ZEsarUX Beta 7.2-RC

[chernandezba]

There's not too much clicking when nothing's going on but fastloading, using the menus, or using other programs in the background makes it more noticable. I also get occasional framedrops down to 47fps or so which cause audio dropouts.

Actually I just tried testing again and the silence detector does help by setting the level at the default 0 value when nothing is playing. But typing or playing music do cause clicks.

Thanks
But what I really need is:
-Disable silence detector, I don't want to have it enabled. Reopen the emulator if the setting was enabled
-Volume at 100%
-Select machine 48kb
-Just don't press any key. Just listen. Is there any continuous clicking audio? Or not?

Cheers

[djnzx48]

OK, I tested it and there is no clicking. I only start to get clicking noises if I switch to other windows in the background.

[chernandezba]

OK, I tested it and there is no clicking. I only start to get clicking noises if I switch to other windows in the background.

That's great! Thanks

[PeterJ]

Hi [mention]chernandezba[/mention]

I've made three recordings which I hope will be of assistance. I can confirm that the silence setting is enabled.

ZEsarUX - PowerUp.mp3 - Shows the handful of clicks that you get when you first start the application with the 48K ROM. As mentioned earlier this is greatly improved now and I don't now consider this to be an issue.

I appreciate you said that you are not looking at audio distortion currently but this may help in the future. I have recorded 15 or 20 seconds of Dan Dare in Fuse and ZEsarUX

DynamiteDan - ZEsarUX.mp3 (Recording started then the file opened)

DynamiteDan - Fuse.mp3 (Recording started then the file opened)

All the files are here.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/SoundTest/

If we can help with any other testing please let us know.

If other want to record audio then I recommend Total Recorder. The free version lets you download one minute of audio which is fine for my needs.

[chernandezba]

Thanks Peter
I’m going to hear them

But as I said, I need you to test audio having silence detector DISABLED, not enabled. Forget it by now
Thanks

[PeterJ]

Thanks Peter
I’m going to hear them

But as I said, I need you to test audio having silence detector DISABLED, not enabled. Forget it by now
Thanks

Apologies I misread

[chernandezba]

I’ve heard them

I know about the power up sound. It’s related to high cpu use at startup, although I haven’t tested it too much

About comparing with Fuse... there’s no point on doing that. ZEsarUX plays audio at 15 kHz, 8 bit. It has less quality than any other emulator I know. It’s easier for me (15 kHz is the same scanline frequency in speccy) but poor quality. I know that
Also, Fuse adds some audio filters to the playback, and I don’t do that either

About distortion... well anything can be improved and I will do it, if I can . I have a lot of things on the to-do...

[PeterJ]

[mention]chernandezba[/mention]

I have added an additional file to the folder:

ZEsarUX - PowerUp & Load Game - Silence Detector Not Enabled .mp3

Edited

[PeterJ]

I’ve heard them

I know about the power up sound. It’s related to high cpu use at startup, although I haven’t tested it too much

About comparing with Fuse... there’s no point on doing that. ZEsarUX plays audio at 15 kHz, 8 bit. It has less quality than any other emulator I know. It’s easier for me (15 kHz is the same scanline frequency in speccy) but poor quality. I know that
Also, Fuse adds some audio filters to the playback, and I don’t do that either

About distortion... well anything can be improved and I will do it, if I can . I have a lot of things on the to-do...

Thank you [mention]chernandezba[/mention]

I will delete the files from the server in one week.

[chernandezba]

@chernandezba

I have added an additional file to the folder:

ZEsarUX - PowerUp & Load Game - Silence Detector Not Enabled .mp3

Edited

Thanks. Perfect, only the startup “clicks” and nothing else
Just to be sure... did you recorded that in Windows?

[PeterJ]

Yes, Windows 10.

[chernandezba]

Yes, Windows 10.

Thanks!

[chernandezba]

@chernandezba

I have added an additional file to the folder:

ZEsarUX - PowerUp & Load Game - Silence Detector Not Enabled .mp3

Edited

Finally, after spending two days testing the Windows audio clicking issue I can confirm:
-It has nothing to do with my sdl audio module. The same is used in Mac and Linux and they don’t have the same problem
-Tested by filling the audio buffer with fixed value and the clicking also appears. Seems the clicking happens when a sample value of 0 “appears” in the final hardware buffer. If I fill the audio buffer with 0, no change is produced in the hardware buffer and you don’t hear any clicking. If you fill the buffer with something else different than 0, you may hear a clicking
-There’s no difference on enabling real audio, ay audio chip, etc. So as I said, I can confirm there’s not a bug in my module
-My Windows development machine is Virtual box. The default virtual audio card is a Intel HD. That has a lot of clicking. I changed it to a AC97 virtual card and the clicking has gone in the 90% of cases
-Seems there’s some kind of issue with MinGW+SDL+Audio driver. With the same test, sometimes the clicking appear and some others don’t. (With ac97 card)
-As some of you had made tests with real windows machines and you don’t have clicking, I can be sure, again, it’s not a bug in my software
-It seems also the audio module is sensible to O.S. multitask. I mean, if you change to another Windows task and leave ZEsarUX in the background, some clicking may appear. That doesn’t happen in other operating systems. That confirms me, again, Windows is not my preferred operating system
-I tried changing the audio sdl module to another one, programming a Direct Sound native windows module. But I haven’t found any examples to do that on my MinGW environment.
-So, until I couldn’t change the audio module to something different (DirectSound or SDL2-which already have tested) some of you will have clicking on Windows. It will depend on your audio card and audio driver
-That clicking issue is not related with clicks at startup or looping click in tbblue browser. These two others are probably bugs in my code

Some of these explanations are expressed in the FAQ. But I will have to extend it

Thanks a lot for your beta testing!

Cheers
Cesar

[PeterJ]

Thanks for your work [mention]chernandezba[/mention]