Perfect picture and scrolling but bad crackling sound...

[Chandy]

I'm a user of SNES9X since it has been released and I like this emulator very much, most because of the very nice and clear GUI, compatibility and usability. I'm using it on Windows and on MacOS X.

So I included SNES9X into my arcade cabinet project based on an Europlay arcade cabinet with a Hantarex 9110 CRT with an AMD X4 3,0 GHz with 4GB RAM, ArcadeVGA graphics card and WinXP SP3 system.

I like SNES9X very much on the cabinet because I can set the original screen resolution of the SNES (this is not possible with e.g. BSNES) so when I'm running SNES9X on my cabinet you can not tell the difference between an original SNES and SNES9X on my platform.

The only problem I have is: crackling sound.

I tried everything: different sound drivers like SNES9X DirectSound, XAudio2, FMOD Ex Default, Ex ASIO and OpenAL. I get best results with OpenAL but sound is still crackling. With different input rates (as recommended I also tried to lower the settings), playback rates and buffer lengths. Nothing helps. Unfortunately as soon as I synchronize with the sound core sound gets better but scrolling is suddenly jerky. So at the moment I can only choose between two things: perfect scrolling OR perfect sound. I even tried the new modified version of SNES9X with the BNES sound core but this makes no difference.

By the way: I'm using DirectDraw for graphics as I get an error message when selecting DirectX (but I have the latest DirectX drivers for WinXP SP3 installed). When selecting OpenGL the emulator gets way too fast (200 frames or such) and I found no possibility to slow it down to 60 frames, although the refresh rate is set to 60 Hz, vsync is on.

What can I do to get good sound without loosing perfect scrolling?

[odditude]

Install the latest DirectX updates.

[Chandy]

Did you

Install the latest DirectX updates.

Did you read my posting carefully or is this some kind of automated answer? Latest DirectX drivers for WinXP SP3 ARE installed...

[OV2]

If you want to use vsync you'll have to find the perfect input rate setting for your system. You could try Ver Greeneyes frequency test program, it should tell you an accurate input rate number for your monitor (but will take a while).

[Chandy]

I tried that but

If you want to use vsync you'll have to find the perfect input rate setting for your system. You could try Ver Greeneyes frequency test program, it should tell you an accurate input rate number for your monitor (but will take a while).

I tried that but I get a rate like 48785 and that's a setting I can not enter with the slider...

[OV2]

Huh? That would correspond to ~ 90hz. What exactly are the various values reported by the frequency test?

[Chandy]

Sorry, I posted the false value. It's 32.165 (average) and 32.195 (maximum) at 47.962,519 kHz at 352 x 264 in 60,26 Hz.

I tried that values with all different sound drivers - still that crackling. Although XAudio2 sounds a little bit better than before.

[odditude]

Install the latest DirectX updates.

Did you read my posting carefully or is this some kind of automated answer? Latest DirectX drivers for WinXP SP3 ARE installed...

you stated that you have the most recent drivers installed. the directx runtime is a different entity.

if you want to complain about reading comprehension, make sure you're using the correct terminology yourself.

[Chandy]

Install the latest DirectX updates.

Did you read my posting carefully or is this some kind of automated answer? Latest DirectX drivers for WinXP SP3 ARE installed...

you stated that you have the most recent drivers installed. the directx runtime is a different entity.

if you want to complain about reading comprehension, make sure you're using the correct terminology yourself.

But it's correct what I wrote - latest DirectX drivers are installed. I clicked on the link you provided and check it by myself...

[OV2]

Try 32126. If you can't get rid of the crackling it should at least reduce the tearing to a minimum if you enable audio sync and disable vsync.

As for OpenGL: you can set frame skipping to automatic, that will limit the speed even if vsync fails to enable.

[Chandy]

Try 32126. If you can't get rid of the crackling it should at least reduce the tearing to a minimum if you enable audio sync and disable vsync.

As for OpenGL: you can set frame skipping to automatic, that will limit the speed even if vsync fails to enable.

I tried 32126 at rate 32000, 48000 and 47962. I can hear no real difference between the three Hz rates - crackling is still there.

I also tried audio sync with vsync turned on - no difference. With vsync turned off - good sound but scrolling is jerking. Unfortunately the same with OpenGL (you were right - automatic was the trick) - sound is good but scrolling is jerking again, too.

At which rate did you mean to try 32126? And how did you get this value? Can you suggest any other rates to try (both rate and input rate in combination)?

At the moment it looks to me like there are only two options: good sound or good scrolling. But maybe there is a solution for this? I wonder about this behavior because I have many emulators installed in my arcade cabinet but none has any troubles with vsync/sync to screen in combination with good sound. I wonder what's the cause of this?

By the way: on my iMac vsync is turned on, OpenGL is used but sound is good (no crackling) and scrolling is perfect (no tearing at all). Does the Mac version use any other code?

[OV2]

The output rate should not make any difference. It does not influence the input rate.

I used this formula:
(32040,5 / 60,098475521) / (47962,519 / 60,26) * 48000
(SNES_AUDIO / SNES_VIDEO) / (YOUR_AUDIO / YOUR_VIDEO) * THEORETICAL_AUDIO

= 32151,7 (I didn't use the reported output frequency, that's why I got 32126).

[Chandy]

Ok, thank you for the info. I'll try a little bit with the formula you posted.

The only thing is that the frequency program outputs a minimum, average and maximum value. Which one should be used?

[OV2]

You should use the average.

[Chandy]

Unfortunately I can not get rid of this damn crackling sound. I tried a lot. Maybe I missed something but I'm out of options at the moment... Thank anyway for your help! Maybe a new version will solve the problem!?

[Camo_Yoshi]

What kind of sound card do you have? Some types of sound cards can be very finicky with SNES9x's audio.

[Chandy]

It's the built-in on an AMD M2N-E board (I think built 2007 or so). I never ever had any troubles with any emulator or any game I installed on that machine (and I have hundreds installed)...

[Anime-niac]

It's the built-in on an AMD M2N-E board (I think built 2007 or so). I never ever had any troubles with any emulator or any game I installed on that machine (and I have hundreds installed)...

I have the same board (ASUS M2N-E with an Athlon64 X2 4600+) running XP SP2 and there are no problems with the sound using the latest test build of Snes9x with default settings. Try deleting snes9x.conf, restart Snes9x (don't change any settings) and load a game. If the sound still crackles then it's most likely a problem with the SoundMAX drivers.

[Chandy]

As I said before - sound is perfect when I turn off vsync. But then I have jerky scrolling. So I do not think it's a driver thing. But who knows, Windows always shows strang behavior...