Sound blaster live 5.1 and stuttering in deus ex \ VOGONS

Sound blaster live 5.1 and stuttering in deus ex

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First post, by iraito

Posted on 2021-09-29, 13:48

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The game works as intended if i leave the hardware audio acceleration off but if i enable it i get a ton of stuttering in actions scenes.
If i lower the amount of audio channels from 16 to 7 the stuttering almost vanishes, so i guess it must be a performance issue either related to the hardware or software.

The PC is the WinME in my sign.

If you wanna check a blue ball playing retro PC games
MIDI Devices: RA-50 (modded to MT-32) SC-55

Reply 1 of 11, by Namrok

Posted on 2021-09-29, 13:53

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I see that machine has a VIA chipset. Have you tried the VIA PCI Latency patch?

http://www.georgebreese.com/net/software/read … 0b21_readme.HTM

It fixed up my EAX crackling and stuttering issues like a champ on a VIA MVP3 board with an SBLive.

Win95/DOS 7.1 - P233 MMX (@2.5 x 100 FSB), Diamond Viper V330 AGP, SB16 CT2800
Win98 - K6-2+ 500, GF2 MX, SB AWE 64 CT4500, SBLive CT4780
Win98 - Pentium III 1000, GF2 GTS, SBLive CT4760
WinXP - Athlon 64 3200+, GF 7800 GS, Audigy 2 ZS

Reply 2 of 11, by iraito

Posted on 2021-09-29, 14:25

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Namrok wrote on 2021-09-29, 13:53:

I see that machine has a VIA chipset. Have you tried the VIA PCI Latency patch?

http://www.georgebreese.com/net/software/read … 0b21_readme.HTM

It fixed up my EAX crackling and stuttering issues like a champ on a VIA MVP3 board with an SBLive.

Never tried it, i will try that later, thank you!

If you wanna check a blue ball playing retro PC games
MIDI Devices: RA-50 (modded to MT-32) SC-55

Reply 3 of 11, by iraito

Posted on 2021-09-30, 06:40

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https://streamable.com/7nrahx

Seems to be working, the stuttering at the intro scene with the gun fight was atrocious before.

If you wanna check a blue ball playing retro PC games
MIDI Devices: RA-50 (modded to MT-32) SC-55

Reply 4 of 11, by leileilol

Posted on 2021-09-30, 08:58

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My old workaround for this almost 21 years ago (!) was to alt-enter back and forth to clear it up.

long live PCem

Reply 5 of 11, by Namrok

Posted on 2021-09-30, 12:46

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iraito wrote on 2021-09-30, 06:40:

https://streamable.com/7nrahx

Seems to be working, the stuttering at the intro scene with the gun fight was atrocious before.

I take it the VIA PCI Latency patch worked then? Good to hear!

Reply 6 of 11, by iraito

Posted on 2021-10-05, 10:39

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Namrok wrote on 2021-09-30, 12:46:

iraito wrote on 2021-09-30, 06:40:

https://streamable.com/7nrahx

Seems to be working, the stuttering at the intro scene with the gun fight was atrocious before.

I take it the VIA PCI Latency patch worked then? Good to hear!

Tested a lot of games, it didn't solve it, one games that seal the problem in the soundblaster is project IGI 2, if i choose any software audio driver i get no stutter but if i choose EAX of any kind then any weapon firing trigger some insane stuttering.

If you wanna check a blue ball playing retro PC games
MIDI Devices: RA-50 (modded to MT-32) SC-55

Reply 7 of 11, by Garrett W

Posted on 2021-10-05, 16:49

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Perhaps you should take a look whether you're using VXD or WDM drivers.

Reply 8 of 11, by Jasin Natael

Posted on 2021-10-05, 16:56

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What drivers are you using? WDM are garbage but more stable. VXD is the way to go if you can get them to work with the other hardware.

Also what version Live! card do you have? If you have the crappy OEM version it doesn't have hardware EAX support and will offload to the CPU which will kill performance.

Also the OEM versions won't usually work with the vanilla Creative drivers.

Reply 9 of 11, by iraito

Posted on 2021-10-06, 06:46

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My card is the SB0060, it's not OEM but i'm using Sound Blaster Retail Disc (SB0100 (5.1) & CT4780) for the drivers, which could be problematic.

If you wanna check a blue ball playing retro PC games
MIDI Devices: RA-50 (modded to MT-32) SC-55

Reply 10 of 11, by iraito

Posted on 2021-10-07, 14:00

iraito Offline

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Ok the VxD drivers solved the stuttering, damn, the WDM ones are insanely bad for the 5.1.

If you wanna check a blue ball playing retro PC games
MIDI Devices: RA-50 (modded to MT-32) SC-55

Reply 11 of 11, by Jasin Natael

Posted on 2021-10-07, 14:08

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iraito wrote on 2021-10-07, 14:00:

Ok the VxD drivers solved the stuttering, damn, the WDM ones are insanely bad for the 5.1.

Yes they are complete trash. I don't know how they ever thought it was fine to release them in that state.
Glad that fixed the problem for you.

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