hyoenmadan wrote on 2023-02-22, 02:23:You would still want VxD drivers if you are searching for a low latency, built in DOS box supported, and real mode DOS compatibl […]
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stanwebber wrote on 2023-02-21, 05:01:
this is a limitation of vxd drivers. wdm drivers, which are directsound compliant, use a virtual kernel mixer so it's possible for multiple applications
to play sounds simultaneously. vxd drivers, unless directsound compliant (rare), operate in exclusive mode. the knock on wdm drivers is that the kernel mixer adds latency.
You would still want VxD drivers if you are searching for a low latency, built in DOS box supported, and real mode DOS compatible configuration.
Ofc, to have it working as adviced, you would want to remove any trace of WDM in your system (WDM NTKern doesn't play well with VxD drivers, specially Sound VxDs).
This means to remove/disable any USB hardware and turning off ACPI (the inmediate downside is that you will have to use a real PS/2 mouse or Keyboard
or an USB one with hardware adapter to PS/2 in this configuration, and you will lose support for USB storage (pendrives, disks, floppies, CD drives, etc)).
In other words, just have a totally normal setup, as we used to have had it in the 90s ?! 😁
Btw, did I tell you kids the story how I was riding my boat across the Mississ... Hold on! Wrong story!
Um, were did I stop? Ah yes. Did I tell you kids the story how I hung my PC with a Creative soundcard ?
It was about 2 decades from now, in a dark stormy and rainy nigh.. No no.. Hold on.. That's wrong.
Okay, another try. It was about twenty years ago from now on, on a sunny, warm summer's day.
I was installing Suse Linux 6.x on a Pentium 75 PC with a SB16 inside. Everything went fine up un.. Wait, no, not that way.
Okay, another try. I was trying to install that 10 CD large sun of a beach on my HDD, while constantly being afraid to run out of HDD space.
Finally, the KDE desktop showed up and I got colour in XFree86. I tried out the fancy screensavers, the fun stuff etc.
Everything was okay, up until I tried to run some of the games and had audio issues.
I vaguely remembered I had assumed it had to do with multiple audios streams etc.
To fix this, I enabled "full-duplex"feature in the device manager (Yast?).
It hung, not to say froze, the entire machine! Horror!
Since this day, I do not trust classic ISA Sound Blaster's anymore.
Their weird concept of DMA usage etc. is very unstable, very fatal.
Such a thing shouldn't have had happened in a real, preemptively multitasked OS.
Sure, this was about Linux, not Windows 98. But Windows 9x VXDs are even worse.
They're bad drivers, by design. They have full permission, can see/interfere with any memory location etc.
Personally, I am sooo glad when Windows XP had appeared with its WDM drivers.
Finally, simultanous playback/record was poosible (video chat)! 😁
Multiple audio sources can play at once (both Windows Explorer sound effects and the game/application are audible) 😁
I don't miss VXDs that much. I do play DOS games on pure MS-DOS 6.2x, anyway. Like real men do! 😁
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