How are you getting Sound Blaster compatibility with an AC'97 audio codec?

How are you getting Sound Blaster compatibility with an AC'97 audio codec?

To be honest, I don't know. All I know is that in anything that asks me to select a sound card, I select Soundblaster and it works. I guess the SoundMax drivers emulate the Soundblaster cards for compatibility. Documentation for SoundMax is pretty hard to come by. I usually have to experiment with the IRQ setting, but so far it's worked. I've used it in Dark Forces, Tomb Raider and now Duke Nukem 3D (when I was trying the original program) and Blood. Note that all of these were run in a DOS window, not in true DOS mode.

BTW, MIDI music still doesn't work, but I discovered that if I leave the CD in the drive, it finds the CD audio tracks and plays them during the game. I didn't notice this before because I was expecting traditional "music" rather than the horror movie background sound that Blood uses. Actually, I remember hearing it the first time I ran the game, but I thought it was just ambient background noise. It still sounds like that to me, but since I don't get it if I take the CD out, it must be the "music".

As for the graphical issues, I remembered a trick that worked with Descent; If I switch from full-screen to windowed and back again, it fixes the corruption. At least until the next time. So I can play the game in higher resolutions, I just have to Alt-Enter whenever a movie starts to play, in order to see it. I wish there was a better solution though.

Rekrul: there is a windows starter to Descent, since the source code has been released. So the Descent game could be started, if you are using the windows starter. I hope that can help you with the Descent game.

Rekrul: there is a windows starter to Descent, since the source code has been released. So the Descent game could be started, if you are using the windows starter. I hope that can help you with the Descent game.

If you mean D1X, I already know about it. In fact, I finished Descent using it. D1X is pretty buggy though. The mission briefings stopped displaying. The Intel on new robot types stopped printing the text, the robot graphics in the briefings would "smear" like they were turning in wet paint, the screenshots for saved games were garbled, etc.

I'd still like to find a way to get the VESA modes to display properly though.

Rekrul: yes I ment D1X, I just didn´t know it was that buggy. But about Duke3d, then try JonoFs duke3d engine. Since sometimes, you don´t need to feel the "real" dos feel with some games. But others, there I recomend you real dos 😀 But I think JonoFs duke3d port, is a great windows version.

http://jonof.edgenetwork.org/ that is his site.

Rekrul: yes I ment D1X, I just didn´t know it was that buggy.

It was for me. I haven't tried the D2X port (which is supposed to play Descent 1 levels) yet.

But about Duke3d, then try JonoFs duke3d engine. Since sometimes, you don´t need to feel the "real" dos feel with some games. But others, there I recomend you real dos Happy But I think JonoFs duke3d port, is a great windows version.

Yes, I'm already using it for Duke Nukem 3D. To be honest, I didn't like playing with the original program. The aiming up and down was too sluggish and primitive for my tastes.

Unfortunately, the source code to Blood has never been released, so you have no choice but to use the original game. It's a modified version of the engine used for Duke 3D. Somehow it feels a little smoother though. I just wish I could solve the problem of VESA graphic modes not working properly.

If I play the game in 320x200, the cutscenes work fine. If I switch the game to a higher resolution, the game plays fine, but the cutscenes don't work, they're just a scrambled mess. If I switch to windowed mode, then back to fullscreen, they're fixed until the next time.

Well...

I got the music working. After trying various things, including the alpha version of the W98 version of VDMSound, all I had to do was switch which MIDI option was being used in Windows' Multimedia properties. 😮

Now I just have to figure out a way to run it in a higher resolution without having the movies turn to garbage.

I've tried all the programs that are supposed to fix VESA problems, like UniVBE (no supported chips found), SciTech Display Doctor (all of the tests locked up my system), Unirefresh (did nothing), VBEPlus (did nothing in default, forced the game into 320x200 with more options enabled), etc.

I've written to XFXForce, but they tell me that NVidia doesn't give them much info on DOS compatibility. (why are they providing tech support for products that they obviously don't the inner workings of?) 😠

I can't be the only person to have this problem...

I was just looking over some of my old posts and wanted to add some additional information to this thread.

I was never able to completely solve the problem of the FMVs being scrambled, however I did make some interesting discoveries.

The FMVs are in 320x200 resolution. If I change my desktop to 640x480 in 16 colors, then I can run the game in any resolution I want and the FMVs play fine. Unfortunately, switching to this mode requires a reboot and makes doing anything else with the system a royal pain in the a** due to the low resolution. I also discovered that if I run the game in true DOS mode, the FMVs work fine in any resolution. It's only when I run the game from a higher-res Desktop and use a higher game resolution that they end up scrambled. I'm guessing that the above works because when the system is using lower resolutions, it's probably not using the Nvidia drivers.

I finally gave up trying to fix all the problems and decided to just try playing it. By the end of the first level, I was pulling my hair out at all the limitations of the engine. Like the rats that can bite you from about 10 feet away, but which are practically impossible to hit with anything but the dynamite. Or the fact that making fine adjustments to the vertical aim is pretty much impossible. Or the fact that the game engine is incredibly bad at determining when your aim isn't blocked, such that you can be standing half out of the hole at the end of the first level, with a clear line of fire to the enemies outside, but all your shots just hit an invisible wall.

After struggling through the first level and part of the second, I just couldn't deal with how primitive the engine was. Granted, it was one of the earliest 3D engines that allowed looking up and down, and I love the premise of the game, but playing it was such a chore for me that I just gave up.

Rekrul wrote on 2006-10-20, 02:18:

Well... […]
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Well...

I got the music working. After trying various things, including the alpha version of the W98 version of VDMSound, all I had to do was switch which MIDI option was being used in Windows' Multimedia properties. 😮

Now I just have to figure out a way to run it in a higher resolution without having the movies turn to garbage.

I've tried all the programs that are supposed to fix VESA problems, like UniVBE (no supported chips found), SciTech Display Doctor (all of the tests locked up my system), Unirefresh (did nothing), VBEPlus (did nothing in default, forced the game into 320x200 with more options enabled), etc.

I've written to XFXForce, but they tell me that NVidia doesn't give them much info on DOS compatibility. (why are they providing tech support for products that they obviously don't the inner workings of?) 😠

I can't be the only person to have this problem...

OK, quoting a post from 14 years ago. Thoug I would add on how to switch the MIDI option as it is not clear how to do this.

1. Right click on the SoundMax tray icon and select Multimedia to get to the options.
2. Select the MIDI tab.
3. Under MIDI output select Single Instrument and Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth (don't use the SoundMax Wavetable Synth as I don't get any sound with this selected)
4. Hit OK and it should hopefully work if you use Duke3D setup and change the music card to General Midi

Hope this helps someone (or future me if I need to set this up again)