You need the ROMs from the MT-32, which Roland says they don't want people to distribute.

Also, there are two ways of getting the MT-32 emulation (both of which require the ROMs):
1. The Windows driver "Munt" which is outdated. It sounds like you're trying to use this way and you probably shouldn't because it won't sound as good in the end.
2. Experimental builds of DOSBox with the emulator code built in. These tend to have newer versions of the Munt source code integrated into newer versions of the DOSBox source code...

So then if I can't get the ROMs am I fucked?

yes

Hi guys,

@OSheaman: Did you also try running dosbox while forcing the ATI video-driver not to wait for a vertical refresh?! This may not look very good for some games, but it sure helps A LOT for performance on my notebook!

In the Catalyst Control Center -> pick advanced view mode -> Move to '3D \ All Settings' -> Move the slider called 'Wait for vertical refresh' all the way to the left and apply settings.

Good luck,

Regards,

Ronald

I had a problem with sound stuttering once. It was solved by unplugging my joystick from my soundcard.

I have a very similar problem with DOSBox on my laptop. With default settings it immediately takes up 100% of the processor time. Switching to OpenGL cures that, but the soundblaster output still stutters like mad even though I can greatly increase the cycles and speed up the games noticably. I'm currently having to run with the sound disabled - any ideas at all are greatly appreciated.

I've tried fiddling with the sound settings, reducing the colour depth of the screen, etc. etc., all to no avail. On my desktop machine (significantly less powerful) it runs fine. 😢

Have you tried finding updated drivers for the sound, video, and motherboard chipset hardware on the laptop? Also make sure that you aren't running in 15-bit color.

Yes, everything is up to date. And my card only offers me 16 and 32 bit colour, so 15 bit is ruled out. 😀

I'm at a complete loss, to be honest. Everything seems fine apart from the sound (aside from the 100% processor when not using OpenGL, that is).

hmm well that 100 % explains the sound problem
opengl and soundproblems are possible as well due to texture transfers.

do you have any "weird" external hardware on your laptop ?
and most important does your laptop have automatic cpu throttling ? if so disabled it. I've heard numerous reports of dosbox getting messed up due to the change cpu power. (a "smart mode" cpu speed thing)

Qbix, he's saying that OpenGL is the only output mode that doesn't run at 100%.

My only advice for OSheaman/Guest, and myself is to use VDMSound instead.

I, too, have integrated sound (AC97) in my motherboard and it has caused me no end in frustration with emulating certain DOS games. It's always the sound that stutters, hampers, takes my balls to the dancing arena, etc...

So to all those old DOS game freaks out there, which sound card would you advise? You don't need MT-32 sound, VDMSound can sometimes work perfectly well without it, so why cant DOSBox? Pretty crappy they won't release the ROMs though. Any help with this Fundamental DosBox Problem, is well appreciated...

Qbix wrote:

hmm well that 100 % explains the sound problem opengl and soundproblems are possible as well due to texture transfers. […]
Show full quote

hmm well that 100 % explains the sound problem
opengl and soundproblems are possible as well due to texture transfers.

do you have any "weird" external hardware on your laptop ?
and most important does your laptop have automatic cpu throttling ? if so disabled it. I've heard numerous reports of dosbox getting messed up due to the change cpu power. (a "smart mode" cpu speed thing)

HunterZ is correct - I have to set OpenGL mode on. Without it the processor maxes out at 100% immediately, even before I've started a game. It's very odd. If OpenGL could be causing the sound problems, any ideas why the default screen modes should be immediately maxing out my machine?

There's no 'bizarre' hardware attached, by the way - I even unplugged my USB mouse just to see if that made any difference. As for the automatic CPU throttling, I'm not sure. I'm not aware of it having that feature, but I'll dive back into the manuals and have a look just to be sure.

Thanks for the continued suggestions! 😀

well opengl can cause problems
because the data transfer to screen can be longer then a internal time unit of dosbox and thereby messing up the timing. which in turn results in bad sound (same thing that happends if you raise your cpu cycles to high)

I don't know why the default modes max out your machine if you aren't running 24 bits colors.
does the cpu usage go down if you increase the frameskip ?

Qbix wrote:

well opengl can cause problems because the data transfer to screen can be longer then a internal time unit of dosbox and thereby […]
Show full quote

well opengl can cause problems
because the data transfer to screen can be longer then a internal time unit of dosbox and thereby messing up the timing. which in turn results in bad sound (same thing that happends if you raise your cpu cycles to high)

I don't know why the default modes max out your machine if you aren't running 24 bits colors.
does the cpu usage go down if you increase the frameskip ?

Right, I'll avoid OpenGL for now and try to figure out the non-OpenGL screen mode problems instead. The sound might just be a red herring.

From memory, I don't remember being able to reduce the processor load below 100% no matter what I altered, but I'll give it another go tonight and get back to you. I've also downloaded a bundle of old versions, just in case.

Thanks for the help!

I have the same problem, my older comps with real DOS run games normal, whereas this comp runs even the largest games perfectly normal but all games I run in DOS Box are choppy. I have to turn everything in the game on low detail, etc just for it to be randomly changing between choppy to slightly slow but ok.

Hi - I took the time to register today so I'm no longer just 'guest'. 😀

Thanks for the suggestions, Qbix - I spent a couple of hours on Saturday playing around and came up with some interesting results.

I reinstalled DOSBox 0.63 from scratch so I could begin again with default settings. Using the standard config my processor usage immediately jumped to 100% as soon as DOSBox started, before I even ran a game. You asked if increasing the frameskip helped - yes, it does. At FS1 processor usage drops to about 75%, FS2 to 50%. Unfortunately, running even a simple game made this ramp up again so that I got sound/speed problems.

However.... I decided to ignore the 'DOSBox is only slow if you're in 24bit colour' idea and dropped my screen mode from 32bit colour to 16bit colour. The result - instant and massive performance leap from DOSBox. At the Z: prompt I was barely hitting 22% processor usage, and can quite happily run a game and jump up to 12000 cycles at frameskip 0 without maxing out the processor and without ruining the sound. 😁

So that appears to be my problem - for some reason DOSBox is unhappy with my laptop in 32bit colour mode. Out of interest, I then began installing and testing the older versions of DOSBox that I downloaded last week and came up with an intriguing result - version 0.61 and earlier of DOSBox don't have this issue and run fine in 32bit colour mode for me. Only 0.62 and 0.63 are causing me a problem. I'm guessing something big changed between 0.61 and 0.62, yes? 😉

Regardless, I now have a fairly painless workaround that lets me play stuff as nature intended. Thanks for all the help and the hard work! I'd be interested to hear any theories about why my laptop plays up but my desktop doesn't.

Did you try several SDL.DLL versions (even from older releases)?

Hmmm... no! I kinda presumed they'd need the versions that they shipped with and wouldn't work if I started swapping and changing. I'll give that a go, though!

0.61 sdl with 0.63 dosbox
Would be interresting.

read "dosbox guides" - "how to speed up dosbox"