Problems with Revolution Games

[jd_hupp]

Problem #1: Beneath A Steel Sky CD version causes SCUMMVM to exit to Windows while loading the game.

Problem #2: Flight Of The Amazon Queen CD version has no music. I tried the General MIDI Audio selection as well as the default Adlib. I tried the original unmodifed download as well as the MP3 version.

BACKGROUND:

This is a new software installation (fresh format, etc.), a Gateway Windows 95 (C) machine I just put together for DOS and SCUMMVM games. Pentium 200 MMX and 32 MB. Motherboard has integrated Creative Ensoniq AudioPCI (Sound Blaster 64 PCI). I am using all the Gateway system and sound drivers, and all the Microsoft Critical Updates.

All the Gateway and Microsoft software works fine. All the DOS games seem to play properly with sound and music. As far as I can tell, my only problems are with games played with SCUMMVM.

I installed SCUMMVM 0.9.0 without error.

I added Beneath A Steel Sky CD version and copied SKY.CPT (your special 56KB download) to both the game data folder and C:\Program Files\SCUMMVM.

FOTAQ is using the special QUEEN.TBL download, copied to the game data folder and C:\Program Files\SCUMMVM.

How can I get these working (please)?

--John Hupp

[clem]

I added Beneath A Steel Sky CD version and copied SKY.CPT (your special 56KB download)

which is funny, the sky.cpt here is 410 kb, maybe that's where the problem lies?

if you run ScummVM from the commandline you should see an error stating what went wrong for BASS

for the FOTAQ music issue, probably only SDL has problems with your windows drivers while all the other software doesn't use SDL and thus works great? Just a guess though, not sure how to fix it if that's the case

hope that helps,
clem

[eriktorbjorn]

for the FOTAQ music issue, probably only SDL has problems with your windows drivers while all the other software doesn't use SDL and thus works great? Just a guess though, not sure how to fix it if that's the case

Though if he gets any sound at all, then the (emulated) Adlib music should work... One possible, but unlikely, explanation is impatience: The music doesn't start immediately, and even when it does it's pretty soft at first.

I probably wouldn't even suggest such a silly, not to mention potentially insulting, explanation if it wasn't for Broken Sword 1. In that game, there have been several reports of the opening video not working when, in fact, the first 20 seconds of it are supposed to show a completely black screen.

[eriktorbjorn]

A slightly less silly idea is that maybe the music volume setting is set too low... though it should be at a sensible level by default.

[jd_hupp]

I added Beneath A Steel Sky CD version and copied SKY.CPT (your special 56KB download)

which is funny, the sky.cpt here is 410 kb, maybe that's where the problem lies?

if you run ScummVM from the commandline you should see an error stating what went wrong for BASS

for the FOTAQ music issue, probably only SDL has problems with your windows drivers while all the other software doesn't use SDL and thus works great? Just a guess though, not sure how to fix it if that's the case

Hmm ... disabling the newly downloaded SKY.CPT and using the SKY.CPT installed by the current distro in C:\PROGRAM FILES\SCUMMVM, BASS does start and run!

But it too seems to have a music issue. The game exits to Windows if I try to use Windows MIDI, but Adlib music works (though not as well as I get from DOS with an ISA sound card). I tried Windows MIDI because I recall a note somewhere that said that at least some of the music in BASS sounds better under MIDI.

By the way, when BASS was failing to load with the previous SKY.CPT, running from the command line yielded:
WARNING: MM System Error 'MMSYSTEM004 The specified device is already in use. Wait until it is free, and then try again.'!
Can't open midi device. Errorcode: 3!

(Regarding another post about my FOTAQ music issie: Patience is not the issue. I'm familiar with the music from using the game under DOS.)

[Kaminari]

Which MIDI synth are you using? Embedded chipsets usually suck anyway -- especially old Creative ones. And I thought ScummVM didn't work properly on Win95?

PS: FotAQ is not a Revolution game, it was made by IBI.

[jd_hupp]

Maybe I'll need to separate the issues into two posts, but for the moment, dealing with them together:

So far, the most basic issue - BASS exiting to Windows while loading - has been addressed by Clem's guess that the wrong version of SKY.CPT was being used.

Now BASS works, but only with the Adlib music driver so far, and the music is not pleasing. Kaminari seems to suggest that there will be no solution to that except disabling the integrated Ensoniq AudioPCI (aka Sound Blaster 64 PCI) chipset and putting in a decent add-in card. I also read somewhere that a number of the Sound Blasters suffer from hiss problems, and that's certainly true of this PCI chipset under Windows, though I don't recall having the problem with ISA Sound Blasters under DOS.

Regarding FOTAQ, it looks like Eriktorbjorn fingered that culprit best. The global MIDI gain was set to 1.0 (why it chose that default I have no idea). Pumping that up to 6-8 yields a decent volume. But again, you almost wish it hadn't, since the quality of the music rendering is poor.

For comparison, I may get the DOS drivers running and try both games in pure MS-DOS 7 just to see if the DOS drivers render any better sound than under the Windows drivers and ScummVM. I know I can do this with BASS, but earlier I was encountering a memory error with FOTAQ when I tried a DOS box or MS-DOS mode.

By the way, Kaminari, as regards the global Windows Synth setup, I have Multimedia Properties | MIDI | Single Instrument: MIDI for Sound Blaster AudioPCI 64V Internal Synth. Does ScummVM respect that setting? Any further comment on that bit of info?

--John Hupp

[noize]

MIDI gain default IS 1.0.

Sounds like you have your synth volume set low.
Check out your windows sound mixer settings (Volume COntrol),
and set your SW Synth to maximum.

[joostp]

Are you sure you're using ScummVM 0.9.0?

There is a check (and subsequent on-screen message) for an incorrect SKY.CPT size.

[Kaminari]

Does ScummVM respect that setting?

Yes it does, since ScummVM uses the MIDI synth specified in your Windows multimedia properties. But I'm pretty much certain the SB64 synth is not a decent-sounding GM device (let alone suited for MT-32 playback). You might want to try the Microsoft GS softsynth instead, though I'm not sure if it's available in Win95.

I'd like to add that, by default, neither BaSS nor FotAQ sound amazing in AdLib. So this is not something you should really worry about :)

[eriktorbjorn]

Regarding FOTAQ, it looks like Eriktorbjorn fingered that culprit best. The global MIDI gain was set to 1.0 (why it chose that default I have no idea). Pumping that up to 6-8 yields a decent volume. But again, you almost wish it hadn't, since the quality of the music rendering is poor.

That's strange. ScummVM's "MIDI gain" setting is used only by the FluidSynth MIDI driver, which I thought wasn't even enabled in the Windows version.

(Windows itself may very well have a separate MIDI volume setting, though.)

[jd_hupp]

I have to confess here that, in the flurry of things I was doing just trying to get these games to work at all, and then to work with better sound, some of my observations were not based on good notes from controlled one-step-at-a-time tests. And some of what I have said about music volume or quality is subjective, in part because, without test-now kinds of buttons in the settings windows, I change one or more settings, restart the game, get to the part where the music is problematic, and then try to judge how that compared with my last trial. Also mix in the fact that I'm working with two different games.

At any rate, some responses to your replies, and a few fresh observations that pretty much put the matter to rest for me.

Thanks to Noize and Eriktorbjorn for similar comments. Noize points out that MIDI Gain of 1.0 is the default, and both suggest the Windows MIDI volume control as an alternative. And Erik further notes that MIDI Gain shouldn't even have an effect here. A fresh controlled test confirms that he is correct.

To Joostp: Yes, this is v0.9.0, but I didn't get any "incorrect SKY.CPT" sorts of messages during the first phase when BASS was exiting to Windows while loading. I would have taken note of that. During controlled testing now with the 410K, 160K and 56K versions of SKY.CPT I have here, I find that the floppy version of BASS runs with all 3 SKY.CPT sizes! But the CD version generates an "incorrect size" error with SKY.CPT at 160K or 56K. The 410K SKY.CPT included with the distro works fine all around. (The downloads page should be corrected. It says to download this special SKY.CPT and use it with all post-0.7 versions of SCUMMVM.)

So why (WHY, OH WHY!) was BASS exiting out while loading during my earliest attempts? More deliberate testing now shows me that the onboard Ensoniq AudioPCI (aka Sound Blaster 64) setup auto-configures for 4 speakers. And with that setting (but only 2 speakers connected), BASS exits. Also with that setting, FOTAQ starts and runs, but has no music. And those were the problems I initially posted about.

That also explains why I didn't get any "normal" behavior for either game until, on the games' Audio tab, I over-rode global audio settings and chose the Adlib driver, which would ignore the Ensoniq/Sound Blaster driver with the problematic setting.

But as Kaminari observes, the Adlib driver does not make for beautiful music. However, now that I understand the problem, I have set Ensoniq/Sound Blaster for 2 speakers, and also changed from the 2MB to the 4MB waveset there. Then in the ScummVM game setups, reset to NOT Override Global Audio Settings. Voila! Richer and fuller 4MB waveset music is functional, sounding pretty respectable at last!!

My only remaining complaint is that in the FOTAQ CD version, a noticeable background hiss accompanies all speech. But I hear some hiss even in Windows Media Player playing WAV files, so I attribute this to the Sound Blaster hiss that I have read elsewhere about. Someone please correct me if there is a way to fix this.

Thanks to everyone for the generous responses that helped push/pull me through.

--John Hupp