Flashing appears to be resolved with the latest version 4.2.0-b2, if anyone has issues flashing to the card using pgusinit, I recommend going directly to 4.2.0-b2 using the USB flash update.

I tried the problematic games to see if there is any improvement

- ROTT: Game would crash randomly. Game no longer crashes, I could never finish the first level but I played for a while and it seems to be stable. The downside is in exchange for the lack of crashing the SFX now has sample clicking which seems unaffected by the volume and the DMA setting.
- OMF2097: Game would previously crash randomly when the game speed was set above 50%, no longer happens
- System Chock CD: Game would stutter and then crash randomly when GUS was used for both SFX and audio. Stutter no longer happens but crash still does. Could be an issue with the GUS game update.
- Terminal Velocity CD: used to have significant clicking/stuttering when playing video, no longer happens except for one or two clicks when audio starts. Degradation in music, now stutters a lot when in game and after exiting the game the card stops producing sound and locks up on the next firmware mode change (e.g. GUS-> MPU). DMA interval seems to have no effect on the issues. Since it was already buggy and not great before the update anyway this isn't a big issue.
- Hocus Pocus: Played for a while with GUS music and SFX using the standard HOCUSG without ultramid, while playing the game it's pretty much perfect but upon exiting the game the last played notes get stuck and the system freezes on the ordering info screen

NeoG_ wrote on Yesterday, 07:40:

Flashing appears to be resolved with the latest version 4.2.0-b2, if anyone has issues flashing to the card using pgusinit, I re […]
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Flashing appears to be resolved with the latest version 4.2.0-b2, if anyone has issues flashing to the card using pgusinit, I recommend going directly to 4.2.0-b2 using the USB flash update.

I tried the problematic games to see if there is any improvement

- ROTT: Game would crash randomly. Game no longer crashes, I could never finish the first level but I played for a while and it seems to be stable. The downside is in exchange for the lack of crashing the SFX now has sample clicking which seems unaffected by the volume and the DMA setting.
- OMF297: Game would previously crash randomly when the game speed was set above 50%, no longer happens
- System Chock CD: Game would stutter and then crash randomly when GUS was used for both SFX and audio. Stutter no longer happens but crash still does. Could be an issue with the GUS game update.
- Terminal Velocity CD: used to have significant clicking/stuttering when playing video, no longer happens except for one or two clicks when audio starts. Degradation in music, now stutters a lot when in game and after exiting the game the card stops producing sound and locks up on the next firmware mode change (e.g. GUS-> MPU). DMA interval seems to have no effect on the issues. Since it was already buggy and not great before the update anyway this isn't a big issue.
- Hocus Pocus: Played for a while with GUS music and SFX using the standard HOCUSG without ultramid, while playing the game it's pretty much perfect but upon exiting the game the last played notes get stuck and the system freezes on the ordering info screen

Thanks for this detailed report! I assume you did this on the Aladdin V system in your signature. I’ll get mine set up to see if I can reproduce the bad behavior. By the way I have the feeling the sample clicking in ROTT is due to being more accurate with respect to the GF1’s ramps.

One thing to note is that Terminal Velocity does software mixing on GUS so there’s only downsides to using it in that mode as the GUS has fundamental issues with playing streaming audio. SB mode with it configured as SB16 is the better option for that game.

Hi, any ideas this can be solved? https://github.com/polpo/picogus/issues/149

it happen all time, and it is becoming a real problem to using my system properly

polpo wrote on Yesterday, 16:20:

Thanks for this detailed report! I assume you did this on the Aladdin V system in your signature. I’ll get mine set up to see if I can reproduce the bad behavior. By the way I have the feeling the sample clicking in ROTT is due to being more accurate with respect to the GF1’s ramps.

That's correct, it is the ALi V system. Would the volume ramping only apply to the start and end of a sample? The clicking happens all the way through sample playback, most notably on the longer samples like when the menu rotates. But regardless the SB16 support in the game is almost indistinguishable so there is a good alternative.

polpo wrote on Yesterday, 16:20:

One thing to note is that Terminal Velocity does software mixing on GUS so there’s only downsides to using it in that mode as the GUS has fundamental issues with playing streaming audio. SB mode with it configured as SB16 is the better option for that game.

Agreed, I tried it mostly to see if the weird moving stereo delay issue was affected by the updates but I think it's just an unstable audio driver. The SB16 driver is perfectly solid as an alternative.

theelf wrote on Yesterday, 17:53:

Hi, any ideas this can be solved? https://github.com/polpo/picogus/issues/149

it happen all time, and it is becoming a real problem to using my system properly

Try as I might, I can't reproduce this issue. What version of MSCDEX are you using? Are you using the CDMKE.SYS linked in the picogus wiki?

NeoG_ wrote on Yesterday, 23:02:

That's correct, it is the ALi V system. Would the volume ramping only apply to the start and end of a sample? The clicking happens all the way through sample playback, most notably on the longer samples like when the menu rotates. But regardless the SB16 support in the game is almost indistinguishable so there is a good alternative.

I can hear semi-random clicking during the menu forward/back samples on my original GUS and PicoGUS with firmware v4.1.1 and v4.2.0-beta.2. I don't think there's anything that can be done about it unless this is a different sort of clicking.

polpo wrote on Today, 02:27:

I can hear semi-random clicking during the menu forward/back samples on my original GUS and PicoGUS with firmware v4.1.1 and v4.2.0-beta.2. I don't think there's anything that can be done about it unless this is a different sort of clicking.

It appears to be a speed sensitivity issue in ROTT (and potentially on the AladdinV platform), If I slow down the system enough the clicking stops but the game is too slow to be enjoyable. If it happens on a real GUS I think that is the "nail in the coffin", the game will be best played with SB16 on faster systems.

For the hocus pocus freeze on exit I haven't found any conbination of ISA settings or system speed that bypasses the issue so far

Edit: When playing epic pinball in GUS mode it would also occasionally prematurely drop sample playback, especially after exiting a table (e.g. the strings would drop out until the next note) but that doesn't seem to be happening anymore either

polpo wrote on Today, 02:07:

theelf wrote on Yesterday, 17:53:

Hi, any ideas this can be solved? https://github.com/polpo/picogus/issues/149

it happen all time, and it is becoming a real problem to using my system properly

Try as I might, I can't reproduce this issue. What version of MSCDEX are you using? Are you using the CDMKE.SYS linked in the picogus wiki?

Hi, yes, cdmke i use is same from your website

CDMKE.SYS 13,0 KB (13.412 bytes) Making date: 6/10/96

About MSCDEX, i tried the original one from DOS 6.22, and PCDOS 7, and SHSUCDX but always same problem. I tested in 2 different 286 boards, and alwayss ame problem. Beside this everywthing work fine

thanks

I also couldn't get the image loader to fail with my images. I thought it did happen once and I started getting CDR101 errors but then I realised I had switched to GUS mode. People on the github issue board also have golden sample images that cause the image loader to have an issue, but they only happen with those specific disc images.

I think you need to find a way to get polpo a set of images you have seen the hangups happen with, I can only imagine this is either an issue with image data or an issue accessing the USB device

NeoG_ wrote on Today, 09:13:

I also couldn't get the image loader to fail with my images. I thought it did happen once and I started getting CDR101 errors but then I realised I had switched to GUS mode. People on the github issue board also have golden sample images that cause the image loader to have an issue, but they only happen with those specific disc images.

I think you need to find a way to get polpo a set of images you have seen the hangups happen with, I can only imagine this is either an issue with image data or an issue accessing the USB device

Hi, well, happen with all kind of images, ISO, CUE/BIN; most images I amde with ultraiso, and some of them are not mine, are original images or old images i found in my HDD that i dont have any ideas what software make

No problem to make some 1mb ISO, CUE/BIN images, test fail in my PC and send here or github to you guys just tellme i will do

About USB device, i tested several pendrive and usb HDD, the error happen same with all

But what i feel can be a firmware error or bad detection or whatever.. jeje is that the problem NOT happen in a pentium PC with same images, usb stick, drivers, etc just in my 286 PCs, both stock ISA speed