Chrono Trigger sound problem

spoofer · Post by **spoofer** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 8:00 am

Sound in this game is realy bad. Background music plays nice for seconds and then gets screwed up for 1-2 seconds. Same goes for short sounds like opening chest. I tried different combos of interpolation and low bass filter and got nothing, both stable 1.36 and WIP. I know it's not sound card becouse I have this problem on two different computers and Snes9x sound emulation works fine on both of them.

snkcube · Post by **snkcube** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 8:50 am

Post your system specs.

spoofer · Post by **spoofer** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 9:55 am

CPU: AMD BartonXP 2500+
MB: EPoX 8RDA3I, nForce2
GFX: Gigabyte GeForce FX 5900XT
RAM: 512MB
OS: WindowsXP Home

snkcube · Post by **snkcube** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 10:33 am

Make sure you have the latest drivers for everything. (Video card, sound, etc.) And make sure your rom is a good dump.

Post by **Agozer** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 12:40 pm

Get NSRT from http://nsrt.edgeemu.com and verify your rom image with it.

spoofer · Post by **spoofer** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 1:57 pm

I have latest drivest but I don't think that is problem with them as I have same problem on two completly different computers. NSRT output:

Code: Select all

---------------------Internal ROM Info----------------------
       File: Chrono Trigger.smc
       Name: CHRONO TRIGGER        Company: Square
     Header: SWC                      Bank: HiROM
Interleaved: No                       SRAM: 64 Kb
       Type: Normal + Batt             ROM: 32 Mb
    Country: USA                     Video: NTSC
  ROM Speed: 120ns (FastROM)       Version: 1.0
   Checksum: Good 0x788C             CRC32: 2D206BF7
--------------------------Database--------------------------
   Name: Chrono Trigger
Country: USA                    Version: 1.0
 Port 1: Gamepad                 Port 2: Gamepad

Kindo · Post by **Kindo** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 6:41 pm

Hi!

I have this problem as well, I think. Although I did not know it was limited to Chrono Trigger only. I would also very much appreciate some help with this... the sound is really iffy sometimes. It's not some constant erroneous sound, but certain effects come out very bad. A very obvious one is when I am in the Heckran cave, for example; there's supposed to be some background ambience and water flowing, but all I hear is a semi-high-pitched noise. Sound effects when attacking are also not quite as I remember them to have been before, as well as the effect of monsters dying. Is that similar to your problem, spoofer?

Anyway... I, too, have the latest drivers, so I doubt it's that. Some specs:

CPU: Intel Pentium 4, 1700MHz
GFX: GeForce 3, 64Mb
RAM: 512MB
OS: WinXP Home
Sound: SB Live! Audio [9800]

Cecil · Post by **Cecil** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 7:03 pm

Kindo wrote:Hi!

I have this problem as well, I think. Although I did not know it was limited to Chrono Trigger only. I would also very much appreciate some help with this... the sound is really iffy sometimes. It's not some constant erroneous sound, but certain effects come out very bad. A very obvious one is when I am in the Heckran cave, for example; there's supposed to be some background ambience and water flowing, but all I hear is a semi-high-pitched noise. Sound effects when attacking are also not quite as I remember them to have been before, as well as the effect of monsters dying. Is that similar to your problem, spoofer?

Anyway... I, too, have the latest drivers, so I doubt it's that. Some specs:

CPU: Intel Pentium 4, 1700MHz
GFX: GeForce 3, 64Mb
RAM: 512MB
OS: WinXP Home
Sound: SB Live! Audio [9800]

That is actually a known problem in the game. It has something to do with the way the game sent sound data to the Sound Processor in the SNES that isn't emulated in zsnes.

spoofer · Post by **spoofer** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 7:24 pm

Snes9x got it right. Maybe ZSNES authors shoud look into it's source!

snkcube · Post by **snkcube** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 7:26 pm

The coders know about this bug already. They might fix it, but I'm not sure.

Kindo · Post by **Kindo** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 8:07 pm

Ah, okay! So it's known... that's actually good news. So, does this mean it's apparent in every game and not just Chrono Trigger? If so, I'll switch to SNES9X until they've fixed it. I definitely prefer ZSNES, but as long as this pretty serious bug (for me it is) is there... I'll have to go with my second hand choice.

Noxious Ninja · Post by **Noxious Ninja** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 8:14 pm

There are only a few games with incorrect sound. Most of them are just fine.

I think the games most likely to have sound problems are Square RPGs, is that right?

Post by **Agozer** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 8:27 pm

Square games are notorious when it comes down to raping the SNES sound hardware to produce the sound the programmers wanted.

JFD62780 · Post by **JFD62780** » Fri Aug 27, 2004 5:56 am

Another game to note: Super Adventure Island. Its sound effects sound warbley and robotic, while on the actual hardware, they were smooth. The closest you can get with an emulator is SNEeSe when it comes to this phenomenon we call SPC-Rape.

Yet another game (which someone encoded 3 sample MP3's of, documenting the aural differences between ZSNES, SNES9X and the actual hardware) is Super Castlevania 4. Note the thunder and the bats in Demo Mode.

ThunderClaw · Post by **ThunderClaw** » Fri Aug 27, 2004 6:02 am

The reason it does this is because the game actually sends junk data to the sound hardware on your SNES (the signal isn't unlike the 'snow static' you get on your TV), and it's not exactly clear as to how they managed to get it to output something that wasn't god-awful.

Kindo · Post by **Kindo** » Fri Aug 27, 2004 6:32 am

I have sound errors in Clay Fighter as well. I tried Snes9X, but the sound is even worse there. At least on Chrono Trigger. What were you saying about SNEeSe? Does it not have this problem? Also, I don't remember this being apparent in earlier versions of Zsnes. I know I played CT some years back, using this emulator... but I can't recall this.

Post by **Agozer** » Fri Aug 27, 2004 11:44 am

SNeeSe has the most accurate sound emulation out of all the SNS emulators. Or so I have heard.

ThunderClaw · Post by **ThunderClaw** » Fri Aug 27, 2004 7:45 pm

Kindo wrote: Also, I don't remember this being apparent in earlier versions of Zsnes. I know I played CT some years back, using this emulator... but I can't recall this.

I remember playing CT with .990, and the wind effects nearly made me jam a screwdriver into my ear to make the horrible, horrible pain stop.

JFD62780 · Post by **JFD62780** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 1:02 am

My guess is SNEeSe's developers focused more on the sound emulation than anything else...

Oblivion · Post by **Oblivion** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 1:25 am

JFD62780 wrote:My guess is SNEeSe's developers focused more on the sound emulation than anything else...

I recall the main emphasis of SNEeSe being the timing. Good timing means better sound.

Dmog · Post by **Dmog** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 6:37 pm

Like Matthew Kendora and others said in the past, the sound problems found in games such as CT probably comes from the timing issue.

Like any non emulation-lamers knows (i.e: "z.nes is basically perfect") zsnes (and snes9x to a lesser extend) timing isn't all that great. Apparently,SnesSe's timing engine is more accurate,and sure enough,the bad sound issue is not present.

The "hardware sound rape" thing probably isn't the real issue.

FitzRoy · Post by **FitzRoy** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 8:29 pm

Wow, sneese is good with the sound. Never tried it out before, but it handled chrono trigger and castlevania iv's sfx rape just about perfect. And how long has zsnes had those bugs? Bad thing is I don't think the game support is anywhere near zsnes. I couldn't even get to illusion of gaia's title screen.

Noxious Ninja · Post by **Noxious Ninja** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 8:39 pm

Maybe it's just me, but I downloaded SNEeSe 0.831 Win32, and whenever I run it, it just flashes the screen and quits.

Obligatory specs:
WinXP Pro SP2
Radeon 9700 Pro w/ Catalyst 4.7
ABit NF7-S w/ latest drivers from ABit's site as of two weeks ago

Joe Camacho · Post by **Joe Camacho** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 10:26 pm

Noxious Ninja wrote: Radeon 9700 Pro w/ Catalyst 3.7

update those drivers, they are quite old.

snkcube · Post by **snkcube** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 12:39 am

Joe Camacho wrote:
Noxious Ninja wrote: Radeon 9700 Pro w/ Catalyst 3.7
update those drivers, they are quite old.

Don't you mean ancient old?