PRBoom-Plus Sound Issue!

Having some issues getting the sound to work, everything is glitching out, cutting out, and just sounds...well...unplayable! D:

It's not the sound channels as I have upped that to 32, and I have tried different midi outputs too.

But it's really the sound effects that are messed up, just imagine horrible lagging in a game and the sound effects dragging out. Only the game isn't lagging- that is really perfectly fine!

I am running 64-bit version of Windows 7 for anyone interested.

FuzzballFox said:

I am running 64-bit version of Windows 7 for anyone interested.

Insufficient info.

What hardware (CPU and especially what sound card) are you using? Windows 7 is certainly not the problem, that's what most people are using these days.

Mmmm lets see:
Intel i3-2120 @ 3.30GHz dual core
8gb RAM
GPU is Geforce GTS 450 too if that's any help.
Sound-card is Realtek HD Audio- internal sound card

It seems that the GL version of the program doesn't run with sound issues, but only on OGL setting. 32 bit or lower and those sound issues come back.

A few ideas to try:
- run glboom-plus.exe only, it incorporates all the functionality of prboom-plus.exe and more
- if your sound chip has a control panel, see if you can change the samplerate of its output to something lower, like 22050
- set samplerate under "# Sound settings" in glboom-plus.cfg to what your sound chip outputs
- turn on "Use GL surface for software renderer" in Options -> General in the in-game menu
- in the same menu, does changing the preferred MIDI player have any effect? I use portmidi
- lowering the sound channels to 16
- turning uncapped framerate off

Find which audio chipset your mobo has and then rummage through realtek's site and the net to find newer drivers.

Another solution: Install Coolsoft VirtualMIDISynth and set it as the default midi device. Use the SC-55 soundfont. Profit.

I'll most likely just stick with the GL exe, as that doesn't seem to have any issues when set up right.
Never really intended on using Boom at all, mainly stick to GZdoom however I've noticed many people complain that Boom maps are often only tested in newer source ports and don't actually work right or have bugs in Boom. So I guess it may be for...testing purposes only?

VGA said:

Another solution: Install Coolsoft VirtualMIDISynth and set it as the default midi device. Use the SC-55 soundfont. Profit.

Oh I have been using Coolsoft for a long long time C: Got my own custom soundfont I use

Boom is a DOS program, pr-boom is a continuation of that.

glboom is the same as prboom but with OpenGL accelerated renderer. It's the same source port, it has two different executables for ech renderer. But what does Boom have to go with anything?

The so-called "Boom compatibility" practically stands for "PrBoom-plus -complevel 9 compatibility" nowadays.

Yes, Prboom-plus "-complevel 9" is perfect* emulation of Boom engine - when it's used in recording mode.

While testing your maps recording all the time may be inconvenient, as you might need to be able to use cheat codes. In that case it's important to have the first three settings under Options -> General -> last page -> Compatibility with common mapping errors turned off:
· Linedefs w/o tags apply locally = NO
· Use passes thru all special lines = NO
· Walk under solid hanging bodies = NO

These were introduced specifically for broken maps that are supposed to be vanilla-/Boom-compatible but were only tested in Zdoom and the like.

So these must be turned off while playtesting your map. Alternatively, record a demo during each playing session, then these settings are disabled automatically.

* - perfect as far as gameplay goes. The most notable divergence from Boom behavior is support for MBF's sky transfer special, but it's a purely cosmetic addition. Of course, WAD content-wise, Prboom-plus long surpassed Boom, which never supported 65K+ segs, extended nodes, tall patches, OGG/MP3 soundtracks etc. - but these don't directly affect gameplay. Zdoom went a step farther and fixed Generalized Crushers that never worked in any engine of the Boom family. Don't use them if you want your map to be Boom-compatible.

Why does this engine have two executables anyway? You can run software mode using glboom-plus.exe.

For historical reasons: There were some versions of Windows 95 (or was it 98?) that supported the OpenGL API while some earlier versions didn't.

Must admit I did not expect that to be the reason. Interesting.