Configuring and Running PC-98 Emulators for Touhou

[Romantique Tp]

I just realized that the sound buffer controls in T98 are inverted, which pretty much means that the lower you set the sound buffer to, the more the audio will lag.


what

[Agent of the BSoD]

I just realized that the sound buffer controls in T98 are inverted, which pretty much means that the lower you set the sound buffer to, the more the audio will lag.


what

The developers must've made it that way to make sure we were paying attention. :V

On a related note, after messing around with Next's SSG volume number, I concluded that 8 is the best for it. I used a comparison of Strawberry Crisis!! from Anex and Next to find the number that made the music match.
(You know, I really like Strawberry Crisis!!'s SSG at 20 because it just sounds more awesome. I'll have to get used to this...)

Edit: Fixed the first post (again) ^_^;

[Momiji]

Just a heads up, Mima and I have been experimenting with heavy multiplayer PoDD play with T98-Next.  I found that on my computer (w\ a 2.6GHz C2D, 4GB RAM), setting the Frameskip to AUTO causes T98-Next to chug progressively worse and worse the longer it's played.  This happens both in Wine/Linux and 32-bit Vista.

[Agent of the BSoD]

Huh, that's weird. PoDD is actually the best PC-98 game on my computer with Next. (not even HRtP can beat it) Maybe I'll try experimenting with the frame skip for a while (along with the sound buffer) when I have free time and see what I can come up with. It seems that different computers render Next differently, so my fix MIGHT not work for everyone's. (but it's pretty good already)

[Momiji]

I thought it might have something to do with my dual-core CPU and context switching between the two, but even setting processor affinity didn't help.

That was the easy part of the experiment, getting two gamepads working was a huge pain, but in the end we ended up playing PoDD for hours.  Definitely a fun party game.

[Agent of the BSoD]

I'm experimenting with it now. Also, do you know how long it took for it to start running slowly? Maybe I can try and recreate that event and go from there.

[Momiji]

There wasn't really a "start" of it, it was imperceptible when you first started the emulator, then got progressively worse the longer it ran.  You'd definitely notice it within the span of one game though.

[Agent of the BSoD]

Hmmm, ok. I ran a cpu vs. cpu match twice in a row on it and there wasn't lag at all. There was one moment of lag but I assume it was because of Fraps running. It wasn't recording either, I just used it to watch the fps. Funny how when it lagged, fraps still said 56 fps.

If that one game gets progressively worse, I wonder if some part of it is the programming of that particular game, because I don't know of any of the other games doing this.

[Momiji]

Not sure.  It doesn't really slow down altogether, it chugs, like... slow... fast slow.... fast slow.... cycling every second or so.  Like something's lagging T98Next briefly then it speeds up to catch up.

[Agent of the BSoD]

Well, I've messed around with PoDD and Next for a while but I can't recreate the problem you're having. I'm wondering if it's just the computers you're using. There may be too many applications running in the background. Or maybe it's the graphics card(s) you've got. Though it's entirely possible that none of these are true, and Next is just being stupid.

The only time I've been able to slow it down is when there are massive amounts of bullets on screen and/or the background is changing colors.

[Momiji]

It's an Asus G50Vt, with a 2.2GHz C2D and a Geforce 9800m GS videocard (yes, it has an MXM card inside, with it's own video RAM).

Oh, by the way, there's a new version of T98-Next.

[Agent of the BSoD]

Oh, by the way, there's a new version of T98-Next.

MIND = EXPLODE!!!

Too bad it's in Japanese. I can't read it, though I might be able to navigate it by using the English Next to direct me.

Edit: IT HAS VSYNC! This makes me very happy.
Editing Again: vsync doesn't work, at least for me. Also, the emulator runs VERY VERY slow. Can't seem to figure out why.
Ok, I've decided that this version sucks, since I can't get it to even run like how the english one does. It's so slow, no matter what I set the [Num] MHz to. Don't know if you have had any luck with it yet.

[Momiji]

You have to play around with it a bit.  Every time you change one of the main settings (CPU speed, throttling, frameskip, etc.), you have to reload the whole thing to have an effect.

[Agent of the BSoD]

That's exactly what I've been doing. I close out the game every time, change something, and reload. I can't get it to move faster than two notes a second on HRtP opening song.
I've tried modifying everything on the page with the main settings and all that stuff but nothing works. I'm so confused.

[Agent of the BSoD]

That's exactly what I've been doing. I close out the game every time, change something, and reload. I can't get it to move faster than two notes a second on HRtP opening song.
I've tried modifying everything on the page with the main settings and all that stuff but nothing works. I'm so confused.

STILL NOT WORKING!
I am so annoyed with it right now. (if it means anything, I'm in japanese locale) I can't make it do anything right. If you have, please let me know what you did.

[Momiji]

Grrr, that sounds frustrating.  My recent update of Wine broke my install for the time being, so I'll let you know how I configured mine once I can get it to work again.  :V