What is VSound? --------------- VSound is a virtual sound driver for Impulse Tracker. It actually uses Microsoft's DirectSound to provide output on ANY soundcard supported by Windows '95 or Windows '98. It does NOT support Windows NT. It does take a little effort to setup and doesn't perform quite as well as the native drivers, so if you have a SB16, ESS or some other card directly supported by IT, don't bother messing around VSound. If you have a SBPro compatible card, some PCI card or anything else that isn't being used to its maximum capabilities, then give these files a try. How to use these files ---------------------- You MUST have DirectX installed. It was written with the DirectX6 SDK, although I'm pretty sure DirectSound 5 is sufficient. 1. Copy ITVSOUND.VXD into your Windows\System directory (normally C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM) Note that the file may NOT show up in Window's Explorer since they have a system extension (.VXD). Use DOS, or enable (unhide) system files in your Explorer configuration. 2. In your Windows directory (normally C:\WINDOWS), edit your SYSTEM.INI file and include the line: device=itvsound.vxd anywhere in the [386Enh] section 3. Reboot your computer 4. Run Server.EXE 5. Run "IT" Configuring the driver ---------------------- The driver can be configured by modifying Window's Registry by running "regedit" (which comes with Windows). The variables can be found at: "KHEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Jeffrey Lim\Impulse Tracker VSound Server" The 4 variables are: BufferSize - The size of the DirectSound buffer in kb. Permitted ranges from 4 to 64, default 24 BufferThreshold - The size of the buffer that IT tries to maintain in kb. Permitted ranges from 2 to 32, default 21 BufferType - 0 = DualBuffer (BufferSize is logically split into 2 sections) 1 = QuadBuffer (BufferSize is logically split into 4 sections) 2 = OctBuffer (BufferSize is logically split into 8 sections) (recommended, default) MixSpeed - Mixing rate to be used in Hz. Permitted ranges from 11025 to 64000, default 44100 You will need to restart the server before these changes take effect. Known Problems -------------- 1. This driver only works with Win95 and Win98, NOT WinNT (I'll try a WinNT driver sometime). 2. There is an obvious latency due to the size of the buffers and the delay that is inherent to DirectSound. Reducing the BufferSize and BufferThreshold values can reduce this latency, however, smaller values can also cause the sound to break up. Try using the values: 1. BufferSize=16, BufferThreshold=14, BufferType=2, MixSpeed=44100