Subject: Incompatibility FAQ: Cirrus Video Cards & Creative Sound cards
Supersedes: <games/incompatibility/cirrus-soundblaster_825451240@rtfm.mit.edu>
Date: 28 Mar 1996 22:03:21 GMT
X-Last-Updated: 1996/01/09

Posting-Frequency: Monthly
Last-Modified: 9 January 1996
Version: 2.01
URL: http://www.tcp.co.uk/~blades

Cirrus Logic Video cards and Creative Labs Sound Card Incompatibility FAQ
=========================================================================
....by Gareth blades (gareth@blades.tcp.co.uk)

The latest version of this ASCII document can be obtained via ftp from rtfm.mit.edu as :-
/pub/usenet/news.answers/games/incompatibility/cirrus-soundblaster

This FAQ is posted monthly to comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.misc, comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.misc, and
comp.answers,news.answers.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

========
CONTENTS
========

 1) What is the problem?
 2) What is the cause?
 3) What video cards are effected?
 4) What sound cards are effected?
 5) How to overcome the problem
 6) What programs are effected?


===============================================================================================

 1) What is the problem?
 =======================
This incompatibility causes crackling in the sound during video animations in high resolution modes
in DOS only.


 2) What is the cause?
 =====================
There is an incompatibility between some Creative Labs sound cards (the SB16 in particular) and
Cirrus Logic based video cards. The problem is known to both Creative Labs and Cirrus Logic but
neither of them know what the exact problem is!

NOTE that the Diamond Speedster Pro uses a Cirrus Logic chipset and therefore this FAQ applies
equally to this video board.


 3) What video cards are effected?
 =================================
All cirrus logic based video cards are effected. This also includes:-
  Orchid Kelvin 64     (Cirrus Logic 5434)
  Diamond Speedster Pro
 

 4) What sound cards are effected?
 =================================
It seems to be mostly the Creative Labs sound cards which are effected. I have only had reports of
the SB16 and the SBpro Creative cards having the problem although there could be others.
The list below shows other cards which have been reported as having the same problem:-
  PAS16


 5) How to overcome the problem
 ==============================
To overcome the problem is relatively easy. You simply load a dos based VESA driver for the video
card. Cirrus have some drivers on their FTP site which is ftp.cirrus.com.

I personally use a program called Universal VESA Driver which is a program that can be used for many
different video cards. It is small and apparently faster than the available Cirrus ones although it
is shareware and does nag when you run it.

The current version of UniVbe is 5.1a. It costs about $30 to register and supports the Vesa 2
standard which means it can make some games run a lot faster.

The Universal VESA Driver can be found by looking for a filename like UNIVBE51.ZIP. I obtained my
copy from Simtel20 although I expect you could find it almost anywhere.


 6) What programs are affected?
 ==============================
The incompatibility is with the VESA bios on the video card and therefore it only effects games
which use VESA. This includes all games which run in SVGA modes. The following games are known to
use VESA.

  * = VESA driver only used in high resolution graphics mode

  The 7th Guest
* Simcity 2000
* Theme Park
* Magic Carpet
* The Need For Speed
  Fatal Racing
  Nascar Racing
  Star Trek the Next Generation
* Wing commander 4
  Transport Tycoon
  Transport Tycoon Deluxe
  Links 386 Pro
  Under a Killing Moon


There are probably many more. Please email me if you know of any others.

There are also a new type of game which require a Vesa driver supporting the Vesa 2 standard. One
such game is the 11th Hour. It comes with its own copy of UniVbe to run the game.

--
------------------------------------------------------------
Gareth Blades  (gareth@blades.tcp.co.uk)
Homepage:      http://www.tcp.co.uk/~blades/index.html
PGP key available from hompage
