Have you tried SPEEDSET?
showthread.php?threadid=53

Unregistered wrote:

I'd like to know how to make this fun little game faster. The midi music sounds slow, and the game is mushy under vdms.

Remember that the English version of Princess Maker 2 is basically a beta that was never officially released. That and the hybrid nature of the game (DOS/Win-Much like "Alone in the Dark 3) make it one of the more "flakey" titles.

Stiletto wrote:

Have you tried SPEEDSET?
showthread.php?threadid=53

I'm about to try it out, but I don't know how or where to set it's speed within vdms, or otherwise.

Unregistered wrote:

I'm about to try it out, but I don't know how or where to set it's speed within vdms, or otherwise.

Sorry, I meant to link to Speedset 1.0.2, not 1.0.1. But the manual's the same as 1.0.1
showthread.php?threadid=507

It's a TSR, which means it must be launched before your program.

As the manual says, you can slip it in AUTOEXEC.VDMS (if not using LaunchPad), a .BAT file, or in VDMS LaunchPad's "Advanced Properties", under "Dos Environment", under "AUTOEXEC.BAT".

To speed up the game, use a positive number.

Example:
Making Indiana Jones 4 run faster:

1G:\INDY4>speedset 0.75
2Poor man's DOS speed controller (ver. 1.0.1)
3Copyright (C) 2001 Vlad ROMASCANU
4
5SPEEDSET is now resident on IRQ 6.
6
7G:\INDY4>atlantis

Considering it's a hybrid DOS/WIN game as Nicht says, this solution may not work at all. But give it a shot. Generally, SPEEDSET is not for use with Windows games.

Hi,

I digged up this thread while trying to get princess maker 2 running with sound. I also have this speed problem and I really want it fixed, so I hope someone can help me ^^

First let me tell you what I've found out so far:

Princess Maker 2 will only output sound compatible with VDMsound when it's configged to use soundblaster. general midi and GT won't work.

You might think the output could be manipulated using soundblaster settings in vdmsound, which is not the case. It uses adlib. (you can shut off midi, soundblaster and joystick emulation in launchpad and it will still run with music)

Now running in VDMsound without adlib or PM2 without the soundblaster (adlib) setting, will run the game at the right speed without music. But when both are running adlib, the game and music slows down to around 50% it's original speed (even when adlib is configured at the wrong port : the sound won't play because of the wrong port, but it still has that slowdown)

A funny thing is, when I alt-tab to desktop and keep it for a few seconds there, then alt tab back to the game, the game will run for that amount of seconds on the right speed. (so keeping it at desktop a minute and switch back would allow me to play 1 minute at full speed. People who have the same problem can test it ^^) I don't now for how long this can be buffered, like keeping it on desktop for an hour before I play, but this is not a fix anyway 😜

The problem obviously lies with the adlib dll from VDMsound and the lame driver called "professional music driver", which pm2 uses and is used in many other japanese games. I tried to replace the PMD driver with an updated one from some japanese site, but this resulted in pm2 just crashing to desktop the minute the music starts playing (which was a bit to be expected 😜)

I tried to fix the speed issue with speedset 1.01 and 1.02, but slowing the game down with a negative value works, while speeding it up with a possitive value crashes everything. (and I tried different values with both speedset versions ranging from 0.01 to 10, they all give different kind crashes at different parts of the loading part in pm2, but I never get to the part where music starts playing unless I unload speedset or use a slowdown value)

Note : There isn't any problem running speedset on PM2 with speedup values, when used without adlib emulation in VDMsound, so that figures.. And the game might be beta, but was 100% stable on win98 with any soundcard, and it worked under windows ME with sound on my AWE64 configured on specific PORT, IRQ and DMA settings using general midi, but problems with sb live where there in ME already. Win2k with VDMsound seems to be the solution, if only the speed is fixed...

Any suggestions? ^^

Hmm let me add my system specs to above post, to be a bit more compatible with the posting guidelines 😁 - soz

CPU : P4 2ghz
Mainbord : some asus intel 8xx based thing ?? Need to look that one up
Video : GeForce4 Ti 4400 128mb
Sound : SB LIVE platinum
memory : 768mb
os : win2k sp2 (maybe upgrade to sp3 soon)

Ayane wrote:

Hmm let me add my system specs to above post, to be a bit more compatible with the posting guidelines :D - soz […]
Show full quote

Hmm let me add my system specs to above post, to be a bit more compatible with the posting guidelines 😁 - soz

CPU : P4 2ghz
Mainbord : some asus intel 8xx based thing ?? Need to look that one up
Video : GeForce4 Ti 4400 128mb
Sound : SB LIVE platinum
memory : 768mb
os : win2k sp2 (maybe upgrade to sp3 soon)

Bravo!
Snover get this guy a Gold Star or something. PLEASE!!!

DosFreak wrote:

Bravo!
Snover get this guy a Gold Star or something. PLEASE!!!

Yay a gold star! I would love it! ^^

Originally posted by Ayane general midi and GT won't work.

For you. Yet it did for a previous user.

And the game might be beta, but was 100% stable on win98 with any soundcard,...

Unless you've tested it on every Win98 setup with all available soundcards you presume too much. I had various issues with this thing back when we were attempting to troubleshoot it on Vlad's old message board.

Vlad probably needs to speak with you on this, especially the part about adlib emulation.

Nicht Sehr Gut wrote:

Unless you've tested it on every Win98 setup with all available soundcards you presume too much.

Ghihi alright you got me there 😀. I was sort of talking it worked without any probs with any sound card I have : sb16, awe64 and sb live. No emulation or anything was needed, just keeping the cards at default sb16 settings would do the trick.

Sowwy for being so suggestive and all.. Gomen ^^

Well I just got back from work (doh very interresting) and I'm going to play with pm2 config a little again between my music editing sessions ^^

later..

VDMSound DOES run PM2 very slowly, does it happen to all game?? Does it give true emulation to MPU401, anyone out there been running it with a sound module? (I have Roland GS-88 Pro sound module, but now away from home.)

And I beg to differ: PMD *rocks* - as far as C's ware games are concerned 😉

MPU-401 commands are routed to Windows' MPU-401 system.

This seems to be more or less the exact same problem I have with Beneath a Steel Sky (on the thread above). They both use Adlib music.

FYI, although I was unable to get Princess Maker 2 to run well with VDMSound, it runs excellent with DOSBox. Full speed sound and graphics. Disk access is slow, but that only seems to affect startup.