Resolved: Annoying blocksize/prebuffer problems on Win7 \ VOGONS

Resolved: Annoying blocksize/prebuffer problems on Win7

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First post, by NoVaTuRiEnT

Posted on 2010-04-09, 05:58

NoVaTuRiEnT Offline

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Rank: Newbie
Posts: 7
Joined: 2005-11-25, 20:51

Hi,

Been using DOSBox for years now & I've never had any problems with it.

But now I've been having some very annoying problems with the blocksize & prebuffer values on my Windows 7 x64 Home Premium install.

No matter what values I set, the sound is ALWAYS studdery & always skips.

The sound & music in games is NEVER 100% smooth.

Low values allow the music/sound to be played for like, 2 minutes before turning into studder frenzy.

High prebuffer/blocksize values make it studder even worse...things are still played with the same delay (wtf)

This never happened back when I was using XP 32bit

Why isn't DOSBox's sound not working correctly on my Windows 7 install o.O

Right now, this is what my [mixer] settings look like:
nosound=false
rate=192000
blocksize=3072
prebuffer=1000

[sblaster]
sbtype=sb16
sbbase=220
irq=7
dma=1
hdma=3
sbmixer=false
oplmode=opl3
oplemu=compat
oplrate=192000

The sound even studders like anything with the Default settings.

So...what the hell is with DOSBox's Sound on Windows 7? lol

Would adding a "Sound Sync" option be "feasible" for DOSBox?

I doubt it's my OS, because everything else works fine, if not better than they did on XP (except for sound not working at all on another emulator called bsnes...).

Any help?

(Specs are in my Signature)
I also had the same issues with a Creative SoundCard on Windows 7.

(Liking the progress of the CVS builds btw :p)

Last edited by NoVaTuRiEnT on 2010-04-19, 22:43. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 9, by Qbix

Posted on 2010-04-09, 06:46

Qbix Offline

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Posts: 11233
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Location: Fryslan

get decent rates

Water flows down the stream
How to ask questions the smart way!

Reply 2 of 9, by Qbix

Posted on 2010-04-09, 06:52

Qbix Offline

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Posts: 11233
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Location: Fryslan

in fact dosbox will ignore them btw 😀

Water flows down the stream
How to ask questions the smart way!

Reply 3 of 9, by robertmo

Posted on 2010-04-10, 00:13

robertmo Offline

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try different output=

Reply 4 of 9, by HunterZ

Posted on 2010-04-12, 23:23

HunterZ Offline

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The valid set of rates is listed in the default dosbox.conf. 192000 is not one of them.

Reply 5 of 9, by NoVaTuRiEnT

Posted on 2010-04-12, 23:43

NoVaTuRiEnT Offline

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Rank: Newbie
Posts: 7
Joined: 2005-11-25, 20:51

"try different output="
Eh, why would I need to do that? XP handed all the outputs completely fine.
There is absolutely no way a GTX280/i7 965X cannot handle such graphic outputs in DOSBox (my system can handle PCSX2 w/4x Internal Res with no speed hax full speed almost all the time) >.<

"The valid set of rates is listed in the default dosbox.conf. 192000 is not one of them."
Yeah, I know that >.<
Might just be one of those illusion-type things. For some reason I think it makes a difference in a way, though (maybe sound spreads out more idk lol).

My main question still remains unanswered though >.>
Like I said. I still get studdery audio even at the default settings!

Reply 6 of 9, by robertmo

Posted on 2010-04-13, 06:35

robertmo Offline

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reset to default,
than
try different output= and fixed cycles
check your cpu usage (dosbox uses only 1 core, so it can only use 10% of your cpu)

try
blocksize=1024
prebuffer=20
all rates 44100

what games have problems?
post content of "DOSBox Status Window"

Reply 7 of 9, by HunterZ

Posted on 2010-04-13, 14:59

HunterZ Offline

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robertmo wrote:
(dosbox uses only 1 core, so it can only use 10% of your cpu)

10-core CPU? 😕

Reply 8 of 9, by ripa

Posted on 2010-04-13, 15:20

ripa Offline

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Location: Finland

"Eh, why would I need to do that? XP handed all the outputs completely fine."

Because Windows 7 is different. Did you or did you not try different outputs (with default sample rates)? Opengl should probably work.

Reply 9 of 9, by NoVaTuRiEnT

Posted on 2010-04-19, 22:29

NoVaTuRiEnT Offline

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Rank: Newbie
Posts: 7
Joined: 2005-11-25, 20:51

Well sorry for the late reply (been playing other pc games as well outside DOSBox >.<)

Decided to search a little on the actual adlib frequency recently which I obviously didn't even know it runs at some strange value of 49716 >.<

I immediately thought that I would be getting much lower sound quality If I changed the 192000 to 49716...but I went ahead & tried the 49716 value anyway >.<

Out of my surprise it actually sounds better with 49716 than with 192000 (seriously couldn't work that out, at all).

The issues with blocksize & prebuffer are also fixed with 49716 which I thought was quite strange too. I'm no longer having sound studder issues, either.

Also noticed some adlib sounds actually sounded more *correct*. This was certainly the case for the music in Commander Keen 6, Level 6. It still sounds a little odd, however (I've got a pretty good memory of how the adlib music is really meant to sound like pretty much :p).

So now I'm using these values.
rate=49716
blocksize=500
prebuffer=50

So I can pretty much say the issue is fixed. The topic can be closed.

And I hope one day that Adlib will be 100% in DOSBox with every game :P

Sorry for your/the community/everyone elses time.

Thanks for helping & for this great Emulator.

Edit: Funnily enough, I didn't have prebuffer/blocksize isues on XP with rate @ 96000, 200 blocksize, 50 prebuffer.

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