MAME Rom Audio Echoes

[leewoo]

I've read quite a few forums on roms echoing but I cannot find the solution that solves my problem.  I am using the latest MAME build and the latest Maximus Arcade frontend on a very fast laptop.  I've tried changing my resolution down to 800x600 which didn't work.  I've also looked for some setting called RDTSC that someone posted about that is supposed to fix this.  Can anyone tell me how to solve this problem or how to turn on this setting?  Thanks.

[u_rebelscum]

I've read quite a few forums on roms echoing but I cannot find the solution that solves my problem.  I am using the latest MAME build and the latest Maximus Arcade frontend on a very fast laptop.  I've tried changing my resolution down to 800x600 which didn't work.  I've also looked for some setting called RDTSC that someone posted about that is supposed to fix this.  Can anyone tell me how to solve this problem or how to turn on this setting?  Thanks.

- RDTSC has been removed a long time ago.
- changing res is also fix to older versions of mame

What's going on now is that mame now ties the sound closely to the video emulation, and the original game didn't run at 60 Hz (the "standard" refresh rate with LCDs).

There are a few ways around the problem (try them separately):
- Turn off -waitvsync (you'll get tearing)
- Turn on -triplebuffer (helps some games, and stops tearing; overrides -waitvsync setting)
- Turn on -refreshspeed (changes the speed of the game to try to match your monitor's, so the game runs at different speed than the original.)
- Toggle -syncrefresh (might make sound worse)
- Use a CRT monitor and enable -switchres (but card needs to be able to display that res & refresh rate; might ned special video driver setup and/or monitor adjusting)

IOW, there is no perfect fix ATM.

[leewoo]

So if I hook my PC up to a tv, which i believe the standard refresh rate is 60hz or so on most, will that help or solve my problem?  My MAME machine is destined for a 25" tv, but atm I'm using my PC lcd monitor.

[u_rebelscum]

So if I hook my PC up to a tv, which i believe the standard refresh rate is 60hz or so on most, will that help or solve my problem?  My MAME machine is destined for a 25" tv, but atm I'm using my PC lcd monitor.

No, you need a multisync computer monitor.  In fact, the TV would probably with hurt a few game.  TVs (US's NTSC) ran at just under 60 Hz (approximately 59.94 Hertz; exactly 60 Hz/1.001).  But as I said above, the arcade games ran at different refresh rates than 60 Hz (and 59.94 Hz).  And when your monitor runs at a different rate than the game, sound problems can happen, especially if your monitor is refreshing slower than the original game wants.

If you go to MAWS, click deluxe search, and open the "frequency" drop down, you'll all the different rates mame emulates.

Now, if you got a multisync CRT computer monitor, and set it at 85 Hz and turned on mame's "-triplebuffering",  I think you'd have zero sound problems except maybe the four games with 85.449219 Hz.  (And games you'r computer is too slow for, of course.)  Setting the monitor to 70, 72 or 75 Hz would almost be as good.

[RayB]

Echoing or stuttering?

[Beretta]

question in the opposite direction, is there anyway to stop the studdering on a game that runs say 90% at 0 frame skip and roughly 100% on auto?
i can handle the slow down in video or game play the audio however is beyond annoying.

[u_rebelscum]

question in the opposite direction, is there anyway to stop the studdering on a game that runs say 90% at 0 frame skip and roughly 100% on auto?
i can handle the slow down in video or game play the audio however is beyond annoying.

Autoframeskip helps "speedup" some games, but hurts others.

If autoframe skip helps, it means your CPU is borderline for emulating that game, and the game is "frameskip compatible".  However, with sound linked closely to video emulation, and autoframeskip changing the frameskip rate as needed, autoframeskip doesn't help sound at all.  I wonder if setting a fixed frameskip helps or not?  (probaly not, though might depend on the game )

A stronger/faster CPU would help the most, of course.

[RayB]

Sound stutter is due to processing power being given priority to other things than the sound rendering/streaming. Classicly the best options to cut that crap out is reducing all unecessary processing hogs, like filters, stretching, etc. Use native resolutions rather than forcing it to a "Windows" resolution. Enable hardware support if you have it (ie: Direct Draw, Direct 3D). Finally, the last option is reducing sound quality. 16 bit 44khz stereo is best, but reducing it to 22hz  or even less uses less processing for some reason and can reduce or eliminate the stutter.

[Beretta]

ya fixed frame skip does'nt seem to help.

i've already got it using dx.

the game im talking about are boarderline.. games that typically run at 90-5100% with no skipping.. that either just need a little bit to run fully..

or games where they run fine except for the occasional dip below 100%, games that are very playable video wise but the sound is dragging everything down.

fixed and auto frame skip dont seem to help much if at all.