sound in linux

[burn]

Hello all. I just started using zsnes and its great. However im having an issue with sound. first my system:

slackware 10, amd tbird 1.4 512mb ddr, 32mb tnt2 nvidia, using opengl and alsa. zsnes is built from WIP source 0803 with gcc optimization (just -O3)

it seems that no matter what combo of sound/video options i use, there is still a bit of sketchiness in the sound. the latest stable is worse than WIP, and the sound isnt unbearable, just bad enough to be irritating. any suggestions?

[rage46]

try running sndconfig again or setup and pick the sound card configuration. I haven't used slack in awhile but i think thats how you configure your soundcard.

[burn]

my sound is configured. like i said sound for zsnes works, its just choppy, and sound on my sustem in general is perfect

[Joe Camacho]

There are known issues with sound in linux, sadly, those topics were in the other board, the one that's dead, so sorry I can't help you with it. I know next to nothin' about Linux.

[rage46]

Did you try another soundcard to see if zsnes did not like your card. DSP is pretty good and I never had problems with it dealing with my sound, but you never know.

[kenmasters1983]

linux is crap dont use it for emu's or anything..too much typing and who wants to read all that crap about installing the right video card drivers sound drivers not mention all the problems with modems with linux.

go get win98 instead..

[Joe Camacho]

linux is crap dont use it for emu's or anything..too much typing and who wants to read all that crap about installing the right video card drivers sound drivers not mention all the problems with modems with linux.

go get win98 instead..

If someone uses and OS, he or she has a reason to use it, don't bash an OS just because you don't like it.... Sorry I can't contribute something productive to the thread.

[burn]

Well i gave snes9x a go - the sound is much cleaner but there's no gui for it. Not a huge deal but i dont like having to restart the emu just to config it. Ah well - i guess i'll just hope zsnes linux sound gets better, because everything else about it is great.

[DOLLS (J) [!]]

linux is crap dont use it for emu's or anything..too much typing and who wants to read all that crap about installing the right video card drivers sound drivers not mention all the problems with modems with linux.

go get win98 instead..

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
You are paving your way to BANNAGE, beware.

[burn]

c61746961, its just flame bait man - dont feed the trolls and they'll leave

[Agozer]

c61746961, its just flame bait man - dont feed the trolls and they'll leave

No, they won't always leave.

[rage46]

You can actually download a frontend for snes9x from sourceforge. Or you can create a link to your desktop with the emulator.

you right click then pick "creat new" and in their pick "link to application" thenyou will need to type in the emulators directory and all the commands with it. In other words type the command in.

[burn]

i looked at that frontend, assuming youre referring to the kde one. i havent used it but im assuming its just a hack to control the arguments passed to the external emu command. Im not a fan of such hacks, but i may try it. If only zsnes had as good sound as snes9x! everything else about zsnes it great!

[Riven]

my sound is configured. like i said sound for zsnes works, its just choppy, and sound on my sustem in general is perfect

Do you have artsd or esd running in the background? If so, try killing them first.

For some reason, zsnes doesn't seem to like soundwrappers. It needs direct access to the sound card or it doesn't sound right.

[rage46]

It's not a hack it is actually a frontend like the windows one.

[phibxr]

There seems to be some very serious issues with ZSnes and (probably) SDL+ALSA under Linux.

In my opinion it seems to be related to the auto-framerate, because the sound seems to change its framerate multiple times every second, resulting in very strange (although subtle) tempo-changes which distorts the whole experience of playing.

I'd be very grateful if a developer of ZSnes would put an answer in this thread, even if it belongs in the bug-forum, because this problem has been with us a few years.

[Hitokage]

Hello all. I just started using zsnes and its great. However im having an issue with sound. first my system:

slackware 10, amd tbird 1.4 512mb ddr, 32mb tnt2 nvidia, using opengl and alsa. zsnes is built from WIP source 0803 with gcc optimization (just -O3)

it seems that no matter what combo of sound/video options i use, there is still a bit of sketchiness in the sound. the latest stable is worse than WIP, and the sound isnt unbearable, just bad enough to be irritating. any suggestions?

When you say sketchy, do you mean it stutters or certain sounds are inaccurate? I can certainly vouch for the latter as an actual problem in zsnes(although I've only really seen it get bad with Chrono Trigger's menu sounds).

[Dolphin]

I also have this problem.

For some reason, zsnes doesn't seem to like soundwrappers. It needs direct access to the sound card or it doesn't sound right.

just to add, First run zsnes with that artsd, load a game, then wait untill sound starts(anysound releated to zsnes), then press esc, wait till the sound stops and quit, then type 'killall artsd' press enter and run zsnes, sound should work properly .

If you close zsnes then try to reopen it, sound won't work, you will have to go into sound uncheck then check the arts option in the sound configuaration in kde, then click aply and repeat. Somuch work .

The sound for is behind a few seconds with the addition of sound slightly inaccurate e.g. I swing my sword in zelda and it takes a few seconds for me to hear the swing.

[k8to]

zsnes-wip has timing problems on Linux, as far as I can tell, with every build, for about a year. It broke sometime in 2003, and after banging my head against it for a while with and without SDL, etc, I gave up, and decided to just use Zsnes 1.36 / Snes9x instead, which do not exhibit these problems.

The timing problems are most obvious in the sound stream, but I believe the entire time flow of the emulator is stuttery. I'm sure the problem is made more severe by the low horsepower of my system, as I have a VIA c3 processor at 866mhz. On my system, what happens is the music playrate oscillates, it remains roughly stable for a time, at what sounds like approximately the right rate (I don't know how to check if it's not slightly off), and then will stutter, where what would normally be the timeflow like so:

Code: Select all

 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 ..

Ends up in the problem segments more like this:

Code: Select all

  123       456       789

Note that after a few such "stutters", time will seem approximately correct a period of time around a second or two, and then a series of stutters will happen again. I am uncertain if this cyclic occurence is a matter of processor allocation and the vagaries of the autoskip algorithm, or some kind of quantization of two values which are slightly off.

If I set the emulator to a fixed frameskip, that particular problem does not manifest, but the entire speed of the game is multiplied by the frameskip which is NOT how it thought frameskip was supposed to work.

Full disclosure: I use do use alsa for my sound system, but do not have a way to conveniently swap back to the ancient OSS code, since Linux now has ALSA as the standard, kernel-supplied sound subsystem. Again, this problem does not occur with ZSNES 1.36 (non WIP).

Does anyone know how to contact ipher? I'd be very happy if someone were to pass this along. I am willing to do test legwork and try to provide intelligent feedback (hopefully the above is convincing) and am conteactable at jrodman AT zsnes-wip DOT spamportal DOT net

[Dolphin]

try using "threaded sound system" instead of the default "autodetect", and select artsd sound server.