Either your sysctl settings for OSS were too high or improper, or a Linux implementation which includes bloat, like including Alsa (and dependencies which bring in more dependencies unrelated to sound) contributed to it. OSS is very efficient, so it's very unlikely to be inherently that.
Wine could be made better, as having an /etc directory under a /compat directory. Also, by having an i386 base or maybe chroot, with all emulators that need 32bit working under it. Even having executables secured from the rest of those files. But it's upstream, so they won't do that, plus they may not understand the importances.
There's also that for Windows software is a completely different system, with programs not intended for use on opensource platforms, and it's a wonder when something does make it work.
I had a problem with OSS once, but then I changed or removed settings pertaining to it in sysctl.conf or boot.conf, and that fixed that.
I didn't make any changes in sysctl. I mean I tested by changing things on the fly using "sysctl -w" but after a reboot, none of my changes remain and I'm still having this cracky noise with the audio. My sysctl.conf is still the original one, with commented stuff in it.
Yes, it seems I was wrong about this. Mh... After some tries, the cracky audio happens when the game doesn't run well enough (WinXP included). The thing is that the sound is slowed down. Musics can become slower, voices too, like when you do emulation of a gaming console and you don't run the game at full speed but instead of normal slowed down audio (or jumpy slowed down audio), the audio is slowed down and cracking which is unpleasant to listen.
And the difference with my example of gaming console emulation above is that the game, under Wine, still runs at full speed (with stuttering image, absolutely normal behavior when your computer isn't beefy enough) SO when two people are speaking, one might start before the other finished his last sentence because his speech was slower than expected. It only happens when the game is slowed down because of hardware (or maybe driver) limitation. When the game runs smoothly, the audio is perfect.
Now this is not normal, is it ?
dev.pcm.0.play.vchanformat: s16le:2.0
dev.pcm.0.play.vchanrate: 48000
dev.pcm.0.play.vchanmode: passthrough
dev.pcm.0.play.vchans: 1
hw.snd.latency_profile: 1
hw.snd.latency: 2
These are default settings I have in sysctl. I tried lower the vchanrate and increase it, change the value of latency and latency_profile but no expected result. I really don't know if it's only related to Wine or if it is system-wide. I'll install Xonotic and run it at max settings. If I'm not mistaken, I might have a bit of troubles running it in ultra. If the sound remains correct on Xonotic, it might help to diagnose the problem ?
Oh and by the way, should I simply let this thread and make a new one ?