Is sound card DirectSound compatible?

[Murrrmaiyd]

I recently got a new computer, (Compaq Presario), which runs XP, and have been trying to get some older games to work on it, and my favorite and the most frustrating are Hexen and Heretic. They have loaded fine, and work fine, EXCEPT for the fact that they are silent. I can't seem to make the sound work....it only gives me 3 options for which sound card I'm using, none of which I actually have. I have been searching all day for something that will make it work, or some kind of helpful informatio, and the closest I've come so far is finding out that it requires a DirectSound compatible sound card.

I have a Realtek AC97 Audio sound card, and what I'd really like to know at this point is whether this card is DirectSound compatible, and if it is how to make the game recognize that fact. (and if there's anything out there that'd make it work anyway even if it's not!) I'd appreciate any help any of you can give me in this matter! Thanks!

Later,
Mur

 

[MrGaribaldi]

:wave: Hello and Welcom to TechSpot :wave:

I've had similar problems in the past, and know just how frustrating it can be...

Luckily I came across something a couple of days ago which might just help you...
Here you will find a program that'll 100% emulate a SoundBlaster, so you can get sound in old dos games...

I have yet to try it (still need some more files to get UFO:Enemy Uknown to run under w2k), and couldn't find any specific info about neither heretic or hexen, but since (at least one of them) are based on Quake, it should hopefully work for you

(I'll keep looking to see if I can find out anything more about those games though)

 

[MrGaribaldi]

Scratch everything after the Welcome above...

It would seem that there are too many problems using Hexen/Heretic with ntvdm (and other Doom, not Quake clones)....

Sorry about that, but I did find another solution which should work...
here is a page of doom ports, including Hexen and Heretic, which makes them DX compatible, and thus should be working AOK with your soundcard/computer

Just browse downwards and take your pick...
Some seems to advice using JHeretic/JHexen, whereas others prefer other versions...

Hope you find one that works for you!

 

[Krugger]

for future reference, you could try running dxdiag and from there running the directsound test on the sound tab.