First post, by MiniMax
- Rank
- Moderator
- Motherboard: Shuttle SN41G2 (nForce2) v. 2.0.
- CPU: Athlon XP 2600+ Throughbred B @ 2,075 MHz (166 MHz x 12.5).
- RAM: 1 GB (Corsair TwinX-1024-3200LL) @ 333 MHz.
- Video: Onboard IGP (GeForce 4 MX type) @ 128 MB shared RAM.
- Sound: Onboard MCP-T w. APU (SoundStorm).
- Operating system: Windows XP + SP1 + recommended updates from Windows Update.
NVIDIA Unified Driver Package (UDP) 2.45.
Microsoft In-The-Box IDE driver.
DirectX 9.0bd (output from DxDiag attached) - Game: Wing Commander III v. a1.4FINL (files dated November 1994).
- Problem:
I get an irritating crackling noise in the digital FX sound, when using Sound Blaster 2, SB Pro,
or SB-16 emulation (wave sample using SB-16).
The first part of the music is from the intro. The last part is from the relative silent hangar flight deck.
It is much less pronounced when using plain Sound Blaster emulation (wave sample).
For comparions, I downloaded the time limited (3 minute) SoundFX emulator. It works flawlessness in SB-16 mode.
Also, with DOSBox 0.61 emulating SB Pro, and the game set for SB Pro, the crackling is much less pronounced (wave sample), but due to the CPU intensive graphics, the intro music skips quite a bit. - Reproducibility of problem: Always. Any Sound Blaster combination, except SB-compatible in the game matched with SB-1.x in VDMSound,
gives me the crackling noise. - Sound mode used: SB 2, SB Pro and SB 16 emulation.
- Video mode: According to the game - SVGA mode (640 x 480?).
- Version of emulator: VDMSound 2.1.0 beta.
- Steps already attempted to solve the problem:
a) Many combinations of Sound Blaster settings in the game and VDMSound.
a1) Any emulated DSP > v. 1.05 gives crackling noise.
a2) Only with plain SoundBlaster configured in the game, and DSP v. 1.05 in VDMSound, is the crackling gone.
b) Configuring the game to use a SB AWE card, and VDMSound to emulate SB-16.
c) Fresh install of WinXP Home w/DirectX 8.1. + Service Pack 1 on a spare partion.
d1) Installed old NVIDIA nForce2 Unified Driver Package (UDP) 2.45 for sound, graphics, network, ...
d2) Installed new NVIDIA UDP 3.13 on top of UDP 2.45.
d3) Installed "Morpheusware Remix International" with audio driver 4.08.
d4) Replaced NVIDIA audio drivers/utilities with RealTek ALC-650/AC-97 drivers.
e) Configured the game to run in VGA mode instead of SVGA.
f) Used SpeedSet and Mo'Slo to slow down game.
g) Used WinXP Task Manager to set the priority of the NTVDM process. Tried lowest, highest and real-time.
h) Lowered Front Side Bus (FSB) from its normal 166/333 MHz to 66/133 MHz.
DOSBox 60 seconds guide | How to ask questions
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