Originally posted by HunterZ Anyone heard anything from vlad in the last couple of weeks?

Probably the "real-world" has his attention...

Is VDMSound development dead for now?

Well it's mostly completed anyway. Only lacking true OPL3 emulation and that's dependent on someone else. The MT32 emulation is more of a separate project, and Vlad has already indicated that it wasn't going to be quick.

He should get someone to put on the website all the files he's got scattered around the forums (win9x VDMS port, speedset, the updated adlib driver, etc etc)

I tend to agree. Would be nice if we had a consistent list of items that should be included. I know that "Update 1" and the GUI Launcher are essential, not sure about the others...

That reminds me: update1 without the updated adlib driver makes Zeliard sound weird, so the updated adlib driver is important to have IMHO...

Is this the emuadlib.v1.0.4.4.zip file?

Nicht Sehr Gut wrote:

Well it's mostly completed anyway. Only lacking true OPL3 emulation and that's dependent on someone else. The MT32 emulation is more of a separate project, and Vlad has already indicated that it wasn't going to be quick.

I tried a couple of times to pitch the idea to him of doing some kind of hack for old games like Wizardry 6 & 7 and Dungeon Master that fire sound samples at the hardware a byte at a time... It sounded like he was considering adding it, but now...?

I tried increasing the buffer size of the SoundBlaster emulation to a high value but it didnt help because the game was slowing down due to trying to access the hardware too fast for Windows to handle it. Maybe playing with the DMA polling values would help, but I haven't seen a clear explanation of what those do yet. Anyways, I'm getting sidetracked 😉

I tend to agree. Would be nice if we had a consistent list of items that should be included. I know that "Update 1" and the GUI Launcher are essential, not sure about the others...

Essential or not, it's not very good to have useful stuff only accessible in scattered threads on a forum IMHO 😉

Is this the emuadlib.v1.0.4.4.zip file?

Yeah I believe so. It was posted on the forum under some thread where someone was describing bad-sounding adlib music in Mortal Kombat 3 I think.

Originally posted by HunterZ I tried a couple of times to pitch the idea to him of doing some kind of hack for old games like Wizardry 6 & 7 and Dungeon Master that fire sound samples at the hardware a byte at a time... It sounded like he was considering adding it, but now...?

I think you're referring to the emuppdac.v1.0.4.4.zip that was in this thread:
showthread.php?threadid=52

These are a nightmare to run in without full-blown PC emulation. I don't think you can't get much better without this. DosBox can probably handle Wizardry 6 & 7, not sure about Dungeon Master.

In any case there are alternatives, emulating the Amiga versions of Wizardry 6 and Dungeon Master, and running Wizardry Gold instead of Wizardry 7 (since it's simply a Win9x re-release).

...but it didnt help because the game was slowing down due to trying to access the hardware too fast for Windows to handle it. Maybe playing with the DMA polling values would help,

Sorry to hear that, which game was that again?.

Essential or not, it's not very good to have useful stuff only accessible in scattered threads on a forum IMHO

Well nothing here has really been "official". The only thing that's not really "Beta" is the core program itself: v2.04 of the command-line only utility for Win NT/2K. Everything else has been add-ons. And of course, everyone wants "their stuff" to take the lead "priority". Some only care about Win9x (which is completely out of Vlad's hands), other want WinXP-specific fixes like myself (the fixPOPF/BUILD bug), others want specific fixes for specific game titles. I think that's why development has gotten something of a split-personality.

Last I heard, Vlad was waiting on Chris to update his Win9x code...

Yeah I believe so.

Ok, I'll try getting something together that makes sense...

Nicht Sehr Gut wrote:

I think you're referring to the emuppdac.v1.0.4.4.zip that was in this thread:
showthread.php?threadid=52

No, I was talking about trying to emulate properly the way games like Wiz6&7 and Dungeon Master throttle the SoundBlaster (or even the Adlib in the case of Wiz7) to play digitized sounds one sample at a time instead of using its DMA buffer like they're supposed to.

Disney SoundSource emulation is a neat idea though. I didn't even know about that - another casualty of hiding addons on the forum I guess :p

These are a nightmare to run in without full-blown PC emulation. I don't think you can't get much better without this. DosBox can probably handle Wizardry 6 & 7, not sure about Dungeon Master.

Last I tried, DosBox was too choppy on my PII-450 to run even fairly tame games like Full Throttle without large amounts of choppiness in the sound. That was a few versions ago though. I don't see why VDMSound couldnt be put in a mode where it buffers the samples so that the system doesnt slow down while the game is trying to throttle it (unless the game uses some nasty interrupt or timer stuff that VDMS/WinNT can't deal with no matter what)

In any case there are alternatives, emulating the Amiga versions of Wizardry 6 and Dungeon Master, and running Wizardry Gold instead of Wizardry 7 (since it's simply a Win9x re-release).

The problem is I dont have original disks for the Amiga version of Wizardry 6. I found a version on the Internet but it must be hacked because Queequeg was in the tower instead of the French, dog-obsessed guy.

I got a rip of Wizardry Gold and I'm really not impressed with what they did with it (don't remember why exactly). Maybe if I had the full version it wouldnt be so bad but oh well...

Originally posted by HunterZ No, I was talking about trying to emulate properly the way games like Wiz6&7 and Dungeon Master throttle the SoundBlaster (or even the Adlib in the case of Wiz7) to play digitized sounds one sample at a time instead of using its DMA buffer like they're supposed to.

I believe the two are related. IIRC this also how the parallel-port adapters worked as well. This update provided the parallel support along with speedset compatibility, but it's functionality is hampered by the way these things processed audio.

...another casualty of hiding addons on the forum I guess

More like a nice idea to try. Don't think you can just plug this in and these titles will run just like they used to... They need real tinkering and IIRC performance in general is poor. Not what I would call an "official" release. This is why I tend to recommend emulation as it makes speed and compatibility issues disappear. You can try DosBox with Wizardry 6&7, but I'm not sure if it can properly reproduce the sampled speaker-audio (RealSound titles work well on it...). It seemed to run Dungeon Master fairly well... Can't remember if the PC version actually had stereo audio or not...I liked my Amiga version because I could use stereo separation to help narrow down the direction of far-away sounds...

Last I tried, DosBox was too choppy on my PII-450 to run even fairly tame games like Full Throttle without large amounts of choppiness in the sound.

Err...I'de be surprised to see "Full Throttle" running at all on DosBox. It requires a 486 processor minimum and DosBox is only up to unprotected 386 emulation. So FT is actually well beyond the specs of what it will run.

Honestly, if you're running a P2-450 you either need a dual-boot setup (with a DOS or Win9x OS) or a faster processor. A P2-450 may be adequate for running XP, but running emulation on top of that is going to make things crawl.

...but it must be hacked because Queequeg was in the tower instead of the French, dog-obsessed guy.

I think you may be right, as I had the Amiga version and I specifically remember the "Dog" guy.

I got a rip of Wizardry Gold and I'm really not impressed with what they did with it

Mostly they just "Windows95-ed" it. There were some changes in art, but it was mostly the same game.

Nicht Sehr Gut wrote:

I believe the two are related. IIRC this also how the parallel-port adapters worked as well. This update provided the parallel support along with speedset compatibility, but it's functionality is hampered by the way these things processed audio.

So will installing that add-on affect the way the SoundBlaster and/or Adlib emulation in VDMS works? Because the versions of Wiz 6 & 7 that I have can use the SB/Adlib for the sounds. Wiz7 (and maybe Wiz6 - not sure) can use the SoundSource though so maybe I should give it a try for that.

It seemed to run Dungeon Master fairly well... Can't remember if the PC version actually had stereo audio or not...

Nah, I doubt it has any kind of stereo support. I should get the Amiga version 😀

Err...I'de be surprised to see "Full Throttle" running at all on DosBox. It requires a 486 processor minimum and DosBox is only up to unprotected 386 emulation.

I must be confusing the old version of DosBox I tested with the old version of SCUMMVM I tested again... I keep doing that for some reason :p

Honestly, if you're running a P2-450 you either need a dual-boot setup (with a DOS or Win9x OS) or a faster processor. A P2-450 may be adequate for running XP, but running emulation on top of that is going to make things crawl.

In DosBox maybe. Other emulators work great, and so do DOS games in VDMS. Besides, half of my reason for liking VDMS is that it lets me use SoundFont banks for the MIDI music in DOS games. I've been wanting to do that for years. Someday I'll buy an old MT-32 and/or Sound Canvas from eBay (or at least blow the dust off the old AWE64 Gold that my cousin gave me) and set up a low-end Pentium (150MHz give-or-take a little) to play DOS games on, but until then I'll be using VDMS in WinXP 😀

Mostly they just "Windows95-ed" it. There were some changes in art, but it was mostly the same game.

Maybe they took out the MIDI music so I couldn't use my gigantic SoundFonts with it - they tend to do that with Windows ports (e.g. LucasArts games)

Originally posted by HunterZ Wiz7 (and maybe Wiz6 - not sure) can use the SoundSource though so maybe I should give it a try for that.

You can try. Just don't expect success. I dealt with a couple of SoundSource titles and they seemed to have a hard time detecting the sound device on anything faster than 100MHz.

Nah, I doubt it has any kind of stereo support. I should get the Amiga version

Doesn't always help, but it makes a difference sometimes...

Good god, look at those post subjects 😜