Raine + DOS = bad sound

[Tux]

Ok, good news it means it's not because of some lost hack finally, but I'll need some time to pinpoint the cause then because it's not obvious.

For the size it's just because the old 0.51.0 binary was packed using upx, it produces a slightly smaller exe when unpacked (6.4 Mb instead of 6.7), the difference is probably the result of some optimizations and alignment used by the new compiler.

Ok, I'll try to reproduce the sound issues in dosemu then, and I'll post later.

Thanks for the test anyway !

 

EDIT : I can't reproduce your sound issues, even with an fps between 20 and 30 in dosbox (which now works !) I still get a perfectly clear sound !

Oh well, in this case I need I'll have to make a few more tests with you then, there are 2 possibilities and I can't really guess here... later...

 

Ok, here is another test, it's 0.64.5 with the sound engine from 0.51.0. The catch is that there is almost no difference between the 2, and the differences shouldn't matter at all, but I have no other idea for now, so give this one a try : http://raine.1emulation.com/archive/rained-test3.7z

Edited August 7, 2015 by Tux

[theelf]

Hi Tux, im so sorry for the delay, i was out for work

 

 

I just test the build "text 3" but sadly same sound problems, im sorry

 

 

I tried to build Raine with djgpp in DOS, to test myself, but very difficult without a doc about what version of allegro, libraries, etc do you have one?

 

 

Thanks for your hard work

 

Thanks!

[Tux]

Hi ! Don't apologize for your lack of time, at least you are willing to try to fix that which is quite incredible already !

Well for dos you need a lot less dependancies than for windows so it's much easier.

For the compiler you can use the same link that I posted earlier if you want to compile from windows, it works also from windows, or djgpp which might also work for windows (not sure fore the recent versions,maybe).

After that you just need : zlib and libpng (use google),and allegro (the one from the Extras page of rainemu,there : http://raine.1emulation.com/download/extras.html at to bottom of the page, allegro 4.2.2. It has some hacks applied and apparently they work since you tested it for the rebuilt 5.10 version that I posted earlier (well I had added a few more hacks but as I said it probably made no difference).

 

What i can say about this : the sound problem is probably a symptom, not the cause of the problem, so I am almost sure it's not the sound emulation which is the cause here but something else which slows things down, but I can't tell you what.

Well you can try to rebuild the 0.51.0, and if it works try to update the versions one by one until you get some problems. There must have been some other problems since 0.51.8 dos was silent, but it seems like a reasonable approach, but it would take time.

Building the dos version is quite fast though once all the tools are installed.

 

For now I have no more idea on my side, the biggest problem here being that I can't reproduce the problem, I would need a really slow computer for that.

[theelf]

Hi ! Don't apologize for your lack of time, at least you are willing to try to fix that which is quite incredible already !

Well for dos you need a lot less dependancies than for windows so it's much easier.

For the compiler you can use the same link that I posted earlier if you want to compile from windows, it works also from windows, or djgpp which might also work for windows (not sure fore the recent versions,maybe).

After that you just need : zlib and libpng (use google),and allegro (the one from the Extras page of rainemu,there : http://raine.1emulation.com/download/extras.html at to bottom of the page, allegro 4.2.2. It has some hacks applied and apparently they work since you tested it for the rebuilt 5.10 version that I posted earlier (well I had added a few more hacks but as I said it probably made no difference).

 

What i can say about this : the sound problem is probably a symptom, not the cause of the problem, so I am almost sure it's not the sound emulation which is the cause here but something else which slows things down, but I can't tell you what.

Well you can try to rebuild the 0.51.0, and if it works try to update the versions one by one until you get some problems. There must have been some other problems since 0.51.8 dos was silent, but it seems like a reasonable approach, but it would take time.

Building the dos version is quite fast though once all the tools are installed.

 

For now I have no more idea on my side, the biggest problem here being that I can't reproduce the problem, I would need a really slow computer for that.

 

 

Hi!!

 

Oh man, yesterday i write a long post, i dont know what happen, but i was sure i click the "post button" jeje

 

 

 

I compile your allegro 4.2.2 without problems, zlib and libpng too. I have a working nasm and other libraries

 

 

Now i start with Raine (the important thing jaja) and my first problem was..... "long names" !! oh! a lot of long names! thats a big big problem in dos

 

Well, finally with the help os DOSLFN i solve the problem (but anyways, if one day i finally compile raine, i will make a proper 8+3 version)

 

 

 

My next problem, is i cant compile the ASM cores, i have a -1 error no idea (If i go to the folder, i can do "nasm s68000.asm" and no errors)

 

 

Any advice?

 

 

 

 

Thanks!!

Edited August 12, 2015 by theelf

[Tux]

For the forum maybe there are some issues here I don't know, post to alpha if you have a doubt.

For nasm, searching for "nasm exit code -1" in google gives this : http://sourceforge.net/p/nasm/mailman/message/26417391/

apparently it's the joy you get from trying to build in a pure ds environment !

I am not sure about this, you are on your own there, but they say adding a flush to disk might fix it, I don't know how you flush the disk buffer in dos though.

 

If you want, I can also prepare a few builds to test for you (like 0.51.5 and 0.51.6 for a start). I could always remove them later and it will be much faster for me to build them.

Yeah even in the dos days I have always hated the 8+3 limitation for filenames, so raine has used long names very early, I forgot about that because even when using djgpp I used it in a long names environment.

(in linux there has never been any short filename !).

So once you have migrated to long filenames, you never look back !

 

EDIT : if it's really a disk cache problem, the easiest work around is probably just to wait a few seconds after you got the error and then just type make again, it should work the 2nd time if nasm produced no output the 1st time !

Edited August 12, 2015 by Tux

[Robert]

As far as forum problems go, it seems that you're able to attach files and set up your avatar, so the immediate problems are solved.

 

I can only suspect you need 10+ posts before being allowed to do those things, although I can't prove it.

[theelf]

awwww tux, i almost... almost...compile... ahhh jaja

 

But it seems that my problem is compile the ASM code... well, tomorrow I will try more, but this days sadly I had too much work, and i can play in computer just half hour

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alchemist, thanks, dont worry, everything is ok, maybe my browser is a little old, and some stuff dont work well

Edited August 12, 2015 by theelf

[Tux]

How did you get this s68000.a file ? Normally it's a s68000.oa file that you should get !

You can generate it manually if you want, for the optimized build it should be

nasm -o dos/object/68000/s68000.oa -f coff -O1 -D__RAINE__ -DRAINE_DOS dos/object/68000/s68000.asm

 

But anyway the makefile shouldn't even use any s68000.a file in its link unless you edited it, which you probably did ?

 

but you really have to be motivated to use a dos environment for that you can't even copy/paste from real dos !

Since you didn't reply about my proposed test builds, I guess you want to succeed in a pure dos environment ?

Well good luck then ! (quite impressive !)

[theelf]

Tux, sorry, yes of course, i want your test builds, and i want to do in right way, and help you (if i can) to find the sound problem

 

 

 

 

I just like dos, and enjoy working in my old computer.... and i love plain edit from dos! jeje, no need to copy paste, just edit

 

 

Anyways, finally i succeded!!! I had to change some (a lot) C files, they have some calls to SDL functions, and other stuff that give me error, but now i have a working 0.51.0 raine.exe using djgpp in real dos.. I tested and works good, at least seems nothing broken...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now is time to compile 0.6 and test, but sadly tomorrow i have a lot of work... hope i can work a little at least

 

Greetings, thanks for help

Edited August 13, 2015 by theelf

[Tux]

From memory 0.51.0 was clean and had no reference to sdl when building for dos, but anyway...

I wanted to try to build 0.51.5 and 0.51.6 because 0.51.6 is at the beginning of the git repository, and there is a patch I would have liked to check just before that, but the sources are not available, so it would be messy to build them.

Then I realized that even 0.51.0 is much slower than 0.28 in dos when sound is enabled ! That's obviously because we switched to allegro sound in later versions which is much more stable than seal, but also clearly slower.

So I decided to try to rebuild a 0.64.6 version based on seal. It was tricky, in dosbox it works only once, after that it doesn't detect the soundcard anymore and I have to relaunch dosbox to make it work ! Also the sound initialization is slower which makes the sound bad when the game starts but after that it seems ok and it's definitely faster.

So try it, it's on the main download page there : http://raine.1emulation.com/download/latest.html

 

If you can't initialize your soundcard with it I would advice to reset the machine and then launch raine again, it's probably the equivalent of restarting dosbox !

Good luck !

 

(if it doesn't work I might find some other ideas...).

[theelf]

Hi tux!

 

Sadly no sound at all

 

If i load a neogeo game, i get a "Z80 error" thats all

 

 

I tried with 4 sound cards

 

1 - Sound Blaster AWE64 ISA

2 - Sound Blaster Pro 2

3 - Sound Blaster 16 ISA no pnp

4 - SB16 compatible yamaha

 

 

I reset the PC several times, erase raine.cfg, etc etc, but after load a rom, raine change to "no sound card"

 

 

Just in case i tested in my laptop too, is a Pentium 200mmx with a SBpro clone, and same problem

 

 

Sorry, thanks for all

[Tux]

Impressive your collection of old hardware ! I happen to have an old laptop from 2007, but compared to yours it's ultra modern !

Ok, worst than what I thought then, I'll take another look later.

Weather was supposed to becomes much less hot today, and I am still feeling like I am living in Panama !

Anyway... Thanks for all this testing at least, too bad it didn't work !

[theelf]

Now im in barcelona, and here is hot today, but yesterday was much worst. But anyways, not very different from last year

 

I was living in Egipt in 2009, and after that, i dont feel the hot anymore jaja

 

 

 

2007? this is too new, even my main desktop PC is older, is a USFF Dell from 2005, Pentium 4 3.4ghz

 

I just installed XP x64 last year because I add 4gb of ram (is cheap now), and thats all, for next 4 or 5 years I will not think in upgrade. When i bought this Dell in 2009, was to upgrade my Pentium3.. jaja, i use the P3 until 2009

 

 

 

I have a small collection of old PC hardware, I keep at least one card of each brand, like Creative, GUS, Turtle beach in audio, Tseng, S3, CL, Trident in video, etc and CPU+motherboard from XT to Pentium II

 

About laptop, i have maybe 30?¿ 40? i need to check the warehouse, from XT to Pentium 1 mmx. Specially i like toshiba ones. I always have this on the table for test DOS stuff.. 486DX50 to Pentium 200mmx

 

 

 

 

 

Greetings

Edited August 13, 2015 by theelf

[Tux]

Impressive collection for sure !

Well I guess I can always travel to Barcelona to fix all this, it's not that far (let's wait until it's less hot !).

But there is still hope !

 

Here is another test, 2 exes in 1 archive : an updated 0.64.7 one still with seal which should initialize its sound and keep it much more easily. I advice running it without game first just to initialize the sound, then quit, then load a game with it for extra safety. After that use it normally, assuming you heard something. By the way the mixer is very low with this, there is a way to fix that, but make it work 1st and fixing the mixer will be easy.

And Raine517.exe which is a normal 0.51.7 with allegro sound in it, just to compare what you currently have, does it work the same ?

 

Good testing, here is the link : http://raine.1emulation.com/archive/rained.7z

 

EDIT : I have not such a fascination for this kind of old hardware. I preferred when computer didn't contain any fan though (the time of the atari st, the amiga, the amstrad). It can be done with some embedded computers today, arduino like, but it's not the same, and you have to make it yourself. And I agree the old toshiba laptops were excellent quality and made to last, far from what you get now.

For the hardware, I also have an athlon64 so not a super powerful cpu but better than a p4 though ! The bigest advantage is that it has 4 cores, which is extremely convenient for compiling (make -j4 launches 4 compilations in parrallel, it makes things incomparably faster !). It had 4 Gb of ram until recently because even in win64 most programs being 32 bits it doesn't make sense to use more than 4 Gb. But lately I tested a lot of skyrim mods and there is a very bad handling of textures, they are clearly kept in ram even after they have been transferred to the video card, so I reached the limit of both my 4 Gb of ram and the video ram of my card. So I updated both because indeed all this stuff is very cheap now. Having 8 Gb feels like having some kind of super computer, but it makes a real difference for this kind of usage and it's very nice to use.

And for the rest I use it mainly in linux when I am not busy testing stupid mods in skyrim, and here the extra ram can always been used, at least for a super giant disk cache !

Edited August 13, 2015 by Tux

[theelf]

Hi! thanks! you are welcome to barcelona any time! i live 6 months/year in Barcelona

 

 

Ok, here is the news

 

 

Raine.exe 0.64.7 ... works!! ohhhh!!! neogeo without any sound problems!!

 

Like you say mixer is very low, and only sound blaster works, NO AWE32, i think thats mean, only 8bits audio, no 16bits

If i select AWE32, is like SB16, i get a horrible noise, nothing else, but games work

 

 

raine517.exe this build have sound, but with the sound problem

 

 

You work is great!! the raine 0.64.7 only need proper SB16 sound, and i think can be a definitive build. Anyways, i will test more, i just test with CPS1, CPS2 and neogeo games

 

 

 

About hardware, im a big fan of noiseless computers too, i have a small collection of computers from 80s/90s, C64, Spectrum, Amiga 500/1200, ZX, and japaneses ones, PC88, PC98, x68k... good machines

 

In my house all computers are fanless, even the Pentium 4, dont have any fan, just a big piece of aluminium and no hard disk anymore, in the P4, a SSD, and in Celeron 366 a 32GB CF card

 

 

mmm... linux... i like the kernel, I really dont like much all the graphical system. I like fvwm2 but most apps are or gtk or kde, very bloated

 

 

I worked in UltraSparc Workstation back in 90s, using SunOS 4.x, and i really love sunos and the new child, solaris. CDE is "the" GUI

 

 

I was doing some jobs in late 90s for a company called Amadeus, because some airlines/travel agencies was migrating the software from OS/2 3.x and Warp (i really love the ibm os) to NT4, when i developed a new love.... the NT based systems

 

Since lates 90s, my main OS is any kind of NT based windows, until XP x64 that im using now

 

 

 

Oh man, better to stop talking, too much memories from past jaja