Scythifuge wrote on 2024-05-08, 16:40:

I am posting this in this subforum as while it involves a sound card, it is for a game issue. I installed Alone in the Dark on my K6-III+ with my AWE32. When running the configuration, I cannot select Sound Blaster Pro. This was also happening with the card on a Socket 7/Pentium 166 MMX system. The regular Sound Blaster option with DMA works and sounds like it did back in the day (as far as I can remember,) but I don't understand why Sound Blaster Pro is greyed out when I can select it in other games, and I'm not sure if it sounds better than the regular SB in AitD?

Actually, Alone in the Dark is doing some thing correctly here, possibly just by chance. While there is no reason to not treat a SB16 (an AWE32 is exactly like an SB16 except for the added wavetable synthesizer) as SBPro 2.0 for FM music synthesis, and get the full OPL3 glory, the digital sound playback part of the SB16 is not compatible with the way stereo sound works on the SB Pro. Regarding digital sound playback, the stereo support is the only difference between the SB Pro (any version) and the SB 2.0, so the SB16 always operates in mono mode, and sounds better when the application software synthesizes mono data for the SB 2.0 than it would sound if the application software expects the data stream to be played back as Stereo.

For games not supporting the SB16 natively, the best choice is to select "SB Pro" for music (or any other option that offers OPL3 synthesis), but SB 2.0 for digital sound.

mkarcher wrote on 2024-05-08, 17:39:

Scythifuge wrote on 2024-05-08, 16:40:

I am posting this in this subforum as while it involves a sound card, it is for a game issue. I installed Alone in the Dark on my K6-III+ with my AWE32. When running the configuration, I cannot select Sound Blaster Pro. This was also happening with the card on a Socket 7/Pentium 166 MMX system. The regular Sound Blaster option with DMA works and sounds like it did back in the day (as far as I can remember,) but I don't understand why Sound Blaster Pro is greyed out when I can select it in other games, and I'm not sure if it sounds better than the regular SB in AitD?

Actually, Alone in the Dark is doing some thing correctly here, possibly just by chance. While there is no reason to not treat a SB16 (an AWE32 is exactly like an SB16 except for the added wavetable synthesizer) as SBPro 2.0 for FM music synthesis, and get the full OPL3 glory, the digital sound playback part of the SB16 is not compatible with the way stereo sound works on the SB Pro. Regarding digital sound playback, the stereo support is the only difference between the SB Pro (any version) and the SB 2.0, so the SB16 always operates in mono mode, and sounds better when the application software synthesizes mono data for the SB 2.0 than it would sound if the application software expects the data stream to be played back as Stereo.

For games not supporting the SB16 natively, the best choice is to select "SB Pro" for music (or any other option that offers OPL3 synthesis), but SB 2.0 for digital sound.

Thank you for this insight! I have been DOS gaming since 1993 on my own PC and a year or two before on other PCs, but I never knew or understood these differences and quirks. I am still learning things after all of these years!

Alone in the Dark does not actually support SB PRO - it fails to work with real SBPRO cards in several systems
Later versions of the game removed the SBPRO entry alltogether
the best you can select is SB DMA for SFX and SB or ADLIB for music - tunes are OPL2 AFAIK

keropi wrote on 2024-05-08, 18:45:

Alone in the Dark does not actually support SB PRO - it fails to work with real SBPRO cards in several systems
Later versions of the game removed the SBPRO entry alltogether
the best you can select is SB DMA for SFX and SB or ADLIB for music - tunes are OPL2 AFAIK

Thank you!