VOGONS


Dark Seed 2 - Win 3.11 - DOSBox - SBPRO2

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First post, by fil_evans

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hello to all,

I've installed Windows 3.11 through DOSBox to play Dark Seed 2. I followed the guide on vogons which instructs to use soundblaster 16. Everything works OK except for sound stuttering & choppiness on the dialogue. So instead I tried SBPRO1, & 2 as I read SBPro is faster to emulate. I found all the Win3.1 SBPro 1 & 2 drivers and everything works OK and all the sound stuttering has gone! But instead I get really awful tinny MIDI music, and the richness has gone. This is weird to me as the MIDI music on SBPro was always about as good as SB16 MIDI music on all the DOS games I ever tried. So does anyone know what is causing these problems and how I can get the sound working the best?

Thanks to everyone

Reply 1 of 10, by Dominus

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is it even using Midi? And is it really different in Dosbox than the SB16 one in Dosbox? Because midi is passed through to the host and not emulated by Dosbox.

Windows 3.1x guide for DOSBox
60 seconds guide to DOSBox
DOSBox SVN snapshot for macOS (10.4-11.x ppc/intel 32/64bit) notarized for gatekeeper

Reply 2 of 10, by KainXVIII

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fil_evans wrote:

hello to all,

I've installed Windows 3.11 through DOSBox to play Dark Seed 2. I followed the guide on vogons which instructs to use soundblaster 16. Everything works OK except for sound stuttering & choppiness on the dialogue. So instead I tried SBPRO1, & 2 as I read SBPro is faster to emulate. I found all the Win3.1 SBPro 1 & 2 drivers and everything works OK and all the sound stuttering has gone! But instead I get really awful tinny MIDI music, and the richness has gone. This is weird to me as the MIDI music on SBPro was always about as good as SB16 MIDI music on all the DOS games I ever tried. So does anyone know what is causing these problems and how I can get the sound working the best?

Thanks to everyone

I have same issue with stuttering, how do you setup SBPro instead of SB16?

Reply 7 of 10, by Silanda

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KainXVIII wrote:
Silanda wrote:

You could try what I posted here to alleviate the stuttering: Dark Seed 2 will not play cut scenes.

Missed last answer (and it helps!)

Awesome!

As to the OP's question. It might be worth messing with the MIDI Mapper settings in Windows 3.11 (Main - Control Panel - MIDI Mapper). Try making sure that the active map is mapping all 16 MIDI channels to the synth. IIRC not all channels are mapped by default. Also, you might be able to select from there whether Windows 3.11 uses the emulated OPL3 or passes it to an external MIDI device (whatever DOSBox is set up to use, which is the built in synth by default on Windows). You can certainly do that with the SB16's drivers, and as crap as the built in Windows MIDI synth is, it will sound a hell of a lot better than the emulated Soundblaster. If it had been using that it might explain why it sounded better before.

Assuming that the emulated Soundblaster was always being used, it could also just be that the General MIDI to OPL3 patch library that the SB Pro uses is worse than the one used by the SB16, but I really have no idea about that.

Reply 9 of 10, by fil_evans

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Silanda wrote:
Awesome! […]
Show full quote
KainXVIII wrote:
Silanda wrote:

You could try what I posted here to alleviate the stuttering: Dark Seed 2 will not play cut scenes.

Missed last answer (and it helps!)

Awesome!

As to the OP's question. It might be worth messing with the MIDI Mapper settings in Windows 3.11 (Main - Control Panel - MIDI Mapper). Try making sure that the active map is mapping all 16 MIDI channels to the synth. IIRC not all channels are mapped by default. Also, you might be able to select from there whether Windows 3.11 uses the emulated OPL3 or passes it to an external MIDI device (whatever DOSBox is set up to use, which is the built in synth by default on Windows). You can certainly do that with the SB16's drivers, and as crap as the built in Windows MIDI synth is, it will sound a hell of a lot better than the emulated Soundblaster. If it had been using that it might explain why it sounded better before.

Assuming that the emulated Soundblaster was always being used, it could also just be that the General MIDI to OPL3 patch library that the SB Pro uses is worse than the one used by the SB16, but I really have no idea about that.

Thanks great suggestion. When I've played midi music on any other game on sbpro it seems exactly the same as sb16, only when in dark seed 2 through win3.11 it isn't.

I think the midi mapper is just built into windows 3.11, when I installed sb16 and sbpro, the midi mapper stays in the list. I don't think sb16 drivers affect the midi mapper driver. sbpro loads 3 extra drivers and all of those just have base address/IRQ/interrupt settings, that's all. OK I found all the settings for midi mapper now

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Reply 10 of 10, by Dominus

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Fil: warning, do not use that language here. I'm a long time user of Dosbox and a moderator here, also the guy whose guide you followed to install Windows 3.1x. I did try Darkseed 2, btw, and it worked flawlessly for me. But as Silanda already had posted I did not see a need to reply with that.

So, consider yourself warned.

Windows 3.1x guide for DOSBox
60 seconds guide to DOSBox
DOSBox SVN snapshot for macOS (10.4-11.x ppc/intel 32/64bit) notarized for gatekeeper