Raine + DOS = bad sound

[Tux]

Good luck then !

[theelf]

That's no problem, I do have 128MB of ram. Basically I am using extracted DOS from win98SE that has both FAT32 support and himem/emm386 "see" memory beyond 64mb , I am left with ~126MB of free XMS after DOS boots.

 

 

I have a P1 266 MMX laptop, toshiba 320CT, sadly the internal Chips & Tech don´t support any kind of vesa modes, im stuck on VGA and modeX that are much slower than vesa

 

This laptopt have 64mb

 

 

Anyways, CPS2 works very good, and neogeo too, not fullspeed, but maybe is because of slow VGA modes, i need to test vesa+external screen

 

Good luck in your 233mmx

 

 

 

By the way, did you use UMBPCI? in this kind of PC much be much better than emm386

[theelf]

Tux hello, sorry, two question

 

 

1)

 

I know in graphic menu, there is a option for "tripple buffer" always much better than VSYNC, about speed

 

 

How do you activate in RAINE? what kind of graphic card do you need? did you remember?

 

 

I tested raine 0.50.0+ with Riva TNNT2, Geforce 2MX, ATI Rage pro, II+, and 7500, S3 Virge and Diamond, and no luck at all, every time i select use tripple buffer, the option never get checked, and of course, the option not work

 

 

 

2)

 

Do you think in a future build, will be possible to store the option "frame_skip" in games.cfg

 

Some games, like vampire savior, are too CPU demanding, and a frameskip of 2 (30fps) make the game playable and still smooth to play

 

Auto frameskip is not so good, better to have a stable fps, even if is low, than variable

 

 

Will be cool to have a default option of NO frameskip, and just in the games it need, a per game option of frameskip

 

 

 

Thanks!!

Edited August 20, 2015 by theelf

[Tux]

1) I know it was related to some hacks in allegro, but I don't remember how it worked exactly, I would have to make some tests. To make sure it works as intended, test with 0.28, that is the last closed source version and with this one you are sure to have correct allegro hacks.

 

2) Yeah frame skip by game is reasonable also. For "neo geo rasters" I am not sure because I doubt you could make them work well in any game on such hardware, so a global setting makes sense here.

For "no frame skip" well it's cheating in this case because the game slows down and can't maintain the speed at which it was intended !

[theelf]

Hi tux!

 

Yes, 0.28 tripple buffer works perfect. In fact, i still use 0.28, i use 0.64 for CPS2 and neogeo, and 0.28 for other games

 

For example Toki, in 0.28 just need tripple buffer to get a smoth scroll, in 0.64 i need to use vsync, that is much more CPU hungry (at least i know)

 

 

 

 

Per game frameskip option, i think will be great for slow PCs users, but about rasters, yes, i give you the reason, a global option is fine, no need per game

[Tux]

In this case I doubt triple buffer would ever be fixable.

But notice also that it slows things only if you enable vsync, and it's not really required for most games (it's about removing distortions which appear mainly during horizontal scrolling). At least with some normal display, but even on my old 17'' crt I didn't have any distortion with most games while not using vsync.

 

Also about speed some neogeo games probably use more than 256 colors, watch the Pal: display in the rdtsc display (f11 3 times), if it's not 0% it means there are more than 256 colors to display and it becomes unefficient in 8bpp. But of course 16bpp will probably be slower in dos.

It's very different with modern rendering... !

 

EDIT : I just added the ability to save frame_skip setting in games.cfg, but actually the ability to save screen settings in games.cfg is disabled by default and there is a comment in the changelog from antiriad who says he didn't like it. Since this setting has remained disabled for ever actually, I'll keep it disabled by default and you'll have to edit raine.cfg to set manually save_game_screen_setting = 1 (it should already be inside with = 0). (I have no idea why he didn't like it, and nobody never needed to use it in all this time so I don't feel like investigating now).

 

For now it saves most screen settings but not frame skip so you'll need an updated binary for that...

I added the setting to save per game screen settings to the gui, but not the allegro gui !

Edited August 21, 2015 by Tux

[theelf]

Hi tux, yes, i always enable save_game_screen_setting manually in cfg

A option in cfg for save frameskip will be great, no need to add to the gui. I just give some ideas I think can be useful, at least, look useful to me jaja, but I understand the hard work you need to do, for a build and options maybe very few users will enjoy

I really appreciate you work in raine, thanks

I really wish more people came to the forum to say the same about raine, and specially dos version



By the way, I found two games that works in 0.50 and not in 0.64, both CPS2, Alien vs Predator and Darkstalkers

Alien give me black screen, darkstalkers a "RAM error"


The roms look correct, works in mame 106 and raine 0.5

Edited August 21, 2015 by theelf

[Tux]

No luck for you this time, both are working fine here with the latest released build (0.64.8-3).

For dstlk with 64 Mb of ram

avsp with 128 Mb of ram.

 

No idea what your problem is, but it's working here.

These 2 games were also affected by the stupid bug which affected cybots, but the same fix works for all of them.

Edited August 21, 2015 by Tux

[silvertrix]

theelf, buy new pc then resolve your problem with sound and speed issue. Don't use this old stuff anymore on present day and don't waste TUX time.

Edited August 24, 2015 by silvertrix

[Tux]

I don't see this as a waste of time don't forget emulators are about old stuff so you could say he is at the heart of the problem!

 

Ideally there should be someone in charge of the dos version, and I would be in charge of only the linux version, but it's far from ideal for now... !

Edited August 24, 2015 by Tux

[theelf]

Hi tux, finally after some working days, i have some free time to use in Raine

 

 

 

 

Sorry loing post, if you dont want to read all, i just ask two questions

 

 

1 - VSYNC in 16bpp is working?

2 - What refresh Raine use for CPS games?

Yesterday I went to my brother house, he have a nice computer running DOS, is a Pentium 4 3400mhz, ATI 9200, 512MB ram, he use for DOSmame, and everything works great, thats why I decide to test raine there


After some test, I realize about something... how do you enable VSYNC in 16/32bpp modes? in 8bpp vsync works, but in 16bpp and up, vsync dont do nothing...

We tried some vesa modes, without luck.


Now i came home, and in my celeron, i start testing 16bpp modes, but same problem here (NVIDIA TNT2), vsync only works in 8bpp modes

After giveup to make vsync working at 16bpp, I made some refresh for vesa modes, based on the info from arcade (59.629403Hz) to tried to lower the tearing

I make two, one is 59.60 very close from arcade, and the other, is double (59x62x2=119.24hz), i make 119.16, the closest i can




59.60hz



119.16hz

 

In Raine 59.60hz refresh give me a lot of tearing, but 119.16hz is much much better, and tearing almost gone


I tested 59.60hz resolution in callus.. and surprise! without VSYNC callus give me a smooth scroll....



After this test... this question came to my mind.... Raine use internally 60hz? or 59.62?

 

 

 

***In my house i have a real CPS2 Arcade with a SFZ2 board to test && a PC running XP connected to a CRT using RGB SCART, with mame, using custom modelines

When i say i have a sync problem, flicker screen or not smooth scrolling, is because i compare Raine dos with the CPS2 or PC RGB

 

 

Thanks

 

 

 

theelf, buy new pc then resolve your problem with sound and speed issue. Don't use this old stuff anymore on present day and don't waste TUX time.

Well, the only that can decide how to "waste" his time, is Tux, not you or me. I just decide how to waste MY time

Of course, the guy is working for free, thats why he have all my respect and thanks


About old stuff.. I have a question, what screen do you use for emulation? multisync arcade CRT? 15khz CRT? 31khz CRT? TFT?... how do you connect your PC to screen? Jamma? VGA>RGB SCART? VGA? DVI/HDMI?

Edited August 24, 2015 by theelf