VOGONS


First post, by heretic

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Hello everyone 😀
I decided to give a try Soundblaster Live (ct4830) in my Windows 98 computer and the card is quite good for Windows games, however i ran into some strange problems in DOS games already 😀
I know the SB16 emulation isn't perfect, the FM quality is averagish and so on, but the thing that bothers me is something i found in Wolf 3D (and Blake Stone, which share the same engine?) - When i step to the wall and push forward, music slows down and framerate visibly drops. Same thing happens when accidentally running into obstacle, closing doors and so on.

My question is - if someone here is using SB Live in Windows 98SE, can you check with Wolf3D or Blake Stone if you see same slowdowns?

Reply 1 of 4, by cyclone3d

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

What are the specs for the rest of your system?

What version of the drivers are you running?

Is the SBLive sharing and IRQ with something else?

Yamaha modified setupds and drivers
Yamaha XG repository
YMF7x4 Guide
Aopen AW744L II SB-LINK

Reply 2 of 4, by heretic

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

The specs are:
Pentium III 650mhz
ASUS P2B motherboard
384 MB ram
Voodoo 5 5500 AGP
SB Live Value ct4830
3Com 10/100 Ethernet card

I installed the drivers from sb live installation disc found on vogonsdrivers.com. Device manager shows 4.12.01.0905 - it's VXD driver, and i don't see any IRQ conflicts.

Reply 3 of 4, by leileilol

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

The SBLive's FM TSR is known for doing this and it won't be just this game. It's a compromise you'll have to put up with and it's one of the main reasons why I started to anticipate/use Dosbox instead back in the day. These are the pragnent that get babby vogon formed

apsosig.png
long live PCem

Reply 4 of 4, by derSammler

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
heretic wrote:

When i step to the wall and push forward, music slows down and framerate visibly drops. Same thing happens when accidentally running into obstacle, closing doors and so on.

Problem is, your CPU is about 100 times faster than what those games were meant to be played on and the engine has no throttle. When you hit a wall, a sound is played and repeated. Due to the speed of your CPU, this happens in such a high frequency that the TSR for SB16 emulation is simply no longer able to handle all that and slows down the whole system. This may sound odd, but you may get around this by slowing down the system when playing those games. Either by disabling all caches, or with tools like moslo.