Sound effects

Bill69

New member
Hi Trainz fans,

Just a little heads up. I have just installed a new sound card (soundblaster pro) and disabled my on board sound. It's a terrific sound card for music but when I ran trs2004 the sound was very eratic. To get the sound in trs2004 right I had to decrease the acceleration by two clicks and cut the output back to two speakers. The surround sound was worst of all. I havn't tried it in trs2006 as yet but will let you know the outcome when I do.

Cheers,
Bill69
 
Sounds

Hi DaSnakke,

Open control panel, select sounds & audio, click on audio tab. Then select advanced, in the playback panel it will show which speakers are configured, select desktop speakers. Then click on performance tab, move acceleration slider down two clicks leave sample conversion at best.

Hope this helps,
Bill69
 
No offence, but a Soundblaster Pro is a very obsolete card. It must be at least 7-8 years old. Creative has since put out several generations of new sound cards since the Soundblaster Pro that are designed to run current games at their full potential with no slow downs.
 
Sound cards

Yes as I thought, there is always some galah comes up and says that's old.
SO WHAT? I know its old I took it out of my comp when I updated to a mobo with on board sound, but now I have put it back and disabled the on board sound I think it is better than the on board sound.

Heard a good story once about a varsity student spouting off to an older guy about how there were no computers no cellphones no Ipods etc. in his day. when the tyrade finished the old guy said, "Thats true sonny there were none of these things so we invented them. Now tell me what are you doing for the next generation?"

Cheers,
Bill69
 
Bill,

My response was not meant to be a put down or a "galah" statement. I have been building PC's for over 17 years and PC gaming even longer. Yep, I'm an old guy too.

Back in the old days, sound cards made a big difference in the performance of PC games. Early sound cards like yours actually use up a portion of the processing power of your cpu (built-in sound is even worse). This causes a noticeable frame rate loss in games.

Trainz is much newer than your sound card and has high hardware requirements for good performance. Your Soundblaster Pro was designed to run much simpler games that were programmed years before Trainz. So Trainz will run slower and may even stutter when you use the loco horn because of the Sound Blaster Pro.

Newer sound cards such as the SoundBlaster Xi-Fi have no effect on frame rates at all because they have built-in processors of their own which handle all the processing chores of the card. The Xi-fi does not even access the cpu at all. This means faster performance in Trainz and other games. The Xi-Fi has been out for several years.

Many of the posts on the forum concern low performance in Trainz. This is often caused by people running Trainz on PC's that have ridiculously obsolete hardware that barely meets the minimum requirements to run Trainz or any other game. And I am not talking a PC two years old here, I mean hardware that is many years out of date.

So you can imagine the frustration when people must be told over and over to update their hardware. Many people simply do not have knowledge about PC hardware. Everyone can't be a computer hardware expert. So those of us with some knowledge of PC hardware give the best advice we can to help. The advice is often "upgrade your computer", which is unfortunately what must be done in many cases. (Welcome to PC gaming.)

I hope you understand. :)
 
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Sounds

Hi leader2302

Quote "So those of us with some knowledge of PC hardware give the best advice we can to help."

Isn't that what I was doing?

Bill69
 
Yes as I thought, there is always some galah comes up and says that's old.
SO WHAT?

Cheers,
Bill69

No, you were NOT giving advice in message #6, you were being a wise guy. Reread what you wrote message #6 above. Calling me a "galah that comes up and says thats old" is not constructive advice, it's an insult not appropriate for this forum.

You did give advice in your first post. Message #6 was not necessary.
 
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With all due respect, and with no offense intended; when someone begins a post by writing "no offense" they are clearly trying to convey that they trying to give you information which, while it may offend you, is only presented for your own good.

Therefore, post #4 should not have led to a personal insult.

Ed
 
Hi
I've got to agree with leader on this one. I know almost nothing about computers and TRS2006 was the first game I have ever played on a computer and quite frankly at the begining it was rubbish and this was due totally to my having an old computer. But through this great forum I found people who would take the time to advise me on what kind of system I needed. So I bought a new system and TRS now runs fantastically. Unlike shops which just sell you whats best for them ( mostly ) on here you get honest advise like you would from friends.
No one has to take the advise given but you should at least aknowledge the trouble they have taken to try and help and long may it continue
PJ
 
Apology

Hi Euphod,

Yes you are correct, I do owe leader2302 an apology.

To leader2302 I hope you will accept this apology, as I realise I was out of line. I guess I had a bad hair day on Friday and Saturday. I had just arrived home on Friday from a trip to the ski fields in NZ. A mate and I had spent four days there with a small group of underprivelaged kids, the weather was bad, the kids got bored and we spent most of the time running around trying to make sure they did not get into trouble.

I usually try to be helpfull where ever I can.

Cheers,
Bill69
 
Apology accepted. I have been a teacher for 18 years so I know how you must feel. Children can be difficult.

Now lets get back to some fun with Trainz!:)
 
the weather was bad, the kids got bored and we spent most of the time running around trying to make sure they did not get into trouble.

Ahhh! Worst possible situation, I have a hard enough time with my three when they are bored, and they are bored whenever they aren't in perpetual motion.
Ed;)
 
Leader2302 stated "Back in the old days, sound cards made a big difference in the performance of PC games. Early sound cards like yours actually use up a portion of the processing power of your cpu (built-in sound is even worse). This causes a noticeable frame rate loss in games.

Trainz is much newer than your sound card and has high hardware requirements for good performance. Your Soundblaster Pro was designed to run much simpler games that were programmed years before Trainz. So Trainz will run slower and may even stutter when you use the loco horn because of the Sound Blaster Pro.

Newer sound cards such as the SoundBlaster Xi-Fi have no effect on frame rates at all because they have built-in processors of their own which handle all the processing chores of the card. The Xi-fi does not even access the cpu at all. This means faster performance in Trainz and other games. The Xi-Fi has been out for several years."

I am new at this and had been concentrating on graphics card issues, not sound cards. Just how much of an impact are sound cards on Trainz "PERFORMANCE ONLY"? I am not looking for state of the art sound !!! Do all of the newer sound cards have "built-in processors" ? I know some of the graphics cards can get quite pricey. What kind of price range are we talking for a sound card that is known to perform well with TRS2004 ? Thanks for any clarifications?
 
Do all of the newer sound cards have "built-in processors" ? I know some of the graphics cards can get quite pricey. What kind of price range are we talking for a sound card that is known to perform well with TRS2004 ? Thanks for any clarifications?

Manjoe,

Your in luck! It is much easier to choose a sound card today then a graphic card. All the new sound cards have built-in processors. Unlike graphics cards, your choice of new sound cards is very simple because Creative Labs bought out most of the competition. Thus there is only one sound card company and one card to choose from. Fortunately, it is the best sound card available today.

The best sound card for games is a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Xi-Fi card. It will give you no frame rate hit because it has its own processor. The entry level Xi-Fi is available on the net for only $68.00.

There you are-cheap, quality, and no frame rate hit. I wish it could be the same with graphics cards.
 
Manjoe,

Your in luck! It is much easier to choose a sound card today then a graphic card. All the new sound cards have built-in processors. Unlike graphics cards, your choice of new sound cards is very simple because Creative Labs bought out most of the competition. Thus there is only one sound card company and one card to choose from. Fortunately, it is the best sound card available today.

The best sound card for games is a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Xi-Fi card. It will give you no frame rate hit because it has its own processor. The entry level Xi-Fi is available on the net for only $68.00.

There you are-cheap, quality, and no frame rate hit. I wish it could be the same with graphics cards.

Thanks Leader2302........Under $100 are prices I like. I thought I was going to be looking at $500 plus given the pricing of some of those graphics cards.:wave:
 
Thanks Leader2302........Under $100 are prices I like. I thought I was going to be looking at $500 plus given the pricing of some of those graphics cards.:wave:

I know what you mean. I was thinking of upgrading my two graphics cards but it will cost over $1000 for two new graphics cards. So I will have to save my pennies for a few years!

Check out the prices for soundcards at:

www.pricewatch.com

The prices are the lowest on the net.
 
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