What retro things have you done today?
- Thread starter Duke
- Start date
yes The P4 kit is still here, but destined for recycling
Setup DOS AWE32 drivers in PCem 17. Loving this emulator, fantastic compared to DOSbox.
The first time I heard the AWE32 diagnose sound (at a friends house ~1996) it sounds incredible. Still does
PCem you get all the joys of proper Windows OS - manually setting up drivers for hardware, mouse.com, autoexec.bat, IRQ conflicts and everything inbetween. Set me up for where I am today I guess (IT)
The first time I heard the AWE32 diagnose sound (at a friends house ~1996) it sounds incredible. Still does
PCem you get all the joys of proper Windows OS - manually setting up drivers for hardware, mouse.com, autoexec.bat, IRQ conflicts and everything inbetween. Set me up for where I am today I guess (IT)
Nice, interesting how you're going modern hardware in vintage and i'm going vintage in moderncase badge added, have windows 11 sticker (3.1 style) in post
Managed to update my AWE32 drivers and AWE control panel to get SF2 soundbanks working (in PCem 17)
The soundbank being used here is GeneralUser_GS_1.35, from this page - https://schristiancollins.com/generaluser.php
Edit - Everything I read on VOGONS and other forums people say that General MIDI cannot be used in DOS with soundfonts.
I tried Duke Nukem 3d and Doom 2 with the excellent sound font above in DOS and they both work perfectly.
Maybe they just meant Windows was required to load the sound font to the card first
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We're you running those games in pure dos or ran from Windows in a full screen dos window?
If executing the game from inside windows the games will be able to utilise the .sf2 soundfont loaded in the Awe control panel windows program. If you shutdown into pure dos from windows the only soundfonts that can be used are the .sbk files which load when initializing the awe32 using aweutil program. There is no native Dos utility that can load .sf2 soundfonts into the AWE's ram.
If executing the game from inside windows the games will be able to utilise the .sf2 soundfont loaded in the Awe control panel windows program. If you shutdown into pure dos from windows the only soundfonts that can be used are the .sbk files which load when initializing the awe32 using aweutil program. There is no native Dos utility that can load .sf2 soundfonts into the AWE's ram.
Windows then pure DOS. Trying again I think I just got excited and thought it was the soundfont, listening back it sounds aweful in GM in DOS!
Next question, are there soundbanks available that can be used that sound as good as some of the custom soundfonts? I think I read the sbk files were the original creative files so expect not
Edit.
Mixed views on this Vogons thread (and thread linked to it) but it seems something is possible
Sound Blaster AWE 32 - Load Soundfonts MSDOS \ VOGONS
www.vogons.org
1. AWEUTIL loads synthgm.sbk, synthgs.sbk and synthmt.sbk respectively when emulating GM, GS and MT32 mode. You can replace synthgm.sbk with your bank. SF2 can be converted to SBK with Awave Studio. Use 'AWEUTIL /EM:GM' to start AWEUTIL in GM emulation mode.
Due to AWE32 architecture limitations AWEUTIL needs to be resident for soundfont to function. If CPU goes to protected mode, AWEUTIL will stop working or even freeze the system.
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I'd be interested in any parts to save them from landfill especially if it has an agp slot.
i will have a look and revert
Windows then pure DOS. Trying again I think I just got excited and thought it was the soundfont, listening back it sounds aweful in GM in DOS!
Next question, are there soundbanks available that can be used that sound as good as some of the custom soundfonts? I think I read the sbk files were the original creative files so expect not
Edit.
Mixed views on this Vogons thread (and thread linked to it) but it seems something is possible
Sound Blaster AWE 32 - Load Soundfonts MSDOS \ VOGONS
1. AWEUTIL loads synthgm.sbk, synthgs.sbk and synthmt.sbk respectively when emulating GM, GS and MT32 mode. You can replace synthgm.sbk with your bank. SF2 can be converted to SBK with Awave Studio. Use 'AWEUTIL /EM:GM' to start AWEUTIL in GM emulation mode.
Due to AWE32 architecture limitations AWEUTIL needs to be resident for soundfont to function. If CPU goes to protected mode, AWEUTIL will stop working or even freeze the system.
I think a user named georgel claimed he had access to a modified version of a program (awave?) that can convert .sf2 to .sbk but from the tested banks they seemed to be very hit and miss, never sounding like the original .sf2 font. I don't think any of the banks converted correctly, part of it being .sbk being fundamentally less feature rich than .sf2 as a container. There are some native .sbk's which could be used by using the rename trick to load it via aweutil.
Its a shame the AWE never was able to support .sf2 fonts in dos as it would have made it a mega powerful card but creative being creative never added the functionality. The limitation is bypassed if loading the game in a Windows DOS box and not pure dos.
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I did skim read over a program called awave somewhere after searching for 'convert soundfont sf2 to soundbank sbk'
Seems like its not worth it but at least i've learned something
It does seem daft Creative never released anything for pure DOS, their expectation probably was that people 95% of people would be using Windows 95 with the AWE 32. It'll only be the small percentage of retro enthusiasts that wanted DOS features. There are probably way more of these now than in 1994/1995 where there was no proper internet to search for soundfonts and general troubleshooting help.The days of Windows 95 and even 98 it was hard work just fixing your own Windows problems, without the help of many forums, Google, Youtube, tutorials and anything else. Most (for me at least) resulted in trial and error or a HDD format and rebuild. Areeeee, the good old times
PCem 3dfx OS build collection is coming along nicely. The joys of being able to fire up any OS with different hardware and quickly back it all up just by copying to another folder
I did accidentally boot the wrong hdd to the wrong OS & hardware. As expected, it totally wrecked it
Restore took all of 15 secondsThe limit of my Ryzen 5800X is about a Pentium II 300Mhz, maybe a bit lower at around 280Mhz for 100% emulation.
It would be wonderful for PCem to use all CPU cores but it seems to have been discussed at length on the PCem forums and it's not happening any time soon.
Until we all have 10Ghz processors I think emulating a PII 450Mhz at 100% and certainly PIII (if ever added to PCem) will not happen (or it will, but at 10-20% which seems pointless)
Might copy HDD5 and try it with a Voodoo 3. I expect i'll need to knock down the CPU down
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On my last trip to Plymouth to a person who inherited a lot of retro parts from his dad, I forgot the processor at his house. He said he will post it for me, but meanwhile he found the Voodoo 3 2000 somewhere. After a few unsuccessful deliveries, I finally got them today. The processor was "free" as I paid already for it, but the card costed me only 25£, as untested. I tested it and it posts. Unfortunately I don't have even a single 486 motherboard, but the CPU looks mint. The case not so much, but still it's nice to have the case too.
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Thanks! But I'm spending quite some time looking for parts. I guess I have an easy job with time to spare on ebay
Lately I only bought a few parts, only what I deemed it is really necessary or good deals. This is what I got at my parents house, I think I can say I need to stop buying lol I have a few more boxes with me too...
Thanks! But I'm spending quite some time looking for parts. I guess I have an easy job with time to spare on ebay
I wonder at what point this turns from a hobby into a problem!
I'm getting a divorce so... hahaI wonder at what point this turns from a hobby into a problem!
She said it had nothing to do with the hobby, but who knows. I got to a point where the hobby it's causing a lot of logistical issues. If I need to move house again, I'm screwed.
Thanks! But I'm spending quite some time looking for parts. I guess I have an easy job with time to spare on ebay
That's a lot of Retro gear right there!
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or it might be because your house is haunted, have you not noticed all that ectoplasm coming through the wall
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Thanks! But I'm spending quite some time looking for parts. I guess I have an easy job with time to spare on ebay
A famous thermaltake case right in the corner there!
I would say the point where you stop using something and start stacking them up 3 layers high!I wonder at what point this turns from a hobby into a problem!
There's collecting a type of item, say stamps in a stamp book for display but then there's what I call 'hoarding' which is classed as a disorder. I suppose its a fine line between collecting and hoarding.