AdvanceMAME Audio not working in some games - Overflow (not sample related)

mikemolang

Hi all,

Running Omega Race .106 in AdvanceMAME 3.5 on a RPi 3B. Not getting any sound.

Many other games seem to work fine. (I know a couple others that don't, but Omega Race is the first one that I am troubleshooting.)

Pressed TAB in game, selected the audio menu, setting are as follows:
Mode = auto
Att db = -3
Auto normalize = no
Amp = 25 (this was set to 5, but I changed it based on another game's setting that is working)
EQ = 0, 0, 0

In details, I can see the oscilloscope output showing me that it is attempting to output sound, but each time that occurs the overflow increments. Makes me think that overflow is the problem.

No samples were loaded by me because I found no samples in the full ROM set to load for this game.

Ideas?

ADDED NOTES:
The sound in Tempest is also not working. Otherwise the game plays perfectly. Again, I can see the oscilloscope showing sounds attempting to play. There is some overflow (approx. 20,000 samples when I looked at it), but this was no longer incrementing with each sample that played.

Thanks!
MML

jonnykesh

@mikemolang It might just be that ROM. I have the ROM from the MAME 2010 set 0.139 and the sound all works fine in advMame 3,5.

Again, Tempest works for me fine, with sound in 3.5.

You sure like your vector games, me too.

jonnykesh

@mikemolang

__   _____  ___| |_ ___  _ __ _ __ ___   __ _ _ __  
\ \ / / _ \/ __| __/ _ \| '__| '_ ` _ \ / _` | '_ \ 
 \ V /  __/ (__| || (_) | |  | | | | | | (_| | | | |
  \_/ \___|\___|\__\___/|_|  |_| |_| |_|\__,_|_| |_|

mikemolang

@jonnykesh

Yep, vectors rule. I had no idea how partial I was to them until I started configuring this cab.

I DL'ed CCHASM, TEMPEST, and OMEGA zips for 0.139 (my three soundless AdvanceMAME games). I renamed them by adding "0_139" to the name so that I could drop them into AdvanceMAME without deleting the ones that work without sound. Restarted the Pi, and tried to run them. All three of them simply returned me to the Retropie menu. None ran.

Any idea what the issue is?

ADDED INFO: I only DL'ed the three zips, not a full set. Someone made a comment on the site that CHDs were not included. Not sure if that matters, or not.

Thanks!
MML

jonnykesh

@mikemolang Rookie error. NEVER change the file name of a MAME ROM. The emulator is actually looking for that specific file name in order to load whatever it needs to launch and run the game. ROM naming within MAME is standardised and if you deviate they will never work.

mikemolang

@jonnykesh

Thanks for the tip.

I deleted the ROMs (the .106 and the renamed .139), and copied clean .139's back in. Restarted Pi. Same issue.

Do I need to delete some .cfg files, or something? (I notice that Retropie is saving the input mapping that I saved for the old version of these games and using it for the new, which I like. But maybe that is pointing to a problem?)

Thanks!
MML

mikemolang

Still stuck on this one.

Tempest and Omega Race refuse to output sound in AdvanceMAME.
I tried ROM 106
I tried ROM 139
Neither games have any sample files that I can find.
Both games show audio activity when using TAB/AUDIO/DETAILS.

Best,
MML

jonnykesh

@mikemolang Neither game requires samples. I don't know what to say, they should just work. Try ROMs from another source. There are sets available where you can get single games rather than having to DL the full set. Just make sure they specify which ROM set they are.

caver01

@mikemolang I am getting audio from all of the vector games I use with AdvMAME. This includes games with and without samples. Your examples are without. You might want to try posting your .rc file contents to Pastebin.com and link to it. I could compare audio device settings with my own .rc file.

Are you getting ANY games in AdvanceMAME with audio?

caver01

@caver01 It might be worth verifying your settings for these lines which are present in my .rc file:

device_alsa_device default
device_alsa_mixer channel
device_sdl_samples 512
device_sound alsa
sound_adjust 0
sound_equalizer_highvolume 0
sound_equalizer_lowvolume 0
sound_equalizer_midvolume 0
sound_latency 0.05
sound_mode auto
sound_normalize no
sound_samplerate 44100
sound_samples yes
sound_volume 0

mikemolang

@caver01

I checked my advancemame rc file. The only two differences I found (which I have since changed to yours) is:
sound_adjust 0 (mine was AUTO)
sound_volume 0 (mine was -3)

I do get sound in Asteroids (not Deluxe Asteroids, though), and Space Fury.

MML

caver01

@mikemolang Odd. At this point, we could start to compare ROM details. You should have a .106 ROM, so pick one that has no sound and we can compare. I don't have problems with any.

mikemolang

@caver01 said in AdvanceMAME Audio not working in some games - Overflow (not sample related):

details. You should have a .106 ROM, so pick one that has no sound and we can compare. I don't

OK. Just now did a completely clean install. I then loaded Asteroids and Tempest into AdvanceMAME using 106 roms. Asteroids worked, Tempest did not, as I expected.

I deleted the Tempest.zip and restarted the Pi. I then loaded Tempest into AdvanceMAME using 139 roms. Asteroids worked, Tempest did not, as I expected.

I have included the directory listings of the two Tempest.zip files, below:

Tempest 106
10/27/2017 07:36 PM <DIR> .
10/27/2017 07:36 PM <DIR> ..
10/27/2017 07:35 PM 2,048 136002.113
10/27/2017 07:35 PM 2,048 136002.114
10/27/2017 07:35 PM 2,048 136002.115
10/27/2017 07:35 PM 2,048 136002.118
10/27/2017 07:35 PM 2,048 136002.119
10/27/2017 07:35 PM 2,048 136002.120
10/27/2017 07:35 PM 2,048 136002.121
10/27/2017 07:35 PM 2,048 136002.123
10/27/2017 07:35 PM 2,048 136002.124
10/27/2017 07:35 PM 2,048 136002.217
10/27/2017 07:35 PM 2,048 136002.222
10/27/2017 07:35 PM 2,048 136002.316
10/27/2017 07:36 PM 0 print.txt
13 File(s) 24,576 bytes

Tempest 139
10/27/2017 07:28 PM <DIR> .
10/27/2017 07:28 PM <DIR> ..
10/27/2017 07:24 PM 2,048 136002-113.d1
10/27/2017 07:24 PM 2,048 136002-114.e1
10/27/2017 07:24 PM 2,048 136002-115.f1
10/27/2017 07:24 PM 2,048 136002-118.k1
10/27/2017 07:24 PM 2,048 136002-119.lm1
10/27/2017 07:24 PM 2,048 136002-120.mn1
10/27/2017 07:24 PM 2,048 136002-121.p1
10/27/2017 07:24 PM 2,048 136002-123.np3
10/27/2017 07:24 PM 2,048 136002-124.r3
10/27/2017 07:24 PM 256 136002-125.d7
10/27/2017 07:24 PM 2,048 136002-217.j1
10/27/2017 07:24 PM 2,048 136002-222.r1
10/27/2017 07:24 PM 2,048 136002-316.h1
10/27/2017 07:24 PM 32 136002.126
10/27/2017 07:24 PM 256 136002.127
10/27/2017 07:24 PM 256 136002.128
10/27/2017 07:24 PM 256 136002.129
10/27/2017 07:24 PM 256 136002.130
10/27/2017 07:24 PM 256 136002.131
10/27/2017 07:24 PM 256 136002.132
10/27/2017 07:28 PM 0 print.txt
10/27/2017 07:27 PM 131 tempest
22 File(s) 26,531 bytes

Thanks,
MML

caver01

@mikemolang I am using .106 and my tempest does not have a print.txt file inside the zip. I don't know why that would matter, as all of the rest are the same files and sizes.

Do you happen to have anything in your .rc file with a tempest/ prefix?

mikemolang

@caver01

Here are the two "tempest" entries in my advmame.rc file:

tempest/sound_adjust 25
tempest/input_setting[p1_dialx] keydelta:20,centerdelta:20,sensitivity:10,reverse:0

On some previous exploration I made of the various menus, I recall seeing sound setting such as PCM, HDMI, AUTO, MASTER (or something like that. I may have some of them wrong). Is there some chance that some of these games are configured to default to the wrong audio mode?

My hardware includes a Pi 3b hooked up via HDMI to a BENBQ monitor.
Thanks!
MML

mikemolang

@caver01

PROGRESS!!!

While wandering through various menus and trying different things I discovered that making a change to the equalizer settings (via TAB to the in game menu, Audio) can cause Tempest to emit sound under advmame for the first time , for me!

The standard equalizer settings (for me) are (0,0,0).

Testing shows that if I set the equalizer 'for this game only' to any of these settings, I get audio!

(2,0,0)
(0,2,0)
(2,2,2)

I have not tested other settings yet, but my guess is that changing that at least one value to something other than 0 will work. I have not tested with any other game, nor with making the change at the 'for all games' level.

So, while this seems to get me back up and running (time to set up all my roms!), I still would like to know what I did differently, or what is it about my setup that caused this issue for me, but not for others.

Best,
MML

caver01

@mikemolang good news, and I am glad you are making progress, as I was at a loss. I remember turning off stuff like normalization long ago, as it was causing weird crackling in the audio. Consequently, I don’t do anything with EQ or volume/gain. Just stock, and the rest of the settings I mentioned earlier.

sirlee

I had the same problems using a USB sound card.

It worked everywhere except in advmame

I fixed this on two different retropi images using this process:

edit the advmame.rc

delete these lines:

device_alsa_device default
device_alsa_mixer channel
device_sound alsa

After that it magically started working :)