New Guy...trouble with sound in some games

[chooka1]

Folks,

Im a newbie registered user. WHen I run games like the ones mentioned in the subject line, the sound stutters. If I go out of GAME EX and run the games directly through MAME 32X, no problem. I downgraded the sounds samples to 41000. No luck? Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Chad

[Nologic]

Probably has something to do with the settings your using in your commandline for Mame.

So post its contents and maybe one of the Mame guru's can tell you whats wrong.

[Brian Hoffman]

I wouldnt say guru... Id goto the advanced configuration located in the startmenu,all programs\gameex\ etc...

goto advanced mame settings -> mame options and remove the -tripplebuffer

If that doesnt work we could tweak the video options.. But we'll take it one step at a time.

[chooka1]

I wouldnt say guru... Id goto the advanced configuration located in the startmenu,all programs\gameex\ etc...

goto advanced mame settings -> mame options and remove the -tripplebuffer

If that doesnt work we could tweak the video options.. But we'll take it one step at a time.

Thank you...I removed tripple buffer and the sound worked great. However, there seems to be video tearing now. Any ideas? Thank you so much for the helP!

[Brian Hoffman]

Thank you...I removed tripple buffer and the sound worked great. However, there seems to be video tearing now. Any ideas? Thank you so much for the helP!

Well thats what the tripplebuffer does. Id first try playing with the refrest rate of the monitor

[headkaze]

I have sound stuttering when I run Direct Draw mode on my PC. Changing it to Direct3D fixes that *shrugs*

[Brian Hoffman]

I have sound stuttering when I run Direct Draw mode on my PC. Changing it to Direct3D fixes that *shrugs*

Good point,

To eleaborate add -video d3d to the commandline. It is found the the gameex advanced configuration/advanced mame settings/Mame oprtions

[headkaze]

Good point,

To eleaborate add -video d3d to the commandline. It is found the the gameex advanced configuration/advanced mame settings/Mame oprtions

lol did you paste that from the other thread lol Have we been around so long we can do that now?

[chooka1]

Well thats what the tripplebuffer does. Id first try playing with the refrest rate of the monitor

Dumb question, how do you play with the refresh rate of the monitor? I am using a 32 inch LCD VIZIO in an arcade cabinet?

The games work fine when I run them in MAME32FX, so I wonder if the extra processing required for the GAMEEX is causing trouble or if I just don't have the right commands in the GAMEEX MAME Command Line.

Should I try -tripplebuffer -direct3d (whatever the command is) -joy (anything else)?

Many thanks..I really appreciate the help from everyone.

[bkenobi]

If you have a 32" LCD in a cabinet, I would assume your system has plenty of memory, correct? If you are running with a relatively small amount of memory and you have an onboard video card, you could be running short especially if you have set the bios to use a bunch (e.g., you have 512mb memory and you select 128mb or 256mb for your video card). I'm running 1GB of memory with -triplebuffer and -d3d and don't have tearing problems of sound problems.

[chooka1]

If you have a 32" LCD in a cabinet, I would assume your system has plenty of memory, correct? If you are running with a relatively small amount of memory and you have an onboard video card, you could be running short especially if you have set the bios to use a bunch (e.g., you have 512mb memory and you select 128mb or 256mb for your video card). I'm running 1GB of memory with -triplebuffer and -d3d and don't have tearing problems of sound problems.

Ben Kenobi,

Thanks--again--for the response. I have a dell 2.20 ghz machine with 1 gig of ram. I havent yet tried the -d3d and -tripplebuffer commands together. I wil try them tonight. Thank you for the help!!

Chad

[Brian Hoffman]

lol did you paste that from the other thread lol Have we been around so long we can do that now?

Ya I figured you would catch that.

Actually I just edited and copied then pasted in the other thread... But Im pretty sure we can

[Adultery]

Should I try -tripplebuffer -direct3d (whatever the command is) -joy (anything else)?

Many thanks..I really appreciate the help from everyone.

Not sure if it helps you out any, but here's how mine is set up:

-skip_gameinfo -triplebuffer -nowindow -joy -video d3d -filter -cheat

I need to remove the -skip_gameinfo option since I used HK's compiler to build MAME and the intro screens have all been removed anyway...

Hope that helps ya!

[chooka1]

If you have a 32" LCD in a cabinet, I would assume your system has plenty of memory, correct? If you are running with a relatively small amount of memory and you have an onboard video card, you could be running short especially if you have set the bios to use a bunch (e.g., you have 512mb memory and you select 128mb or 256mb for your video card). I'm running 1GB of memory with -triplebuffer and -d3d and don't have tearing problems of sound problems.

Ben Kenobi,

The computer the seller installed is a stock 2.2ghz Dell with no video card. He told me it wouldnt matter since MAME uses the regular processor power. If it would make a difference, I would certaintly buy a video card. Because I dont have a video card, are there any commands I shouldnt use in the command line?

Because the games run fine under MAME FX, I am guessing I just need to figure out how to duplicate the FX settings in the GAME EX command line. Does that make sense or does GAME EX use up a bunch of processing power?

Thank you, as always, for your help!

[bkenobi]

Well, you have a video card, it's just built into the motherboard. And yes, it's true that you don't need a powerful video card for MAME since there are no optimizations with the video drivers. BUT, you need to have enough CPU power to run both MAME and GameEx. When MAME is running, you GameEx isn't doing anything other than sitting in the background, so it's more of a memory requirement, actually.

Anyway, if you have a bunch of features turned on in GameEx, you could experience slowdowns on a lower end system, but that won't affect MAME performance like you are experiencing. So to answer your question, no, you don't need to buy anything. MAME needs to be set up correctly for your system and you should be good to go.

Btw, how much ram do you have installed? And how much is allocated to the video card?

[chooka1]

Well, you have a video card, it's just built into the motherboard. And yes, it's true that you don't need a powerful video card for MAME since there are no optimizations with the video drivers. BUT, you need to have enough CPU power to run both MAME and GameEx. When MAME is running, you GameEx isn't doing anything other than sitting in the background, so it's more of a memory requirement, actually.

Anyway, if you have a bunch of features turned on in GameEx, you could experience slowdowns on a lower end system, but that won't affect MAME performance like you are experiencing. So to answer your question, no, you don't need to buy anything. MAME needs to be set up correctly for your system and you should be good to go.

Btw, how much ram do you have installed? And how much is allocated to the video card?

1 gig of ram. I will have to check how much is allocated to the video card. Do you know how I check?

Thanks!!!

[Brian Hoffman]

You can check in your system bios.

[chooka1]

1 gig of ram. I will have to check how much is allocated to the video card. Do you know how I check?

Thanks!!!

1 gig of ram. Stock default in bios is 64mb for the video card.

Playing around a little more it definetly is either stuttering music (with triplebuffer on) or clear music but tearing (no triplebuffer). Thank you for the help!

[Brian Hoffman]

1 gig of ram. Stock default in bios is 64mb for the video card.

Playing around a little more it definetly is either stuttering music (with triplebuffer on) or clear music but tearing (no triplebuffer). Thank you for the help!

Did you try either -video d3d or -video ddraw

?

[chooka1]

Did you try either -video d3d or -video ddraw

?

Thank you for the help. I tried both of them. If I use video d3d and triple buffer, the music/sound fx is stuttering. I tried video -ddraw with -triplebuffer and no stuttering but when the screen would scroll as the character moved instead of horizontal tearing (like whne triplebuffer is not used), horizontal "wavy" lines would apperar as it moved.

Please keep the ideas coming...I will try all of them!

Chad

[bkenobi]

For clarification, is this just an issue when running GameEx, or do you have this issue when running MAME from the command line? Also, what version of MAME are you using (vanilla, MAME32/MAMEgui, MAME Plus!, MAMEFX, etc.)? If you are running a derivative build, have you tried a vanilla build? I typically run vanilla or MAME32 and have not had these issues so I'm curious if it could be something to do with the version you run.

[chooka1]

For clarification, is this just an issue when running GameEx, or do you have this issue when running MAME from the command line? Also, what version of MAME are you using (vanilla, MAME32/MAMEgui, MAME Plus!, MAMEFX, etc.)? If you are running a derivative build, have you tried a vanilla build? I typically run vanilla or MAME32 and have not had these issues so I'm curious if it could be something to do with the version you run.

BenKenobi,

Thanks...you have been an awesome help. I am out of town at the moment but I will check tomorrow night when I get back. I believe the problem is with both MAME FX and GAMEEX. I will let you know...thank you! This problem is the one things keeping me from enjoying my new arcade.

Many thanks!

Chad

[chooka1]

BenKenobi,

Thanks...you have been an awesome help. I am out of town at the moment but I will check tomorrow night when I get back. I believe the problem is with both MAME FX and GAMEEX. I will let you know...thank you! This problem is the one things keeping me from enjoying my new arcade.

Many thanks!

Chad

Ben Kenobi,

Back again...thank you for the help.

Problem is with both MAME FX and GAMEEX. Vesion installed is Mame32fx 0.120 (Oct 15, 2007)

I notice when I run Mame32x from the desktop, a graphical version opens up and I can select the games there. GAME EX runs the same program but no graphical version opens up. SHould I be using a command run MAME (E.g. vanialla mame or something like that) so I am not using GAME EX to open a graphical version of MAME that might use extra processing power? Can you recommend another version of MAME to download and try?

The command line in GAME EX is: -skip-gameinfo(not sure if that is necessary) -tripplebuffer -nowindow -joy -video d3d

Anything else you recommend? Thank you so much!

Chad

[bkenobi]

I would highly recommend trying the official build of MAME to get things set up and then switching to FX after you get everything working. If you do it that way, you can eliminate any problems caused by your build first. After you get the vanilla version working, we can see about switching to your build of choice. Also, are you using the same version of MAME as your roms? I see that you are using version 0.120 of MAME FX. Are your roms also 0.120? If you try the vanilla build, try to get that same version, or consider updating to the new version which would be easier to get a hold of.

[shaunopp]

You may want to try 'waitvsync' instead of triplebuffer. I've had better luck with this for some games. I have custom ini files and adjust for games that experience tearing individually using triplebuffer or waitvsync vs. changing my main Mame ini so I don't mess up sound in other games.

Interesting article on some of these settings, tearing and monitor tweaks here: http://www.retroblast.com/Articles/RetroBl...itor-Tweaks.php