Is there any way to fix the sound on ZSNES?

[NeoVenom]

I noticed that in some games, the sound is a bit off or doesn't play at all (maybe it's because I didn't touch any configs on it). For example, in Batman Returns, the motorcycles sound super weird. Also, when playing Earthworm Jim 2, I can't hear him playing the accordion. Thanks for reading.

[GarrettCRW]

Joining the ZSNES programming team sounds like the only option other than getting a real system, IMO.

[BetaWolf47]

ZSNES is aimed at speed over accuracy. Of course things will sound off a bit, like jumping in Super Mario World for instance. Besides that, you can try bsnes, which aims at perfect accuracy but has hefty system requirements.

http://byuu.org/bsnes/

[NeoVenom]

Ah I see. I do own a SNES but the adapter broke so I can't use it at the moment. I'll look into that emulator you mentioned Beta. Thanks for the replies guys.

[badinsults]

The answer to your question is easily available if you search the zsnes forums (why didn't you ask there?).

For the answer to the question, sound emulation is not perfect in zsnes. In particular, Earthworm Jim 2 has some unusual sound properties, and is only emulated property in bsnes at the moment. Though, unless you have a badass computer setup, bsnes will be pretty choppy.

[NeoVenom]

The answer to your question is easily available if you search the zsnes forums (why didn't you ask there?).

For the answer to the question, sound emulation is not perfect in zsnes. In particular, Earthworm Jim 2 has some unusual sound properties, and is only emulated property in bsnes at the moment. Though, unless you have a badass computer setup, bsnes will be pretty choppy.

Ah ok. Thanks for clarification. Oh, and I asked here first because I know the community better. :D

[TheRedEye]

Oh, I wonder if this would make Pac-Man 2 not sound like ass? I should try it.

[bombman]

you cant even save states in bsnes :-/

snes9x is less glitchy than zsnes, try that one first.

[byuu]

unless you have a badass computer setup

An AMD 2600+ is still badass these days? :P


you cant even save states in bsnes :-/

Says who?

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/9237/picture1iok.png

Quick saves are mapped to F2 and F4, the state manager to F3.

[123►Genei-Jin]

Bsnes sound doesn't work for me.
Bsnes uses Direct Sound, which was removed from DirectX 10, I have a Creative X-Fi and tried using alchemy but it keeps stuttering every 15 seconds or so (this makes me believe it's a sound buffer issue, but I tried all the different buffer intervals and all of them fail to an extend).
Not sure if it works with generic Realtek sound cards, but it doesn't work for me.
System has an Intel X48 chipset with Intel e8400 CPU and ATI 4850 VC.
I normally use Snes GT instead.

[byuu]

EDIT: may as well remove ranting, everyone here has been very polite.


I have a Creative X-Fi and tried using alchemy but it keeps stuttering every 15 seconds or so

Sorry, Vista pretty much screwed every last emulator. No native DirectSound, DirectDraw scaling got ruined, Direct3D9 and OpenGL can't vsync properly, etc.

I'm not touching Vista with a twenty-foot pole. When Win7 official is out, I'll try and add some patches (DWM etc) for it to run better then.

I do have an OpenAL audio driver, but I don't use it on Windows because it requires some rather large DLLs and only some Vista+ users need it.

[bombman]

An AMD 2600+ is still badass these days? :P



Says who?

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/9237/picture1iok.png

Quick saves are mapped to F2 and F4, the state manager to F3.

I was under the impression that they wouldn't implement save states in bsnes because it required some sort of ridiculously complex techno voodoo that they didn't have time for. But it has been a while since I checked the page, guess I'll give it another look.

[BetaWolf47]

Yeah, bsnes is really the only emulator that will work well with a lot of games, like certain translation patches. Also, bsnes works fine on Vista for me (I think Microsoft has been improving it because Project 64 works as well). Yes, I have an integrated Realtek sound card.

[byuu]

And sorry for the abrasiveness. Everyone here has been really nice, I'm just extra worn out lately from other forums.


I was under the impression that they wouldn't implement save states in bsnes because it required some sort of ridiculously complex techno voodoo that they didn't have time for.

Yeah, most emulators are single-threaded. bsnes is multi-threaded, which means you can't just restart in the middle of them. I knew states were important to people, so I finally came up with a workaround. It seems easy in retrospect, but took an eternity to come up with.


Yeah, bsnes is really the only emulator that will work well with a lot of games, like certain translation patches.

To be fair, the original Japanese version of Der Langrisser has the same lock-up issue. Moon Knight reported the bug to the ZSNES team in 2001. I guess they're still working on it. I in fact avoided certain optimizations in my hack so that it would be compatible with emulators.

[kedawa]

My pc runs all my emulators just fine under vista. I guess I'm just lucky.

[BetaWolf47]

To byuu if he sees this thread again:

An AMD 2600+ is still badass these days? :P

Gotta remember what forum you're on now. People here don't throw stuff out just because it's obsolete. Also, some people don't have any consoles newer than PS2.

[byuu]

I do lurk around these parts on occasion =)

And yeah, I have seven or eight systems myself. The performance really is poor, only four get full speed. If I finish and things are still in the state they are now, I'll have to work on a new SNES emulator focused on speed.

[Ed Oscuro]

I like bsnes although I miss being able to separate out graphical layers.

Pretty sure my laptop gets full speed even when running throttled, so it's fine by me. Was playing Wolfenstein 3D on this machine a few days ago.

I noticed there's a change in the new executable (which is now marked with the version, good change, and has an external DLL file), but I plopped it into the old directory. Gonna hope it works with old savestates.

[123►Genei-Jin]

Sound seems to be working now for me, no more skipping whatsoever and no need to use alchemy.

Do you have any plans to include support for merged roms?

[byuu]

although I miss being able to separate out graphical layers.

Always found that to be a legacy crutch for 8-bit VGA emulators and ones that lacked proper layering. It isn't difficult to add back I suppose.


Gonna hope it works with old savestates.

Doubtful. I really make no effort at all to support old save states. I just don't have the manpower alone to make each state backwards-compatible.


Do you have any plans to include support for merged roms?

What do you mean by merged ROMs? The split files as in File.1+File.2+File.3, or do you mean the 7z archives with 10+ header-modifications and 40+ hacks? The big problem with the latter is that it takes a good ~2 seconds as it is to decompress a single 7z ROM using the official SDK. Those packs use solid state, meaning you have to decompress the entire thing. Imagine if loading a ROM took up to 80 seconds ... yikes. And you know who people would blame for that :P

[Ed Oscuro]

What do you mean by merged ROMs? The split files as in File.1+File.2+File.3, or do you mean the 7z archives with 10+ header-modifications and 40+ hacks? The big problem with the latter is that it takes a good ~2 seconds as it is to decompress a single 7z ROM using the official SDK. Those packs use solid state, meaning you have to decompress the entire thing. Imagine if loading a ROM took up to 80 seconds ... yikes. And you know who people would blame for that :P
Actually, I want to second the call for that feature - having to manually break ROMs out of GoodWhatever is a pain in the butt and complicates things (usually the emulator directory). Also, I don't know what system specs we're talking about, but no SNES ROM takes anywhere close to 80 seconds to break out of a 7z archive on any of the systems I use. The one thing that concerms me is that it's done correctly; I think the latest FCEux added this type of support and I noticed they were opening the first ROM in the list, not the one I selected. Think that's fixed now, but it may be something to watch out for in the SDK.

[badinsults]

byuu, the ability to separate out layers is great if you are trying to do sprite rips. I use that feature all the time.

[123►Genei-Jin]

What do you mean by merged ROMs? The split files as in File.1+File.2+File.3, or do you mean the 7z archives with 10+ header-modifications and 40+ hacks? The big problem with the latter is that it takes a good ~2 seconds as it is to decompress a single 7z ROM using the official SDK. Those packs use solid state, meaning you have to decompress the entire thing. Imagine if loading a ROM took up to 80 seconds ... yikes. And you know who people would blame for that :P

Yeah, I was talking about 7z archives with various versions of the same game, I normally like to keep at least different region versions of some games.

I didn't know it would be that difficult on SNES ROMs, the only emulator that I know that fully supports merged 7z archives is FCE Ultra but that's an NES/FamiCom emulator.


FCEux added this type of support and I noticed they were opening the first ROM in the list, not the one I selected. Think that's fixed now, but it may be something to watch out for in the SDK.

Version 2.1.1 it's fized and works great.

[byuu]

Layer separation should not be hard. I'll add it to the debugger version somewhere.

7z merged archives, well I guess we can always try it. Okay the main thing I need is the ability to present platform-agnostic dialogs from within DLLs. Probably the best route is going to be dynamically linking against Qt.

[BetaWolf47]

One of the recent updates (0.51 or 0.52) broke Vista compatibility. I was running it fine until I updated from 0.50. It crashes when you click "Load Game". Drag and drop works for uncompressed games though... just something with that open dialog.

[byuu]

One of the recent updates (0.51 or 0.52) broke Vista compatibility.

It isn't broken on Vista, it seems to be an issue between my code and your system. Here's a picture from my Vista SP1 system:
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/9900/55271988.png

I wish I could fix it for you, but without being able to reproduce it, there isn't much I can do. In addition to Merged 7z ROMs, I hope to add an option to use the classic file dialog as well in the next release or two.

EDIT: added preliminary support for merged ROMs:
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/1821/fileselector.png

EDIT 2: finished GoodMerged support, it'll be in the next release.
http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/8972/50186576.png

You're right, it only takes about 2 seconds to load even with ~300 files in the archive.

[BetaWolf47]

Hey, if you're still around, props on fixing the load dialog bugs. Works fine now. I must've renamed or moved the last path I used on there.

[Ed Oscuro]

byuu is definitely around and continuing the good work; I just downloaded the latest version (just came out). I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but the number of continuing updates (for usability and otherwise) to an already great emulator makes me all warm and fizzy inside.