WC3 Sound probs

[Jacobo]

Hi. I was recently introduced to the WC universe and have been playing and beating everything up till WC3. I'm excited to see what's in store next for Blair, but I can't get any sound on the game when I install it using dosbox. The sound is fine when I test it during installation but once the game starts it's really jerky and cuts in and out (mostly out).

I am using a Dell Inspiron 8500 laptop with XP. I've ran the pre- WC 3 games off DOS-box without probs. I'm not very technical on computers so many of your strategies listed I haven't been able to keep up with. My method of installing the game is the one posted on wc news: https://www.wcnews.com/techsupport.shtml#wc3

If anyone has any suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it. I'm fresh off S0 2 and eager to continue the fight. Great series! ;-)

 

[AD]

Hi. I was recently introduced to the WC universe and have been playing and beating everything up till WC3. I'm excited to see what's in store next for Blair, but I can't get any sound on the game when I install it using dosbox. The sound is fine when I test it during installation but once the game starts it's really jerky and cuts in and out (mostly out).

I am using a Dell Inspiron 8500 laptop with XP. I've ran the pre- WC 3 games off DOS-box without probs. I'm not very technical on computers so many of your strategies listed I haven't been able to keep up with. My method of installing the game is the one posted on wc news: https://www.wcnews.com/techsupport.shtml#wc3

If anyone has any suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it. I'm fresh off S0 2 and eager to continue the fight. Great series! ;-)

Are you installing in dosbox and trying to run the game in XP? (Personally I would probably keep running it in dosbox as well). The problem might be that you are setting the sound settings (the IRQs and whatnot) to what dosbox requires but which are different than what windows actually uses.

 

[Jacobo]

I have dosbox installed already and I use it to "mount" the CD game and play WC3. The videos and the gameplay come up fine-just without sound. I'm using the Sounblaster 16 option, Digital I/O Port 220, Digital IRQ 7, Digital DMA Lo 1, and Digital Hi 5. I don't know what any of that stuff means, but I've tried mixing some of those options up but nothing seems to work. When I do the sample tests though, I hear the sound check perfectly. Is there a certain setting you recomend?

 

[AD]

I have dosbox installed already and I use it to "mount" the CD game and play WC3. The videos and the gameplay come up fine-just without sound. I'm using the Sounblaster 16 option, Digital I/O Port 220, Digital IRQ 7, Digital DMA Lo 1, and Digital Hi 5. I don't know what any of that stuff means, but I've tried mixing some of those options up but nothing seems to work. When I do the sample tests though, I hear the sound check perfectly. Is there a certain setting you recomend?

It sounds like you have the sound set up fine. I reread your initial post. It sounds like your cycles might be too low. If you haven't already, open dosbox.conf in a text editor and change core=normal to core=dynamic (or you could try auto)

Then set your cycles to 50000 or possibly higher. (you won't be able to do that with normal core). If that doesn't help, you could try adjusting your sound hardware acceleration setttings in windows. Possibly try setting your sound card to regular sound blaster or sound blaster pro and see if that gets rid of some of it as well.

 

[Jacobo]

Bingo! Thanks AD. By tweaking with the framerates, I was able to resolve this problem. By lowering the cycle rates when I'm aboard the Victory, all sfx, music, and conversations run fine. When I launch into space, I raise the cycles (so the ship handles perfect) and everything works great. When I land, the music is choppy and I have to lower them again. No idea why it won't stay at a constant cycle rate, but I'm satisfied and enjoying the game. Thanks for the help AD!

 

[ChrisReid]

Due to different demands of the game when aboard the ship, playing movies or in space, different levels of processing power are required. The new DOSBox 0.70 was released this weekend that attempts to get a handle on this. The program now attempts to adjust itself automatically as the game runs. The basic setup and installation for 0.65 and 0.70 is the same, so it might be worth giving a try.