Stuttering and lag in LucasArts games

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almeath
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Stuttering and lag in LucasArts games

Post by almeath »

Does anyone have LucasArts games from the mid 90s working perfectly without stuttering sound and lag?

It seems that there is something about how LucasArts games are coded that does not emulate well in Sheepshaver. It is particularly noticeable in The Dig and in the Dark Forces cutscenes.

I have tried every conceivable combination of settings, ROMs and Mac OS versions and I am basically resigned to it being an issue with the SheepShaver code that will never get fixed.
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: Stuttering and lag in LucasArts games

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

Based on your other posts I suppose that you run SheepShaver in OSX.

Is the game 68k or PPC (or both)? If it is 68k, it may run better in BasiliskII

Is any of the discussion in this recent thread helpful? There the QuickTime version appears to be critical (anyway in SheepShaver).
almeath
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Re: Stuttering and lag in LucasArts games

Post by almeath »

I am using the latest MacOS X build from February 2014 and I only experience these issues with LucasArts games.

All the mid 90s cd games are 68k/PPC compatible. When running in PPC they include enhanced graphic smoothing capabilities. I did try running Dark Forces in 68k mode in Basilisk II and experienced the same stuttering during the cutscenes.

I also read the thread you mention however neither The Dig or Dark Forces utilizes QuickTime.

Each game CD has a folder containing Sound Manager 3.0 (Dark Forces) or Sound Manager 3.1 (The Dig). There is a note saying that these need only be installed if using a system earlier than 7.5.

I have not installed them as I am using 7.5.5 with default extensions loaded. I am not sure if it is safe to replace newer versions with old in this context, but I will try it.
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adespoton
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Re: Stuttering and lag in LucasArts games

Post by adespoton »

Isn't The Dig supported by ScummVM? This is probably a much better solution than emulating the interpreter's runtime in an OS.

I've never got Dark Forces cutscenes to run smoothly though, and that's definitely not a Scumm game.

[edit] http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Categ ... rted_Games -- yup, The Dig is playable via ScummVM.
almeath
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Re: Stuttering and lag in LucasArts games

Post by almeath »

Yes thanks, I am aware that I can run all LucasArts adventure games in ScummVM or DOSBox perfectly, and I have been doing so for years. :wink:

My main motivation was getting Dark Forces to run properly, because the MacOS port is far superior to the DOS version in graphics and sound. There is an OpenGL based engine for Dark Forces available on the Internet (DarkXL), but it has been in alpha for about two years and there is no sign of it being finished anytime soon. So currently the old MacOS PPC release is the 'best' version available.

I raised the example of the The Dig only to highlight that the issue seems to be the way LucasArts code is running in the SheepShaver and Basilisk II environments. All of their games from 1990 to 1995 (CD or disk releases) seem to be affected to varying degrees, but especially the more demanding ones like CD releases of The Dig, Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max, Dark Forces etc.

All the comments I have seen reinforce my conclusion that there are no settings or configurations that will fix this, so it looks like it will just come down to re-testing in every subsequent build of SheepShaver and hoping that one day the issue will be resolved.
bigbro
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Re: Stuttering and lag in LucasArts games

Post by bigbro »

I remember old lucasarts scumm games were choppy on old macs when virtual memory was enabled. Since you have to use virtual memory in SS, there's no way you will get the dig to run correctly. ScummVM is indeed the way to go.
Never got Dark Forces to work outside DOSBox, can't help you there.
herecomethej2000
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Re: Stuttering and lag in LucasArts games

Post by herecomethej2000 »

Improved graphics, yes. Improved sound, no. With sound on OS classic you are limited to the old Quicktime Synth which was based off of a stripped down sound canvas. In the Dos version you can run any midi device you like on your system. I myself prefer the Timbres of Heaven 3.0 .sf2 soundfont in conjunction with VirtualMidiSynth.
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adespoton
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Re: Stuttering and lag in LucasArts games

Post by adespoton »

Actually, the sound isn't limited to the old Quicktime Synth either; I installed a bunch of others back in the day. Mind you, installing Sound Fonts is tricky under Classic MacOS, but you can always route the midi from Quicktime through to whatever synth you wanted. I had a Korg bank I used instead.

Unfortunately, MIDI doesn't work well with SS or BII, so these days, you ARE limited to the stripped down sound canvas of the default Quicktime synth -- unless you are able to get MIDI output to a virtual device working.
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