schellingb
Garbled music in Preview 3, unless i force FPS to 60 or lower
I updated to preview 3 and when i play on my 60hz TV, the music is garbled in all games. I have to force FPS in the core options to 60 or lower in order for this to be fixed. Which, i didn't have to do before.
Now, locking the frame rate to 60 fixes the sound issue but now when i play on my 240hz screen, the frame rate is not even as it was before when i play a game such as DOOM, which is locked at 35fps. So now i have to lock this game to 35fps in order to be perfectly synced.
Before the update i didn't have to do any of that. The game would run smooth on the 240hz screen monitor (with VRR enabled) and the sound was not garbled on the 60hz TV.
I was wrong, same issue also happens on previous version, i fixed it by changing the video refresh rate to 240 in retroarch.cfg even on the 60hz screen (only for this core). Now why is the sound garbled when refresh rate is 60, i don't know. Maybe i have some other setting set up wrong or maybe someone else can reproduce this?
I can't replicate it on Windows 11 at least. Tried a refresh rate of 60Hz on my 120Hz TV and sound worked fine in Doom, Quake and Mortal Kombat 3.
You could try messing with these RA settings in Settings > Video > Output
If you click on either "Set Display-Reported Refresh Rate" or "Estimated Refresh Rate" then RA's refresh rate will now match your displays refresh. The latter is technically more accurate, but you'll need to stay idle on that screen for several seconds to get an accurate reading of your actual refresh rate. If you're using a 60Hz display but RA's refresh rate is set higher, then it can make RA feel laggy, with an obvious input delay when moving the mouse cursor, but sound isn't affected for me.
Could also try downloading a portable version of RA and use that for testing with all settings on default. Then see if the issue still happens. Because it seems like a config problem.
Does this only happen with MIDI output when using: Core Options > Audio > MIDI Output > Frontend MIDI driver?
If it does, then the RetroArch MIDI frontend driver is buggy. It's had weird annoying problems for as long as i can remember. For example, when playing DOOM on any map, if you bring up the RA quick menu, the MIDI sound will hang in the background on a single note, forever, then continue doing that even after you go back to the game (at least on Windows). So IF your issue is caused by the RA MIDI frontend driver, then i'm 99% sure that it is a RA problem and not the DOSBox Pure core.
Hopefully it is, because that problem can be fixed by using a different Soundfont. I use this soundfont form zz_denis. It produces better and more accurate sound to real hardware anyway, so no reason not to use it :)
To get it working:
- Place the
.sf2file inRetroArch\system\scummvm\extra(create the folder if it doesn't already exist). - Then go to
Core Options > Audio > MIDI Outputand set it to:SC55_zzdenis_v0.5 - Enjoy better DOOM music.
Im using a soundfont, the frontend midi option has other unresolved issues that render it unusable, such as playing the wrong instruments/samples. There is a topic for this too.
This issue only happens with this core. All others are fine at chosen 60hz.
Maybe it's still a config issue though so i have to test this more later today.
Some ofher observations.
When i test Doom on the 60hz screen (forced fps is OFF in core options) i can also feel that its running slower. Like it tries to sync to the 60hz screen and runs at 30fps instead of its locked 35. Which causes the music to also run at a slower rate. The game appears to run perfectly smooth though.
If i force the fps to 60 in the core options the game runs at the correct speed and the music is fixed. The frame rate is a bit uneven but thats normal since 35fps can't sync perfectly on a 60hz screen.
If i test Quake, none of the above is an issue. Game speed and sound are correct even if the forced fps core option is off.
Now that means i shoud just force the frame rate at 60fps in the core options. But that causes issues on the 240hz VRR screen. That scenario needs the forced fps option OFF, otherwise it just runs the games with frame pacing issues.
In order to not have to change the forced fps core option every time i change screens i just force 240hz for both screens for this particular core in the overrides. This fixes all issues for me.