grantsupak: Hi all!
I've searched and searched on this forum trying to find a solution to some glitchy behavior I'm encountering with World of Xeen (CD version). Basically, as I enter/exit shops, taverns, training, etc, the game suddenly slows to a crawl and freezes, or crashes with no warning. Sometimes it happens after only 5 minutes, other times it's 30 minutes or more. This only seems to happen in the towns; if I'm in a dungeon or outdoors, I don't seem to have any issues. Sometimes the text in the inventory screen becomes garbled, or other graphical artifacts appear. Not long after, the game always locks up. I read one other post from several years back with pretty much the exact same problem, but it was never resolved. I know for sure this isn't a graphics issue, as it only happens when using the Roland LAPC/MT-32 sound setting.

Has anyone got this game to work with no instability using that setting? I'm starting to think there's some buggy sound programming in the game itself. I'm using MUNT, and I'm 100% everything is setup correctly on my PC. I can play other games using the same settings, with Might and Magic III being a perfect example.

Several posts also describe issues with the digitized speech locking the game up. I had that problem the first time I launched, but changing to IRQ 5 fixed it for me. I think that's where my particular issues deviates from problems others have experienced. If I turn the music off, or use the Soundblaster option for example, the game does not crash or lock up. That tells me my speech device and graphics are properly setup.

I don't think the music sounds particularly good using any other setting though... Routing to Virtual MIDI synth using a nice sound font sounds okay, but still not on par with the MT-32. Unless someone has a solution, my options seem to be not-so-great sound, or save often and live with the crashing.

crimson_twilight: Hello,

Haven't had a chance to give it a good play time yet but I was getting freezing originally too, even when watching the opening video when using the Roland Canvas/GS setting. I remembered some other games that had difficulty with speech using Soundblaster 16, so I tried switching the speech to just plain Soundblaster (Not Soundblaster 16) using the original IRQ 7, and that seemed to fix all issues. Tried the MT-32 option next and didn't seem to run into any issues either even when going through buildings.

I'm also using the latest DOSBox ECE (r4301) instead of the bundled GOG DOSBox, with the dosboxMM4-5.conf file edited with the following changes: "output = openglpp" and "aspect = true"

(Though you can also generate a new .conf file by running DOSBox ECE by itself for the first time[Check the DOSBox status window to see where it saves to], and there's many more options to play with if one wishes)

For my personal MIDI setup, I use Falcosoft MIDI Player with LoopMIDI to run the Sound Canvas VA and MUNT VSTi's. (BTW, the Yamaha S-YXG50 VSTi is also a lovely sounding option with Xeen's Roland Canvas/GS setting if one doesn't want to buy the expensive Sound Canvas VA)

I did a one time use of Coolsoft's MIDI Mapper to make sure DOSBox always default's to the correct port. (Though this should not have anything to do with freezing issues, I just find it convenient)

Hopefully this will help

grantsupak: I looked up the Falcosoft MIDI player and that looks amazing! I thought for sure it would be a mac only thing with the ability to run VST and virtual instruments.I may try that as well! Thanks!

crimson_twilight: On another note (and you may be aware of this already), apparently World of Xeen is one of the rare games that takes advantage of the 33 extra sound effects available with using the CM-32L set with MUNT (Instead of the MT-32 set) . I Found a thread on VOGONS detailing some of the differences in composition on the main MIDI devices. https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=26745

GeistSR: The most aggravating part of this problem is how random it is. You'll play with the settings, it'll appear to work, then the next time you try it crashes. I'll just add some observations here in case it helps anyone narrow it down in the future.

*snip

Turning up the dosbox cycles is helpful, to a point. Around 8000 for floppy version and 10000 for CD version seem to work better than the auto setting. Increasing cycles above 10000 only seems to exacerbate the problem though.