MSU1 on Recalbox - Sound transition problems

Hello,

as i have problems with running two MSU1-patched games i hope it's ok to ask for help here..

Both titles run my chosen MSU1-music great when playing these on snes9x/PC, but not on my Recalbox/RaspberryPi: Castlevania - Dracula X and Legend of Zelda:ALttP (PAL, german version).

My problem occurs in those moments when a screen and sound transition happens. The MSU1-music gets heavily distorted and louder for the short moments of the transition.

I already tried to use the volume-fixed pcm's for Zelda, but it didn't help. The problem can be heard when selecting the save state at the start of the game, and remains for every screen transition with music change.
For Castlevania, the problem can be heard between when the map is shown and the start of the first stage.

Maybe there is a little chance someone could help out here..?

Hello Retrocoon, I am Polargames, Feel free to call me Polar. To answer your post I have to say it sounds like an issue with recalbox. With it being built differently then retro-pie, I think it simply cannot support well enough for msu1 games as well as what retropie can. My suggestion if you would want to do this of course would to try retropie, because I know that can play msu1 games well. There is also a post in the retropie forum telling you what snes emulator works with msu1. Why I am suggesting you to try it because I have used it with really great results. Its not 100% all of the time, but its solid for the most part. I hope that helps you out and do not worry you had posted in the right place. Please feel free to ask again if your still having a issue or just some general information on msu1, we have a lot of smart users here. Have a Great Day. :-D

This sounds like a problem with the fade out on screen transistion (both games use it).
You can either try to compile the asm yourself without the fade stuff (requires some asm knowledge mostly) or you ask the author of Recalbox to fix this bug (Polar is right, it is not an issue with the code, but with the emulator).
Are there alternatives to Recalbox you can use?

Hello Polar, Hello Conn,
thank you for these ideas!! Afaik Retropie is using the same Snes9x-version as Recalbox. I doubt there will be much of a difference. But i will try Retropie (luckily i still have a small 8GB SD card left) and report if it has the same problems (this could take me a few days). Although i'd like to stay with Recalbox on the long run.
Regarding compiling the asm, well i have to be honest that i am a total noob and can't even say what this means. But i guess it's editing files to change the screen transitions so they would use other timings so my problem wouldn't occur?

Regarding compiling the asm, well i have to be honest that i am a total noob and can't even say what this means.

Long story short, you say something in a "human language" and then make it so, that the "machine" can read, by telling it with series of bytes. Then you tell the MSU code to not fade in and fade out on cut scenes, which is causing the problem. But note, this works on regular MSU emulation.

I see.. Thank you for this explanation! Would this be a lot of work for someone who knows to do this?

retrocoon wrote:Hello Polar, Hello Conn,
thank you for these ideas!! Afaik Retropie is using the same Snes9x-version as Recalbox. I doubt there will be much of a difference. But i will try Retropie (luckily i still have a small 8GB SD card left) and report if it has the same problems (this could take me a few days). Although i'd like to stay with Recalbox on the long run.
Regarding compiling the asm, well i have to be honest that i am a total noob and can't even say what this means. But i guess it's editing files to change the screen transitions so they would use other timings so my problem wouldn't occur?

Your Right on the emulator part,they are the same, Why I have suggested Retropie, it has a huge user base and due to that if there are a issues a lot of people tend to help out. And you can also update the emulators to the newest binary code to fix issues, and also if you want you can up date from source, but that can take a long time, so I would suggest not doing that. Your very welcome and I cannot wait to here your results. I hope its good.

I see.. Thank you for this explanation! Would this be a lot of work for someone who knows to do this?

Well, not much work - maybe boring/annoying.

Here you go. I didn't test them, I hope they work now on your system. There are multiple other msu patches that use fade, so better than asking here to fix every patch to work on your custom system, you may doing better asking the author of the emu to fix it (fading works on sd2snes / real hardware, so the problem is with that emulator).

@Polar
I just found this video, my problem occurs right at the screen transition shortly after 3:37, but retropie seems to play it fine. I will try a new installation of recalbox too..


@Conn
Thank you very much!!! I can confirm ALttP is now working fine! A little sidenote: the screen seems a little bit stretched in the MSU1-version, i noticed this while testing/comparing it to the normal version. This seems to only happen on Recalbox, so the sound problems are not the only thing not working 100% correct.
Besides that, the fixed Castlevania unfortunately freezes the whole system right after the Konami-logo.
I think you're right with asking the author directly, i will soon try this way. But first i will try to reinstall recalbox before bothering too many people.

Besides that, the fixed Castlevania unfortunately freezes the whole system right after the Konami-logo.

Not when I try on bsnes/snes9x.
Read this, follow the tutorial and try again with a fresh rom w/o header:
https://www.zeldix.net/t1662-remove-header

A little sidenote: the screen seems a little bit stretched in the MSU1-version, i noticed this while testing/comparing it to the normal version.

No idea with this weird emu you are using

I will try to get Castlevania to work again tomorrow, tired as hell and in this state i really may have made a mistake. Thanks again for your support!!!

..This Emulator really makes me go crazy soon!

retrocoon wrote:@Polar
I just found this video, my problem occurs right at the screen transition shortly after 3:37, but retropie seems to play it fine. I will try a new installation of recalbox too..


@Conn
Thank you very much!!! I can confirm ALttP is now working fine! A little sidenote: the screen seems a little bit stretched in the MSU1-version, i noticed this while testing/comparing it to the normal version. This seems to only happen on Recalbox, so the sound problems are not the only thing not working 100% correct.
Besides that, the fixed Castlevania unfortunately freezes the whole system right after the Konami-logo.
I think you're right with asking the author directly, i will soon try this way. But first i will try to reinstall recalbox before bothering too many people.

@retrocoon, Ok now I see, I think that recalbox is using a older version of snes9x or they have yet to update to the newest one, but I cannot say 100% sure because I have no clue how they do there emulators on it. Thank you for showing me where you were having trouble. That is why when I had first started with a raspberry pi I did use recalbox, but it could not play the games I had right at all, or they had sound issues like what you are haveing. I think its because they do not have a large user base like retropie, or that having kodi on there as a default as well could have messed something up. I am happy to hear the retropie worked out for you. :-D If its ok, I would suggest to stay with retropie, but its your call on it. I just like have the ability of updating emulators whenever you want.

@Conn
Ok, it seems to be the emulator-version on Recalbox is the problem, as Castlevania still freezes the whole thing (while it runs without flaws on my PC/Snes9x). I will try a fresh installation of the newest version of both Retropie and Recalbox.

@Polar
Umm to be honest, this is not my video, i just found it when searching for MSU1-experiences by other gamers I still have to test it..

@retrocoon, I understand, I was thanking you for showing me where in the game you were having issues with. If I could suggest I would see if you cold send a message to recalbox devs so they can look into this problem. They might not even know this issue at all.

@Polar
I will inform them very soon, although after trying out Retropie test-wise on a small 16gb sd card i might not go back to Recalbox. The main difference between those two seems to me that Recalbox is more plug-and-play and easy handling, but Retropie is more customizable.
But now the best part: on Retropie all of my MSU1-patched games do work perfect !!!
Sorry to keep this short, i'm about to discover all the possibilities and still have some problems with Retropie, but
TY SO MUCH @CONN & @Polar!!!!

@retrocoon Sounds like a great plain. You are right on recalbox, that is the main advantage over retro pie is its plug and play etc. I am also very happy that retro pie everything perfectly. Your very welcome and feel free to post again if your having trouble again. :-)