this is essentally what you've done no complaints here. My thought was simply that you were not understanding why it wasn't working on your side. Now that you say you thought it would do all of this automatically. I'm sorry I didn't understand this is what you wanted. Since my above suggestion was a check box so that called to outside code. This way it would be something small on a Mac or Linux and seperate not integral. And manual for those who don't have Direct X or don't want it or don't have the right version.I'm assuming you desire to refrain from DirectX is not rooted in a deep hatred for M$ but for purley compatability reasons... so under that assumption.. Would it not be possible to just have a button that says "do you want enhanced sounds 'yes' 'no'" and then let the code for sounds be rerouted through a secondary program.. some kind of evil directX sound library.. this providing the option of those on the mac also to take advantage of this by writing an equivilent library or whatever to translate the sounds to be blended as well.
Ryan mentioned that he thinks you might have a very early version of DX on your win 95 system since it does everything else but play the sounds.. Which again brings in the need for it to be manual.
as for the Dr. Watson.. I'll leave that to him.. I will say that from personal experience.. the longer a win 98 system has been running the less stable it gets and sometimes needs it's DLL's refreshed. I used to do it every 6 months. I've heard others say that win98 had a habit of corrupting Dll's overtime. just a suggestion.
Anyway, I'm very sorry to hear about your tooth. I know how horrible that can feel. I've had 3 root canals. I had taken a face dive from my bike when I was a kid and killed the roots of a few teeth and they eventually festered but I didn't know untill massive pain hit me many years later like 6 years later..
I dunno.. Ryan is still plodding away at the code here and there. so perhaps he'll have some suggestions too. Thanks for the feedback.
moo