rec.autos.simulators

I did wind up trying the Turtle Beach Montego A3DXstream PCI card from
CompUSA ($129 U.S.)   Followed all installation instructions to the
letter, and installation was successful.  A3D test passed ok.
However, when I first tried it with F1RS 1.09, I saw similar
controller spiking with my TSW as I saw in my earlier post about using
the Creative PCI64 card, although it wasn't as bad.  Also saw
controller spiking on the TB Montego after installing the "original 3D
sound patch" described above (the "latest" 3D sound patch gave me the
muting/engine cutting in and out problems that other posters have
described relative to the TB Montego).

"What the hell's going on with this controller spiking?"  I wondered.
I hadn't been seeing it when using the gameport on my AWE64.

Then, I checked the Win95 "Control Panel - Game Controllers -
Advanced" tab, and noticed the "Port Driver" selection box for the
first time.  It had "Standard Gameport" selected.  Clicking on the
dropdown arrow showed that I now had two selections to choose from;
"Standard Gameport" and "TBS Montego Gameport Interface".

So, I selected "TBS Montego Gameport Interface", recalibrated the TSW
under both Win95's Game Controller and Thrustmaster ProPanel (just to
be "sure", I guess), reloaded F1RS, went back to the grid in
Melbourne...no controller spiking!  The TSW was now as smooth as when
it had been connected originally to the AWE64.

Sorry if this was a "no shit, sherlock" solution, in other words, "of
*course* you should have selected the TBS Montego Gameport Interface,
you DOLT!"  I just had never noticed that selection in the Game
Controllers applet, and the Montego documentation never mentioned
anything about it (in fact, it hardly mentions the gameport at all).

So, here's my guess about why so many people have reported having
problems with 3D soundcards, F1RS and the 3D soundpatch:

- Controller spiking:  not knowing about the "Port Driver" selection
box (easy to overlook, IMO);

- Poor sound results with the 3D soundpatch:  using the "latest" sound
patch (filename:  soundpatch2.exe) and not the "original" sound patch
(filename:  sound3d.exe).  This is also an easy mistake, because I'd
bet most of us have dl'd the 3D soundpatch from www.f1racingsim.com,
which only offers soundpatch2.exe as the executable for the "Directx
sound patch" on the patch page, www.f1racingsim.com/patches.htm.

Now, the unfortunate thing about the TB Montego is that it doesn't
support 4 speakers, as the PCI64 card does.  I have speakers for the
front and rear, but the 3D sound effects just aren't as good if the
card does not explicitly support 4 speakers IMO.  I have a Y-connector
on the Audio Out on the TB Montego, so I am running 4 speakers off it,
but it's just "double stereo" and the A3D effects aren't as good as
with the PCI64.  So, I'm going to also try the PCI64 card again, and
hope that it has a specific "Port Driver" selection that will overcome
the controller spiking I saw before.

Any thoughts/replies will be appreciated.  Thanks for putting up with
this lengthy post.
============================
Dave Mack

(remove "nospamfor_" for correspondence)

Have you tried the card with any of you Dos games, specifically Nascar 2?
For me it sounded terrible, I'd be interested to hear your view. Also, I
couldn't get any sound through my headphones, a prerequisite for driving
while the wife is asleep.

Tracey Miller

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I tried N2 with my AudioPCI. If I ran the game from within W95,
(setting up the shortcut to not reboot) the game ran quite well.
But if I rebooted and tried running the SBPCI64 DOS software
to initialize the card, the PC would reboot after the N2 intro.
So I am curious how the Montego software handles this.

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My Montego "worked" in dos, but the sound was just terrible. I had to switch
back to the SB64.

I'm asking because I am on the verge of buying an Aureal A3D card, ut
it only supports 2 speakers....does it matter if the A3D works like
it's supposed to?

--
Nathan Wong          http://www.nectar.com.au/~alfacors
                       - Super Touring - Alfa Romeo -

                            - V8Supercars - CART -

From what I know the specs for A3D are 3D sound with only 2
speakers. With A3D you do not need 4 speakers. And in fact
I tried 4 speakers on my AudioPCI. It sucked. I went back to just
2 speakers.

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