Are you using LaunchPad? If so then simply tick the "VESA support" checkbox in IT's VDMSound shortcut's properties. If you don't have LaunchPad then simply press Alt+Enter just after VDMSound's licese is printed to the screen (and just before th garbage you mention appears).

Also, *ouch* about the blue-screen. Does it happen in your soundcard driver (a .sys or .dll related to your soundcard) or is it video0driver related? In any case, just make sure you have the "standard" (i.e. non-MMX) IT 2.14, and make a .bat file that reads (inside):

IT.EXE /S5

then "Run with VDMS" it. For more options (including EMS memory and automatic full-screen without having to press Alt+Enter) make your own PIF file or use LaunchPad.

V.

Thanks for your reply. After fiddling around with it I finally got the video problem fixed. I not only had to check the VESA support box, but I had to put in the v2 command line argument.

The problem I have now is the sound. I can load a song, but when I press F5 to play, it locks up and gives an error message, which I've taken a screenshot of and I can post if it will help.

I can load an individual sample and play it, but the sound is really choppy.

I'm really close to getting it to work. What suggestions do you have? 😀

Wow, dude ... that's really messed up.

I mean, I love IT as much as the next tracker, but if you're having so much trouble, maybe you should just upgrade...

All I need to know is what settings to use for memory, etc., and which files I need to change. It's so close to working... I'm sure it's just 1 thing I need to change to get it to work right. I just don't know what.

Just use the default Launchpad settings!

I'm telling you the defaults don't work. When I tried that I got the Blue Screen once and the other times it locks the computer up, and I'm using XP. There's almost nothing that can lock XP up completely.

Unregistered wrote:

It's so close to working... I'm sure it's just 1 thing I need to change to get it to work right. I just don't know what.

No offense, but if you don't know what needs changing, you can't know "it's just 1 thing I need to change to get it to work right".

We'll help you if we can, but as you can already see by the posts. Your IT is behaving differently from others...

Well, HERE'S a strange one for you all...

I reinstalled and tried IT and now the sound is acting up. (It slows down and gets scratchy after 18-30 rows.)

Forcing the SBPRO driver gets the sound to work properly, but of course, it's only 8-bit.

Using ITSB16C.DRV also allows it to work. According to the documentation:

This driver is similar to ITSB16B.DRV in that it is a cut down version of the full SB16 driver, but this one also has the MIDI input disabled (which seems to be causing all the problems on the cards which just won't 'play')

I've tried almost every setting variant I can think of -- even stuff that shouldn't make a difference -- and after all that, I am still only able to get it working with ITSB16C.DRV or ITSBPRO.DRV.

Stuff I've tried:

in VDMSound:
AdLib, no AdLib
MPU-401, no MPU-401
SB16, SBPro (worked)
Device: Primary Sound Driver (DirectSound), SB Audigy Audio [D400] (DirectSound), SB Audigy Audio [D400] (Wave), Microsoft Sound Mapper (Wave)
Buffer: 50, 75, 150, 300
Polling Period: 1/3, 2/5, 1/15, 5/15
EMS: 4096, 16384, disabled
Protected mode, no protected mode
XMS: 16384, disabled (IT doesn't use XMS)

in Impulse Tracker:
Command Line: /M44100, /sITSB16.DRV, /sITSB16B.DRV, /sITSB16C.DRV (worked), /I7, /D1, /D5, /A220
ITSB16.DRV: 16-bit Non-interpolated, 16-bit Interpolated, 32-bit Non-interpolated, 32-bit Interpolated
Reinit Soundcard
Deleted ITSB16.MMX

Tried this using IT 2.14_03, 2.14_04, and 2.14_05, all with no success. Also tried using the April 1998 MMX update with 2.14_03.

Funny thing is, it worked fine before when Windows was broken. Go figure.

Snover wrote:

Using ITSB16C.DRV also allows it to work. According to the documentation...

I vaguely remember someone (Vlad?) saying the proper thing to do was to to set the souncard type for IT and VDMSound differently (IE: Setting it to "SoundBlaster Pro" for IT, "SoundBlaster 16" for VDMSound). You need to check with Vlad on this, though...

Funny thing is, it worked fine before when Windows was broken.

Heh. So, hose your Windows. You how you enjoy the adventure of re-installing.

Big thanks to Snover.... I tried reinstalling and now it's basically working. I can now play songs, but once in a while it will suddenly get really choppy. The choppiness always comes in the same places in the songs (so it's not random). For example, in Chris31b.it, it always starts getting choppy around row 50 of the first pattern. I don't think the problem is related to how many channels are active because in some cases only 8 are active and in some 18-20.

In certain cases it will go back to normal, but usually it stays choppy until I reinitialize the soundcard. Any idea how I can fix this?

For IT:
In LaunchPad use default settings, except maybe for the VESA checkbox and EMS (if you have really huge sample). Also make sure logging is disabled (from the troubleshooting section) or else sound will be really choppy. If your machine si relatively. There is no "mismatched soundcard" trick, just leave the default SB-16 setting in LaunchPad.

In IT.EXE's command-line parameters:
Specify /S5 (for SB-16). No port, IRQ, etc., since IT will take them from the BLASTER variable or auto-detect them.

If sound is still choppy and you have a fast machine then IT is bogged down by some I/O (like reading a sample from a slow network drive/floppy/CD?) If you have a slow machine you can halve the values for DMA timing in "Advanced" under "Performance" IIRC (need LaunchPad 1.0.0.7 to have DMA timing available in the GUI).
If you don't use Launchpad then you have to halve min/maxDMAPeriod in VDMS.INI.

If you are using your own PIF file instead of "Run with VDMS" then you are having problems with "idle sensitivity".

Once again, IT should be extremely straightforward to run.

V.

vladr,

Thanks for your reply. I fiddled around with IT for about an hour last night and it was working pretty well. I found that occasionally I had to reinitialize the soundcard, sometimes a few times, but it would always start working again.

Is it possible that virus scanning software or some other program running in Windows could also be causing these slowdowns?

Yes, any HDD-intensive background application (like a virus scanner or indexing service) could cause problems with IT. IT was written to run in DOS, with no other application(s) contending for CPU time, and requires very high responsiveness from VDMSound, of the order of a few (anywhere from 2 to 5) milliseconds. I/O can severely disturb this timing (try to browse, in IT, for samples or files while a module is playing in the background). You can increasde the sound buffering (from 75 to, say, 750ms) in VDMSound in order to trade latency for sound quality.

V.

The only different things I can think of since the last time I tried this are that I have chanza downloading some stuff off my FTP at 5KB/s periodically (I say periodically since his ISP logs him off every 2 hours -- "whoo!" for EU ISPs!) and some updated sound drivers. (Creative drivers, so it's probably their fault. I should try running another DOS program to see if its sound works...hmm...) It's not like I have a slow box (Athlon XP 1800+) OR slow HDDs -- I mean, 2 7200RPM drives in a striping RAID array gives in "most" cases a throughput of 35MB/s. (big B, not little b). So, what the hell? And, like Unregistered's problem, it always fucks up at the same (or nearly the same) place, just for me it's between rows 18 and 30 instead of row 50. *sigh*

OK, where can I get this problem-module (chris-whatever.it or whatever else) from?
V.

Unregistered wrote:

OK, where can I get this problem-module (chris-whatever.it or whatever else) from?
V.

Here.

Unregistered wrote:

OK, where can I get this problem-module (chris-whatever.it or whatever else) from?
V.

ROFL, Vlad, it comes with IT!

Snover wrote:

ROFL, Vlad, it comes with IT!

Well, I asked because all the mods that came with IT play flawlessly over here. I tested again with chris31b.it and it plays on and on, no probs whatsoever, smooth like a baby's behind. 😉

Running on an AMD T-Bird 1.2GHz with Win2k SP2, SB128PCI with driver sbpci.sys v.5.12.1.2041 from Creative. Running IT2.14 using VDMSound 2.0.4 with "Update 1" and LaunchPad 1.0.0.7, default settings other than VESA support and "/S5" argument to IT.EXE. I also harassed IT by running a "search for all files on the HDD containing the string zzzz" in the background and a wget, still no probs. This is, again, using default settings (delete/rename all vlp files in IT's directory, "Run with VDMS" with icon IT.EXE, close IT's garbled text screen, edit properties to include "/S5" and VESA support, run again, open CHRISB31.IT, press F5 to play). My IT is set up for 32-bit interpolated, no filter, 50% crossed feedback mixing under the payback options menu (Shift+F5), which is pretty CPU-intensive on its own. Soooo... let me guess, both of you guys own some sort of expensive Creative card like Audigy or Live, right? (Hehehehe.... suckers! 😜 😎 ) Try to use WaveOut instead of DirectSound -- any difference?!

V.

in VDMSound:
Device: Primary Sound Driver (DirectSound), SB Audigy Audio [D400] (DirectSound), SB Audigy Audio [D400] (Wave), Microsoft Sound Mapper (Wave)

I'll try it again, though...*sigh*