Sound drivers update [experiment]

[MrFlibble]

Recently a fellow member from another forum pointed out to me that the sound drivers in Dune 2 can be updated to a newer version (link to the official package, VOGONS forum topic with links to user-made driver packages). I have repackaged SOUND.PAK with the updated drivers (dated 1994, from a used-made driver package), although I haven't observed any performance differences or improvement so far (probably because I'm using DOSBox).

However, I noticed that some drivers from the package are mentioned in DUNE2.EXE, but are neither present inside SOUND.PAK nor listed among its contents. Here's the list:

ADLIB.ADV

ADLIBG.ADV

PASFM.ADV

SBFM.ADV

SBP1FM.ADV

SBP2FM.ADV

I have put these files in the game directory, but was unable to determine if they were utilized by the game or not. Does this mean that they're unused? If yes, then why are those filenames still in the game?

[Nyerguds]

The files list in my editor immediately shows me these files:

ALGDIG.ADV

MT32MPU.ADV

PASDIG.ADV

PCSPKR.ADV

SBDIG.ADV

SBPDIG.ADV

TANDY.ADV

These are all in the A214_D1.ZIP, inside AIL2.ZIP.

Besides that, it also has two .drv files; pcsound.drv and alfx.drv, but there's no trace of those in these archives

[edit]

Added them to sound.pak, but the effect was less than stellar. The game freezes 1-3 seconds almost every time a sound clip is played. Especially on missile impact and infantry death screams, but occasionally just when selecting a unit too. Not an improvement.

[MrFlibble]

Added them to sound.pak, but the effect was less than stellar. The game freezes 1-3 seconds almost every time a sound clip is played. Especially on missile impact and infantry death screams, but occasionally just when selecting a unit too. Not an improvement.

I noticed that as well. This is because with the original drivers, any speech clip is interrupted if a new one is about to be played. With the new drivers, each clip is fully played. So, for example, if you select a unit and give it an order before its "unit selected" response is played to the end, the game with the "updated" drivers will wait until the response clip is played to the end, and only then will play the "orders received" clip. That wouldn't be a specific problem by itself, but the unit does not start doing what you ordered it to do before its "orders received" clip starts to play. So basically the whole game will wait until each clip is finished.

I have to add that I only noticed such behavior under WinXP, but not in DOSBox.

[Nyerguds]

I was just hoping this would somehow fix the "mentat voice stopping" bug when using the same sound device for sounds and sound effects. But, no luick there either.

[MrFlibble]

the "mentat voice stopping" bug when using the same sound device for sounds and sound effects.

You mean the situations when the Mentat voice announcements get interrupted by other sounds? Maybe it's not a bug, but something intended? ???

[TrueBrain]

Digging up old topics. First, a small introduction. The next list shows which number matches which music driver (the number is in the dune.cfg, after decoding it):

0: NULL (NULL)

1: ALFX.DRV (ADL)

2: PCSOUND.DRV (PCS)

3: PCSOUND.DRV (PCS)

4: PCSPKR.ADV (PCS)

5: TANDY.ADV (TAN)

6: MT32MPU.ADV (XMI)

7: MT32MPU.ADV (C55)

8: ADLIB.ADV (ADL)

9: ADLIBG.ADV (ADL)

10: PASFM.ADV (ADL)

11: SBFM.ADV (ADL)

12: SBP1FM.ADV (ADL)

13: SBP2FM.ADV (ADL)

The name between () is the extension used.

Dune2 1.07eu HARDCODED ignores drivers 8 till 12, and sets it to 1. I guess you can still use 13, but this is most likely a bug, and it was not intended to be used. So I guess that is also the reason the drivers are nowhere to be found :)

[MrFlibble]

Digging up old topics.

No problem, thanks for posting this :)

Dune2 1.07eu HARDCODED ignores drivers 8 till 12, and sets it to 1. I guess you can still use 13, but this is most likely a bug, and it was not intended to be used. So I guess that is also the reason the drivers are nowhere to be found :)

Hm, AFAIK 11 and 12 are used fro MIDI emulation on SB/SBPro, so their absence means that SoundBlaster users have lower quality of synthesized music, right?

[Nyerguds]

You mean the situations when the Mentat voice announcements get interrupted by other sounds? Maybe it's not a bug, but something intended? ???

I was talking about ALL sounds stopping when using the sound patch to separate midi and SB sound devices, and then playing without DOSBox. Basically, any Mentat announcement has 90% chance of stopping all sounds (even stops the music from starting a new theme after the current one is finished) until the main menu is opened and resets it.

[MrFlibble]

Ah yes, now I get it. I encountered this as well, but it's quite easily remedied by not playing outside DOSBox :)

[TrueBrain]

(..)

Hm, AFAIK 11 and 12 are used fro MIDI emulation on SB/SBPro, so their absence means that SoundBlaster users have lower quality of synthesized music, right?

Most likely :) I guess they couldn't get it to work correct, or had to cut on diskspace .. who knows what the reason was for removing those sound-drivers (hardcoded).