMSPATH=C:\DOSDRV" to autoexec.bat
added line "SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 H5 P330 T6" to c:\dosdrv\dosdrv.bat (was this correct thing to do?) 😊
Ran the thingy..
I have also booted up system and reinstalled vcredist since that

So, any ideas what I could try next?
also, here are also some screens that might.. or might not, be useful. heh.
DMA:
and IRQ:

I'm not a "HC Coder" or anything, but I've taken my years with computers so I'm willing to try all kinds of "bubblegum fixed patents". I appreciate all help, and thanks in advance. =^.^=

Hi,

Installation sounds like it went OK, you added the right BLASTER line at the right place (DOSDRV.BAT).

Now, I would recommend the following (for troubleshooting):

- open up VDMS.INI and try to understand how to enable DiskWriter support, to write to the disk (as well as to/instead of the soundcard). Use Dune for this, which we know for sure should work. Let it try to play a couple of samples, quit it, and you should see a copule of .wav files generated where DiskWriter was told to dump them.

- open up the wave files. are they already corrupted, or do they sound normal?

The stuff above should show if it's the soundcard or if it's the game(s)/system that cause the issues.

Cheers,
V.

I am having the same exact problem with the hissing/squeaking sound. I've only tried it with Xcom Apocalypse. It autodetects my sound card as a Soundblaster 16 on Address 220, IRQ 7, and DMI 5 (not 1). No matter what setting I put it on I still get the same garbage output.

There may be a bug in the 16-bit DMA code for the VxD. Try to force the game, either directly, or indirectly (through VDMS.INI) to use SBPro or less (8-bit DMA, i.e. channel 1.)

Cheers,
V.

Just tried VDMSound on my Win98SE system - i have a midi problem: The sound plays, but it sounds like there are instruments or at least certain parts of the song missing during MIDI play. It plays normally, but has over and over again quiet parts in it... any idea, what this could be?

Tested it on 11th Hour at the moment on Win98SE with C-Media AC'97 sound chipset, AMD 2400+, ASRock Motherboard. 😁

Aaaaaaaaaargh. I've spent a few days trying to get "A Final Unity" to work. I'm starting to wonder if this game is worth the hassle.

I have a dual boot, to windows 98 and 2000. Using VDMSound, I would be able to play it in win2k, but it crashes soon after startup. I tried cli2nop on the exe, but it didn't work.

Sooooo, I'm trying 98 instead. The problem with that, as it's been pointed out before in this thread, is that you have to turn on the option so the program can't detect windows, and that breaks VDMsound of course.

Vlad said:

You can manually run dosdrv.exe in your "do not allow..." DOS box.
V.

I assume you ment dosdrv.exe that comes with the normal VDMSound, not the Win9x install? Because there isn't one in the Win9x install. I've tried runing dosdrv.bat from the Win9x in a "do not allow" box, but vxdsload doesn't load.

Aaaanyway, back to why I bothered posting. If I run dosdrv.exe in windows 98, it crashes. It says that it tried to execute an invalid instruction. Fault Location 0EF9:03C4 Interrupts in service: None.
It seems to load fine in win2k, and works, up until the game crashes anyway. So I don't think that it's corrupt.

Am I missing something/doing something wrong/wasting my time and energy?

Sorry, my fault; under Win9x it's dosdrv.bat, not .exe.

Try running dosdrv.bat in a regular DOS window (in Win9x) and the game in a "do not allow..." box (if dosdrv.bat won't run in the "do not allow..."), since under Win9x the emulation may work to some extent at a global level (not sure though.)

Cheers,
V.

Hmmm, well, I gave it a try. I think your right, it does work globaly, to some extent. 😀 Durring the sound test, it clicks, then frezzes, where before it just froze. I may just wait until I upgrade to XP sometime in the future. I think it'll work then.

Thanks for trying.

the download links for VCREDIST.EXE are broken. Where can I download it?? 😵

Gamezmaster, the links in the first page ARE working, so use those.

Anyways, hi guys, I've just logged in here... been messing around with VDMSound on and off for the last couple of years. I'm posting now to provide a few results I've had after playing - briefly - with VDMS for Win9x.

I have just today installed 98SE fresh + the unofficial service pack and Direct X 9. My main specs - in case you really want to know - are as follows:

Athlon 2200XP (266fsb)
768mb ram
GF4 TI 4200
Soundblaster PCI 64 (which, as I just found out, has shittier legacy support than VDMSound. Why am I not surprised?? 🤣 )

Anyways, I've successfully installed Win9x VDMS, and got it up and running as another MSDos Shortcut. If anyone else wants to do this, copy your MS-Dos Prompt shortcut, rename the new one with something like (VDMS) on the end, change "working folder" to C:\VDMSOUND (or wherever vdms is), and "batch file" to C:\VDMSOUND\DOSDRV.BAT . This gave me a nice quick DOS + VDMS shortcut! 😀

Incidentally, is there any way to fix the "can't load tip of the day" error? It's annoying when you want to go full screen straight away...

So then, my results so far, using the "third" (newest?) version released in this thread, with BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 H5 P330 T6:

Alone In The Dark (Infogrames): CD version with Jack In The Dark. With sound set to SB DMA audio, SB music, neither game runs (hangs at a black screen).
Alone In The Dark 3 (Infogrames): Dice reissue. SB audio works fine. Although before it gets to the menu it crashes out with Not Enough Dos Memory Error. Must need more than I have! (546kb) Worked fine in DOSBox though.
Azrael's Tear (Intelligent Games): SETSOUND autodetects SB16 fine. Game runs with sound perfectly... although it's too fast without moslo, and the mouse is too slow...
Blam! Machinehead (Core): Sound setup autodetects an AWE32, test does nothing. Manually changing this to SB16 on the usual ports, and testing, causes my PC to lock up hard. The game itself works, even with SB16 set up, but there's no sound. Movies play too fast: no audio to synchronise with, perhaps.
Blood (Monolith): Sees the sound support (no "incorrect irq/dma" etc errors), just no sound.
Cannon Fodder (Dino De Laurentis): Right this one was interesting. Sound setup doesn't see the SB at all. Going into the game with it set up anyway, forces me back into windows, and a message box comes up: An exception occured in thread -1817061 (DMA Transfer Manager), 0xc0000005 - (no exception description is available), Fault location: 0x00653fb7, Parameters: 0x00000000 0xec7a7000. Do you want to continue? (yes does nothing - the error stays up. no crashes VXDSLoad with the usual "has performed an illegal operation" window: VXDSLOAD caused an invalid page fault in module VDDLOADER.DLL at 018f:00653bf7 (same fault location)). Alt-tabbing back to the dos prompt, the game is at the title screen... and it runs! But without sound of course... 🙁 Oh, it does crash when you complete the first mission, as well. Alt+tabbing to windows was still possible. DOSBox job for now.
Chasm - The Rift: Works flawlessly. Worked perfectly under NT VDMS too.
Civilisation (Microprose): This complained about a lack of free conventional memory, and hard crashed my pc at the difficulty selection screen. Music worked though. Probably best just to play this in DOSBox.
Command & Conquer (Westwood): Pain in the bloody arse. I had to force windows to run DOSDRV.BAT before _SETUP.EXE would run, by going into _SETUP.EXE's properties. THEN I had to run the "normal" SETUP.EXE, so that it would call _SETUP.EXE properly!! Bastards! Anyway, SB16 wasn't found automatically, and after setting manually, the test didn't work (didn't crash though). The moment you press Yes to install it (after setting an installation directory), SETUP crashes. Incidentally, I had no problems at all in DOSBox.
Corridor 7 (Gametek): Works with SB fx and Adlib music flawlessly.
Crusader No Remorse (Origin): INSTALL.EXE brought up this error: Halted file DOSFIX32\DESCRIPT.C, line 284. Installed using DOSBox. Running the main EXE just doesn't do anything. Runs fine for me in DOSBox though.
Cyberwar (Sales Curve Interactive): Sees SB16 at the usual ports, crashes during sound test. Game still runs, but no sound. I have to alt-tab out of the dos box and quit the vdx?? processes in taskmanager. VDMS doesn't work after that, so a restart is necessary. DOSBox plays this fine so stick with that for now.
Descent 1 (Parallax): Newest DOS version. Autodetect sees SB16, test doesn't work (doesn't crash though). Game runs, but there's no sound or music.
Descent 2 (Parallax): DOS version 1.2. Autodetect sees SB16, test doesn't work (doesn't crash). The game does not run though - hangs at a black screen. This does NOT hang the PC though. I was able to safely alt+tab and restart.
Dungeon Keeper (Bullfrog): Runs flawlessly, with SB16 sound.
Ecstatica 1 (Psygnosis): Installation crashed my PC. I x-copied the files from the CD manually, ran SETUP, chose Soundblaster, and the intro ran. The moment it goes into the game itself, it suddenly exits cleanly to the dos prompt.
Fade To Black (Delphine): Works flawlessly with SB sound and music. Both are rather quiet though.
Hexx (Psygnosis): Adlib music works fine, not sure about SB. Can't test in-game because of copyprotection... (god knows where my manual is after all these years)
Little Big Adventure 2 (Adeline): How do I force the DOS version to run? This is another Miles engine game, so the autodetect (and surely the game itself) will work fine... yes I know there's a Windows version, that's not the point! 😉
MDK (Shiny): Sees SB16 at the usual ports, test doesn't work, MDK crashes after quitting setup. DOS/4GW error (2001): exception 0Eh (page fault) at 237:841F2ACF (etcetc).
Novastorm (Psygnosis): No sound at all, otherwise runs flawlessly. No sound setup, the engine autodetects. Didn't here, it seems!
Pyrotechnica (Psygnosis): Works perfectly (SB sound and Adlib music). Very fast though, needs moslo.
Realms Of The Haunting (Gremlin): UK v1-32 13020996 version. INSTALL autodetects SB16 fine, soundtest causes a click, plays nothing but - thankfully - doesn't crash. Music plays fine. Game works if you press escape to skip movies. In-game, music is also fine but again no sound. No crashes, at least!
Shadow Warrior (3D Realms): Same as Blood.
SWIV 3D (Sales Curve Interactive): Another Miles audio game that autodetects SB16 fine, and plays audio flawlessly in-game.
UFO Enemy Unknown (Microprose): Runs with SB sound flawlessly. Far too bloody fast on my pc though!!
Wing Commander 3 (Origin): Install doesn't complain about not finding an SB16, but sound test doesn't play anything (doesn't crash though). When running the game, movies begin to play but halt unless you press escape. The game otherwise works.
Wing Commander 4 (Origin): Same as WC3.
Z (Bitmap Brothers): Sound setup autodetects SB16 no problem. Game runs flawlessly with SB16 sound, although it's very quiet. Great movies, horrible RTS.
Zeliard (Game Arts): Slow adlib (or SB?) playback, but works.

Bloody hell that was a lot of restarts! 🤣 Anyway, has anyone had any better luck with BUILD engine games?

I have other games to test, but I really want to play some UT2004 right now (sacrilege I know 😉 )... perhaps tommorrow.

If I click on the VCREDIST.EXE links, then I get a Could not read file page.

Copy the text below into the address bar. Then remove the space between // and telia.

http:// telia.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/vdmsound/vcredist.exe

Can someone PLEASE tell me if they have had any better luck with Build games under Win9x VDMS? Nicht?