I'm Getting Stuttering Sounds On Newer Mame Versions

[fjl]

 

I usually skip a few versions of mame before trying out the new ones. Last version I tried that did not have a stuttering problem was 0.106

After that I tried MAME32 version 0.116 and some various versions of MAME 32 0.117

I even thought that perhaps it was because I was using the RAM hogging mame32 frontends. So I went with the regular mame and tried the latest version 0.118

The stuttering was not as bad... at first. It got worse as I continued playing. Why is this? Is my computer slow? Its a P4 3.0ghz with 1gb of ram. The games runs fine at their full speed actually its only the sound that is having a problem. Anyone else getting these problems? Or is it just me? 

[draginit]

same thing happened to me when i went to 111 from 106 the damn stuttering sound. now heres the wierd part..i was using gameex FE.  i tried everthing possible thing to figure it out...hell you'll see multiple posts from me in the gameex forum about it, then i switched FE's to Mala and for some wierd reason i havnt had any sound problems at all!!! so i dont know if that will help you or if actually switching was the fix, but my gaming experience has been way more enjoyable. good luck.

[fjl]

I've just done some more investigating and realized that Mortal Kombat II runs so slow its unplayable. Both sound and framerates. And it seems to get worse with every newer version. The only version where the game runs at full speed is when I go back as far as mame32  0.64 which came out back in 2003 

Am I doomed now to try and make a working cab cause apparently some of these games won't work on it. wtf?

 

[JoyMonkey]

Did you try playing around with the -audio_latency parameter in Mame?
I've had similar problems when using recent versions of AdvMame on really old machines; usually bumping the latency around irons out any problems.
Might be an easy fix for you, if that doesn't do it 

-audio_latency

        This controls the amount of latency built into the audio streaming. By
        default MAME tries to keep the DirectSound audio buffer between 1/5 and
        2/5 full. On some systems, this is pushing it too close to the edge,
        and you get poor sound sometimes. The latency parameter controls the
        lower threshold. The default is 1 (meaning lower=1/5 and upper=2/5).
        Set it to 2 (-audio_latency 2) to keep the sound buffer between 2/5 and
        3/5 full. If you crank it up to 4, you can definitely notice the lag.

[lettuce]

You havent by mistake enabled, 'triple buffering' or 'wait for v sync' etc???

[fjl]

How do I check for that?

[u_rebelscum]

You havent by mistake enabled, 'triple buffering' or 'wait for v sync' etc???

Also stuff to check:

-video setting (directdraw vs direct3d).  The default switched to D3D from DD between your versions, as well as major video rendering code in mame core.  If your video card does directdraw better than D3D, change the setting to DD.

Your monitor's refresh rate vs the game's original refresh rate.  If your's is slower, you will get sound problems since now the sound speed is linked to the video speed.  I'd guess this is your problem since you say the game runs fine except for sound.

[lettuce]

How do I check for that?

 

Look in the mame.ini file, you see triple buffering, if its got a '0' next to it its off, if its got a '1' then it on, same for wait for v sync.

I have been getting stutter problems on some games as im actually using tripple buffering, to stop screen tearing ive have noticed on some game. I found setting frameskip to '2' fixes my sound skipping problem, the only thing im not sure of is, is setting frameskip to '2' noticable, and would it effect gameplay?

[Avrus]

Version 2.1 of MKII plays perfectly.  3.1 does not.

[fjl]

No, none of this is working. It's seriously pissing me off


Changing audio_latency does help to reduce the stutter but now the game runs in slow motion. That wont do.

I don't have either wait for v sync or triple buffering to 1. They are both off.

It's currently set to run on Direct3D and when I change it to Direct Draw, it runs even crappier.

As for MK2 version L2.1
just like all other MK2 versions, it runs fine for the like the first minute then suddenly becomes so choppy, that I'm at full health on one frame, then I'm being fatalatied the next. Ok so its not that bad, but practically!

What do I do!? 

[SGT]

What do I do!? 

Going back to u_rebelscum's comments.  What is your current screen refresh rate?

[fjl]

[SGT]

Have you tried using msconfig to temporarily disable startup apps to see if they are slowing you down?
Temporarily disable your antivirus?
Check for viruses/spyware w/up-to-date antivirus/antispyware?
Check for rootkits?

[draginit]

refresh rates! can that actually work?  mine is set at default 56 herts, works fine using mala but not in gameex or mame32 by itself..but can go as low as 47 interlaced.  im afraid to change it tho,not sure if it will damage my monitor.,...whats it safe to change it to or what is recomended to try for the sound issue?
-sorry to jump in, but i have gone thru everything that has been listed so far with no luck..except for this last one, im just curious now.

[Avrus]

Are you certain it's not hardware related?

[fjl]

I thought of that so I went into my task manager and removed anything from memory that wasn't neccessary. That included firewalls and antivirus programs. Cleared almost everything. Retried the game and the same thing. Works for a few minutes then the framerate quickly decreased to like 4fps.

And I know I don't have spyware or rootkits. I just reformatted my pc not so long ago. Before I reformatted it also ran pretty crappily so I thought it had to do with spyware and other things. But after reformatting, I quickly retried mame, and it was the same thing.

 

[headkaze]

refresh rates! can that actually work?  mine is set at default 56 herts, works fine using mala but not in gameex or mame32 by itself..but can go as low as 47 interlaced.  im afraid to change it tho,not sure if it will damage my monitor.,...whats it safe to change it to or what is recomended to try for the sound issue?
-sorry to jump in, but i have gone thru everything that has been listed so far with no luck..except for this last one, im just curious now.

GameEx sends command line options to Mame, and I would guess it's something to do with that. This is a very common issue. If it happens in Mame32 also, that means it's an option you have there also.

Usually changing -dd to -d3d does the trick. You can try Mame32 first by going into the display options and changing DirectDraw to Direct3d.

[fjl]

I tried changing direct3d to driect draw on both the mame32 and regular mame. Same thing. 

[Havok]

Another thing to try is update video drivers, and I have seen some cases where changing out the sound card (instead of using a built in one) fixes the problem. If updated video drivers don't help, grab a cheap Sound Blaster card and disable the built in audio...

[fjl]

I tried disabling the sound on mame and it still does it. I did some even more investigating and found out that NBA Jam also has this problem. The bad framerate problem. RIght now, the sound stuttering is really not something I'm concerned about. The games I am having a bad framerate issue with are as far as I know...

Gekirindan
MK2
Elevator Action 2
NBA Jam TE

Not really sure about MK2 but I do know that NBA JAm didn't used to have this bad framerate problem that also goes for Elevator Action 2 and Gekirindan. Not sure what the hell is causing these games to work like crap but its really annoying. And this is happening on earlier versions of MAME where I know this games used to run smoothly. At least none of the street fighter games have this problem.
 

[SGT]

I tried disabling the sound on mame and it still does it.

Any chance you have ini files for these games in the INI folder?  If you do, their settings take precedence over any changes you make to mame.ini.

[Buddabing]

There are threads similar to this problem on mame.net. I believe the problem and solution were explained over there.

[SGT]

There are threads similar to this problem on mame.net. I believe the problem and solution were explained over there.

Indeed, but he has already confirmed his mame.ini settings to match the solution over there.  That's why I'm asking if he has individual game ini(s) which would explain why he still has a problem.

[fjl]

No I haven't made any specific game .ini files. Only specific game files are the controller configuration files and thats just for the street fighter games.

[lettuce]

I take it your running standard mame? (not mame32), after you quit out of the game dos gives a result of what average speed the last game was runing at, what do you get for the game your having problems with?, and are they different from other games??

[fjl]

I have the non mame32 and mame32. I don't think I have the DOS version of mame though. I get no results of anything. But if you want to know, MK2 runs at about 4fps. Same for NBA Jam TE and Gekirindin. Not sure what is causing these anoyances because they used to work before.