VOGONS


Reply 80 of 233, by TrashPanda

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Kahenraz wrote on 2022-03-07, 04:39:
I've tried following this guide but for Windows ME. It got as far as installing the VxD drivers and enabling the legacy sb16 emu […]
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I've tried following this guide but for Windows ME. It got as far as installing the VxD drivers and enabling the legacy sb16 emulation in device manager with the registry key, but I cannot install the dos drivers.

When I run the dos driver setup it gives me an error:

"SB16 Emulation can only be run on Windows 95 or Windows 98 with VXD Drivers installed."

My guess is that it is checking for Windows 95 or 98 and failing.

Is there any way to trick the install into proceeding?

It could be due to ME having an even more limited DOS mode than 95/98 does, but you could try changing the windows version in the registry.

No idea if that would work as it could be checking the version of the windows system files too.

Reply 81 of 233, by Joseph_Joestar

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Kahenraz wrote on 2022-03-07, 04:39:

I've tried following this guide but for Windows ME. It got as far as installing the VxD drivers and enabling the legacy sb16 emulation in device manager with the registry key, but I cannot install the dos drivers.

While I have never intended for this guide to be used under WinME due to its inherent DOS limitations, it seems that @DonutKing did manage to get it working.

Did you read his post?

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 82 of 233, by moog

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Yare yare daze jiji, that's a really huge tutorial. Here's the gist of it in Linux commands, so someone like me who prepares stuff for FreeDOS can make do without Windows.

# We only need 1 thing from the original driver ISO - ECW file. If you have a better one, skip this.
curl -L 'http://vogonsdrivers.com/files/downloader.php?fileid=510' -o sba2zs.7z
7z e sba2zs.7z
rm sba2zs.7z
# Why mount when you can extract?
isoinfo -i Audigy\ 2\ ZS\ Install\ CD.iso -x '/AUDIO/DRIVERS/VXD/VXD.CAB;1' > vxd.cab
rm Audigy\ 2\ ZS\ Install\ CD.iso
cabextract vxd.cab
rm vxd.cab
mv VxD/98SE_ME/DEFAULT.ECW .
rm -rf VxD
# Get DOS support package.
curl -L 'http://vogonsdrivers.com/files/downloader.php?fileid=1383' -o sba2zs_dos.rar
unrar x sba2zs_dos.rar
rm sba2zs_dos.rar
# Prepare SBA2ZS directory, all of this goes into your FreeDOS root directory.
unshield x AUDIGY\ DOS\ DRIVER/data1.cab
mv DOS_Drivers SBA2ZS
mv AUDIGY12\ PATCH/AUDIGY12.EXE SBA2ZS
rm -rf AUDIGY12\ PATCH AUDIGY\ DOS\ DRIVER
# This step is for the file from ISO, or you can just supply your favorite ECW file.
mv DEFAULT.ECW SBA2ZS
# For whatever reason, CTSYN.INI is missing and it's hard to get a copy of it online. You're welcome.
# Nevermind it refers to CTSYN.DRV. Tested, you don't need it.
# Post scriptum - SBEINIT.COM seems to require that PCIPort and PCIIRQ are declared, but it will ignore their values which is the smart thing to do with unpredictable values like those. This is tested, it keeps saying I have the Audigy on IRQ 11 and port c800.
cat <<EOF > SBA2ZS/CTSYN.INI
[CTSYN.DRV]
SBEnable=true
JoyEnable=true
Waveset=C:\SBA2ZS\DEFAULT.ECW
PCIPort=e400
PCIIRQ=12
OPLPort=388
MPUPort=330
SBPort=220
SBIRQ=5
SBDMALO=1
SBDMAHI=5
JoyPort=200
EOF

How to get things going in FreeDOS:
1. Put SBA2ZS directory into FreeDOS' root filesystem.
2. Start FreeDOS
3. Load JEMM386
4.

SET CTSYN=C:\SBA2ZS
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6
CD C:\SBA2ZS
SBEINIT.COM
AUDIGY12.EXE
REM Assuming your current directory is C:\
CD C:\

5. Have fun with your Audigy 2 ZS in FreeDOS!

Last edited by moog on 2022-03-10, 13:40. Edited 2 times in total.

Audigy 2 ZS in FreeDOS
LinLin adapter documentation
+ various capacitor list threads

Reply 83 of 233, by Joseph_Joestar

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moog wrote on 2022-03-07, 23:13:

Yare yare daze jiji, that's a really huge tutorial. Here's the gist of it in Linux commands, so someone like me who prepares stuff for FreeDOS can make do without Windows.

Well, us old folks do like to ramble on sometime. 😁 On that note, I'll be updating the guide soon to include some of Creative's utilities that I missed the first time around, such as AudioHQ, EAX Console and Speaker Setup. Not super relevant for DOS gaming, but nice to have if you're using 5.1 speakers and want to fine tune how legacy audio sources should sound on those.

BTW, great work on the steps for using these drivers in a pure DOS environment! Understandably, there are people who don't care about using Windows, and it's a great solution for them. I personally don't like those ECW sets and greatly prefer soundfonts, but to each their own.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 84 of 233, by Kahenraz

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Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2022-03-07, 05:40:
Kahenraz wrote on 2022-03-07, 04:39:

I've tried following this guide but for Windows ME. It got as far as installing the VxD drivers and enabling the legacy sb16 emulation in device manager with the registry key, but I cannot install the dos drivers.

While I have never intended for this guide to be used under WinME due to its inherent DOS limitations, it seems that @DonutKing did manage to get it working.

Did you read his post?

It took a lot of experimenting and I had to reread the instructions several times as I missed a step here and there, but I finally managed to get it working.

There is no difference in compatibility between the Live! and Audigy2 other then the need to run the extra tool to have the mapping work correctly in DOS.

I ended up confirming that everything worked as expected with Windows 98, as a starting point for comparison. I will come back to revisiting this with Windows ME soon.

Reply 85 of 233, by moog

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Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2022-03-08, 06:02:
moog wrote on 2022-03-07, 23:13:

Yare yare daze jiji, that's a really huge tutorial. Here's the gist of it in Linux commands, so someone like me who prepares stuff for FreeDOS can make do without Windows.

Well, us old folks do like to ramble on sometime. 😁 On that note, I'll be updating the guide soon to include some of Creative's utilities that I missed the first time around, such as AudioHQ, EAX Console and Speaker Setup. Not super relevant for DOS gaming, but nice to have if you're using 5.1 speakers and want to fine tune how legacy audio sources should sound on those.

BTW, great work on the steps for using these drivers in a pure DOS environment! Understandably, there are people who don't care about using Windows, and it's a great solution for them. I personally don't like those ECW sets and greatly prefer soundfonts, but to each their own.

Thank you. Wouldn't be possible without you in the first place 😀 By the way, what's the limit we can push the Audigy 2 ZS in terms of soundfont size?

Audigy 2 ZS in FreeDOS
LinLin adapter documentation
+ various capacitor list threads

Reply 86 of 233, by Joseph_Joestar

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moog wrote on 2022-03-08, 08:42:

By the way, what's the limit we can push the Audigy 2 ZS in terms of soundfont size?

From what I gather, the maximum cache size that you can set in Creative's SoundFont Bank Manager is limited to a certain percentage your system RAM.

I haven't personally pushed it past 250 MB, but I remember that some other people here used even larger soundfonts.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 87 of 233, by Kahenraz

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moog wrote on 2022-03-08, 08:42:

Thank you. Wouldn't be possible without you in the first place 😀 By the way, what's the limit we can push the Audigy 2 ZS in terms of soundfont size?

With 128MB of memory, the SoundFont manager defaults to 12MB but can be expanded up to 47.4MB. When I added a second stick for 256MB total, I could then choose to allocate up to 175.3MB.

I have no idea how they're doing the math for this.

If you have multiple Creative cards installed, can you only ever load a single sound font to be shared among all of the available synthesizers?

Last edited by Kahenraz on 2022-03-08, 14:02. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 88 of 233, by xpladv570

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For Windows ME users - this works completely fine. One small quirk - you gotta delete the "CheckOS.exe" file from the Audigy DOS driver installation folder. It won't let you install the SB16 Emulation driver otherwise. I have tested EAX in NFS4 and SB 2.0 mode in Build engine games - I haven't noticed any problems.
I guess this also proves that WME can work fine for general 9x gaming, even with creative cards. The WDM drivers, which Creative forces you to use in normal circumstances are rather buggy.

As for SB Live cards, not sure if this guide can work with them, but there actually existed LiveWare 3.0 VXD drivers for WME. They had a short life span before they got replaced by "better" WDM drivers, but they exist and work perfectly. And they include SB16 emulation as well. It is a less complicated install and don't come with any bloat like the "regular" LiveWare 3.0 CD drivers do (although one can also use these for WME)

Reply 89 of 233, by Kahenraz

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crvs wrote on 2020-06-14, 09:15:
For those who have several sound cards installed, it's also possible to setup SB16 emulation with non-default settings I have pa […]
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For those who have several sound cards installed, it's also possible to setup SB16 emulation with non-default settings
I have patched VxD from Audigy2 ZS driver CD ISO in order to modify MPU-401 and Adlib ports

  • Input/Output Range: 0330-0331 => 0320-0321
  • Input/Output Range: 0388-038B => 0288-028B

Other parameters of the driver can be changed in Windows Device Manager; this should resolve all conflicts

I'm having this problem while trying to mix my Sound Blaster 16 with a Aureal Vortex 2 in Windows. This is on a motherboard with an ISA slot that does not have DMA, and I can use the SB16 for Adlib with the Vortex 2 "Vortex AU8830 Sound Blaster Pro Emulation" for digital sound effects. The issue here is that the Vortex emulation device driver has the FM port hard-coded at 0388-038B and the entire device stops working if there is a conflict at this port.

I examined the modified .vxd from the Audigy driver but could find no similar bytes in AU30SBFM.VXD, which should be the correct driver file.

Is there any other place that this resource information might be stored?

Reply 90 of 233, by mrzmaster

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Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2020-01-18, 14:29:

5.3 Run C:\AU3\SFPACK.EXE > Ok > File > Add Files > Files of type: SFPack Files > C:\AU3\SC-55.sfpack > Open
5.4 After that, click File > Go/Stop. Wait for about 30 seconds. Now, if everything worked ok, you should have a SC-55.sf2 file in C:\AU3 (file size should be 45.1 MB)

Hi there, I followed your instructions and they worked really well, so thank you!

Instead of the SC-55 soundfont, I'm using Arachno, which I downloaded from their site in .sf2 format (136MB). I tried running SF Pack on it and ended up with a 74MB .sfpack file. Is there a way to pack it but still have a compressed .sf2 so I can load in into the Soundfont Bank Manager?

Reply 91 of 233, by Joseph_Joestar

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mrzmaster wrote on 2022-03-25, 22:28:

Is there a way to pack it but still have a compressed .sf2 so I can load in into the Soundfont Bank Manager?

I don't think so.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 93 of 233, by Joseph_Joestar

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Guide updated to version 2. New in this release:

  • You can now install various Creative Utilities such as AudioHQ, Speaker Settings, EAX Console etc.
  • You can now select additional speaker setup options (for example 4.1 and 5.1) instead of just stereo
  • The "Digital Output Only", "Bass Redirection", "SPDIF Bypass" and "CMSS 3D" options are now available in the relevant Creative utilities

    In short, you can now install various Creative utilities which are mostly useful if you're running a 5.1 speaker system or better. This doesn't matter much for DOS gaming, but it's still nice to be able to decide whether you want your rear speakers to mirror the front speaker output or not for games which don't natively support surround sound.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 94 of 233, by Stretch

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I always thought the Audigy AudioHQ wouldn't work from on SBLive, since the SBLive has half the microcode registers. Does the Audigy reverb algorithm work on SBLive?

EDIT: Nevermind, I saw the other post where you found AudioHQ from another SBLive CD that works with the Audigy drivers.

Win 11 - Intel i7-1360p - 32 GB - Intel Iris Xe - Sound BlasterX G5

Reply 95 of 233, by Joseph_Joestar

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Stretch wrote on 2022-05-01, 19:07:

I always thought the Audigy AudioHQ wouldn't work from on SBLive, since the SBLive has half the microcode registers. Does the Audigy reverb algorithm work on SBLive?

I think you meant to post in the other guide thread, but I'll answer here anyhow.

You can't get EAX Advanced HD on a SBLive, even with the Audigy drivers installed. Windows Device Manager correctly identifies the card as a SBLive, not as an Audigy. I actually tried running Creative's Goldmine demo on a SBLive with Audigy drivers and it errors out saying "No EAX Advanced HD device detected".

EDIT: Nevermind, I saw the other post where you found AudioHQ from another SBLive CD that works with the Audigy drivers.

Yup, that was the solution. That SBLive driver CD seems to be from 2003, so it's understandable that the Creative utilities from it properly recognize Audigy drivers.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 96 of 233, by Robertkopp

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I do not get CD/MIC/LINE-IN. In Windows it's all working. Audigy 2 SB0240
In the sbemixer it's all unmuted and on 100% volume.

I think I need find some documentation for the code, so I can change the launcher for the other Audigy cards.

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Reply 97 of 233, by Joseph_Joestar

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Robertkopp wrote on 2022-05-21, 13:04:

I do not get CD/MIC/LINE-IN. In Windows it's all working. Audigy 2 SB0240
In the sbemixer it's all unmuted and on 100% volume. I think I need find some documentation for the code, so I can change the launcher for the other Audigy cards.

Is that in pure DOS? Did you follow the instructions from the initial post, specifically the section concerning AUDIGY12.EXE:

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2020-01-18, 14:29:

In addition, if you want to use this card in pure DOS you will need to run C:\AU2\AUDIGY12 PATCH\AUDIGY12.EXE each time you choose Restart in MS-DOS mode. This is only necessary in pure DOS, do not run that executable when playing games from within Win98SE.

However, if this is happening under Win9x, go to Start > Run > sndvol32.exe > Options > Properties. On that screen, you can unhide and unmute any inputs that are present on the card. For example, here's what I have on my Audigy1 Platinum:

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PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 98 of 233, by Robertkopp

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Yep just in DOS and I launch the AUDIGY12.EXE at the end of my autoexec with a 3 second wait in between (https://www.plop.at/en/dostools.html).
Otherwise it would execute before the driver was loaded. The normal DOS sound works fine, I just need to inject CD audio and the PC speaker into the card. That would make my build complete.

I don't get it why the normal Audigy2 even behaves this way. I thought I get it because it's the closest to the original Audigy 1394, which is the one with the dos driver.
Please give us a insight where did you get the flags for the Audigy chip, so we can try to compile another one. It would be great if we could use them all.

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Reply 99 of 233, by Pino

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Just stopping by to say thanks to Joseph and everyone else for this guide.

I can confirm that it works with the Dell's Audigy 2 ZS ( 3 white labels on the back and serial number containing SB358...), I didn't have to do anything different from the guide.

Works fine from Windos 98 and pure DOS.

The only odd thing is that when I installed the DOS drivers I got a functional SB16 emulation on my device manager and the one I added manually after was the one with a yellow bang, other than that I followed all the steps as is.