Dialogue skipping/incomplete playback on W98SE in some DirectX/Direct3D games? \ VOGONS

Dialogue skipping/incomplete playback on W98SE in some DirectX/Direct3D games?

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First post, by Alexraptor

Posted on 2025-01-02, 19:05

Alexraptor Offline

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I'm having a bit of an odd problem with my Windows 98 SE Compaq Deskpro.

Some games are behaving oddly with dialogue specifically. The dialogue audio is being rushed and isn't allowed to finish playback. A character will start saying one thing and the dialogue cuts abruptly as the next one starts speaking, and sometimes it just rushes through the entire encounter in seconds, without a sound.

So far I've encountered this issue in X: Beyond the Frontier and in Starfleet Academy, when running it with the Direct3D executable. I have a Dell OEM model Creative Sound Blaster Live! There was an IRQ conflict/overlap initially with the graphics card (Matrox G200), but i rectified that and it doesn't seem to have had any effect on fixing the issue. I also thought maybe the CPU is too fast (Slot 1 Katmai Pentium III 450Mhz), which could have been the case for SFA, but not X, since it's a 1999 game.

Any ideas?

Reply 1 of 7, by mothergoose729

Posted on 2025-01-02, 19:07

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Some games can be effected by the speed of your optical drive. There are DOS and windows utilities to decrease it. Try setting it to a 4x read speed.

See this thread CD Rom drive speed

Reply 2 of 7, by Alexraptor

Posted on 2025-01-02, 20:57

Alexraptor Offline

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mothergoose729 wrote on 2025-01-02, 19:07:

Some games can be effected by the speed of your optical drive. There are DOS and windows utilities to decrease it. Try setting it to a 4x read speed.

See this thread CD Rom drive speed

Unfortunately that isn't the case here, since neither game is actually reading the dialogue files off the discs.

Reply 3 of 7, by Zoomer

Posted on 2025-01-09, 15:14

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I think, it's probably WDM drivers or vice versa. I sometimes get better results with WDM drivers, other times with VxD drivers. When it's DOS or simple games - WDM are better and more stable. When it's hardware acceleration, eax and DirectSound3D, VxD drivers are more compatible, still less stable than WDM though.

Try switching to WDM ones, or the other way around.

Edit: Creative Audigy/Audigy 2 drives even have a nifty utility that allows to quickly switch between the driver versions. Not sure about Live though.

MB: Asus P3B-F 1.03 (2x ISA)
CPU: PIII-S 1.4GHz/VIA C3 800MHz
RAM: 256MB PC133
Video: GeForce 4600Ti/Voodoo 5 5500/Voodoo 3 3500 for DOS Glide
Audio: SB16 OPL3 + Audigy Platinum Ex
OS: Windows 98

Reply 4 of 7, by Alexraptor

Posted on 2025-01-10, 20:57

Alexraptor Offline

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Zoomer wrote on 2025-01-09, 15:14:

I think, it's probably WDM drivers or vice versa. I sometimes get better results with WDM drivers, other times with VxD drivers. When it's DOS or simple games - WDM are better and more stable. When it's hardware acceleration, eax and DirectSound3D, VxD drivers are more compatible, still less stable than WDM though.

Try switching to WDM ones, or the other way around.

Edit: Creative Audigy/Audigy 2 drives even have a nifty utility that allows to quickly switch between the driver versions. Not sure about Live though.

Thanks for the suggestion!

Unfortunately i seem to a bit out of luck, it's a Dell OEM Sound Blaster Live!, specifically a CT4780 i pulled from a dead Precision Workstation. And the driver disk only seems to have W98 and XP, WDM drivers, no VXD. 🙁

Reply 5 of 7, by Zoomer

Posted on 2025-01-10, 21:31

Zoomer Offline

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Ah, I see, sorry, I missed the part about the OEM err.. part.. Anyway, I saw this topic. The OP is using the exact same model and the Liveware (older driver suite before WDM times) even installs properly. SBlive CT4780 jumpers causing no sound in Win98 w/ VXD

Maybe it's worth a shot?

Reply 6 of 7, by Alexraptor

Posted on 2025-01-11, 10:06

Alexraptor Offline

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Zoomer wrote on 2025-01-10, 21:31:

Ah, I see, sorry, I missed the part about the OEM err.. part.. Anyway, I saw this topic. The OP is using the exact same model and the Liveware (older driver suite before WDM times) even installs properly. SBlive CT4780 jumpers causing no sound in Win98 w/ VXD

Maybe it's worth a shot?

Thanks! They seem to work and they've gotten me at least halfway there.

Dialogue playback is now behaving as it should in Starfleet Academy, although it's still behaving dodgy in X: Beyond the Frontier. But at least it's progress!!!

Reply 7 of 7, by Zoomer

Posted on 2025-01-11, 16:17

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VxD's are usually pretty bad, especially the Creative ones. There's a reason Microsoft moved to WDM. You might want to try restarting the PC after you played a game that used audio, especially a DS3D game. It's that bad.

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