I had heard that with previous "workarounds" for the DVD mpeg2 version this scene would not complete unless the midi is turned off completely. Slade gets out of the shower as he's supposed to and I had to dodge him in order to successfully make away with the briefcase and the post-office box key. I just played through the Big Jim Slade at the Big Sir Motel and taking his briefcase while avoiding him-the scene plays perfectly without a bug whatsoever! Played completely the first time through. Set up the way I describe above, it makes all the difference in the atmosphere of the game.Īlmost forgot: All of those pesky "This error is not an error" message boxes are gone! Inside Overseer options, Audio, if "Coolsoft VirtualMidiSynth" or "Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth" is selected-neither works at all, btw. Works splendidly so far, through repeated program shutdowns and restarts. Select Microsoft Midi Mapperħ) Edit tex.ini to make sure that midi device is written out as "Microsoft Midi Mapper" and not "Midi Mapper" as the short name for the device won't work.ħ) That selection seems counter-intuitive, but in the way that Overseer/Win95 looks for midi input, what's happened is that although the Overseer program is looking in a certain place for the midi (where normally the MCI Microsoft Midi Mapper would be in Win95) what it finds instead is the Coolsoft VirtualMidiSynth! And so the much superior midi synth plays instead, which is what we want. Ħ) In the Overseer config, go to audio and in the midi column you should see three midi output selections: Coolsoft VirtualMidiSynth Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth Microsoft Midi Mapper. Once accomplished these steps never need repeating.ĥ)Set the DVD-version Overseer executable to *Win95 compatibility* (very important, I'm thinking), and run Overseer normally. We are done with the Coolsoft VirtualMidiSynth Configurator. Mine is: "Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)", and I have enabled the following: hardware mixing, Preload whole soundfont, Increase priority to REALTIME, all *checked* (enabled.)Ĥ) Hit "Apply" to save all program changes
Download the soundfont(s) of your choice direct from links on the same Coolsoft page.Ģ) Run the Coolsoft configurator program and install the soundfont(s) of your choice (very, very easy.) On the Midi Mapper tab, look at the "Windows Media Player default device" menu and make sure that "Coolsoft VirtualMidiSynth" is the device selected.ģ)on the "Options" tab, make sure your nomal "output audio device" is selected. Here's what you have to do:ġ) Install the Coolsoft VIrtualMidiSynth into Win7/8.
It's actually a Win95 game and in Win95 midi was handled a bit differently than in later Windows versions. Unlike the other Tex games, which are DOSbox and instantly workable with the Coolsoft synth, Overseer is different. I already discovered the program works wonderfully well for General Midi emulation through Dosbox games (much better than the GUS emulation even when GUS is properly supported by the DOS game), so the challenge was to get this marvelous synth to work with Overseer.
You can use one soundfont or many-choice is yours.
It not only installs a much better synth than the stock Microsoft synth, but the program requires *soundfonts*, also free and obtainable via links on the same page. and the difference in gaming atmosphere is nothing short of remarkable.Įverybody knows by now that Win7/8 strips out almost all of Windows' midi playback capability (compared with earlier Windows versions), and in my case the Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth in 8.1圆4 is of such poor quality it is all but useless.Įnter "Coolsoft VirtualMidiSynth", a free program available here: