Well, okay. With VDMSound, AdLib and your Santa Cruz's MIDI are two different things. The AdLib is emulated, just as the digitized sound is. Only General MIDI will run through your Santa Cruz's MIDI.

I read your post, thought "huh, that's weird," and then as I began writing the above paragraph, I realised what the problem could be (if it wasn't a typo on your part): IRQ5. Windows XP's inferior SoundBlaster emulation runs on IRQ5, whereas VDMSound runs on IRQ7.

As Nicht consistently suggests, start with the lowest SB version (in this case, the regular SoundBlaster (DSP 1.0)) and work your way up until it no longer works.

Finally, be certain that you've got update1 for VDMSound.

It's really odd that changing the address from 220h to 240h made a difference, especially since VDMSound is emulating the card, not routing to it. (SoundFX 2000 routes instructions to your sound card directly instead of emulating everything and sending it to DirectSound/waveOut.) Still, stranger things have happened with VDMS.

I can't remember how the setup program for Judgement Rites works, but are you able to manually set the card? If so, I suggest you try that.

With the CD read/write problem, you might consider creating a CD image and then use that as the CD of the game. There are tonnes of virtual CD managers and CD copying programs out there. Personally, I use Fantom CD to read images, and BlindWrite Suite to create them, although Fantom can make images. I'm in the minority here, however, as most people use Daemon Tools to read images and something else to make them. ((If they actually make their own, *cough,ahhem* 😉))

The CD activity is responsible for the stutter in the animations, and probably also for the other speech artifacts. Copy the entire CD on you hard-drive and run it from there, see if there is an improvement.

Also, go back to the default VDMSound settings (there is no reason why a port setting would work better than another) and rerun SETUP. There select "ROLAND SCC-1/GENERAL MIDI" for music, and "SOUND BLASTER PRO" for sound effects. Then run the game using a fresh VDMSound shortcut (with the default settings). Do you still have the problem(s)?

V.

The Judgement Rites program allows you to manually select a card, it has separate windows and different choices for sound fx and music, so you can select different cards for sfx and music (like SB pro for music and plain SB for sound fx). It also lets you select port, irq and dma.

However they don't always match VDM's choices, for example it simply lists Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro, and Sound Blaster Pro (op13) for music. For sound it lists only Sound Blaster Pro and Sound Blaster.

But shouldn't the game's setup choices match VDM? (ie. if the setup program is set to Sound Blaster then if VDM is set to Sound Blaster Pro this will cause problems?)

Also music works when VDM is set to SB 1.x but there is no digitized speech.

I am not able to test this now but I will try the other suggestions this afternoon when I return to my dorm and can get on my computer.

Heh, AHSGoose, if you have a real AWE64 but the game only supports Sound Blaster 16, does it not work?

In other words: All SB cards are reverse-compatible with older SB cards. 'Nuff said.

Hmmm, weird, I've got the floppy version of STJR and it gives me a shitload of options, with or without VDMSound (i.e. it won't hide things from you if it doesn't detect them). It also autodetects the IRQ and so on when the game starts, because SETUP doesn't prompt me for them. So it's weird that the CD version would give you less choices and ask you for stuff like IRQ.

Try to set up music for SB and speech for SB-Pro, and let VDMSound set as SB-Pro 2.x or let it as the default (SB-16). Speech should work, and so should music.

Do you have a file called INTRPLAY.CFG in your STJR directory? How big is it (go to Properties; it's 16 bytes for me).

V.

I do not have a file named INTRPLAY.CFG, it appears the CD version equivalent is a file named TREK2.CFG which is 32kb. It is readable by NOTEPAD and the following strings are all it contains:

src=F:\
dst=C:\DOSGames\StarTrek\JRites\
install=F:\
resource=F:\idata\
video=MCGA
input=MCGA
music=A002
music_io=240
sound=E00F
sound_io=240
sound_irq=7
sound_dma=1
setup=0,0,0,3,2,1,2,1

I set the game using SB16 in VDMSound and set the music to SB and speech/sfx to SB Pro as vladr suggested, this did not appear to change anything, although the settings worked (so long as the port is 240).

I downloaded Patch 1 and overwrote all files in the VDMSound folder under Program Files (this is correct install procedure, right?) and then ran JRITES, it appears to have had no effect.

Then I dumped the image of the JRITES CD to an image file with Blindread per Snover's suggestion and used Daemon Tools (which I use regularly anyway) to run the game.

I ran it again, and the stuttering in movies remains unaffected.

Also, the game still pauses before and after any speech or sound effect. I realize now that this is what was responsible for the delay; before the game paused, then took a very brief second to access the CD drive. Now it pauses as before, only it doesnt access the CD drive so the delay is a tiny tiny bit shorter.

It also appears that the game is able to play only 1 digitized sound at a time (this is noticeable when listening to one character talk, then stop, and another picks up, there is zero overlap which makes it sound very odd).

This is not the case in the older ST 25th Anniversary CD ROM game, which is fast and responsive without any pauses on the same computer. It also runs off the CD without problems.

Vladr, the setup program I have for JRITES does not appear to autodetect IRQ/dma settings and it looks very different from yours.

It lists the following options under MUSIC:
None
Sound Blaster (fm)
Adlib Gold (fm)
Sound Blaster Pro (fm)
Sound Blaster Pro (op13)
Pro Audio Spectrum (fm)
MPU-401 Interface (mpu-401)
Roland MT-32 (mt_32)

Under SOUND:
None
Sound Blaster (8m)
Sound Blaster Pro (8m)
Pro Audio Spectrum (8m)
Adlib Gold (8m)

Also, altering DMA interrupt had no effect. I changed it from 15/5 to 3/1 and there is no effect.

First of all, change your music card to MPU-401.
Second, I am as baffled as you are at the digital sound performance. But I see you'res till on port 240. Delete all VDMSound shortcuts in your directory, then "Run with VDMS" SETUP and choose MPU-401 for music and one of the SBs for sound. Do not touch the IRQ, Port, SB-Type etc. in VDMSound since the slightest mismatch between SETUP, the SETUP shortcvut and the game shortcut can result in weirdness, especially under XP (where if you run VDMSound on port 240 and XP runs on port 220 you'll have two emulations active at the same time and you'll never know for sure which one is used by the game!!!) Open the configuration file in notepad and double-check the settings (don't edit them, just check that SB port iw 220, IRQ is 7, music port is 330). Run the game (from the HDD). You may try different type os SoundBlaster in SETUP (leave the music settings on MPU-401 and do *not* alter the VDMSound shortcut's settings!!!)

V.

This does not seem to have any noticeable effect, although the the MPU-401 emulation causes numerous sound effects to simply not be played (the transporter beam-up/down sound, for example). Clearly the instruments don't translate well.

Under default VDM chooses SB16 IRQ 7 DMA 1; I tried SB and SB Pro for the sound (all the valid choices, really) in the JRITES install program and neither made a difference.

I have no idea what the problem is, then. Try the attached file (unzip into the VDMSound directory and overwrite when prompted), it may behave differently. Otherwise you're stucka nd you'll have to play this particular game with DosBox ( http://dosbox.cjb.net/ ). What I find weird is that the floppy version + media pack works perfectly, with sound effects and all. Try the attached update and see what gives.

V.

The attached file didnt do anything when copied to the VDMsound folder.

Further Dosbox doesn't seem able to run the game with sfx - it can't run the install program so I have to configure it in WinXP.

BTW, Vladr, you are saying that your version of JRITES has the digitized speech from the Star Trek cast and the rendered movies? And it all works as fast and responsively as 25th Anniversary??

I think he was just referring to sound effects and music, not movies or voice. But I could be wrong.

In any case, it might be worth a shot to see if the floppy version will play the voices and stuff. It certainly couldn't hurt. 😀

I don't have the floppy version... just the supposedly superior Win95-compatible CD version.

I wonder if this helps. Some entries look odd, like the ones about failing to read from write-only ports. Eh?

[...]
@I - 04:07:35.395 - AdLibController
Using performance counter (3579545 ticks/s) for AdLib timing
[...]
@W - 04:07:36.338 - SBController
Attempted to read from write-only port (IN 0x226)
@W - 04:07:36.338 - SBController
Attempted to read from write-only port (IN 0x226)
@W - 04:07:36.338 - SBController
Attempted to read from write-only port (IN 0x226)
@W - 04:07:36.338 - SBController
Attempted to read from write-only port (IN 0x226)
[...]
@I - 04:07:36.340 - SBController
startTransfer: Starting DMA transfer (playback) on ch. 1
(single-cycle, 4 samples/block): 8-bit mono 11111Hz, unsigned PCM
@I - 04:07:36.352 - SBWavePlayer
DirectSound primary buffer format is currently set to 44100Hz 16-bit
stereo
@I - 04:07:36.353 - SBController
HandleAfterTransfer: Interrupting (8-bit, x1) after 13ms, 4 bytes
(terminal count)
@I - 04:07:36.353 - SBController
IRQ acknowledged (8-bit)
@I - 04:07:36.597 - SBController
DSP reset - reinitializing DSP
[...]
@I - 04:07:36.753 - AdLibController
Reprogramming OPL timers (timer 1 is disabled and masked, timer 2 is
disabled and masked).
[...]
@I - 04:07:36.791 - AdLibWavePlayer
DirectSound primary buffer format is currently set to 44100Hz 16-bit
stereo
@I - 04:07:36.807 - SBController
startTransfer: Starting DMA transfer (playback) on ch. 1
(single-cycle, 7840 samples/block): 8-bit mono 22222Hz, unsigned PCM
@I - 04:07:37.073 - SBController
HandleAfterTransfer: Interrupting (8-bit, x1) after 266ms, 7840 bytes
(terminal count)
@I - 04:07:37.074 - SBController
IRQ acknowledged (8-bit)
[...]
@I - 04:07:57.136 - SBController
startTransfer: Starting DMA transfer (playback) on ch. 1
(single-cycle, 11026 samples/block): 8-bit mono 22222Hz, unsigned PCM
@I - 04:07:57.640 - SBController
HandleAfterTransfer: Interrupting (8-bit, x1) after 504ms, 11026
bytes (terminal count)
@I - 04:07:57.640 - SBController
IRQ acknowledged (8-bit)
@I - 04:07:57.640 - SBController
startTransfer: Starting DMA transfer (playback) on ch. 1
(single-cycle, 7840 samples/block): 8-bit mono 22222Hz, unsigned PCM
@I - 04:07:57.999 - SBController
HandleAfterTransfer: Interrupting (8-bit, x1) after 359ms, 7840 bytes
(terminal count)
@I - 04:07:58.624 - SBController
pauseTransfer: DMA transfer paused (ch. 1)
@I - 04:07:58.964 - SBController
IRQ acknowledged (8-bit)
@I - 04:07:58.964 - SBController
startTransfer: Starting DMA transfer (playback) on ch. 1
(single-cycle, 7840 samples/block): 8-bit mono 11111Hz, unsigned PCM
@I - 04:07:59.615 - SBController
HandleAfterTransfer: Interrupting (8-bit, x1) after 651ms, 7840 bytes
(terminal count)
@I - 04:07:59.615 - SBController
IRQ acknowledged (8-bit)
@I - 04:07:59.615 - SBController
startTransfer: Starting DMA transfer (playback) on ch. 1
(single-cycle, 3186 samples/block): 8-bit mono 11111Hz, unsigned PCM
@I - 04:07:59.912 - SBController
HandleAfterTransfer: Interrupting (8-bit, x1) after 297ms, 3186 bytes
(terminal count)
@I - 04:08:00.535 - SBController
pauseTransfer: DMA transfer paused (ch. 1)
@I - 04:08:01.900 - SBController
IRQ acknowledged (8-bit)
@I - 04:08:01.901 - SBController
startTransfer: Starting DMA transfer (playback) on ch. 1
(single-cycle, 7840 samples/block): 8-bit mono 22222Hz, unsigned PCM
@I - 04:08:02.185 - SBController
HandleAfterTransfer: Interrupting (8-bit, x1) after 285ms, 7840 bytes
(terminal count)
@I - 04:08:02.185 - SBController
IRQ acknowledged (8-bit)
[...]

[Lengthy log edited by vladr]

AHSGoose wrote:

I wonder if this helps. Some entries look odd, like the ones about failing to read from write-only ports. Eh?

See this: showthread.php?postid=930#post930

For other interpretation, I'll wait for Vlad to reply...

The @W about reading from write-only port can be ignored (good call, Stiletto 😉 ).

What may be at work with voces being cut off *could* be the frequent changes between 11kHz and 22kHz sound (when such a format change takes place Windows will discard whatever is left in the sound buffer; with good low-latency drivers that would be a few milliseconds, though crappy drivers can result in half a second or even a second of audio data to be lost just before the samplerate change). How good is lip-sync in the game (bad lipsync is an indication that such a problem may occur)? If you increase SoundBlaster buffering to, say 1000 milliseconds, does the sound cutoff get noticeably worse?

V.

I think I should clearly and precisely describe the issue.

All the voices play, and do not get cut off in any way. Same for music, and sfx.

However, before and after every single digitized sound, be it a character speaking or a door sliding open, there is about a 1-2 second pause. This utterly destroys gameplay as gameplay involves rapidly clicking on objects and listening to speech.

The constant pauses are consistent. They are ALWAYS there. At first it won't seem that bad. It becomes unbearable very quickly.
And of course there is the inexplicable stuttering in long movies.
A reinstall did nothing to alleviate this.

Buffer size only goes up to 999ms, right? Anyway increasing the buffer size has no effect, doesn't make the problem worse or better.

OK, well, I can see the 1s pauses in the log above (between the 22kHz and the 11kHz sounds), but whatever causes these pauses seems to occur in the game (normally VDMSound would issue an IRQ, and the game would acknowledge that IRQ within a couple of milliseconds (see what the log looks like in the middle of the 11kHz or 22kHz transfers)... unfortunately the game acknowedges the IRQ after 1s when the frequency changes, and I have no idea why (game driver problems? windows problems?)

Tell you what, why don't you try the demo of SoundFX 2000, after all it *may* be a VDMSound problem.

V.

Already did. It doesn't work as well as VDMSound, its buggy and won't let characters speak more than a word before cutting them off.

That, and it's not free 😀