But it is common sense to me. if it makes little sense to you, then allow me to explain.
If the SoundBlaster hardware emulation was broken then it would affect all OS's which use that hardware, principally DOS.
This thread already talked about DOS, as far as I can see, it doesn't working properly on DOS.
DxDiag is a test of the DirectSound API, not a test of basic audio, and basic audio definitely works because I use it myself in my Win98SE VM.
Legacy Direct Sound's HWA(HW Acceleration) is simply based on the hardware and driver, especially for SB audio which exist long before direct x, there's no such thing as "direct x compatible" for SB16, it should already works. if the "basic audio" works but direct sound HWA test fails, then it's true that it is whether a HW(emulation) problem or a driver problem, or HW/driver mismatch. Possibilities for the latter two are rare.
Even in a supported OS you have to install the GAs before you can use DirectX. However there are no GAs for Win98.
Not precisely. Only VM provided
custom hardware must need GAs/extra driver. Emulation for a specific known & supported hardware by guest doesn't necessarily need extra drivers to get the HWA working. It should be working since there's a well known hardware(emulated), and official driver for it, why not? The actually performance may needs GAs to tune to get better, but that's totally a different thing, its
optional.
Since SB16 is a real world hardware, it should work with existing driver made for win98(or XP), like all real-world SB16 cards at that time. if it's not, then its an HW(emulation) problem. For AC97 its the same. Actually AC97's Direct Sound HWA is working fine without GAs in win98.If things are going as you said, then Why AC97's HWA is working well for win98 DirectX, without GAs? Is it just by chance/luck? -no.
For graphics card of vbox, its different: "Virtualbox SVGA" is unknown hardware (
VM provided custom hardware as I said), no such graphics card exists in real world, you can consider that vbox team is the manufacturer for that card, and GAs provides its driver. In this situation GAs is necessarily needed to get DirectX's HWA / DDraw/D3D working.
If vbox claims that it emulates S3 graphics cards, then things will be the same as SB16/AC97: Guest OS doesn't need GAs/custom drivers but only the official S3 driver to get HWA to work. if 2D HWA doesn't work, then the S3 emulation is IMPERFECT/BROKEN - it's not working as expected, not like a real S3 graphics card.
There's an example of Microsoft Virtual PC 2007(not working after Win8) which provides both S3 & SB16 emulation and by default the HWA for both Direct Sound & Direct Draw is working fine without Guest Additions.
Yet another live example is DosBox-X, it emulates SB16 & S3, and no extra GAs needed to get both DirectX's HWA working in Win98.
Things get different in vbox: SB16 is recognized by guest OS, and HWA by default is turned on. Direct Sound tests can keeps going on without error detected by guest OS, but you just cannot hear any sound.
You bought a SB16 sound card in the market and after you installed bundled SB16 driver it doesn't work, then the reseller tells you that this piece of SB16 needs a "voodoo" driver to work. Okay this is fine but is that card still a SB16, or a "voodoo" card? -just a joke. Same principle apply to emulation as well. if GAs/custom drivers are
not optionally but necessarily needed for an "SB16", then it is not an SB16, you can name it anything else, i.e. "Virtualbox Sound Card" like it did for graphics card, but definitely cannot be SB16 - or you have to admit that is
the emulation is broken.
So its NOT a driver issue. GAs/custom drivers are not necessary for SB16, they are only optional. Hope it makes sense to you this time.
Regarding support: even if you were a paying customer there is no support for WinDOS windows variants. I have managed to get Win98SE working reasonably well, but nobody is promising anything.
I totally understand that. But its a Windows only variants, just forget about the DOS thing. That DOS thing I said is not related for my problem described here, its just for gamers' information. Sorry its my bad not to clarify, I edited the post.
The problem is: DxDiag is not testing properly for SB16, but fine for AC97. MS official application "Age of Empires" doesn't have sound for SB16, but does for AC97. There are plenty of proof to show SB16 is not working well.
You can verify/compare with Dosbox-X, even with Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 in a XP guest in vbox.
EDIT: I forgot about PCem, which also can emulate an SB16. Guess what: the DxDiag tests fine for it, just like Dosbox-X or VPC2007. All are without any GAs.