Use this thread: AWE64 with 32 (28 really) MB of RAM 😉

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Use this thread: AWE64 with 32 (28 really) MB of RAM 😉

Been looking at that thread and a few others. None are helpful as they don't say any step by step on getting a soundfont to work with a game

I just got a .rar file which contained alot of soundblaster drivers. I found the AWE32 control panel, from there I loaded up the 4GMGSMT.SF2 soundfount which is for the 4MB built in for the Gold! ram since I don't have my expansion module or 32mb ram yet.

Then trying to setup Duke Nukem 3D, I cannot get Music card to work with AWE32 using AWE32 Emu Address 0x620 and any MIDI port.

The Waveblaster and Adlib worked before messing with soundfont and sound the same now so assume it is not using the soundfont I've loaded up.

Note I haven't done anythiing with the AWEUTIL.EXE and have no idea if I sould be using it or not. :very confused: As I said, this is all new to me.

Another good resource might be my X-Fi SoundFont thread: Creative Labs X-Fi + SoundFont + W7 64bit + DOSBox + General Midi Games

Even has some pics. It's dead easy...

1. Load SoundFont
2. Make sure the SoundFont is the default MIDI playback device
3. Launch game (Either DOSBox or DOS Window) and select General Midi

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Another good resource might be my X-Fi SoundFont thread: Creative Labs X-Fi + SoundFont + W7 64bit + DOSBox + General Midi Games […]
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Another good resource might be my X-Fi SoundFont thread: Creative Labs X-Fi + SoundFont + W7 64bit + DOSBox + General Midi Games

Even has some pics. It's dead easy...

1. Load SoundFont
2. Make sure the SoundFont is the default MIDI playback device
3. Launch game (Either DOSBox or DOS Window) and select General Midi

Hmm, I looks like I was following the steps...EXCEPT...I didn't realize once I loaded up a custom soundfont that duke nukem setup had to be redone again to get AWE32 to work. I also ticked the "allow wavetable synthesis only" box in the AWE32 control panel under device.

It works now, still doesn't really sound as good as just the "waveblaster" for music though. Maybe that chormiumrevA soundfont will be better once my ram is setup.

Thanks for your help. I'm sure i'll need more! heh

A word of advice 🤣

IMO you are better off just buying a Creative Live! or Audigy or Audigy2 or X-Fi instead of hunting down / paying for that AWE64 memory converter + memory modules...

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

A word of advice 🤣

IMO you are better off just buying a Creative Live! or Audigy or Audigy2 or X-Fi instead of hunting down / paying for that AWE64 memory converter + memory modules...

Hmmm, your probably right, I have 3 SoundBlaster Live!'s and can't get the dos drivers working in windows 98se so I gave up on that front.

Will an X-Fi work in windows 98SE? I only see support upto Audigy 2 ZS driver wise.

I use a X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatat1ty Pro with 64MB X-Ram on my Win7 64bit system, I haven't really played with dosbox for some time though, was just trying to keep it oldschool 😉

As for the AWE64, the damage is already done and being shipped my way, so I will atleast try to stick with that and see what the benefits are of that ram.

You don't need any DOS drivers with Windows 98SE.

W98 drivers are all your need and then you run your games from the DOS prompt.

Under real DOS things are totally different anyway.

Yeah, as Mau1wurf1977 replied, you won't need the DOS drivers loaded in for W98SE. Most things run just fine in a DOS shell under that OS, and the DOS games will use the SBLive for their sound and MIDI playback using the W98SE drivers 😀

Used to do this all of the time with my AWE32s installed in the last PC of mine that actually had ISA slots in it <grin> 😀

They do indeed have native DOS drivers for the SBLive, but the MIDI music won't sound as good (verses shelling from W98SE and having a decent soundfont loaded in).

rfnagel wrote:

Yeah, as Mau1wurf1977 replied, you won't need the DOS drivers loaded in for W98SE. Most things run just fine in a DOS shell under that OS, and the DOS games will use the SBLive for their sound and MIDI playback using the W98SE drivers 😀

Used to do this all of the time with my AWE32s installed in the last PC of mine that actually had ISA slots in it <grin> 😀

They do indeed have native DOS drivers for the SBLive, but the MIDI music won't sound as good (verses shelling from W98SE and having a decent soundfont loaded in).

Dunno why you guys recommend a SBLive! I installed it again to test, windows has sound just fine.

I used Liveware 3.0 CD to install all apps and dosdrv. I cannot get any sound to work for dos with dukenukem3d. sbego shows a error of

"Error: Is SB Emulation Enabled ??? ..." <- I get this in dos or windows!!

It certainly isn't disabled in device manager, is there another way I need to enable the emulation?

I created a batch file for pure dos of:
C:\PROGRA~1\CREATIVE\SBLIVE\DOSDRV\SBEINIT.COM
C:\PROGRA~1\CREATIVE\SBLIVE\DOSDRV\sbeset -A240 -I5 -D3 -H7

for dos, it always says to reboot after sbeset runs, WTF?!
If I do not reboot and run setup.exe for duke it errors out or hangs the PC completely.

my Autoexec.bat is as follows:
SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E MODE:0
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6
SET CTSYN=C:\WINDOWS
C:\PROGRA~1\CREATIVE\SBLIVE\DOSDRV\SBEINIT.COM
MSCDEX.EXE /D:PIONEER
REM SET SOUND=C:\SB16
C:\MOUSE\MOUSE

Config.sys:
DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE
BUFFERS=32
FILES=64
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\SETVER.EXE
STACKS=0,0
DEVICE=C:\ATAPI_CD.SYS /S:2 /D:PIONEER
LASTDRIVE=Z

I swear, there is nothing to setting up the AWE64, what rubbish the SBLive! card is!!

If windows sound is fine you should be able to open a DOS command prompt and play man games (not all work from within windows).

Our recommendation for the Live! is specific to the use of SoundFonts.

If you need a Soundcard for pure DOS we would recommend something else.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

If windows sound is fine you should be able to open a DOS command prompt and play man games (not all work from within windows).

Our recommendation for the Live! is specific to the use of SoundFonts.

If you need a Soundcard for pure DOS we would recommend something else.

Thats the thing, even in windows shelled dos games like duke nukem 3d, or redneck rampage setup.exe crashes no matter what I pick for soundblaster!!

Using the sbego diagnostics gives me the is the SB Emulation enabled error.

I checked my ctsyn.ini and it says SBEnable=true

checking with sbeset -c shows the SB enabled as well. If I can't even pass diagnostics, then how can I setup a dos games through windows or dos?!

Could I just have a limped SBLive! ?? I'm afraid to buy a audigy 2 zs thinking the same thing will happen.

Soundfonts won't matter till I get SB16 Emulation working.

I remember once trying games in pure dos using the SB Live, and some sounded awful. I loaded prince of persia, and the intro theme was playing by a piano or so, and was really horrible!

You might have configured things too much.

I would uninstall everything and start by just loading the windows drivers. The ones from the Creative Site should be enough to get going.

Open a Dos window and it should just work...

There shouldn't be more to it I'm afraid...

I wonder - is the Liveware 3.0 CD applicable to all CT SB Live! models? RogueTrip2012, what CT model is your SB Live! card?

retro games 100 wrote:

I wonder - is the Liveware 3.0 CD applicable to all CT SB Live! models? RogueTrip2012, what CT model is your SB Live! card?

I have a model CT4760 and as far as I can tell it is a basic SBLive! with Gold connectors. Some sites say could be a X-gamer buy doubt that! I got it for free so I can't really complain.

I also got 2 other SB Live!'s that look like values.

Grabbed a bunch of free cards awhile ago and got...
CT4780 (looks like a SBlive Value card)
CT4830 (another SBLive Value I think)
Diamond DT-588
SB AWE32 ISA with no ram
I also have a SB128 laying around somewhere Ensonique?
and lastly somewhere buried with my old pile is a ISA FX 3D something.

none in this list have been tested other than the main SBLive I've been playing with.

@Mau1wurf1977

I'd love to say that is true, but this is my 3rd time with the card installed on this setup and I remember not having luck when I just had the newest web drivers and before I found the Liveware 3.0CD.

Also tried installing the newer drivers over the Liveware 3.0 with no luck.

I may try it all over again but its been quite discouraging!

Been wondering if maybe my motherboard lack NMI masking for the emulation functionality, I can't find anything in my Bios nor my Manual about it, and already know gigabyte will give me a generic not supported e-mail for the GA-6VTXE. I had just bought the board off ebay with bad capacitors and installed some new ones just so I could have Tualatin support, ISA, and upwards of 1.5GB installed ram. Otherwise if PCI was fine I could of used my ASUS TUSCL2-C or whatever it is I've had forever that suports Tualatin, intel 815e chipset and only 512mb ram installed.

@ Markk

I hear this alot, hence why i bought a SB AWE64 for $15, then bought the Simmconn for $20, and 2x 32mb EDO sticks for $10, I was wanting the best but told I don't have it, 🤣, really thinking of just settling with it though!

Is the CONFIG.SYS/AUTOEXEC.BAT stuff (i.e. SBEINIT and such) actually needed for Windows 98SE with the Live? I'm not 100% sure, but AFAIK (I think) you don't require any of the DOS stuff loading in during bootup for the Windows drivers to function properly.

RogueTrip2012 wrote:

CT4780 (looks like a SBlive Value card)

That's the one that I have (that's an SBLive! Value Edition, and a Dell pull).

Note that what I posted above is pure speculation. On my W98SE (and W311WFWG) PCs I had AWE32s and SB16's with the AWE32 "upgrade" cards in them (which worked great shelled out of W98SE to play DOS games... well, *most* DOS games, but not all of them). The only thing that I've used my SBLive! in is my current rig, running Windows XP Pro SP3. Although, I have booted to native DOS before and tested the SBLive!'s DOS drivers with a few games.

rfnagel wrote:

Is the CONFIG.SYS/AUTOEXEC.BAT stuff (i.e. SBEINIT and such) actually needed for Windows 98SE with the Live? I'm not 100% sure, […]
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Is the CONFIG.SYS/AUTOEXEC.BAT stuff (i.e. SBEINIT and such) actually needed for Windows 98SE with the Live? I'm not 100% sure, but AFAIK (I think) you don't require any of the DOS stuff loading in during bootup for the Windows drivers to function properly.

RogueTrip2012 wrote:

CT4780 (looks like a SBlive Value card)

That's the one that I have (that's an SBLive! Value Edition, and a Dell pull).

Note that what I posted above is pure speculation. On my W98SE (and W311WFWG) PCs I had AWE32s and SB16's with the AWE32 "upgrade" cards in them (which worked great shelled out of W98SE to play DOS games... well, *most* DOS games, but not all of them). The only thing that I've used my SBLive! in is my current rig, running Windows XP Pro SP3. Although, I have booted to native DOS before and tested the SBLive!'s DOS drivers with a few games.

The sbinit.com is to start the SB16 emulation for dos and is actually put in in autoexec.bat and dosstart.bat by default, it is needed. The sbeset.exe is just to reassign address/ports and enable/disable emulation and not needed or added to the system by default.

I think they are all from pre-built systems (IE dell and others).

At this time I pulled it out since I got my expansion board and ram in the mail friday and it looks to be working fine with the memory. I just want to know how it is supposed to work better with directsound and 3D Positional audio as it is claimed to be on the SimmConn site.

As for the SBLive! I have a feeling it has to do with NMI and my luck of not having it on my motherboard probably as I cannot confirm it if my mobo has it or not.

A quote from here speaks a little about it:

The SB16 emulation of the Sound Blaster Live! requires your motherboard to support NMI (Non-Maskable Interrupt) in order to work […]
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The SB16 emulation of the Sound Blaster Live! requires your motherboard
to support NMI (Non-Maskable Interrupt) in order to work. Check with your
manufacturer or look at your motherboard documentation to determine
whether your motherboard supports it.

source: http://www.allquests.com/question/1458464/Sou … ith-Duke3D.html

OK, small update. I tried looking up some more info on NMI's and still did not find anything definitive.

I did find a BIOS setting called APIC (Advance Programmable Interrupt Controller) which is meant for anything after Windows 98SE (WinNT and up). I tried changing from APIC to PIC, installed the card again................and still errors out, sigh. Looked promising as it pertains to information about PCI audio issues.

As far as I'm concerned the SBLive! is a windows only card in my eyes!